Chapter 28
It was time to deck the halls.
It was on! The ovens were in full working order. And today was the eve of the big Christmas lunch. Cath decided to get in early and make a good start before the agreed meeting time of ten a.m.
Time for setting up the tables, adding festive decorations and making the hall look the part.
And this evening they were to have a Supper Club Peel-a-thon – a veggie-peeling extravaganza, no doubt accompanied by a cheeky glass of red.
Though they had to keep focused as tomorrow was a BIG DAY.
A team effort was required, and thank heavens her fabulous supper clubbers, plus a couple more recruits, were to be at her side.
But, and she couldn’t help but sigh, even that would be difficult now.
After seeing Will last weekend, and the devastating news that they couldn’t carry on a romantic relationship for the sake of his girls, he’d shut her out, and that was that.
How the hell could they go back to being just friends?
How could she ‘un-remember’ the taste of his lips on hers, the feel of his gentle, sensual touch?
And, right now with Christmas nearly here, every bloody film and advert on the telly seemed to show couples all loved up, too.
It would be so hard seeing him today, having to pretend that none of that had happened.
But she’d do it for the sake of the supper club, and tomorrow, for the sake of the event.
She felt like crumpling down in a heap, to be quite honest, but they’d got this far, and she’d damn well make sure this festive event was a success.
She had the hall’s old door key to hand.
Teacher Janet and so many others must have held that key over the years.
The heavy oak door creaked open. Once inside, she walked through the reception area and then into the corridor.
It was still chilly and slightly gloomy in there, so she found the switch panel and popped on some lights.
She dropped down her bag that was crammed full of decorations and supplies.
Time to turn on the central heating and bring this place back to life, ready for its big day tomorrow.
It was rather nice, having a few moments to herself in the old hall.
Cath took a slow breath and gazed around her at the fresh paintwork, the buffed parquet flooring.
She thought of the kitchen cookers about to spring back to life – thank heavens for Kev and his incredible journey, and all the hard work her fantastic supper club had put in up until now.
Tomorrow was going to be another full-on day but she was sure they could, and would, pull it off; she had a good feeling on this.
The troops soon arrived armed with bags of vegetables, Christmas decs, extra oven trays and pans from their own kitchens, cleaning materials with Nikki, Lily with a stack of tea towels and a big smile, and Dan and Andreas having come straight from closing up the shop.
Her wonderful gang, and whatever happened next – and personally, with her and Will – she knew she’d have them by her side.
Then the man himself arrived, Will, ready to do his bit to help set up – and oh, seeing him as he walked in tugged so hard on Cath’s worn and weary heart.
As they set about freshening up the school’s pots and pans, ready for the big peel, they were joined by plumber Gemma in the kitchen.
‘Hi, guys, I’m here to change that leaky kitchen tap. The new one I ordered has finally come in.’
‘Ah, that’s brilliant,’ said Cath. ‘Thank you.’ They’d have managed with the old tap for tomorrow, but a brand-new one that didn’t constantly drip would be so much better.
With the tap fixed, and some of the kitchen prep done, a tea break was due, with a custard cream or two – care of Dan who’d grabbed a pack from the shop’s shelves as he left.
Lily popped the kettle on, and made mugs of strong builder’s style tea for them all.
Gemma reappeared, after making a quick check on her new loo pan in the gents, which was ‘working a dream’, and the group propped themselves against the kitchen units for a quick breather and a brew.
‘Well, that’s me done,’ confirmed Gemma, swiping back a wisp of auburn hair that had escaped her bandana-style headband.
She took a gulp of her tea. ‘Thanks for that. Hits the spot.’ She nodded at brew provider Lily.
‘Thank you so much for all your work,’ said Cath.
‘How much do we owe you for coming out and the parts?’ asked Dan.
‘Ah, no worries, it’s not a problem. It was just the tap and a bit of my time today. I’m more than happy to help out, if it means we get this hall up and running again.’
‘If you’re sure? That’s so very kind.’ Cath didn’t want to leave her out of pocket.
‘I was one of the last pupils here at the school, you know,’ Gemma told them wistfully. ‘It’ll be lovely to see it used again.’
‘Ah really, that’s amazing,’ said Lily.
‘In fact, would you like to come along tomorrow afternoon?’ It was the least they could do, thought Cath.
‘Come for the festive lunch, and there’ll be plenty of mince pies and shortbread, too.
Oh, and if you have any photos of your school days here that you don’t mind sharing, we’ve started a board of memories. ’
‘That sounds lovely. I’ll certainly have a look for some pictures, and I’ll bring them in with me. Thank you.’
‘Perfect. And thanks so much again.’ Cath was delighted.
After their refreshments, and with Gemma now departed, Team Supper Club were ready to crack on.
Firstly, Cath and Nikki went to check that the kitchen ovens and hob were still working fine, and after several minutes coming up to temperature.
All was in good order there. Phew! Check – one more thing ticked off Cath’s list. It was actually getting shorter at last.
And it was time to go and ‘deck the halls’.
This place was going to look like the Christmas Fairy had been and had a ball, Cath decided.
Trestle tables were taken out, wiped over, and set in two long rows.
Seats were unstacked from the stage and placed in lines – eleven each side, making twenty-two per table.
Forty-four in all. They’d figured a couple of spares wouldn’t go amiss.
Wow, there was a whole lot of cooking to do.
She brought in Reggie’s attic box of paper chains and festive garlands from the car, and Will and Dan were already scaling stepladders and fixing them up.
Cath had bought some silver tinsel strands, and found some cheap Christmas crackers in a last-minute sale at the supermarket, to decorate the tables with.
She’d also been snipping off festive sprigs in her back garden where a holly bush was laden with bold red berries, and had made another trip to the woods, which brought back some moving memories of her and Will, trimming a few of the smaller branches from the plentiful pine trees there, to decorate the centre of the long trestle tables along with the windowsills.
Cutlery was set for each place, with a holly-patterned paper napkin and a red-and-silver cracker on top.
The cutlery and crockery were all now stacked ready after the Brownies’s washing-up session, plus they’d found several jugs, sugar bowls and tea sets saved from the old Tilldale Village Women’s Institute group.
All from the Aladdin’s cave of the old kitchen storeroom.
With the school, the WI and lots more going on, Tilldale must have been vibrant back in the day, but like many rural villages, the community had grown smaller.
Farming had become more mechanised, and generally people looked to the towns and cities for work.
Only last week at the care home, Reggie had told Cath that when he was a young boy, there used to be a tailor, a blacksmith, four pubs and two shops in the village.
How life had changed. And yet, here they were, their supper club team, forging a new community, repurposing the hall and the old school once again, and most importantly helping to bring people back together.
Before they left, later this evening, they needed to be sure that everything was in order. Yes, the heating had creaked back to life; the hall had to be warm enough ready for tomorrow. The last thing they needed were chilly pensioners.
And boy, that had been some food haul yesterday.
Cath and Nikki, Dan and Will, travelling in two cars for carriage space.
With Andreas left minding the village stores, and Lily at school, Cath was in charge of the humungous shopping list, and off they set.
It was like supermarket sweep at the local farm shop for the veggies: a huge sack of Maris Piper potatoes, stacks of sprouts, piles of parsnips, a bag of onions, and a container full of carrots.
And the butcher in Kirkton had put aside four extra-large turkeys, at what must have been a specially reduced price for them, as the bill was less than Cath had anticipated.
He told them he’d heard about what they were doing for the local community and was merely doing his bit to help.
Dan also collected some huge packs of pork sausage meat ready for his stuffing balls, to be made to his special secret recipe at home.
Chipolata sausages and streaky bacon for the pigs-in-blankets were on the butcher list too – a Christmas dinner must.
Next was a pit stop at the supermarket for kitchen foil, gravy granules, cranberry sauce galore and several bottles of celebratory sherry.