Chapter 20
TARA
Maria came down the stairs on Thursday evening, twenty minutes after we’d closed, with her handbag in one hand and several bags of shopping in the other. She paused by the door and raised her hands, looking at me helplessly.
‘I planned that badly. My keys are in the bottom of my bag. Are yours handy?’
I smiled at her predicament and unlocked the door for her. As I opened it, the sound of a woman shouting drew our attention down the street.
‘Do as you’re told or you’ll regret it!’
The woman looked to be in her forties and was right up in the face of another woman, jabbing her on the shoulder.
My stomach lurched when the second woman moved.
‘That’s Zoe!’
I couldn’t hear Zoe’s response but whatever she said elicited a mouthful of foul abuse from the angry woman, drawing stares from passersby.
One woman grabbed her young daughter by the hand and ran off towards the main precinct whereas a couple of teenagers evidently found the altercation hilarious and were giggling as they filmed it on their phones.
I was debating as to whether intervening would make things worse for Zoe when the older woman shoved her so hard that she stumbled and fell to the ground.
‘Serves ya right!’ she yelled before running off towards Castle Park.
I ran over the cobbles to help Zoe.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked.
‘I’m fine,’ she snapped but, when she looked up at me, there were tears in her eyes and she looked very pale.
Maria had joined us. ‘Let us at least help you to your feet,’ she said. ‘Oh! You’ve cut your leg.’
Zoe looked down and groaned. ‘She’s put a hole in my leggings. That’s all I need!’
‘I can repair it,’ I said. ‘I’m good with a needle and thread.’
With a sigh, Zoe put out her hands and I noticed her right one was badly scraped. I clasped it, taking care to avoid the worst parts, and Maria and I helped Zoe rise slowly.
‘I’m fine, honestly.’ But as she took a step forward, she winced.
‘You might have sprained your ankle,’ Maria said. ‘Let’s get you into the café, get those scrapes cleaned up and some ice on your ankle.’
Before joining The Chocolate Pot as a waitress, Maria had been a carer at Bay View Care Home so was first-aid qualified.
I’d renewed her qualifications and kept them up to date for any incidents with staff and customers.
While Maria retrieved the first-aid kit, I tipped some ice into a freezer bag and wrapped it in a tea towel for Zoe’s ankle.
Leaving Maria to administer first aid, I made a mug of tea which Zoe accepted gratefully.
‘That’s you all cleaned up,’ Maria said, packing away the first-aid kit. ‘You’ll need to keep that ankle iced for twenty minutes but you should reapply ice – or a bag of frozen peas – for that length of time every two to three hours. Try not to put weight on it…’
Maria paused as Zoe looked up at her, eyebrows raised. ‘I need to walk back to the hostel.’
‘I can give you a lift,’ I said.
‘Thanks, but I can walk.’
‘I’d urge you not to walk on it,’ Maria said. ‘Final piece of advice is to keep it elevated – pop a pillow or cushion under it. Right, I’ve got to shoot to pick up Sofia from dancing.’
I walked Maria to the door and thanked her for staying to help.
‘No problem.’ She sighed as she glanced towards Zoe. ‘Do you think she’ll be okay?’
‘I hope so. She’s a tough cookie but she’s only seventeen. She’s still a kid. Breaks my heart.’
‘Can I get you something to eat?’ I asked when I returned to Zoe. Maria had positioned her on a cushioned bench with her right ankle raised on a small pile of towels.
She shook her head. ‘I’d love another tea, though. It’s bob on the way you make it.’
Zoe had clearly lost weight since I last saw her and that was worrying when she was so slender anyway. I was determined to feed her before she left, even if that meant sending her off with a doggy bag, but it was better not to push her for now.
‘Who was that woman?’ I asked, returning with a mug of tea.
‘That was the delightful Griff. She’s new at the hostel and seems to think she’s the boss of us all.’
‘She works there?’
‘No! She’s one of us.’
‘Have you complained to the staff about her?’
‘It’s not worth the grief. One lass threatened to say something and, when she went to get dressed the next day, her clothes were in shreds.’
‘That’s awful!’ My heart broke for Zoe and this other girl for being at the receiving end of such shocking bullying.
‘It happens. I just need to keep my head down and hope Griff gets bored and moves on.’
‘I’m sure she will,’ I said, hoping that would be the case. ‘You need to rest your ankle for a while so how about something to eat in the meantime? I’ve got two portions of lasagne left and I was going to heat one up for my tea but the other will go to waste unless I can tempt you with it.’
I expected her to refuse so my heart sang when she accepted. I warmed some bread buns in the oven too and added a portion of salad, potato salad and coleslaw to a side plate.
‘Leave anything you don’t like,’ I said as I placed her food and a glass of water on the table.
‘It all looks great. I’ll eat anything except avocados but there aren’t many of those knocking around The Hope Centre.’
I brought my meal through and we ate in silence. I had so many questions for Zoe but I’d learned my lesson and wasn’t going to risk her leaving before she’d eaten a full meal.
‘That was delicious,’ she said after we’d finished. ‘Did you make the lasagne?’
I nodded. ‘Everything we serve is made on site by me or one of my team members, Sheila.’
‘You’re both fantastic cooks. I wouldn’t know where to start. I have to rely on Chef Mike.’
‘Chef Mike?’ I asked. ‘Does he volunteer at The Hope Centre?’
Zoe laughed and it was lovely to see her face lighting up for a moment. ‘Chef Mike’s the microwave.’
I rolled my eyes at her. ‘Of course! Well, thanks for the compliment. I love cooking and baking. My grandparents had a bakery and they passed their skills to my dad who passed them to me in the short time we had together.’
‘Your dad died when you were young?’
‘In an accident at work when I was eight and then my mum died a few years later.’
‘What happened to her?’
It wasn’t something I’d usually share with a stranger but Zoe had never felt like a stranger to me.
I still felt some sort of connection to her and couldn’t help thinking that, the more open I was with her, the more open she might be with me in return, no matter how much it might hurt to talk about it.
‘She took her own life. She’d struggled with depression and anxiety for years and she couldn’t cope with life without my dad.’
Her eyes widened. ‘What happened to you?’
‘I went into foster care.’
‘You did?’
‘Yes, shortly after Dad died. My teachers noticed that things weren’t right and got social services involved. I had a few short-term placements but I was with the same family from just before my eleventh birthday.’
She stared at me, disbelief evident on her face. ‘I thought you owned this place.’
‘I do.’
‘But you went through the foster system.’
‘I did, but how a person starts in life – or any difficulties they encounter along the way – doesn’t need to define what happens for the rest of their life. I had dreams and I made sure I fulfilled them.’
She stared at me and I thought she was going to ask further questions or perhaps open up about her own life. I hoped she’d do the latter but, instead, she knocked back the last of her water.
‘Can I do the washing up to say thanks?’
‘We’ve got a dishwasher, but I appreciate the offer.’
‘Did you mean what you said about repairing my leggings?’
‘Yes. Drop them in whenever you have a minute and I’ll get them stitched up for you.’
She pulled on her coat and zipped it up, then pulled her bobble hat over her head.
‘My dad died when I was young too. There was a fight in the pub and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Got knocked off a bar stool, hit his head and that was it.’
‘Oh, Zoe, I’m so sorry.’
‘My mam went to pieces. Our Jacey had to look after me cos I was seven but she was only ten herself. I wish our teachers had noticed and we’d gone into foster care too before Mam opened up our home to that piece of…
’ Her whole body had tensed and her face was flushed.
She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked.
She was silent for a moment, then she opened her eyes once more, her body relaxing. ‘I’m better than I was back there. Safer. Even with Griff on a power trip.’
Safer. I knew that word well. It backed up Jim’s suspicions that Zoe had fled from abuse.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’ I asked gently.
She shook her head. ‘I need to go, but thanks for the food and tell that other lass thanks for cleaning me up.’
‘You’re welcome.’
She winced as she pulled on her sock and trainer and, as she gingerly placed her feet on the floor and tried the weight on her right foot, her face contorted in pain.
‘It’s really no problem to give you a lift.’
‘It’s fine. My foot’s cold from the ice, that’s all. Feels a bit numb.’
She hobbled over to the door and I wished she’d accept my help, but I couldn’t make her. I unlocked the door but turned to face her before I opened it.
‘I know you’ve had it tough – still got it tough – but never let go of your dreams, Zoe, and don’t let your current circumstances be a barrier to achieving them.’
She gave me a half-smile which I interpreted as Thanks for being kind but we both know that’s a pointless platitude.
‘Don’t forget there’s still an offer of some shifts here.’ I opened the door, not wanting her to feel as though I was trapping her inside and forcing her to talk against her will. ‘It’s a starting point.’
‘I’ll think about it.’
‘I can’t ask for fairer than that. Will you be okay back at the hostel?’
She shrugged. ‘Depends whether Griff’s had her fun with me or is waiting for round two.’
As she disappeared down the street and round the corner, clearly trying not to limp, I wrapped my arms around myself and shuddered.
For some reason, I felt fiercely protective towards Zoe, but I could only help her if she wanted me to.
A meal had been a start. Hopefully she’d return soon with her leggings to be repaired and I could give her another nudge into accepting a job with me.
For someone who dreamed of working in a bookshop, the obvious thing would be to ask Marcus and Lily, the owners of Bay Books, to take her on but I knew they were fully staffed.
If I could give Zoe some experience, then she should be in a good position for a future vacancy.
Dreams weren’t achieved overnight. They took tens, hundreds, thousands of small steps and I hoped Zoe would let me help her take her first ones.