Chapter 6
6
It didn’t take long to empty the bedsit room of Courtney’s belongings. With help from her uncle and aunt, they soon packed her clothes into the suitcases stored on top of the tatty wardrobe, and used half a dozen plastic carrier bags to deal with the rest of her meagre belongings. After a few return trips to the car, everything was loaded into the boot and the spare passenger seat in the back.
Courtney tried to phone her housing officer to let her know she was vacating the bedsit accommodation, but her calls went to voicemail, where she eventually left a message explaining her departure and asking the case worker to contact her soon. When she returned her room key to the duty supervisor, he barely grunted in response before turning back to the television programme he was watching in the grubby office.
Colin and Lorraine were waiting beside the car when she stepped outside. While she’d been checking her room one last time for any overlooked belongings, Colin must have visited the café further along the street, because he held a cardboard tray of takeaway cups.
“I thought you could use this,” he said, handing her one of the cups. “Don’t worry, it’s decaffeinated, and they marked your cup so I wouldn’t mix it up with the others.”
Grateful for the milky latte, Courtney took a long sip while her aunt and uncle sipped theirs. Standing on the street, she took one last look at the bedsit where she’d been living. Despite the circumstances, she was relieved to be escaping the dreadful place.
“Come on, let’s hit the road,” Colin said, getting in behind the wheel.
“Ready to go, love?” Lorraine asked, taking her arm and offering a gentle squeeze.
“Yes, I’m ready. Aunt Lorraine, I can’t thank you enough for this. You don’t know what it means to me.”
Lorraine gave her a warm smile and kissed her cheek. “Everything will be fine, you’ll see.”
Her aunt’s words, so much like those she often heard the ghost of her mother whisper inside her head, brought comfort. As her uncle steered the car into the road and set off, Courtney clutched her coffee cup in her hands and stared out of the window, thinking of all the weeks and months of trauma she was leaving behind, and wondering about what might now lie ahead.
Back in Hamblehurst, Colin and Lorraine took charge.
After a quick conversation with Rosie, who’d already left for work by the time they returned, Colin gave Courtney the choice of remaining at Rosie’s house, where she was welcome to continue staying in the guest room, or returning with Colin and Lorraine to their house across town, where she was also welcome to their guest room, if she preferred that instead.
Unable to make a decision because she didn’t want to put anyone out, Courtney was torn. Colin finally made the decision for her. She would stay at Rosie’s for the time being, where she already felt comfortable, and they’d revisit the arrangement in a few days if necessary, once Courtney was over the shock of losing her job.
While Colin hauled her suitcases and carrier bags upstairs, Lorraine made tea and then the three of them sat down to take stock of things. During the drive from Southampton to Hamblehurst, a new and ugly realisation had dawned on Courtney.
“If the business really has shut down and I have to wait to find out whether I’ll even get paid this month, then I think that might mean my maternity leave is up in the air, too.”
Colin nodded slowly, his expression unhappy. “I was thinking the same thing. What sort of maternity leave were you due before all this?”
“I would’ve got close to my full pay for the first six weeks. After that, it would’ve dropped quite a bit and I would’ve had to return to work as fast as I could because, even with some benefits help, I would’ve struggled to make ends meet. Although, to be honest, with everything that’s happened over the last few months, I hadn’t thought much about that, or about child care or any of those details. I was just concentrating on day by day.”
“That makes sense and it’s a smart approach,” Lorraine said. “Focus on today and let tomorrow take care of itself.”
Courtney said nothing about her worries about affording child care when she returned to work. It was all academic now that she had no work to return to.
“I’ll start looking for another job straight away,” she said between sips of tea. “I’m sure there must be something out there.”
“Listen, I understand why you need to earn money,” Colin said. “But you’re only a few weeks away from having your baby, and you haven’t even got the details yet on what this redundancy means for the maternity pay you’re entitled to. Is it wise to start hunting for a new job when you’ll have to stop working soon, anyway?”
“I don’t have any choice, Uncle Colin. I need money so I can look after myself and the baby too, when she gets here. This close to giving birth, I doubt I can land a full-time permanent job. But I’m sure I can find something temporary, maybe a few hours here and there, to give me some cash in my pocket and tide me over.”
“Let us help you, love,” Colin said. “We would’ve helped cover the costs of a flat in Southampton. We might have been viewing a flat right now had it not been for what happened this morning. Instead of searching around for another job, let us give you some money to keep you going, and that way you can focus on getting ready for the baby arriving.”
Courtney smiled and leaned across the sofa to squeeze her uncle’s arm. “You’re so kind. You both are,” she added, turning to Lorraine. “But I can’t accept your money. I’m already squatting here in your daughter’s house. Isn’t that enough?”
“You’re not squatting,” Lorraine laughed. “But listen, let’s not think about job-hunting or anything like that right now. Just take a day for yourself. We can both see that losing your job has been another blow, on top of all the other things you’ve had to deal with lately. You don’t have to figure anything out straight away, and certainly not today.”
“Your Aunt Lorraine is right,” Colin added. “You’ve got a roof over your head, a warm bed to sleep in later, and our Rosie will make sure you don’t go hungry. That’s all that matters for now. Do your aunt and I favour and put job-hunting out of your head for a day or so at least. The last thing we want is you having a bad turn because of all this stress. At nearly eight months pregnant, it’s the last thing you need.”
Because it was obvious they wanted her to agree, Courtney nodded. She would certainly start job-hunting, but her kind aunt and uncle didn’t need to know about it. The last thing she planned on doing was lounging around her cousin’s home, doing nothing for the next few days or weeks. There was nothing to stop her finding a temporary job, or possibly agency work, to see her through the final few weeks before the baby was born.
After that… well, if she’d learned anything this past year, it was that planning ahead didn’t always get you any further ahead.
“Thank you, Uncle Colin and Aunt Lorraine,” she said. “I don’t know how I would’ve survived this morning without you both there.”
“You would’ve been fine,” Colin insisted. “You got through much worse than this when your mother died and you had to leave your home. What happened this morning is hard, but it’s just a job and you would’ve dealt with it. I’m just happy to know that your Aunt Lorraine and I can be here for you when you need us.”
Lorraine’s phone beeped just then, and she set down her empty tea mug to check the screen. “Oh, that was my calendar reminder. I forgot I promised to give my friend a lift to the hospital today. I ought to make a move or I won’t be over there on time to pick her up.”
“And I’ll have to go, too, I’m afraid,” Colin said. “I’m teaching a class at noon and I’ve got meetings all afternoon too, which I’ll have to prepare for. Will you be okay here on your own, Courtney?”
“Of course I will.”
“Rosie says her shift finishes at six tonight, so you’ll see her shortly after that,” Lorraine said. “In the meantime, I’ll give you my spare key for Rosie’s front door and that way you can come and go as you please.”
Lorraine flicked through the keys on a keyring she pulled from her bag before removing one and setting it on the coffee table.
“Thanks,” Courtney said. “I’ll unpack a few things upstairs and then it might be nice to get out for some fresh air and a walk, and clear my head a little.”
“That’s a terrific idea,” Colin said. “If you turn right out the front gate and walk all the way to the other end of Foxglove Street and then take a left, you’ll eventually come to Peartree Park. It’s lovely there and the perfect place for a stroll. And, as you know, the high street is in the other direction along Foxglove Street if you fancy a look at the shops instead.”
“You know how to find us if you have any problems,” Lorraine said. “You’ve got both our mobile numbers in your phone now, don’t you?”
“And Rosie’s number too, I hope?” Colin added. “We’ll give you Zara’s as well, just in case.”
Once they’d added the new numbers into her phone, including the number for Lorraine’s mother, Janet Barker—“just on the off-chance you need to get in touch and none of the rest of us can answer our phones for some reason,” Lorraine insisted—Courtney walked her aunt and uncle to the door. After another volley of questions about whether she felt okay and whether she’d truly be fine if they left her on her own considering the morning she’d had, to which she replied with a firm yes each time, not wanting either of them to upend their plans on her account, Courtney waved them off to get on with their busy days.
Alone once more, she returned to the living room and carried the tea cups to the kitchen and popped them in the dishwasher. Upstairs, she sorted through her hastily packed belongings, and as she refolded clothes, a text message pinged through from Rosie, telling her to help herself to the empty chest of drawers in the guest room for her stuff. She sent a thank you text and a little string of heart emojis to the serendipitous message, before making use of the drawer space for her clothes.
After emptying the plastic carrier bags into which she’d stuffed shoes and trainers, toiletries, and the few other belongings she’d squeezed into the tiny bedsit, she pushed her empty suitcases underneath the bed and then sat down on the edge of the mattress.
Part of her wanted to lie back on the bed, pull the soft cosy cover around herself and close her eyes and fall asleep so she didn’t have to think about this latest disaster that had befallen her.
But tempting though it was to seek oblivion, she was too keyed up for sleep. One thought, and one thought alone, kept flashing inside her head like a neon sign.
I lost my job. I lost my job. I LOST MY JOB!
Was the universe conspiring against her? Was the universe deliberately picking on her? Had she been singled out as the focus for some terrible cosmic experiment to find out how much a human being could take before they were utterly broken?
A memory surfaced from long ago, when she’d been a child and had attended Sunday school class for a few months at the local church near her old home. Although Courtney’s mother hadn’t been a church-goer, Courtney’s friend at primary school had been a regular and invited her along one Sunday. After her first visit, she’d gone back many times, happy to be with her school friend on a weekend and charmed by the cosy comfort of the Sunday school class. Each week, they’d listened to the gentle, white-haired, Sunday school teacher read a passage aloud from the children’s Bible, which they’d then discussed together in order to understand the message that lay within and how they could learn from it. Once their Bible work was finished, they’d enjoyed milk and biscuits while colouring in scenes featuring Jesus and the angels and any number of characters and stories from the old and new testaments.
Courtney now remembered one particular story, the story of Job and the endless trials he’d endured in his life. He lost his wealth, his friends, his family, his home—everything. The tale had struck her as dark and disturbing at the time, this poor man who faced tragedy upon tragedy and who was, apparently, a mere pawn in a great cosmic game between God and Satan. The story of Job was, perhaps, a little on the brutal side for use in a children’s Sunday school class, even when the version told was trimmed and sanitised so as not to traumatise little students.
The dark horror and unfairness of the tale had stuck with Courtney over the years, and she thought now about the man’s great struggle to survive against the odds despite everything that was thrown at him. Now more than ever, she understood poor Job’s plight. He’d lived a good life and had always tried to do the right thing, and yet at every turn disaster struck, dragging him deeper and deeper into a pit of black despair.
In the end, things turned out okay for Job, and his faith in God was rewarded with the restoration of his riches, his family, and everything he held dear. She couldn’t remember if Job ever found out that the entire ordeal was the result of what amounted to little more than a bet between God and Satan, but she imagined he would have taken a dim view of being so mercilessly abused just for the purposes of testing his faith and proving a point.
Although the story was just that—a story, albeit with a crucial lesson at its heart about life and faith and morals and endurance—Courtney wondered how many countless people had thought of poor old Job across the ages and compared his misery and misfortune with their own.
Just as she was doing now.
She wasn’t the first person in the world to go through tough times, and she wouldn’t be the last. But the weight of everything that had happened to her over the last eight months was pushing her to her limits.
Losing her job felt dangerously close to being the last straw.
While she’d still had a job—a good job where she earned decent money—she had hope of pulling herself out of the dire situation she was in. Losing her mother and her home were both terrible blows, with the added agonising insult of wrecking her finances, forcing her to drain her meagre savings to pay for her mother’s funeral, and then using what little remained to deal with moving out of her house so unexpectedly.
But at least while she had a job, she could scrimp and save from her wages and build up her savings pot again. She could scrape together enough money to pay for everything her baby would need once she was born, and hopefully one day have enough to find a decent place to live where she wouldn’t have to rely on housing benefits to get her through.
But now that her job was gone, so too were those hopes for getting back up on her feet financially.
In the old Bible story, Job was restored to the wonderful life he’d once led because God rewarded his faith. God waved a magic wand and made everything okay again, and restored to Job everything that he had lost.
Courtney knew that was never going to happen for her. Her mother wouldn’t suddenly come back to life, no matter how much Courtney ached for such a miracle.
The home they’d shared was gone, so far out of reach for her financially as to be nothing more than a pipe dream.
And unless everything that had happened this morning turned out to be nothing more than a bad dream, and Ashford Furniture and Furnishings had not gone out of business after all, then Courtney’s job was gone, too.
Things were as bad as they could get.
Except, Courtney realised, that wasn’t true. Her new family had been there to help her today, and had insisted she come home with them, had insisted she let them support her during her time of need.
If it wasn’t for the Austin family, and the new uncle and aunt and cousins she’d only just found out about, things would be far, far worse for her right now. She would be back in that terrible bedsit, alone and wondering what to do next.
Instead, she was back here in Rosie’s pretty guest room. Her job was gone, her finances looked worse than ever, but she wasn’t facing this latest drama all by herself.
A rush of gratitude swelled up inside her as she focused on the fact that she wasn’t alone.
Things could’ve been much worse, but they weren’t.
She’d survived everything else that had happened so far, and she’d survive this, too.
Quite what she’d do next or how she’d manage, she had no idea. But somehow, she’d figure it all out.
She’d figure it out for herself and for her baby.
A flutter inside her belly followed by a soft kick made Courtney smile. Rising from the bed, she smoothed down the covers she’d creased and headed back downstairs. It was just as well she’d enjoyed plenty of rest and relaxation at her cousin’s house over the weekend, because, now more than ever, she needed every ounce of energy she could summon in order to keep her spirits up.
Still reeling from the shock waves of losing her job, but now also energised with hope and determination thanks to the mental pep talk she’d given herself, Courtney felt the irresistible urge to get moving. Thinking of the park her Uncle Colin had mentioned before he’d left for work earlier, Courtney grabbed her light cardigan and her bag, then picked up the spare door key her Aunt Lorraine had left for her on the coffee table.
She stepped outside into the bright spring morning. The air was sweet with warm sunshine and the scents of early leaves unfurling on trees in the front gardens along Foxglove Street and flowers opening their petals to greet the new season. The soft blue sky overhead promised a beautiful day and the perfect conditions for a gentle walk to blow away the shock and upset of the morning’s developments.
It was a glorious spring day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and she was here in this gorgeous little South Downs town that she was eager to explore. A walk to the park would be the perfect tonic to stop her mind from racing as she processed this latest drama in her life.
Courtney set off along Foxglove Street with a smile on her face and her head held high, determined to enjoy a calming walk and a moment of blissful escape from all that ailed her.