Chapter Eight
CHAPTER EIGHT
Eden spent the rest of the afternoon in a state of agitation. She couldn’t help but feel she needed to get something straight in her head before she talked to Ralph. She couldn’t waste his time on vague notions of doing something a bit nice; she needed to present something viable, even if it wasn’t a fully formed plan. So she’d bought herself a pretty notebook from the charity gift shop at the lifeboat station and then headed back to Four Winds Cottage to doodle spider diagrams with all sorts of ideas hoping to inspire a eureka moment. When she’d got to the point where she was confusing herself rather than teasing out anything useful, she took a walk along the clifftops to clear her head.
The wind had picked up, and it was colder than it had been during her first few days in Sea Glass Bay, but it was still beautiful, only now there was an added romance about it. Eden allowed herself to feel like a Regency heroine as the wind caught her hair and sent it whipping around her face and the sun skimmed the sea, catching the waves like scattered crystals. Shielding her eyes and staring out towards the horizon, she watched as boats zigzagged across the bay, and every so often, a dark shape would break the surface, but from here it was impossible to see if it was one of her elusive dolphins. It looked as if the closest she was going to get to a dolphin was the pub she’d just started to work at.
As she made her way back to the cottage, her phone bleeped the arrival of a message. It was Livia, telling her that Ralph was happy to talk to her later. He’d make time for them before the evening rush if they wanted to pick his brains.
When Eden got there, Livia had already fixed all three of them a drink from the bar.
‘Orange gin, right?’ she asked, pushing one across the table to Eden as she took off her jacket and sat down with her and Ralph.
‘Wow, that’s what I call service! Thank you.’ Eden took a sip. After a sweaty walk from her house on the cliffs, it was icy and fresh and very welcome.
Ralph reached for his pint. ‘So what’s this about? Livia says you’ve got some ideas for something or other you want to do while you’re here in the bay. It all sounds a bit mysterious, but I’ve always been a sucker for a mystery.’
Eden took another sip of her drink and then a breath.
‘So…the other day when I was on shift, you had people coming in to get food parcels – which is completely brilliant, by the way – but it got me thinking. Livia says there are people round here struggling a bit, and I thought… I know you’re doing something to help, but I want to do something too. I was thinking about how it might be nice if there was a place to go and eat like a soup kitchen. Only not a soup kitchen,’ she added quickly, glancing at Livia. ‘Because that sounds all wrong and too Victorian, you know, but somewhere to get a meal for free that was also a nice place to be. There might be places like that already, I don’t know, but when I asked Livia, she didn’t think so, and so…’
Ralph looked at her with some amusement. ‘And you thought this would be your job?’
‘I know I’ve only just got here and already I’m like, “I know what you all need”. It must seem as if I’m being patronising, but that isn’t my intention. I just…’ Eden let out a sigh. ‘Cards on the table, I’ve not been a nice person over the past few years, and I want to be a nice person. I want to be better, and I think making life better for others is the way to go. It might sound selfish. I suppose it does, but the way I see it, even if helping others is for selfish reasons, it’s still helping them.’
‘Hmmm.’ Ralph was silent as he reached for his glass, but his eyes didn’t leave Eden. She could see the cogs turning. ‘What do you propose?’ he asked finally.
‘I thought…’ She looked at Livia, who gave her an encouraging smile. ‘We were talking about it earlier, and we were thinking like a community café type of thing.’
‘And how would it work?’ Ralph asked.
‘I’m not sure yet. That’s why I wanted to ask you about it. You run a restaurant here, so you must know all about that kind of thing. I don’t expect you to tell me how to do everything, but if I can get some idea of the basics, where to start, that would be a great help.’
He nodded slowly. ‘You know this could be a big commitment. Unless it’s just a one-off event you’re thinking about?’
‘No, I want it to be there all the time, whenever anyone needs it, otherwise there’s hardly any point.’
‘But you’re not going to be here past the end of the year,’ he reminded her.
‘I know, and I’ve been thinking about that.’
‘And?’
Eden shrugged. The details of this were unclear to her too, but perhaps if this thing worked as she hoped it would, perhaps if it became the thing to give her life meaning and purpose in a way it had never truly had, it might become a reason to stay in Sea Glass Bay for good. It wasn’t like anyone back in London was going to miss her, but here she could be a new person, untainted by who she’d been before, and people might like her without judging her for bad things she’d once done or because she wore the right clothes or went to the right places with the right people.
‘I think it depends on what happens over the next few months,’ she said. ‘This thing might amount to nothing, and I don’t know what I’d do then, but if it was a success and people wanted to come, then maybe I’d want to stay and keep running it.’
‘And you’ve got the funds to do that?’
‘I have some savings. I know they won’t last forever, but I had a well-paid job in London and I have a decent amount. I suppose I’d have to earn more at some point, but I’ll work that out.’
‘More than I pay you?’ he asked with that look of faint amusement again.
Eden flushed. ‘Oh, that didn’t come out right. I wasn’t making out like your job here is… I enjoyed my first shift, and I don’t think it’s beneath me, if that’s what you’re getting at.’
‘I was teasing you. Sorry,’ he said. ‘But I couldn’t resist. I knew about all that when I took you on, and I wouldn’t have given you the job if it bothered me. I’m throwing practical obstacles in your way for your benefit, so you can see what you face and what you might need to do to make this thing work. And I’m trying to make you see clearly just what it is you might be getting into, because I’m not sure you understand.’
‘I suppose it looks that way,’ Eden admitted. ‘Perhaps I don’t. I haven’t thought about everything, and even when I feel like I have, I’m sure more stuff will crop up. I only know that I want to do some good, and I think this could be it. If I try and I fail, isn’t it better that I’ve tried? If we only manage a few weeks, isn’t that better than nothing?’
‘It depends on what we get a few weeks of. There’s no point in a few weeks of a scheme that proves to be no use to man nor beast, is there?’
‘No, you’re right. So what do you think? What would you do if you were starting something like this?’
‘Start at the beginning. What are your resources? What’s your budget? Your time constraints? Your support network? What can you realistically achieve when you take all those things into account? Is that anything like what you want to achieve and, if not, do you still want to go ahead and do it?’
‘Yes,’ Eden said.
‘Yes what?’
‘I still want to do it.’
‘So you’ve already got the answer to all those questions?’
‘No, but it won’t matter. I want to do it anyway.’
Ralph raised his eyebrows. Eden could guess what he was thinking. Here was a silly young woman who knew nothing about anything, living in cloud cuckoo land. He might well be right, but that didn’t mean she was going to back down. Something deep inside was telling her she needed this. She couldn’t understand it and couldn’t explain to anyone else why it mattered so much, but the more she dreamed it, the more it did.
‘I just need practical advice,’ she said. ‘And maybe some help to get started. I’m not so stubborn that I don’t realise I won’t be able to do everything alone.’
‘OK…’ he said slowly. ‘How many days a week are you planning on doing this?’
‘Every day?’
‘So when will your life fit into that?’
‘I don’t have much of a social life and?—’
‘Maybe not, but you have to rest; you’re not superhuman. Even I don’t work seven days a week, and I’m making money from it. Are you also thinking you can be open eight hours or more for every one of those seven days a week?’
‘I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but I suppose I ought to be there around the same sorts of hours as other cafés are open.’
Ralph shook his head. ‘It’ll never work. You’ll crash within weeks and you won’t keep it up. You’ve got to pace yourself from the start, be realistic about your energy levels. Especially if you’re in it for the long haul like you say you want to be.
‘Make it an event – you can’t be open all day. And if the goal is to bring people together, then make it a couple of hours at lunchtime and a couple in the evening. One or two sittings. You’ll have to subsidise, unless you can foot all the costs yourself for all that food for months on end. How many are you expecting?’
Eden looked blank. ‘I haven’t a clue. I don’t know how many people would want to come.’
‘Then how do you know you can manage the costs, or that your venue will be big enough?’
‘I suppose when we’re full we’re full.’
‘So you’d be using a booking system. And you run the risk of having to turn people away – people who might be in need. Is that what you want?’
‘Not at all.’
‘I might be able to gauge interest for you. I could probably have a word with my suppliers as well, see if they could supply you at cost or close to it. You might have to charge a little, but you could set the cost so there’s just enough profit to cover overheads. That way you have a fighting chance of being able to keep it going – as long as you’re not looking to make a wage.’
‘I wanted to make it free. What if some people can’t afford to pay?’
Ralph was thoughtful for a moment. ‘All right,’ he said after a pause. ‘Make it “pay what you can afford”. An honesty box or something. They can put donations in on the way out.’
Livia nodded. ‘I suppose we could try to get donations from the businesses around here too – that might help.’
‘It couldn’t hurt to ask, but they’d want to know it’s a genuine thing, so I think you have to run it for a week or so first and prove that there’s a point to it,’ Ralph said.
‘I could do that,’ Eden said.
Ralph regarded her steadily from beneath bushy eyebrows. ‘All by yourself?’
‘I realise that’s a big ask, but…’
Eden glanced at Livia. Her friend had already made her position clear – she didn’t have time for this project, and she probably didn’t have the inclination even if she did. But Eden didn’t know anyone else, and Ralph had a point – she’d understood very early on that she wasn’t going to be able to do it alone.
‘I suppose I could try to help,’ Livia said.
‘It’s OK – I get that you won’t have time.’
Livia shrugged. ‘The parlour shuts around five on weekdays. I’d have the kids – unless Mum could do it – but even then I suppose they could come with me. They might enjoy pitching in.’
‘You’ll still need more than that,’ Ralph said. ‘Who’s going to do all the cooking, for a start? Then there’s cleaning and serving.’
‘I don’t know.’
Livia sat up in her chair with a bright look. ‘What about the diners? Make it a sort of cooperative? If they come and help, they can have their meal for free? If not, they pay what they can afford. I bet loads of people round here would enjoy that – it would be the social angle you were looking for. And, Ralph…I don’t know, but…’ Livia gave him a coy look that was almost comical. Eden couldn’t help but think it was a look she’d given him many times before and one that probably got her what she wanted. ‘Maybe your chefs wouldn’t mind doing a bit extra from time to time. Like here in your kitchen. Dishes that could be prepared in advance?’
Ralph looked doubtful, but he didn’t reject the idea. ‘You’d want to keep your menu simple and cheap,’ he said. ‘Good filling meals with easy-to-get ingredients, dishes that are difficult to cook badly, especially if you’re involving people where you don’t know what kitchen skills they have. Some people think they can cook and they’re very wrong about that. Big pots of goo – that’s what you want.’
Eden couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Big pots of goo – got it. Like stew and curry and stuff?’
Ralph nodded. ‘Don’t complicate things. If you can cook it in the one pan and you don’t need to be a trained chef to make it, then you’re on to a winner.’
‘I was actually wondering about things that come ready made to put in the oven too. Like breaded chicken and chips and that sort of thing.’
‘I suppose you could, but then you run the risk of having too much going on. How many things are you planning on having on your menu?’
‘How many do you think I should have?’
‘I’d keep that simple too – in the beginning, at least. No more than three options, and I’d say make one of them vegan. When you know where you are with reliable volunteers and cashflow, you might be able to branch out. But even then I wouldn’t go mad. The main aim is not cordon bleu, right? The important thing is to bring people together and feed them a good hearty meal, so there’s no need to get too fussy.’
Eden nodded. ‘I should have come to you straight away – you seem to have it all worked out.’
‘To be perfectly honest, it’s an idea that’s crossed my mind more than once, but I’ve always been too busy to do much about it. I had thought of having a few one-off events here at the pub in the same vein. But the pub’s always too busy, and my biggest problem has been finding a time to do it when I wouldn’t be losing a lot of money. It’s all very well being community-minded, but if you go bankrupt in the process, you’re in no position to help anyone, are you?’
‘So I suppose there’s no way we can do it here in the dining room then?’
‘No.’
‘I thought that, but…’
‘It was worth asking anyway.’ He smiled. ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but much as I’d like to say yes, it’s simply not an option.’
‘So she asked, and she still didn’t get,’ Livia put in.
Ralph chuckled. ‘Livia, you know I would if I could, but even your big brown eyes aren’t going to get round me this time. It’s not practical. From what I’ve seen of it, your scout hut might be a good place to start. I should warn you, though, I’ve heard the land might be going up for sale. If that happens, I don’t know what you’ll do.’
‘It might be up for sale for ages,’ Eden said, dipping into her property knowledge. ‘Lots of plots are, especially when they’re a bit off the beaten track. It’s not like we’re in a prime bit of London or anything.’
‘True, but I don’t know what it being up for sale means for the scout hut either. You might not be able to use it.’
‘Won’t it stay in use until the land is sold?’ Livia asked. ‘Where are the scouts going to meet?’
Ralph rubbed at his beard. ‘That’s something you’ll have to ask them if you decide the hut’s your place. I think it’s got everything you need, so if you can get it, it’s as good as anywhere, but…’
‘There’s only one way to find out, I suppose,’ Eden said. And even though she was still doubtful, she was beginning to form a plan, and that had to be a little bit exciting.