Chapter 16 #3
‘Are we going to share what we’ve written?’ Beth asked.
‘Absolutely not,’ I said seriously. ‘This is something that’s just for you, so don’t hold back.
I’ll hand out the paper and pencils now and then we’ll have a few minutes of proper quiet to think and make our notes.
Each thing can be as simple as one word or a couple of sentences. It’s entirely up to you.’
I had wondered if everyone would take it seriously, but a quick look around the table proved they were. Erik looked to be covering every bit of his paper, and I pondered if that was his gratitude or release note…
‘Do you think everyone’s finished?’ I quietly asked Freya who was sitting next to me.
‘I think so,’ she said. ‘What happens next?’
‘We need the fire for that,’ I told her and her eyes widened. ‘Okay, everyone,’ I said more loudly. ‘If you’re all ready.’ They were. ‘Then bring your notes and follow me.’
We walked in reverent silence to the sitting room where Luke had got the fire brightly blazing. The room smelt of woodsmoke, the ultimate autumnal scent, and was even warmer than the kitchen.
‘Right,’ I said. ‘The plan is for us to keep the note about what you’re grateful for somewhere safe as a reminder of this year’s blessings, and we’re going to burn the note with what we want to release written on, and while we do it, we’re going to visualise whatever we’re casting out, literally falling away. ’
‘Brilliant,’ Finn said, as he stepped forward. ‘I love this, Skylar.’
‘We were planning to use your braziers,’ I told him, ‘but the weather had other ideas.’
‘It’s the start of the wild hunt,’ he said, but I hadn’t heard of that. ‘Odin is getting in early and preparing us for winter.’
‘Well, let’s hope we can enjoy autumn before then,’ Freya laughed. ‘I take it you’re going first then, Finn?’
It took a while for everyone to cast their notes into the fire and Harold requested some help with his and then he and Grandad George made themselves comfortable while the rest of us went back to help tidy the kitchen.
With everyone doing something, the room was soon cleared, and I went to check everything was as it should be in the dining room.
‘I’ll bring everyone along in a minute,’ Erik offered kindly. ‘Save you having to come back.’
‘Can you give me five instead?’ I requested. ‘I want to make sure the room’s perfect.’
‘It already is,’ he smiled, ‘but all right.’
‘Are you all right?’ I asked, because his smile still wasn’t quite reaching his eyes.
‘Of course,’ he said unconvincingly. ‘This is a brilliant celebration.’
‘I didn’t ask about the gathering. Is it your knee?’
‘It is giving me a bit of trouble, but…’
‘Go on.’
‘It’s a family situation that’s come up at the same time as something else,’ he said and I could tell he was trying to make whatever it was sound trivial, even though to him it clearly wasn’t. ‘Go on,’ he said, with a nod to the door. ‘Go and check the room.’
I collected Grandad George and Harold on the way and the number of gasps and smiles as everyone else, the youngsters included, filed into the room a few minutes later was gratifying.
The decorations were much admired and then when I explained that every household was going to be planting up hyacinth and narcissus bulbs in time for Christmas flowering, the excitement rippled around the room again.
‘That’s the loveliest idea,’ Kate said.
‘I can’t take the credit for it,’ I said honestly. ‘I found it online and worked out that the timing would be perfect.’
‘I wondered what you wanted the pots for,’ Freya said as she and Finn moved further around the table to an empty spot.
‘I know you could have helped me,’ I told her, ‘but I wanted it to be a surprise.’
‘And it is. A truly lovely one.’
Erik and I had made sure there were plenty of bulbs to go around, including ones to take back to Cavell Care once they’d been started off in a cooler environment. I thought the bothy might be useful for that and Freya agreed.
‘We’ll need labels, so the pots don’t get muddled up though,’ she said sensibly and Erik appeared at my elbow with the pack I’d picked up at the garden centre. ‘I see you’ve thought of everything,’ Freya smiled in approval.
It didn’t take long to plant the bulbs and add the labels, but there was going to be some tidying up required because the compost had got everywhere.
I made Kate and Luke promise to leave it for me to sort as soon as I was back from my befriending session at Cavell Care the next day.
They didn’t really want to leave it for me, but I insisted.
‘My idea, my mess,’ I said. ‘And this is the sort of clean up that’s easier to do on your own.’
With the pots grouped on the table, ready for carrying to the bothy, we all went back to the kitchen and sat down to bowls of apple crumble, pear tart, blackberry and cinnamon galette and a damson cobbler.
There was cream, custard and ice cream and how any of us managed to get home afterwards was a mystery to me.
But home we all eventually headed, with full bellies and even fuller hearts.