Coming home to roost
“Please tell me you’re kidding!” Kristy stared at Shona’s entourage. Her shock was obvious.
“I’m afraid not.” Shona sighed. “May I introduce our new flatmates, Orla and Higgins?” The two dogs dutifully sat down to her left and right and peered curiously into the kitchen, where Kristy had been whirling around as they arrived.
The oven door was open, and the place smelled amazing.
The dogs sniffed excitedly. Before Kristy could say more, they heard a groan from behind Shona and Marlin entered.
He had two horse blankets tucked under one arm and was dragging an enormous bag of kibble with the other.
“Will you be alright?” he asked Shona, directing a meaningful glance at the dogs as he put down his load in the hallway.
“It’ll be fine,” she mumbled, “and if not, I’ll call for help.”
“Aye, but no’ me. Call your vet. And have a good evening, lasses.” He gave Shona a peck on the cheek, waved to a stunned Kristy and quickly left the small cottage.
“As I said, these are Orla and Higgins, and, um, I guess they’ll be living here now too.”
“But ...” Her cousin was struggling to understand what was happening, and Shona couldn’t blame her; she felt the same way.
“I didn’t plan this!”
“I still don’t get it. What’s going on here?
” Kristy had overcome her initial shock and was able to form sentences again.
Calmly, she closed the oven door, took out the baking tray with its fragrant pies and placed it on the worktop.
Then she turned back to the three in the doorway and said, more to herself than to them: “Why did I bother? You’re so huge, you can easily take food from the counter.
And you, Shona, can you please explain to me why we need two huge dogs, on top of an alpaca? ”
“Nessie isn’t coming back to live here ...”
“And that’s reason enough for you to get a replacement right away?!” Kristy’s voice sounded surprisingly shrill, and the two dogs tilted their heads in unison. They looked as if they were wondering what was wrong with the woman in front of them.
“Not if it had been my choice,” Shona claimed. “But I’m afraid it’s no longer up to me.”
“That would be a first! It’s always about you!
” Kristy glared belligerently at Shona, who recoiled in surprise.
She didn’t know her reserved, rather shy cousin could even get angry.
Let alone this angry. If anything, she had been expecting Hailey to freak out, but their third roommate wasn’t home and was as of yet unaware of the two furry additions to the household.
“Hey, what’s up with you?”
“I’m just sick and tired of ...” Kristy struggled for words.
“Of what?”
“You quit your job in London and come back to Kirkby, and because you don’t feel like living at home in your old room or getting a place of your own, you move in with Hailey and me.
Which is fine, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not fine for you to turn everything upside down here!
First you bring in this alpaca and treat it like a lapdog, and now these two beasts!
And do you take care of them? Of course you don’t!
Do you realise that I’ve been cleaning up Nessie’s mess in the living room almost every morning?
” Kristy was waving her hands around so frantically that both the dogs and Shona took a step back.
“I thought she was housetrained,” Shona replied meekly. “Really. I would have cleaned it up if I’d known. Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because you get up so late. Hailey and I are long gone by then. And because I think it’s disgusting to leave alpaca crap sitting there until you see the mess.
I’m so glad Nessie is with that poor horse now, and this is the first thing you do?
! Is Nessie coming back too? Are you opening a zoo in our house? ”
“No, no, just let me explain! Da and I went to Fort Augustus today and rescued three alpacas from a bankrupt circus so that Nessie could have a herd and not live with us anymore. Gosh, Kristy, I’m so sorry.
I thought you liked Nessie?” Shona felt a little overwhelmed by this turn of events.
Her cousins had never said a word against the alpaca.
Well, they had teased her about it, but never seriously.
And she had really thought that Nessie was housetrained.
“Of course I like Nessie, but she’s not a bloody pet! And in case you hadn’t noticed, these two are not alpacas! So there’s still a part of the story you’re not telling.”
“I’m not finished. So we went to the circus, and it turned out that they still had these two dogs in addition to the alpacas. Initially, they even had a few brown bears too, but a wildlife rescue took them in.”
“Thank goodness. Or I know we would have bears romping around on the sofa too!” Kristy exclaimed with biting irony. “Why couldn’t they take these two with them? They look plenty wild to me.”
“They’re not wild. They are lovely and scared and hungry,” objected Shona, trying to keep her cool.
“I just couldn’t help myself. They were such a sad sight, cowering in the corner, and they were so happy when I went over to them.
I’ve never seen so much hope and longing as in their eyes in that moment. I just couldn’t leave them behind.”
Kristy’s uncharacteristic irritation had faded. Exhausted, she sat down on a kitchen chair and buried her face in her hands.
“What’s going on with you, Kristy?” Shona enquired gently.
“Nothing. I’ve just had enough of everything always revolving around you and Hailey. Your sensitivities always take priority, and everything else has to accommodate you.”
Now Shona really felt at a loss. Things had been fine yesterday and this morning.
She couldn’t remember any recent run-ins with Kristy that would warrant such an outburst, so she assumed Kristy’s temper tantrum must have to do with Hailey.
Where was she anyway? Still with the mountaineer she’d picked up at the harvest festival?
“Did something happen at the bakery?” she guessed. There had to be some reason for Kristy’s behaviour.
“No, it’s all good. But I probably won’t be able to take Phyllis up on her offer to train with her.” Kristy sniffled.
So that’s what had rained on Kristy’s parade! Well, and her and Hailey. And Nessie’s accidents … “Huh? I thought it was a done deal?”
“It was, but I can’t close the bakery for that long. It would be bad for business. The teacher training is scheduled for November, and I’ve already committed to make the cake and pastries for an eightieth birthday with fifty or more guests. And then there’s the catering for the bazaar and ...”
“Maybe someone else can make the baked goods for that? Kirkby managed for years without a bakery, so they’ll survive two weeks without you, I’m sure.” Shona didn’t see why this was such a big deal.
“You don’t get it, do you? This is an important job for me!
I need this work and the money. Unlike you, I don’t have a daddy who’s just waiting to swoop in and pay my bills.
Anyway, I can do a January course instead, problem solved.
I just feel like I always get the short end of the stick around here! ”
“Kristy, I’m sorry. Let’s talk this through later?
I’m sure we can find a solution that works for everyone.
” Shona spoke slowly and calmly, as if her cousin were a bomb that could explode at any moment.
She was still struggling to understand her outburst, but that didn’t change the fact that Kristy was feeling this way.
Then again, she had a more pressing problem of her own. Actually, two.
“The dogs are in desperate need of food, and I really need to cook some rice for them. Is that okay? Then as soon as they’ve eaten, we can talk.”
“There you go again, expecting me to take the back seat! I’m done with this crap!” Kristy pushed past them and rushed up the stairs to her room, where she slammed the door behind her.
“Oh dear,” muttered Shona. Something was really wrong, but she had no time to worry about it right now. She entered the kitchen and looked around helplessly. How difficult could it be to make rice?
She’d always sucked at cooking, which really made her the odd one out among her family.
But maybe it was just logical considering her upbringing: when she was little, there had always been someone around to cook.
First her grandmother, who she hardly remembered, later Aunt Alice – often assisted by Isla and Lennox, who had both shown a keen interest in cooking and baking.
Her da and Alex also managed quite well, as long as they stuck to simple dishes.
So she had never needed to cook at home.
It had been pretty much the same when she trained with the Gordon Gibbs Distillery.
She had lived with the family and been well looked after.
During her time in London, she had shared a flat with other young professionals, and hardly ever set foot in the kitchen.
She had treated herself to a late breakfast in a café most days or met friends for brunch.
The whisky bar where she worked was attached to a restaurant and she had eaten dinner with the other staff.
So it had simply never been necessary to develop kitchen skills.
Not even recently, since she had moved in with her cousins in Kirkby.
Kristy practically lived in their kitchen.
You’d think the bakery would give her enough opportunity to prepare food, but even at home, she spent most of her free time cooking or testing new baking recipes, and Hailey was always up for preparing a big breakfast or a pot of pasta.
And whenever nobody offered to make food at home, she still had Jon’s pub and the ready meals in the freezer.
She definitely aced making frozen pizza!