Chapter 10
10
Ruth
‘How was your Christmas?’ Allie asked when we came back after the break.
‘It was pretty good. Ate too much and drank too much. Same as usual. Yours?’ I asked. I was down on all fours, defrosting the milk fridge underneath the bench with the coffee machine.
‘So-so,’ she said.
The tone of her voice was such that it had me sitting back on my haunches to look up at her. ‘What happened?’
‘Cody and Mia’s dad showed up Christmas morning. No warning. I opened the door and there he was. I was expecting my neighbour. We have coffee and fruit mince pies together every Christmas morning.’
‘Were the kids excited to see him?’
‘Sort of,’ she said and her mouth thinned into a firm line.
I waited but when she didn’t elaborate I went back to the fridge. I’d opened this morning as usual at eight. When I’d first let myself in, the cafe had been overly warm and stuffy. We’d had a burst of hot weather through Christmas and that had combined with the heat generated by the refrigerators and freezers to make the place uncomfortably warm. It was when I’d checked the fridge temperatures that I’d discovered the small fridge under the counter wasn’t as cold as it should have been. Serendipitously, restocking it from the storeroom fridge was one of the tasks I’d put off when I closed up Saturday and there wasn’t much that needed throwing out.
Street traffic was at a minimum between Christmas and New Year and so far there’d only been a couple of early-morning caffeine seekers. Some of the shops were still closed and the hospital admin girls were both on leave. Business would pick up around lunchtime when the holiday-makers got moving. And there were bookings, one for a group of eight. I’d already pushed together two tables and arranged the chairs and the reserved sign was ready to be placed in the middle of the tables.
‘There,’ I said, the defrosting of the fridge complete. I closed the door and turned on the power. The motor rattled to life. ‘Let’s hope de-icing was all it needed.’ I smiled at Allie. She looked miserable. ‘Does he usually see the kids at Christmastime?’
‘Other Christmases he’s phoned or FaceTimed and posted them ridiculously expensive presents. No money for that this year, so I suppose he thought he’d grace us with his presence instead and eat me out of house and home while he did.’
‘He’s not still there, is he?’
She nodded and her expression darkened even further. ‘But he’d better be gone when I get home today.’
‘You told him he had to go?’
‘In no uncertain terms.’
She continued wrapping the knives and forks together with paper serviettes. Transfixed by her nimble fingers and the practised way she went about the task, I tried to imagine what it’d be like to have your ex-husband show up out of the blue. Awkward.
Without slowing or even breaking her rhythm, Allie said, ‘When Cody was four, Brett showed up unannounced. He wanted to make a go of it again. I don’t know why he came back. He could have been between jobs—or girlfriends. I tried my best to make it work because kids need both their parents. We stuck it out for about a year. The last few months were a struggle for me and of course it all ended in tears when he left again. Cody was inconsolable. Mia didn’t speak to me for a month. They both blamed me for their father leaving.’ Her fingers stilled and she stood motionless at the bench, a knife and fork in one hand, a paper serviette in the other.
Where had my bright and bubbly employee gone? This woman who stood before me was unrecognisable as the Allie Thomas I knew.
‘Allie? Is there something I can do for you? Do you need to go home? I can manage if you do. Maybe Lorna could come in.’
Spell broken, she shook her head and returned to the task. ‘If I went home and he was still there, I’d probably kill him,’ she hissed.
Before I could gather my wits—and with them, an appropriate response—the front door squealed and heralded two customers. I didn’t know whether to be irritated or relieved.
What I ended up feeling was surprised when I recognised Hamish Adams. The man with him was unfamiliar, although of a similar vintage.
‘Can’t keep away from the place, I see,’ I said.
‘Who would have thought?’ Hamish responded with a flicker of a smile. ‘And this bloke here is Pete, my brother-in-law. He needed a break from my sister and I needed to get out of my apartment.’ Hamish nudged his bemused companion with a shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, mate, Ruth has had the pleasure of meeting our dear Natalie.’
Pete relaxed slightly and threw me a hesitant—or was that an apologetic?—smile.
‘What can we get you? Coffee to begin with?’
‘Yep, thanks. Macchiato for me and a flat white for Pete.’
The men moved their attention to the menu board. Like an automaton, Allie started on the coffees. When they both ordered big breakfasts, I headed to the kitchen.
Things didn’t let up from then until closing time.
* * *
The next morning Allie showed up for her shift an hour early. ‘I don’t want to be paid, I just had to get out of the house,’ she said. She was pale, her still-wet hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. No makeup, not even a smear of lipgloss. So unlike her.
‘I take it he was still there when you went home yesterday.’
She swallowed, her nod barely there.
‘Should I expect Sergeant Cooper any moment?’
She frowned.
‘To come and cart you off in handcuffs … lock you up and throw away the key.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t worry, he’s still alive. You won’t have to advertise for staff. Coffee?’
‘Please.’
There were no customers yet so we sat by the window at table eight, sharing a chocolate chip muffin and drinking coffee. It was pleasant to do such a thing and to see colour creep back into Allie’s cheeks.
‘He has nowhere else to go, or so he says,’ she said, halfway through her cappuccino. ‘He couldn’t pay the rent on his flat so he was evicted. That’s what he told me last night. No job, no money, no home.’
‘Parents? Friends?’
‘His parents live in Queensland and I reckon he might have worn out his welcome with any friends. He was evicted six weeks ago and has been couch-surfing ever since.’ She closed her eyes briefly and pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘I couldn’t face him this morning so I left before he emerged.’
‘Where’s he been sleeping?’ Not that it was any of my business.
‘On a camp stretcher in the sleep-out. He cannot stay there, for multiple reasons. The main one being how it’s affecting the kids. Mia’s ignoring him and me and Cody’s mooching around like a bear with a sore head.’ She sighed. ‘I am so sorry to be dumping all this on you, Ruth. Not when you’re struggling with your own issues.’
‘I have issues?’ I said.
‘You know, the headaches, always tired and your being peed off with having to be here all the time, working. No life, so to speak.’
‘Oh, those issues. Have I been that obvious?’
‘Don’t forget, we’ve worked together for several years, Ruth. We spend as many of our waking hours together as some married couples. And I can see you’re losing steam and I don’t blame you for that. What you do is nothing short of amazing. To have built up this business out of nothing and kept it going the way you have through Covid and everything.’
‘Do you think other people have noticed? That I’m losing steam? Has Lorna or any of the other girls mentioned anything to you? Perhaps I should make a doctor’s appointment and have a check-up in the new year.’
‘That would be a sensible thing to do, Ruth, and no-one’s said anything. But don’t go to the local GP. He’s all right for coughs and colds and he was okay when Cody broke his arm, but I haven’t found him very user-friendly when it comes to women’s issues. In fact, quite the opposite.’
‘I have a GP in Adelaide. I can’t remember the last time I went to her, but it’s since I moved up here.’
‘Sounds like you’re long overdue for a check-up,’ Allie said. I was old enough to be her mother but I often felt she had a better handle on life matters than I did. But then, she was an actual mother.
Two women walked past the window and for a moment I expected them to come in. I readied myself to stand up, but they kept walking. I shouldn’t have felt relieved, but I did.
‘What about the hotel?’ I said.
‘For what? A drink?’
‘No! Accommodation for your ex, if he’s sticking around. It’s probably the cheapest alternative in town and he could stay there until a better solution presents itself.’
‘What, like crowdfunding the airfare to send him home to his parents? They’d send him straight back, believe me. I think there was a reason they moved to Queensland.’
‘Then crowdfunding an airfare is out,’ I said, arching an eyebrow.
‘Not necessarily,’ she said, picking up on my banter. ‘There are places much further away than Queensland.’
Several more people walked past the window and this time they did stop and come in and we unfortunately had to wind up our tete-a-tete and get to work. But that didn’t stop me reflecting on Allie’s situation while I toasted sandwiches and stacked pancakes. It would have been helpful to have come up with a workable option for her. While the hotel rooms were cheap, the cost would escalate if he didn’t move on in the shortest time. Which, by her account, he had no intention of doing. And if he was staying around he’d need a job so he wouldn’t have to sponge off her for too long. They were all practical issues. Solvable. It was the emotional side of the situation that flummoxed me. Hats off to Allie for letting her ex-husband camp in the sleep-out, but then he was the father of her children, so what choices did she genuinely have?
Allie reluctantly left at three. I’m sure she would have stayed the night if I’d offered. I sent her home with a few leftovers. Normally I would have given them to Laurie but he was staying with his daughter in Port Pirie until the new year. When the cafe had emptied out by three thirty, I wiped down tables and started stacking chairs ready to do the floors. At ten minutes to four I was on my way to flip the sign from open to closed when Hamish appeared on the other side of the glass.
‘Am I in time for a coffee?’
I glanced over my shoulder at the machine. ‘Just. My next job was to clean it.’
‘Make it a long black, thanks. Two shots. I can take it away.’
‘No need, if you don’t mind me cleaning up around you. Has your brother-in-law gone home?’ I spun the sign around and locked the door.
‘No, he’s out at Rocky Point, fishing.’
‘Dare I ask why you’re not out there with him?’
‘Rather watch paint dry, if you must know.’
‘I’m with you. While I enjoy eating fish, I’m quite happy for others to catch it. How was your Christmas?’ Back behind the counter, I tamped coffee grounds into the basket, locked it in place and set the machine going. Rich, black espresso oozed into the cup.
‘Unremarkable. Yours?’
‘Completely over the top food and drink-wise, but that’s my brothers for you. They have unlimited means, never want you to forget that and never give up trying to outdo each other. There’s always too much of everything. I could live for a fortnight on what they throw away. But it was nice to spend time with family. Without Christmas and Easter, we’d probably never get together.’
‘They say Christmas is all about children but as far as I’m concerned, it’s become nothing other than a consumption ritual.’
‘My, don’t we sound like the Grinch,’ I said and slid his coffee across the counter. He paid. I discarded the used coffee grounds and wiped out the basket.
‘Don’t I? But then I could easily do without Christmas. There’s only so many times one needs to be reminded of the dysfunctional state of one’s family.’
‘No grandchildren? Children?’
‘Nope. What about you?’
‘No, only ever nieces and a nephew and now their kids. Makes me feel older than ever.’
He took a sip of coffee and briefly closed his eyes in bliss, if the expression on his face was anything to go by. ‘On a lighter note,’ he said, ‘do you have any plans for seeing in the New Year?’
‘Only to be home in bed and sound asleep well before midnight arrives.’
Hamish laughed, the sound deep and surprisingly melodious. It sent a tingle down my spine. ‘We could be twins,’ he said.
He drank his coffee while I kept on with the closing routine. Then he took his dirty cup through to the kitchen and stacked the remaining chairs onto the tables for me.
‘If Pete catches any fish you must come around and have a meal with us. Fish is best eaten freshly caught.’
With that, he said goodbye and let himself out of the kitchen, leaving me wondering what all that had been about.