The Seachangers

Chapter 31

31

Ruth

After I’d closed up and finished the usual mundane chores on Sunday, I sat at the kitchen table with a leftover muffin, a pot of tea and a notepad and pencil to make the lists Hamish had suggested. It was my first chance since I’d discussed selling the cafe with him.

No doubt the best outcome would be to sell the building, the flat and the business all in one hit and have the new owner take over quickly so the business didn’t lose momentum. Then there was the question of what I’d do in those circumstances, where I’d live. Was I serious about wanting to leave Cutlers Bay? About going back to Adelaide? I’d always assumed that’s what I’d do. But now, with my thinking cap on and pencil poised, what was there for me now other than Elliot? The housing I’d be able to afford would determine where I’d live. Not the most ideal of circumstances.

Bryan had voiced that the option he thought most likely to succeed was the one where I sell the business, with or without the name, and lease the building to the new business owner. Much like Hamish had said. And that option gave me somewhere to live and an income stream. And if I decided not to stay here, I could lease out the flat as well.

I drew up columns and filled them with the various alternatives, along with their pros and cons. I left until last the option where nothing sold and I had to carry on until I dropped dead of exhaustion. Or, as Hamish had intimated, I closed the cafe and sold off whatever I could in what would effectively be a fire sale. Sadly, I could clearly envisage this scenario playing out when all else had failed.

How depressing to think I could end up living out my days here, in a poky two-bedroomed flat at the rear of what would be a gutted shopfront. People would walk past and say, ‘Remember when there used to be a lovely little cafe here, great food, great coffee, but the owner ran out of steam and then couldn’t sell it so she had to close it down and now she lives out the back with her cats …’

I shuddered at the sequence of events all too easily imagined. Except for the bit about the cats. I’d never owned a cat and couldn’t see myself ever going down that pathway. A dog? Maybe, when I had more time to walk it.

The subject of selling the business was constantly on my mind. Apart from Bryan, Hamish was the only other person I’d discussed it with and only that once. I had thought I’d bring it up with Elliot when I’d stayed over before the doctor’s appointment, but he’d been too caught up in his own concerns to give any thought to mine.

My GP had been thorough. She’d gently rebuked me for leaving it so long between health checks. ‘You’re over sixty now, Ruth, you need to take better care of yourself. Exercise. Eat well. Don’t neglect your emotional health and wellbeing, especially important in view of your recent bereavement.’

‘Of course, but who gets time for exercise? I’m on my feet all day as it is.’

Going by her expression, she’d been disappointed by my response.

My blood pressure was up a fraction but she wouldn’t commit to what she thought might be causing the headaches. ‘Let’s get more information first,’ she’d said and ordered a raft of blood tests. Some of them fasting, so I’d had to find out where I could have the blood taken in Cutlers Bay. ‘And make another appointment to see me in a fortnight.’ That had been an order. ‘We’ll discuss the results and where to from there.’ Then she’d scribbled something on a slip of paper and handed it to me. I hadn’t looked at the note until I was back sitting in the car. It said: Prescription for exercise: At least 2 x 30 minute brisk walks per week OUTSIDE in the fresh air, preferably with company.

I hadn’t known whether to laugh or crumple up the ‘prescription’ and dump it. In the end, I’d fixed it to the fridge at home with a magnet. I’d had the blood taken but I’d made no attempt to ‘fill’ the exercise prescription. I could see myself out with a torch walking briskly the night before my next doctor’s appointment, which was only a week away now. Then I could at least report that I had been for a walk, even if it was in the dark and on my own. How sad was I?

* * *

I hadn’t seen or heard from Hamish since he’d come into the cafe with his leather-clad mate on Saturday morning. If he’d been on his own, I would have asked him around for a meal on my days off. But here it was Tuesday afternoon, days off almost over, and I hadn’t even made the effort to ring him. I could remedy that right now. The phone was on the table beside me so I grabbed it and scrolled through to his number.

‘Ruth,’ he said when I’d been about to hang up. I could hear he was breathing heavily.

‘Have I caught you at a bad time?’

‘No! I was up a ladder, that’s all.’

‘Do you want to do something this afternoon? Something that’s not work?’

‘What did you have in mind?’ He sounded wary.

‘A drive out to Rocky Point … a walk on the beach. I could pack a picnic and we could watch the sunset …’ My certainty that this was an inspired idea withered the further along I went without any sounds of encouragement from his end. ‘Only if you’re not too busy,’ I said.

‘What time does the sun set?’ he said, when I’d begun to suspect I’d lost him completely.

‘Around eight.’

‘I’ll pick you up at six. You supply the food and I’ll bring the drinks.’

When we arrived at Rocky Point, the sea breeze had picked up and my imagined pleasant but brisk walk along the beach turned into a trudge with us pushing hard into a headwind with sand blasting our shins. Even the seagulls were having trouble staying airborne.

Because it was so windy, we picnicked in the cosy comfort of Hamish’s dual cab. The sunset was spectacular.

It was dark when he dropped me off at home, just shy of nine. ‘Thank you, Ruth. I had a good time.’

‘You sound surprised,’ I said.

He chuckled. ‘I suppose I am, a bit. I’ve never considered myself to be a walk on the beach and watch the sunset kind of a bloke.’

‘You’ve never done it before?’

‘Maybe once.’

‘Let me guess, the honeymoon weekend on KI? Under duress?’

He groaned, closed his eyes and bumped the back of his head against the headrest several times. ‘Am I so predictable?’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve lived in Cutlers Bay for years and I haven’t walked on the beach that often. The first time was when I visited my niece and the cafe was barely an idea. But lately I’ve been thinking how there used to be more to my life than just work.’

‘Beware, because I’ve tried it the other way around, you know, without the work, and the boredom nearly drove me batshit crazy.’

‘I’m not ready to stop work altogether. I can’t see myself doing nothing. I just need to find a better balance.’

‘Let me know when you do.’

‘I’m working on it, pardon the pun. We’ve one more weekend to go with Sunday trading for this summer and then I’m considering having three days off. That’s if Allie’s prepared to carry on working all day Tuesday.’

‘I thought you were going to sell up?’

‘I am, but I’m under no illusions that it’ll happen overnight. It could take months. Years, even. Bryan made sure I understood that in the discussion we had.’ Had a fortnight passed since I’d talked to him? My goodness. ‘I’d better go,’ I said, conscious the car engine was idling and, like every other day, I had jobs to do before bed. I opened the door and the interior light came on. ‘Sorry about the sand.’

‘Part and parcel of a trip to the beach, or so I imagine.’

‘Lasagne’s the lunch special this week.’

‘You’ve twisted my arm. I’ll come for lunch one day. Not sure which day it’ll be. I need to shoot down to Adelaide to Bunnings and I haven’t decided when. Let me know if there’s anything you need.’

‘At Bunnings?’

‘Not just at Bunnings, Ruth—anything at all.’

* * *

Allie was early the following morning. I was busy at the coffee machine when she arrived. There were already several food orders waiting. I’d slept well and felt more my sanguine self than I had for weeks. Could today’s improved mood be attributed to the picnic and the walk on the beach with Hamish? Possibly. That and the cooler weather that had blown in overnight. There’d even been a sprinkle of rain.

‘What are all the garbage bags doing outside the kitchen door?’ she said as she came in and my buoyant mood faltered.

‘What do you mean?’

‘There’s about half-a-dozen chock-a-block black garbage bags, the ones with the yellow ties, and a cardboard box of old toys.’

‘You are kidding me.’ I tapped the jug of frothed milk on the counter, much harder than I needed to. ‘Take over here will you, please,’ I said in a tone of voice Allie would never have heard before.

‘Okay,’ she said, eyes wide. She picked up the jug of hot milk.

I dashed out the kitchen door into the service lane and her description had been spot on, except that there were five bags, not six. Hands on hips, I stood there struggling to get my thoughts in order, my stomach roiling. How ridiculous and petty was this?

Allie poked her head out the door. ‘There are two more food orders, Ruth.’

‘I’m coming.’ I went inside, washed my hands and got to work, all the while fuming. Allie asked me what it was about and I gave her the condensed version, hardly believing the tale even as I recounted it.

‘I’d dump them right back on the op shop’s doorstep. Let Audrey Franco deal with it, the cow,’ she said.

‘What would that solve?’

‘Do it in the dark and they wouldn’t know where the bags came from.’

Tempting, but not my style. And what if they had installed security cameras? ‘I’m going to ring Zach Cooper when I get a minute. Explain the situation to him and ask him what I should do.’ I thought of Peg and the fish guts and how easily this could get out of hand. ‘I just can’t believe that someone has done it!’

‘There are some strange people in this town,’ Allie said. ‘Any town, I guess.’

As it happened, Zach came into the cafe for a coffee an hour later. He was in uniform and Allie directed him out to the kitchen while she made his coffee.

‘What’s up, Ruth?’ he said. He was tall and big and the kitchen suddenly felt overcrowded.

I explained. He stepped out into the service lane. When he returned a few minutes later, he was scratching his head. I kept on making the salad that we’d serve with the lasagne, chopping the vegetables with unwarranted ferocity.

‘I had a look in the bags and they’re full of old clothes, towels and stuff like that. I think your conclusion about why they’re there is more than likely correct. I’ll chuck it all into the back of the police ute and take it around to the op shop, have a chat with them.’

‘I just don’t get why anyone would do such a thing, Zach.’ I frowned. My head had started to pound and I was on the verge of tears. ‘Audrey and I had the conversation while I made her coffee and all I did was offer a solution to a problem that she’s been banging on about forever. And now all of a sudden I’m the bogey man because someone—and I can’t be one hundred per cent certain it was Audrey—said the bins had gone and I was behind it.’

‘Here’s your coffee, Zach,’ Allie said and passed him a large takeaway. ‘And I made one for you, Ruth.’ She put the steaming mug on the bench beside me.

‘Thanks,’ I said. I couldn’t drink it at the moment because it would more than likely make me sick.

After she’d scuttled off, Zach took a sip of his drink and sighed. ‘My first one of the day,’ he said. ‘And, Ruth, all I can say is that sometimes there is no rational reason why people do the things they do. In my experience, most people resist any upset to the status quo, even if the status quo is not fair or just.’

‘Yeah, Peg told me the story about the fish guts,’ I said. ‘Did you have to deal with that one?’

‘I’ve heard her story. Luckily, it was before my time.’

‘So what should I do? I’ve never had anything like this happen all the while I’ve been here. And I can hardly bear to serve Audrey when she comes in as it is, not since Peg told me what she’d heard.’

Allie passed through a food order. I glanced at it and started to gather the fillings for the sandwiches.

‘And since then this is the only instance you’ve had junk dumped here?’

‘Yes.’

‘Does anyone else use the service lane?’

I shook my head. ‘It belongs with this building. It’s my property.’

‘You might want to think about a gate. Something high and secure that you can lock.’

‘I’ll look into that.’

‘ASAP would be my recommendation. And Ruth, we’ll probably never discover who the culprit is.’

‘Aren’t there security cameras somewhere?’

‘You jest.’

‘Thanks, Zach.’

He stood back and finished his coffee, watching me make the sandwiches. ‘They look good. And your lasagne is one of my all-time favourites.’

‘Do you want something to eat? I can whip up a sandwich or put a serve of lasagne in a container for you to have later.’ Way back, when Zach was single and had no inclination to cook for himself, I used to do for him what I now did for Laurie. Of course, Zach paid me in cash.

‘Thanks, but no,’ he said and patted his flattish stomach. ‘Easy to put on and almost impossible to get off, especially at my age, as my dear wife keeps reminding me.’

Try as I might I couldn’t quite recapture the upbeat mood of earlier. Every time I served a customer I couldn’t help but wonder if they were responsible for dumping the bags in my service lane. Three o’clock came and frustratingly Allie left before I could ask her if she was interested in keeping the full-shift Tuesdays when summer Sunday trading ceased. I’d work the shorter shift, or no shift if that worked financially.

Laurie arrived promptly at four thirty to do the floors. I asked him what he thought about a gate at the service lane entrance.

‘A damned sound idea. Why there’s not something there already, what with the gas bottles, rubbish bins and all, beats me. Kids these days seem to have too much spare time to get up to mischief.’

My stomach plummeted. I hadn’t thought of the gas bottles being vandalised; they were chained and padlocked into place.

‘Is that something you could do, Laurie? I’d pay for everything, and your time of course.’

‘I’m sorry, Ruth, but I don’t have the tools for a job like that, or the confidence, if the truth be known, not anymore. What about Hamish? Bloke’s pretty handy and he has the tools and the confidence, in bucketloads. I’d willingly help him with it.’

* * *

Thursday began like any other, except that Hamish was there at seven measuring up for the gate. We’d spoken the previous evening and he’d quickly agreed to help out. He looked pretty good in washed-out denim jeans and a navy blue cotton-drill work shirt, a thick pencil shoved behind his ear. He gratefully accepted the coffee I took out to him.

‘I didn’t know you wore glasses,’ I said.

‘Reading and when I don’t want to get any measurements wrong. I reckon the best way would be to build in the end completely and have a solid wooden door with a keypad lock. You could do the same with Colorbond but it wouldn’t look as neat, in my opinion.’

‘A keypad lock’s an excellent idea. No mucking about with keys. You must put everything on my account at the hardware,’ I said and took out my phone. ‘I’ll ring Bob right now and tell him you’re on your way.’

Hamish headed to the hardware shop across the road—I’d convinced him of the wisdom of shopping local rather than at Bunnings—and I let myself back in the kitchen door just as the timer on the oven beeped. The muffins were ready.

I was in the middle of lifting them onto cooling racks when there was a tap on the kitchen door. ‘It’s open,’ I called, thinking it’d be Hamish, but it was Allie. ‘You’re early,’ I said brightly in an attempt to disguise my instant apprehension.

‘I needed to talk to you, Ruth, and we never get the chance during the day.’

‘No, we don’t,’ I said, lifting the last muffin onto the rack. ‘And I wanted to ask you about shifts, now that February’s almost over and Sunday trading with it. I was thinking—’

She held up a hand, a serious expression on her face. ‘Perhaps I’d better say what I need to say first,’ she said. ‘Because when I do you might not want to say what you thought you did.’

I wiped greasy fingers on my apron. ‘Out with it then,’ I said, more calmly than I felt.

She held out an envelope I hadn’t noticed she’d been holding. ‘It’s my resignation,’ she said.

Myriad emotions swept through me but all I could do was blink and fiddle with the hem on my apron. She placed the envelope on the bench. ‘I need more work, Ruth, a lot more work, permanent work that comes with sick leave and annual leave and a greater ability to accumulate superannuation.’

‘You have another job?’ I said with difficulty because my mouth was so dry.

She nodded.

‘And you didn’t ask me to be a referee?’

She rolled her lips together. ‘I wanted to but Lo—that is, a friend advised against it in case I didn’t get the other job. She thought it might make the situation here a bit tense and that’s the last thing I wanted. I’ve loved working here. I couldn’t have asked for a better boss, but I’m forty now and I need to get my house in order and part of that involves preparation for the future.’

What she said sounded well rehearsed. That was okay. I wished I’d had such an epiphany when I’d been her age. ‘Can I ask what the job is?’

‘Catering and hospitality support services at the hospital,’ she said with a hint of defiance.

‘Congratulations,’ I said and she drew back in surprise. ‘You’ll be an asset to any organisation, Allie.’

Her eyes narrowed as if she didn’t quite believe me, and she’d prepared herself for a much different response. But I meant what I’d said and I’d deal with the panicked chaos in my head later. ‘I think we made a good team and I’ll miss you.’

She swallowed, pressing her fingertips briefly to her lips. ‘It’s not that I don’t like working here, I do—I love it. But it’s not enough anymore, not now the kids are getting older. I can’t rely on Brett for anything. I thought about a second job …’ She sighed and her shoulders slumped. ‘Well, I’ve been looking, Ruth, and there’s not much on offer. Cleaning, bar work, that sort of thing, if you can get it, and it’s all after hours when I need to be at home with the kids. Then this job at the hospital came up.’

‘Timely,’ I said.

Her mouth flattened into a rueful smile. ‘I know I’ve been lucky.’

I reached for the envelope. ‘How much notice have you given me?’

She flinched. ‘Next Wednesday will be the last day I’m available. I start the new job the following Monday.’

There went any plans I’d had for extra time off. ‘Are you okay to do the full shift next Tuesday? Lorna’s on the roster to do your usual shift.’

‘I’ll be here. And I’m sorry, Ruth, to leave you in the lurch when I know how tired you are.’

‘Don’t be sorry. You need to take care of yourself and your family. I’ll see you back here at the start of your shift.’ There was more both of us could say but we’d only be going around in circles. I needed time to process and decide what I was going to do.

‘Shall I go through the front and unlock?’

‘Is it that time already? Okay, thanks.’ With an ear out for the squeal of the front door, I rushed through the last-minute preparations, purposefully pushing aside the staffing problem Allie had just dropped on me. I was annoyed, but not really with her. I’d seen this coming, even thought about upskilling one of the casuals to cook. Had I done anything about it? No. Robert’s death and Elliot’s floundering had derailed me in so many ways.

I heard the front door. Showtime. The muffins could cool on the rack for a few minutes longer.

My quickly pasted-on smile slipped when I saw who the first customer of the day was: Audrey Franco.

She fidgeted with the lid of her to-go mug and wouldn’t meet my eye. ‘No muffins today?’ she said.

I imagined myself saying, No muffins today, Audrey, and the coffee machine is broken , and sending her on her way. But instead I said, ‘They’re cooling in the kitchen. Apple and cinnamon.’

‘Ooh, I do like those. I thought I could smell cinnamon.’

‘The usual?’

She passed me her to-go mug but then didn’t let it go. ‘I’m so sorry, Ruth. I should have kept my big mouth shut. I had no idea what people would make of the things I said.’ The words spilled out in a plaintive gush. She raised her gaze to mine and then released the mug. Undeterred by my obvious bewilderment, she ploughed on. ‘Sergeant Cooper came into the shop yesterday, told Daphne and me what had happened. Daphne was so shocked she had to sit down and take one of her heart pills. Sergeant Cooper didn’t mention any names but I know he knew it was me who’d been, er, gossiping.’ She folded her arms, hugging herself. She looked dreadful, as if she hadn’t slept. ‘I was awake all night worrying and Reg insisted that I come in first thing this morning and apologise to you.’

I started on her coffee, mainly to give myself a moment and take strength from the familiar routine and the delicious smell of coffee beans being ground. I would accept her apology, but she could sweat for a bit.

When I handed her filled cup across the counter, I said, ‘Thank you for your apology, Audrey. And good on Reg for insisting. Now, would you like me to fetch you a muffin?’

‘Yes, please,’ she said with a tentative smile.

To my immense relief, there was no time for any more stilted conversation because, right on cue, the admin girls burst in the door.