Chapter 25 #2
‘Hi, Margaret,’ he called to a small, wiry-looking woman who was polishing a beer glass as she chatted to an old chap nursing a tankard of beer. Her face lit up, and she left the old boy mid-sentence and hurried down the bar.
‘Finn!’ she exclaimed, reaching across the bar to squeeze his hand. ‘Good to see you.’
‘Margaret, this is Violet,’ he said.
Margaret pulled her spectacles down off her head and appraised Violet through them.
‘Good to meet you, Violet,’ she said after a moment. To Finn, she said, ‘How’s your mum?’
‘She’s okay,’ Finn said, smiling. ‘I saw the card and flowers you took her. She enjoyed those.’
Margaret smiled, but there was a sadness to it.
‘I’ll be out to see her again next week,’ she said, her eyes misting over. ‘It’s a lovely thing you’ve done for her, my boy.’ She reached for him again, her small hand covered in large rings, gripped his tightly. ‘A good thing,’ she said in a choked voice.
Finn squeezed her hand back and swallowed. He could feel Violet’s gaze on him as they settled themselves in an old wooden booth not far from the fire.
‘How do you know Margaret?’ Violet asked as she was unwinding her scarf.
‘I used to work here,’ Finn said. ‘Back when we were in college. I worked here at weekends, collecting glasses and clearing tables. And mum, uh,’ he cleared his throat, ‘mum used to clean here.’
‘Your mum, who Margaret took flowers to?’ Violet asked carefully.
‘Yes. She’s uh…she’s in a care home now.
She’s very frail and has dementia.’ He picked at a loose splinter in the old table.
‘So we—me and my sister, Suzy—we recently moved her to a nicer place, nearer to us both.’ He paused.
‘This job is what made that possible. And I hope to God there’ll be more work like this so we can keep her there. ’
Violet reached across the table and gently laced her fingers with his. He entwined his fingers with hers.
‘How is your mum doing now?’ she asked.
‘She’s okay,’ he replied. ‘I think it’s harder for me and Suzy sometimes, than for her.
It’s a horrible thing, seeing the person who raised you so frail like that, and sometimes she doesn’t know who we are.
She gets confused. And I feel guilty all the time that Suze and I can’t just give up work and be with her.
’ He let out a long, slow sigh and rubbed a hand over his jaw. ‘All the time.’
A lump formed in his throat. The fatigue from the constant decision-making, guilt, and worry suddenly landed heavily on him.
Violet covered his hand with both of hers and squeezed gently.
In that moment, words abandoned him, and he just sat and took in Violet’s face and the feel of her fingers wrapped around his.
‘I’m glad I’m here with you,’ she said, her eyes shining.
He lifted their entwined hands and kissed the back of Violet’s hand.
‘Anyway,’ he said, injecting a face tone of brightness into his voice. ‘That is how we know Margaret. Me, my mum, and later, my sister, all worked here at one time or another.’
‘So you grew up in this village?’ Violet asked.
‘Mmmhmm,’ Finn replied. ‘In a little cottage at the top of the lane on the edge of the village. I got the bus to college every day from the bus stop just opposite the pub.’
Violet chuckled. ‘Wow.’
‘What?’
‘I’m enjoying the image of the cool guy I knew in college standing around in the rain waiting for the number 26. I think I assumed you came to college on a motorbike, or some souped-up VW with blue lights underneath.’
Finn laughed. ‘It was the number 84, but yeah, I take your point.’
They ate dinner in between sharing stories, and a fit of laughter after Finn lost control as he tried to prise open a mussel, broke the shell, and sent half catapulting onto a neighbouring table.
A bespectacled octogenarian man had peered around the side of the booth and politely handed him back the shell.
Violet had laughed so hard she had gone silent.
When the waitress came to see if they wanted dessert, they looked at one another and, at the same moment, shook their heads and said, ‘Thank you, no.’
Finn paid despite Violet fighting with him over the card machine, and then, in an altogether quieter mood, they slipped out of the booth, waved goodbye to Margaret, and stepped out into the chill air.
There were few streetlights in this part of the world, and the ones there were, cast pools of amber light on just the patches of ground immediately beneath them.
Finn pulled Violet into him, wrapping his arm around her as the wind picked up and turned the faint drizzle into slanting needles of rain.
‘Home time,’ he said softly, and she shivered against him as they walked to the car.
He opened the door for her, and she climbed into the passenger seat. As he started the engine, Violet turned to him and said, ‘I’d like to see your place.’
Finn paused. ‘You want to go to my place?’
She nodded and gestured. ‘Let’s go.’
He swallowed. ‘We don’t have to do this, Violet,’ he said, as his body screamed at him to shut up. ‘I can drop you home if you like. I mean,’ his mouth twisted. ‘I know we have already done it, I mean… I just…I don’t want you to think we need to do that. We can go slow if you want to.’
She leaned across the car, pulled him towards her by the shirt collar, and kissed him.