‘So how did you get on?’ Colleen asked eagerly the second Flora set foot through the door.
The café was already beginning to fill with the lunchtime customers so Flora flashed a smile and hissed, ‘I’ll tell you later,’ and with that Colleen had to be content.
It was mid-afternoon before the girls got a breather again and as Jia Li poured them all a cold drink and they took a well-earned ten-minute break, Flora told them, ‘The letting agent has trusted me with a key so that we can go around there and have a look inside this evening when we close. I’ve promised to get it back to him first thing in the morning. But I’ll tell you now, I got the distinct impression that the property had been on his books for some time and I have a feeling that the owner just wants shot of it, which is good news for us.’
‘Hmm, well we’ll see when we get inside, shall we?’ Colleen said cautiously. From what she could see of the state of the outside she dreaded to think what it might be like inside. Still, she supposed they had nothing to lose by taking a look and they all could think of little else as they worked for the rest of the day.
‘Right, that’s it.’ Colleen rubbed her hands together and sighed with relief as she turned the sign on the door to closed that evening. They were all wet through with sweat and there was nothing Colleen would have liked more than to take a nice cool bath but curiosity was getting the better of her. They hastily did the dishes and wiped the tables between them then Flora fetched the key and they trailed out to stand outside the property next door as Flora struggled to get the key into the lock and turn it.
‘The lock is rusty,’ she told them. ‘It needs a bit of oil in it.’
‘A new door more like,’ Colleen scoffed, but at last it was open and they all moved forward and peered cautiously into the gloomy interior.
‘Phew, what a smell!’ Colleen wafted her hand up and down past her nose. ‘It smells as if something has died in here!’
Flora giggled. ‘Oh, stop moaning. Where’s your spirit of adventure? Come on, I’m going in whether you are or not.’ And with that she stepped inside, followed closely by a reluctant Jia Li and an even more reluctant Colleen, who was pinching the end of her nose shut. They found themselves in a decent-sized room that seemed to be crammed with rubbish and as they set off across the bare floorboards a rat the size of a small cat disappeared into an empty cardboard box.
‘Ugh! Did you see the size of that t’ing!’ Colleen looked horrified as she peered around cautiously. ‘I bet the place is runnin’ wit’ the t’ings.’
Flora giggled again. ‘Scaredy cat, come on, let’s see where this door leads.’ She tugged at another door on the far side of the room and after some pulling managed to get it open. It led into a room with a small kitchen leading off it in one corner and another open door through which they could see a staircase. Flora was off like a shot, stepping across the rubbish fearlessly but Colleen and Jia Li were a little more cautious as they slowly followed her. Every step they took sent a whirl of dust flying into the air and Colleen began to cough and grumble.
‘Sure, you take your life in your hands venturin’ into this place, so you do,’ she muttered irritably as she batted a hanging cobweb out of the way. ‘Just be careful on them stairs now. They may be rotten,’ she warned but by then Flora was already at the top of them and peering into three good-sized bedrooms.
‘Why, this is a house,’ she declared with some surprise as Jia Li struggled up the narrow staircase to join her. ‘I’m not sure that it would be suitable for extending the café but it would be a great place to live right next door. Just look at all the space we’d have.’
‘Mmm, I suppose you’re right,’ Colleen admitted as she screwed her nose up at the state of the place. ‘But to be sure it would take some putting to rights!’
Flora nodded in agreement. ‘It would but it wouldn’t have to be done all at once, would it?’ she answered. ‘I could always come round here on Sundays and start to clear it.’
‘You could not!’ Colleen was indignant. ‘Not on your own at least. I could help you and I’ve no doubt Jia Li will too when the baby’s arrived.’
But on this Flora was firm and she shook her head. ‘You two do too much as it is. If I take it on then I’ll get it ready to live in,’ she insisted.
Colleen grinned at her. ‘We’ll see,’ she said, tongue in cheek, and they all trooped back downstairs. Through the small kitchen they entered a little back yard with a rickety fence dividing it from the café next door.
‘That could come down for a start off and double the outside space,’ Colleen pointed out practically. She was getting a little more enthusiastic now. ‘And we could turn the outside toilet in the yard of the café into one for the customers use. There’s another one here, look, that we could use, though it smells rank, so it does! I shan’t be volunteerin’ to clean that, that’s for sure.’
They turned to Jia Li, who had said little up to then, to ask her opinion and she shrugged. She never got animated about anything anymore and sometimes both Flora and Colleen found it hard to remember how happy she had once been. Bai had never returned to the café since the day she had told him about the baby and they both knew that she still pined for him, although she steadfastly maintained that she had done the right thing in not telling him the truth about the baby’s conception.
‘It make very nice home when work done to it,’ she told them quietly and they glanced at each other, wondering just what it would take to make Jia Li show any feelings whatsoever. They locked the property up and went back to the café discussing what would need to be done should Flora decide to take the place.
The next morning Flora made her way back to the letting agent and Colleen waited impatiently for her return.
‘Well?’ she asked when Flora entered the café again. She had been busily wiping down tables but she stopped with the cloth in mid-air as she stared at Flora questioningly.
‘So …’ Flora smiled slyly. ‘As I told you yesterday I got the impression that they just wanted shot of the place which put me in rather a good bargaining position.’
Colleen grinned. ‘To be sure, I doubt anyone else would be daft enough to take the place on,’ she commented. ‘The whole place needs gutting and redoing before it’s fit to live in.’
‘Quite, which is why I told them I wouldn’t be prepared to rent it,’ Flora told her. ‘Instead … I’ve bought it!’
‘You’ve done what!’ Colleen’s eyes almost popped out of her head.
‘I’ve bought it,’ Flora repeated with a grin. ‘Or I should say I’ve part bought it. They’re letting it go for a ridiculously low price so I’ve agreed to pay what I have up front and get the rest to them in three months’ time. I should be able to manage it with what we’re making in the café now.’
‘But what if you can’t?’ Colleen queried worriedly.
Flora shrugged. ‘Then I’ll have lost all my savings. Obviously, it won’t be properly mine and signed over to me till I’ve paid for it in full but I’m confident I can do it.’
Colleen looked concerned. ‘But I thought you wanted to buy the café off Dora first?’
‘I did and I still do,’ Flora agreed. ‘But I’d be a fool to let next door go. Once I’ve paid for that I shall start to save to buy this place next.’
Colleen shook her head. ‘I dare say it’s your decision but I do hope you’re not making a grave mistake,’ she said worriedly.
‘I’m not, I’m sure of it,’ Flora told her confidently.
‘But next door needs a lot of money spending on it before it’ll be fit to live in,’ Colleen pointed out.
‘I know, but there’s no one saying it all has to be done at once, is there?’ Flora smiled at her reassuringly. ‘I shan’t do anything to it apart from give it a good clear out till it’s properly mine. I won’t be able to afford to do too much, if truth be told. I’ll just take it one step at a time.’
‘Hmm, well I dare say you know what you’re doing,’ Colleen answered, although her voice was still heavy with doubt. She went back to wiping the tables while Flora went through to the kitchen to check on Jia Li. Walking into the kitchen was like walking into an oven, despite the back door being wide open, and she wondered how Jia Li could bear it. The girl had tied her lovely long, black hair into a ponytail and her sleeves were rolled up as far as they would go. Flora told her what she had just told Colleen.
‘You make it into good home,’ Jia Li said simply. She had every faith in Flora and blessed the day she had met her. Goodness knew what might have happened to her if she hadn’t. Today she was once more wet through with sweat but as always, she didn’t grumble as she prepared the meals for lunchtime. ‘I shall help you,’ she told her but Flora shook her head.
‘No, you won’t. I appreciate the offer but you’re already doing too much as it is. I think you should start to have a rest in the afternoons now. I don’t like the way your ankles are swelling. You should be keeping off your feet a bit more now.’
Jia Li shook her head. ‘Swollen ankles is usual when having baby,’ she said quietly.
‘Speaking of which … shouldn’t we be starting to get the things ready for when the baby arrives?’ Flora suggested tentatively. She and Colleen were almost afraid to mention the baby for fear of having their heads snapped off.
‘There still be plenty of time for that,’ the girl replied with a frown. She tried not to even think about it but her stomach had started to get bigger and it was getting harder to ignore. Seeing that she had said all that was to be said on the matter for now, Flora changed the subject and soon the lunchtime customers began to arrive and they were rushed off their feet as usual.
That evening when the café was closed and Jia Li had retired for an early night, Flora and Colleen went round to look at the house once more. If anything it was in an even worse state than they had remembered and once again, Colleen was concerned.
‘Sweet Holy Mother!’ Colleen grumbled as she clipped her ankle on an empty wooden orange crate. ‘It’ll take a month o’ Sundays just to clear the rubbish out, so it will.’
‘And there’s no time like the present to start,’ Flora said with a grin as she flung the creaking back door open and began to throw rubbish out into the yard. ‘You get back next door and put your feet up for a time. I’ll be fine round here.’
‘I’ll do no such thing. I’m going to help,’ Colleen insisted as she rolled her sleeves up. ‘Though heaven knows what we’re likely to come across nestling amongst this lot!’ Warily she lifted a crate and following Flora’s example threw it out into the yard and soon they were so busy that all conversation ceased as they concentrated on what they were doing.
By the end of the week, the house was finally empty of rubbish although the yard was full.
‘You’re going to need new plaster on most of t’e walls,’ Colleen pointed out. ‘And some of these floorboards are rotten, they’ll need replacin’.’
‘That’s all right.’ Flora was determined not to get downhearted. ‘But Rome wasn’t built in a day, as the old saying goes. It’ll all get done eventually.’
Knowing Flora as she now did, Colleen had no doubt that it would.
‘I wish Bai would come back,’ she commented to Flora the next evening as, armed with buckets and mops, they attacked the worst of the filth on the floor. ‘If only one of us could see him and explain about the baby, I’m sure he’d stand by her.’
Flora nodded in agreement. ‘I think you’re right but if he doesn’t come back we’ve little chance of finding him here. New York is an enormous place and I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking.’
‘I suppose you’re right.’ Colleen sighed. She was still seeing her Will every Sunday and was smitten with him. In fact, she knew deep down that she loved him now although she wasn’t sure how he felt about her. Oh, he was attentive and kind, admittedly, but she always felt that there was something he was holding back from her. Whenever she questioned him about his family or his past he closed up like a clam or hastily changed the subject and she wasn’t even sure what part of London he had come from.
‘Eeh, we’re a right lot to be sure,’ she commented drily. ‘There’s me givin’ me heart to a chap that seems to be holdin’ back from me. Jia Li pinin’ for Bai an’ you still carryin’ a torch for your Jamie.’
‘I am not!’ Flora denied hotly but the rush of colour that rose in her cheeks belied her words.
Colleen’s voice gentled as she paused to suggest, ‘Why don’t you write to your mammy. Sure you’ve been sayin’ you were goin’ to for months now. What harm could it do? She will know you survived the Titanic by now an’ whatever you’ve done since, I’m willin’ to bet she’d be t’rilled to hear from you. It wouldn’t hurt to write to your Jamie neither. I bet he’d love to hear from you too.’
Flora chewed on her lips thoughtfully for a moment before admitting, ‘I suppose you’re right. I owe her that at least, though whether she’ll bother to reply is another thing. But I’m not so sure about writing to Jamie. He … he might have found someone else by now.’
Flora’s answer told Colleen all she needed to know. Flora still loved him. ‘Well, you won’t know unless you try, will you?’
‘True, but then I could say this is the pot calling the kettle black.’
Colleen scowled. ‘And just what is that supposed to mean?’
‘Just that you mope about worrying about how your mother and brothers and sisters are coping but you don’t try to find out. I know you daren’t write home because of your father finding the letter but surely there’s someone back in Ireland who you could trust to pass a letter on to her?’
Colleen thought about it for a minute before slowly nodding. ‘I suppose I could send the letter to Niamh, me mammy’s friend,’ she reflected. ‘I t’ink she could be trusted not to let me down.’
‘So let’s both write home then, eh?’
Colleen grinned, her mind made up. It would be lovely to hear from her mammy, so it would.
‘You’re on. We’ll both write to our mammies this very night when we’ve finished here, shall we?’
They smiled and got on with what they were doing, their minds already thinking about what they would write.