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“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Gloria apologised as she came flying through the back door of Dawning two weeks later, her blonde curls bouncing in all directions as she began stripping off her hoodie to reveal her work uniform underneath.
“I was beginning to wonder where you were. It’s not like you to be late,” Sarah commented as she watched Gloria rush through the large kitchen tossing her handbag into the small staff area and grabbing a clean apron to tie around her waist.
“Kyle was up half the night throwing up, which means I was up with him and didn’t get any sleep. By the time he finally stopped and I managed to get to sleep it was nearly four. I slept through the stupid alarm which I never do.”
“How’s Kyle this morning? He feeling any better?”
“Running around like there’s no tomorrow. Kid gets three hours of sleep and he’s fine, and I’m left feeling like the walking dead. I’m so sorry about the alarm and being late.”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s only fifteen minutes. But if you know you’re going to run late, just give me a call to let me know, okay? I was beginning to worry that something had happened.”
“I will,” Gloria promised pulling her unruly hair back with a hair tie before coming to a stop next to Sarah, her routine as a whirling dervish finally over. “What do you need me to do?”
“Can you put away the produce that Jamie dropped off this morning please? I haven’t had a chance yet.”
“Sure.” Looking around her Gloria turned back to Sarah, a small frown on her face. “No Seth?”
“He should be here in about twenty minutes,” Sarah said glancing up at the clock. “He went out to his car this morning and found that someone had let the air out of all his tyres.”
“What the hell? Why would anybody do that?” Gloria was shocked.
“No idea. He didn’t seem too stressed about it though. He’s got one of those air pressure hose thingies like they do at service stations so he said he’d pump up his tyres and head in.”
“I would lose the plot if someone ever did that to my car. They’d be running down the highway with me chasing after them. Especially this morning.”
“I probably would too,” Sarah agreed. Looking over at Gloria as she put the produce away Sarah gave her a sympathetic smile. It was clear from her drawn face that she’d had a tough night. “Why don’t we stop for ten minutes and have a coffee?”
“Do we have time for that? I was late and Seth isn’t here.”
“Perks of being the boss, I get to decide that it’s okay,” Sarah joked. “Besides you look like you need one and I didn’t sleep so great last night either so I could use one.”
Gloria scoffed. “That’s because you’re up having crazy monkey sex with your man half the night. My night was filled with vomit.”
No sex here. But the stuff we did do was pretty darn good, Sarah thought a smile coming to her face as they walked into the dining area of Dawning. With the café void of people the dining area seemed to take on an ethereal feel to Sarah. Between work and Jamie she couldn’t be happier.
“Look at that smug grin on your face. You happy people in your happy relationships make me sick,” Gloria teased.
“I’ll remind you of that one day when you come in here looking all smug over some guy,” Sarah retorted.
“Like that’ll ever happen.”
“That’s what I thought, then I met Jamie,” Sarah was quick with the response as she got to work making the coffee. There was no need to ask Gloria what she wanted to drink as she always chose the same thing. A caramel latte with an extra shot of espresso.
“You really thought you’d never meet anyone?” Gloria was surprised. “I know you told me that one time that you didn’t date at all, but I thought you were just exaggerating.”
“Nope, I was serious. I wasn’t interested in meeting anyone. Probably still wouldn’t be honestly, but Jamie’s different. It’s still all a bit new but he’s worth trying with.”
“You’re lucky. I want to find someone but the problem is I grew up here. There’s slim pickings to start with in a place like Kiernon, but when you know which guys around here used to pick their nose and eat it when they went to school it kinda puts you off them.”
“That is disgusting,” Sarah curled her lip.
Gloria giggled. “It really is. Plus add in a child to the mix and men aren’t exactly lining up to go out with me.”
“Well they should be,” Sarah was emphatic. “They don’t know what a great girl they’re missing out on.” Aside from being a fantastic mother to Kyle, Gloria was an amazing woman in her own right. Witty, kind, feisty but warm-hearted Gloria was as loyal as the day was long.
“When the mine was open it wasn’t so bad, there were some interesting guys that lived here.”
“You go out with any of them?”
“A few,” Gloria admitted. “But there was never anyone serious. It was more about itching a scratch with some of them.”
Sarah didn’t need to ask what sort of itch Gloria was talking about, she knew only too well. It was an itch that she had been feeling herself lately. Thinking about the fact that she and Jamie hadn’t had sex yet she felt a momentary pang of guilt. She wanted to with him, but Sarah knew she just wasn’t ready.
“So many of the men left when the mine closed which completely sucked. Can’t blame them though, we’ve all got to work to make a living and there sure wasn’t any work left here for them anymore,” Gloria said, interrupting Sarah’s thoughts.
“Have you ever thought about leaving? Finding a life away from Mount Kiernon?” Sarah asked.
“Just the once. Then life got in the way and I had to grow up pretty damn quick.”
Sarah was puzzled. “I’m not following.”
“I was convinced I was in love with a guy once. Back when I was fifteen, nearly sixteen. I was head over heels and completely stupid about it. We talked about what our lives would be like together in the future, how much we loved each other, how we couldn’t live without each other, the whole shebang.”
“That doesn’t make you stupid. That just sounds like young love,” Sarah declared sliding the completed caramel latte towards Gloria.
Gloria thanked Sarah and left it on the counter to cool slightly as Sarah moved on to fill a teapot with hot water for herself.
“It is stupid though if when you’re fifteen you get on a bus after the boy leaves town to go and be with him without telling your mother where you’re going.” Sarah’s eyebrows lifted in response to Gloria’s confession. “And it’s even more stupid if you don’t let the guy know you’re on your way to see him – I could have saved myself a lot of heartache if I did.”
“So what happened between the two of you?” Sarah asked, curious.
“I showed up on his doorstep one evening just as his parents were about to sit down to dinner.”
“Where was he? Oh God, owww,” Sarah complained pulling her hand away from the teapot and quickly setting it down on the counter. Sticking her finger in her mouth Sarah sucked on the throbbing digit.
“You okay?” Gloria asked.
Sarah’s finger came out of her mouth with a small popping sound. “Yeah, just burnt myself on the steam.”
“One day we’re going to get through a whole week here without you burning yourself.”
“Wishful thinking,” Sarah responded wryly. “Anyway, keep going with what you were saying. You’d just arrived and the family was about to eat.” Sarah reminded Gloria.
“His parents were about to eat. The guy I’d travelled to go see wasn’t even home. I didn’t have anywhere else to go so his parents invited me in to eat with them promising that he was due home soon. They were really kind and polite and the guy showed about twenty minutes later with a whole bunch of his mates. He saw me sitting at the table with his parents and pretty much ignored me.”
“Ouch. That’s gotta hurt,” Sarah sympathised.
“It gets worse yet. You’d think from that alone that I’d get the picture that I didn’t mean anything to him, but stupid me didn’t get it. He and his friends all went into the den and I could hear them talking and laughing. Just shooting the breeze, you know? I went and joined them thinking that maybe he was just surprised at seeing me at his house and that things would be okay between us. But – “
“But what?” Gloria prompted.
“I walked into the room and said hello and a few of the guys actually turned around said hello back to me but he didn’t even look up from where he was sitting. So I went over to him. Stood next to him and waited for him to at least acknowledge that I was there. One of his friends must have felt sorry for me cos he came over and introduced himself and that made the guy actually pay a bit of attention to what I was doing. When the boy asked me my name I was just about to tell him when they guy piped up and said ‘It’s Glenda’.”
“He what?” Sarah was genuinely shocked.
Sarah could see Gloria’s jaw clench in fury as she retold the story. It was clear that the past hurt and anger she felt still bubbled just below the surface.
“We’d spent three months together talking, texting and dreaming about our future and he couldn’t even remember my name.”
“Oh Gloria, that’s just awful.” Sarah was aghast that anyone could consider treating Gloria the way they had done. “Fifteen year old boys can be really cruel. They say all sorts of things they don’t really mean without stopping to think about other people.”
“He was seventeen. He knew exactly what he was doing,” Gloria replied flatly.
Sarah remained silent. It was clear that there was nothing she could say or do that could make the memory better for her.
“It was pretty obvious I couldn’t stay there. I’d travelled all that way for nothing and I just wanted to go home. I was completely humiliated and asked his parents if I could use their phone to call Mum to come and get me. They were so nice about everything and pretty embarrassed about the way their son was acting. While I waited for Mum to arrive I could hear the guy with his friends still talking. I will never forget when one of them asked who I was and he said was that I was ‘just some girl he used to fuck’. They all laughed like it was the best joke they’d ever heard.” She gave a small sniff. “I guess that’s what I was really. I was just one big joke to him.”
Sarah teared up at hearing Gloria’s story. The heartlessness that her friend had been treated with made her boiling mad. More than that though she was just so sad for the fifteen year old teenager that Gloria had been who’d gone through such a horrible experience.
“Mum managed to drive the five and a half hour journey to come and get me in four hours. I don’t even want to know how fast she drove to get there that quickly. I was so ready for her to yell at me and ground me for life for what I’d done. But she took one look at me when she arrived and just gave me a huge hug instead. She didn’t need to yell, I’d already learnt my lesson the hard way.”
“I hope you gave the guy a piece of your mind before you left.”
Gloria shook her head. “No. I thanked his parents for being so nice and went home. Three weeks later I found out I was pregnant with Kyle.”
“What did the boy say when you told him?”
“He never found out. Mum always left it up to me if I wanted to, but I always thought that if he could treat a girl so badly in front of his parents and friends then he wouldn’t have a problem denying the baby was his.”
“But what about maintenance? He could be helping out at least.”
“It’s too late now,” Gloria said.
“It’s not,” Sarah disagreed. “He could start paying now, plus maybe even some backpay.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Gloria clarified. “When Kyle was about eighteen months old Mum and I were struggling to make ends meet so I decided to look him up and get him to pay for his responsibilities. I’d deleted his number ages ago but I could still remember the address where he lived. I went to the house and discovered that they’d moved away about six months before. The new people that lived there had no idea where they’d moved to.”
Sarah could hardly believe it. It was just turn after bad turn for Gloria it seemed.
Gloria shrugged. “It’s okay though. Me and Mum made it through. We’ve both got work now, Kyle’s at school and he’s growing into a really good kid.”
“He’s pretty awesome,” Sarah agreed.
Gloria’s face beamed with pride at the compliment. “He really is, isn’t he?”
Sarah leaned over and wrapped her arms around Gloria, holding her tightly. As they stood there embracing one another they heard a tap on the front door. Looking over Sarah saw through the glass one of the regular morning customers pointing to his watch.
“Holy moly, I lost track of time,” Sarah yelped as she dropped her arms around from Gloria’s shoulders.
“I’m so sorry, I pour my heart out and tell you my life story and we end up opening late because of it,” Gloria apologised as she rushed to the door to unlock it and let the few waiting customers inside.
“Don’t even think about it. They’ll all be grand, we’ve never opened late before.”
Pasting a smile on her face Sarah greeted the people who came to the front counter. Apologising for the late opening as she served them, Sarah offered each customer a discount on their hot drink for any inconvenience that may have been caused in opening late. As expected though none of them seemed overly concerned about the fact Dawning had opened late and each were delighted with the discount. As they received their first order for a cooked breakfast Gloria set off for the kitchen to cover for Seth, leaving Sarah alone to begin the task of preparing the hot drinks and serving any other customers who might arrive.
As she worked through the drinks orders and took them out to the waiting customers Sarah found herself getting more and more angry for her friend and employee as each minute passed. Gloria had worked hard to give Kyle the best upbringing that she possibly could and deserved love as much as anyone else. She certainly didn’t deserve to be treated the way the boy had treated her years ago.
Spying a pot of tea and a takeaway cup of coffee on the counter she frowned. For a moment Sarah thought she must have forgotten to take an order out to a customer. Realisation dawned on her as she recalled making the drinks for herself and Gloria while the two of them had been discussing Kyle’s father. They now sat cooling on the counter having gone untouched by either woman.
“Hey, do you still want your coffee?” Sarah called to Gloria as she opened the door between the two areas of the café and poking her head through the door. “It’s out here if you want it, but it’s probably cold by now.”
Gloria looked up from where she was standing over the hotplate cooking bacon for a breakfast order. “It’ll be fine. I’ll still drink it.”
“You sure? I can make you a new one if you like.”
Gloria waved her off. “Don’t be daft. You’d be amazed the amount of barely warm coffees I ended up drinking when Kyle was born. I’d make them then space out because I was so tired with having a baby and forget they were there. I’ll come out and grab it in a minute when I take this order out,” she said indicating to the food on the hotplate in front of her.
“Suit yourself,” Sarah shrugged before returning to the counter where the abandoned pot of tea sat alongside Gloria’s cold coffee.
Throwing the contents of her vastly overbrewed tea down the sink Sarah got a fresh pot ready to fill. As she did Seth joined her next to the machine.
“I finally made it,” he said as a way of greeting.
“Morning Seth,” Sarah smiled up at him. At just over six feet tall and solidly built from the rugby he loved to play, Seth often made her feel tiny. “Everything all sorted with your car?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“Are you going to report it to Colm?” Sarah asked referring to the local police officer.
“Don’t see the point really,” he answered honestly as he grabbed a cup from on top of the coffee machine and filled it with hot water. Dunking a tea bag into it he leaned against the back counter. “I reckon it was just a bunch of kids. There was a group of teenage boys in here the other day acting up and I gave them a bit of a serve. They weren’t too happy about it.”
“But do you really think they would do something like letting the air out your tyres though? It seems a bit extreme.”
Seth grinned. “You were never a fifteen year old boy. It’s exactly the sort of stupid thing we do. One of them was one of the Switlock boys who live a few houses down from me. I’ll have a chat to him next time I see him. Sort it that way.”
“If you’re sure?” Sarah left it hanging.
“Yep,” Seth nodded. “Anyway, I guess I’d better get back there and get on with things. Just thought I’d let you know that I was in.”
“It’s appreciated, thanks Seth.”
As he left with his cup in hand Sarah began to fill the teapot she’d been holding with hot water from the coffee machine. Thinking about Seth’s tyres, teenage boys and Gloria’s tricky past she saw Gloria out the corner of her eye enter the dining area and give the customer who had ordered the cooked breakfast their food.
It was then that a thought struck her.
Not once had Gloria ever referred to the boy who was Kyle’s father by his name. She’d only ever called him a ‘boy’ or a ‘guy’. A long breath escaped Sarah’s lips as she contemplated why she might choose to keep his identity a secret.
Hearing the door to the café open Sarah glanced up from the nearly full teapot to the potential customer who’d just entered. As she did she felt the air leave her lungs as if they had been squeezed by an unbearable force. Unable to tear her eyes away from the man who slowly approached the counter she stood transfixed.
“Hello, Sarah,” he said softly as he stopped in front of her.
“No,” she squeaked.
It was all she managed to get out before the scream left her lips.