Tuesday, 10 September 2024

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (110) Young Love

 


In the early hours of Monday the weather broke heralding a week of heavy rain and storms and that weather curtailed Molly and Danny’s alfresco working and Elisa and Henry’s early morning walks had to be shelved.

The storms also brought the work on the church and cottages to a halt and the opening of the footbridge was postponed for a week so as not to tempt fate, as the original bridge was struck by lightning which caused it to fall into the river.

 

Jade Bargeron was a Beaumont girl born and bred and her parents still lived in Spaniards Creek.

Jade was a popular girl, kind and thoughtful, who made friends easily and kept them through her gentle nature. 

 

Matt Deighton was two years older than Jade, but he was not from the island, he was born and raised in Sharpington.

He arrived at the beginning of May with Harry Archer in a Luton van loaded to the gunwales with equipment for the new premises of Archer Ornamental.

He joined Archer’s straight from school and all of the staff in Sharpington were canvassed to see if any of them wanted to transfer to the new building but only Matt was interested.

Which suited Harry because he liked Matt, and they worked well together.

 

The 10th of July was Jade’s first day at the Galleon Coffee shop, and she was quite nervous, it wasn’t that she wanted to be a barista for the rest of her life, but she wanted to do it well.

The weather was foul, and the shop had been open for half an hour and not one customer had come in, which wasn’t helping her nerves at all.

So when the little bell above the shop door rang and a sad looking, sopping wet young man walked in, she sprang into action with great efficiency.

He sat down at the table by the window and pushed the hood of his raincoat off his head. 

Jade recognized him, though she didn’t know his name, she knew he lived in one of the renovated places by the river.

“Good morning” she said brightly and took out her little notebook and pencil

“Hey” he responded

“I only started today, you’re my first customer” she whispered

“So be gentle with me”

“Two Americano’s and a Capuchino” he said flatly

Jade nodded and turned to walk away,

“Please” he added which made her smile.

 

The foul weather continued right through until late into Saturday night, so it was a very productive weeks writing at Cliff Haven.

Elisa spent most afternoons at the vicarage with Henry teaching him to cook.

 

Doctors Cameron and Woodward were a little disgruntled because it was a rare Saturday when Deborah wasn’t working and the weather was just too wet, so they did the Stephenson’s grocery shop in the morning and spent the afternoon at her cottage listening to Puccini. 

Sunday was a much nicer day, but Dr Woodward was on duty, so Stuart continued working on the irregular shaped piece of Perspex they found on one of their walks.

 

On Monday the footbridge over the Spanish River was opened with a small crowd to witness the occasion including the parish council, Reverends Archer and Noble and Molly, and the ribbon was cut by local celebrity Danny Nightingale.


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