May
It was on a
bright sunny January day when 59-year-old widowed retiree George Wozniak was
awoken from the comfortable solitude of his cottage on the northern outskirts
of Pepperstock Green by his attractive new neighbour, 51-year-old Julia Kaiser,
who wanted to borrow a screwdriver.
“Of course, you
can” he replied, “Come in a minute”
“Thank you” she said
“I’m George by the way”
“Pleased to meet you George” she said and smiled again.
“Would you like a coffee while you’re here?”
“Oh yes please” she replied enthusiastically
After a brief
conversation he soon ascertained what task she was doing at home, the dreaded
flat pack furniture, and what type of screwdriver she required to do it with,
and he could easily find her a small selection from the tool shed for her, but
after having coffee with her he said
“Why don’t I come and give you a hand, I’ll only doze off in the chair again,
so make use of me”
“No I couldn’t ask you to do that” she protested, but in truth she pleased so
didn’t protest to vehemently.
“I insist” he said
George had retired from Teaching and lived alone, his wife had died nine years
earlier and his two sons had families of their own so he had a lot of time on
his hands, a lot of which ended with him sleeping in his armchair.
So the prospect of getting out of the house and doing something useful appealed
to him greatly.
Although he would have had to admit to an ulterior motive in volunteering his
services, other than to alleviate his boredom and that was because his new next
door neighbour Julia was very pleasing to the eye and although that wasn’t
enough in itself to get his motor running, it was a bloody good start, even if
he only looked at her as a friend.
George and
Julia did become friends, from that first day she asked to borrow a screwdriver
and he helped her with assembling flat pack furniture.
He had enjoyed the task and her company so much that he helped her on
subsequent days with a variety of other jobs and he felt useful again.
Which was why he came to spend the spring helping Julia to decorate her house.
His previous neighbour was an elderly lady who had lived there since moving in
as a bride, and it wasn’t decorated again after the death of her husband which
was 20 years before hers.
After her death
the family just paid someone to paint over everything so they could get it on
the market, so it was decorated in neutral tones, magnolia emulsion and white
gloss and one thing George had noticed, apart from her figure was that Julia
was not a neutral tones kind of person, she was a vibrant kind of woman, so she
wanted to make her mark, stamp her personality on the place.
George was happy to help Julia, it kept him busy and made him feel useful which
gave him fresh energy and a renewed purpose and more opportunities to feast his
eyes on her and he would have been content if that was all there was.
Although he wasn’t aware of it at the time, Julia enjoyed it too, but for her
it was because she was lonely, she missed her boys and felt she wasn’t needed
since the youngest one left to join the army.
But she wasn’t the only one because it had occurred to George very early on
that he too had been lonely, he just hadn’t realized it until he met her and
spent time with her.
While they worked together they got to know each other and eventually he got to
find out the reason for the sadness in her eyes.
Julia hadn’t given birth to 3 babies as he first thought she had given birth to
4.
Her youngest child was a girl named Anna who at the age of 8 was struck by a
hit and run driver and killed.
“My baby girl was gone” she sobbed “my beautiful baby girl”
George didn’t know what to say, what could he say?
What empty words could he have used to console someone who had lost a child?
No parent should have to bury their children, he felt so inadequate and all he
could do was to take her in his arms and let her cry on his shoulder.
He couldn’t take the pain away or stem the flow of tears all he could do was
hold her while she sobbed and afterwards listen while she unburdened herself.
In addition to losing her daughter she also lost her husband who decided he
could best help his grieving wife by shagging the next door neighbour.
“That’s shit” George said
It was little wonder she was sad and lonely.
As spring moved into summer they completed one room after another and they were
both secretly dreading finishing the job.
They had done the garden already and the exterior painting was completed, so
what would they do? What would fill their days? What excuse would he have to be
with Julia when all the work was done? And what reason would Julia have to ask
him for his help?
So it was when May slowly gave way to June when all the work was completed,
that they discovered that amidst the wallpaper, filler and the paint fumes they
had fallen in love.
Which was when George and Julia realised there were other ways for them to pass
their time together that didn’t involve her asking if she could borrow a
screwdriver, gardening tools or a paintbrush.
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