Jodie Wilson was tall and slim with lovely mahogany brown hair and a Mediterranean complexion and a wide bright toothy smile.
She
was from Roman Water Farm and Jodie always had the young men dancing attendance
on her, two in particular were itinerant labourers on the island for the fruit
picking, they were Daniel Junca and Mats Karlsson.
They
were both personable enough and were as different from each other as chalk and
cheese.
Daniel
was the younger man by a year, tall and dark with classic good looks.
Mats
was a short, stocky with close cropped dark hair and Jodie really liked them.
But despite the fact that she liked them, she was not
attracted to them even if they were attracted to her, but she liked them as
friends, and they did socialise a lot.
On the August bank holiday
they had all been invited to a BBQ at Crag Edge Farm, it was an annual event,
and guests came from all the neighbouring farms.
It was a glorious day, not a
cloud in the sky, and a gentle breeze was blowing off the sea.
Mats, Daniel and Jodie all
arrived together, they were all of a similar age and to the casual observer
there appeared to be a bit of a love triangle forming with the three of them
but for Jodie nothing could be farther from the truth, but it did seem like
they had been an eternal triangle for the whole summer.
Also there on that day was
Jodie’s best friend Sally Watson who worked as a Barista at Gilbert’s Coffee
House in St Pierre and when those two were together Mats and Daniel knew to
back off so they could have girl talks, and most of those talks were about
meeting someone suitable, as it was at every social gathering, they attended,
but they were always left feeling disappointed.
However
that day they met Geoff Chapman and Adam
Jackson, and they were making some progress until Mats and Daniel made their
presence felt.
In Martini’s General Store
the next day Frank Neary saw Maya Davenport stacking shelves at the back of the
shop
“Hi Maya” he called and blew
her a kiss.
“Hello Frank” she called
back, smiled, and continued working, but kept throwing glances in his
direction.
He quickly dashed around the
shop and picked up the few bits he wanted and went up to the counter just as
Violeta’s tidy rear aspect appeared, as she reversed out through the bead
curtain which separated the shop from the back room.
“Just do it the way I asked
for God’s sake” she snapped and as she turned around her face looked tired and
drawn but her frown melted away when she saw a friendly face.
“Frank” she said “I didn’t
realise it was you”
“How are you doing?” he asked
“Oh not bad” she replied
“Maya has been a terrific help, but she can’t be here as many hours as I need
her, with Uncle Francisco in hospital and with Louisa spending so much time
with him its difficult”
“Is there anything I can do?”
Frank asked
But before she could answer
the bead curtains parted and there appeared a nice-looking young man a year or
two younger than her and she tutted loudly at his arrival.
“Frank Neary, this is Arron
Coffey,” She said, and they shook hands.
“Arron is here to help us out
while Uncle Francisco is in hospital, it was decided by the family to send him”
Then he slipped back through
the curtain.
“It’s just a shame the family
have sent me an idiot” Violeta said somewhat harshly and loud enough for him to
hear.
The day after he walked into
the shop where he found no sign of Maya and Violeta in a blue funk.
“What where the family
thinking?” she asked me
“What kind of an asset is he
supposed to be when he can’t even drive the shop van?”
In an effort to calm her down
Frank took Violeta outside the shop to talk to her and managed to pour oil on
troubled waters and calm her down sufficiently and then he heard himself
volunteering to drive the van to the cash and carry for her on Friday, provided
he had someone else with him.
“Maya perhaps” he suggested
Later that evening he was out
on a date with Maya when she took a phone call from Violeta saying that
Francisco had died during the evening.
It was just after lunch on a
damp Thursday afternoon in August when Frank called into the shop to offer
Violeta and Louisa his condolences, but Louisa wasn’t up to seeing anyone and
Violeta was in bed asleep.
He did however speak with
Arron at length, and he found his original assessment of him to be borne out,
finding him to be a very likeable young man.
He thought that Violeta could do a lot worse than to set her cap at the young
man before him and he thought they would make a good match.
He was very timid, and he
would be perfect for Violeta to manipulate and shape, in the shop as well as in
her bed.
“Look after her” Frank said
to him “she needs your support”
“I will,” he said earnestly
“She might talk tough but
inside she’s really just marshmallow”
Frank said as he shook his
hand.
Caroline Wells was a little
frustrated that despite all the coffee dates, lunches and having spent most of
the Summer Fête together they hadn’t progressed any further than a kiss on the
cheek, and she was mindful that his secondment was up at the end of October, so
she formulated a plan.
She knew it was his birthday
in September, so she thought that was her chance, but on the weekend, she was
going to strike at the end of August he had to go to the mainland for a family
emergency which, as is the way with emergencies, appeared from nowhere, and the
chance was gone.
