A Change for the Better? (5 page)

“
Only because you haven
’
t coughed up your debts yet, Bert Riley, don
’
t think I
’
ll forget. I
’
m in here for a fractured hip not a knock on the head.
”
Mo shooed him away and Bert left laughing.

“
Oh Mo
”
Katie asked concerned,
“
I
’
m not sure you should be playing poker - don
’
t they need a
licence
for that?
”

“
Stop worrying, Katie Kettle; I don
’
t think they
’
ll throw me out for having a bit of fun and keeping five patients from going up the wall with boredom. Don
’
t look so worried, we
’
re all allowed to let our hair down now and again - even you!
”

Katie smiled, it was a long time since Mo had called her
‘
Katie Kettle
’
, it had been Mo and her Grand-dad
’
s nick name for her when she was little as she had always been asking Mo to put the kettle on for a cup of tea. She had never wanted pop or squash, always tea, mainly because at Mo
’
s you always got a biscuit, a bun or some other treat with a cup of tea. So
‘
Katie Kettle
’
had stuck and whenever Mo wanted to make Katie smile or relax she called her by it and it always worked, it took Katie back to a safe and innocent time in Mo
’
s kitchen with the range lit and the kettle boiling.

“
Ok Mo
”
Katie held her hands up in mock surrender
“
I
’
ll stop nagging
”

Mo laughed too
“
and will you do something else for me too while you
’
re at it?
”

“
I suppose so, as long as it doesn’t involve smuggling whiskey in to liven up your little tournament
”
Katie shook out her long brown wavy hair in feigned indignation.

“
Now there
’
s a thought that hadn
’
t crossed my mind until you just mentioned it
”
teased Mo
“
but no, not at the
moment. Would
you make sure that you arrange a little get-together for everybody at Tolpuddle soon? I was due to have one this week and for people like Poppy and the Clacketts they look
forward to
it. I don
’
t want them to miss it just because I
’
m stuck in here
”
Mo looked at Katie surreptitiously hoping she wasn
’
t going over the top, but she desperately wanted Katie to do this, not just for her regular tenants but for Katie herself. Mo wanted her to get to know people locally again, restore a bit of confidence and
colour
back into her granddaughter after whatever had happened in London had knocked it out of her.
It seemed she had got it right; Katie smiled and held Mo’s hand

“
Of course I will if you want me to -if only to stop you discharging yourself for some ridiculous party crisis. Anyway I think it might be the only food Poppy gets. She packed away half a packet of biscuits in under ten minutes the other day.
”

By the time Katie left Mo she had promised she would organise something for the following Thursday evening and that she would return to see Mo on Saturday to go through the guest list and more importantly the food list! Mo took entertaining very seriously and always tried to match the food to the guests, a knack that her granddaughter had inherited but one she
’
d put to little use over the last few years, as somebody
’
s mistress you didn
’
t do the entertaining or act as the hostess - you only ever did intimate little meals for two, and often they had to be abandoned early as some new family crisis loomed from down the mobile phone. As Katie remembered this she stood stock still in the corridor and another visitor cannoned into the back of her. Katie barely noticed, she
’
d just
realised
it had been over three days since she had even thought about Marcus and what
’
s more when she had, it hadn
’
t been to wish she was back in his arms in her flat or in a nice hotel somewhere, no, it was to be irritated with him (and herself) that she had always come second best. Maybe she was starting to get over this just as Cliona said she would.

A couple of hours later as Katie loaded her shopping into the boot of her car, her optimistic mood had passed and a black cloud had descended over her. This was due in a large part to the nightmare that was supermarket shopping. Screaming children, old ladies pushing trolleys in pairs at a
snail’s
pace up every aisle, other impatient shoppers ramming her on the ankles at least three times and lastly some phantom shopper who seemed to have picked up the last one of at least half the things she had wanted to buy just before she got there!

Katie slammed the boot shut, jumped into the car and set off. She just wanted to get home as quickly as possible now, the guy from BW Building was coming to look at the door and thanks to the extremely large queues at the checkouts she was now running about half an hour later than she had expected.

Katie raced through the country roads in her sporty little Mazda mentally making a list of the order in which she would like to eliminate all her supermarket devils and the many and varied ways in which she would do it. As she turned another corner at probably ten miles an hour too fast she came across a cyclist towards the middle of the road. She had just enough room to pass the bike but in doing so she set the rider
off balance who proceeded to roll headlong into the hedge at the side of the road. Katie slowed and looked in the mirror as the rider picked
himself
up, dusted off his jeans and blue T-shirt and started to head towards her. She couldn’t really see his face as he had a scarf wrapped around it and a cycle helmet on but she sensed he wasn
’
t happy from the determined steps he was taking towards her. Deciding she couldn’t face another incident today Katie slammed her car into gear and set off around the next bend but not before she had given a cheeky wave out of her window to the advancing cyclist. The last thing she saw was the less than happy rider standing flabbergasted in the middle of the road as she disappeared.

Katie got back in good time, the building person wasn’t due until 3.30pm so she still had fifteen minutes to put the kettle on and grab a quick snack. At 3.45pm she starting to wonder if she had got the time wrong just as the doorbell to the front door chimed in the kitchen. Katie ran out to the hall getting ready to make some barbed comment about time-keeping but as she opened the door she was struck dumb. There, stood in front of her, was the cyclist she had just driven off the road. Although he no longer had the scarf or helmet on these was no disguising the mud stain halfway down his left leg and even if that hadn’t given him away the thunderous look in his eyes as he looked from Katie’s car back to her would have been sufficient. Katie was struck by a sudden urge to laugh and the corners of her mouth must have given her away as the man rounded on her.

“Oh I see, you think driving some innocent cyclist into the hedge and then driving off without so much as an apology is funny, do you?” His voice was deep and pleasant even though his tone wasn’t and it took the desire that Katie had to laugh away completely. She had been just about to apologise for those things but his demanding, almost pompous tone, changed her mind.

“No, I don’t think it’s funny and neither is cycling haphazardly and in an uncertain manner in the middle of the road, springing out in a dangerous manner on cars using the road in a perfectly normal manner.” Katie held her chin out obstinately, as she was wont to do when getting into an argument and awaited some pithy response from the cyclist. Unexpectedly he burst out laughing which completely threw Katie

“You’re absolutely right, I was riding my bike with total disregard for other road users and I offer you my sincere apologies.” He held out his hand and looked at Katie with twinkling blue eyes underneath his rather unruly sandy coloured hair. Katie got the impression that he might actually be laughing at her but decided she just wanted to put an end to this. So, somewhat reluctantly, she took the outstretched hand and begrudgingly said

“Well, I’m sorry if I startled you by using the road” she paused and then added “oh and for driving off without speaking to you.” Thankful that this confrontation had come to a peaceful end Katie waited for the man to go but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry, instead he started to scrutinise the house and the doorframe.

“So” he said eventually just as Katie was starting to lose patience “this is the door that’s causing the problem then?”

“Yes it is - oh are you? I’m sorry, who are you?” Katie stumbled over her words. Smiling that mischievous smile again he held out his hand again,

“I’m Ben Wilson, BW Building. Is Mo in? I can go through what needs doing with her.”

“Actually, Mo’s in hospital at the moment” Katie replied coolly “I’m looking after things for a while, I’m her granddaughter Katie Collins.”

“Katie, that’s why you seemed so familiar - you’re Katie Crabstick!”

Katie stopped her hand in mid air

“Katie Crabstick! How do you know I’m ...  I mean, where did you hear that?” Katie looked at him suspiciously. Grinning from ear to ear Ben replied,

“If you remember I was in your class for two years at Laxley Heath Junior & Infants. In fact I used to sit right behind you in Mrs Beattie’s class. I used to get the rough end of your tongue on many occasions.”

Katie looked at the six foot tall, wavy haired, reasonably good-looking man with a lopsided and currently very annoying grin and tried to picture it against any of the boys in her class for the two years she had spent at Laxley Heath aged nine and ten. She had been sent there when she has stayed with Mo when her parents had gone to work abroad on a contract. She vaguely remembered an annoying boy who used to sit behind her and kick the back of her chair a lot.

“Oh God, yes Benny Wilson, it’s no wonder I didn’t recognise you - you spent more time standing outside the classroom didn’t you?”

“Yes, but I prefer Ben now, Benny makes me sound a bit stupid.” Katie simply raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Ok” he conceded “I asked for that. Look I can fix the door, it seems to have warped quite badly but I know a place I can get a replacement, one that will fit in with the character of the house. I might be able to get a reclaimed one to blend in, not look too new. I’ll give you a ring
once I’ve found it and arrange a time to come and fix it - OK?”

“Fine - I’ll write the number down for you.” Katie disappeared to find a pen and paper and Ben pondered the small world that had seen him bump into Katie Collins twice in one day after not seeing her for twenty years, not that he’d tell anyone but he used to have a bit of a crush on her. Still not anymore, it seemed she hadn’t calmed down over the years and if her taste in cars were anything to go by she was probably a bit rich for him.

Katie watched Ben leave after she had passed over her number. He didn’t seem to have achieved much over the years, working for a building company and riding a bike - didn’t he have any ambition? Still he seemed competent enough and even pleasant once he’d stopped ranting, despite a habit of laughing at you a little too much.

Katie returned back into Mo’s flat and decided she may as well issue the invitations for the following Thursday’s get-together. Venturing up the two flights of stairs to the second floor flat reminded her of the times when she was small and had sneaked upstairs to the top of the house to play at being the princess captured by an evil king waiting for Prince Charming to come and rescue her. Katie wasn’t supposed to come upstairs on her own then. That was when her Grandparents were
the housekeeper and handyman for Miss Talbot-Clyde, the owner, and they had lived in the flat at the back of the house, now occupied by Mary and Ken Clackett. Miss Talbot-Clyde had passed away when Katie was eight, and much to everyone’s surprise, Mo and Alfred especially, she had left Tolpuddle House to them. She had no relatives and had valued their friendship and loyalty over the years more than anyone had
realised
. Alfred had converted the house into flats and bed-sits over the years following their inheritance so that they were able to make an income out of it. They had briefly thought about selling it but they were every bit as attached to it as Miss Talbot-Clyde and couldn’t bear the thought of leaving it. Miss Talbot-Clyde probably knew this when she left it to them. So Katie felt a slight knot in the bottom of her stomach as if she were doing something naughty as she headed up the second flight of stairs.