London Harmony: Flotilla (4 page)

We were belting out some Satin Thunder when we started circling the block at the Tennison, looking for a place to park. Between Paya and Steph, I was having such a great time I forgot my situation, if just for a while.

The street was getting crowded in the early afternoon. On our third lap, she darted the vehicle into a spot vacated by a minivan. The maniacal grin on her face as she did so, was for my benefit... I hoped.

Then we were unloading. I just shook my head and smiled at the woman when she picked up a box labeled, pillows, as I grabbed one that felt as if Stephanie had decided to pack away a rock collection. Paya chuckled at my look and led the way, buzzing us in.

Steph appointed Paya as gatekeeper and jailer to the roos so she could help me unload, she said, “I need to exercise my leg, this is as good an excuse as any.”

Wil had nodded sagely at that and said in a sad tone which just reinforced my intuition, “Daddy hurt mummy.”

Paya just scooped the boy up, upside down to get him giggling instead of talking as Steph paused. She didn't say a word as she moved past me out into the hall. I'm no rocket scientist, but I'm intelligent enough to not perpetuate the topic unless she brought it up. The important thing is that the sodding wanker can't hurt her anymore.

I didn't like her sudden somber mood so I offered up a random topic, and before long she was her bright and cheerful self as we discussed musicians. The poor woman was deluded into thinking that pop was the answer to all musicality, I had to impress upon her that it was just one puzzle piece in the complex landscape which encompasses all rhythm and melody.

I pointed out Eliza Montrose's smooth jazz-rock arrangements, Penny Franklin with her hybrid punk and rock, or even the few of Tabby Cat's songs which were a harder rock and pop hybrid compared to her other purely pop songs. No matter your tastes in music, you can always find something in other genres that will surprise you and sweep you away into the music.

She was chuckling at me before long as she shook her head as she said, “I swear Ange, if I weren't looking right at you, I'd swear this was a debate between Tabitha and Teri.”

I snorted in spite of myself, and blushed because of it, as I debated with this fascinating woman who I couldn't keep my eyes off of. I said, “Hearing you and Paya speak about Tabby Cat like she's just one of the girls is just so surreal to me.”

She shrugged and said, “Once you meet the woman, you'll understand. One minute with her and you'll feel like you grew up next door to the woman. She is so very personable and down to Earth. She's never forgotten where she came from, nor the hardships she faced before June found her and made her a superstar.”

Once I meet her? I sighed internally knowing it would never happen. The way Steph spoke as if I'd be around after I finished the day out almost hurt. I was getting so very attached to her and the little roos. Bloody infatuation.

I walked beside her on the stairs as we went up each time, she took them slowly, it looked as if she had a bit of problem lifting her left leg up, though down didn't seem to be a problem.

Paya caught snippets of our debate and said as the kids rode on her back like she was a pony trotting through the main room of the flat. She chimed in, “Muscles there is right Steph. When you dig down to the core of all music, there is something that moves you. All music achieves the same result if done correctly. It affords you glimpses into the emotion of the ones performing it and allows you to share a kinship, knowing that you are not alone in the world.”

She hopped up, unceremoniously dumping her two little riders onto the couch in a giggling mass. “Here, let me show you.” She pulled out her mobile and cupped her hand over the screen so we couldn't see, scrunching her mouth to one side. She started an a capella classical piece that had me mesmerized.

The woman singing was so pitch-perfect, yet the piece was so filled with emotional depth. It was as if the singer was on the verge of tears and emotional collapse as she stretched for impossible notes. How many octaves did she step through without a waver or slide of the voice? How was the movement she sang even possible?

Even the children had stopped their roughhousing to listen. There was something about the tone of the voice that was so hauntingly familiar, but I just couldn't place it.

Then it was over, and we were silent a moment. Paya gave us a knowing smirk as she added, “Or this.” She played another track, a different woman, this time, singing a metal piece bordering on thrash. She had impeccable technique, though not as precise and perfect as the last woman.

Again, this woman sounded familiar too. Even if you weren't into harder music like that, when performed like this, it would still get your body moving. It was because just like the last song, you could feel the raw emotion infused in the music.

When she did a ripping, thrashing, guitar solo, my eyes sprang wide. I blurted in question, “Dear lord, is that J8?” There was no mistaking the intricate chord progressions in the song. There is only one other woman in the world who could pull off those riffs... June Harris-West's mother, Mandy Fay Harris. June, as J8, played her mother's iconic pink electric guitar like nobody else could hope to master.

Paya stopped the song looking impressed. “Well, poo. Was it the guitar solo?”

I nodded with a grin.

She turned to Steph. “Did you like the music?”

She nodded as she furrowed her brow trying to figure out the point. “Neither were to my tastes, but there was no denying they were beautiful and moving. Can you even say that about metal?”

Paya nodded and said in triumph, “The first one was Tabby singing a classical piece that was written for Teri. Tabs is only the second person in the world to have successfully sung that piece. The second was June, as our stalwart companion here had guessed. Both singing outside of their normal genres, yet their performances were still just as gripping.”

Then she cocked her head in thought as she finished, “You still connected with them, but not because of the songs, but because of the emotion they pulled from the music to share with the world.”

Steph had a silly smirk on her face. “Right then, you two have made your point.” Then she shook her head. “Was that really Tabitha? She's usually trying to push the boundary between pop and punk.”

Paya just seemed to beam with pride like she was the one who had been complimented instead of Tabby Cat. She nodded with that pride paining her exotic features.

We wound up staying and helping unpack. I ended up with Stephanie while Paya helped the kids unpack their belongings into their new flat, turning it into a home. By the time all the boxes were emptied, my crush and I were laughing and trading sarcastic barbs and banter like we were old friends.

It was getting late when Paya wandered into Steph's room with an armload of flattened boxes where we were going through Steph's wadrobe. Holding blouses and dresses up to ourselves in a virtual fashion show.

Paya's eye was quirking as she exhaled and asked in mock disbelief, “You two were playing while the three of us were diligently working?”

She was silenced by the old band t-shirt that Steph threw in her face. “Oh shush you, we heard all the giggling in the other room.”

Paya's grin told all.

Then the caramel skinned woman sighed and looked at me. “Help me gather the boxes? We can use them for the next move.”

I nodded absently and started breaking boxes down like she had, as she said to Stephanie, “We'll get out of your hair. The little ones are getting sleepy, and I'm sure you want to feed them before they retire.”

I deflated a little knowing that this was possibly the last I'd see from the tawny haired woman and her children, and that hurt for some odd reason. It didn't hurt when I left my own family, but I felt that something would be missing inside once I left these three.

She hesitated and gave me a look I couldn't decipher then nodded to Paya. “That would be for the best, Nat has school in the morning.”

I hefted the stack of flattened boxes, and we all stepped out into the main room, the kids were busy coloring on some scrap paper on the coffee table. Stephanie stepped into the room with us, and she clapped her hands lightly together, “Come, children, say goodbye to Paya and Angie.”

They hopped up and ran over to collect hugs from Paya as Natalie chimed out, “Bye, Auntie Paya.”

Wil echoed, “Bye, Anie Paya.”

She crinkled her nose at them. “Bye you little stinkers. Be good for your mum.”

Then the two whirlwinds dove onto me. I shifted the boxes to one arm and gave them one armed hugs. Nat said, “Bye, Auntie Angie.”

Followed by her brother mimicking, “Bye, Anie Anie.”

I smiled down at them. “Bye, little roos.”

Then I was surprised by a hug from Steph as she asked, “Bye lady. See you later?”

I hesitated and then as the heat from the brief hug dissipated, allowing me to speak again, I shrugged and offered, “Maybe.” It was a lie, and we both knew it, but we played it off.

I shifted the boxes back into both hands then oofed as Paya unceremoniously added her stack to mine. She chuckled at my protest as we headed to the door. Steph followed and opened it for us. I glanced back twice as we headed toward the stairs and smiled, she was still watching us go with the door half closed and another indecipherable look on her face before she gave a little wave and shut the door.

I turned back, and Paya was studying me then looking back to the door. She grinned and just started skipping down the stairs, unencumbered by a corrugated burden like I was. I called after her as I hustled in pursuit, “What woman? You're a very wicked lady, you know that?”

She answered with a chuckle as we headed out the lobby corridor to the outer door. She opened it for me, and I placed the boxes in the boot of her vehicle. She glanced at me then up to the third floor where a woman and two little ones were waving down at us. I grinned and waved back.

Paya made a thoughtful sound and I turned to her. Damn, the woman was so observant, I'm sure she guessed my secret. She just looked at me then the vehicle as she shut the tailgate. Then she pulled out her satchel and handed me an envelope.

I peeked inside as she said, “Fifty pounds...” She patted my pocket as she stepped past me toward the driver's side. “And pizza, as promised.”

I stopped a sigh, that was it, the day was over.

She was true to her word and paid me for a fun day of work, and was just going to drive out of my life. I truly was thankful for the woman, she had made me feel like I was still a person and made me forget about my circumstances if just for a little while. And I was thankful she had introduced me to someone who made me remember that I had a heart under all the grime from the streets.

I looked into the envelope, and there were ten crisp fivers. Then she paused as she opened her door and added, “Unless you care to help me unload these boxes back at the Flotilla.”

I looked at her. I really didn't want to be alone, it was just a matter of time before I returned to my alleyway to shiver the night away. I just nodded, and she said, “Grand,” as she slid into the vehicle and leaned over to push open the passenger side door.

It wasn't quite six in the evening, I had something important to do before then. I paused as I looked in at her. “Only if we make a quick stop on the way there. There's something I need to do.”

She nodded, and I slid in and shut the door then buckled up. She made a prompting motion toward the radio as she asked, “Where to?”

I didn't meet her eyes as I scrolled through her endless library of music and I said quietly, “To where you found me.” I cranked the music and just looked out the window. I could see her satisfied grin in my peripheral vision as we pulled away from the curb. Damnable intelligent woman.

The shop owner was upset when we showed up. I quickly offered him a five-pound note and my sincerest apology for pilfering from his shop. He had softened and accepted my recompense, and before I left, he had exhaled loudly and handed me another sarnie. Grumpily he said, “They're two for five.”

The sun was getting low on the horizon when she pulled through a drive through at McDonalds on the way back to the Flotilla. She said, “Helping with the boxes is above and beyond, so was helping Steph unpack. Dinner is my treat.”

I narrowed my eyes at her but then nodded. I guess I could live with that. We wolfed down the burgers by the time we pulled into the reserved spot in the car park at the Flotilla. I hefted the boxes out of the car and followed her back onto the Persephone again.

She led me along the deck to the front of the barge and up a staircase to the bridge. I think they call it a pilot's house or some such nonsense like that. She motioned her head toward a long table that dominated the space, it was like a conference room table. I looked around and realized it looked more like an office than a ship's bridge. This must be the headquarters for the project, Paya's office. I placed the boxes on the table.

She flopped into one of the chairs and exhaled with a grin, relaxing. She tilted her head and asked, “Be here tomorrow at nine? I need Steph's old cabin cleaned, and I have another resident needing help moving out to a flat in Essex. Fifty pounds and Chinese food?”

I blinked. She... wanted me to work for her again? She clenched her car keys and stood and said, “I'll drop you wherever you want. I have to get back home to try to smooth things over with Harry before he ships out in the morning.”

My heart felt heavy for the woman, knowing the rough patch she was navigating in her relationship.

She paused. “Unless you don't mind bunking in the back room there. She nudged her chin to a door on the back wall. There's a cot, a loo and a little kitchenette back there. I sometimes stay here when things are busy.”

I narrowed my eyes again, and she shrugged. “It would make things easier in the morning and save me driving out to pick you up.”

I studied her and couldn't read a bloody thing on her face. I dreaded sleeping out in the cold, and the thought of a warm cot sounded like heaven. I'm sure she knew that and was just dangling more bait in front of me.

She cocked her head at the long pause and said cheerily, “The two proper responses here are, 'yes ma'am' or 'yes Paya.'”

I determined that you could get away with her smug look if you were that cute. I betrayed myself and almost whispered, “Yes Paya.”

She nodded once and gave me a big smile as she headed back out the door. “There's a girl. I'll see you in the morning, Ange. And help yourself to anything in the kitchen, it's a perk to all my employees.”

She shut the door behind her before I could get a word in. Employees? What the bloody hell just happened here? I looked around and felt suddenly exposed and alone. I pulled my hands into the sleeves of my jacket and scurried back through the rear cabin door and blinked. Her “cot” was a little bed in a tiny little studio apartment. The bed looked so warm and inviting.

There was a telly on the far cabinet beside the little kitchenette, I reached over and turned it on and then sat on the bed and sighed. What a hectic and unexpected day this had been. I glanced at the door to the little loo with the shower stall beyond and sighed.

I placed the food from my jacket pocket into the small refrigerator on my way to clean up. I sighed once I was under the hot water in the shower and almost moaned in pleasure at something as simple as that. I had missed hot water so very much.

***

And that was three weeks ago. I don't know how she did it but...

Paya stepped into the cabin of the pilot house from the heavy downpour outside and gave me a grin. She was early, I hadn't even changed out of my nightshirt yet.

She shook off her umbrella, and I had to grin at her bright yellow rain gear. I chuckled. “You look like a duck in that getup Paya.” I set my cup of hot coffee down on the conference table and poured her one from the fresh pot I had just brewed to wake myself up.

I handed it to her after she shed the offending yellow slicker as she said, “Quack, quack.”

She put both hands around the hot mug and sighed, saying, “Bless you.” Then she took a sip and closed her eyes to savor it. After a moment, she looked over at me and said with mirth tinging her voice, “Yer still in your jammies.”

I threw a dusting rag at her as I started for the back room, calling out as I closed the door, “You're an hour early.”

I heard her chuckling through the door as I got ready for the day. I paused when I opened the top drawer of my bureau, staring at my things in it as I contemplated that simple thought. I glanced around as I realized I was thinking of this little space as mine, as my home now.

I glanced at the door, furrowing my eyes. Just how had she tricked me into becoming her assistant, and living here on the Flotilla without me noticing. Though it didn't feel like charity in the least, the woman worked me to exhaustion each day. I'm not sure how she managed it all herself before I came along. It made you appreciate what she was capable of.

I called out, “You really are a tricky bird aren't you?”

The answering chuckle told me she knew exactly what I was talking about. Her response solidified that theory into fact for me, “You're just an easy mark. Now chop chop, we need to go over what needs to be done today.”

I chuckled, we really didn't have set work hours, it seemed we worked whenever and wherever was needed to keep the various programs running. As I dressed I called out, “Why are you in such a good mood this dreary, rainy morning, and why are you here so early?”

I had an inkling, which she confirmed with, “Too excited. Tabby returns from tour today.”

I grinned. Since I got hoodwinked into becoming Paya's Girl Friday, Tabby Cat had been on a three-week European tour. I had yet to meet her and to tell the truth, I was nervous as hell. I mean the woman was a superstar, and here I was crashing in her best friend's office.

After I pulled a new sweater, which I had bought the prior day, over my head and ran my fingers through my hair, I stepped out into the main cabin. I absently touched the sleeve of the sweater. Like clockwork, at the end of each day I worked for her, she would hand me an envelope with fifty quid in it. I was starting to get a savings again and was able to buy clothing that wasn't threadbare.

I stepped back to my coffee and downed the last of the mug and poured another and grinned, “Now then, what's on the agenda today?” I was already reaching for the clipboard hanging on the wall that was full of her loopy writing. The backlog of tasks. It seemed the more we crossed off, the more that was added.

She was about to start when her mobile buzzed. She rolled her eyes playfully and held up a finger as she took the call. I perked up when she said, “Hi Steph, what's up?”

She listened a minute and then said in a calming tone, “Steph, slow own, you're not making much sense.”

I furrowed my brow, was she alright?

Paya nodded at the air then said, “Ok, not a problem lady. I got your back. I'll send my handy dandy helper-type person to wrangle the munchkins. Be there in two shakes. Yes. You too. Bye.”

She rang off and chuckled at my obvious concern, and she took the clipboard from me and wrote something on the top of the list while she teased, “You got it baaaad.”

I threatened as I sipped my coffee, narrowing one eye, “Don't make me hurt you, woman. Spill, is she ok?”

She just grinned and slid the clipboard back to me. I read the new bold writing at the top of the sheet that read 'Mary Poppins'. She said as she started putting her duck gear back on, “We better get a move on, “Stephanie's sitter canceled with the flu. The coffee house is threatening to sack her if she misses another day due to her children.”

Then she asked, “How are your nanny skills? I sort of promised you away.”

I grinned at her. Stephanie needed me, and I would be there. I loved her children and have thought about the three of them almost every day since I met them that first day. I silently thanked her sick sitter, this gave me the opportunity to see the beguiling woman and her children again.

I grabbed an old overcoat I had been using when it rained until I could pick up one of my own. It had been on a hook behind the door. It was stylish so I believed it was one of Paya's but she never says a word when I wear it. I grabbed a brolly from beside the main cabin door and said, “Let's not tarry. To the rescue.”

She popped her brolly open with a wicked grin as she pushed past me into the downpour outside, “My, someone is mighty eager to help out.”

I just knew that she knew my sexual preferences, and she never said word one about it.

I popped open my own brolly and said to her as she headed down the stairs, “I will hurt you.”

This just amused her to no end. What? Am I not threatening? She shot a crinkle nosed smile back at me. Fine whatever, I can't hurt overly cute people. That's like, I don't know, kicking a puppy or something.

Once we made our way down to the dock and out to her vehicle, I slipped into what we had taken to calling the copilot seat. She squinted through the windshield up to the sky. “I wonder who got on the big guy's bad side.” Then she grumbled something about the rain ruining last Thursday Night and probably the next one too.

I snorted, this rain had been going on three days now with no signs of stopping anytime soon. The weather channel was spouting all sorts of low pressure and high-pressure front nonsense about it. We'd have to live like fishes for at least the next three or four days. I smirked and said, “Good thing we're based out of a boat then isn't it?”

I strategically cut short any witty retort she was about to mount, by cranking the radio. She laughed heartily at that and drove as we sang. She kept switching up the styles to familiar hit songs. She always seemed to be experimenting with my singing as she varied the genres all across the board.

We pulled up to the Tennison, and I took a moment to really look at the building, even something as mundane as an apartment block had some style and flair back when it was built. You don't see the kind of attention to detail and adornments the architects had used to incorporate into buildings anymore. Things have gotten too bland and drab in modern architecture, and nobody wanted to pay for the little things that made the older buildings look so pretty.

Just the variation of the brown bricks and stone that made up the facade of the two sides of the building on the corner gave a certain character to the old place. Paya looked out her window then glanced at me with a grin, prepping to pop her brolly. I grabbed mine and squinted one eye in mock pain as we opened our doors, stuck the umbrellas out and popped them open then splashed down into the puddles.

I shivered in the chill autumn air and then trembled for another reason, knowing I would have been out in this, on the streets, being chilled to the bone in this downpour if it hadn't been for my chance meeting with this frustratingly smug and funny woman. I knew there were countless other out ther braving this who were not so lucky.

We ran to the door, and she hip bumped the plate, buzzing us in. We stomped and shook off the water from ourselves and shook off the brollies onto the rubber entry runner before closing them. I looked at the stairs which I had grown to know intimately, and silently hate, from all the trips up them when we moved Staph and the roos into their flat.

I exhaled dramatically. Paya said as she moved out of striking distance, “Wimp.” She took off up the steps, I swear she was giggling as I ran up after her.

We arrived on the third floor and I glanced around, because I had just noticed for the first time when I studied the building at the car, that there was a fourth floor to the building, some sort of attic with grand dormers, but the stairs stopped on the third floor. I saw a door at the end of the hall and nodded to myself, it must lead to the stairway to the attic.

Paya knocked on Stephanie's door, and a moment later the woman opened it. I had to hide a grin, she looked adorable in her barista's uniform, complete with name-badge and green apron. She smiled widely at us and then seemed to blush and look down, nervously tucking a loose strand of her curly hair behind her ear when she saw me.

She said, “I'm terribly sorry to have bothered you Paya, I just... I didn't know who to call. I can't lose my job, you've just got us set, and I didn't want to blow it all.”

Paya was quick to say, “It's no bother...”

She looked back at me and asked, “Is it Muscles?”

I shook my head, my eyes not leaving the frazzled woman. I think I said something like, “Not a bother at all. Happy to help.” I was a little distracted in chastising myself as I realized my crush was still there, as strong as ever as I realized I had truly missed the woman. Yet I had only met her just the once.

She caught me looking at her, and I covered by looking past her to see the children at the little kitchen table eating cereal. My smile grew.

Paya said, “Well then we best be off, I'll give you a ride, no need to be walking in this soggy weather. Ange will sort out the rugrats.”