Page 78 of Waiting for a Bright New Future

Today he chatted with Jennifer and some of the others and at the café stop, they wrapped their hands around warm mugs of hot chocolate and nibbled on hunks of bread pudding. Jennifer was one of the better ride leaders, always finding a new lane to explore or a different way of avoiding the busier roads. She seemed to be aware if someone was struggling and slowed the pace accordingly. With only a couple of weeks until his turn to lead, Stuart was apprehensive.

“Just be you,” Jennifer said when he asked her for advice as they waited for the stragglers to leave the café. “You always make newcomers welcome and encourage anyone who’s tired. You’re a natural.”

It was difficult to take confidence from mere words. It would be a relief when that first ride was under his belt with no mishaps. After the coffee break in the warmth, it was hard to get limbs moving again and there was a lot of foot-stamping and exaggerated shivering as they prepared to set off on the homeward route.

Stuart had a shopping trip planned for when he got back, one that couldn’t be put off any longer. The build-up to Christmas was usually a non-event. He’d buy bed socks and pyjamas for his father and choose himself a couple of books, which Eric would inscribe with the year and wrap with precision. Last year, Stuart had had to cut the paper and sticky tape to assist with the operation of wrapping his own presents. But this year contained the excitement of youngsters plus the difficult job of buying for three women. After the failure of the bike idea, he’d decided thinking outside the box was too risky and he picked a department-store perfume counter at random for Florence and Jayne, and asked advice from an immaculate woman in a white overall.

“What are the ages of the ladies? And do you know what type of perfume they favour? Spicy, floral, light or heavy?”

He hadn’t realised buying scent was so complicated. “They’re both mid-fifties and I don’t know what they like.”

“Hmmm.” The woman frowned at Stuart as though he’d failed an important test. “This is our bestseller.” She sprayed perfume on what looked like an ice-lolly stick and handed it to Stuart to smell.

It smelled like perfume. He tried to imagine the smell on Florence and Jayne. He couldn’t see how it could be construed as ‘wrong’.

“That one is on special offer at the moment. If you buy the largest size of perfume, you’ll get the matching body lotion free.”

Stuart digested the information. His carer’s wage plus Florence’s rent (he hadn’t taken the extra money she’d offered for the children’s presence) didn’t leave much money to splash around and this way they’d each get two parcels to unwrap.

“I’ll have two, please.” The saleswoman smiled, revealing very white teeth, unfortunately marked with a splodge of lipstick.

Stuart pushed his debit card into the mouth of the machine and tried to ignore the exorbitant amount it was demanding for bottles of nice-smelling water. For Lillian, he followed Jayne’s instructions and bought a specific pale blue nightdress from Marks and Spencer. He felt conspicuous — it was his first time in a lingerie department — but he also felt proud to be moving into the real world.

Florence had been pleased when he’d told her he wanted to buy something for the children. She’d shown him two lists created with laborious handwriting and containing spelling mistakes. The present of a dictionary had crossed his mind, but he’d realised that wouldn’t go down well. Just as it hadn’t gone down well with him when the gaily wrapped present had been handed to him at age seven by his father.

“Choose something that fits how much you want to spend,” Florence had instructed.

How long is a piece of string? How much did Florence think he should spend? He didn’t want to appear mean but there was no money tree in the back garden. On principal, he avoided anything electronic or screen-based, choosing aBarbie Doggy Daycare set and an Action Manhelicopter, on the basis that he and Sandra would probably have liked those as youngsters.

Stuart managed to keep his mouth shut when he saw the children’s advent calendars contained cheap chocolates rather than Christmas images.But the Elf on the Shelf thingtested him to the brink. Florence explained that the elf kept an eye on the children and reported any wrongdoing back to Father Christmas. Each day, Florence made the elf pop up in a different part of the house to carry out his spying duties. Shayne and Eunice kept reminding Stuart about the red-suited toy’s eagle eyes and Stuart hated the feeling of being watched.

* * *

On Christmas Eve, the children were hyper with excitement. Stuart loved that this was happening under his roof. Unusually, Florence was harassed.

“I’ve got mince pies and a trifle to make and I can’t do it with these two under my feet.” She looked at Stuart. “You were a teacher, you know about children. Can’t you occupy them for a couple of hours? Teach them something useful?”

Stuart shook his head and started to back away, his hands raised defensively. “No, sorry. Teenagers were my thing. And I wouldn’t have tried to teach them geography on Christmas Eve. Definitely not.”

“Please?” Florence flicked a strand of hair from her eye and left a blob of flour on her nose. “Or read them a story?”

“What’s geography? What’s geography? What’s geography?” Shayne was pogoing in front of Stuart.

Eunice dipped her finger in the jar of mincemeat, licked it and then dug further into the jar.

“Please?” Florence removed the jar.

“Geography! Geography! Geography!” The children turned the word into a football chant.

“OK.” This wasn’t going to work.

“Thank you. Thank you. Now shoo! Out of the kitchen!”

Stuart cranked up the rusty part of his brain labelled geography topics. Water cycle, deserts, rainforests, volcanos and earthquakes. With no textbooks or teaching resources, it was an impossible challenge. The children bounced on the settee still chanting. “Geography! Geography!”

Eric’s old globe was on the sideboard. Stuart picked it up. “Geography is about the whole world.” He spoke slowly, trying to gain time for an idea to percolate in his mind. “Who is travelling across the whole world tonight?”

The children frowned at him. Stuart was back in front of a class of thirteen-year-olds asking the easiest of questions but getting nothing back.

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