Page 43 of Kate and Clara's Curious Cornish Craft Shop
‘It is! Do you think it might be one of the beaches here?’
‘Well, mine looks very much like St Felix Bay. Does yours?’
‘Difficult to say … mine’s all sand and shells. I imagine your painting is, as usual, on a much larger scale.’
‘When shall we compare them? Tonight?’
‘Ah, I can’t tonight. I have a parents’ meeting at Molly’s school.’
‘How’s Molly getting on?’ Jack asks. ‘Is Chesney still in the picture?’
It was a little over two weeks since the party, and since Jack and I had last taken a trip back in time to yesteryear St Felix. We’d seen each other a couple of times in passing over that time and had waved or had a few words in the street, but nothing more than that. Now we had the excuse of some new magical pictures I was keen to see him again.
‘Yes, Chesney is still hanging around,’ I reply, sighing. ‘I can’t say I’m too happy about that, but he could be a lot worse, I suppose. He’s polite enough to me on the rare occasions Molly allows me a moment to speak with him.’
‘That’s good,’ Jack says encouragingly, ‘isn’t it?’
‘Yes, but I’m worried about how Molly’s schoolwork might suffer – she seems to spend every spare minute with him.’
‘Ah, young love!’ Jack says. ‘We’ve all been there.’
‘Yes, that’s why I’m worried! Anyway, about these pictures – I should be finished by eight at the latest. Shall I come round then?’
‘That would be great!’ Jack says, sounding pleased. ‘I’ll get the easel prepared!’
The parents’ evening finishes earlier than I expect, with Molly receiving high praise from all her teachers and the promise of amazing GCSE results if she continues to ‘apply herself diligently’ to her studies. It seems the ‘Chesney effect’ hasn’t affected her schoolwork too much after all, not for the time being anyway.
I therefore make my way towards Jack’s shop a little earlier than we’d agreed, and walking along Harbour Street towards the high street I bump into a friend of Anita walking her dog, Rosie.
‘Hi, Lou! Hi Rosie!’ I say as Lou pauses to let Rosie sniff the ground. ‘How are you both?’ Lou would often bring her dog into the shop when she popped in to see Anita. Rosie was a slightly odd-looking dog – a cross between a Basset Hound and a Springer Spaniel. Lou had once explained to me how that had come about – her friend’s Basset Hound, Basil, had got a bit too friendly with her own dog, Suzy, and the result had been a litter of slightly odd-looking but very cute puppies. Lou had kept one of them and my friend Poppy had given a home to another. My dog Barney was as fond of Rosie as Lou was of Anita, and so they both always received a warm welcome when they came in to visit.
‘Oh, hello, Kate,’ Lou says, her gaze turning from Rosie to me. ‘We’re good, thank you. How are you?’
‘Yes, very well.’
‘Barney not with you tonight?’
‘No, I’ve just come from Molly’s parents’ evening.’
‘All good?’
‘Luckily, yes it is, very good. She’s predicted As and A stars in all her subjects.’
‘Bright girl. You must be very proud.’
‘I am, yes.’
I’m about to say goodbye and continue up the road when a thought occurs to me. ‘Lou, you’ve lived in St Felix most of your life, haven’t you?’
‘Yes, for most of it I have.’
‘Do you remember the fifties very well?’
Lou looks surprised. ‘The nineteen fifties? A little, yes. I was quite young back then though. I’m not that old!’
‘Sorry, no, I didn’t think you were, but I was wondering if you happened to remember a young girl called Maggie, and her mother who was called Clara? Maggie was in a wheelchair back then if it helps jog your memory?’
The wrinkles on Lou’s forehead deepen as she attempts to remember. ‘Yes, as it happens I think I might recall them. Didn’t they come to St Felix in the late fifties – maybe around fifty-seven or fifty-eight?’
