Page 102 of New Dreams for the Village Nurse
Flo nodded. ‘If I’ve got time, I suppose we could go there.’
‘Well, when you’ve got time I’d love that,’ Ottilie said, her smile growing. ‘Is there anything else of a health nature you need to ask me about?’
‘Are you throwing me out? Is that my five minutes up?’
‘Kind of. It’s nothing personal, but, you know, there’s a waiting room full of patients and one of them is Mrs Icke.’
‘Oh, her!’ Flo pulled a face. ‘Let her say a single thing while I’m around – I’d give that old bag what for.’
‘While I appreciate you sticking up for me, maybe not in surgery hours. Have your punch-up in the pub at closing time like civilised people do. Before you go, though, are you going to the harvest festival celebration at the community kitchen at the weekend?’
Flo clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. ‘I expect I’ll have to. I don’t know why they have to do it so early, though. It’s barely into October yet.’
‘I think it’s to do with the community centre diary. Still, we’re close enough. I’m not sure the harvest festival has all that much to do with harvests these days.’
‘Like everything else – the true meaning is lost. Take Christmas?—’
‘Sorry, Flo, but…you know, other patients…Perhaps we can have the Christmas chat another time?’
Flo huffed and looked quite put out to be cut off mid-rant, but Ottilie went to open the office door for her anyway.
Grumpy old Flo was back, but if she was honest, it was kind of the way Ottilie liked it. It meant things were getting back to normal.
When Ottilie arrived at the community kitchen, Stacey and Simon were already there, helping Magnus and Geoff set up.
‘What can I do?’ Ottilie asked Magnus, who looked as stressed as she’d ever seen him.
‘Oh, Ottilie, you’re a godsend! Would you be an absolute darling and do the vegetable displays?’
‘Where do you want them?’
‘On the stage. Create’ – he was vague, waving his hands dismissively – ‘something lovely with them.’
Ottilie couldn’t imagine what ‘something lovely’ meant, and she was even harder pressed to imagine that anything she could do with a few sacks of carrots and onions could be seen as lovely. But she went to investigate the crates, sacks and boxes stacked in the corner of the hall anyway to see what could be done.
Relieved to find that in addition to vegetables there were also bundles of straw and baskets and bits of display stand, she set to work trying to make a respectable display.
She was resisting the silly urge to make a rude shape out of carrots and potatoes when Stacey’s voice was at her shoulder.
‘You know you could make something quite entertaining out of those.’
Ottilie turned with a grin. ‘I was thinking the same thing, but I don’t think Magnus would appreciate it.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that; he’s got a sense of humour, even if sometimes it’s hard to see. Perhaps not some of the other villagers, though.’
Ottilie looked across at Magnus and Geoff, who were working together to put garlands of dried flowers along the coving. ‘They seem better. Have they sorted whatever glitch they were having?’
‘Oh, I think so. You know what old married couples are like.’
‘I never think of them like that, but I suppose that’s what they are.’
‘Been together for almost thirty years, so I’d say that counts.’
‘And how about you and Simon?’
‘What about us?’
‘Things seem good.’
