Page 112 of Kiss Me at Christmas
Twenty-nine
Anyone even remotely involved withthe Winter Theater had been invited, via the now gigantic WhatsApp group, to meet on Monday morning at nine a.m. to help with the cleanup.
When Harriet arrived, there were already dozens of mop-wielding volunteers in Wellington boots waiting in the foyer. A line of yellow tape strung between the two wooden newel posts at the bottom of the main staircase had a paper sign hanging from it that readDO NOT CROSS THIS LINE UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN KEN!
“Harriet!” Hesther waved her over.
“Good morning! It’s great to see so many people here already.”
As she said this the famous five and Sid arrived, suited and booted for the occasion since school had now officially broken up for the holidays. Grace came in behind them, carrying a bucket filled with bottles of disinfectant, rubber gloves, and dishcloths.
“I heard about James having to rush off,” said Hesther.
Bad news travels fast!
“Yes. Well, there are plenty of us here, I’m sure we can make up for his absence.”
“Not really what I meant. Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? It isn’t like we were a thing.” She tried to brush it off.
“Weren’t you?” Hesther’s expression was skeptical.
Hesther was someone who paid close attention. Despite all Harriet’s sensible self-pep-talks, her disappointment with James dragged like one of Jacob Marley’s chains clanking along behind her.
“I thought we were becoming something. But I guess I was wrong. I don’t know.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“He called, but I let it go to voice mail.”
“Mature.”
Harriet cracked a smile, but her gaze wandered idly toward her students. As she watched, they separated like cells dividing and drifted toward other people. Billy joined Josef and Ahmed in conversation, while Leo and Farahnoush had their noses thrust into a sketchbook. Carly chatted animatedly with Winston, while Isabel sat on one of the sofas helping Paksima with some of the English words in her book, and Ricco appeared to be being taught how to jive dance by Destiny. Three weeks ago, these kids clung to each other like a life raft, willfully shunning anyone who floated too near and regarding anyone who offered rescue with mistrust.
“It warms the heart, doesn’t it?” Hesther said, following her gaze. “So many souls finding a safe harbor here in this theater.”
“It does,” she agreed.This is a good thing, even without James.She looked up at the beautifully reconstructed stuccoed ceiling and the gleam of dark wood that paneled the walls. And then at the sea of people in the grand foyer, people who never would have come together in this way anywhere else. This building had done something to her, a bewitchment of sorts; she suspected it charmed everyone who entered. It beckoned you in and whispered its secrets and made you love it. She wishedEvaline could let go of her animosity long enough to feel the magic singing in the walls.
Ken trudged down the staircase and stopped just shy of the yellow tape.
“Right, you ’orrible lot,” he began. “We’ve made the ceiling safe, but it took us all bloomin’ weekend to do and we haven’t had time to clean the place up yet, as you’ve clearly been informed.” He cast his eye around the mops and buckets ready for action. “But I am told we’ve got plenty of willing bodies to help us with the task.”
Rather surprisingly a cheer went up, possibly started by Mallory.
“Put us to work, old man!” shouted Carly.
Ken beamed. “Cheeky mare! Your wish is my command. Everybody—and I mean everybody—needs to wear a hard hat.” He pointed to two large waste bags at the top of the stairs, bulging with yellow helmets.
“Why do we have to wear hard hats if it’s safe?” asked Grace, pulling Sid protectively into her side.
“It’s purely precautionary while we make sure that nothing else is likely to spring a leak or drop out of the sky. But you have my assurances that we don’t anticipate anything of the like. You don’t wear a seat belt because you expect to crash every time you get in a car, do you?”
In response, Grace gave a satisfied nod and ruffled Sid’s hair. Sid gave a Cheshire cat grin, and Harriet spotted Billy watching him out the side of his eye, the smallest twitch of a smile on his lips.
“That’s going to ruin my hair,” said Odette, her hand raised in the air, and everybody laughed.
“No hard hat, no entry, I’m afraid,” Ken chuckled. “We’ll all have helmet hair together. I’ve lived with it for forty years; it’s done nowt to dampen my sex appeal.”
