Page 26 of A Part of Me and You
‘Have a seat,’ says Shelley, signalling us to some high stools around a shiny black marble topped island in the vast kitchen. I look out of the window as she boils the kettle and wonder if I’m drooling down my chin at the view. A lighthouse sits in the near distance, tall and white with black and red trimmings, and the sea, a mid-blue blanket of tranquillity, looks almost close enough to touch on the other side of the hilltop garden where an apple tree stands alone. A dining room table takes up most of the far side of the kitchen and double doors lead out onto a small balcony with a small table and two chairs. Whoever designed this house at this location … well, they were onto something.
‘So, are you here on holiday?’ asks Shelley, taking me out of my dream-like stance where I was imagining living here for even just one day.
‘Yes, yes we are,’ I say, realizing that we haven’t really spoken much yet. ‘I was too busy admiring your view there, sorry. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a home with such a spectacular view.’
‘Yes,’ says Shelley. ‘We are very lucky indeed. I guess it’s easy to take such things for granted when you look at it every day but I agree, it’s a top location. My husband worked his heart out to raise the money to buy it.’
The kettle clicks off and she suggests tea or coffee.
‘Tea, please for me,’ I reply and look at Rosie who is, like me, drinking in the surroundings so much that she can hardly speak. ‘Rosie?’
‘Oh, sorry, what?’ she asks and I laugh and shake my head.
‘Shelley was asking if you’d like tea or coffee?’
‘Thanks, but I’m okay,’ she says. ‘Is that a real balcony out there?’
Both Shelley and I laugh at her innocence.
‘I don’t think it’s an optical illusion,’ I say. ‘That would be just unfair to tease us like that, wouldn’t it?’
‘It’s very safe and there’s loads of room out there if you’d like to go outside for a look, Rosie? Thank goodness the rain has stopped. Yesterday was like the end of the world!’ says Shelley.
She is slowly beginning to relax. Slowly. For someone who owns such an original and stylish shop, not to mention the funky clothes she wears, I can’t understand why Shelley has such stilted communication skills and such an empty home – it all feels so incongruous.
‘Yes, you must have been soaked through,’ I say to her. ‘It wasn’t exactly the welcome to Killara I was expecting. The last time I was here, the sun was splitting the trees.’
‘Do you have wi-fi?’ Rosie asks and I can’t believe she just asked that.
‘Rosie! Oh, please ignore that, Shelley. Rosie, you don’t need a wi-fi code everywhere you go.’
Rosie doesn’t seem embarrassed, and Shelley just laughs graciously.
‘Of course I have wi-fi,’ she says and she calls out the code to Rosie who taps it into her phone, then makes her way out to the balcony with Merlin by her side while Shelley pours the tea.
‘I’m so sorry about that. Teenagers and their addiction to technology!’ I say to her. ‘It always makes me feel so old to say this, but what happened to the art of conversation? My daughter is always stuck to some sort of device and it drives me insane sometimes.’
‘You’re very lucky to have her,’ says Shelley without turning towards me, and then she brings the cups to the table with a slight smile.
‘Oh, I know I am,’ I say to her, sensing there is a reason why she is reminding me so. I want to ask her if she has any children, but there certainly doesn’t seem any sign of them around. The house is clinical,sheis clinical, yet her warmth to Rosie yesterday tells me that if the surface was rubbed ever so slightly there is a very different person bursting to get out from under her cool exterior.
‘She was very taken by you yesterday,’ I say to Shelley. ‘I honestly don’t know what sort of magic you shared with her but she is a much brighter little girl today.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t say it was magic but just a shared sense of fear,’ says Shelley. ‘I have offered to lend an ear if she ever needs it, I hope you don’t mind. Gosh, I sound like a counsellor and I am really the least likely person to be counselling anyone right now.’
She gulps, like something has caught her breath. I don’t want to probe too much as I can see this woman is walking on eggshells emotionally. I don’t ask what exactly she said to Rosie yesterday for fear it might make her crumble and I’m glad when she changes the subject.
‘So, you’ve been here before then?’ she says. ‘Was it recently?’
I laugh a little as the exact date rolls off my tongue.
‘21st to the 23rd of August, sixteen years ago,’ I tell her.
Well, it’s not like I could ever forget the dates, could I?
‘I was only meant to stay one night but we loved it so much we stayed a second,’ I explain. ‘It was the last stop of a six-week backpacking trip around Ireland which I began alone and finished off with a Scandinavian girl I met called Birgit, and we had a ball here, we really did. Young, carefree and single. It was great fun.’
Shelley sets the tea down in front of me and I glance out onto the balcony to where Rosie and her new best friend Merlin are making acquaintances, taking selfies, of course. Then she’ll be sending them across to her friends back at home, fishing for likes, isn’t that what they call it?
