Page 105 of The Day After Christmas
On this particular morning, Felicity arrived at work to find Andrea just standing in the entranceway, looking dazed. The dogs were barking their heads off but she hadn’t seemed to even notice.
‘Are you okay?’ she said over the din, putting a hand on Andrea’s arm so as not to frighten the life out of her.
‘What? Oh. Yes. Fine.’
‘I think the dogs want their breakfast.’
‘Yes. I suppose they do.’ Andrea gave no sign of moving so Felicity left her where she was, dumped her stuff in the breakroom and started on the feed rounds. An hour later when it was all finished and the world was peaceful once more, she found Andrea in her office, still with that same vacant expression on her face.
Felicity sat down in the chair opposite her and studied her boss for a few moments.
‘Andrea? Are you sure everything’s okay?’
Andrea’s ice-blue eyes finally focused on her. ‘What? Oh. Yes. Fine.’
‘You said that before.’
‘Did I?’
This was very peculiar behaviour for anyone but especially for Andrea.
‘Is there something you need to talk about?’
To Felicity’s great surprise, Andrea’s pale eyes filled with tears. ‘I’m just going to miss this place so much,’ she said, with a sob.
Felicity had never ever seen Andrea cry before and had no clue how to respond. She looked around the room for inspiration and felt tears spring to her own eyes. This place held a lot of memories. Not least, it was in this office that she and James had shared that first ever Christmas lunch together, even if it was rather accidental and most of it got bought at the garage round the corner. Yes, it was the place she’d first found James, but more than that, it was the place where she’d started to find herself after so many years of being lost.
Tears were rolling down both their cheeks now but they were smiling at each other across the room.
‘It’s a special, special place,’ said Felicity eventually.
Andrea let out a giant sob and wiped her nose on her sleeve. ‘I just can’t stop thinking about all the animals that have been through here over the years. All those little faces. All the little puppies and kittens. We even had a llama dumped at the front door once, that was quite the day.’
‘A llama?’ said Felicity, smiling through her tears. ‘You’ve never told me that story.’
‘Haven’t I?’ said Andrea. ‘It was quite early on. Poor thing got tied to the railing outside the front door overnight. It was here when I got to work, freezing cold and wet and skinny as hell, but he had the most gorgeous big brown eyes. We called him Inca.’
‘What happened to him?’
Andrea shrugged. ‘Saskia thought I was taking the piss when I called her to tell her I had a llama for her. Thought it was an April fool or something. But she came. They brought a horsebox and took him away. Not sure what happened to him, I’ll have to ask her. Wow, I’m going to miss Saskia too.’
‘Perhaps we need to throw you a going away party?’
Andrea rolled her eyes. ‘You know I hate parties. All those… people. Ugh. It was bad enough on the open day.’
‘I know you do but other people love parties. Apparently.’
Andrea laughed then. ‘You hate parties too, if you recall.’
‘I do. But I’d do it for you.’
‘That’s sweet but honestly, I don’t want any of that nonsense. Let me just close it down quietly and be on my way.’
‘So, you don’t regret it?’
Andrea wiped her eyes with a tissue and tossed her salt-and-pepper plait over her shoulder. ‘Moi? Je ne regrette rien.’
‘You know they speak English on Guernsey, right?’
