Page 17 of Meet Me In Central Park

‘Because everyone deserves a souvenir from New York, don’t they?’ She was a funny one to try and work out sometimes, my great aunt. And I was never quite sure how she was going to react, but I hadn’t expected her to wrinkle her nose at the idea that I might want to buy something from Candy Cane Lane

‘You can have whatever you want in this shop, Lib, without having to pay for it.’ Aunt Dottie walked across to stand opposite me and fixed me with a determined look. ‘But you don’t need a souvenir, because I don’t want you to go.’

‘That’s lovely of you to say.’ With endearments from my great aunt as sparing as they were, her comment was like warm water washing over me. I knew she meant it – she never said anything she didn’t mean – but she must have known it was never going to be possible for me to stay. ‘I don’t want to go either. I love it here. But I need to be with Nan and Granddad; they’re all I’ve got left of Mum and Dad, and I have to be wherever they are. So I’ll be flying back on Christmas Eve, even though being here has felt more like home than I ever thought it could.’ The words tripped off my tongue easily, so I had no idea why my throat felt red raw.

‘What if I said that this shop was all going to be yours? I want you to have it.’ There were tears in her eyes and suddenly panic was gripping my throat too. She must have had bad news, there was no other explanation for it and the idea I might lose her was terrifying.

‘Are you okay? Have you been back to the hospital?’ My question came out in a rush, but Dottie was already shaking her head.

‘I had my check-up, and I’m fighting fit. But having the break from working, after my hip operation, has made me realise I don’t want to do this any more. I don’t want to work this hard. I never had children of my own, and Ruby’s family was the closest I ever had to that. You’d need to give me a wage as a silent partner, until I’m gone, but it would be all yours after that.’

‘Oh, Aunt Dottie, no. Don’t even talk like that. Candy Cane Lane is you through and through. We get so many people asking after you. There was a guy from Luxembourg just this morning, who said he comes in to buy his wife a new decoration whenever he’s over here on business and that you always help him to pick out something she’ll love. He was gutted when he realised you weren’t working. You can’t give up the shop.’

‘I can do whatever I bloody well like. I always have and I always will.’ It was funny, she lost her New York twang completely when she swore. ‘When I moved in here, people said I couldn’t name the shop Candy Cane Lane, that I had to make it stand out more by calling it Kandy Kane Lane with a “K”. I mean, can you think of anything more ridiculous? I refused to eat Krispy Kremes for years because of the stupid spelling. But then I ate one at Betty’s house, without knowing it was a Krispy Kreme, and now I can’t bloody stop. Every server in their store on Sixth knows me by name.’

I laughed, and I could only imagine her outrage at being duped into side-lining her principles over the spelling of a doughnut. ‘You do make me laugh, Dottie, but I’m not sure what any of that has to do with the idea of me staying in New York to take over the store.’

‘They told me I couldn’t name the shop Candy Cane Lane, because it wasn’t memorable enough, but I did, and it worked. I just knew it my bones. It’s the same when I see you in here; I know it’s right for you, and I know it’s right for the shop.’

‘It’s such an amazing offer but I just—’

She cut me off before I could finish. ‘Don’t give me your answer yet. Wait until the New Year, wait until you’ve been back in that empty pub for a bit, if you like.’

Just the thought of being back in the pub hurt my heart a little bit. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a fondness for the regulars, but there was a sadness behind the reason why most of them hung out there so often. They had nothing much to go home to. I’d joked with Nan before my parents’ accident, and before I’d ever worked there, that the micro-pub should get a grant for community service. It provided a warm and friendly place for a lot of lonely people, and sometimes I suspected it might be their only conversation of the day. There were four Johns who were regulars, so they had nicknames to differentiate them from one another, but most of the others seemed to have nicknames too. It was something else that gave them a sense of belonging. Everyone from Tarmac Trev, who used to work on the roads, to Bookshelf Steve, who’d run the local library for the last twenty years of his working life. It explained why they’d talk about everything over a pint of real ale, whether it was the mundane, like Railway John’s vendetta with the council over a lost wheely bin lid, or the heart-wrenching, like Posh Jan’s devastation when her beloved cat Lady Grey had died of cancer.

Working in the shop was so different. Everyone who came in seemed to have a joyful reason for doing so. Whether it was buying a souvenir to remember their trip of a lifetime, choosing a gift for a loved one, or just finding an ornament to add to their collection to help celebrate the upcoming holiday season. I was sure that being surrounded by that sort of joy every day was part of what had helped me shake off the cloak of melancholy I’d worn since my parents’ accident. I wanted to remember the past now, but I wanted to embrace the future too and it felt like it would be much harder to do that if I went back to working in my grandparents’ pub. Except going home wasn’t about the pub, it was about being with Nan and Granddad, and that was something I couldn’t imagine ever giving up the chance to do.

‘I can’t see it changing my answer, but I’ll give it to the New Year to think it over, if that’s what you want me to do.’

‘Great. Just don’t rule it out before you’ve properly considered it, okay?’

‘Okay.’ Aunt Dottie pulled me into her arms, and I got a mouthful of purple fur from the trim on the hood of her coat. Despite that, it was a moment I’d never forget, for all the right reasons. I might not be able to accept her offer, but it meant a lot, and it was just another reason why it would be so hard to say goodbye to New York when the time came.

* * *

I could feel the atmosphere in the Community Center as soon as I walked in. It had always been a place that felt incredibly welcoming but now there was a coldness, as if bad news had seeped into the building itself, and, as soon as I saw the others, I knew there was something seriously wrong. Even the pugs looked depressed. They weren’t hunting around for treats, and they barely even looked up from their spot on the sofa when I walked in.

‘What’s wrong?’ One glance at Karly’s face said it was bad. She looked as if she might have been crying.

‘They’re threatening to demolish the building, unless we can raise half a million dollars to make it safe.’ Karly sniffed as Abbie, who’d been putting up a poster on the noticeboard, put a comforting arm around her friend.

‘You’re joking.’ Even as I said the words, I wished I could take them back. This was no laughing matter and when Abbie looked up at me, there were tears in her eyes too.

‘I wish we were. I still can’t believe they’re going to demolish the building, but a prime building lot in Manhattan is clearly worth a lot more to them than everything this place does for the people who use it. I don’t think they realise it’s been a life safer for some of us. Or maybe they do, and they just don’t care.’

‘Who’s threatening to demolish the building?’ Whoever it was, they couldn’t do it. Abbie was right, it was a hub of the community. Not just for the art classes, or as a venue for her weird theatre performances, either. There was a food bank, and a crèche for low-income workers, as well as a seniors' club that Aunt Dottie and Betty both belonged to. Manhattan might be one of the wealthiest places in the world, but, outside of Midtown, it still had its fair share of issues, and the Community Center helped bridge the gap. In a weird way, it did for some of the residents of this part of New York what my grandparents’ micro-pub did for its regulars. It was somewhere they felt welcome, like they belonged, and a place where they’d always find someone to chat to, no matter how lonely the rest of their day might have been.

‘The Department of Buildings. They said if we can’t raise the money, it’s not safe for us to stay open.’ Abbie shook her head. ‘I’ve already arranged to stage a play to raise money, and put posters up, but it would be a small miracle if we raised a thousand dollars, never mind half a million.’

‘What exactly are they saying is wrong?’ I had no expertise to offer, but maybe one of the others would know someone who did. If we could do some of the basics ourselves, we might even be able to save a bit of money.

‘It doesn’t meet the fire code, and some of the electrics need replacing, but the main issue is the wall from the building that used to be next door.’ Karly still looked as if she was in shock. ‘It’s attached to our building on one side, but other than that it’s freestanding, and the guy who came to inspect it said it could fall down at any minute.’

‘Shame it didn’t fall down on his goddamn head.’ Paula came up behind me and I was taken aback by the ferocity of her words. She was usually the most level-headed person in the group.

‘It wouldn’t have solved the problem, sweetheart, it would just have postponed it.’ Deshawn took hold of Paula’s hand, and it was obvious their relationship was moving a lot faster than mine and Harry’s. They already looked every inch a proper couple and she leant her head against him for a moment, clearly taking comfort in his support, but this must have been devastating for her too. Even though I wouldn’t be around to see the result, I really wanted to help.

‘Is there anything we can do? Can’t we appeal or something, or apply for a grant to help pay for the work?’ There had to be something we could do. If I felt as gutted as I did, when I’d be leaving in four weeks, I couldn’t even imagine how everyone else was feeling. And maybe there was part of me that wanted to make sure they’d never be able to forget me either. If I could help them hold on to the Community Center, there was a chance they’d remember me as fondly as I knew I was going to remember all of them. I’d spent so much of my energy trying to stop myself from falling in love with Harry, I’d forgotten to stop myself from developing such strong feelings for everyone else. I was even going to miss trying to get dog hair and trails of slobber off my jeans, when one of the pugs decided to show me some affection in the hope of earning a treat. I didn’t want to leave any of them behind, but I had no choice. One thing I could do was help them fight to save the Community Center, even if that just meant supporting them with online stuff once I was back home in Canterbury.

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