“You weren’t here,” I point out – but gently because he’s right. We should have consulted him.
“These are vulnerable people and…” He moves the water jug aside and puts the papers on the table. “Schaefer gave me permission to discuss his case with you.”
“He’s just a garden assistant. I don’t need to know his private business—”
“In this case, yes you do.” Osian meets my gaze. He has a small frown between his brows. “Schaefer has suffered from clinical depression. On and off. He’s on medication which keeps him on a more even keel, but he wanted me to tell you that he can sometimes have bad days. Sometimes very bad days.”
“I never noticed. I mean, he’s a bit taciturn at times.”
“The thing about gardening is that you don’t need to chatter, so when you feel like life isn’t worth living, it doesn’t show.”
He’s talking about Schaefer but I can’t help wondering how much of this might have been personal experience once upon a time.
“It wouldn’t matter if he was only going to work on the flowerbeds, but if you need him to interact with the public, which”—he sends me a questioning look—“sometimes you do…?” He leaves a space for me to fill in.
“I can keep his duties away from that but if he’s in the garden, visitors will ask questions. Is this a problem?”
“It might be,” he concedes.
Do I have to withdraw the offer?Hell, hell, bloody hell.The idea makes me feel terrible because Schaefer was very happy when he got the job.
“I’m so sorry, Osian. You’re right. I shouldn’t have agreed to employ him without asking you.”
“Hey,” he says gently. “It’s not an insurmountable problem if you can put in a few adjustments. People with depression understand their condition and they know when a bad day hits. I’d suggest agreeing with him that if he’s having one of those, he tells you at the start of the day so you give him work in a different part of the garden. Maybe one of the sections that aren’t open yet.”
You have to admire Osian – he really cares. I listen as he takes me through a list of recommended best practice for working with depression. He then takes me through what Amani and Ashe might need. They are not depressed in the same way, but they still need support.
“I have a new group starting tomorrow. But I’ll be around if you need me or want me to take him back to work with me. This new group will be here until the middle of June.”
Hope Gardens will open to the public in the last week of May, so it’s not an ideal place for a new group of vulnerable people.
“Don’t worry,” he says lightly. “I’ll have them working in the orchard. Time we planted some real carrots and cabbages, don’t you think?”
“I’ll miss us working together,” I can’t help saying.
His face stills for a second. Then he exhales, long and intense before his eyes drop to his hand, the one curled around his water glass. He studies the almost-melted ice cubes that skim back and forth on the surface.
He’s silent so long that when he does speak, his voice startles me.
“I’m sorry about last week. My sister asked if I’d babysit.” He wrinkles his nose. “Not babies. Two, four and five.”
“Childsit,” I suggest. As if word choice really matters.
“My God, Evie.” His voice is so low it could be lying on the floor. “I never thought about children before. I’ve always been a nice-enough uncle. I mean, I remember birthdays and Christmases and so on. I’m good for an evening of babysitting or a trip to the beach. But a week; seven days and nights?”
“Why was it so long?”
His mouth twists in a grimace. “My sister and her husband were… erm…” He gives me a meaningful eyeroll.
“Arguing?”
“That’s one way of putting it. They went to some hotel in Edinburgh away from everything and everyone to… reconnect. To focus on each other.” The way he says ‘reconnect’ and ‘focus’ tells me these are not his words but theirs.
“And? Did they work things out?”
A hollow bark of a laugh. “Oh, yes. They workedeverythingout.” His sarcasm has curdled and turned sour.
“My brother-in-law is moving away to Germany with Isabella, their twenty-year-old au pair. He will help her pursue a singing career. My sister, on the other hand, is getting together with her ex, Dan.”
