‘I’ll think about it.’
‘I can’t ask for fairer than that. Will you be okay back at the hostel?’
She shrugged. ‘Depends whether Griff’s had her fun with me or is waiting for round two.’
As she disappeared down the street and round the corner, clearly trying not to limp, I wrapped my arms around myself and shuddered. For some reason, I felt fiercely protective towards Zoe, but I could only help her if she wanted me to. A meal had been a start. Hopefully she’d return soon with her leggings to be repaired and I could give her another nudge into accepting a job with me. For someone who dreamed of working in a bookshop, the obvious thing would be to ask Marcus and Lily, the owners of Bay Books, to take her on but I knew they were fully staffed. If I could give Zoe some experience, then she should be in a good position for a future vacancy. Dreams weren’t achieved overnight. They took tens, hundreds, thousands of small steps and I hoped Zoe would let me help her take her first ones.
21
JED
Inspired by Anastasia’s painting of the bluebell woods outside Little Sandby, Tara and I took Doris for a walk there on Sunday morning before lunch with my parents. Bluebell season was a couple of months away but there were clumps of snowdrops, patches of yellow, purple and white crocuses and the early shoots of daffodils.
‘It’s beautiful here,’ Tara said as we meandered along the well-worn track between the trees, sunlight filtering through the branches. ‘I can’t believe I’ve never been here although, to be fair, I’m realising how little of the area I’ve visited.’
‘Then we’ll make it our mission to explore. We can aim for somewhere new a couple of times a month. I bet there are loads of places I’ve never visited either, or haven’t been to since I was a kid.’
The path rose then dipped down towards a lake. There was a wooden bench beneath a giant oak tree so we sat on that while Doris sniffed through the undergrowth.
‘The area between the bench and the lake becomes a carpet of bluebells,’ I told Tara as a childhood memory surfaced.
‘We’ll have to come back to see that. Will you draw it?’
‘Definitely. I’m imagining a collection capturing the different seasons. There might need to be a couple of spring versions – daffodils in one and bluebells in another – instead of summer. There’ll be lots of different greens in the summer but maybe not much else.’
‘Autumn’ll be gorgeous,’ Tara said.
‘Yeah. I love using autumnal colours. They’re so rich. And I can imagine a snow-covered scene with a frozen lake and an owl perched on a branch.’
I loved it when inspiration hit like this. I was currently working on a collection featuring Whitsborough Bay Castle and I was really enjoying it, but I’d pause it briefly to do rough sketches of the woods, capturing my thoughts while they were fresh in my mind.
‘How was the careers evening?’ Tara asked when we set off again, deeper into the woods.
I’d joined Lucy at the TEC on Thursday night where there’d been stalls representing a range of options for after college – going to university, applying for an apprenticeship or working for a local employer.
‘Lucy spoke to several universities but she’s not convinced about that route. She says all she wants to do is paint and she doesn’t see how she can learn anything from university tutors that she isn’t already learning at the TEC, from the artists she follows on YouTube, and from me. I thought she’d love the university experience – a chance to live away from home and get some independence – but she said she’s already spent too long living away from me and is in no rush to leave.’
‘Aw, that’s so sweet, but not what I expected from her either. She’s so outgoing that I assumed she’d be chomping at the bit toget to university.’
‘Exactly! But it got me thinking and I realised she’s more of a homebody than Erin. Erin wants to travel the world, see the wonders, learn about different cultures whereas Lucy’s travel bucket list is Florida’s Disney World and New York at Christmas. My girls are so different. Anyway, Lucy asked me if I’d let her do an apprenticeship with me. I don’t know what being an official apprenticeship provider would involve or if it’s possible for such a small business but, if she wants to work part time in the gallery and spend the rest of her time painting, I’m happy to support that. She’s got plenty of time to decide, though.’
We discussed whether I could ever see either of the girls returning to Australia. I could see Erin going back as part of her travels, exploring the territories we’d never visited, but I couldn’t see Lucy returning at all. Neither of them had friends there to draw them back. Lucy had had a huge circle of friends at secondary school but no best friend as such and she’d felt increasingly as though she was heading in a different direction to them as school came to an end, although I couldn’t help wonder if that had been a deliberate detaching on her part, knowing that she was emigrating. Erin had progressed through senior school with a small circle of friends and one best friend who’d left Aus at the same time as her to move to New Zealand with her family.
Of course, Ingrid would be returning to Sydney in April and she should have been a pull for them but their relationship was so broken that the girls weren’t going to miss her and certainly wouldn’t be rushing to visit. It saddened me deeply but I wasn’t sure what more I could do. I was exhausted from playing the mediator when Ingrid seemed unwilling to change.
‘I’ve missed having you around these past few days,’ Tara said as we reached the edge of the woods and turned back. ‘I’d got used to seeing you at least every other evening so it’s been weird having so long apart.’
‘Same here. Just typical that everything came together.’
We’d had plans to see each other on Friday night but I’d received a concerned call from Zack. A bad case of the flu had been making its way round the halls of residence and, after contracting it for the first time ever, Erin had been really tearful and asking for me. Lucy had no classes on a Friday afternoon so she’d joined Anastasia while I drove up to Newcastle with some supplies, returning late last night at Erin’s insistence. She was through the worst of it and a bit embarrassed that she’d asked Zack to call me. I actually thought it was sweet that she still wanted me when she was poorly.
With being at the careers event on Thursday, I hadn’t had a chance to tell Tara about Aaron’s second art lesson with me and I hadn’t heard the full story about the incident with Zoe so Tara filled me in on that.
‘I was hoping she’d drop her leggings off for repair yesterday but she never came.’ Tara’s concern for Zoe was evident in her weary tone. ‘I’m hoping it means she was keeping off her bad ankle although, if that’s the case, it means she is properly hurt and I don’t want that either. I gave Jim a quick call and sounded him out about this Griff woman. He knew who I meant. Said he’d spotted some bad behaviour at The Hope Centre which he’d nipped in the bud.’
‘Could Jim have a word with staff at the hostel?’
‘I asked him that. They do work closely together but he says it’s a delicate balance and Zoe’s right that complaints can make things worse instead of better. He’s going to keep a close eye on her at the centre and, if he has to have words with her again, he’ll tell her he’s going to inform the hostel so at least she’ll know it’s coming from him. Nothing much else we can do in the meantime.’
