‘We’re doing aGreasesingalong later, if you’d like to stay on.’ Jen is striding along the wide entrance hall where the cream wool carpet is so deep it almost buries my pink suede Converse trainers, while the walls are painted a turquoise blue that’s bright enough to make me feel normal again.
Nell nudges me, and points to one of the pictures. ‘Plum painted all these, they’re here on loan.’
‘They’re amazing.’ The canvases I’m looking at are six feet high and make me feel like I’m standing right in the middle of a breaking wave. They also explain why there was so much paint on Plum’s dungarees the other day.
Jen looks over her shoulder. ‘We call this corridor Ocean Boulevard.’ Then she pushes through a wide door and we’re in a glass room looking straight out over the bay. ‘And this is Sea View Lounge, which is exactly what it says on the tin.’
I turn to Nell as I gaze through a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows to the ocean beyond. ‘It’s duck-egg blue today. Clemmie told me to look out for the way the colour changes with the sky.’
Jen turns to the residents, who look up from stylish checked armchairs. ‘Diesel and Nell are here, and they’ve brought Cressida Cupcake with them.’
Suddenly every face in the room turns to me. When they all start to clap I fight the impulse to dive behind the nearest recliner and instead manage a wave and a mumble. ‘My real name’s Cressy.’ I hand Jen the boxes I’m carrying. ‘There’s some baking too.’
Jen’s face breaks into a beam again. ‘Thank you. We’ll have that with tea.’
There’s a cough from the open double doors. ‘Any pasties in there?’
Jen wags her finger at a man pushing his way in from the patio outside, wearing what looks like Plum’s boiler suit minus the paint, and a tweed cap. ‘Any more cheek from you, Walter, you won’t be getting any.’ Jen turns to the others. ‘Okay, who’d like to see Diesel first?’
There are more enthusiastic cries from round the room and before I have the chance to check if this Walter is any relation to the one from the other day, Nell’s already chatting to their first customer while Diesel stands patiently having his head patted.
I perch on a footstool, and watch as Nell takes him from one chair to the next. As Jen comes to stand nearby I can’t contain my smile. ‘Isn’t it amazing the way everyone lights up when they talk to Diesel? He’s never this good with me.’
Jen smiles. ‘Is it too much to hope you’ll pop in with him on your own sometimes while you’re here?’
I give a cough. ‘Unless you want mayhem, I’ll save you the trouble.’
Jen laughs. ‘We can handle mischief. You may have noticed, Walter’s our biggest tease here.’
I’m opening my mouth with the same question I was going to ask Nell but Jen gets in first. ‘There was another favour I was going to ask – could you possibly do a little activity with us one day?’
I wasn’t ready for this, but the sea air seems to be great for thinking on my feet. ‘I could do manicures. I’ve got some very pretty nail-art sequins.’
Jen’s clicking her tongue in disapproval. ‘We can’t waste Cressida Cupcake on nails! How about something more kitchen-based? Maybe later this week?’
There’s no time to say I’ll think about it. ‘I could bring in some buns to ice?’ It sounds a lot easier than keeping Diesel under control.
Jen gives a cough. ‘I think they were hoping to see you in action, perhaps with your mixer?’
It was bad enough having the whole room looking at me just before. ‘If I tried to cook with people watching, I’d be so nervous I’d drop things.’
Jen’s lips are twitching. ‘They all have their iPads for facetiming their friends and families. When Nell heard you were coming she loaded you up and they’ve watched your baking clips non-stop ever since.’
‘It never occurred to me that I’d appeal to this demographic.’ I hope that sums it up without giving offence. My views have to come from somewhere, but I’d always imagined they were from people like me, not my grandparents.
Jen shrugs. ‘Better still, it reminds them of being at home again, even though most of them have made the decision to give them up.’
There’s a loud shout from the doorway. ‘Speak for yourself, Jennifer Crawley, I’m not staying here a moment longer than I have to.’
Jen cups her hand to her mouth and calls back. ‘There’s obviously no problems with your hearing, Walter. Or your hollering.’
He gives a chuckle. ‘I’ve had plenty of practice over the years calling them cows in.’
I think that may have answered my question.
Jen’s eyes flash towards the ceiling. ‘Why not come over here, Walter, so you don’t have to shout?’ But as he sits down in a chair where he is, she turns to me again. ‘So what do you think, are you going to come and bake for us?’
If I play for time, something – most likely Diesel – will save me. It’s the first time I’ve been willing him to be naughty, but until he is I’ll steer the conversation away from food. I nod at the nurse across the room in a very pretty overall. ‘Is that Sanderson dandelion-clock print she’s wearing?’ When I moved into my latest rental share I made two cushions in the same print with bobble fringe to make the room more mine.
