Page 26 of Whispers from the Past

‘How are you coping…’

But Rose didn’t get to hear the end of the question about what Eleanor was having to cope with, because her phone dropped out of her hand and bounced down the last few steps. Shattering the quiet. She froze at the top of the stairs, even though it was obvious to everyone in the shop below that she was clearly there!

‘Rose? Are you ok?’ Eleanor called from her seat at the scrabble table.

Cursing silently to herself, Rose called back ‘Yes fine! Just managed to throw my phone down the stairs!’

‘Come and meet Mrs Wyles and Mrs Becker.’

‘Less of the formalities Eleanor. I’m Denise and this is Patricia,’ a lady with a sleek grey bob introduced herself and the other unfamiliar voice as Rose stepped onto the bookshop floor picking up her, thankfully, undamaged phone from the bottom step as she passed it.

‘Lovely to meet you both. Sorry for interrupting your game. Art class calls!’

* * *

As she pushed open the glass door of The Old School House, she repeated to herself the mantra that she’d adopted whenever she had to start at a new school for the umpteenth time; I can do this. ‘Rose, you made it!’ Susie called out excitedly when she spotted her in the doorway. ‘Come and sit by me.’ Jumping up, she grabbed the nearest chair and pulled it closer to her own. As Rose made her way over to the empty chair, she couldn’t help but notice the beautiful pieces of art on the walls.

‘Did your art group create these?’

‘Yes, we each vote on which one to display when we’ve all finished the piece we’re working on. Sandra’s was picked last week.’ She pointed over to a watercolour landscape of Flamborough lighthouse.

‘I can see why, it’s beautiful. So how does this work? I brought the photo like you told me to.’ Rose reached into her bag and brought out her recently developed photo of The Book Nook. She had taken the photo just after the April window display had been completed.

‘Oh Eleanor is going to love that you’re painting the bookshop. She badgered Michael to paint it for years, but he never got around to it. And the artist gene skipped a generation so after he died, so did her hope of getting the painting done.’

‘Did Eleanor and Michael have children then?’

The colour disappeared from Susie’s face for a fraction of a second before she composed herself. But Rose saw it.

‘She doesn’t like to talk about it. Oh look, Simon has arrived.’

Rose looked over her shoulder to see an unassuming man in a grey overcoat shuffle into the room.

‘Who is Simon?’

‘Our art teacher. He is a wonderful artist, I’ll show you some of his pieces later. Remind me!’

As Simon took his place in front of the group, he welcomed Rose as the newcomer and explained that their next piece would be in the style of James Shilaimon. Clicking a button on the controller in his hand, a screen whirred down from the ceiling and a series of images scrolled by in front of them. Rose was taken immediately by the colours and lines that drew her in.

‘James Shilaimon,’ Simon explained, ‘is an apt artist for us to emulate. He was self-taught and is always looking for different ways to express himself. Hopefully you all have brought something with you that you want to paint. So with that in mind, I want you to select one of his pieces to sketch tonight. See if you can find one that is similar to the one you would like to start next week.’

Almost immediately, Rose was drawn to ‘Escape’ and spent the next two hours totally lost in the process.

‘You have a good eye for detail. Rose is it?’ Simon asked as he settled himself next to Rose’s work space.

‘Thank you, it’s easy when you’ve got something this beautiful to work with.’

‘And is this the photograph that you’ll be using next week?’ he asked as he picked up the photograph that lay on top of Rose’s bag.

‘Yes. I work there. The owner has always wanted a painting of it, so I thought I’d give it a go.’

‘I can’t wait to see how it develops over the next few weeks.’

At half past nine, the caretaker came in and reminded all inside that she needed to lock up. This was their five minute warning. Like well trained students, each attendee of the art group started packing away their supplies. Susie had already packed away so came over to give Rose a hand.

‘So…what do you think? Will you come again next week?’

‘It was great. Thanks for inviting me - I’ll definitely be here next week. I can’t wait to get started on painting the book shop’.