The Girl In the Water by J A Baker

Author:J A Baker [Baker, J A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

18

Freda leans on the door with her shoulder and rotates the key with as much force as she can muster after a fifteen-hour shift. She curses Alan and all his promises to get the bloody thing fixed. It’s been such an exhausting day as well. The key finally grinds into place with a snap, almost taking all the skin off her finger in the process. She rubs her hand vigorously and, muttering an inaudible stream of expletives, shoves the old brass key in the side pocket of her handbag. She can’t remember the last time anything in this shop worked as it should. What with depleted shelves, a wheezing and groaning chest freezer that sounds as if it is about to spontaneously combust, and a till that by rights should be in a museum, many would be forgiven for thinking the old place should be bulldozed. She has thought it herself on more than one occasion. Wished it, actually. Most days, if the truth be known. But apparently, there’s not enough in the pension pot to allow them to hang up their hats just yet, or so he keeps saying. She wonders how much will ever be enough as she huddles down against the rain and makes her way over the road to their neat 1950s bungalow, a squat little edifice sat amongst the trees, close enough so Alan can keep an eye on the till and his precious little shop even when the place is locked up for the night.

She hurries along, thinking how lovely it would be to have a holiday somewhere away from A&F Stores and all its problems. Away from the draughty old window behind the front counter that hurls all kinds of inclement weather their way during the autumn and bitter winter months, away from the complaints of, Why don’t you start stocking up a bit more? There’s nowt in here for me tea, just anywhere away from it all.

Freda stops and stares over beyond the trees to the cluster of holiday cabins beyond and thinks even one of those for the weekend would be a welcome break. A lump forms in her throat as she thinks how sad her life is when she considers somewhere just a couple of hundred feet from her own front door an actual holiday. Rummaging in her pocket for a tissue, she thinks about her sister and wonders what time it currently is in her part of Queensland. She never can get to grips with all this time difference carry on. Whatever the hour, Dorothy will probably be having a damn sight more fun than she ever has. If only she’d heeded her sister’s warnings about staying in the area she grew up in.

‘It’s a big wide world out there, Fre. Life doesn’t begin and end in Durham, you know.’

And now all these years later, Freda can see how right she was. Too late now though, isn’t it? And it’s not as if Simon has shown any interest in taking over the business.

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