Sprinkle Some Magic

Look on the bright side

The early morning school mum crowd were out in force in The Copper Kettle, Kate noticed as she went in. Famous for its cakes, desserts and ice creams, the café was still pulling the customers in despite the chilly day.

Spotting an empty table at the back, she headed towards it purposefully. She had no desire to join any of the chattering groups even though she knew some of them by sight. Her natural shyness held her back, and the thought of having to pretend to be up-to-date with the latest gossip frankly terrified her.

No, all she wanted to do was get a coffee and something carby inside her then get home so that she could get on with that day’s work. Doing the book keeping for a number of local small businesses wasn’t exactly what she’d dreamed of doing with her life, but it paid enough to keep the wolf from the door and meant she could work around the children, so she put up with it.

Having Jake and Emma at primary school, with little Holly just having started at nursery, mornings only, meant organising her day around all their needs was like a military operation. And with Dave leaving early every day to commute to the city, and often returning after the children had gone to bed, she often felt like an army of one.

It was taking its toll on her marriage as well. Some evenings they barely had the energy to speak to each other by the time Dave got home.

Kate wouldn’t normally have come to the café in the morning, but she’d forgotten to have breakfast again. It seemed to happen more and more often these days. By the time she’d got the children up and fed and ready to be dropped off at school and nursery, the small window of opportunity to actually eat something herself had slipped away.

But her stomach was rumbling and cramping and she was starting to feel light-headed. The thought of driving home without eating anything was not appealing so she’d let her feet turn towards the Copper Kettle to stave off her hunger pangs.

A waitress in a neon pink jumpsuit bounced up to Kate’s table.

“What would you like this fine day?” she asked brightly.

Kate wasn’t really sure that her eyes could cope with neon pink at that time in the morning. Or the waitress’s super cheerful voice, for that matter.

She looked at the menu. The cakes certainly did look gorgeous. And the array of ice creams with different toppings was tempting. But she didn’t have long, and she wasn’t here to indulge herself. And, after all, it was only just past breakfast time.

“I’ll just have a plain scone with butter and a pot of tea,” she said.

As she waited for her scone and tea, a woman approached the table. “Do you think I could share your table?’ she said. “The others are all full.” She gestured towards the rest of the café, which was now full fit to burst.

“Yes, of course,” Kate said, and the other woman sat down and began to peruse the menu.

“They really do have spectacular desserts here, don’t they?” she asked Kate with a smile.

“You’re LOOKING at it all WRONG. We all have THINGS that hold us DOWN…”

Kate hadn’t really wanted to talk to anyone, but this woman seemed pleasant enough.

“I’m Flossie,” the woman said, holding out a hand and shaking Kate’s enthusiastically.

“I don’t know you, do I?” said Kate. “I mean, you’re not one of the school mums, are you? Or I’d recognise you.”

“Oh, no,” said Flossie. “I don’t live here. I’m just passing through.”

“That sounds interesting,” Kate said, just as her scone and tea arrived.

“Can I get you anything?” the waitress asked Flossie.

“Yes, please,’ said Flossie. “I’ll have a hot chocolate with whipped cream and nuts on top and also a warm chocolate brownie with chocolate ice cream and butterscotch sauce.”

Kate felt a bit of a pang. Maybe she should have ordered something delicious and decadent like that rather than just a workaday scone.

“Do you travel for your job, then?” she asked, interested despite herself.

“Yes, I work in television.”

“Oh, are you an actress?” Kate had always thought a career in acting would be amazingly glamorous and exciting. Much more exciting than small-time book keeping anyway.

“No,” said Flossie, “I work on the production side of things. I never really wanted to be in front of the camera, it’s what goes on behind the scenes that I find fascinating.”

Kate sighed. “I wish I’d done something interesting with my life.” Then she sighed again as the waitress brought Flossie’s order to the table. It looked every bit as delicious as it had sounded.

“Well, why don’t you?” Flossie asked, digging a spoon into her glorious dessert.

“I can’t just take off and do anything I want,’ said Kate. “I’ve got a husband and three kids. Not to mention a job I hate, but have to keep doing because it’s the only thing that fits around said three kids.”

“You’re looking at it wrong. We all have things that hold us down. I don’t have a husband and children –” for a brief moment Flossie looked pensive, then she seemed to pick herself up and carried on – “but I do have elderly parents and a mortgage to pay. You have to work within your limitations.

“Maybe you can’t go on safari to Africa or audition for TheXFactor. But you can paddle in the sea. You can walk barefoot in the grass. You can order your favourite ice cream instead of a plain scone. And you can have it with all the sauces, all the toppings and whatever they call those sugary strand things.”

Kate grinned. Flossie obviously hadn’t failed to notice her envious glances at her dessert.

“I suppose so,” she said. “This just isn’t the way I expected my life to turn out. I found an old school report the other day when I was tidying my desk. One of my teachers wrote, Katecando whatevershewantswithherlife. And at the time I thought it was true. But now it all seems impossibly difficult. All those opportunities I thought were out there all came to nothing.”

“Stop thinking about it as something that’s difficult,” Flossie said with a wave of her spoon. “Maybe you can’t go off around the world in an air balloon. But you can get a day saver bus ticket and go on a tour all over the city, getting off wherever the mood takes you.

“You’re probably not going to be invited to many film premières, but you can join the library and read every play that Shakespeare ever wrote. You can expand your horizons sitting right here.”

“I’d never thought about it like that before,” Kate said, toying with the last few crumbs of her scone. Flossie really had made her think about life in a different way.

The waitress approached again and asked if they wanted anything else. This time the neon pink made Kate smile and the upbeat voice gave her courage.

“I’ll have an ice cream,” she said. Flossie smiled encouragingly at her across the table. “Any toppings?” the waitress asked. Kate felt like she was getting the hang of this now. She was still a part-time book keeper with three children to look after. She still had limitations. But, like Flossie had said, there were things she could do within those limitations, even if they were only small things at first.

Maybe once Holly was full time at school with the other two and things were easier logistically, she could do a part-time college course and retrain to do something a bit more interesting. She didn’t even know what – but Flossie had inspired her to think she might want to do something creative.

Meanwhile she should count her blessings. She had three happy, healthy children and a husband she loved dearly. She couldn’t whisk them off on a Caribbean cruise, but she could aim to take them somewhere more interesting than the local park sometimes. And she definitely needed to make more time for Dave and their life as a couple.

Life wasn’t perfect but it was full of promise if she looked at it in the right way, she realised now.

“Yes,” she said to the waitress. “I’ll have strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce. I’ll have some nuts and a chocolate flake on top. And I’ll have the rainbow sprinkles as well.”