Simple Pleasures

A family remind each other of happy times in this thoughtful short story by Eirin Thompson.

HOW was lunch?” Luke asked. “Was it today you were seeing your old school friend?” “Yes, it was today, and lunch was lovely. It was nice to hear all her news.” “What’s her name again?” “Jinty – that’s all anyone ever called her. I never did know if it was a real name or a pet one.”

Amanda didn’t expect her son to remember Jinty.

Although she and Amanda had been friends at school, Jinty had lived abroad for years and hadn’t known the kids as they were growing up.

“What’s she doing back here this time?” Harriet, Amanda’s daughter, enquired.

“The main reason was to install her mum in a care home,” Amanda replied.

“Jinty’s parents were older than your grandparents, and her father has already passed away.”

“I bet she was glad to see you,” Timmy, Amanda’s youngest, suggested. “You probably cheered her up.”

Amanda smiled. It was nice of him to say so, and she had tried to be a good listener to Jinty over lunch.

But cheering up hadn’t really been required.

Over a light meal, Jinty had bombarded Amanda with exciting tales of what she and her family had been up to in recent times.

“The kids loved Disneyland so much when they were little, so we took them for Imogen’s eighteenth.

“We didn’t tell them until the night before,” she gushed. “I can show you the photos on my phone!”

With a tanned hand, Jinty scrolled through pictures of her family posing with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Cinderella and Snow White.

“It must have been a great holiday,” Amanda remarked.

“It was only for a few days. Our real holiday was in Indonesia.

“We went for the scuba diving, you see.”

“Oh,” Amanda replied, not knowing what to say.

“Shall we have coffee?” Jinty asked, pushing her empty plate away.

Amanda often came to this place, and always had trouble attracting the attention of the staff.

Jinty had no such problem. No sooner had she raised her arm into the air than two young waiters sprang to her side.

“Do you think my friend and I could get a couple of coffees? How do you take yours, Amanda?”

“I’d rather have a cup of tea, if that’s all right.”

“Tea? Are you poorly?”

“No. I just like tea.”

“One tea and one cappuccino with an extra shot, please,” Jinty said, leaning back so the waiters would lift their lunch plates.

After that, Jinty showed Amanda another batch of pictures, taken when their family had gone birdwatching in Tarifa, just west of Gibraltar.

“It lies on the avian superhighway between European breeding grounds and African wintering quarters,” Jinty informed Amanda.

“When the mists clear, the skies become full of honey buzzards and booted eagles and griffon vultures. It’s amazing.”

“Amazing,” Amanda echoed.

“What did you talk about?” Harriet enquired now, jolting Amanda back to the present.

“Oh, this and that,” Amanda replied.

“Tell us,” Timmy coaxed. So Amanda told them, and then, much to her dismay, she began to cry.

“Hey,” Luke said, putting an arm around her. “What’s up, Mum?”

“We have never taken you three on adventures like that. We’ve never had the money, and I wouldn’t know where to start to organise a trip like the ones Jinty takes with her family.”

“Well, we might not have visited Disneyland, but we’ll never forget the Disney plaster model kits you bought us,” Harriet stated.

“And remember how you put down an old cloth on the table and let us have the whole space to ourselves?

“It took ages, because we wanted to paint them as soon as they dried, but instead of making us clear up for tea, you said we could eat on our knees in front of the fire.”

“I remember that,” Luke agreed. “I also remember being brought up feeding the garden birds, and you and Dad teaching us what to put out for them to eat and how to identify them.

“My friends are amazed I can tell them which are blue tits and yellowhammers, sparrows and starlings.

“We might not have seen an exotic migration, but we had hours of fun looking out the window, thanks to you.”

“That goes for me, too, Mum,” Tim added. “Is scuba diving more exciting than Dad taking us fishing off the pier when we stayed at the caravan, and you showing us how to gut our catches and barbecue them?

“These are great childhood memories, Mum!”

Amanda smiled through her teary eyes.

Perhaps she hadn’t taken her kids on the grand trips that Jinty had with her own children, but you didn’t have to do all that to give your children a happy and fulfilling childhood.

Maybe a welcoming kitchen table, a bird-feeder and a fishing rod were enough – especially if you added your time, interest and your love.

Amanda had done her best, but she couldn’t compete with holidays to Disneyland . . .

The End.