Escape to Giddywell Grange

by Kim Nash

  ‘To Growlers, Giddywell Grange and us!’ We toasted the arrangement with three mugs of tea.

  Suddenly realising that I’d forgotten something important, I asked them whether they had space for another dog for next week and after I told him the story about Alice and Baxter, Uncle Tom said he’d be delighted to take Baxter for as long as she needed. We sorted out a plan for Alice to come along to have a look later that day, and then I would stay afterwards and have a chat about what else I needed to do to help.

  I couldn’t wait to ring Alice and tell her that everything was sorted and I knew that I’d be able to keep an eye on Baxter for her too if I was helping out a bit. He really was an absolute darling. I sent her a quick text asking if I could pop round after lunch as I had some great news to tell her and she quickly replied and said that around two p.m. would be perfect and she’d make sure the kettle was on. I didn’t think I’d ever drunk as much tea in my life since I’d been made redundant.

  * * *

  When I arrived at Alice’s house, Baxter ran in circles around my ankles, and kept brushing himself against my legs and I was flattered when Alice said that he only did that with people he really liked. I stood leaning against one of the kitchen cupboards while she laid the tea tray and told her that I’d managed to bag Baxter a spot at Growlers if she wanted it. As Uncle Tom suggested, I asked if she’d like to come and have a look round this afternoon and make sure she was happy with it before she made her mind up.

  Her face lit up and she stepped towards me and threw her arms around me. ‘I knew you were lucky when I met you, I had a feeling.’ She grinned. ‘I trust you already, so if you say it’s ok, then I’m happy for Baxter to go there, but yes it would be lovely to see where he’ll be staying. I do worry about him being away from me.’ She reached down and gave him a treat from her pocket. He scampered off to his bed by the back door and munched away.

  ‘Well, I’ll be able to visit him and I’ll be working there quite a lot over the next few weeks, so I can even text you pictures of him to reassure you.’

  ‘Oh Madison, I’m so happy. I was really worried that I might not be able to go. It’s a huge thing for me to leave him behind while I visit my sister, but knowing that you’ll be on hand makes me feel so much better. Let’s have a quick cuppa then can we go and have a look? Do you think it would be ok if I bring him along?’

  ‘Of course, Uncle Tom said that dogs settle in better when they’ve already visited and know the place and he’s going to be there to show us around. He’s looking forward to meeting you both. I’m going to be stopping there for an hour or two afterwards, so is it ok if you follow me in your car?’

  ‘Of course, and honestly Madison, you’ve really taken a weight off my shoulders today. I hope you realise what a difference you’ve made to us.’

  My heart lifted and for the first time in a long time, I realised that helping others was a good thing to do.

  Perhaps I wasn’t a nobody after all. If Alice thought I had made a difference to her, then perhaps I could make a difference to others too.

  I vowed that from here on, I was going to do at least one thing every day for someone else. I was going to do something that would make a difference to someone and brighten their day. It could be someone I knew, or it could be a random stranger. And it would give me something to focus on for the future. I felt like I’d spent so much time looking out for Ronington’s and my position there, that I had forgotten about the important things in life.

  Chapter Six

  When we arrived back at the farm, it was as if I was seeing it through a new set of eyes as we drove into the courtyard and arrived at a set of six-foot gates. We both parked up and negotiated our way around some clucking chickens and a very noisy but friendly cockerel who didn’t seem to realise that he was only supposed to cock-a-doodle-doo in the morning, as he seemed to cock-a-doodle-doo all day long. Uncle Tom always said he was just protecting his ladies like a true gentleman should.

  A huge brass bell hung on the wall of the barn to the right of the gates. I gave it a tug and it rang and echoed around the courtyard for what seemed like ages. Alice and I laughed at how loud it was and how it seemed to set off the dogs barking in a chain. I heard the noise of a bolt sliding across and another gate shutting, before Uncle Tom appeared, and invited us through to reception.

  He bent down and tickled Baxter behind the ears, and Baxter licked his face. Uncle Tom never batted an eyelid. He was used to all sorts of dogs and loved them more than humans, I always felt. There were always dogs running around on the farm in the summer when we were kids and curled up on their beds beside the fireplace in the winter.

  ‘And you,’ he stood and turned, ‘must be Alice. Good afternoon and welcome to Growlers at the Grange. Come through, come through.’ He led us through the back of reception out to the stable block, with Baxter trotting happily alongside us.

  Alice nodded and smiled at me, and I could see that she was really happy with what she was seeing.

  ‘The dogs are all off lead from here, and it’s totally secure, and they can run around to their hearts’ content.’ He guided Alice through to the fenced paddock, and explained about the activity centre that was set up.

  ‘We spend lots of time in here and the dogs love it and it helps to tire them out both mentally and physically. My daughter Beth, who the business belongs to really, would rather spend her time out here playing with the dogs than she would doing the paperwork side, so that’s my domain really. And Maddy here is going to be helping out, as much as we can persuade her to, while Beth is recovering from an operation. So what do you think Alice, do you think Baxter will be ok with us?’

  ‘Oh Tom,’ she said with tears in her eyes. ‘It breaks my heart to leave him behind but my sister has been in Australia for over twenty years and I’ve not seen her in person for all that time and she’s paid for me to go over to see her. I thought I was going to have to cancel, but luckily for me, I met this young lady.’ She smiled and touched my arm tenderly. ‘I really do think some things are meant to be. If I hadn’t have met Madison and had that conversation with her, I might have even cancelled my trip. I feel a million times better, knowing that he’ll be coming to such a wonderful place, with such lovely, caring people.’

  ‘Well we’re so pleased to be able to help. And I promise you that we’ll look after him. He looks like he’s taken a shine to Maddy already! Look at him, he won’t leave her side. I think she’s becoming quite fond of him too.’

  Alice smiled at me as I was kneeling down rubbing his ears and he was leaning into me.

  ‘I don’t think he’ll have any problems here, Alice. Let’s go and sort all the paperwork side out and we might even be able to persuade Maddy to make us a cuppa.’ He winked at her and they all turned round as Baxter started to bark, circled round three times, squatted and did a huge poo. Uncle Tom laughed as he pulled a poo bag from out of his coat pocket and picked it up, while I turned up my nose and asked myself again why I’d decided to help out at a doggy daycare and wondered how much of my day would consist of picking up crap. Although, I pondered, maybe that was not so different to my old job – just a different type of crap.

  But then Baxter made me giggle when he came and stuck his nose right in my face. Alice apologised and said he had no concept of personal space and was just an ‘in your face’ type of dog. I ruffled the fur on his head and when I looked at Alice, who was watching how I reacted to her furry friend, she smiled at me. I knew we were able to help her at what was, to her, a really hard time, and thought that there were definitely worse jobs in the world. Time to put the kettle on. Again.

  Chapter Seven

  The next week flew by as we all started getting into a routine at Growlers. While Beth was still around, she taught me all she could regarding the office work, so I could get to know every aspect of what she did from the business side of things. Then she could help Uncle Tom and Russell to carry out all the physical duties, while I kept the office side goin
g, and they’d show me those ropes next week. They’d spoken to Alex and he was going to be able to get over a couple of days after she’d had her operation, so we worked out a rota to cover the first couple of weeks of her being away from work.

  The day of the operation soon came round and it was really emotional to say goodbye to her as Uncle Tom bundled her up in his tatty old Land Rover and took her off to the hospital. He was beyond worried until he got a call to say that everything had gone as well as could be expected and that Beth was sleeping and very groggy and that it would be better if he visited the following day. She still wasn’t with it the following day so his visit was short and sweet but he was definitely feeling better now that he’d seen her.

  Mum popped over early evening with her slow cooker full of the most divine smelling chicken casserole and we didn’t realise how hungry we all were until we sat around the farmhouse kitchen and tucked in. We arranged a visiting rota for the hospital so we weren’t all there at the same time and so that Beth wasn’t alone for too long. Fingers crossed, she’d be allowed home within a few days to start her recovery.

  The next afternoon on my visiting shift, Beth seemed much perkier than I’d thought she’d be.

  ‘Well, I’m glad you’ve lost your job!’

  ‘Beth! You can’t say that.’

  ‘Well I am. And because I’m ill I can say what I want! It’s like being an old person who doesn’t give a shit who they upset with what they say. I love it!’ she grinned. ‘Perhaps now you’ll spend time doing other things than work, Maddy. And just think – you can spend more time with me right now. You would never have done that if you were still working. Sometimes things happen for a reason, but we don’t know why.’

  ‘I don’t know how to do anything apart from work,’ I laughed.

  ‘I know you’ve always thought my life was really boring compared to yours, Mads.’

  ‘I never said that.’

  ‘You didn’t have to say it. You always looked down your nose at me when I told you what I was doing. I could never compete with your world of glamour and money. All you’ve ever done for the last few years is work your backside off to make someone else’s dreams come true and to make their business a success. What do you do for you, Mads?’

  ‘But I’ve had to do this; it’s important to me to be a success. It’s all that matters to me.’

  ‘But why, Maddy? What can be more important than having a great life and doing something that you love? I’ve never really understood why you pushed yourself so hard.’

  ‘Because,’ I answered, almost whispering the words. ‘Just because.’

  ‘Who do you feel the need to prove yourself to?’

  ‘Please Beth, just drop it. It’s not important.’

  ‘Ok, I’ll drop it for now, but don’t think I won’t come back to this when I have more energy. You’ve been so busy making a living that you’ve forgotten to make a life for yourself.’

  Beth’s words cut me to the core as the realisation dawned on me that she was absolutely right. As soon as someone asked me to do something, I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m working,’ or mostly, ‘I don’t have time.’

  ‘We all have twenty-four hours in a day, Mads, even Richard Branson and Beyoncé. It’s what we choose to do with it which makes all the difference.’

  I looked at my friend. Beth had been with me all my life, even though over the last few years I’d not really been the best friend to her. I realised that for a long time, our friendship had been very one-sided. If Beth had organised something, then I’d go along but I was always way too busy to actually arrange something myself. I asked myself exactly what I had brought to our friendship and for the last few years, the answer was actually not a lot. But when I asked what Beth had brought to our friendship, the answer was… everything.

  ‘What are your dreams and desires, Mads? What do you want out of life?’

  ‘I really don’t know anymore. I thought I did. I thought that working at Ronington’s and throwing everything I had into their business was what I wanted, and I do think I’ve lost my hopes and dreams somewhere along the way. I suppose I’ve been busy helping someone else to build their dreams instead of thinking about my own. And to be honest, since they let me go, until I started working at the farm I was feeling pretty bloody useless.’

  Being made redundant was one of the worst points of my life. I didn’t think I’d ever felt so low, not even after what had happened with Jamie. I never saw it coming that morning; never suspected the rollercoaster of emotions that awaited me. One minute I was elated at the prospect of being promoted, then plunged into shock at being told that I wasn’t good enough to keep my job and that I was being let go.

  Talk about a kick in the teeth.

  Seeing that her words had had an impact on me, Beth decided to relent a little and get back to business.

  ‘Over there on the bedside table is a list of things that I need you to do to cover for me while I’m out of action. I don’t want you to look at them yet, but I do want you to take the notebook home with you. Basically, I need you to do these things. Non-negotiable. If you don’t do them, then lots of people will be let down. Good people who need help right now. And I think it’ll do you good. You’ve been walking round with blinkers on and I really want you to throw yourself into the stuff I’ve written down. It’s nothing major, just stuff that I do every week to help out in the community. But if I don’t help them, then no one will, so it’s all down to you. It’ll be good for you too!

  ‘You might find these tasks dull and boring but these people need someone to help them. They depend on me. And maybe somewhere along the way, they might just trigger off some ideas that will fire you up and inspire you. You’ve lost that passion and spark that you had all those years ago, Mads, and I want to help you to get them back. And let’s face it, there’s bugger all else I’m going to be doing for the next few months is there?’ She waved her hand up and down her body and sighed loudly.

  That feeling of panic and nausea was coming back. My heartbeat started to quicken. Apart from working at Growlers, I had nothing else planned for the immediate future and it was pretty darn scary. What Beth had said to me, about losing my spark, hit home too. And if I was really honest with myself, maybe I’d lost my identity before I’d been made redundant. Even though I gave the impression that I was living my best life, was I really? Work was my everything and there was nothing outside of it. Beth was being quite brutal with her words, and it hurt, but she was actually right. This was all totally outside of my comfort zone but perhaps it was time that I explored more options.

  I scraped a hand through my hair and had a fluttery feeling in my tummy. I took a deep breath.

  ‘Ok, let’s do this!’

  Chapter Eight

  Waking up to a manically enthusiastic message from Alice telling me what a whale of a time she was having in Australia already was such a lovely way to start the day. On her first day there, she’d apparently already been cuddling koalas in a zoo in Brisbane, and her list of things to do while she was there included snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef and visiting Byron Bay. Then they were going to spend a few days in Sydney visiting friends, attend a concert at the Sydney Opera House and walk the Harbour Bridge. She was even going to visit the set of Neighbours. It sounded like an exhausting holiday to me with tons of travelling, but I had to admire her lust for life; it filled my heart with joy. She was doing way more on her visit to Australia than I’d ever done on any of my holidays, where I normally spent my relaxing time on the beach reading a business or personal development book or listening to one on audio. I quite liked an audio book, especially when I was in the car. I never wanted to waste time listening to the radio and those crappy chart songs.

  I hadn’t even had a holiday for the last couple of years and I was quite envious of Alice. We arranged a Skype call for when I was at work so she could see her beloved furry friend.

  Great news awaited us when I contacted Uncle Tom after breakf
ast to see how Beth was. He’d rung the hospital and was told that she was recovering well and would be able to come home the next day as long as she followed the specific rules and regulations. There was no reason why she couldn’t remain happy and healthy in her own environment until we reached the next stage of her journey where her physiotherapy started and her recovery could continue.

  Delighted with this news I promised to pop in later and see her but I had to cover one of Beth’s community projects first. I had to report to Stafford Library at ten a.m. and was told that all would be revealed when I got there.

  It was years since I’d been inside a library and I hadn’t read a novel for a long time.

  Being the dutiful friend that I was, and ready to fill Beth’s shoes temporarily, I turned up at the library just before ten and reported to the information desk. ‘Hi there, I’m Madison Young. Beth Millington sent me.’

  ‘Ah Miss Young, we’ve been expecting you. I’m Rebecca. Thank you so much for helping us out with our community reach programme. It means so much to get people like you to help us.’

  Community reach, what the hell was that when it was at home? ‘Do you mind if I pop to the ladies’?’ I asked the dark-haired, pretty librarian. Being a librarian must be the most boring job in the world, I thought. I excused myself and went off to find the ladies’. While I was washing my hands, a poster on the wall caught my eye.

  Community Reach

  Do you have a few hours each week to help people who can’t get to a library?

  There are a number of people who are physically unable to come along to get books from us, but who love to read.

  We want to make a difference in their lives. Can you help?

  If so, we’d love to hear from you so that we can make someone’s day.

  Now I knew a little more about it, it still seemed like something really dull. But in fairness, I had all the time in the world, and I had promised Beth that I would trust her and go through with anything I was asked to.