Sign of the Times

by Susan Buchanan

  Amy was enthusiastic throughout the telling of The Gruffalo, but Maria could see her flagging before she reached the second page of David’s book. She stopped briefly to throw a blanket over her daughter and then with a look of complicity at David, they snuggled together and she continued telling him about Moon Face, Saucepan Man and Silky.

  David tried to press his mother for another chapter, but she was strict and realising it was already late, told him it would have to wait until tomorrow. Maria carried Amy up to bed.

  “Teeth, David.”

  Groaning, David trudged off to the bathroom. What was it with little boys that they didn’t like to be clean? That said, Maria remembered she had more problems bathing Amy than David. She tucked them in, put the night light on and went downstairs.

  Maria woke with a start. Damn, she’d fallen asleep on the chair. What time was it? Two o’clock? Bones creaking, she raised herself off the chair, turned off the TV and the lamps and went to bed.

  The alarm seemed to go off just after Maria hit the pillow. It couldn’t be seven o’clock. Two cups of coffee later, she felt much better. Today her mother looked after the kids. Maria simply had to take them to school.

  Amy came downstairs, so Maria made her toast and egg soldiers and gave her a glass of milk, then went up to rouse her brother. They complemented each other well. Amy kicked and screamed to avoid having a bath and David made a major production of getting up. He slept very deeply. A hurricane could rip through their home and David would be none the wiser.

  Kids dropped at school, Maria headed home for a few hours of uninterrupted work. Her mum had offered to take the kids for lunch today. First she transferred the cash into the children’s trust funds and sorted her clothes for dry cleaning. She’d take it into town before the lunchtime rush. She stopped only to make a cup of tea and a sandwich, as although she’d given the kids breakfast, she’d completely forgotten to make any for herself. Wolfing down her sandwich, something she was glad the children weren’t there to see, she grabbed her car keys and left for town.

  *

  Busy putting her purse back in her bag, Maria bumped into someone as she came out of the dry cleaner’s.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. A split second later, she realised it was Angelika’s mum. What a coincidence.

  “You’re Angelika’s mum, aren’t you?”

  Maria couldn’t decide if the Polish woman looked at her warily or quizzically. Her mind went blank; she couldn’t remember the woman’s name, although she’d thought about her only yesterday.

  “Czeslawa,” she said, pronouncing it like ch in chestnut and replacing the w sound with a v. Maria thought she could figure out how it was spelled. Years ago, she’d worked with a Pole called Wieslaw. Maria held her hand out. “Maria, nice to meet you.” She looked at the reed thin woman and said, “Our children are in the same class. Angelika, isn’t it?”

  The young woman confirmed this. On impulse Maria said,

  “Do you have time for a coffee?”

  The woman looked startled, but soon a slow smile broke out across her face and she said, “Of course.”

  They were only a few steps from Taylor’s Tearoom, so Maria led the way, ducking to avoid the low ceiling, as they entered. Indicating a free table, Maria asked Czeslawa what she would like. “Tea, please.”

  “Would you like a cake?” Maria was eyeing the colourful array of cakes and pastries wolfishly.

  Czeslawa appeared unsure.

  “Their honey and orange tea loaf is wonderful. My treat.”

  Czeslawa gratefully accepted and Maria returned a few minutes later bearing a tray with two pots of tea and two slices of tea loaf. Czeslawa thanked Maria with a smile which reached all the way to her cornflower blue eyes.

  “So how you do like living in the village?” Maria asked.

  “Yes, very nice. Very happy here,” Maria understood from those two phrases that Czeslawa’s English wasn’t fluent.

  “Where did you live before?”

  “In Livingston.”

  “A nice enough town,” Maria hazarded her opinion.

  “But we living in Craigshill. Not a good area.”

  Maria didn’t know Livingston very well, but she had heard Craigshill wasn’t one of its highlights.

  “Kings River very nice village. It is safe for the childrens to play.”

  Maria was glad she had brought up the children.

  “Yes, I agree. In fact, I wanted to ask if Angelika could come and play at our house.

  Czeslawa beamed with happiness. “Yes, would be very good. I think Angelika would like.”

  “So, what does your husband do?” Maria asked politely.

  “He builder. He work in Bearsden on new buildings. Houses too expensive there.”

  Yes, Maria could see where she was coming from. Although Kings River was expensive, it was nowhere near as extortionate as Bearsden.

  “School is good here?” Czeslawa had found her voice.

  “Yes, Kirk Park is a great school. It helps that there are so few pupils. They have good facilities also,” Maria finished.

  “Facilities?” Czeslawa didn’t know the word.

  “Resources, for example, the sports equipment, the music room, the drama studio.”

  “Ah, obiekt,” said Czeslawa, as it dawned on her what Maria was referring to.

  “So, do you work?” Maria asked.

  “Not yet. I start to look now we in Kings River. We stay here long time I hope.”

  “What sort of work are you looking for?”

  “Anything. Is difficult for foreigner to get good job here. Maybe cleaning or work in supermarket.”

  “Is that what you did back home?”

  “No!” Czeslawa said horrified. “I was Office Manager. I responsible eight people.”

  Maria thought how humiliating it must be for her to take on a more menial job.

  “Do you want to stay here permanently or do you think you will go back to Poland?”

  Czeslawa debated her answer.

  “I love Poland, but I like very much Scotland. My family still in Gdansk and in Wroclaw, my brother. I hope maybe in ten years we go back and pay for house from money we make here,” she told Maria frankly.

  “You are very organised,” Maria said admiringly.

  They chatted for a bit and as they were leaving, Maria asked Czeslawa where she was parked.

  “Oh no, I not have car. Wojciech has car. I take bus.”

  “Well in that case, let me offer you a lift?”

  “A lift?” Czeslawa clearly didn’t understand.

  “I will take you home.”

  Czeslawa waved to her as Maria drove away and Maria decided she liked the Polish girl. She was too thin, but what there was of her was muscle. Maria, although by no means overweight, felt frumpy beside her. The girl’s clothes were a second skin. They had agreed that Angelika could come over on Thursday after school. When Czeslawa said she was looking for a cleaning job or something, Maria’s first thought was that all her problems were solved, but then she realised that wouldn’t work. She wanted this woman to be her equal, not her cleaner. A plan was forming in Maria’s mind and she mulled it over as she made herself some camomile tea.

  Chapter Forty Five

  After her two hour break, Maria buckled down and felt certain she’d caught up again. It was important, she felt, to have the flexibility which working from home and running her own business afforded her. Today she’d cultivated an important friendship. With the kids at her mother’s for dinner, she could work on until six, when they’d be delivered in time for a bath and a story. Maria positively whizzed through her actions and then made a start on the washing and ironing.

  “Mummy, look what Gran gave me,” burst in David. He was holding a bright yellow racing car in one hand and a remote control in the other.

  “I’ve got a new Barbie,” Amy said, clambering onto the sofa to kiss her mother. Maria’s mother smiled at the children’s obvious pleasure at thei
r gifts and sat down heavily in the recliner.

  “You OK, Mum?” Maria was concerned.

  “I’m fine, just a bit tired,” her mother confessed.

  “If having these two is too much for you, let me know,” Maria said once the children were out of earshot. Her father, the designated chauffeur, had crept in quietly and after acknowledging her briefly, was happily watching TV.

  “No, not at all. You know I love having them. Amy has just been wild all day.”

  “Do you want a cup of tea, Mum?” she asked kindly. Her mother did look a bit pale.

  “That would be great, but I can’t stay too long. Coronation Street’s on soon.”

  Maria hid her irritation. If it weren’t for her grandchildren, her mother would live through that television, she thought. Her poor father. Only two years until he retired. He never got to watch what he wanted, as his wife had the evening all planned out. If he were lucky he was allowed to watch the occasional nature programme or movie, but the rest of the TV viewing was worked religiously around her mother’s beloved soaps. The only time he managed to have a say was when he was at her house.

  The children played happily with their new toys until their grandparents left.

  “Right guys, bath time.” She caught Amy round the middle, as she made to run past her.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” she laughed at her daughter. “C’mon, bath and then a story.”

  Reluctantly the children filed into the bathroom.

  Soon the entire bathroom was sopping wet from the children sloshing water over one another with plastic beakers. Maria was absolutely soaked. But the kids enjoyed themselves and if it helped tire them out, then it was worth it.

  As she tucked them in, she thought how tired they must have been. Both of them had fallen asleep during their stories. Tomorrow she’d have Amy in the afternoon after nursery. She couldn’t wait to get stuck into her novel again.

  Next morning after dropping the kids at school, Maria checked her emails. There was one from Tom, Holly’s fiancé. He’d been her main contact since Holly went off to Italy to do research for her book. Even after Holly returned from Italy, Tom had remained involved. Maria wasn’t arranging the whole wedding for them, but she had been asked to take care of the cards, flowers, cars and kilt hire. Holly and Tom wanted to manage some aspects of their wedding, so they had approached venues about costs and menus offered, as well as using their own photographer and videographer, who was a media friend of Holly’s. Maria wished more of her weddings could be as uncomplicated. No doubt she’d be receiving another call from the Fairbairns tomorrow.

  The Jameson/Matthews wedding wasn’t until Spring, due to Holly’s winter book tour. Maria liked Holly. There were quite a few of her clients who returned to her and Holly was one of them. They first met when she arranged Holly’s thirtieth birthday bash and since then, Holly and Tom’s engagement party and she was now involved in the book launches. So, over the years, they’d socialised a fair bit. With a lump in her throat, she thought of how she’d met Holly when Stuart was still alive. She still thought of Stuart every day. They said time was a healer and although it didn’t heal, hell, she didn’t want it to ‘heal’, that would be tantamount to forgetting, she learned to live with it. Life was as good as it got without Stuart. She had two amazing children and she was financially secure.

  Maria looked at Tom’s email. It was funny how different men and women were, even in something as simple as composing an email.

  Tom’s email:

  Hi Maria. We’ll need a videographer after all. Can you suggest one and advise pricing please? Tom.

  Holly’s last email on the other hand had started off by asking Maria how she was, how business was going, telling her about her travels and then after about three paragraphs, she finally reached the matter in hand. Although it obviously took her far longer to read Holly’s email, she’d choose Holly’s over Tom’s emails any day.

  The phone rang off the hook all morning. Maria knew she needed to address this staffing issue soon. She could call her mother and ask if she could take Amy, but she didn’t like to. Her parents did enough for her.

  When she picked Amy up from nursery at lunchtime she was still way behind. Again they found David with Angelika. Angelika was having dinner with them and Czeslawa would collect her about six. Angelika and David though had other ideas. They wanted to go now.

  “No sweetheart. You have school this afternoon. Angelika will be coming home with us after school,” Maria said. Saying goodbye to Angelika, they headed home for lunch.

  After lunch, Amy and Maria dropped David at school and went into Kilburn. The problem was she always ended up getting more than she came for when she came into town. She’d nipped into the tearoom and bought a lovely sponge cake to welcome Angelika, something light, not an E number festival. Since she was here, she’d nip into the supermarket, stock up on cleaning goods.

  She completed her supermarket shop in record time. “Mummy. I need a pee pee,” Amy tugged her arm. She’d almost forgotten her daughter was there; she’d been so well behaved.

  “Can you hold it just a minute?” she said as she paid for her shopping. Shoving her hastily packed bags in the trolley, she pushed it with one hand, grasping Amy’s hand in the other and walked towards the Customer Toilets sign. A few customers let her go before them, when they saw Amy hopping from foot to foot.

  “Mummy, I need a poo as well,” Amy said loudly. Maria was glad she was inside the cubicle, as she could hear titters on the other side. Amy was always mortifying her, she thought.

  “Mummy, I want to watch Bob when I get home,” Amy said.

  “That’s fine. You can watch Bob.” Maria would have promised her anything at that point. Her discomfort increased further, as Amy started singing Bob the Builder at full volume. Maria was cursing the builders, as there was no window to use as an escape route. Finally, Amy was finished. Maria was scarlet and as she opened the door, a round of applause broke out.

  “Well done, young lady,” one elderly woman told her. “What’s your name?”

  “Amy,” she said proudly.

  “Well Amy, that was a great performance,” she said, grinning at Maria. Maria red-faced dragged Amy off to the wash hand basins before she combusted. As the door closed behind her, she heard shrieks of laughter from within.

  Angelika and David let Amy play with them, which Maria thought was pretty magnanimous. Amy made them copious amounts of tea from her tea set and plied them with plastic fried eggs and sausages. When Maria brought out the cake, Angelika’s eyes lit up.

  Chapter Forty Six

  “Hi Czeslawa, come in,” Maria ushered her indoors. “Would you like some tea?” Seeing Czeslawa hesitate, she said, “I’m making some anyway.”

  “OK. Thank you,” she replied.

  Maria returned a few minutes later with two cups of tea and the remainder of the sponge cake. She remembered that Czeslawa took it black.

  “Oh, I forget,” Czeslawa said. She pulled out a box of Matchmakers from her bag.

  “This for you. You bring me home other day and you ask Angelika here. Thank you.”

  “You didn’t need to do that,” Maria was touched, “but thanks.”

  She dived right in.

  “You know you told me you were an Office Manager?”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, I wondered if you might like to come and work for me.”

  “You have company?” Czeslawa was surprised.

  “Yes,” stated Maria matter-of-factly.

  “What is business?” asked Czeslawa.

  “My company mostly deals with weddings,” Maria began, trying to keep her language relatively simple. “Now the company is bigger. We deal with most aspects of weddings: flowers, photography, hotel, church.”

  Czeslawa was riveted, but couldn’t help bursting in. “Sounds good. But,” she broke off, before continuing, “what you think I can do?”

  Maria had thought this through over the last few days. If
Czeslawa accepted her proposal, she could help with Admin until her English improved. This, Maria felt, would happen very quickly, once she was using it daily.

  “Well, although you wouldn’t be Office Manager, as the company’s not big enough for that and we all work from home, I was just about to place an ad with the Job Centre for an Admin Assistant. Would you be interested?”

  Czeslawa’s face was flushed with excitement.

  “I interested. Please tell me more.” So Maria did.

  “And you happy to offer me job?” Czeslawa was unable to take it in.

  “Yes.”

  “I not know yet what to do, but if show me, I learn fast,” Czeslawa stopped.

  “There only one problem.”

  “Yes?” asked Maria.

  “My English,” Czeslawa said anxiously.

  “Well, I’ve thought about that and I was going to suggest that once you start working for me, you also go to English classes. It will make you more confident.”

  “I good at languages,” said Czeslawa. I speak Russian, German and French, just no good English.”

  “It’s not a problem. I am prepared to hire you now and hope classes and speaking English daily will help your confidence.”

  “Very good. We have deal.”

  Maria could see the young woman’s eyes held a question. She imagined it would be regarding salary, so she jumped in and started telling her what she could afford. Czeslawa seemed very happy at that.

  “Thank you, Maria. This means lot to me. Wojciech will be so happy. He not want me to take inferior job.”

  She hugged Maria fiercely and then breaking off, she said, “Angelika would like David come play at our house next week. Is OK?”

  “Of course.”

  An ecstatic Czeslawa left promising to return on Monday to meet the others. Maria felt as if she had done something really worthwhile. It wasn’t right that Czeslawa should be reduced to cleaning toilets. She should be able to put her skills to use.