blushed slightly, “I’m working at the airport, as you said not much wildlife in Toronto. And anyway it’s only temporary.” She glanced at the menu and picked it up, “I fancy some dessert.” She scanned the menu and looked up at Robbie, “deep fried Mars Bar?” It was both a statement and a question.
“Sounds interesting,” he replied. “Why don’t we split one?”
“That might be safer.”
Robbie took a large drink of his beer; he placed the glass down making sure it was perfectly centred on the beer mat, “Look Anna, I have to ask.”
“Why leave the message at the grave after all these years?” she said finishing off his question.
“Well yeah, 25 years is a long time.”
“After I moved, I thought you didn’t like me anymore, I wrote you letters but you never replied.”
“But,” interrupted Robbie but Anna cut him off.
“Seems my dad didn’t post the letters and never gave me the ones that you sent me, apparently I had to move on, be a girl,” she looked at him, “forget about you.”
He grinned at her. “Don’t you forget about me,” he laughed as he remember the two of them singing and dancing to the song every time Robbie’s big sister played her Simple Minds album.
“How is Heather?” asked Anna.
“Married with 4 kids,” he replied, “I’m Uncle Robbie to Peter, Kyle, Coleen and Anna.”
“Anna?”
“Yeah, she named it after the closet thing she had to a little sister.”
“Cool,” replied Anna, “I’m honoured.”
Robbie thought for a moment, “its Anna’s 18th next month, big party, Heather would kill me if I didn’t at least invite you. Just saying, I don’t expect an answer.”
“No, I mean yes, yes I would love to go, it would be good seeing Heather again,” she looked at her glass and then stood up. “I’ll get us another beer and a deep fried Mars Bar.”
Robbie watched her walk to the bar; he still couldn’t believe he was having a drink with her.
She came back from the bar with 2 beers, “the woman behind the bar recommended them,” she said as she placed the beers on the table.
“What are they?”
“Innes and Gunn,” she replied.
“Innis and Gunn, not heard of them before,” he announced as he took a sip, he licked his lips and nodded his head, “very nice.”
“I’m glad you like it,” replied Anna with a grin.
Robbie put down the glass, “why did you think your dad never sent the letters?”
She shook her head, “he never said. When,” she paused for a second. “After Northern Alberta, I moved back to Kamloops. He just told me, said he was sorry it happened. He thought it might cheer me up.”
Robbie didn’t ask why she needed cheering up, “I’m glad he told you, I thought you had fallen out with me or something.”
“I didn’t know how to find you but I thought you would go to the grave, and then I thought you wouldn’t recognise me so that’s why I said text me a picture and a time and place to meet. If you wanted to,” she shook her head, “that’s why I left my cell number.”
The conversation paused as the waitress brought over their dessert, she looked at them both as she didn’t know who had ordered the dessert.
“We are sharing it,” said Anna as she reached for the plate, “just in case we don’t like it.”
The waitress grinned, “I’ll wait until you taste it,” she said in her heavy Scottish accent.
Anna gingerly took the fork and cut off a small piece of the dessert, she closed her eyes as she put it in her mouth, her eyes widened in surprise and delight, she turned towards the waitress and nodded her head, Robbie was making a move towards the plate but Anna grabbed it and brought it closer to herself, she pointed at the dessert with her fork, “another one please, I ain’t sharing this one.”
“Aye, that’s what usually happens,” said the waitress towards Robbie.
“How’s your mum and dad?” asked Anna after she had finished her dessert.
“Dad took early retirement and they sold up and moved to Cobourg, they both love it,” he looked at her, “what about yours, apart from not giving you my letters.”
“Dad’s still working for the bank, mum is still painting,” she laughed lightly, “they bought a place in the woods, its small cabin near a lake, mum spends, probably too much time up there, says the light is good for her work.”
“You should come by the book shop, show you my empire,” Robbie looked at her trying to gaze her reaction, “I’ll give you a good discount if you buy anything, please buy something, most people just browse.”
She smiled at him, “What’s the store called?”
“A Novel Idea,” he replied.
“Good name,” she replied.
“Before I opened it I told the family what I wanted to do, Gramps said, “what a novel idea,” as a sort of joke, anyway a few months later he died and he left me some money in his will which I used to open the store, so I took the name as a kind of homage to him.”
“I’m sure he would have been proud of you,” Anna replied, she turned and smiled as the waitress arrived with Robbie’s dessert, “you’ll love it,” she added, Anna was now an instant expert in the fine art of a deep fried Mars Bar.
“God that’s good,” announced Robbie when he tasted his dessert.
“So what else are you up to?”
Robbie looked at her, unsure whether or not she would laugh at his response. “I’m writing a book about my great grandfather.”
Anna’s eyes widened, “really, wow.”
Robbie grew more confident, “I found, basically a diary from when he left St Kilda up until he moved to Canada,” he smiled at her and took a drink of beer, “I’m also getting stories from the family and using what I remembered.”
“Tell me what you found,” asked Anna.
Robbie shook his head, “I’m still.”
Anna cut him off, “please, it will be good to think of,” she paused, trying to find the right words. “Happier times in my life.”
Robbie nodded and smiled at her, “well we knew him as Papa John, but he was born Seathan which is the Gaelic way of saying John. He was born on St Kilda and left the island when he was 24, seems the island was evacuated, it was too hard to live there.”
“Nobody lives there anymore?” asked Anna.
“Not to call home no,” replied Robbie, “there are a few people who spend the summer there, researchers I think. So anyway Papa John moved to a place called Larachbeg where he met a local girl and got married. That’s where my grandfather was born,” Robbie took a sip of his beer. “Seems his childhood friend Donnchadh,” he looked up as he could tell Anna was staring at him, he nodded his head, “that’s where my weird middle name comes from, it was in his honour, seems he died in an accident, I’m not sure what happened but a few months later Papa John, my great-grandmother Isabella and my grandfather all moved to Toronto, that was in 1937.”
“What do you think happened to his friend?” asked Anna.
“I’ve searched a bit on line, there is a story about 4 men dying in a boat accident but it didn’t mention any names, but it happened at that time and just off the coast near Larachbeg, so it’s possible that’s where he died.”
“So it’s possible that if the accident never happened, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
“Why’s that?” asked Robbie.
Anna laughed. “Because Papa John would never have left Scotland.”
“I never thought of it that way,” replied Robbie.
“You need to find out what happened to him, you were named after him, and he must have been important to Papa John; I mean he moved to the other side of the Atlantic to get away from the memory.”
“Your right.”
“I’ll help you,” said Anna slightly excitedly, “that’s if you want me to.”
“Of course you can help,” Robbie looked up at the flag on the wall before turning towa
rds Anna, “a book can take a while to research and to write,” Anna nodded, “I mean it can take a year even two.”
Anna grinned, “It will probably take that amount of time to get my head together anyway,” she picked up her beer and took a large drink. “How far did Papa John’s diary go back?”
“He wrote about his grandfather,” Robbie paused for a second, “which would be my great, great, great grandfather, anyway seems he married a widower and they brought up her children and also two that they had together, one of them was Papa John’s father.”
“Do you know his name?” asked Anna.
“Tosdach,” replied Robbie.
“What kind of name is that?”
“I think it was some sort of nickname, I found the word in a Gaelic dictionary and it means silent,” Robbie shrugged his shoulders, “maybe he didn’t say much.”
“What else did you find?”
“There are a lot of stories about the first few months after they left St Kilda,” he looked at her and smiled, “it would be better is you just read it for yourself, maybe you will take a different perspective of what he has written.”
Anna nodded her head, “get a woman’s input.” She looked at him, “are you sure about this?”
He laughed, “It’s only a book, and nobody will probably read it anyway.”
She gently bit her bottom lip, “I mean me,” she looked down for a few moments, “I mean back in your life, not that I,” she exhaled deeply, “to quote Texas, I don’t want a lover, I just need a friend,” she shook her head, “look, life has been pretty crappy these last few years, ok 10 years, maybe 15. I just need to get my life together. I just want to know if you can, deal with that?”
Robbie looked at
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