CHAPTER 9
Rosa woke to Hot licking her nose. Her head was thumping.
‘Happy Christmas, darling hound. At least you never let me down.’
She eased herself awkwardly up from the sagging sofa and put one hand on her now aching lower back. She groaned, realising she hadn’t put a sheet down to sleep on, so her bare legs had been against the dirty sofa. But that was the least of her problems. It seemed that Sheila Hannafore, the Mamma of the Cockleberry Bay Mafia, wasn’t quite as pleasant as she had assumed.
How bloody dare she set her up like that - and in such an elaborate way too? Her duplicitous son didn’t even live around here. And worse, how dare he go along with her devious plan? Rosa realised that she had not been open about the shop, but that was her business. Why should everybody know? After all, they would have found out soon enough. Dear, darling Lucas obviously wasn’t that bothered about his girlfriend either. Showing off on the Karaoke - you’d have thought he would have been quiet in reflection of what had happened. She put on a funny voice. ‘Oh hi, I’m Luke the plumber.’ Lying twat!
She threw the double doors open at the end of the lounge and took in the beautiful vista. It was cold, but bright. Gulls were soaring over the headland and she could see the white specks of boats sailing on the horizon. She checked her phone and saw a missed call from Josh. She vaguely remembered calling him before bed and getting no answer.
Still wearing her clothes from the night before, she made her way down to the shop kitchen. Thank goodness she had tea and milk - but that was about all there was, apart from half a sandwich left from the other day and a packet of crisps. She made herself a cup of tea, undid her case and pulled some joggers up under her dress, then put on her coat and went and sat out on the roof terrace, her loyal hound at her side.
Cockleberry Bay was silent, apart from the insistent cry of the gulls. She took a big slug of her tea, blew a massive plume of steam into the cold air and allowed the sound of the sea to soothe her.
Everything had been far too easy up until now, Rosa thought bitterly. What had she been thinking of, leaving the safety of Josh and the London house? But she didn’t have to stay here; she could walk away. Then again, what would she be going back to really? Aside from Josh, what did she have in London? With no qualifications to her name, she would just find another mindless, badly paid job. She didn’t even have any true friends since she’d moved to the East End, and those she had met before hadn’t bothered to keep in touch aside from the occasional Facebook quip. Yes, there was the odd person she had met in her many jobs, but there wasn’t one she could call ‘a 3 a.m. friend’, someone who would drop everything to see her all right at any time of day or night. Maybe even Josh felt a bit sorry for her, she thought and winced - and that was why he had been so kind.
Shivering, she went back inside and shut the doors. Christmas Day, with no food to mention and not even a television on which to watch a rerun of The Snowman. If she had had the capacity to cry, she would have thrown herself down and sobbed her heart out.
As she sat mute on the baggy sofa, her nose buried in Hot’s comforting coat, memories of the night before started coming back to her. She cringed, thinking of Seb trying to touch her up on the beach. What on earth was he thinking? Had she led him on? No!
Oh lord, how could she ever hold her head up on the streets of Cockleberry Bay again?
She looked at the floor. Her handbag lay upturned where she’d dumped it last night and its contents were strewn everywhere. The starfish on the key ring lay propped up against the skirting board. Picking it up, she noticed a smudge of dirt on it from dropping it on the pavement last night. As she began rubbing it clean with her fingers, a bright shard of sunlight lit up the whole room, Hot came alert and barked.
Gently shushing him, Rosa stood up with a defiant look on her face.
‘Fuck them - fuck the whole pack of them. If a few small-minded people think they are going to knock Rosa Larkin down, they’ve got another think coming.’
She started to run a bath. Hot got up and joined her, settling down onto the old green rug which was currently doubling as a bath mat. Rosa loved a long bubble bath but for now she would have to make do with just water; she didn’t even have any shower gel since in her haste to get out of the Ship last night, she had left most of her toiletries in her room. But at least the water was hot here and the old bath, deep.
Lying back, she closed her eyes. She had got through worse than this, she told herself, and this was her chance to turn her life around and take control. She swirled the calming water around her body. This was her place - her own place - and whoever had left it to her, well, they must have had faith that she could make it work. How sad that they hadn’t been able to tell her that in the ‘real world’ though.
She was brought back to reality by one of the bulbs in her showbiz-style mirror popping and going out. Only five out of the twelve were working now; she really must go and get some more of those too.
Drying herself with her scratchy cream towel, she thought back again to last night. She couldn’t even remember what, if anything, she had said to Sheila. In fact, she couldn’t even remember the walk back up the hill. One of her social workers had always said to her, ‘When the drink’s in, the wit’s out.’ Rosa had obviously berated her for saying it, but the woman had been so right. She thought back to the many times she’d got into arguments, slept with someone unsuitable or just made ridiculous decisions, all of which she had done when she had been too drunk to think sensibly. But she liked drinking, Rosa sighed. It was an escape. Helped her sleep. Helped her forget.
Once dressed, she walked downstairs, took the half-eaten sandwich out of the shop kitchen fridge, fed Hot with some of the chicken out of it and downed a pint of tap-water. She noticed how lovely and cold and fresh-tasting the water was, and she knew from watching the many survival programmes she loved, that even if she couldn’t find food in this godforsaken place for the next two days, with fresh water she wouldn’t die. She would just have to make sure she could find some scraps for Hot.
Just as she was about to leave, Josh phoned.
‘Happy Christmas to my two favourite dogs.’
‘Ha ha. Very funny. Now tell me what’s happy about it.’
‘Uh oh. I suspect a tequila hangover.’
‘Stop pretending you know me so well, but yes, slammers and JD and a toke of weed and the plumber not being who he said he was.’
‘You what?’
Minus the bony finger incident, Rosa relayed the whole sorry story.
‘I really don’t understand why on earth they would go to so much trouble to find out what’s going on?’
‘Nor me. But I’ve got to ride the storm. I will just keep myself to myself from now on. There are many more people in this town than those few who have already wanted to make trouble for me. And I don’t have any reason to go in that pub again. There’s another one up the very top of the hill called the Lobster Pot, and Hot and I are on a mission to check it out - in a minute, in fact. On our search for food.’
‘Oh Rosa, don’t tell me you haven’t got any supplies in?’
‘Nada. Well, a packet of crisps. It’s Hot I’m more worried about, but you know me. When you’ve lived on the streets before, this isn’t even an obstacle and I’ve got water.’
Josh’s face was pained at the other end of the phone.
‘I could try and come down tomorrow, but Mum’s invited Great-Auntie Deirdre and tells me it may be the last time I might ever see her.’
Rosa laughed. ‘Ho ho ho. What Christmas cheer in the Smith household.’
‘Exactly! Wish I was in the peace and quiet with you. The nieces and nephews have been up since five. Mum’s already demented with worry that the turkey won’t be cooked before the Queen’s speech. I should have gone with Dad. He’s been out with the dog for two hours, and I’m sure I saw him sneak a hip-flask into his pocket before he left.’
‘Suddenly I feel a whole lot better.’
‘Good. Now do you want me to Google and see what’s open near you?’
‘I may be away from the big city, Josh, but I do have 3G. In fact, you’ve made me think. I need to sort broadband and a phone for the shop too.’ Rosa sighed. ‘More bloody expense.’
‘Welcome to the real world, girl.’
‘On that note, shit off now, please. Me and Hot need to get noses down on our search for food and redemption.’
‘Ha! The food bit of that should be easier than the other. Anyway, try and make the best of it and I’ll see you in a couple of days. Let me know if you need anything.’
‘Thanks a lot, and no cracker-pulling in front of Auntie Deirdre.’ Rosa put a lead on a now-whining Hot, saying, ‘I know you’re a hungry boy, but we are going to sort this.’
She was relieved that aside from another couple of dog walkers, the streets were quiet. She replied with a polite ‘Happy Christmas’ as they headed the opposite way down to the beach.
Rosa wasn’t surprised to find that the Co-op was closed but pleased to see it was open again on Boxing Day for a few hours in the morning. She jerked Hot’s lead to try and stop him from licking up the various unsavoury things he could find on the ground. Heading further up the hill, she could see that the Lobster Pot was another picturesque old white building, with lovely hanging baskets full of winter pansies along the whole front of it. A Christmas tree with coloured lights stood amidst the benches outside. It was a lot classier-looking than the rough and ready Ship, she thought. An OPEN FOR CHRISTMAS DRINKS 12 till 2 sign was perched in one of the windows, plus a NO VACANCIES sign.
It was eleven o’clock, an hour until it opened. She had to find Hot some food before then. She vaguely remembered on her journey from the station, a garage at the very top of the hill as you turned down into the bay - probably around a mile away from where they were now. Quite a walk for the pampered Hot. She went to look for it on the internet but couldn’t get a signal. Rather than let Josh know that she should have taken up his offer, she kept walking. With her hangover still causing her grief, she stopped for a second to give Hot a rest and to catch her own breath. It was a bloody steep hill, and despite having a great little figure and youth on her side so that she could eat whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, Rosa was aware that she could do with toning up in some areas and all this walking would certainly help that.
It was then she noticed the pretty little cottages either side of the narrow street. One caught her eye as there were two beautiful coloured crystals outside on the windowsill. The sign on the whitewashed wall said Seaspray Cottage and she remembered Mary saying it was where she and her gran lived. It amazed her that people could leave things out like that and they didn’t get stolen. They’d be gone in seconds anywhere else.
She carried on walking up the hill, wondering where dear Lucas’s girlfriend had been clobbered. It could have been anywhere as the road was so narrow and there was no lighting to mention.
With her mouth now feeling like a badger’s fanny, the sight of two cars filling up with petrol in the forecourt of a garage was the most marvellous mirage Rosa had ever seen. But it wasn’t a mirage, it turned out to be real, and the SPAR sign above confirmed that not only was the garage open, it also sold food.
She tied Hot up outside, said Happy Christmas to the young yawning lad behind the counter and began to hunt for supplies. But hunt was the operative word. Obviously, this was the only place around here open on Christmas morning and everyone had had the usual last-minute panics. She arrived at the checkout with a wire basket containing dog food, milk, fruit juice and toilet roll. There was no bread, so in addition she picked up a dozen eggs, two packets of bacon, a quiche with a sell-by date of today, a large tin of baked beans and a big bar of chocolate.
‘You wouldn’t have a bowl I could borrow, by any chance?’
Looking out at Hot, the young lad shook his head. ‘Sorry, love, but there’s a water tap around the back he can slurp from.’
Rosa walked around to where he had pointed and squeezed a sachet of dog food out onto the ground. Just as Hot was wolfing the last bit down, a car pulled up by their side. A middle-aged woman opened the passenger window and handed her three-pound coins, saying, ‘Here, my dear. Happy Christmas and may God bless you both.’
The car had moved away before Rosa had a chance to react. With her mad, unwashed hair and seeing her having to feed a dog on the ground, she might look like a poor homeless waif, but how far from the truth was that. No, she was Rosa Larkin, proud owner of the Corner Shop of Cockleberry Bay - and after last night’s fiasco she was more determined than ever to make it a success.