Little Eden Page 6

  “Anything could happen.” Jack said. “Life is full of unexpected events, and some will be good ones!”

  “I hope this year will bring only good things!” Lucy wished.

  “I have a feeling that something bad will happen,” Sophie replied shaking her head. “After what Alienor said in the crypt about dark forces, I have a sense of foreboding in the pit of my stomach when I think about the year ahead.”

  “It’s just your grief talking, old girl,” Jack said. “I wouldn’t put too much store in a ghost story. All will be well, you’ll see.”

  “I think,” Sophie sighed as she looked up into the sky. “This could be the last New Year any of us see in Little Eden.”

  Chapter 5

  ~ * ~

  Next morning, Tambo was outside playing in a fresh layer of snow with Jack Fortune, Minnie Fig, from Buttons and Bows Craft Shop across the Square, and Alice. They were building various snowmen and snow animals around Daisy Place. Lucy called down to them from the roof terrace of the Café, “Tambo, honey, can you go over to the restaurant and ask Nico if he has a spare lasagne and garlic bread? I completely forgot, the new headmistress, Miss Huggins, is coming for lunch!”

  “Right ho!” Tambo shouted back up to her. “Look Mummy! Alice made an owl and I made You! This is Aunt Sophie and we made an angel - which is really Aunt Lilly!”

  “Who is that?” Lucy said, pointing at a snowman whose enormous head was perched precariously on top of a very tiny body.

  “That’s Jack!” Tambo shouted up. “Minnie said he had a big head – so we made him with one!”

  “You can’t win ‘em all,” Jack laughed. “Hey Luce - can I meet this new headmistress?” he added with a pleading smile.

  Lucy grimaced and then, reluctantly, nodded in consent. “Okay, but hands off! She will be trying to settle in, and by the sounds of it, the new school will take up most of her time, so she won’t have much time for romance.”

  “Who said anything about romance?” Jack chuckled and winked. He blew a kiss to Lucy and smiled again.

  “Minnie, why don’t you and Linnet come to lunch with Alice?” Lucy called down again. “It might give poor Miss Huggins a buffer to Jack-the-lad here! Robert’s coming too, so actually, thinking about it - Tambo - you’d better ask Nico for two lasagnes.”

  After a while, Minnie came in from the cold, and found Linnet in the Café kitchen already helping Lucy prepare the lunch - or at least they were taking Nico’s bubbling hot lasagnes out of the oven and chopping up some crisp green salad.

  The Cafe kitchen is a spacious and usually, a very bustling place. There is always the smell of fresh bread wafting in the air and in spite of the shining chrome, steel, glass and bevelled white ceramic tile, it always sends a cosy and welcoming sensation through all who enter there. Fridges and freezers of different sizes and colours hold all manner of delicacies and delights inside them. Shelves are laden with jars of homemade jams, tins of flour, baskets of fresh fruits, and delectable pots of golden syrup and runny honey. The ceiling is hung with utensils, copper pots, and different-coloured enamelled pans, whilst an eclectic mix of fine china cups and saucers are carefully arranged on a colossal Welsh dresser, which almost fills the back wall, and a prodigiously long marble-topped oak table graces the middle of the room. A king-sized stove stands next to a queen-sized bread oven, from which Mrs Bakewell produces a festival of scones, cakes, cookies, muffins and boundless other sweet delicacies on a daily basis.

  Most days it is a hive of activity, but today was Sunday and there was just Lucy, Linnet and Minnie in there, chatting away and preparing lunch.

  “What do you suppose Miss Huggins will be like?” Minnie asked Lucy as she picked up a cucumber and started chopping. “I think, with a name like Miss Huggins, she must be nice and bouncy, don’t you think? Very cuddly and chubby - you know - carrying a few extra ‘huggy’ pounds! A matron sort! That’s just what the kids at the new school will need.”

  “I bet she’s a middle-aged woman wearing some nice knitwear and carrying an umbrella wherever she goes!” Lucy giggled.

  “She isn’t Mary Poppins!” Linnet laughed, as she put some hot garlic bread in a basket.

  Miss Huggins arrived at the Café at exactly twelve noon. Minnie saw her first through the window. “Erm…as far as Miss Huggins goes… girls…” Minnie said…“We couldn’t have been more wrong! Look!”

  Miss Adela Huggins was not carrying any extra “huggy” pounds or an umbrella. In fact she looked more like a Hollywood goddess. She was immaculately dressed for a Californian winter and she tottered up the alleyway from Eve Street, keeping upright the best she could in her high-heeled boots, dragging her suitcase behind her; whilst her son Joshua, awe struck by his surroundings, fell over a mound of snow that Alice had shaped like a goose.

  Tambo and Alice ran into the Café and threw their coats onto the floor. “They’re here!” Tambo shouted as he pulled Alice’s wellies off for her, and chucked his own into the shoe basket at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Shall I go wake Aunt Sophie? I want to show her what we made,” Tambo asked his mum.

  “No, sweetie,” Lucy said. “Aunt Sophie is exhausted - best leave her to sleep.”

  “Why does Sophie get so tired?” Alice asked, pulling on her enormous, fluffy, tiger-feet slippers.

  “Because she has an illness called chronic fatigue,” Lucy explained. “It means…well,” she paused a moment to think of the easiest way to describe it to Alice. “Imagine we all have a charger inside us like a mobile phone, and when we go to bed or meditate, we recharge, so that we can do all the things we want to do whilst we are awake - like build snowmen or eat lunch! Sophie’s charger doesn’t always work properly, so she can’t recharge like we can. She could sleep and sleep for days and it wouldn’t make much difference. Sometimes her battery works fine for a while and then goes flat again.”

  “Can’t we buy her a new charger?” Alice asked, thinking that must be the simplest solution.

  “No sweetie!” Lucy replied, trying not to laugh.

  “What if Sophie doesn’t wake up, like Lilly?” Alice asked, helping Lucy fold some dotty napkins into triangles. Lucy felt a little alarmed that Alice would fear such a thing, so said kindly, “Oh, no, that won’t happen, don’t you worry about that, sweetie.”

  “But Mummy said, ‘Lilly went to sleep and woke up in Heaven’,” Alice replied, and looked at her mother, Linnet, who had just come into the Café carrying a bowl of salad, and who looked rather embarrassed.

  “Oh! I see!” Lucy replied. “I promise you Sophie isn’t going to die in her sleep.” Lucy looked at the sheepish Linnet and tried to do some damage limitation. “There are different kinds of sleep, Alice. Sophie’s sleep is extra sleep; we all have normal sleep, and then there is the special sleep called death that means you wake up in Heaven. But that won’t be happening to anyone again for a while.”

  “Can death sleep happen to me?” Alice asked, looking concerned again.

  “Oh! What a question!” Linnet said impatiently; but with that, the Café door opened and their two, very cold and tired, new guests walked in.

  A warm blast of air welcomed Miss Adela Huggins and her son Joshua into the Café, and it was followed by hearty greetings and introductions. Alice took the opportunity to ask her new headmistress about waking up in Heaven as soon as she could. Linnet looked mortified, but Miss Huggins just smiled and said, “Well now, Alice, that is a big question for a little girl! I like to think of it this way; you are only human for a very short time - just a few years - maybe a hundred at the most; the rest of the time you are an angel and you live in Heaven. You live there for eternity with all your angel friends! Being human is a bit like going on holiday. So, when you are not human any more you wake up where you started from - in Heaven!”

  Alice looked satisfied with that answer and Miss Huggins changed the su
bject before Alice could ask any more ‘difficult to answer’ questions!

  “Now!” she said. “You tell me all about yourself; and I want to know all about Tambo too! How old are you both, and what do you like best at school?”

  Everyone chatted merrily as they ate lunch, and Miss Huggins found out that Tambo was quite the musician, and requested he play the piano for her when the main course was finished. “What can you play?” Miss Huggins asked him.

  “Anything I have heard before,” Tambo replied, going to the white baby grand piano, which sat in the corner of the Café under a multicoloured crystal chandelier. “What is your favourite song, Miss Huggins?”

  “Well, I don’t know!” Miss Huggins replied. “Perhaps, ‘Close every door to me’ from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”*

  “I know that one!” Alice piped up. “We did Joseph at school last term. I’ll sing it and Tambo will play it!”

  With that, Alice transformed the cheerful mood in the Café into a melancholy one as she began her lilting song…

  Close every door to me

  Hide all the world from me

  Bar all the windows

  And shut out the light

  If my life were important I

  Would ask will I live or die

  But I know the answers lie

  Far from this world.*

  Alice had a magical voice which transported the listener into another world. When she had finished, no one spoke for a good few seconds. It was as if their hearts, and the clocks, had stopped for a moment. Everyone felt suspended in time. Suddenly, Jack began to applaud and the others joined in.

  “This Café is heavenly! It’s so beautiful,” Miss Huggins said, sighing in a relaxed and happy way. “And so full of talent too!” She looked around at the quotes on the walls, at the fine china, the glistening mirrors behind the glass counter, and the multitude of cookie jars, cake stands and beautiful teapots. “It’s so traditionally English yet with a hint of the Parisian! It was a lovely lunch as well. We are very glad you still invited us. I mean, I was sorry to hear about your aunt.”

  “It’s best to keep busy I always think. And, isn’t company the best medicine? Or is that laughter?” Lucy replied, welling up at the thought of her Aunt Lil.

  “Play something upbeat Tambo. Cheer us all up again, buddy!” Jack suggested. Tambo grinned and joyfully played ‘Happy Feet’* whilst Alice and Joshua did a silly dance, making everyone laugh again!

  “I know!” Lucy said smiling. “What about something sweet? We have loads of cake left from last night.”

  “Can we go and play?” Tambo asked, when they had finished their desert.

  “Yes? Can we can show Joshua Little Eden?” Alice asked.

  “Don’t take him too far!” Lucy said, as she brewed some tea and coffee. “Stay in The Peace Gardens, then there won’t be any traffic. Go and see if Blue wants to join you, and you can introduce Joshua to Dr G. Oh, and you can show him the Christmas tree on the lake too. They will be taking the lights down in a few days. Joshua, you can borrow some wellies and gloves.”

  “Be careful near the water and do not stand on it if it is icy! It will be wafer thin and won’t take your weight!” Linnet told Alice sternly. “Are you listening? Did you hear what I just said about the lake?”

  “Yes, Mummy!” Alice replied, putting on her outdoor garb as quickly as she could, and in a wink, off the children went, out into the fading light of an English winter’s afternoon.

  The adults began to get to know each other as the kids went out to play. Miss Huggins was quizzed rather a lot about her life but didn’t seem to mind talking about herself.

  “How is it you are related to Robert again?” Lucy asked her. “He did explain it, but I never can get my head around second cousins twice removed and such like.”

  Adela laughed. “Oh, it’s a long story,” she replied, “I am one of the American Bartlett-Harts, descended from Henri Bartlett who went to the colonies in the 1600’s with his wife and family. They were some of the first settlers in Massachusetts. Henri was younger brother to Robert; not your Robert, but the 1600’s Robert, who inherited Little Eden back then. My paternal grandmother was a Bartlett, she married my grandfather, Christopher Huggins, so we lost the family name then.”

  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Minnie asked.

  “My brother moved to Sedona a few years ago, and I have a half-sister, she is a veterinarian in Venice Beach.”

  “Sedona?” Lucy interrupted. “Oh! How exciting. Sophie and I have always wanted to visit that place. They say it’s the Glastonbury of America!”

  “My brother seems to think it is an important spiritual site.” Adela nodded. “We don’t see much of him now. He is a shaman and a writer.”

  “Oh! He would love our Bookshop at the back of the Café here!” Lucy said. “After Watkins, it’s the biggest bookshop of its kind in London! Mr T and Titch are experts in ancient manuscripts and such. They sell over the Internet - to all over the world!”

  Lucy was always enthusiastic about the Café-Bookshop.

  “The books go up four floors! Mr T has a precious collection of ancient books and manuscripts down in the cellar as well; but you have to have an appointment to see them and only millionaires can afford to buy them. We may have your brother’s book on the shelves. Is he a Huggins too?”

  “No, he’s called Cooper Stone,” Miss Huggins replied, sipping her coffee. “He changed his name for spiritual reasons.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t for legal reasons!” Jack chuckled but stopped when he saw Adela Huggins flash him her best headmistress look which let him know that she was quite serious and that she didn’t consider it a joke.

  “Cooper Stone?” Lucy exclaimed. “My sister, Sophie, has read all of his books! She will be so excited that he’s your brother. Let’s take our coffee into the Bookshop. There are sofas in there. I will show you your brother’s books on our shelves.” Lucy led the way and the others followed, carrying their drinks with them.

  They went into the Bookshop through the back of the Café where the two meet (although, you could say that the Café is at the back of the Bookshop, depending on how you look at it). The bookshop frontage gives out onto Eve Street. Large windows are filled with the latest titles, and heavy wooden shutters open upwards to make canopies, under which, cheaper second-hand paperbacks are arranged in old tea chests, and placed on the pavement on fine days. Inside, just as Lucy had described, towering shelves cling to the walls as they rise up a full four stories high to greet a regal stained glass skylight above. Wooden balconies seem to unfold from the walls, as if suspended in mid-air, providing galleries for each floor. A grandiose spiral staircase descends into a crescent-shaped sales counter, which is bathed in patterns of multi-coloured sunshine at certain times of day from the skylight above. It is a veritable Gothic cathedral of consciousness!

  “Wow!” Miss Huggins said as she gazed upwards into a sky of books. “Now this is what I call a bookshop! It’s marvellous! Gee, even the chandeliers are made of books. This is extraordinary! I could live my whole life in a palace of books like this.” She smiled and walked around, touching the books with reverence, as she soaked in the all-embracing ocean of knowledge. “Can I take a picture on my phone? I have to send Cooper a picture of this. He will love the idea of his books being in here!”

  Lucy switched the balcony lights on low, which gave the whole place a soft and mysterious glow; whilst the scent of caramelising sugar and freshly ground coffee wafted through from the Café.

  The bookshop really is one of the most relaxing places to spend an afternoon! It is possibly the neatest and most orderly riot of colour and wisdom ever seen! Real palm trees, in large Chinese ceramic pots, clean and clear the air. The usual musty smell of first editions and antique folios is enclosed in a series of enticing cubbyholes, beyond the m
ain area of the shop, down a narrow corridor, which takes you behind Sumona’s Tea Emporium next door. The corridor itself is constructed out of stacks of books, and above one’s head is a mysteriously self-supporting archway, made from parcels of novels. To go down into the private and elusive cellar you have to know which bookcase conceals the secret doorway. Only Mr T, Titch, Robert, Lucy, Sophie (and Lilly of course), know which one it is!

  Lucy looked up Cooper’s name in the ledger. “Your brother’s books are on the third balcony,” she told Adela. “They should be on…shelf number ten…under the section marked ‘S’. Mr T arranges the books by subject, alphabet, and also by level of knowledge. The higher up the books on the shelves or floors, the higher the level of consciousness contained within them. So, beginners start here, on the ground floor, and work their way up. I haven’t read any of your brother’s books myself, I’m afraid to say. But Sophie is onto level three and above now. I am still on the ground floor,” Lucy added.

  “I’m not sure I’ll ever leave the ground floor,” Minnie said.

  “You have read The Celestine Prophecy,”* Lucy reminded her. “That’s one of the best ‘awakener’ books there is for opening people’s minds. You have made a start!”

  Minnie shrugged. “Well, yes…but to be honest…” she whispered to Adela and Linnet...“I didn’t really understand most of it!”

  “You don’t have to understand true spiritual books for them to open your consciousness,” Lucy said kindly. “It’s the invisible energy inside the book that matters. Words can be like keys that open a door of consciousness in your mind without you even being aware at the time. Well, that’s what Sophie says anyway. She calls them Magic Books!”

  “I don’t really understand that idea either!” Minnie laughed. “But, I will keep trying!”

  “Here, let me guide you to your brother’s books,” Jack said to Adela and led her up the spiral staircase. They wove their way around to the third floor, where Jack offered to climb the polished mahogany ladder, which is attached to the top shelf and slides along a brass rail in the floor of the balcony. But Miss Huggins insisted she climb up herself in order to reach her brother’s books.