Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop (22 page)

 

Chapter 21

C
HRISTMA
S
E
VE
WAS
a ridiculously busy day in the shop. Tina had been quite right, everyone went crazy at the end of the year. There wasn't a large box of chocolates unsold; children bought boxes of travel sweets for their mums and dads because they liked the pictures on them; stocking fillers were bought, candy canes by the score, Turkish delight and marzipan fruit for after dinner; soft marshmallows for hot chocolate in cold fingers, chews for watching the telly, and of course boxes of assorted candies. Everyone had one of those. Big, small, and anywhere in between.

Anton came in, looking timid.

“Anton!” said Rosie, amazed. He must have lost even more weight. “Look at you!” His little wife next to him beamed with pride.

“I know,” said Anton.

“I don't think you're the fattest man in Lipton any more! I reckon Doctor Hye is fatter than you!”

Anton beamed.

“Well done,” said Rosie to his wife.

“Oh no, he had to want to do it,” she said. “Plus, after the accident the food delivery companies didn't want to come out here so much. So he couldn't get all those secret deliveries.”

Rosie thought about this.

“Well,” she said finally. “It's nice to know that out of something so awful, some good could come.”

“And I got a job!” said Anton.

“No way! Wonderful!”

“I'm Santa Claus!” said Anton. “At the shopping center in Carningford.”

“Wonderful! What a perfect job for you, you're so nice to everyone.”

Anton flushed.

“Of course, it means I have to keep a BIT of a tummy.”

“Not at all,” said Rosie heartily. “Next year you can play an elf. Now what would you like? Small bags only.”

Anton's wife winked at her.

“I would like . . . just the one lollipop,” said Anton. “As a treat.”

Rosie looked at him.

“Truly?”

“Yes,” said Anton stoically. “I have changed. Thanks to you.”

“Could you say that more loudly when there are more ­people around to hear you?” said Rosie, handing him his lollipop. “And not just a good robot.”

“Can Robot have lollipop now?” came a robot voice from down near her feet.

“No.”

M
ORAY
CALLED
TO
tell her Henry had died at just after three o'clock. Rosie looked at Tina and swallowed hard; it seemed ridiculous to feel so upset, she had hardly known him. But then, of course, it was Lilian she was sad for.

“Who was with him?” asked Tina.

“Lilian,” said Rosie. “Oh, I'm so glad. Although, poor Edward.”

“I think Edward made his peace,” said Tina with the wise look of someone who'd gathered all the town gossip from Jake's nights out at the Red Lion.

“I think he did too,” said Rosie thoughtfully. “Oh dear, though. What about Lilian? To have gotten back the love of her life . . . for a week.”

“Better to spend a week with someone you love than a lifetime with someone you don't,” said Tina. She was only speculating, and was therefore entirely surprised to see Rosie suddenly collapse in tears.

“What? What is it? What have I said?”

“Oh Tina,” said Rosie, and all of a sudden it came flooding out. Tina put the
BACK
IN
5
MINUTES
sign on the door and made them both large cups of tea.

“He's just . . . he said he doesn't want to get married, that I'm bugging him, that it's all . . . Tina, I think it's all off!”

Tina furtively twisted her own engagement ring.

“Oh no, it's not.”

“I think so . . . I mentioned going to Australia, maybe, with my mum, and he didn't even care! Didn't even think about it. I don't even . . . I don't even . . . he's just gone to London. I think when Angie goes away in a ­couple of days, he's going to move back to Peak House . . . and I'll be all by myself! Forever!”

“I think we're going to need more tea” said Tina. “Oh God, Rosie. I had no idea. I'm so sorry.”

“Me too,” sobbed Rosie. “I love him so much Tina, so much. But now I don't see that there's any point in staying here after all.”

“But you like it here, don't you?”

“I fell in love with it,” said Rosie. “With the town, with the ­people, with Stephen, with the shop, with everything.”

She swallowed. “But I don't think it loves me back.”

“But what about Lilian?”

“I think she thinks I should go. Spend time with my family,” said Rosie.

Meridian came up to Rosie, still with her robot helmet on.

“Don't cry, Auntie Rosie,” she said, clumsily trying to dry away her tears. “Was Kelly mean to you?”

“No,” said Rosie. “You guys are never mean to me.”

“Kelly is mean to me,” said Meridian. She hugged Rosie tightly. “Would you like to come to my house and have a sleepover?”

Rosie smiled.

“Sometime.”

“We can watch
Finding Nemo
. I like Nemo films. Or James Bond.'

“You're not allowed to watch James Bond.”

“I. AM. JAMES. BOND.”

“Oh dear,” said Tina. “Well. You know I grew up here, right?”

Rosie nodded.

“I've known Stephen Lakeman all my life, okay?'

Rosie nodded again.

“I've seen him with loads of girlfriends, half of them looking like total supermodels.”

“Not helping.”

“But I swear I've never . . . I've never seen him as smitten with anyone in my life as he is with you. I've never seen him live with someone, I've never seen him light up with someone like he does with you and I swear no one else ever got to meet his mother.”

“Hmm.”

“I think you're mad. I think he does love you, and you're just getting your knickers in a twist because it's not moving as fast as you'd like it to. He's just been in a big accident!”

“I know,” said Rosie. “But it's more than that. You know what he's like. He can be so grudging, so sullen.”

“Are you sure?” said Tina. “Are you sure it's not just you picking faults?”

“Well, if it's that,” said Rosie, “then that's just as bad, isn't it? What would we be like in ten years?”

Tina shrugged. “Oh, I could see you two in ten years.”

“Really?” said Rosie, curious.

“Oh yes. You'll get nice and plump.”

“Well, thanks a BUNCH!”

“Oh, don't be daft. Kids do that to you.”

“You had twins and you look all right.”

“I had twins at twenty-­four,” said Tina. “Anyway, shush, do you want to hear this or not?”

“Yes,” said Rosie grudgingly. “Can you do another version where I'm really really slender and elegant?”

“But he loves your gorgeous bosom and all of that. Trust me, if he wanted a stick, he had plenty of those London models after him.”

“Yes, again, thank you,” said Rosie.

“So, anyway. And he'll still be rangy and thin and gorgeous.”

“Great,” said Rosie. “Well, this just gets better and better.”

“And he goes out striding the hills with the boys—­for sure you'll have boys, you're the type.”

“Mm,” said Rosie.

“And you'll cook something yummy for when they come in all ruddy cheeked and starving, and it'll be lovely.”

There was a pause.

“Are you sure,” asked Rosie eventually, “that you haven't just mixed up my imaginary future with a gravy advert you saw on television?”

Tina thought for a moment.

“I think I did, didn't I?”

“Yes,” said Rosie.

“Well, there's no reason it can't happen.”

“What, gravy adverts come true?”

“Mine's going to,” said Tina.

There was no arguing with that. Rosie opened up the shop again and tried to get distracted by the sheer number of customers piling in and out wishing them a happy Christmas and leaving gifts and cards for Lilian. They passed on the news again and again. ­People were stunned and fascinated; one or two of the older ones remembered Henry's parents and the devastation they had lived with for the rest of their lives.

“All of those losses,” said old Mrs. Bell from Bell's Farm, picking up her favorite Parma violets for her visiting grandchildren, who hated them and found them sickly, but who in later life would love the smell because it would make them remember their grandmother who had always been so kind to them.“That war blew a hole through the village, you know.”

“Lilian always said.”

“Well, I was born in the war, so I don't remember it, but even as a girl you could feel it. The pain on ­people's faces when they watched us playing. There were a few very late babies too. It's hard to grow up in a home where a mother has lost a son,” she observed. “Some of them hated even letting their boys get married.”

“I hadn't even really thought about his mum and dad,” said Tina. “God.” She shivered again.

“It must have just been a mix-­up,” continued Mrs. Bell. “Got shipped back to Halifax, found himself a job, built a new life. Just like that.”

“Imagine,” said Rosie, deep in thought.

A
T
FOUR
THIRTY
, after they'd sold basically everything, Rosie was on the point of closing up and giving Tina her Christmas bonus when there was a creak at the door. It barely tinkled as the bearded man with glasses pushed it open carefully. It was Edison's dad, Arthur. He pushed the wheelchair in.

“Edison!” said Rosie and Tina in unison, Rosie's worries temporarily forgotten.

Edison pushed himself in very slowly and carefully on his wheelchair. Meridian wandered out to see what was going on.

“Who's this?” asked Edison warily.

“I'm a robot now,” said Meridian. “Only not a real robot. A little one.”

“You see,” said Edison. “That's mostly where I go. Behind there. It's my place”

“I like your robot chair.”

“I know, it's cool,” said Edison, brightening slightly.

“Hello!” said Rosie. “How's Hester?”

“Uncomfortable,” said Arthur. “Hello there. Can I have two hundred and twenty grams of coconut spaceships?”

“I have never been asked in metric before,” said Rosie. “Amazing. You really are a scientist, aren't you?”

He smiled shyly. “A scientist whose wife currently has very peculiar tastes. I also need two hundred and twenty grams of licorice allsorts and some gravel.”

Rosie looked at Edison.

“I miss you,” she said.

Edison nodded and smiled, as if this was only to be expected.

“Yes, I guess she's too small to be much use.”

Rosie muted the fact that Edison had never been remotely useful either and refrained from taking sides.

“I am MUCH USE,” came the defiant voice. “If we get BAD SPIES.”

“I think I'm going to get a rocket launcher fitted,” said Edison, indicating his right armrest. “Just here.”

Rosie glanced at Edison's dad, who just said mildly, “All right, you start drawing up the plans and I'll have a look in the shed.”

“So, the wheelchair . . .” Rosie started, not knowing a good way to get into the conversation.

“Two months, they're hoping,” said Arthur. “Lots of physio. . . . He'll have faint neck problems, probably, for the rest of his life, but he's healed remarkably well for a puny thing.”He smiled at this and clearly didn't mean it in the slightest.

Edison lowered his voice.

“They're replacing all my bones with adamantium so I will be super strong like Wolverine.”

“I see,” said Rosie. “Wow, you are going to be fearless after that.”

“I think everyone at school is already afraid of me,” said Edison.

“In case they break you,” said his dad. “Thanks, Rosie.”

Meridian looked at Edison.

“So anyway, okay, maybe you can keep my place for me until I come back,” said Edison. “Which is soon.”

“That's okay,” said Meridian. “I going back to 'Strilia. Rosie coming with me.”

Arthur and Tina both raised their eyebrows at this.

“I'm coming to VISIT,” said Rosie, her cheeks coloring.

“Grangy says you're coming to stay prolly,” prattled on Meridian. “She said you'll have sleepovers with me forever.”

“Well, this is sad news,” said Arthur.

“And completely untrue!” said Rosie. “Please don't take your town gossip from a three-­year-­old!”

“Out of the mouths of babes,” said Tina.

“And you can shush too, as if I'd make plans like this without telling you.”

Arthur and Tina swapped glances.

“Well,” he said. “Merry Christmas one and all.”

“And to you,” said Rosie. “Have a wonderful day!”

“I think Santa is going to be very busy tonight,” said Edison. “Do you know what speed he travels at? Nine hundred kilometers per second. Fortunately he's magic, otherwise all the reindeer would burn up on entry. That's why Rudolph has a red nose, though. Because he goes at the front.”

“Well, I'm glad you've thought this through,” said Rosie. She came out behind the counter and kissed his pale blond hair.

“Happy Christmas, my dearie.”

He felt so thin under his scarf and heavy puffa jacket; his little arms were like sticks.

“I prescribe plenty of sweeties,” she said.

“That's why I like you better than Moray and all those hospital doctors,” said Edison, his voice muffled through the hug.

E
DWAR
D
DROPPED
OFF
a very tired, very quiet Lilian at Rosie's house before she went back to the home. They would join the rest of the family up the hill in the morning, but Lilian wanted to go through Henry's clothes and things, which Edward had said would be fine. Plus it would give her a bit of peace and quiet in the morning while Angie and Pip managed the children's unbearable excitement up at Peak House.