Relative Happiness (2 page)

She didn't wait for Susie to reply because there was no point. Her eyes were still glazed over.

Lexie ushered Adrian out of the theatre, but not before she saw Susan suddenly spring to life and hightail it down to the stage, her hands flapping. No doubt her gums were flapping too, but Lexie would worry about that later. She picked up her coat at the door. It was a huge woven shawl she had made herself. She felt good in it because it covered a multitude of sins.

Adrian walked beside her and that's when she knew she was in a dream. Stuff like this didn't happen to her. Where, oh where, were her sisters at this particular moment? She was dying for someone to notice her as she walked down the sidewalk with the most gorgeously romantic man she'd ever laid eyes on.

It was too windy to talk, so they smiled at each other and she gestured to the door of the coffee shop. He opened it for her. The warmth inside was a pleasant change from the blustery cold gusts they'd walked against.

The pimply teenager behind the counter looked like she'd swallowed her gum. Lexie preened, as if she were responsible.

“I'll have a large coffee. Black.” She needed to shed a few pounds. She looked at Adrian. “What can I get you?”

“You will get me nothing. I insist on paying. I'll have a large double double,” he announced proudly. “Can I talk you into one too, Lexie?”

“Oh, go on then.”

“Make that two,” he smiled at the love-struck high schooler. He turned to Lexie. “Ever since I arrived in Canada, I've wanted to say that. ‘Double double.'”

“Well, if you insist on being a Canadian, you better get us two maple donuts, too.”

“Sounds great.”

Lexie wandered over to the far corner by the window and found a table. She sat and watched as he charmed everyone behind the counter. She had only one thought in her head. She knew it was ridiculous, even for her, but she wanted to take care of him. She made up her mind he could join the theatre company.

He returned with their coffee and donuts on a tray. He placed her order in front of her. “Thank you,” she said. “I knew by your accent you weren't from this country, but I can't quite place it.”

“No one can.” He shrugged off his knapsack and took his seat. “It's a combination of seventeen different lingoes. Dad's a diplomat. My mother eventually went mad packing our belongings for the twenty-fifth time. Poor Mum.”

“Wow. I can tell right off the bat your life story will be a hundred times more fascinating than mine. Where were you born?”

“South Africa. Johannesburg, to be specific.”

“You're kidding!”

“Everyone has to be born somewhere,” he smiled, “and from what I've seen of this glorious island, I'd give my eye teeth to have been born here.”

“You've been over the Trail, then?”

“Mmm.” He held up his fingers and started to count. “I've been to Mabou, Meat Cove, Bay St. Lawrence, Chéticamp, and Ingonish, just to name a few stops.”

“Did you drive?”

“Lord no, I don't know how to drive. I biked. North Mountain proved a little challenging.”

“You
biked
up North Mountain? Are you insane?”

He took a sip of his coffee. “Actually I biked down. It took me thirty seconds. I attained a mach speed of two hundred miles an hour, involuntarily of course. I eventually closed my eyes since I figured I was dead anyway.”

Lexie laughed and couldn't stop. The image of him hanging on for dear life to a rickety bike was more than she could stand.

Adrian grinned at her.

Lexie took a sip of her coffee before she nodded, “Yes, you are definitely round the twist. It's November, for heaven's sake, which means it's freezing outside, or haven't you noticed? How can you bike in this weather?”

“I must confess, I get where I'm going rather quickly. No dilly-dallying for me.”

“I shouldn't wonder. They said on the radio this morning that we may have flurries tonight.”

“I'll face that when I come to it.”

“Obviously you live by the seat of your pants,” she smirked.

Adrian took a bite of his doughnut before he answered her. “You're quite right. Trouble is, after biking for months on end, I have no seat on any of my pants anymore. It can be a tad embarrassing.”

“You'll be run out of town before nightfall.”

“It's a risk I'll have to take.”

They finished their coffee and Lexie decided it was time to introduce him to the others. She couldn't wait, because she was certain none of them had ever met a character like Adrian, a man who could waltz into a theatre and ask people if they needed his services. Who has that kind of confidence?

Everyone was taken with him. Their dramatic ensemble had hung around with each other for so long, a new personality was like a breath of fresh air. Lexie always played the dowdy girl, Susie was the older mother/crone, and their nemesis, Donalda, the raving lunatic. It wasn't much of a stretch for any of them.

The same two men acted every male role in all their plays and didn't inspire much passion in the bosoms of the paying public. And the fact they were both called Todd made rehearsals a nightmare. But they put up with it—there weren't many coal miners, steelworkers and fishermen clamouring to be part of the theatre group.

Now in walked the hero-who-saved-the-day type and everyone felt renewed. How lucky was that?

Adrian attracted attention without doing anything. Every one of them stared at him out of the corner of their eye. His magnetism was undeniable. He was born for the theatre, but as animated as he was, Lexie saw something else, something she couldn't put her finger on.

Susan finally thawed and flitted around Adrian all afternoon. But not to be outdone was the dratted Donalda. She was another old maid, but even more pathetic than Lexie or Sue. She reminded Lexie of a small mouse with her furtive, scampering ways. Her buck teeth and sniffy nose didn't help. She'd pop up behind Lexie and scare the life out of her. For someone who was only five feet tall, that was quite an accomplishment.

Susan and Donalda asked Adrian about Broadway. It turned out it was so off Broadway, there were only five people in the audience. But they were impressed anyway and so was everyone else. None of them had ever been to New York so everyone had a million questions. Adrian indulged his captive audience with plenty of juicy stories and although Lexie wanted to hear every word, she really had to use the washroom, a direct result of too much coffee. The minute she dashed out to the foyer and into the loo, Susan and Donalda zoomed in behind her.

Susan could hardly contain herself. “I can't believe you went for coffee with him! How did you get so brave?”

Donalda sniffed. “What's brave about that? I think it's brave he went with her.”

“Oh shut up, Donalda.” Susie continued, “So? Lex? Who is this yummy creature?”

Lexie answered from her stall. “He says he's from Johannesburg. Can you believe it?”

“How in the name of God did he find himself in Glace Bay of all places? Who in their right mind would want to come here?”

Lexie flushed, opened the door and went to the sink to wash her hands. “Look, Sue, I don't know another thing about him. I could hardly interrogate him.”

“Well, I don't see why not. How often does a creature like him sashay into town? If you don't want him, I'd sure like a crack at him.” She fluffed her thin, stringy hair in the mirror.

Lexie frowned. “Get real. As if he'd look at either one of us.” She glanced in the mirror to confirm her suspicions. All she saw was a mop of long, dark curly hair, while her plump body was hidden under a flowing ankle-length skirt and peasant blouse. Wrap a scarf around her head and she'd look like a fortune teller.

Susan stopped fluffing and her shoulders slumped. “You're right. Drat and darn.”

Donalda rubbed her hands together. “Truer words were never spoken. The boy is mine.”

Lexie and Sue rolled their eyes and chanted their mantra. “Shut up, Donalda.”

Eventually it was time to go, and everyone started to drift away. Adrian lingered behind, and fiddled with his knapsack. Lexie walked over to him. She hauled her huge cloth purse over her shoulder. “Where are you staying?”

“I'm not certain. There must be a bed and breakfast somewhere. I may be here awhile. Biking in the snow doesn't sound too appealing.” He smiled at her. “Don't worry. I'll find a phone book.”

She looked at his slender frame and wanted to feed him. She considered they'd only just met, and you never invite a stranger home, but there was something about Adrian. She knew him. She'd known him forever.

“Why don't you come home with me for a good hot meal? You can look through my phone book. I'm sure we'll get you settled somewhere before the night is over.”

He seemed surprised. That's when Donalda pounced on him. She batted her eyelashes. “Adrian, if you're not doing anything, I make a mean corn beef hash.”

“Thank you. That's a lovely offer, but Lexie's already invited me.”

“Oh, right.” Donalda gave her a withering look and stalked off.

“I've done it now. She'll forget her lines at our next rehearsal just to bug me.”

He looked worried. “Sorry, I didn't mean to start a mutiny.”

“Listen, she wouldn't be happy unless she griped about something at least once a day.”

They walked out of the building and into the parking lot. Lexie pointed to her old rusty Volkswagen bus, Betsy. He pointed to his old rusty bike. It had no name. They loaded the bike into the back. After moving a pile of books from the passenger seat Lexie slid behind the wheel.

“Do you read?”

He nodded. “I like non-fiction. Mostly history and travelogues. I've lived everywhere, so reading about the places I've been is enjoyable. I can picture them in my head.”

“Well, since I've been exactly nowhere, my brain has turned to mush. Which is why I confess to reading romance novels in my spare time. Gosh, I can't believe I said that out loud.”

“I won't squeal.”

“Good.”

“Now tell me about this place.”

“I will, as soon as I can get this rattle trap of a bus going.”

They lurched out of the theatre parking lot and drove down Commercial Street.

“These old store fronts are pretty run down, as you can see, but plans are in the works to spruce the place up, because this is the main drag in town, the place where kids drive up and down and eyeball each other. It's sort of an ancient ritual here. And that cement fence in front of the church on your right is where teenagers hang out on warm summer nights.”

Adrian smiled. “Like small towns everywhere.”

“Glace Bay was once a prosperous and thriving community, but it's suffered since they closed the mines. Hence the rather shabby appearance. People don't have a lot of money here, but what they don't have in money, they make up for in spirit.”

She drove past the wharf and pointed out where the lobster boats were beached for the winter, then drove to the end of South Street to see the water. On this day, the ocean was the colour of steel and looked angry as it pounded the shoreline. The wind whipped up white caps. Adrian wanted to get out of the car and have a closer look.

“It's not a great day to be near the shore,” she said as he opened the door. It ripped out of his hand, and he struggled trying to shut it again.

“I told you,” Lexie laughed. “It's always amazed me that the senior citizen's home was built here because anyone frail would blow right out to sea.”

“You're absolutely right.”

She looked in the rear view mirror. “I guess that leaves me out.”

Lexie gave him a sideways glance and continued on her way, driving past the school where her mother had once taught and pointed out her father's medical practice. She drove past the house where she grew up as a child, even though it was out of her way. She'd always been proud of her family home.

It was a gorgeous old place, back off the road in a grove of birch and maple trees. It had a wraparound porch and Lexie called Adrian's attention to the ivy vines that crawled up the side near the chimney. Ivy for the Ivy house, she laughed. It was painted white and black shutters framed all the gabled windows. It looked like a house in a picture book, he told her. She nodded happily.

“My own house comes straight out of a fairy tale book too. The old woman who lived in a shoe.”

“I can't wait.”

She drove up a pot-holed street, grinding the gears to slow down in front of a dear little cottage. It was old and worn in, its shingles a bleached grey from years of wind and saltwater that blew off the nearby cliff. She was surrounded on three sides by water.

“Another windy spot, I see.”

She cut the engine. “You're darn tootin.'”