Harriet
“Hello, Harriet speaking.”
“Okay, yes I think I can do that, I’ll have to come and measure the job.”
“What’s the address please?”
“Great, thank you.”
“I could pop over tomorrow afternoon?”
“Great. Could I have your phone number to confirm?” Continue reading “Chapter Forty-Six”
Harriet and Daisy
“…and as congestion builds around the Ultimo Centre the police have set a diversion around the incident to allow for recovery to take place. The ring road is expected to be closed for a number of hours and drivers are advised to seek alternative routes for their journeys home. And that is the traffic report at four fifty-five on Radio Theraton at the far end of your radio dial.”
“Thank you, Sam, for that report, and for all you drivers stuck on the ring road we have Winner Today, the new single by Can Guru as we lead into the five oh clock news…”
“Ooh, I like that song, they’ve been plugging it all week and it’s grown on me. ‘Lose it all today… Could win it all tomorrow! Never giving up… together we can grow…’” Daisy sang along. Continue reading “Chapter Forty-Five”
Harriet
Harriet was hopeful and a little nervous as she walked over to Theraton library. It had been set up as a Covid vaccination centre for the current round of appointments. She was supposed to be back at work at the Community Centre today but Sarah was understanding about Harriet’s appointment clashing. If only it had been later in the day then she could have done her first shift before going, but at least this way it was done and out of the way. Sarah had been vaccinated a few weeks earlier and had warned Harriet that she might want to clear a couple of days off sick afterwards. Harriet hoped not, but if she did feel rough then that would still be better then not getting her vaccine. Continue reading “Chapter Forty-Four”
Sybil’s Funeral
The Unitarian Church in Higher Theraton was once a towering example of high Victorian Gothic. Though now the stone spire is streaked with black sooty pollution and the once grand windows are covered in steel mesh and fibreglass sheets. In the cemetery, ageing grave stones and trees competed for space and a small number of more recent polished memorial stones shone like beacons as they caught the sun. Inside, the original architecture still stood almost the same as it had been originally built, aged and worn but with adjustments for wheel chair accessibility and modern heating. Electric lighting replaced the candles and carpet covered the stone floors. The organ pipes were mostly silenced now in favour of an amplified public address sound system, and huge speaker boxes hung from the stone columns looking more like a theatre then a place for worship. Three people fussed about inside making sure flowers, readings, music, and a solitary burning candle were ready. Continue reading “Chapter Forty-Three”
Harriet and Daisy
“You’re still house hunting, aren’t you?” Harriet was walking with Daisy from the Environment Centre back into town.
Since the lifting of lockdown she had taken to meeting up with Daisy on occasions to walk back with her from work. Sometimes Harriet would arrive early offer to help out with bits of repair work or maintenance on some of the makeshift timber structures usually be done by volunteers and staff during any normal year. Harriet had become a familiar face to the recycling team, and Phil, and they were grateful for anyone who was happy to oil a squeaky hinge or tighten a loose bolt. Harriet was amused by the thought that at home she was building a one third scale garden railway version of the same Environment Centre and could recognise some of the structures she was replicating. Continue reading “Chapter Forty-Two”
Harriet
Sally’s second memory of starting at school was the one that would carry her through to her teens and was one that she was both happiest remembering but also most self conscious about ever sharing, and so she never did. It was a secret that only she and Elle shared.
Sally and Elle were inseparable in school. They would wait for each other at the school gate and while their Mums chatted about the weather and the price of bread, they would hold hands and skip across the playground together until the bell went and they were lined up to go to their class, waving at their Mums as they went. Continue reading “Chapter Forty-One”
Harriet
Harriet was feeling despondent and trying to lose herself in some work, but she wasn’t concentrating and making mistakes. She decided it was time to take a break before she wasted too much wood in the workshop, or broke something. Worse still she knew it was times like this that she could make a mistake that could land her in hospital. It was definitely time to stop and do something else, anything else that would stop the incessant sound of Marie’s voice in her head. Continue reading “Chapter Forty”
Harriet
The clatter of the recycling collection trike roused Harriet from her thoughts. The frustration of the nuisance calls got the better of her and she decided to see if it might be Daisy pranking her. Harriet opened the door and waved, nonchalantly. “Hello!” Continue reading “Chapter Thirty-Nine”
Harriet
Harriet was a little excited, and a little confused, by the package that Sybil had left for her. During all their chats over the years Sybil had never suggested that she would have left anything at all for Harriet, or even that they were that close for it to have been a possibility. Sybil only really knew Harriet as a close friend of her son in law, and that hardly counted as close, no matter how well they got on each time they had met.
“What do you think it is, Monty?” Continue reading “Chapter Thirty-Eight”
Harriet
“Shall I phone the minister?” Adam was trying not to upset Amanda but was aware that there were processes that need to be dealt with at some point. The delays over Christmas with the coroner did at least mean that there was nothing to be done immediately, though that also meant that there was nothing to do except go thought the motions of having Christmas numb with grief, and alone. Continue reading “Chapter Thirty-Seven”
