Page 46 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

‘Babs, pet, we’ve got you in already – for next Thursday.’ Trudy points to a line in the appointment book.

‘Really?’ Babs bends down to look closely at Trudy’s neatly inscribed entry then straightens. ‘My memory’s going.’

‘Along with your knees.’

‘You’ll keep.’

‘And your eyesight.’

‘Thin ice, Trudy – thin ice.’ Babs cackles and puts thirty dollars onto the book.

‘Too much, pet,’ Trudy says, picking up the ten and offering it back.

‘You’ve been undercharging me for years,’ Babs says. ‘Keep it.’

Trudy shakes her head. ‘You’re in here every week. I can assure you I’m doing better out of you than the tourists who pop in twice a year.’

‘You do me a favour, Trude,’ Babs says, patting her freshly blow-dried head.

‘I always look my best thanks to you.’ She glances around the salon, which is empty apart from Sam chatting to his last client for the day.

‘Tell me, how are Evie and Sam getting along?’ she whispers theatrically.

Luckily Sam has the blow dryer on otherwise he’d hear her.

‘Fine,’ Trudy says, arching an eyebrow. ‘Why?’

‘Ooh, I thought they were headed for the rocks, those two. She was a little too sweet on him. If you know what I mean.’

‘I do. And it’s all sorted now.’

In fact, Trudy wasn’t sure of the exact state of Evie’s heart because they haven’t had a conversation about it since the trip to Gosford Hospital to see Josie, but Evie’s looked brighter lately.

She even mentioned she’d gone to the pub with Ingrid’s daughter, Anna, which Trudy was happy about.

The girl doesn’t have a broad enough circle, in her opinion, which was probably why she fell hook and line for Sam’s charms. Everyone loves him, including Trudy, and a woman who isn’t used to a charming man can find herself thinking it’s personal, when in actuality he’s just like it with everyone.

Trudy should have tried harder to warn her, but sometimes you do have to let adults be adults and come to their own realisations. They’re the ones that tend to stick.

‘And young Josie?’ Babs says, dropping the whisper. ‘How is she?’

‘Upset. Miserable. Nothing for it but to wait.’ Trudy sighs and shakes her head. She popped round to the hospital the other night and Josie was in a state, crying and telling her mother to get out.

Trudy had a chat to Erin outside and asked if there was anything she could do – perhaps she could come and sit with Josie sometimes instead of Erin doing it?

What she really wanted to suggest was that Erin give Josie some time alone – no one wants witnesses when they feel wretched like that – but she barely knows the woman and it wouldn’t be right.

Which is funny, if you think about it, because prior to the accident she saw a lot more of Josie than her mum did, and she thinks she knows Josie pretty well now.

Not as well as Erin – of course you know your child better than anyone – but enough to have a stab at some suggestions.

Erin was upset herself when they spoke.

‘You could give me a cigarette,’ she said, then laughed. ‘I haven’t smoked since Josie was a baby. But I want to. So badly.’

‘I get it, pet,’ Trudy said, and lit one for her. It’s not for her to judge the woman and deny her a smoke. ‘I’ve been smoking more since my Laurie died. Sometimes we just need something, maybe especially when we know it’s bad for us.’

‘Humans are funny,’ she said, and Trudy agreed, but they didn’t go any deeper than that.

Trudy snaps back to the present when Babs says, ‘She has a long road ahead of her,’ and she murmurs her agreement.

‘Who’s that young lad?’ Babs gestures to the footpath, where Trudy sees Brett walking in half-circles.

‘That’s Josie’s sweetheart. Brett.’

‘What’s he doing here?’

‘Looking for her, I’d wager.’

‘He doesn’t know?’

‘I guess not. The parents don’t know him. Josie said they were all arguing about him when she got in the car and …’ Trudy pulls a face. ‘Some family friend had seen Josie and Brett together. Told the mum.’

‘What a tattletale!’

‘Come on, Babs, you love a gossip.’

‘Not when it’s going to hurt someone. I don’t tell tales like that .’

‘True.’ She glances out and sees the boy’s still turning himself inside out. ‘I should go and talk to him.’

‘Wait here, love,’ Babs says. ‘I’m off anyway. I’ll send him in.’

‘All right, pet, ta-ta.’ Trudy pecks Babs on the cheek and watches as her longtime client steps outside and has a brief chat to Brett, who then opens the salon door and comes in.

‘Hello, Brett,’ Trudy says. ‘You know you could have just come in. You’re welcome here.’

‘Hi, Trudy.’ He looks unsettled. ‘You were busy. I didn’t want to disturb you.’

‘No disturbance, pet. How have you been? We haven’t see you for a few days.

’ She’s fishing, of course, trying to find out if he’s looking for Josie because he wants to see her or if he wants to find out if he’s been let off easily.

There’s no way to know how serious they were about each other before the accident, and Josie didn’t say much at the hospital.

‘I’m really worried,’ he blurts. ‘Josie hasn’t been here. I don’t have her number. Has she lost her job?’

‘No, pet. Look, she’s had an accident.’

His eyes widen. ‘An accident! What? When? How is she?’

All the right questions, from instinct. Oh yes, he cares about her.

‘It was a couple of weeks ago, probably not long after you last saw her. In her car. And she’s not in a good way – she broke her legs, fractured her pelvis. She’s going to be in hospital for a while.’

His eyes are going every which way, as if he’s looking for something.

‘I didn’t know what was going on,’ he says.

‘I thought maybe she’d dropped me. Then I was worried something had happened to her, but you all seemed to be still working here so I thought she hadn’t died or anything, otherwise maybe you’d have closed for a few days. ’

He’s talking a mile a minute and Trudy is worried he’s going to pass out from lack of oxygen.

‘Take a breath, Brett,’ she advises. ‘It’s all right.’

‘She’ll think I don’t care!’ he says, and Trudy imagines that’s right. ‘But I do! I really do!’

Trudy reaches over and picks up his hand, patting it with her other.

Her Dylan used to get wound up like this about his school work.

So worried about his exams that he’d almost have a nervous breakdown.

So she’d take his hand from time to time, like he was a little boy again, and it would always calm him.

Deep down we’re all still little kids wanting our mums to make things better, no matter how old we get.

‘I know you do, pet,’ Trudy says soothingly. ‘Here’s what we’ll do, okay? I’ll go and see her on the weekend and tell her you’ve been in to see me and that you want to visit.’

‘I can’t just go and see her? Where is she?’

There are two hospitals on the Coast – Wyong and Gosford – so it wouldn’t make sense to keep him guessing, because he could figure it out fairly quickly. Still, it’s not a clear-cut situation.

‘She’s at Gosford, but she’s not seeing many visitors. And her mother is there a lot.’ Trudy stares at him. ‘ A lot. ’

‘That’s okay,’ he says.

Trudy realises then that he has no idea what Josie might or might not have told her parents about him.

‘It’s not, actually. Her parents only found out about you because some friend of theirs saw you and Josie together.’

His forehead creases. ‘Oh yeah. We were in Blue Bay. Josie was really worried about that.’

‘They had an argument. That was just before …’

No, she’s said too much. She doesn’t want to burden the boy. But from the look on his face she can see it’s too late.

‘An argument about me?’ he says, and it comes out slightly strangled.

‘None of this is your fault.’

‘But …’

‘Brett,’ she says firmly, ‘families are complicated. Every single one. This was not your fault. But you can’t go and see her. Not yet. Let me handle it. Okay?’

He stares at her then nods slowly.

‘Give me your number and I’ll call you about it,’ Trudy says. ‘Let you know what’s going on.’

He writes it in her appointment book. ‘I really like her,’ he says softly, and when his eyes meet Trudy’s she sees just how much.

‘I believe she really likes you too,’ she says. ‘So we’ll just try to sort this out, all right?’

He nods. ‘Thanks, Trudy.’

‘You’re a good lad.’ Before she knows what she’s doing she gives him a hug, but he so looked like he needed one, and when his arms tighten around her she knows she was right.

‘I’ll be in touch,’ she says as she sees him out the door. When she turns back around she sees Sam waiting for her.

‘Everything okay?’ he asks.

‘It will be. We have to believe that, don’t we?’

He smiles, a little sadly. ‘We do. I’m almost done here.’

‘I’ll be out the back,’ she says, and she takes herself to the room that holds their bags and their colours and their tools and their towels, the place this salon couldn’t function without and which is also a refuge from time to time.

She turns on the radio and hears Pat Benatar’s ‘Love is a Battlefield’ playing and thinks about what it means, that phrase, before starting to wash up the mugs in the sink, getting ready for the next day.