Locking the back door behind her, Rosa set off down the hill thinking that there had to be a simple explanation.
With a crackle, sizzle and extremely loud bang, the Cockleberry Bay Residents Association Annual Firework Display began, filling the freezing night sky with not only light, colour and joyful explosions, but the obligatory chorus of oohs and aahs. Screaming children were laughing and running around with sparklers as adults shifted from foot to foot, cupping their mulled wine and hot chocolate as if their lives depended on them.
Standing behind the table outside the café that they had set up for drinks, Rosa looked around her and smiled. The beach was packed full of smiling faces, everyone happy and enjoying themselves. This was what life was about – community and coming together. It was one of the reasons she truly loved Cockleberry Bay.
The last firework weaved its colourful dance down to the sea, leaving the distinct smell of sulphur hanging in the air. As Sara and Rosa chinked their cardboard cups in a toast, they were interrupted by two familiar faces running up to them.
‘There’s our gel,’ Tina Green said loudly. ‘What you got to say to her, Alfie?’
‘Do you sell sweets in your shop too?’
‘Oi, that’s naughty.’ Tina tutted at her grandson. ‘He’s five today and full of it.’
Rosa walked to the front of the table then crouched down to the little boy’s level. ‘Happy Birthday, Alfie, and I’m sure I can find you some sweeties here in the café if you’d like them.’ She knew there were some chocolate buttons left over from the ones they’d used to decorate some freshly baked cupcakes.
The lad grinned at her. He was so cute it suddenly gave Rosa a surge of love for Bump, who was growing inside her. She hadn’t even thought about what sex she would prefer, but a mini-Josh would be mighty sweet.
On reappearing outside with the chocolate buttons in a paper bag and three cupcakes, one each for Alfie’s family, Rosa noticed Danny approaching in geezer-like fashion, plastic pint of beer in hand, across from the charity tent.
Alfie grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards Rosa.
‘This is my daddy! He had to go to prison because somebody hurt him, and he told me he’d be safer in prison and I’m happy he doesn’t have to go there again.’
Danny and Tina grimaced. Rosa handed the lad the treats while Sara and Alec began clearing everything away.
‘You know what, Alfie? I’m very glad he doesn’t, too.’ Rosa winked at Danny, whose face instantly relaxed.
‘And Rosa?’
‘Yes, Alfie?’
‘Fank you for saving my life.’
Rosa went over to the little boy and gave him a big hug.
‘Ew.’ He promptly pushed her away. ‘I don’t hug girls. And Grannie Green, I need a wee.’ The two of them disappeared hastily into ROSA’S to use the toilet there.
Danny shrugged when Rosa told him, ‘Thanks so much for stepping in, Danny, that meant a lot. It’s not often I trust a stranger.’
‘Look, love, about the prison thing–’
‘That’s your business. We’ve all got a past.’
Danny reminded her so much of some of the boys at the children’s homes she’d grown up in. They’d had a hard start in life, but even if they were a bit rough around the edges, that didn’t mean they were bad. In fact, growing up as she had done, there wasn’t much that fazed or shocked Rosa, which she saw as only a good thing.
‘There’s something I wanna tell you.’ Danny held her arm and looked right into her eyes. ‘My ex – that’s Alfie’s mum, Leah – well, she was a drug addict. Crack cocaine, poor cow.’
Rosa nodded. ‘That’s tough. I used to drink too much – different addiction, but same motive and outcome. I’m sober now though and – I never thought I’d say this – but I’m enjoying it. I hope Leah can reach this point one day.’
‘“Middle finger up to your twisted head” and all that. Damn, I love that James Arthur lyric,’ Danny added. ‘I could listen all day to “Finally Feel Good”.’
‘Another one,’ Rosa said to herself.
‘What?’
‘Another one who’s listening to James Arthur.’
‘Yeah, well. His new album is really good.’
‘So, she’s better now then, is she? Leah, I mean.’
‘Yeah. She’s doing good. She’s gone back to stay with her mum who lives out in the countryside in Wales, so it’s easier for her to recover, you know.’ He paused. ‘I loved her, Rosa, but it’s gone now. Too many demons. For both of us.’ Then his face lit up. ‘But she gave me our Alfie, so I will always hold a candle for her. It’s been bloody hard. Thank God for my old mum.’
‘“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain”.’
‘What you on about?’
‘Oh, it’s something my mum said: she likes to quote from the prophet, Kahlil Gibran.’
‘That’s too deep for me. Blimey, I think I’ll stick to song lyrics.’
Rosa smiled. Grannie Green, on noticing the couple deep in chat, tactfully walked towards the charity tent with Alfie. She fancied a cuppa.
‘Talking of carving, that’s how I got this.’ Danny pointed to the deep red line on his cheek. ‘Leah had managed to get the money together to pay her dealer everything she owed. I went with her; he was still a complete wanker to her, so I gave him a piece of my mind. He had a blade. As well as doing a bit of signwriting on my face, he also had a shit-hot lawyer. Turned out the dealer looked squeaky clean, and it was me who ended up doing the stint in bird, until my appeal quashed it. I’m only just out. You know something, Rosa? I want me and Alfie out of city life. In fact, somewhere down here would suit me and the boy perfectly.’
‘Yes, it would. It’s quiet, mind, compared to the Big Smoke. What do you do for work?’
‘I work for C&V – you know, the big hardware outlet? That’s why doing a bit of shop work for you today didn’t bother me.’ He grinned. ‘In fact, I bloody loved it.’
‘You’re still there then?’
‘Yes, thankfully they took me straight back – C&V, that is. I may have got a record now but I’m no criminal, Rosa. Just a bloke brought up by a single parent, who is now a single parent himself, and from a tough background. I’m a bloody hard worker too and my employers knew that, which was such a blessing.’
‘I take it you know I am gifting the shop to somebody I feel deserves it, don’t you?’
‘Er, yeah. My old woman did mention it. Unbelievable.’ Then: ‘We are a bit like kindred spirits, you and me, I reckon.’
A brief silence ensued, then Rosa piped up, ‘While we are talking shop, where did you leave the cash? I got your message, but it wasn’t in the mug in the microwave. Well, the mug was there but no money. The back door wasn’t locked either. I wanted to pay you out of it.’
‘You’re having a giraffe, aren’t ya?’ Danny put his hand to his head. ‘Honestly, that cash was in there when I left, but fuck me – sorry, Rosa – I meant to lock the back door. Jacob had said that you don’t always lock doors down here. I mean, I’m usually paranoid but his comment must have soaked in and I didn’t lock it. Shit. The money hadn’t fallen out somehow, had it?’