Page 36 of The Gingerbread Cafe
And when, together, they came up with another idea involving the big tree on Green Tree Lane, she sensed a part of Lukas was changing too.
Chapter 30
‘Crisis talks around a Christmas tree? So this is new.’ Gretel rolled her eyes at Amber. ‘It’s not a crisis talk, it’s a planning session. And I’m beginning to think this doesn’t have to be a Christmas tree.’
Amber placed her hand over Gretel’s forehead. ‘Do we have a doctor in the street?’
Gretel had called some of the shop owners and residents of Green Tree Lane to gather around the street’s central Christmas tree that bright, late January morning. The air was crisp and frost still twinkled on the hills in the distance, but it was a brand-new week. Most of the shops in the street were closed on a Monday. Time was theirs.
Gretel noted with a wriggle of delight that her whole crafting class had turned up. Chakra healing Phoebe and Eve from the flower shop were there, who, along with Amber, made up her tentative trio of wise women. Although Gretel still felt nervous being in charge of things, she was getting used to it, and her friends had coaxed her into arranging the meeting.
It warmed her heart to see their newer comrades Bea from Lavender & Honey in her light purple mac and Zekia from Rum & Raisin, who always seemed like the life and soul of any party. Even Jane and Jayne from the art gallery and Gordon the Grocer were there. They stood around the tree brandishing the stained-glass lambs and daffodils they’d made at one of their crafting sessions, even if they did look a little confused.
‘So what’s happening?’ asked Zekia, through a mouthful of spiced rum fudge which she’d been handing out from a brown paper bag on the insistence that people needed sugar. ‘I hope it’s something special if I’m missing a Monday lie-in with my scrumptious Kingsley.’ She gave Bea a nudge and the dainty woman blushed.
Gretel looked around at the crowd of expectant faces and tried not to feel overwhelmed. Phoebe had already wrangled a piece of brown and yellow stone called septarian into her pocket and had promised it would help her communicate her message. She had no idea about that, but the friendship it symbolised was worth more than Phoebe could know. ‘Erm …’
Phoebe gave Gretel an encouraging nod and patted her pocket by way of reminder. Amber giggled and shimmied her top half, jesting at Gretel’s refusal to keep it in her bra like Phoebe had suggested. At least Amber wasn’t patting anyone’s boobs. Eve shushed the pair and gave Gretel a quick rub on the shoulder. She took a deep breath. This was a good idea and she could do this. It wasn’t like she wanted to chop the tree down, or anything crazy.
‘We’ve kind of touched on this before in class. It’s just an idea and you can tell me to get lost if you don’t like it. But I think we all agree that business isn’t exactly booming in the street, other than a flurry at Christmas.’ Gretel took a deep breath, her fist clamped around the shiny stone in her pocket. ‘So maybe it’s time we embraced every new phase of the year, to try to encourage trade all year round. We could decorate the tree, the street and even our shopfronts with different themes depending upon the calendar.’ She raised her gaze and looked tentatively at the sea of faces. To her surprise, she saw a wave of nods.
‘Well, it works inside my shop,’ Gordon the Grocer nodded. ‘Seasonal produce to keep things interesting and fresh. No reason we can’t make a thing of it outside too.’
‘Like a year-round celebration.’ Bea nodded. ‘Is that why we’re out here with our January daffs?’ She held up her glass ornament to the light before attaching it by its ribbon to a branch of the tree. ‘It makes sense. It’s such a shame for the tree to be bare for most of the year, other than the sad lights which have got more broken bulbs than working ones. Even at Christmas, we don’t decorate the street like we used to. It hasn’t felt worth the investment. So let’s change that.’
The others followed suit, hanging their happy yellow flowers in different places on the tree. Gretel shook off the fearful pang that they were somehow disrespecting the very essence of Green Tree Lane. This was fruitful progress, wasn’t it? And surely embracing every new phase didn’t mean forgetting that her mother, Rosa and dear festive Nell had never existed. And even if the inside of The Gingerbread Cafe would be moving with the times, at least they’d be keeping the café’s sign, with the tagline that promisedFestive Cheer All Through the Year. Even Lukas had mumbled something about it being a waste to change it.
‘Still looks a bit bare,’ said one of the Jane and Jaynes. ‘We’ll have to conjure up more ideas if we want the street to turn heads.’
Gretel nodded; they were right. The street deserved to be loved whatever the time of year. ‘It would be great if shoppers had a reason to visit all year round. If we could make a real spectacle of every new phase, somehow.’
‘Sounds totally doable with so many crafters and creatives,’ said Amber, pulling her waitress notepad and pen out of her bag. ‘So hit me with ideas. And once it’s in writing, there’s no backing out.’ She threw everyone a firm look from beneath her quirkyshort fringe and Gretel was touched at her efforts, even though the group didn’t seem to need her scare tactics.
‘I’ll decorate the street with pots of whatever flowers are in season,’ said Eve. ‘I love that daffodils symbolise rebirth. For January, I’d do pots of snowdrops and ginger alpinia. Ooh, and winter jasmine for community and inspiration.’
Amber pointed at Eve with her pen. ‘Goooooood.’ She tapped the pen against her nose whilst she thought. ‘And your shop always looks kind of miserable from the outside. No offence.’
‘None taken,’ Eve muttered, rearranging her cat-eye glasses.
‘So could you put some buckets of colourful flowers outside your shop too?’ Amber continued. ‘Just so people are clear it’s not actually a morgue.’ She flashed Eve a winning smile and by some miracle she seemed to get away with it. Eve agreed, as long as the weather wasn’t too chilly for her precious blooms.
‘In which case,’ Gretel added, ‘maybe you could start putting your seasonal produce outside your shopfront again too, Gordon? I do miss seeing all those lovely colours.’
Gordon shrugged, in awhy notgesture. ‘Rhubarb and radicchio.’ His loud voice reverberated around the street, reminding Gretel of a market trader. ‘Crunchy pears and kale so curly it looks like a perm.’
Amber pulled a face and wrote something down on her pad.
‘We’d love to do some artwork to brighten up the street,’ said one of the Jane and Jaynes after a brief whisper between themselves. ‘Maybe we can paint A-boards for everyone, in glorious seasonal colours?’
‘That would be brilliant. Thank you!’ Gretel beamed, her heart warming a little with each thoughtful contribution. Before she knew it, Amber’s pad was filling up with all sorts of promises of help. It turned out Zekia was a whizz with a sewing machine, so she offered to throw together some winter flower bunting. Bea wanted to get ahead and knit spring flowers and honey beesfor next season. And most of the group wanted to make ice-white snowdrops at their next stained-glass crafting class – with the exception of Gordon, who wanted to try his hand at glass Brussels sprouts.
‘Let’s start now,’ Zekia clapped. ‘You’ve coaxed me out of bed, so we may as well skip to it. I might even get Kingsley to serve up a tipple of rum at lunchtime. Got to keep the workers toasty and in good spirits.’
And suddenly everyone was milling around, collecting produce and materials from their shops and darting back to gather things from their nearby homes. Jane and Jayne set up a makeshift paint station on dust sheets around the tree. Others sat on thick blankets, cutting out bunting shapes from Phoebe’s swatches of rainbow materials or attempting to knit. Gretel handed out warming cinnamon hot chocolate and spare knitted scarves. Eve fussed with flowers and Amber took photos of everything, offering to set up their own Instagram profile, even though she usually wrote off social media assooooo basic.
‘Maybe we could get some media interest too?’ Gretel heard herself suggesting, as Amber took a close-up of a bunch of perky yellow daffs. ‘You know. Local papers and even the radio. Perhaps they’d be interested in our regular makeovers.’ It was refreshing to remind herself that winter had so much more to offer, beyond Christmas.
‘Why limit ourselves to local press?’ Bea’s usually quiet voice piped up. ‘The whole street coming together like worker bees to turn the place around is a tale everyone would love. And we did used to get trade from all around the country in our better days. We should let them know we’re back in the game.’
