Page 45 of Autumn at the Oak Leaf Café
‘What is this, 2012?’ Ruby moaned. ‘I’ll put it on TikTok. I don’t really think you want me to, though.’
‘Come on. It’s time to leap into the unknown. Achieve the impossible.’
‘But there’s a footbridge just over there.’
Redfield Canal, as far as Madeline could tell, was a raging torrent, swollen by the recent rain, water sloshing up over the bank. And the other side, only about fifteen feet—just wide enough in this section for two longboats to pass side by side—looked about a mile away.
‘Look, it’s probably only waist deep, but it’ll still be filled with gunk, and you could land on something nasty, like a shopping trolly,’ Ruby said. ‘I really think you should reconsider this.’
Madeline, halfway up the bank, drunk on at least one bottle of wine—or was it two?—dug her feet into the turf.
‘I have to prove myself,’ she said. ‘My whole life has been a meandering lie.’
‘No, it really hasn’t,’ Ruby said.
‘I have to do this.’
‘No, you really don’t. What you have to do is let me take you home, bang a couple of aspirin and then sleep it off. You know there’s another bus tour due tomorrow, right?’
‘One of the last,’ Madeline said. ‘Before the gates close on freedom forever.’
‘So let’s do something about it.’
‘I can’t. I need to jump across the canal.’
Ruby shrugged. ‘All right, then. Good luck. I’m filming.’
Madeline took a deep breath.All my life’s failings can be resolved by jumping over the canal. It is the pinnacle of human achievement. The greatest of all things.
She took a couple of steps forwards, then stopped at the edge of the bank. Water sloshed over her shoes. Her shoulders slumped. She turned to face Ruby.
‘I want to go home,’ she said.
Ruby sighed and lowered her phone. ‘That was lame,’ she said. ‘All you needed to do was fall in, and we’d have had a million views in the can at least.’
Madeline woke up to find she had forgotten to close her curtains, and a bright sun was shining down on her bed. Her alarm clock read seven-thirty.
Only when she sat up did the headache hit her, along with flashes of memory from the night before. Her and Ruby drinking wine in the café until it was nearly nine o’clock, with rain battering the windows outside. Her snap decision to try to outdo Rory by jumping across the canal, something which had not only been extremely stupid, but impossible, now that she thought about it. She had no idea what the world long jump record was, but it couldn’t be much more than the width of the canal, and the sloping bank, plus the short run up due to the fenced path at the top made it nearly impossible to get any momentum.
She suddenly had a flush of worry that she had forgotten to lock or even close the café’s front door. She climbed out of bed, quickly got herself ready, then hurried out, stopping only briefly in the kitchen to swallow a couple more painkillers.
To her relief, the café was locked up tight, and Hazel greeted her as usual with a leg rub, before wanting to go outside. With one eye on the little cat as it chased falling leaves among the trees, Madeline wandered down to Pete’s van for a coffee.
‘Top of the morning to you,’ Pete greeted her. ‘You look like hell.’
‘A night on the sauce,’ Madeline told him. ‘I had to exorcise a few demons.’
‘We’ve all been there,’ Pete said with a grin. ‘Did you manage it?’
Madeline lifted a fist. ‘I think so. I’ll know better when the hangover passes, though.’
‘Just let me know if you want it extra black,’ Pete said. ‘I’ve got a few dregs left over from yesterday.’
‘I’ll probably be good with the fresh,’ Madeline said. ‘But I’ll keep it in mind. You’ve heard about the car park plans, haven’t you?’
Pete’s smile dropped. ‘Can’t be a good thing, can it? Picked up a fine myself from the same scumbag company a couple of months back. Put my details in the machine, paid up, no ticket came out. Next thing I know I have a demand for a hundred and twenty quid through the post and no way to dispute it. Someone needs to dig a big hole, chuck private parking companies in it, and concrete over the top.’
‘Do you think there’s anything we can do about it?’
