Page 46 of Autumn at the Oak Leaf Café
Pete shrugged. ‘No idea. I’d be happy to sign a petition, if there was one going around. And do you know Tom, the park caretaker? He’s friends with Regina Clover, the local councillor. You could get him to have a word. I know Dan talks to him, so I’ll give him a shout if I see him. You know what these council types are like, though. They won’t do anything unless there’s a profit in it for them.’
‘But selling off the car park to Snide and Company won’t benefit anyone,’ Madeline said. ‘Except Ev—the bosses at Snide.’
‘That’s the way these things work,’ Pete said. ‘Good luck with your campaigning, though. We’re all right behind you.’
‘Thanks.’
Madeline picked Hazel off a tree branch she had managed to climb up to and headed back to the café, mind heavy with ideas. A cool wind was blowing through the park, and it was still an hour away from the usual opening time, so she got herself a coffee and a slice of pie, grabbed a pen and a pad of paper and sat outside, leaves blowing around her as she jotted down ideas.
No one—literally no one—she had spoken to was in favour of the car park, and it sounded like Snide and Company’s business practices were far from ethical. If she could get enough opposition to the car park, plus demonstrate Snide and Company’s shady business model, perhaps the council would listen. Happy to have found a purpose, she got to work, drafting up a hand-written petition explaining her concerns about the car park’s privatisation.
It was Tuesday, one of Ruby’s days off, so Madeline flipped the sign to CLOSED and went up to the High Street, where she photocopied her petition in a printing shop and bought a couple of packs of notebooks to collect signatures.
On the way back, she dropped a few in at local shops on the way, explaining the situation to each shop owner. All of them were happy to help, putting her petition on their countertops.
Returning to the café, she put her petition by the door, then got to work with usual café business, preparing cakes and pies, checking stock, filling out order forms, making calls to suppliers. For the first time in a week she felt a real spring in her step.
The wind eased and the sun brought mid-October warmth. By mid-afternoon the café alone had collected twenty signatures for the petition, and Madeline was starting to feel like she might be able to make a real difference. As the afternoon rush eased, though, she started thinking about closing early, in order to drop her petition in at a few more places. She had already given copies to the library and the staff in the theatre’s box office, while Pete had taken a couple of sheets for his customers. There were plenty of other businesses she hadn’t been to yet, however, so after making sure Hazel was fed and her litter box changed, she closed the café just after three o’clock and headed out.
She went to the fish’n’chips shop, Brentwell Art Supplies, a couple of other cafés, even dropping one in at Evans Carpets, where a young man with an impressive mullet had been happy to take a couple of sheets. Eventually, however, she found herself standing outside the vets where Darren worked, trying to kid herself that this hadn’t been her destination all along.
It wasn’t busy. An old woman sat with a poodle in a carry cage in an otherwise empty waiting room. Madeline took a seat, a pile of notebooks and notices on her lap in lieu of any pets.
The woman was called into the consultation room. A few minutes later she came back out, looking a little happier than before. Madeline was alone.
The receptionist, not Ruby’s friend Caroline today but an older lady with her grey hair tied back in a bun, asked if she needed help. Madeline, heart racing, asked to speak to Darren. The receptionist went back through a door, and a few seconds later the door to a consultation room opened and Darren, mask pulled down around his neck, leaned out.
‘You can come in,’ he said.
There was an awkward silence as the large consultation door slid closed behind them. Darren stood on one side of a large table on which pets were usually placed, Madeline on the other. Cabinets filled with medicines and equipment lined one wall. On the other was an advertisement for a new pet food formula.
‘Hello,’ Madeline said.
‘Hello,’ Darren replied, offering a little smile.
‘Sorry about last week,’ Madeline said, looking down. ‘I should give you an explanation.’
Darren shook his head. ‘Really, there’s no need. You were busy. It’s okay.’
‘You’re too forgiving. I effectively stood you up. You see, my ex-boyfriend showed up at exactly the wrong moment. Like, if I was writing that into a film script, I couldn’t have done it better. And I’ll admit, for a while I had a bit of a pining for him, you know? We were together a few years, but it kind of ended when I went overseas. We weren’t suited then, but after a few years pass, your memory kind of glosses over the cracks. You forget all the stuff you didn’t like, even if that was kind of the majority. And you amplify the good times.’
Darren smiled. ‘Like when you’re at university and all you remember is the parties and the crazy stuff, and you forget about the hours of sitting in the library staring at small lines of text and wishing you had the power to memorise it all?’
‘Yeah, that would do it. So, I’ll admit I was kind of torn for a while. But the reason he was there, believe it or not, was because he wants to hold his wedding at the Oak Leaf Café. I know that’s kind of awkward, particularly as he just happens to be getting married to a woman who was in my class at school, and claims that I bullied her, but you know, it’s just business. The café could probably do with a boost in revenue around this time of year.’
‘That’s completely understandable,’ Darren said.
‘However, I’m thinking of pulling the plug on it anyway,’ Madeline said. ‘You see, I found out something else about my ex-boyfriend. He’s sold his soul to the devil.’
‘He’s a tax accountant?’
Madeline shook her head. ‘Worse. Possibly. He’s the managing director of a private parking company which is trying to buy the free council car park outside Brentwell Theatre.’
Darren smiled and gave a dramatic sigh. ‘Truly the devil in another name. They approached me about buying my clinic’s car park. They insisted they could get twelve spaces where there are currently eight, and told me I’d get thirty percent of any fines collected. I told them to take a hike.’
‘I can’t let it happen. So, if you’d be so kind, I’d really like it if you could put a petition up in your clinic, and a notebook for people to sign.’
Darren nodded. ‘Absolutely. I’ll sign it first, get the ball rolling. And if there’s anything else you’d like, just ask.’
