Page 52 of Autumn at the Oak Leaf Café
‘What?’
‘Tell me a secret.’
‘I don’t have any.’
‘Yes, you do. Everyone has secrets.’
Darren looked uncomfortable. ‘No, I’m a vet. I really don’t.’
‘Don’t lie to me. I can see it in your eyes.’
Darren squeezed his hands together and twisted his head from one side to the other. ‘All right. But this is a big one.’
‘Go on.’
‘I became a vet to made my grandmother happy.’
‘Really?’
He looked down. ‘My childhood wasn’t as conventional as most. My mum was a free spirit, I suppose, if you’re being polite about it. I never met my dad and I don’t think my mum really knew him either, just one of those fly in, fly out, kind of things. She never even told me his name, but by the time I was five, she was gone, lost to some whim or another. She moved down to London, leaving me with my grandmother, who had never really planned on raising a second child. I think she blamed herself for my mother’s inability to do the motherly thing, and did her best to stumble through. I had no brothers or sisters though, so it was hard for her to entertain me. I told you about Jim, didn’t I?’
‘Your dog? He was a beagle, wasn’t he?’
Darren gave a fond smile. ‘That’s right. My grandmother basically bought him for me because I had no brothers or sisters. I loved that dog so much. He was the best pet ever, and I was heartbroken when he died. My grandmother lamented the local vet’s inability to first diagnose the cancer, and second, to treat it. I told you I promised myself that I would become a vet, so that I could stop other children going through the same heartache, but it was my grandmother who suggested it. I think I was angry about Jim’s death, and that was her way of helping me to deal with it. The idea got stuck in my head, and stayed there.’
‘But your heart was never in it?’
‘I convinced myself that it was. I chose a path in life, and I lowered my head and stuck to that path, but it wasn’t until I’d literally qualified as a vet, that I began to doubt myself. My grandmother, however, was so proud. There was no way I could ever let her down.’
‘You felt bound by duty?’
‘I did. I set up my own clinic, and grew it, to the point that I have two junior vets working beneath me, both extremely competent. When I look at it from the outside, though, I sometimes wonder if I’ve built the business that way so that it can continue to exist after I break away to do my own thing. I’m still not sure that I’ve found my path, you know?’
Madeline gave a furtive nod. ‘I’ve been jumping back and forth from different paths for my whole adult life. For a while I think I’m heading in the right direction, then I either get cold feet or I get scared of commitment and take a jump off somewhere else.’
‘But I think that’s okay,’ Darren said. ‘I don’t think you have to follow the same way forever. I don’t think that’s what life’s about. It’s what we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s about, but that’s just society’s way of keeping order. I think things are a little more complicated than that.’
Madeline had put her hands over Darren’s without even realising it. Now, with a coy look towards a waiter standing nearby, she said, ‘Do you think we’d better order?’
Madeline was a little concerned about Hazel and Sampson, so Darren offered to walk her home, cutting through Sycamore Park on the way so that she could check on the two animals. Using a phone light to peer through the window, they saw the two cuddled up together in the basket at the top of the cat tower.
‘I wonder how Sampson got up there?’ Darren asked. ‘I suppose he must have hopped.’
‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way,’ Madeline said.
On the far side of the park, they bumped into Dan, patrolling with Milady. Darren gave a gasp of fright at the sight of the one-eyed nightwatchman approaching out of the foggy gloom beneath the nearest street light, but Madeline, a little tipsy from too much wine, just laughed. Recognising Madeline, Dan dropped his fearsome scowl and wished them goodnight.
They walked on out of the park and across to Redfield. At the end of Madeline’s road, she paused.
‘I’ll be okay from here,’ she said. ‘My house is just up there. Thanks so much for tonight.’
‘It was my pleasure. I hope we can do it again soon. I hope we can do it again lots of times. I … really like you, Madeline.’
Her heart felt like it was going to explode. Madeline trembled as Darren lifted a finger to stroke the side of her face. He began to lean closer … just as a thunderous rumble came from overhead, and fat drops of rain began to fall.
Darren gave a reluctant grimace and pulled away. ‘I’d better let you go,’ he said, as the rain began to intensify.’
‘Do you want an umbrella? I might have one you can borrow.’
