The Hutchins and Mojica Renovacy Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Plain Talking. “What’s everyone planning to do today?” Regina asked, as a bunch of hungry people charged for the breakfast table.
“Will you come for a walk with me today?” Uiara asked hastily, before Regina planned to do something with someone else. When she’d been in her early teens, ‘come for a walk’ had been code for ‘I want to talk to you, alone, about something rather personal.’ Tesni just asked Uiara.
“Yes, if you don’t mind doing some errands along the way.”
“That’ll be fine.” The other teenagers promptly swung into action.
“I’m taking Charlie and Henrietta to the library,” Tesni said firmly. “As soon as we’ve all done our chores. It’s too cold to work in the garden this weekend – those poor seedlings would die if we planted them out now!”
“Art Gallery,” said Eugenio, through a mouthful of cereal.
“Library,” said Desmond, ditto. Viriato said nothing, though he was going out too. But sometimes he felt that his family didn’t want him – or need him – any more. First stop was Annie’s Twenty-Four Hour Laundromat, with the usual mountain of washing. This was ideal as far as Uiara was concerned. A horse calendar on the wall – and a perfect way into Tesni’s requests as well. Annie’s Laundromat looked clean and cheerful from the outside as well as inside. Annie kept it that way – “No-one’s going to bring their clothes to a grubby place to get them clean,” was her reasoning. The next of the little business units was less appealing. But Uiara paused there anyway.
“Reggie. There’s loads I need to talk to you about! Like, Desmond and I are nearly finished with school, and what do we do next, but actually Tesni’s planning for that too…”
“Tesni? Really? Mind you, it doesn’t surprise me – she’s always been the really determined one. Even playing dominoes when she was little. Tell me more.” Reggie was so understanding, Uiara thought, so willing to listen.
“She wants to have a shop. A bakery. Here, on the island. So she wants you to help her to learn to cook better and she wants to get a part-time job. There’s one going at the grocery store, and that way she can learn about running a shop and see if she thinks she can do it.”
“That all sounds really sensible. A part-time job’s fine by me if the rest of you are still up for helping with the garden, the fruit and veg. You have to sort that one out between you, because I can’t manage on my own. Has she planned it all right down to where she wants to open her shop?”
“Oh yes! Here. This one.”
“This one?” Regina looked at the grubby interior, the run-down exterior. “Why?”
“Annie’s Laundromat is next door – people go there and they’ll drop in here. The pool is over the road – who isn’t hungry after a swim. And don’t forget what’s next door too.”
“I have forgotten! Show me!” “Most of the time, this place is full of teenage boys. And they’re always hungry!”
Regina didn’t think she’d ever been inside The Marvellous Bulk before, but she got Uiara’s point.
“Tell me what you think about Tesni’s plan,” she said to Uiara. “You know her from a different perspective to mine. And let’s go for a walk while the washing does. Away from Mr Saucepan Head here – he makes me nervous!” “So why this one?” It didn’t look any better from the back.
“Because it’s in the middle. Take this one, and there’s three in a row, all occupied. And then someone else might take the one on the other side of The Marvellous Bulk. And trade’s picking up slowly – now the road bridge has been open for a while, the tourists are starting to come back. People are starting to have more money to spend. But these units are still cheap at the moment.”
“Okay, you’ve convinced me on all fronts. Yes to the job, as long a I get the help I need. Yes to the cooking lessons – and that’ll be a real help once she’s competent. Now let’s go and rescue the washing.”
“And then can we talk some more?”
“Of course.” Regina smiled at Uiara fondly. “Uh-oh – we better tell Annie one of her machines is leaking.” It’d be one of the old ones, but now that things were picking up again on the island, Annie was replacing them with newer ones.
“Can you get the washing moved, Uiara, while I text her?” “She’s on her way. I know where the mops are – let’s get this mopped up for her . Besides, I don’t want my chair getting wet.”
“Your chair?”
“That one.” Reggie nodded towards the recliner. “Annie brought it in for me – I used to have to come here at night to do the laundry. I’d bring Henrietta and Charlie and give them their 2 am feeds at the same time. Annie brought that in for me so I’d be more comfortable.”
Uiara hadn’t really thought about how Reggie had managed to get the washing done when she and Desmond were still at primary school. But with two babies and two toddlers on her hands, it must have been so hard… Regina looked at the postcards on the wall, remembering her own travelling days. They seemed so long ago now – another time almost. And another Regina too. She was embarrassed when she thought back to how selfish and self-centred she’d been then. The horse calendar caught her eye and made her think of Desmond. She spoke her thoughts aloud to Uiara.
“I know Desmond would love to have a horse. And that Aurora wanted him to have one. I wish we had enough money to buy him one.”
“Ah,” said Uiara. “Well…” Viriato had gone out with Fern Annan again. That chance meeting in the library and the game of chess had led to a slowly deepening friendship.
“What have I been doing?”
They’d not been able to meet up for a few weeks – Fern’s free time hadn’t coincided with his.
“Shadowing my parents in their jobs actually – you know they both work at the hospital, but in very different fields. Refreshing my skills. I had meant to go straight into medicine from graduation, but then when Mum was so ill, I was needed to help at home. I’m trying to decide what field I want to go into, and then I’ll do a refresher course in that area.”
Presently, Viriato started telling Fern about his plans for the other four, and the jobs they would get, what they should be able to earn. “Do you know, you are so like your mother.” Regina was sitting down, taking in the horse story!
“Me? How come? I don’t look like her at all.”
“Not in looks – though you have her eyes, like I once told you. In personality – Aurora could always see to the heart of a person, see what they were really like under the surface. And she was so practical too. She could work things out, see how to make them happen. Like you with Desmond’s horse. And you understand Tesni’s dreams. It’s a pity you aren’t the eldest.”
“Wow!” Uiara was gazing at a new vision of herself. Regina was looking back at the past – not totally happily, either, but she pulled herself back from it.
“What about Eugenio? And you yourself?” “Horses too for me,” Uiara said, matter-of-factly. “But I want to breed them. I’ll stay at home until I’m making a success of it, and then set up my own stud. And do riding trips for tourists and so on as a sideline…Desmond will come in with me - ride them to glory! – and we’ll make a name for ourselves. Eugenio just wants to paint – he’s like Dad, a single-minded dreamer – but Tesni’s planning to sell his paintings along with her baked goods, eventually!”
“You’ve really got this planned out, haven’t you?”
“I couldn’t bear to be stuck indoors all day. Nor could Desmond. And we all want to be around for Henrietta and Charlie too – after all, otherwise they’ve only got you. I mean…” she added hastily, realising that this could sound bad, but Regina just laughed. Patched jeans and scruffy tee shirt, but Desmond didn’t care. He finally had his horse! Queen’s Hope was his, and the plans he and Uiara had been making were beginning to come to fruition. He set off to ride her home. “What’s bothering you?”
Desmond had proper riding gear now – Regina had insisted on it. And Tesni had paid for it (second-hand, apart from the hat, but who cared?) with the earnings from her part-time job at the grocery store.
“Well,” Uiara said slowly, glad that they were alone together. “It doesn’t seem fair. Reggie’s worked so hard, bringing us all up, and now that you and I are nearly ready to leave school, Viriato’s gearing up to tell her to move out.”
“Has he said so to you?”
“No. But I can read him. And where would she and the children go? She’s earning something from her books, but not enough. I can’t believe Mum and Dad could have been so unfair.”
Desmond thought hard. “He can’t do it while Henrietta and Charlie are still children. It would look too bad. Fern wouldn’t reckon much to it! We’ve got a bit of time yet.”
“Not much though.” It was a holiday! Tesni had cooked breakfast for everyone while the others attacked the garden.
“These are great, Tesni. They’re as good as mine.” Tesni blushed with pleasure.
It was late spring, and the garden was productive again. There were no longer seedlings on every surface and money was coming into the family coffers once more. And today, Desmond was riding his first race! He’d been training Queen’s Hope and himself – now it was time to put the training into practice. Uiara had saddled up Queen’s Hope and was gazing at her fondly. This race was really just for experience – neither she nor Desmond had any high hopes for the mare yet, though Henrietta and Charlie were dreaming fondly of golden cups and rich prizes. As well as a love of cooking, Tesni took after Reggie in that she liked clothes. Her second-hand outfits had a style that marked them out as her own. At the moment though, they were discussing food, not clothes.
This oven’s just not ideal for baking. In fact, far from it. But we need more space for a better kitchen. If we could build on upstairs, move the bedrooms up there…”
“That’s going to be really expensive, isn’t it?” Tesni said ruefully.
“We’re getting nearer to being able to afford the building work. But there’s equipping the kitchen too…” The scaffolding was going up! The builders started on Monday. The weather forecast was fine for the next couple of weeks or so. Before Desmond and Uiara graduated – even if it was only just before they graduated - the house was going to look very different. The bedrooms were tiny – and undecorated at the moment – but there was one each for Regina, Uiara, Desmond and Viriato. Tesni and Henrietta would still have to share, as would Charlie and Eugenio. And there were two bathrooms upstairs and one downstairs! And the outside bathroom was there no more – they’d re-used its contents and razed it to the ground! No-one had been sorry to see it go. Downstairs wasn’t decorated much either, but there was a long room where the old bedrooms had once been – half kitchen, with the old units re-used once again. And half dining room. One day, Regina promised herself, they’d have chairs instead of logs. But decorating the walls – and maybe painting the windows – would have to come first. The original room looked incredibly bare. They’d had the soot of ages cleaned off the fireplace while the builders were in, so the fireplace was now the original honey-coloured stone. One day, Regina thought, they’d have chairs in here, maybe even a television, rugs on the floor (at least it wasn’t that bare stone any more). One day… But for now, as Regina picked up the post, she was pardonably pleased with herself. The house was looking like something at last. Desmond had his horse. And Uiara had told her what the others were hoping to do. Now they could work together and see if they could turn those hopes into realities.

The seedlings came form Sandy at ATS3, as did the laundry stuff.
The scaffolding is by cyclonesue at TSR