“Oh dear,” she said, “he’s not happy”.
“That’s a bit of an understatement, is it because of me?” Ed asked.
“Oh no I doubt it, you wouldn’t have helped, but no, it will have been the aeroplanes from lunchtime. Come into the kitchen and I’ll explain. Would you like some coffee?”
She led him back through the hall to the kitchen at the back of the house. It was how he pictured a farm kitchen should look, with a large wood table at its centre, four chairs, lots of work surfaces and cupboard space, again in shaker blue, but a modern electric double oven where once a wood-burning stove must have sat and a large chrome double-door refrigerator across the other side. There were blue and white check curtains hanging from a white wooden pole halfway up the long window. She turned on the faucet at the big old ceramic sink and filled the jug from a coffee machine with water. She busied herself filling the machine with coffee and getting it going as she started to talk.
“Ben’s been gone nearly ten years now; he was a Major in the Air Force. Everyone called him ‘Big Ben’, you know, because of the clock in London? He died in a training accident; he was on a C130 that crashed in bad weather. He wasn’t even flying it; he was a passenger that day. He was an instructor on the jets. We bought this place about a year before he died. It was a fixer-upper as the real estate people would say. Joshua was five when the accident happened. We knew he had some problems quite early on. When he was born he came out real fast, but the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. He lost air for a little while. The doctors did some tests when he was a little older and said it was nothing and probably wouldn’t affect him at all, but there were signs that he wasn’t quite the same as other kids. When Ben died he took it really badly, we both did of course, but Josh went into himself and has hardly recovered. The doctors say it is a kind of autism and he should improve as he gets older. I’m not so sure. The kids at the local school teased him, called him a dummy but he is actually very bright, ‘specially with numbers. Esther schools him and cares for him during the days when I’m working, but as you saw, he doesn’t show much affection and doesn’t like change or strangers. Here’s your coffee, you like lots of cream don’t you?” As he took the offered mug and mumbled a thank you, he could see tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry”, she said, fumbling for a tissue in her jacket pocket. “I haven’t had to tell anyone any of that for a while now, but it doesn’t seem to get any easier though”. Ed felt shocked. The obvious questions popped into his head.
“I’m so sorry Linda, c’mon on, sit down.” He sat her at the kitchen table then took the chair opposite hers. “How do you manage? I mean, why don’t you go home, wherever home is, to your family?”
She looked up with her big brown eyes. “I have no family as such, both my parents died some years ago and I don’t really get on with my brother. Aunts and uncles are very distant, India in fact, that’s my origins. This was to be our dream home, and it was, for a while. Ben was due to leave the Air Force in another twelve months and we were going to stay here in Ohio, maybe resurrect the farm with some cattle and crops and I was going to go back to teaching, that’s what I did before we had Joshua. Ben’s insurance covered the mortgage and I get a generous widow’s pension from the government so we do okay. I don’t really need to work at the library but I would go stir crazing I think, and Josh can be a challenge sometimes, so Esther comes in three times a week and I go to the library, it works out really well.” They sat in silence, he didn’t know what to say, but his stomach did. Linda heard the deep rumble from across the table, they both smiled. “Gosh, you must be starving, when did you eat last?” she asked as she stood up. It was his turn to flush crimson.
“Oh breakfast I guess, I had pancakes at the diner in town, but really, I don’t want to put you to any bother Linda”.
“It won’t be a bother, I promise. I made a chicken pie on Sunday that will easily feed all of us, and I phoned Esther earlier to ask her to pop it in the oven”.
She busied herself with pots and pans and getting vegetables.
“What are you like around the kitchen Ed, are you a real man, can you use a peeler?” she asked with just a hint of sarcasm. “I need to go and see Josh, would you…?”
He took the proffered potato peeler and turned to the sack of fresh potatoes as she disappeared towards the stairs. “I’m back to doing KP duties again!”
Linda tapped on the boy’s door. “Josh, honey, can I come in?” With no answer, she turned the knob and stood at the open doorway to the boy’s room. He sat on his bed, holding the plastic model kit of a jet fighter, one of his prized possessions. There was no answer but he shrugged his shoulders noncommittally so she joined him on the edge of his bed. “Honey, are you okay? Did those planes bother you today?” He shrugged again. “They won’t crash Josh, I promise, Daddy was really unlucky. You got a hug for your mom?” Another shrug. “Please honey?” She knew that Joshua’s hugs were rarely given but something in her voice must have struck a chord with the boy. He leaned closer and put his arms around his mum, still clutching the model behind her back. She held him tight, making the most of every moment. Josh had inherited his father’s looks, his height and his smell. She felt closer to them both on the occasions her son gave her a hug. Reluctantly, she let him go. “Honey, I have to go back downstairs, will you come down in a while and join us. I would really like you to come and say hello to Mr Saunders properly. You’ll like him, he’s a nice guy. And we have chicken pie for supper, your favourite. Will you come down for me? Honey?” He finally looked up at her.
“Is he gonna be my new dad?”
When he wasn’t bottling things up inside Joshua had a knack of asking his questions up front. She blushed yet again.
“No Josh, he’s just a friend that needs my help.” But her own mind wasn’t completely convinced with the answer and maybe nor was Josh either, but he nodded.
“You’ll come down then, soon?”
“Okay mom, I’ll come down in a bit”.
She stood and moved to the door. Turning back she looked at her son, still in the same position as when she had entered the room, head down, still holding on tightly to the jet fighter.
“I love you Joshua”.
There was no response from the boy. She turned and headed for the stairs.
Ed had finished peeling the potatoes and had started to slice them in half and plop them in a big pan Linda had put on the stove.
“My, you work quickly. Thank you for doing that”. Ed turned towards her looking very pleased with himself.
“I’ll be honest with you; I’m used to TV dinners. I can’t see the point of cooking for one, but I used to cook quite a lot”.
“Oh, you’re on your own then, I assumed you’d be married? I guess there’s an awful lot I don’t know about you… yet”.
Their eyes met across the kitchen, the enquiry not lost on either of them. He broke the silence. “Was, I was married, divorced a few years back. She went off with one of my colleagues, one of those things I guess”.
“Ouch, that must have hurt.” she said earnestly.
“Yes it did, still does if I’m honest, I miss him a lot”. She got the joke immediately and they both laughed out loud. The mood was relaxed and they spent the next forty minutes talking, gently enquiring and investigating each other as they prepared the meal. Likes and dislikes, food, cars, a little history. The subject of the missing girl was avoided by both of them. The smell of the cooked pie drifted through the house finally drawing Joshua down just as Ed was laying the plates on the table.