A Perfect Christmas

Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN


Cait’s birthday several days later passed uneventfully. No one at work knew what day it was and she didn’t enlighten them. In fact, had it not been for Agnes’s thoughtfulness in buying her a card there was a strong probability she would not have remembered what day it was herself until after the event. She had believed that New Year’s Eve would prove equally uneventful and prepared herself to spend it quietly at home by herself. But to her utter shock and joy, and without her having to manoeuvre others into anything, she was offered an invitation because the young woman issuing it had taken a liking to her and felt she was just the type who would fit in nicely with the group of girls she socialised with. All Cait’s hard work in changing her attitude was rewarded and New Year’s Eve was not the quiet lonely occasion she had prepared herself for.

The invitation had come about the evening before when she had arrived at the bus stop in town to await her journey home. It had started to pour down and, having no umbrella with her, she’d started to get soaked. Next thing she knew she was being asked by a young woman of around her own age, who had noticed her predicament, if she would like to share her umbrella with her until either of their buses arrived.

Cait had noticed her while they had been waiting for their respective buses. She’d liked the look of her, and whereas before she wouldn’t have hesitated to acquaint herself with the girl and do her best to engineer a friendship, the new Cait held herself back and allowed the girl to make her own approach if she wanted to. The bad weather had created the perfect opportunity for that to happen. Cait was only too glad to accept the offer and soon found herself falling into easy conversation with her rescuer. She took an instant liking to the bubbly young woman and tried not to hope she might feel likewise, for fear of being disappointed. But she obviously did because before they parted company, Cait’s bus thankfully arriving first as it was still pouring down, the other girl Cait now knew to be Belinda had given her her address and invited her to come round whenever she liked, which a jubilant Cait had enthusiastically agreed to do. As she had stepped on to the platform of the bus Belinda had called out to her that if she wasn’t doing anything better, she was welcome to join her and her other friends on New Year’s Eve. They were all meeting at the clock tower at seven-thirty and going to see in the New Year at a skiffle club.

Cait was waiting at the clock tower for Belinda and her other friends to arrive at a quarter past, not taking any risk she might be delayed and miss them. Belinda’s other friends, three of them as it turned out, were a bit wary of her at first, but soon warmed to the new Cait’s friendly, unpushy, easygoing manner. Before the evening ended she had become the fifth member of their group, her vision of herself as a lonely old woman beginning to fade.