Chapter 4: Afternoon Tea And A Problem

Lorraine and Danny left school at lunchtime on Friday. They cycled over to Johns and had a snack with him. They had decided to go early knowing he would be feeling down as the time for the funeral approached.

Right on time the hearse arrived accompanied by one car. The three of them boarded the car, then the cortege set off. They drove down his sister’s road and went slow as they passed the bungalow where she had lived for so long. Lorraine took hold of Johns hand as they passed.

Arriving at the crematorium, they followed the coffin in. John’s sister had wanted a very minimal funeral, so there was just her favourite piece of music playing. As the Duet from the ‘Pearl Fishers’ rang out, they all stood in silence. Then the curtains started to close around the coffin.

Before they were completely shut, they saw the coffin start to move off on the rollers on its final journey. A few minutes later, the curtains opened, and the coffin was gone.

As the music came to its end, they all filed out of the crematorium. The hearse had gone. John thanked the funeral director, and they got back into the car which took them to the Manor Hotel.

Danny, Lorraine, and John walked into the Manor Hotel for their afternoon tea. They were soon escorted to a comfortable sitting area and their orders were taken for drinks.

They sat and chatted for a while then coffees arrived. These were followed by two, three-tiered cake stands. Both with fancy sandwiches on the bottom largest plate, vol-au-vents and other delicacies on the middle slightly smaller plate and cakes of all sorts on the small top plate. It all looked delicious.

They were delivered to them by a young waiter who looked not much older than Danny. He was very quiet and introduced himself as David. ‘I’ll be your waiter for the afternoon,’ he said in a voice so quiet it was hard to hear him.

‘He seems nice,’ Lorraine said after he had gone, ‘But he was very shy.’ They chatted happily as they tucked into the delicious morsels. One of the lovely things about an afternoon tea is that there are no courses. You just work your way through the dishes in front of you at your own speed.

A while later David re appeared to ask if they would like more coffee. Lorraine gave him a lovely smile and said, ‘Yes please, David.’

He returned a few minutes later with a fresh pot. As he was pouring it, an older waiter came along and asked, ‘Is David looking after you well.’ ‘Yes, he’s lovely,’ Lorraine said. Danny happened to be looking at David’s face at the time. He was amused at his look of absolute concentration as he poured the coffee. David hadn’t seen the other man coming and at the sound of his voice he jumped, making him miss the cup.

He apologised, put the pot down and took the cup with spilt coffee in the saucer away to get a clean one. As he moved away but was still in hearing, the older man said, ‘I apologise for the mess, David hasn’t been with us very long.’ Danny studied him, he had taken an instant dislike to him, something that he rarely did. He had also noticed the look of fear that had flashed briefly across David’s face as he heard his voice.

When David returned with a clean cup, he apologised for spilling it as he poured out the coffee. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Danny told him, ‘It can happen to anyone. Your boss does tend to creep up on you doesn’t he.’

David gave him a grateful smile. ‘How long have you worked here, David,’ Lorraine asked him. ‘Two months,’ he said. Then added, ‘But I don’t think they’ll keep me on.’ ‘I’m sure you’ll do just fine.’ Lorraine said. ‘Yes,’ Danny added, ‘You just keep at it, don’t let anyone upset you.’ He gave them a smile and moved away.

Two hours later they had had another coffee and cleared all the plates. They all agreed that an afternoon tea was something to repeat in the future. As they got up to leave, David came back. ‘Was everything alright?’ he asked. ‘Perfect,’ they told him. ‘And we had a lovely waiter.’ Lorraine told him, making him blush.

‘We’ve left a tip on the table,’ Danny said as he moved to stand in front of him. ‘David, shake my hand.’ he said quietly. As they did, Danny said, ‘Can you feel the card in my hand?’ ‘Yes.’ came the surprised reply. ‘Please take it and put it in your pocket without anyone seeing it.’ he told him.

David took hold of it as they let go. ‘I think you are in some sort of trouble,’ Danny said. ‘I’d like to help you. Please text me when you can, and we’ll sort something out.’

As they left, David started clearing the table.

John had paid when he booked, but as they passed reception, he stopped and thanked them. He also told them that their waiter David had been lovely and looked after them really well. Then they left and set off home.

On Monday lunch time Danny got a text saying, ‘Hi it’s David from the Manor Hotel, you asked me to text you.’ ‘Hi, David,’ he sent back, ‘What time can I ring and speak to you when no one can hear you?’ ‘I’m off today,’ he replied, ‘I’m out for a walk so now would be fine.’

Danny rang him right away. ‘Thanks for contacting me, David,’ he said. ‘I do a lot of voluntary counselling. Because of that I can often pick up when someone is troubled or frightened. I could be wrong of course, but my impression is that someone is either hurting you or frightening you. I can help if you will let me.’

There was silence at the other end. After a few moments Danny said, ‘I’m not going to ask you to tell me what it is just yet, but can you answer yes or no to these two questions. Am I right and will you let me help you?’ After another silence a quiet voice said, ‘Yes, and yes please.’

‘Well done, David,’ Danny told him, ‘You’ve just taken the first two steps to solving your problem. I’ll explain that more when we meet up. What days are you off. Today and tomorrow each week,’ he replied, ‘They’re our slack days.’ ‘Where abouts do you live?’ Danny asked. ‘I have a one bed flat half a mile away from the Hotel.’ he said giving the address.

‘Ok,’ Danny told him, ‘That’s not too far from me, so you can come to me, or I can come to you. I can do either five o’clock today or tomorrow. Or if it’s too soon for you, next week.’ ‘If you could come to me today that would be good.’ David said. ‘Are you likely to have any visitors to disturb our conversation.’ Danny asked. ‘No, no one ever visits me.’ he said sounding sad.

He gave Danny the full address. ‘Ok I’ll see you at five today.’ Danny said.

Danny cycled home from school then walked over to David’s. His flat was in the basement of a detached old house that had been converted to five flats. David answered the door looking nervous. He invited Danny in and took him through to the lounge.

The flat was a lounge with a kitchen area in one corner, plus a bedroom with an ensuite. Small but cosy and ideal for a single person. David showed him round and told him he had lived there for six months and liked it.

He offered Danny a coffee so they sat at the small table in the kitchen area. As they drank Danny explained a little about himself. ‘When you spilt the coffee,’ he told him, ‘I happened to be watching your face because you were concentrating so hard on what you were doing. When you jumped, I saw a brief look of fear flash across your face. That’s what made me decide to give my card to you. Also, because you came across to all three of us as a very nice person.’

‘Now, whatever is troubling you is likely to seem very embarrassing to you. It is also very likely to involve sex in some form or another.’ He noticed a slight blush at the mention of sex. ‘Let me tell you that most of the problems I have dealt with have been the same.’

‘All those people thought their problem was far too embarrassing to be able to tell anyone else about it, but after a while they all felt able to tell me. Once I knew what the problem was, it was usually fairly easy to solve it.’