Espresso Tales - Alexander Hanchett Smith [134]
with extraordinary speed, launched his head forward and headbutted the psychotherapist. Almost instinctively, but moved, too, by sheer rage, Dr Fairbairn raised his fist and hit Wee Fraser soundly across the side of his chin. There was a crack as the jaw broke.
“Maw! Maw!” wailed Wee Fraser, the words strangely slurred by the loosened jaw.
Dr Fairbairn pushed his way up to the front of the bus and burst out of the door. We repeat our mistakes, he reflected, as he made his way hurriedly down the road. Endlessly. In ways that speak so eloquently of our deepest inner urges. 86. In the Café St Honoré
Janis and Gordon met that night at eight o’clock at the Café St Honoré. Gordon had suggested dinner, and Janis had readily accepted, as she had been hoping for an opportunity to give him the Crosbie which she had bought from Matthew. The painting had appealed to her when she first saw it, and when she took it home, to her house in the Stockbridge colonies, she had become even more taken with it. She had wrapped it carefully in the red gift paper which she used in her florist shop, and had written a short message on an accompanying card. For Gordon, who has made these last few months so happy for me – Janis. Gordon had suggested that he call for her in a taxi, but she had decided to walk up the hill to the dinner engagement, as it was a fine evening. The first signs of autumn could be detected by those on the look-out for them, a slight sharpening of the air, an attenuation of the light. But for now, on that still evening, there was still every reason to be out under the pale sky, every reason to be walking through the streets of Edinburgh with the prospect of conversation and companionship at one’s destination. Which is what we are all looking for, thought Janis – in our various ways.
She thought about her day as she walked up Howe Street. In the Café St Honoré
283
They had been busy at the shop, and she and her two assistants had been exhausted when they closed the door at six. There had been a large delivery for two weddings they were doing the following day and there had also been a steady stream of customers. In the mid-afternoon, a man had come in and chosen a large spray of roses. She had prepared the flowers and had handed them to him.
“They are for my wife,” he had said. “They are for her.”
Janis had smiled. “I’m sure she will like them,” she had said. The man had looked down at the flowers, staring at them for several moments, and then she had realised . . . and he had raised his head again and she had seen the tears. She reached out and placed a hand on his forearm, to comfort him, and thought: We buy flowers for the dead. That is the one thing we buy for them.
Such moments as those were part of the florist’s day, and were handled as professionally as she could manage. But it was impossible not to be reminded in her work of the transience of human life and of how we can transform it by moments of kindness and consideration.
Gordon was already there when she arrived, seated in a table by the window. He rose to his feet, knocking over a glass as he did so. The glass rolled briefly on the table and then fell to the ground, splintering into fragments.
“I’m so clumsy,” he said to the waiter who appeared to deal with the situation.
“It’s nothing, sir,” said the waiter. “People do far worse than this. Whole tables of things end up on the floor.”
She smiled in appreciation at the waiter’s kindness and then turned her attention to the menu which had been put in front of her. For a few minutes they discussed what they would have and then, in the brief silence that followed, she reached for the small parcel which she had placed at her feet.
“I’ve brought you a present. It’s not a very big present, but I hope you like it.”
His eyes widened. “But it’s not my birthday.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
284 In the Café St Honoré
She passed the red parcel over to him and he took it from her gingerly.
“Open it.”
He slid a finger under a flap of the paper and peeled it back. The card was exposed and he took this out and