Under a Starry Sky: A perfectly feel-good and uplifting story of second chances to escape with this summer 2020!

by Laura Kemp

  They all turned over.

  ‘This is not prescriptive and it’s just a jumble of things, there’s no real order to them, but … We’re at the foot of a soon-to-be, fingers crossed, official mountain. We have a lake. We are in one of the darkest, least light-polluted places in the world. We are under a starry sky! There’s the shepherd’s hut that we could turn into a place to stay; we could get bell tents, a yurt, make a treehouse, stick canoes on the lake, provide barbecue packs with marshmallows and sticks, we could give stargazing tours!’

  ‘This is tremendous!’ Mam cried. ‘And, goodness, I forgot we had it, but our first caravan is in the barn. It’s whatyoucallit … vintage!’

  ‘Brilliant! We can get one of the farmers to pull it out, we can do it up – Mam, you could sew some curtains while you’re resting!’

  ‘I’ll sort out the website and answerphone,’ Carys volunteered, bravely – if only they’d had one then, Danny might have been there with them now. It was clearly what her sister was thinking and she let out a sob.

  ‘Oh, Caz,’ Wanda said. ‘Chin up.’

  ‘Chins up, I’m so huge.’

  ‘Look, we’ll make sure this place is headline flaming news – it’ll be impossible for him not to hear about it.’

  Carys nodded and swallowed back her tears. ‘Thank God for you two.’

  ‘It’s going to be all right, Caz. Mam’s home now. I feel really positive, too.’

  This felt like an opportunity to write a new version of herself.

  It was definitely something to toast.

  ‘Let’s have a drink then, girls,’ Mam said, raising her tea cup. ‘To us! And to new names and new starts!’

  15

  What in the name of Wales had Annie done?

  She had no experience with children, she wasn’t a teacher and gardening was a solitary existence. Yet despite her glaring lack of qualifications with young people, here she was about to lead the much-promoted inaugural Grow Up club for the kids of Gobaith.

  Remind me never to suggest anything ever again when I’ve had too much to drink, she thought, as she checked her watch, waiting for someone, anyone, to come along. At least she had Teg with her today. She narrowed her eyes across the campsite and saw her swimming in the lake – it was a sunny day with the gentlest of breezes but it would still be freezing in there. Teg loved the water, though – she especially loved coming out and shaking herself all over Annie, too.

  The first Saturday of May had come around quickly. The preparation was behind her – she’d put up posters on street lamps, pinned up details in the community hall, Blod’s Shop, Fork Handles and the Post Office and asked the primary and secondary school to give the eight-years-and-above club a plug. She was DBS-checked and Pastor Pete had secured funds to pay for insurance. Gobaith Gardening Centre had very kindly provided sponsorship in the form of a few tools, some compostable pots and lots of packets of seeds. And even though there was no legal requirement, Annie had paid out of her own pocket for a first aid course. If she was going to do this, she had to do it properly – it was a commitment; people had believed in her and it wouldn’t do to let this piece of land be disturbed and then abandoned. She saw it as a challenge, not just to herself but to the people, to connect the Hughes family name with something good.

  The grassy area was the size of a tennis court and there was a public footpath running alongside it so it would be accessible to all. In bloom, it would be a thing of wonder – a rival for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, she reckoned. It sat to the right of the camping area, so it had a clear view down to the lake, as if they had their own infinity pool. The soil was good, it was south-west facing and if they worked hard it could be a legacy for the future. Could be, she thought, could be … Now, though, it was time to reap what she had sown.

  Her phone buzzed. Here we go, she thought, this would be the first of many excuses for a no-show.

  ‘Annie speaking, how can I help?’

  There was a rustle on the line and she thought nothing of it until she heard the sound of someone breathing.

  ‘Hello? Is everything okay?’

  Still nothing.

  ‘Are you in trouble?’

  The breathing became heavier and with shock she suddenly realised it was a dirty call … She almost threw the phone on the floor. Disgusting, what did people get out of that?

  She glanced at her watch. Ten a.m. on the dot and there wasn’t a soul to be seen. It was disappointing, but she was used to that. May as well get on with it, then. If anyone did turn up they could plant some seeds into little tubs, make labels and have a dig.

  Annie had drawn a skeleton structure of a design: she checked it now and began to peg it out with string and stakes. The top half would be walled, with raised beds for quick-growing vegetables such as tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce and cucumbers. The borders would be full of wildflowers and colour, drama and fun. There would be a table in the middle for potting. The bottom half would have a barbecue of bricks on the left and opposite, in the right corner, would be an L-shaped sofa of pallets. Whatever could be painted would be – the children could choose the shade and there was space on the side middle sections for them to play with. There could be wellington boots of herbs, tyres of ferns, a living teepee of runner beans, crazy paving, stepping-stone circles of wood …

  ‘Annie!’

  She looked up with pleasure to see Spike carrying spades and forks, rakes and hoes. He had a huge khaki rucksack on his back as if he was on manoeuvres. Her face broke out into a huge grateful smile.

  ‘Hiya!’ she waved like a loon.

  ‘Sorry we’re late!’ Spike said. ‘I say we. Arthur and his mates are keepin’ their distance; I’m embarrassin’, obviously.’

  Oh, you aren’t, she thought, then stopped herself right there. She’d given herself a pep talk ahead of this: enjoy his company but nothing more, guiltily finding herself admiring his Action Man physique. She concentrated instead on his energy: the humming on his lips as he unpacked three flasks, some bottles of water and what looked like a shopping trolley of snacks.

  ‘We the first, then?’ he winked. ‘Never mind, all the more for us! Tea, coffee and hot chocolate for the kids. I had to buy this lot to bribe Arthur.’

  ‘Amazing!’ All hope wasn’t lost after all.

  ‘I think they’re in shock,’ Spike whispered, ‘bein’ away from their screens.’

  Arthur plus three other boys and a girl were scuffing the ground, their shoulders hunched, staring with tilted heads through defiant fringes.

  ‘Morning!’ Annie said, stepping forward to greet them, relaxing into her role with Spike as back-up. ‘Great to see you, Arthur!’ To the others she said, ‘I’m Annie. Who are you then? And how old are you?’

  Awkwardness seeped out of their adolescent pores.

  ‘Joe. Thirteen,’ the largest grunted in a low broken voice, shoving his hands into the pockets of a far-too-skinny-for-his-size pair of joggers. With spots and mousey greasy hair, puberty had started for him and he was head and shoulders above the others. She couldn’t see this one cwtching up in the bean teepee.

  ‘Nathan, eleven,’ squeaked the smallest, a scrap of a thing, dark but with big blue wary eyes.

  ‘I’m Mali, rhymes with Sally,’ the girl said, all attitude, with a crop top, hoop earrings and a high brown ponytail. ‘I’m twelve and I’m only here for the sweets.’

  ‘George. I’m twelve.’ This one, built like a barn, crossed his arms defensively. ‘Mam made me come. I got kicked out of rugby and football. She needs the house on Saturdays to do her beauty salon.’

  ‘And I’m bored out of my brains,’ Arthur said to an applause of sniggers, which unsettled Annie.

  Interestingly, Spike said nothing and Annie realised it was because this was her show. It was an awakening – and an empowering one. She decided to starve his cheek of oxygen and i
gnore him.

  ‘You all know each other from school then?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Mali said, ‘we met in detention.’

  This was clearly going to be harder than Annie thought. Nevertheless, she had once been like them: suspicious of everything and everyone, difficult until she felt safe – but with good inside her, given the chance to show it. She launched into the benefits of less screen and more green – gardening connected you with the earth, there was a buzz in growing, harvesting and eating your own, and outdoor activity helped to deal with anxiety and stress. Next, she gave them a tour of the patch, feeling the heat of their resistance like a boiling radiator.

  ‘Any questions?’

  ‘What if we need the loo? Do we get to go commando?’ Nathan asked, excited by the prospect.

  ‘Nice try. There’s a bathroom block just there.’

  ‘How long is this going to last?’ Joe huffed.

  ‘An hour? Two?’

  ‘Jeez.’

  ‘Hang on, so you’re saying this is ours then?’ Mali said, distrustfully.

  ‘Yes. It belongs to all of us.’

  ‘What, so we can come up here at night and stuff?’ She lit up at the prospect.

  ‘Er … that’d be up to your parents.’ Mali rolled her eyes. ‘We could do some early-evening sessions in the weeks to come as the nights get longer, perhaps. Cook up some sausages, toast marshmallows. If you’d like that?’

  Mali gave a barely discernible nod and to Annie it felt like a victory.

  ‘Two more! Eight o’clock,’ Spike said, making fun of his military past.

  A boy and a girl were on their way over, walking with confidence.

  ‘Hi, is this the gardening club?’ The girl was well spoken and had a graceful air about her.

  ‘It is!’ Annie’s spirits lifted a fraction as she was seduced by the well-to-do look of them, probably Boden.

  ‘I’m Primrose, I’m thirteen, and this is Benedict, he’s my brother and he’s eleven.’ Both were in Hunter wellies and they didn’t come cheap. ‘I want to do horticulture when I leave university.’

  They were like a different species, these two. Annie knew their parents – they were one of her clients, how lovely of them to support this. But, straight away, a divide opened up between the kids as the first lot sized up the incomers.

  ‘Posh twats,’ Arthur said in his best cockney gangster voice. The trouble was, at his age she would’ve thought exactly the same.

  Oh dear. Quick! Do something!

  ‘Everyone’s equal here, Arthur,’ she said, knowing some kids were more advantaged than others, but she was here to treat everyone the same. ‘Right, time’s pressing on, so how about we all do some digging. Let’s start here,’ she pointed at the ground in front of a section of string, ‘along the line; planters will go behind, we can build them directly on top of the grass.’

  Spike produced his tools and suddenly the prongs of the forks and the blade of the spades seemed hugely dangerous as Arthur’s lot chopped divots into the ground. By contrast, Primrose and Benedict used theirs with expert precision. It wasn’t long before Arthur was lobbing sods of turf around, culminating in Benedict getting a clump on the side of his head. And Arthur was about to go for him again …

  The little so-and-so. She had to be careful – not because Spike was here, he’d given her his blessing to do the disciplining, but because she knew if she got it wrong, he’d be even more confrontational. Think: he’s behaving like this probably because his dad is here, he’s trying to fit in and he wants to be seen as cool. Give him a bollocking and he’d feed off it as a badge of honour. However, go too soft and he’d think she was a walkover. He didn’t know, though, that she was well and truly done with being a doormat. She thought back to what she used to say to Ryan when he played up. It wasn’t very mature, but it had always embarrassed him enough to make him stop whatever he was doing.

  ‘Arthur!’ Her voice was hard to catch his attention.

  He stopped mid-lob.

  ‘Bit of life advice for you,’ she said, softer now, but loud enough for everyone to hear. ‘Don’t be a dick.’

  There were a couple of smirks at Arthur’s expense, although the kids weren’t laughing – they were interested to see how this would pan out.

  He sized her up, weighing up what he’d do. She stared him out – she wasn’t going to let him win this. Eventually, Arthur dropped the lump of mud by his feet and mumbled something, quite possibly swear words about her, but she didn’t care. The tension was gone, but she wasn’t done.

  ‘That goes for all of you, by the way, just in case you’re tempted.’ She addressed every single child and each of them looked taken aback. ‘If you don’t want to do this, you can go home. If you stay now, you’re here for the project and you’ll have to put your best into it. Yes, it can be hard work, yes, it can feel monotonous and yes, you will get dirty.’

  She paused, marvelling at how she had caught their attention. Worried she was too stern, she gave them a smile. ‘But the reward will be creating something as a team that’s your own, being proud of something you’ve done from scratch. If we get it right we can sell our veggies, use the money for more equipment or whatever it is you want – because this is all for you.’

  One by one, their little faces softened into sweetness. Apart from Arthur. But she still had one last trick up her sleeve. She gave a piercing whistle, which made him jump. Poor lad looked terrified, but then he understood – and finally he was beaming as Teg bounded up, the pace of her run sending her ears flying and she was so desperate to meet her new friends she skidded on her face and tumbled over in a heap. While she was down there, Annie imagined her thinking she may as well stay on her back, wag her tail and hope someone would rub her belly. A chorus of ‘Aaah!’ went up.

  Arthur raised his eyebrows, asking if he could go to her. Annie nodded and he was like a completely different child, gently approaching, cooing at Teg, asking the eternal question of ‘Who’s a good girl?’. He went down to his knees and let Teg smell his hand first, then smoothed her tummy, chattering away to her as if they were siblings, continuing way after everyone else had got their dig on. The children had abandoned their two opposing packs and were working as one.

  ‘Nice job,’ Spike said, coming over to her, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

  ‘Nothing to do with me,’ Annie said. ‘I was bad cop, Teg’s the good cop.’

  Arthur was now in fits of giggles as he tried to navigate a wheelbarrow of turf to the compost area while Teg badgered him for a stroke.

  ‘I’m thinking I can finish off the top section later and make a start on the planters. I’ve got a load of pallets in the van, so I may as well stick around.’

  A little green monster suggested this might be an excuse for him to bump into Wanda.

  ‘What about the shop?’ she asked, hating herself for looking for a spoiler.

  ‘I’ve got a Saturday boy. Good as gold, ’e is. He can ring if it gets busy. Arthur’s got a Welsh lesson with Wanda later too … and … well, it’d be good to know what you wanted doing, if you’re staying up ’ere? While the weather’s decent.’

  She was quite thrown. ‘Oh … I don’t know. I hadn’t thought beyond this morning, really.’ But she was also touched at his enthusiasm. ‘But yes, that’d be great!’

  Spike threw a look at Teg, who’d become Arthur’s shadow. ‘Dogs can’t ’elp but spread the love, eh? I’ll ’ave to ’ave a cuddle with her myself!’

  ‘I’m afraid Teg’s not one for strangers,’ she said. Hearing her name, Teg began to trot over.

  ‘We’ve met! She’ll remember me.’

  Annie suspected it wouldn’t make a jot of difference. On cue, Teg suddenly stopped and, with a cocked paw, she sniffed the air.

  ‘I dunno, she takes ages to warm to someone,’ Annie said. ‘She’s frightened of men.�
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  ‘Oh, mate,’ he said to Teg, crouching to his knees to appear less of a threat, ‘I love dogs. Had ’em when I was small. Scruffbag mongrels.’ Then he spoke to Teg. ‘’Ello, beauty, I won’t hurt you. ’

  ‘She won’t come to you, she’s really afraid …’

  Annie couldn’t finish her sentence because Teg was actually on her way to him, cautiously taking one step here, another there, but not backing away, creeping closer until she had the measure of his scent and decided he wasn’t a risk.

  ‘You do remember him! Good girl, Teg!’

  ‘I’m honoured!’ Teg was letting him ruffle her ears. ‘I wonder what it is about men she doesn’t like?’

  Because Teg had trusted him, Annie would too. It was as simple as that. She filled Spike in on her violent ex, her impending divorce, the kennels and her need to get her back by her side.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Annie, ’ow can people be cruel to animals? To people, even! It’s just …’ he puffed his cheeks, ‘… incompre’ensible. Look, I’ve got a suggestion, and feel free to say no, but Teg needs a home, my boy needs a dog. Maybe we could help?’

  ‘No! No! I couldn’t, thank you so much though, I couldn’t impose that on you and I’m not at the point where I’m panicking about it.’ She was, but she couldn’t accept this offer when Spike was already helping her with the gardening club. Neither a lender nor borrower be, that was how she had to live – if you had nothing to give, it was the only way to stay afloat.

  ‘I’ve got you,’ Spike said, sadly, ‘but if you ever change your mind …’

  Annie felt herself welling up – this wasn’t the place to cry. This was a place which shouldn’t be contaminated by her emotional baggage. The strong smell of grass and earth brought her back to where she was: self-sufficient and fine with it. Being dependent on someone was not how she was going to live; she needed to be the one in the driving seat. Teg’s situation was down to her to sort out. She was a loner. It was her armour and that determination, that autonomy, had got her away from Dean Pincher. She felt herself switch back to business, regretting saying anything about her old life.