Is When You’re Making Up…

Jeff was miserable. It had been a couple of weeks now since Seb had told him to go. Meri was doing her best, but her son was obstinate, even though he was missing Jeff with a passion.

Jeff didn’t know this though; as far as he knew, Seb never wanted to see him again. His heart skipped a beat whenever he saw the ambo drive by. His house was between the ambo/fire station, so wherever they were called out they had to go by. He tried not to watch it as it went by, either in a rush of dust with lights blazing and sirens screaming, ot at a more gentle pace on the way to Coffs to stock up their kit.

More than once, Jeff thought it was going to stop, and his heart skipped a beat at the prospect of seeing Seb again, but the closest it got was to just slow down as it went by the house, only to speed up again and carry on towards the centre of the village.

Jeff tried to keep busy. He’d finished the work for Tom and Tori, and had taken a look at the plumbing in the flat above Richie Roberts office. He looked at the appointment book; it was empty or the next couple of days. He needed something to keep him occupied.

Walking into the kitchen, he put the kettle on and sighed. He had a choice – do the books or sort out the store shed. Both needed doing. He had an accountant to check his books twice a year, but he was proud of the fact that he could keep them in perfect order himself. He kept his office immaculate; a place for everything and everything in its place. He knew the books would only take a couple of hours to bring up to date, but he chose to do that instead of making a start in the store.

Taking his coffee back into his office he stood looking out of the front window at his landscaped garden. He loved this place. Why did Seb insist that he should leave it all behind and move in with him. Harry was here, he could feel him all around watching over him. Sighing once again, he pulled out his chair and sat at his desk, pen in hand.

A car pulled up outside but he didn’t look up; he was busy adding up a column in the ledger. He didn’t even really hear the door open. A feminine cough caught his attention and he looked up. A smile came to his face and he stood up and walked round the desk.

“G’Day, Ceri. What can I do for you?”

Ceri gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. “Hello, Jeff. Did you know that outside the family you are the only one in The Glen that can instantly tell Bron and I apart – except for General Meridius, that is.”

Jeff grinned and kissed her back. “That’s nice to hear, Luv. Sounds like I’m in good company then. Want a cuppa?”

“Wouldn’t say no, Jeff. Need any help?”

“No, I’m good. Want to go into the lounge room? I’ll be two ticks. Oh, Lucy brought me over some cakes this morning. Want to help me eat a couple?”

“You said the magic words, Jeff. I can’t resist your cousin’s baking. It must be fantastic having her in the village.”

Jeff walked in with a tray and set it down on the coffee table before replying. “You’re not wrong, Luv. She’s the only family I have, well, her and Andy now.”

He handed Bron a cup and empty plate, then after she set her tea down he offered her first choice from the box of cakes.

“Ooh, Jeff. I’ve never seen these on sale. Are they a new line?”

“Um…no, she actually does them special for me. Mum used to cook them and she gave Lucy’s mum the recipe, then when Lucy showed an interest in baking, it was passed to her to keep it in the Mitchell family.”

Bron took a bite and closed her eyes in ecstasy. “Jeff, these are divine. It’s fantastic to have a special recipe for just the family.”

“You really like them? You and Bron have been like big sisters to me ever since I’ve been here. If you like, I can ask Lucy to make a few extra in the next batch and let you have some.”

Ceri smiled and nodded in agreement. She was glad she’d dropped in to see Jeff, and not only because of the wonderful cake. She’d heard that he and Stevo had split, and she wanted to make certain he was okay. She could see he wasn’t, but was happy she’d been able to get a smile out of him.

They sat in the bright room, the sun streaming through the window, and chatted as they drank their tea and ate their cakes. Ceri made sure not to bring up Stevo in the conversation as she didn’t want to upset Jeff.

“That was great, Jeff. Will you let me wash up the cups and plates?”

“It isn’t necessary, Ceri, but if you want to, you know where the kitchen is,” Jeff replied, taking the tray out and putting the cake box on the counter top. “Would you like to take some home? There’s enough for Max, Bron and Ed here, and I’m always kept stocked up by Lucy.”

“Oh that would be great, Luv. Thanks so much,” Bron replied, rinsing off the crockery. “Now then, I guess I should tell you why I stopped by.”

“You mean it wasn’t to raid my larder?” Jeff teased.

“No, silly. You know we’re having a pool built. You did such a great job on the tiles for the General, Max was wondering if you would like to do ours for us. The builders said he can get the tiles for whatever design we chose, but his tiler has a big job for them down in Tassie, so unless we know someone who can do it for us, it could hold up completion. It sounds like he doesn’t want to employ anyone else to do it while his man is working away.”

Jeff leant against the countertop and thought for a minute. "When would you need it done?”

“Well, we’ve narrowed the design down to about six; don’t give me that old fashioned look, maybe you can pop over and take a look. When we decide, it will take about a week for the tiles to be delivered, so I guess in a couple of weeks.”

Jeff walked out to his office and came back with his diary in his hand. Flicking through the pages, he saw that he had a week completely free. “I’ve could do it three weeks from today if that would suit. Give you time to chose and order the tiles. I’ll pop over later this arvo to have a look if you like.”

Ceri dried her hands and hugged Jeff. “That will be great. Shall we say about 3:00?”

“It’s a date,” Jeff smiled, and walked Ceri out to her car, kissing her once more before she got in and drove off, waving as she went.”

Stevo was an emotional mess. Tom was worried that it would interfere with his work, but so far he was doing fine. It was the downtime that hit him. He sat morosely in the back of the ambo, staring at the floor. He hardly spoke two words all shift. It was beginning to affect Tom.

“Stevo, why don’t you just pop over to Jeff’s and talk to him?”

“Mate, how can I. I told him I never wanted to see him again.”

“And you mum told you just how broken hearted he is. Don’t you realise that you only have to turn up to get him back?”

“There’s no point, Tom. He doesn’t want to move in with me. He told me as much.”

“He told you he didn’t want to leave his house, mate, not that he didn’t want to be with you. Do you know just how much that place means to him? He feels it’s a gift from his dad. You need to talk to him, come to some sort of agreement about where you want to live. Hell, you could keep both places and have a rota.”

Stevo looked up at Tom. Was he joking? That just might be something to talk to Jeff about. Would he be willing to speak to him though.”

“I’ll think about it, Tom. Maybe after shift this evening.”

“Good onya, mate.”

Jeff looked at his watch. The books were done and he still had about four hours to kill before he was due at Ceri’s. He looked towards the store and made up his mind; he’d make a start in there before he left.

The store shed was stacked from floor to ceiling with equipment and parts. Jeff knew that he was going to have to build a bigger place if business kept on growing, but for now this would do he guessed. Turning around, he wasn’t quite sure where to start. He thought he might as well do a complete audit while he was at it.

He started with the plastic fittings. He was a bit old-fashioned about his plumbing and much preferred copper piping, but a lot of people requested the nylon/plastic pipes and fittings, so he kept minimal stock just in case. It didn’t take too long to check that, so he was soon ready to count the copper piping. He needed to get the steps to check to top racking. He hadn’t been up there since the last delivery, so needed to check it had all been staked in the right place.

Running up the steps, he was dismayed to see that the delivery driver had mixed up the sizes together, so he set too pulling pipes out and replacing them. One pipe was jammed under the rest and Jeff grabbed hold with both hands and pulled. The steps moved beneath him, and before he could steady himself, they slipped away and he was pushed forwards onto the stack of pipes. The racking couldn’t take the sudden extra weight and began to buckle under him.

He just had time to shout, “Oh fuck,” before he was falling, closely followed by a complete load of copper pipes.

Tbc…