full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
Business as usual by Lilachigh
 
Chp 14 Friendship
 
<<     >>
 


Business as Usual

Chapter : Friendship

Agnes was so excited! Usually she worked every night because money and blood were too hard to come by. This was the first time for ages that she had given herself a night off. The tearoom in the dump was adorned with a large notice saying “Closed until Tomorrow” and if her demon and vampire customers didn’t like it – well – they could do the other, she thought and felt quite wicked!

She had dressed with extra care, baked some lovely little almond biscuits and packed them in a pretty box. She’d even tied the box with ribbon in a very American style, although all her English dislike of ostentation made her bridle at the bow.

Still, when in Rome – she thought and wondered wistfully if she would ever get to see the Eternal City. Visiting it was on her list of Things to Do Before I Go – although it had admittedly slipped quite a long way down as more mundane comments such as “Get new shoes” and “Find a cheaper butcher” took precedence.

Still, she was not going to be miserable with her lot tonight because she was off to visit a friend. Drop by and have coffee. That seemed to be the right way of saying it. Or was it drop in and drink coffee?

Agnes was always worried about correct usage of the language in the United States. At home it would be “come round for tea” but she knew that wasn’t correct over here.

She wished she had thought to ask Spike last night, when he’d been glooming around the tea-stall, devouring her honey crumpets and getting into a fight with a harmless Corzotel Demon who was minding his own heads and tails and not bothering anyone.

No, on second thoughts, Spike had been far too distracted to answer questions about the correct use of language. There was something on his mind, something he hadn’t told her about – yet.

Oh well, whatever you called it, she was going round to see her newest friend to spend the evening.

Admittedly, the friend didn’t know about Agnes’ little affliction, but then the vampire reasoned, lots of people had things wrong with them and didn’t broadcast the fact far and wide.

“I might have flat feet, or be scared of heights or colour blind. I wouldn’t dream of telling even my closest friends. No, there’s no reason for anyone to know. It doesn’t change who I am – well, not much, anyway.”

Strangely, Agnes had the feeling that Joyce, the nice woman she had met in hospital a few nights ago, would not judge her too harshly if Agnes ever told her about the change that had come over her all those years ago.

Joyce had seemed such an understanding sort of person. Warm, kind interesting – the sort of woman Agnes would be pleased to call a friend.
It had taken her several attempts to pick up the telephone in the passageway behind Willy’s Bar and call the number Joyce had given her.

But eventually she had found the courage to do so and been thrilled when Joyce had seemed equally as pleased to hear from her.

“Do come round – any evening. My girls are usually out till late.”

Agnes approached the house, a little frown on her face. She knew how ill Joyce had been in hospital. It seemed a little thoughtless for her daughters to leave her to her own devices. But then that was children nowadays, always out enjoying themselves with no regard for their parents.

“Now, now, Agnes Pringle, you are beginning to sound like a sour old maid,” she muttered to herself as she knocked on the front door. “Pull yourself together. Things have changed since you were a girl, and you must learn to move with the times. After all, you’ve certainly changed! You should be used to the fact that things don’t stay the same.”

Then the door opened and Joyce Summers stood there, smiling warmly.
“Come in, come in! How very nice to see you again.”

Agnes followed her inside, pleased that Joyce had asked her to enter because it had occurred to her as she reached the house that if Joyce just opened the door and expected her to walk in, she would have had a problem. Being invited inside a house had been one of the vampire requirements she’d had to learn.

Along with your hair not growing, which made life so difficult for those women who were turned just after having a bad experience in a beauty salon!

“You have a lovely home,” she said, taking in the pretty ornaments, the pictures of two girls – one of whom looked a little familiar. But that was probably because the light was bad on that side of the room.

“Thank you, Agnes. I like it. I try to keep it tidy but – “ she laughed, “you know what teenagers can be like?”

Agnes smiled gently. Actually she had no clear idea what teenagers could be like. She didn’t often come across them in the town dump. There had been that strange youngster whom Spike was fond of – the one who had said she had started out in life as a ball of green energy, but Agnes didn’t think that even in Sunnydale that could be normal.

“I bought some biscuits,” she said and produced the little box. “I mean cookies, of course!”

Joyce smiled and took the box, exclaiming over the ribbon. “How pretty! And how very kind of you to bother. I haven’t felt a lot like home cooking recently. The girls will love these.”

Agnes bit her lip. She had made them for Joyce, but perhaps that was selfish, to want her friend to eat one now and tell her how much she enjoyed it.

“Your daughters are out again?” she asked.

“Yes.” Joyce looked suddenly tired and sat down on the sofa. She rubbed her forehead, her finger slipping surreptitiously under her hair to where the small scar still lingered. “But I’m sure they’ll be home soon. I’d like you to meet them.”

“Are you completely recovered from your - ” Agnes lowered her voice – “little problem?”

Joyce’s lips twitched as she tried hard not to smile. She didn’t consider a brain tumour a little problem, but she had no idea what this odd English woman had experienced throughout her life. Perhaps to her it was nothing to get concerned about.

“Oh yes. Completely. I still feel tired occasionally, but otherwise I’m okay.”

Agnes nodded, wondering why all her vampire senses were telling her otherwise.

“It was a wake-up call, in some ways.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I realised that with the girls growing up and getting on with their lives, I have to do the same. The last thing I want is for them to have to be worrying what Poor Old Mom is doing on her own when they want to go out and have fun.”

Agnes smiled. “That sounds as if there’s a gentleman on your horizon! Is it one of your English friends, perhaps?”

Joyce looked startled. “English – oh, yes, I remember mentioning them to you in hospital. No! Definitely not! One is far too young – well, he isn’t actually young but – well, never mind! That’s too complicated to go into right now. And the other – “ She paused, her mind going to a time and place that she usually only thought of when she was on her own, in the darkest hours of the night. A time of bad candy and hot sex and a man who was definitely nothing like the Giles she now knew!

“It isn’t anyone in particular, just that I can now see that I have to start a fresh chapter in my life. This operation was rather like drawing a line at the bottom of the page and writing The End. From now on it’s a whole new episode.”

“That sounds exciting,” Agnes said wistfully, wishing she could begin a new chapter of her life. But that was unlikely. She had had her one chance of romance a couple of years ago and ruined it. She knew very well that she would never get another opportunity to be anything except the tea-lady who baked cakes and cookies for vampires and demons.
And one day she would meet someone – probably this Slayer girl that Spike talked about so much – who would push a stake through her heart and that would be that.

“Let me make you some tea,” Joyce said, starting to get up. “Believe me, I do know how! I have been given instructions by two people who have very strong views on how tea should be made!”

“No, no, sit still. You look weary,” Agnes said, jumping up. “I love other people’s kitchens. Mine is – well, very small – it will be such a treat to use yours. If that is all right, of course, I mean, I don’t mean to push in and you may not like strangers taking over your cups and saucers and – “

Joyce laughed. “Agnes! You’re certainly not a stranger. And so many people use my kitchen for all sorts of things that I have no territorial feeling about it at all.”

“Then you sit there and relax and I’ll get to work.” Agnes hurried out, finding a tea-pot on a high shelf and tea-bags in a box. She gave a disdainful sniff. Well, whoever had taught Joyce Summers the finer art of tea-making, they certainly hadn’t told her that to make perfect tea you had to use loose tea-leaves!

She stood humming quietly to herself, waiting for the tea to draw. Joyce’s cups and saucers were pretty and she found a plate for her almond biscuits. Oh, she was enjoying herself so much.

Gazing round the kitchen she suddenly flinched. There was a small photograph in a frame on one of the shelves. It was of Joyce, hugging a girl with long dark hair. They were both smiling, looking happy, contented, a beautiful mother and daughter picture.

Agnes picked it up nervously. Surely it couldn’t be Dawn, the green energy girl? But it was. There was no mistaking the eyes or the hair.

She put it back with a clatter, nervously picking it up as the frame fell over. She heard a sound from the other room and called back, “Sorry!” Joyce was probably wondering about the odd noises. “Just making the tea. Won’t be long.”

There was no reply. Oh dear, Agnes began to get flustered. Was she annoying her friend? She knew she could sometimes irritate people and often didn’t know why. Hurriedly she found milk and sugar and arranged everything on a tray. There! That looked lovely.

She cast another glance at the picture. How could Spike’s young friend be Joyce’s daughter? Why would this nice woman have a child who had started out as a ball of energy? Who was probably the Key that the demon Glory was hunting for? None of it made any sense.

Agnes picked up the tray and carried it triumphantly back into the living-room. “Here we are! Safe and sound. I do hope you like – ”

Her voice trailed away into a hiccup …. Joyce was half sitting, half lying on the sofa. Her eyes were open but whatever they were seeing, it wasn’t her new friend. Agnes knew, without even checking, that this lovely, warm, generous woman, had gone.

As the teacups began to chatter on the saucers, Agnes tightened her grip on the tray and willed her hands to stop shaking. She had seen death before, even experienced her own, but nothing prepared you for the shock, the loss, the desire to shout “No!”

There was nothing she could do. That was the hardest part of all. She couldn’t tell anyone, phone anyone, share her grief. There was no way she could be found in the house. She would have to leave Joyce for her daughters to discover. And perhaps that was for the best.

Trembling, she walked slowly back into the kitchen and replaced the cups and saucers. Washed away the tea and repacked the biscuits in their fancy box, the biscuits that Joyce had never tasted. Stupid selfish tears wanted to fall, but she had long ago learnt that vampires couldn’t cry.

Back in the living-room, she stood for a long minute, looking down at the body, then vamped out as a pure anger swamped her. “It isn’t fair!” she said and realised that for the first time she knew how Spike felt when he kicked and stamped and smashed things out of pure frustration.

Life and death – neither one was ever fair.

Agnes closed the front door quietly behind her and headed out into the dark, leaving the empty eyes staring at the beginning of a very new chapter.

tbc



























 
<<     >>