From Weshallc: I know this is 3 visits to the Crown in one week, but we all deserved it. Thanks to all the lovely regulars, but the Crown may be a bit short staffed next week and I know they are also closed for a private function. So plenty of time for the stragglers and first time visitors to catch up, before we all meet again hopefully at the end of next week. Cheers! (Thank you Hot4teacher for your very kind words, I hope I haven't missed anyone else either via Tumblr or PM)
Slow change may pull us apart. When the light gets into your heart. (Don't You Forget About Me. Simple Minds)
Bernie picked up a wayward straw from under a table prior to Sunday morning opening.
"S'cuse me miss, watch your feet!"
Bernie jumped to one side as the daemon hooverer of Poplar caught up with her.
"Sorry Evie," she apologized to the Crown's cleaning lady.
"So how was your first day Bernie?"
Bernie considered before speaking as she often did. It had gone quick, it had been harder work than she had anticipated and it had been more fun than she had expected.
"I think I spilled more than I served," cracked Bernie cautiously.
"It comes with practice girl, don't worry about it. I think you've got what it takes. You certainly look the part."
"That's praise indeed coming from you." Bernie smiled, "Do you miss it?"
The rather rotund lady in her early 70's leaned on her halted hoover and rocked on her heels.
"Every bleeding day," she laughed, "I was sad but relieved when the Turners took over. But, it's a young person's game the pub trade."
"Paddy is hardly Ed Sheeran," laughed Bernie, Evie looked confused but carried on.
"I worked in the trade all my life, known nothing else, born and raised in a pub down south."
"And you don't mind...the cleaning?"
"I know what you are thinking, what is this sad old girl doing cleaning the bogs in the kingdom she used to rule?"
Bernie blushed because that is exactly what she had been thinking. Evie continued,
"It started as a favour to Paddy." Bernie was all to aware where that could lead she thought.
"Mrs Turner was a good landlady, very popular with the punters, but rather on the flighty side. I think Paddy wanted me around just to show her the ropes, it being their first pub." Evie was happy to recall.
"And he asked you to clean for him?" Bernie was incredulous.
"No, he asked me to stay on as a sort of bar manager, but that would have been a mistake for both of us. I chose the cleaning, Evangelina makes it Cleaner as young Reggie says." A warm smile lit up the distant wistful eyes of the hard working woman. "I come in do my bit, make myself available if necessary. Keep my gob shut if necessary," she added resolutely.
Bernie was moved, "That's incredibly gracious of you."
"Your father did the same."
"My dad?"
Evie explained that Rev. Mannion had become a more regular visitor to the Crown after Bernie had left for London. Bernie had not been aware of this and it was now left for the previous landlady to explain her father's habits.
"If the parishioners wouldn't come to church, the church came to the parishioners. Your dad knew there were villagers who would never set foot in St. Preservus, but your dad still cared about their lives and their needs, so he came to them. Not in a preachy kind of way or shaking a collection tin. He sat and drank and smoked with them, talked their language. He was a great man your dad."
Bernie was finding it hard to respond, she wondered if this was why she had been drawn to the Crown so much on her return, trying to find her dads spirit. Evie continued,
"I have never been a big church goer, Sunday's were always too busy. But I've always felt the church isn't a building it's a community. I think your dad felt the same."
"I once believed that." Bernie found her voice, "I seem to have forgotten a lot my dad taught me recently, when I was in London at the mission I knew that. Maybe that's where I should be?"
Bernie was so lost in her own thoughts and Evie's revelations that she hadn't taken much notice of Paddy coming up from the cellar with Fred Buckle from the brewery. Vi was at the Specials Board rubbing out yesterday's special Parmo and Chunky Chips and chalking on today's special, Parmo,Yorkshire pudding and roasties.
Jack was talking to Reggie. He was a great cellarman and Jack was keen to learn even though he hid it well. Val was changing the labels on the Real Ale pumps to match Fred's new brews with Tim's help. Replacing Buckle's Best with Reggie's Wee Heavy and Poplar Popular IPA with Vi's Velvet Ale. It was Tim who spoke first,
"Dad what is it with you and barmaids? Bernie has just started and she is talking about leaving."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at where Bernie was talking to Evie. The older lady took out a cloth and started nonchalantly cleaning tables.
"Are you leaving, Bernie?" asked Reggie.
"Eventually Reggie, I have a life in London that I need to get back to someday," Bernie's voice shook.
Paddy was the only one not still, he was fiddling with the cellar door lock, he was the only one not looking at her.
"I thought this was your home?" Chirped in Tim.
"It is, I grew up here, if I go back down to London I will always come back and visit, I always have," she tried to reassure.
"That was to see your old man," Reggie added astutely.
"You don't have any ties now, why would you come back?" The sudden intervention by Paddy and the serious edge to his voice made everyone turn their gaze from Bernie towards him.
"I will always come back, I promise." Bernie's voice was small.
"How often do you go to Scotland or you Paddy go to Liverpool? I never go to Reading now, haven't been for years, no need to," Evie inputted out of nowhere.
"Sorry Bernie, but they are right," joined in Vi, "You will be like all the rest that's left this village, just like her."
"Who?" Said Val
"Her," said Vi, "The one before you, whatsername?"
"Oh yes," remembered Fred, "The posh tart."
"Fred Buckle mind your manners," snapped Vi. Fred looked abashed.
"She was bar staff before you Val, nice girl," Violet continued throwing daggers at Fred," A few airs and graces, but we soon knocked that out of her."
"Why did she leave?" questioned Val, "Oh wait don't tell me I could write a list."
She grinned at Paddy, who didn't even attempt a comeback.
"She met a new fella, she had this drip hanging around for years but she found someone else and left with him, to some big snooty hotel somewhere down south," Violet continued her story.
"She said she would keep in touch, that she would be sure to visit. I expected her to be at some of the hatches, matches and dispatches in the village. I know for a fact she has been invited to a few. But always a no show."
"We do get a Christmas card every year," Tim piped up.
"Yeah, you used to fancy her something rotten, before the lovely Lucille brought her love to town," teased Jack. Tim shot him an angry "you'll keep" look.
"Do we?" Val was puzzled.
"Yes, it's usually an expensive looking one, you know one of those with a lovely verse, not from a pack. She adds a note about what her and her family are up too."
"What was her name?" but in Fred, "It's only been a couples of years. For the life of me I can't recall it."
"Jenny!" shouted Evie.
"Jenny," repeated everyone except Paddy and Bernie. Paddy was still fiddling with the lock. Bernie was playing with an old straw she had found under a table. Both looking anywhere but at each other.
"Jenny," said Reggie again and added, looking at Bernie," You will be Jenny."
"No I won't," Bernie's voice was louder than she anticipated and got everyone's attention, "I won't be Jenny," she was answering Reggie, but staring straight at Paddy, who looked back at her without response and very little light in his eyes.
The team didn't have long to reminisce over absent friends, Sundays were their busy day with folk coming from all over the county for one of Vi's famous Roast Dinners. This Sunday the local team were playing at home, so there would be a few Moggie fans in before they headed to the war memorial to get the mini bus to the football ground.
Paddy and Val worked hard behind the bar, helped by Bernie. She actually felt more of a hindrance, but the experienced workforce kept reassuring her. It was tight with the three of them in the limited space behind the solid original oak and brass bar. Bernie noticed how years of working together meant Paddy and Val anticipated each other's actions and they seemed to work in perfect synchronicity. On the other hand Bernie was continually apologizing for stepping on toes or bumping into them both. Determined to be of use she tried to work faster and in doing so spun round and sent a pint of Velvet Vi that Paddy had just poured flying across the bar, much to the delight of the football supporters. Cries of "Sack the juggler," resounding through the bar over the strains of the Fratellis Chelsea Dagger on the jukebox.
"I am so sorry Paddy, please take it out of my wages," Bernie was nearly in tears. Paddy grabbed her gently by the shoulders and turned her towards him,
"Bernie it's fine, happens all the time. Look we have a No Sorry rule here, Val never apologizes for anything." She gained an ounce of courage from his smile. He nodded and confirmed, "No more sorries, OK." Bernie nodded back and felt her body relax in his reassuring hold.
"Why don't you go and help Jack waiting on, I think he can use an extra pair of hands."
"Do you trust me not to land a plate of dinner in someone's lap?" Bernie said half joking.
Paddy ran his hands gently down Bernie's white cotton clad arms and took both her hands in his. Looking into her eyes he could see it wasn't the new contacts making her eyes water. He felt her shiver and wondered if it he was putting to much pressure on his new starter.
"I would trust my life to these hands," he smiled, Bernie was glad he was holding onto her because she suddenly felt a bit giddy.
The moment was broken by an overstretched Val hissing, "Paddy, I could use some help here."
Bernie got into her stride helping Jack and soon Tim serving food and clearing away. Vi sent some roast potatoes and pork crackling out to the bar area for the footie crowd in hope of soaking up some of their alcohol consumption. Bernie delivered the freebies to the bar and Paddy reassuringly winked at her and she surprised herself by winking back. Suddenly her smile disintegrated, when she felt a hand on her bottom and the beery breath on her face of someone a little worse for wear for the time of day.
Val sensed something was wrong immediately and told the bearer of unwanted attention exactly what she would do to him if he didn't behave himself. Bernie noticed Paddy didn't react and just kept serving the last of the fans determined to squeeze in one more pint before imminent departure. She wondered if he thought such incidents were all part of the job. Did he think she was big enough to take care of herself, which to be fair she was. Maybe he recognized the experience she had gained in London and didn't see her as the naive vicar's daughter that had left home all those years ago, she knew a lot of Poplar folk still thought of her in those terms.
Bernie started cleaning away plates from across the room, she turned just in time to catch Paddy leaning across the bar, nose to nose with her inappropriate admirer. The man's alcohol flushed face had turned pale and he quickly drank up and clumsily alighted from his stool and left the Crown banging his shoulder on the unforgiving iron door frame.
Paddy glanced over at Bernie, who was watching him and the smile, she was starting to think about far more often than she admitted to herself, returned to his troubled face. Bernie moved towards the bar to retrieve a drained gravy boat. Paddy leaned over the bar again, this time his stance less threatening than with the departed unwelcome guest.
"Bernie if anything like that happens again, you tell me or Val or even Jack. You don't need to put up with that kind of crap. I don't need that kind of sad sod's money. Do you understand?"
Paddy was wagging his finger firmly at her, not as a reprimand but trying to stress the seriousness of his request. She couldn't help herself she leaned over and secured his left index finger in her right hand stopping his rhythm.
"I do." She nodded and tightened her grip for a second. It was Paddy's turn to change colour. He went to say something but it was Val's voice that was heard above the footie choir, starting a chorus with "Wise men say only fools rush in..." for the seventh time that afternoon.
"Well we never had this sort of trouble with Ursula." Val beamed over the bar at Bernie, with her tongue propping up her top lip. As Paddy said, Val never apologized for anything.
Bernie let go of Paddy's sweaty finger from her warm hand. It now resembled a limp straw.
As she headed back to the kitchen she caught a look at herself in one of the ornate antique brewery mirrors, she could see behind her own reflection Paddy was watching her. She focused on her own image, she was wearing the most ridiculous smile. For goodness sake Shelagh Bernadette he just threw some drunken creep out for grabbing your arse, it's not like he fought a bleeding dragon for you.
Shelagh Bernadette in the looking glass just smiled back.
