The 'Cousins'

Part Twenty Seven: The Reluctant Electrician!

Timeline: Evening, Thursday, 19th April at Whitewater. Greg and Jess are seeking the services of an electrician. after an unfavourable first meeting with Ali, they have just accepted Martha Ali's invitation to step inside her family home.

Greg wasn’t sure what to expect when he walked through the door into the Ali’s living room. Spartan was the first word that came to his mind as he glanced around the single downstairs room with its fireplace at one end and an open, rough timber staircase at the other.  A toddler and babe played on a rug made from scraps of rags sewn on canvas in front of the unlit fire. His nostrils picked up the savoury aroma of a stew bubbling in a large pot blackened with long usage; simmering away on an old wood fired iron range on the far wall adjacent to the staircase. There was another smell beneath that which had Greg perplexed.  

It was an odour from his youth and for a moment he couldn’t place it until his memory reached deep into its recesses and brought out a picture of his grandmother on her knees scrubbing her floors with a white enamel pail of sudsy water, a hard, bristle scrubbing brush and a large bar of carbolic soap in her hands. That was it, the smell he remembered, carbolic soap!

‘Come in and sit down Mr. Mitchell,’ Martha looked embarrassed as she indicated the rough hewn, homemade table and its plain, backless, wooden benches as where they should sit.

‘Thank You. Martha.’ Greg had not sat on a bench like that since his elementary school days. While the others settled themselves onto the benches Greg glanced around the room.  He saw no comfort, in fact there was no furniture, other than an old rocker by the fireplace and what looked like a polished wood sewing box beside it. There were more home made benches against the front wall. An old sepia toned photograph of a middle aged couple on their wedding day decorated the otherwise bare wall: the photograph and a small posy of freshly cut wild flowers in a jam jar of water in the centre of the table were the only ornaments. Martha caught Greg’s interest in the old photograph.

‘They’re my folks,’ she said, ‘ they married later in life. They’re both gone now.’ Greg didn’t know what to say and made as if to cough instead. 

‘Would you like some coffee Mr. Mitchell?’ Martha asked pleasantly and rose from the table.

She walked towards the cooking range on the far wall to take a jar from the home- made shelves that had been fixed to the wall between the two windows. Greg noticed there were no drapes or blinds over the windows. The shelves held various boxes and tins that had been spread out over the length of the shelves with even gaps between them to use the space and hide the fact there were so few tins. Greg looked around for cupboards and saw just one under the staircase.

Ali stood glaring at them from that end of the room with a sour faced expression and his arms folded across his chest. His wife prodded him in the stomach as she passed to pull a black kettle onto the hot ring and put some scraps of wood into the stove’s firebox. Greg took care not to look at them, neither did he want to say anything in case it was misunderstood and inflamed Ali again. He looked up above him and saw the single light bulb hanging above the table. An intricate shade had been made out of coloured pieces of cardboard. This was a poor household, but a clean and tidy home. Greg welled up inside with anger at a society that was the richest on earth and let its people live in such poverty. More than anything else Greg wanted Ali to take this job so that he could pay him well.  He glanced quickly at the kids on the floor. They wore threadbare clothes, but were as clean as any youngsters of their age can be.  He recognized a small jar of Maxwell House instant coffee in Martha’s hands as she took mugs from another shelf and put them on the range beside the kettle. He noticed her imperceptible glance at her husband, as if she was asking his permission to make coffee.  He also saw Ali’s slight nod of approval. She had held up the jar to Ali and Greg saw there was practically no coffee in it as he could see her hand through the jar. There could only be traces of coffee powder inside.  Greg knew straight away that this was all the coffee they had and were perhaps saving it for use on a special occasion: since they would likely have no money to buy any more. Greg couldn’t bring himself to take it from them.