Gobsmacked

Lightning Romance

Another tale from Auntie Barbara's Cream Bun Café

It's been a busy week in the Cream Bun Café. April arrived with some nice warm sun and with it, many of the older female customers ventured out for the first time since the snows of March four weeks ago. Heavy Overcoats, knitted hats and sturdy walking shoes found their way in for a nice cup of tea and a chat with old friends. Barbara and Ruby, the owners, welcomed them all with a cheery comment.

"We were worried about you in that terrible snow. Lovely to see you again, you're looking really well. We've kept your usual table ready".

The only minor disaster was Steve, the bakery helper, forgetting to set the timer for the Rock Buns. Rock buns should be hard on the outside and soft on the inside. These were hard all the way through. A solid black hard. Even Patch, Barbara's wolf hound, who could manage most sizes of bones and had a sweet tooth, gave up and buried six, obviously planning to have another go later. Like Barbara, he had a determined streak and didn't like to be beaten.

But the big news event of the week was the drama of Betty Walsh's son Ryan's lightning romance and marriage. Betty had been a regular at the Cream Bun Café for more years than she could remember. Every two weeks she would meet up with four of her old school chums and they'd bring each other up to date with all their family news and whatever other gossip, scandal, fact or fiction they came across.

Betty admitted to being around forty-nine, but it would be more accurate to say she had forty-nine surrounded, and then some. Her family was grown up and left home long ago. Her two daughters were married and living in England and America. Pamela,the eldest, was expecting the first grandchild in September and Betty was making plans to go over and be whatever help she could.

"I won't be interfering," she was always at pains to add, but nobody believed her.

Betty was especially proud of her son Ryan, and to be honest, she had every right to be. Over the years, she kept everyone at the Cream Bun café up to date as he won medal after medal for high board diving. For years, she drove him to the local swimming pool early in the morning and late at night so he could practice. She sat in the public gallery and watched and encouraged.

She always came and put a big towel round him when the training session was finished. That was until Ryan became so embarrassed that he finally plucked up the courage to look her in the eye and say, in the way children do when they have had enough of being mothered.

"Mother, I can manage that for myself. I am a big boy now. Thank you."

Of course she was upset but did the best not to show it. She got him a toweling robe like the other divers but always brought a big bath towel just in case. This was only required once but wasn't actually used. Ryan was wearing a new pair of swimming trunks which it turned out were not tight enough and they came off as he hit the water following a double summersault with tuck and twist. Betty identified the problem immediately and rushed to the side of the pool ready to encase her Ryan in the towel.

"No thank you Mother I can manage."

At that moment, a girl swimmer, who had kindly rescued the trunks was holding them up with a big grin on her face. Ryan thanked her and slowly put them on, obviously not worried that they might come off with the next dive. The fact was, Ryan was embarrassed by his mother, but proud of his diving and other attributes.

Frank, Ryan's father, complained at all the expenses and other costs but always Betty always assured him it would be worthwhile in the end. And so it was. Medals, cups and certificates just kept coming. UK, European, World titles came and finally an Olympic Gold Medal. Betty was so proud. There was nothing she wouldn't do for her Ryan and nobody she wouldn't tell about her Ryan.

That was three years ago. Ryan is thirty now and lives and works in London as a solicitor. He seemed to be attending non-stop parties and had an endless stream of girl friends. Betty just wished he would find a nice sensible girl, settle down and organise some grandchildren. At different times, he brought home two lovely girls, both of whom Betty had totally approved and had told him. They had good jobs, lovely manners, great dress sense and their fathers held top jobs in Industry and Government. She had told her friends in the Cream Bun Café all about them and how much she hoped Ryan would get married soon. She could just picture the wedding and the headlines in the local paper "Olympic Gold Medalists Weds Top Model"

It was a shocked, embarrassed Betty that came to meet her friends this sunny April. Ryan had met a girl two weeks ago, fallen hopelessly in love, proposed, married and turned up on her front door step just yesterday. She seemed nice enough, attractive with a slight foreign accent and looked very sporty. Betty welcomed her and chatted about all sorts of things before plucking up the courage to ask in a roundabout way what she worked at.

"Ryan was an Olympic gold Medalist in 2000, you know - are you an athlete by any chance?"

"Oh yes, I'm an excellent swimmer - I was a prostitute in Venice and worked both sides of the canal."

Well that's the news from the Cream Bun Café, where, if it's not one thing, it's another. Oh, I forgot to tell you, the Rock Buns are normally pretty good.

The "Auntie Barbara's Cream Bun Cafe" short stories on Writing.com so far are:
The Oddballs
Monday Ministers
Sticky Kiss
Sorry Just Isn't Good Enough