Klara and the Sun(10)
Eventually, after a lot more whispering, the girl came back, striding past Manager, till she was directly facing me. She touched each of my elbows in turn, then took my left hand within her right one, and held me like that, her eyes looking into my face. Her expression was quite stern, but the hand holding mine squeezed gently, and I understood this was intended as another little secret between us. But I didn’t smile at her. I kept my expression blank, throwing my gaze over the girl’s spiky head to the Red Shelves on the wall opposite, and in particular, at the row of ceramic coffee cups displayed upside down along the third tier. The girl squeezed my hand twice more, the second time less gently, but I didn’t lower my gaze to her or smile.
The father, meanwhile, had come nearer, treading softly so as not to disturb what might be a special moment. Manager too had moved closer and was standing just behind the father. I noted all this, but kept my eyes fixed on the Red Shelves and the ceramic coffee cups, and kept my hand, inside hers, slack so that had she let go, mine would have flopped down at my side.
I became increasingly aware of Manager’s gaze on me. Then I heard her say:
‘Klara is excellent. She’s one of our finest. But the young lady might be interested to look at the new B3 models that just came in.’
‘B3s?’ The father sounded excited. ‘You have those already?’
‘We enjoy an exclusive relationship with our suppliers. They’re only just in, and not yet calibrated. But I’d be happy to show them to you.’
The spiky-haired girl squeezed my hand again. ‘But Daddy, I want this one. She’s just right.’
‘But they have the new B3s in, honey. Don’t you want just to look at those? No one you know has one.’
There was a long wait, then the girl released my hand. I let my arm fall and continued to look at the Red Shelves.
‘So what’s the big deal about these new B3s anyway?’ the girl said, moving off towards her father.
I hadn’t been thinking about Rosa while the girl had been holding my hand, but I now became aware of her, standing to my left, watching me with amazement. I wanted to make her look away, but decided to keep gazing at the Red Shelves until the girl, her father and Manager were all safely rear-store. I could hear the father laughing at something Manager had said, then when I finally glanced their way, Manager was opening the Staff Only Door at the very rear of the store.
‘You’ll have to excuse me,’ she was saying. ‘It’s a little untidy in here.’
And the father said, ‘We’re privileged to be allowed back here. Right, honey?’
They went in, the door closed behind them, and I couldn’t hear their words any more, though at one point I heard the spiky-haired girl’s laugh.
The rest of the morning remained busy. Even while Manager was completing the delivery forms with the father for their new B3, more customers came in. So it wasn’t until the afternoon, when there was finally a lull, that Manager came over to me.
‘I was surprised at you this morning, Klara,’ she said. ‘You of all people.’
‘I’m sorry, Manager.’
‘What came over you? It was so unlike you.’
‘I’m very sorry, Manager. I didn’t mean to cause embarrassment. I just thought, for that particular child, I perhaps wouldn’t be the best choice.’
Manager went on looking at me. ‘Perhaps you were correct,’ she said in the end. ‘I believe that girl will be happy with the B3 boy. Even so, Klara, I was very surprised.’
‘I’m very sorry, Manager.’
‘I supported you this time. But I won’t do it again. It’s for the customer to choose the AF, never the other way round.’
‘I understand, Manager.’ Then I said quietly: ‘Thank you, Manager, for what you did today.’
‘That’s all right, Klara. But remember. I shan’t do it again.’
She began to move away, but then turned and came back.
‘It can’t be, can it, Klara? That you believe you’ve made an arrangement?’
I thought Manager was about to reprimand me, the way she’d reprimanded two boy AFs once for laughing at Beggar Man from the window. But Manager placed a hand on my shoulder and said, in a quieter voice than before:
‘Let me tell you something, Klara. Children make promises all the time. They come to the window, they promise all kinds of things. They promise to come back, they ask you not to let anyone else take you away. It happens all the time. But more often than not, the child never comes back. Or worse, the child comes back and ignores the poor AF who’s waited, and instead chooses another. It’s just the way children are. You’ve been watching and learning so much, Klara. Well, here’s another lesson for you. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, Manager.’
‘Good. So let’s have no more of this.’ She touched my arm, then turned away.
* * *
—
The new B3s – three boy AFs – were soon calibrated and took up their positions. Two went straight into the window, with a big new sign, and the other was given the front alcove. A fourth B3, of course, had already been bought by the spiky-haired girl and shipped without any of us meeting him.
Rosa and I remained mid-store, though we were moved to the Red Shelves side once the new B3s arrived. After our turn in the window had finished, Rosa had taken to repeating something Manager had said to us: that every position in the store was a good one, and that we were as likely to be chosen mid-store as in the window or the front alcove. Well, in Rosa’s case, this turned out to be true.