The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,14

with Henny and Graham – but it was something they were going to have to iron out over the coming days and weeks.

In the meantime, with April still staying in their spare room and the waffle house empty, the family had been taking it in turns to see that all was well and that the place was still secure. Not so much from a crime point of view – usually the worst Sea Salt Bay had to offer was the odd bit of littering on the promenade – but more to guard against damage caused by something unexpected, such as an undiscovered burst pipe or a gas leak.

So Sadie took her turn now as the afternoon light mellowed. The earlier rain had stopped, but the breeze was still brisk enough to whip the sea into dancing peaks and slap her hair around her face. She tucked the lengths into the collar of her old blue raincoat and plunged her hands into its deep pockets. The temperature wasn’t exactly freezing but the wind set goosebumps spreading over her skin anyway.

The waffle house was in darkness. Not that she’d expected anything else, of course, but somehow the fact still jarred. It didn’t look right without the welcoming lights in the window that Sadie had always taken for granted until now, the interior a swirl of candy colours and sweet smells. The keys rattled in the lock as Sadie opened up and even that was a strangely mournful sound. The lock tended to stick – there was a knack to it that Sadie was only just mastering – and it took her a minute to get it right before it popped open with a dull clunk.

Letters that had collected on the threshold scattered as the door swept over them and Sadie bent to gather them up. Most of April’s suppliers had been told that the waffle house would be closed for the foreseeable future – if only to prevent endless deliveries that they didn’t need from sitting and spoiling. But there were still old accounts to settle, the bills for those steadily trickling in. There was personal mail amongst the post too, all the more painful when it was addressed to Gampy. The ones in Sadie’s hand weren’t the first. She’d add these to the pile at home later; the family were choosing to open them up and deal with them rather than subject April to the distress of seeing his name on correspondence, though there was a lot of it that they just didn’t know what to do with and would be forced to consult her on at some point.

Though they were all making regular checks on the building, and Sadie’s mother came in every once in a while to clean and air as best she could, despite their best efforts the smell of damp and neglect was beginning to characterise each visit now. It was practically on top of the sea and it was inevitable that a building so close to the water, with no heat or life in it, would soon be affected. Sadie glanced around the dimly lit main room. The sugar-pink chairs were upturned on top of the baby-blue tables and, despite the fact that Henny had only been in a few days before to clean, they were once again powdered in a fine coat of dust. The chrome counter was covered too, and Sadie trailed a finger along it to see a stark track left behind.

Seeing nothing untoward here, she continued through to the kitchen. It was just as silent and depressing as the dining room. Not so long before it would have been the joyous hub of the café, with her grandmother dancing to old tunes on the radio as she mixed her delicious batter while her grandfather took orders out front.

Sadie smiled sadly at the thought. She’d spent many weekend afternoons as a teenager helping out here for extra pocket money, though the truth was her grandparents would have given her the money anyway and they paid her far more than her work was worth. She’d spent even more hours sitting at one of their tables being fed with free waffles with strawberries and cream, or pancakes stuffed with banana and drizzled in maple syrup or crammed with raspberries and melted chocolate and dusted with icing sugar. It was the only way to get some fruit into her, Gammy would say when Henny complained that April was ruining Sadie’s evening meals, but she’d fire a