So by midday, when the fete opens and people start pouringonto the village green, I’m there behind my stall, which is right next to the café’sstand, with its big, colourful banner advertising the celebration cakecompetition.
Aidan is already there when I arrive, moving around talkingto stall-holders, and we acknowledge each other with a slightly reserved smile.There’s a youngish man with him, who I’m sure I recognise, although I can’tquite place him.
I’m just starting to wonder whether I’ll ever be able toconcentrate on attracting customers to my stall (I can’t seem to stop flickinglittle glances over at Aidan) when I get my first sales. Two women, who looklike sisters, in strappy summer dresses and big sunglasses, stop and exclaim atthe cuteness of the piggy banks, and after chatting to me about my work, theyend up buying one each. And over the following half hour, I find myselfwrapping up no less than four of my mugs and three more piggy banks for severaldelighted customers.
I’m nervously rearranging my wares, trying to display themto best effect, when Ellie nips across.
‘How’s it going?’ She smiles. ‘Everything looks great.’
‘Thanks. Yes, amazingly, I’ve had some sales already.’
‘That’s great. I think you’re doing better than us. It’s so warmtoday, the icing’s started to melt on the cake competition entries.’
‘Oh, no.’
She grins. ‘It just means we’ll have to do the judging earlyso we can slice everything up and sell it before it all merges into one bigmess of icing. I think an ice-cream stall might have been a better option on aday like this!’
All the time Ellie’s talking, I’m aware of Aidan and hiscompanion getting ever closer, off to my left.
‘Of course!’ I blurt out, when I finally remember who theman is.
Ellie looks at me quizzically.
‘Sorry.’ I laugh. ‘I just remembered where I saw that guythat Aidan’s talking to.’
‘Oh, right. Who is he, then?’
‘He’s a friend of Aidan’s Auntie Peg, I think. The woman whoinspired all of this.’ I glance around me at the people milling about, enjoyingthe sunshine.
‘It looks as if the official opening might be about to takeplace,’ she says, nodding over at Aidan, who seems to be testing a microphone.
Sure enough, he starts talking, welcoming everyone to thefete, and people stop chatting and turn towards him to listen.
He clears his throat and smiles around. ‘Good afternoon,everybody. And welcome.’ He clears his throat, looking a little nervous. ‘Todaymeans an awful lot to me, and I know my Auntie Peg – or Maggie, as she wasknown to most people – would have been over the moon at the turn-out. Much ofwhat you spend here today, hopefully having a good time, will go directly tothe homeless charity I’m setting up in Peg’s name. When she left me a smallinheritance, I knew straight away what I wanted to do with it. I startedplanning this fundraising day and I’m so grateful to all the amazing peoplewho’ve given up their time to support this great cause.’
Aidan catches a few people’s eyes, including mine, and Ismile and look down, my heart beating fast.
‘And now, before we get back to enjoying this sunny Sunday,I want to introduce you to Jaikaar Gulati.’ He turns to smile at the young man Irecognised, who’s standing behind him, looking rather bashful. ‘My Auntie Pegfirst met Jaikaar a decade ago, when he was no more than a child and living onthe streets. But I’m going to stop now and let Jay himself tell you whathappened.’ Aidan smiles and stands back, ushering forward the young man I sawvisiting Maggie’s grave that time.
‘Hi, I’m Jaikaar.’ He smiles around at everyone. ‘Mostpeople call me Jay. And this wonderful lady, Maggie, actually saved my life. Mygrandparents migrated to the UK from the Punjab in India in the late 1960s, andmy mum was born here in 1972. I had a brilliant childhood although both myparents died too young, and at the age of fifteen, I found myself on my own.But I’d been brought up to be enterprising and self-sufficient so I told myselfIdidn’t need to go into the care system. I could look after myself.’ Hegrins ruefully. ‘Bad decision, as it turned out. Three months of sleeping roughmade me realise it’s definitely not for the faint-hearted, although pride mademe determined I wasn’t going to ask for help. So I struggled on. Goodness knowswhat would have happened to me, if Maggie hadn’t come over to talk to me thatday.’
He pauses, gazing down at his feet, lost in his memories,and you could seriously hear a pin drop. I have a lump in my throat justthinking about Jay as a naïve teenager, having lost both his parents, thrustinto a harsh world that wasn’t always understanding of the plight of thehomeless. Some people looked down on people like Jay, imagining them to be lazyor feckless. But it was never that simple, as Jay’s story showed...
He looks up with a radiant smile. ‘Maggie talked to me and Itold her my story, and she took me into her home and gave me a bed in her spareroom. She fed me and she encouraged me to go back to school and earn somequalifications. I called her Aunt Maggie and she believed in me...and that made all the difference.’ He shakes his head, too emotional to speakfor a moment, talking about the woman who’d given him a second chance at life.‘I have a family now.’ He smiles over at a young, dark-haired woman who’sstanding nearby, smiling proudly, her arms around their little boy. ‘I work asan engineer and I have a home of my own, which I never take for granted. Andit’s all thanks to the incredible lady we’re celebrating here today. I know I’mnot the only one she helped, in big ways and small, and it’s great to see someof you here today.’ He looks around at the faces. Then he smiles up at the sky.‘Aunt Maggie, wherever you are, thank you. Sleep peacefully, lovely lady. Thisday is for you.’
There’s an emotional silence as Jay bows and backs away. Andthen we all start applauding, and I can see that quite a few of the crowd seemto have something stuck in their eye all of a sudden.
‘That was heart-breaking,’ murmurs Ellie. ‘But so uplifting.Good on Aidan for doing all of this.’
I nod, unable to speak. Jay is amazing, and his story issuch a testament to the wonderful person Maggie was. I glance at Aidan. Nowonder he found it hard to talk about her. She was a true hero and her loss musthave devastated him.
I feel so emotional myself, I’m actually trembling...barely able to string together a coherent sentence when Ellie asks me if I’mall right.
‘I think it’s the heat.’ I waft myself with my price-list.‘Actually, do you mind if I just nip away and find something to drink?’
‘No, of course not. Go, go! We can’t have you fainting. Notwhen you’re doing such great sales. I’ll keep an eye on your stall.’
‘Thanks. I’ll not be long.’ Grateful to escape, I leave thearea of the fete and hurry across the village green to the other side, over bythe duck pond. Seeing Aidan again, added to the emotion of hearing Jay talkabout Maggie, has overwhelmed me, to say the least. I just need to be alone fora moment to try and pull myself together.
