‘Yes?’ Adam sounded wary and Marc’s guilt soared.
‘Did you want to head back to the States for Christmas with Paul? I feel bad about you being here when you should be with your friends and family. We can do our meetings by Zoom if you go home. I’d understand. I was being selfish when I demanded you come.’
Adam said nothing for a moment and Marc waited as he saw Christa’s car reach the main road and turn right. He hung back a bit and then turned, seeing her lights ahead.
‘You know, I am enjoying it, and so is Paul, even though he complains a lot; but the house is great, the kids are fun and the food is terrific. If I go back home it will be for Chinese food. I’m Jewish, so it’s no big deal.’
Marc laughed. ‘Okay, I was just thinking that I shouldn’t have assumed you didn’t have a life, that’s all.’
‘I appreciate you calling and asking. But we’ll stay, if it’s okay? It’s nicer than we thought it would be. And Paul has pinecones to protect.’
‘I am glad you’re here then – it means the world.’
He finished the call and followed Christa into York. He wished he wasn’t in something as large as the Bentley but he was hanging back and saw her park in a side street.
He parked and turned off his lights, watching her from a distance as she took large bags from her car boot and then locked the car and started walking up the street.
Jumping from his car, he shoved his hands into his pockets, wishing he had remembered his gloves and hat. The wind was bitter and his face felt tight from the ice he was sure was forming on his skin.
Where was she going? She turned and walked up a hill to the front of the library, to where there was a group of people crowded around a van, who all waved and shouted her name. She went to a handsome man and handed him the bags and he saw him put his arm around Christa and give her a squeeze.
He wasn’t sure if he was jealous of the man but he didn’t like how it made him feel. He didn’t like how any of this made him feel.
And then the side of the van and the back doors were opened and people were putting on aprons and setting up small tables with food on them and what looked to be shopping bags of things and Christa was taking out containers from the bags and putting them onto the benches.
A man came from the shadows and nodded to Christa and she handed him a package of her food and then a shopping bag of something. He took a cup of what looked to be soup ladled into a mug and some bread and sat away from the van as he ate.
A woman approached him and asked him some questions and then he saw her take his temperature and listen to his chest.
A man and his son came to the van next for soup, shopping, a smile, and some chat with Christa who beamed at them like a snowflake in the darkness.
A woman with a dog came for shopping and then bustled back into the night. People without enough food, not enough warm clothes, without support besides this van.
Marc forgot his chill and stood against a wall, watching them for the hour, and then the stream of people trickled away until there was no one left and they started to pack up.
He walked towards the van, arriving as Christa was taking down a foldable table.
‘Anything left?’ he asked.
‘I’m sure I have something,’ she said, looking up at him.
Her mouth dropped open.
‘I believe you owe me some quail and ham hock,’ he said with a smile and she promptly burst into tears.
16
‘I will finish up tomorrow,’ she said. ‘And pay you back the money you gave me.’
‘Why? That’s ridiculous,’ Marc said as he set their hot drinks down in front of them. The only place open was a fast food chain with Christmas carols playing and the smell of grease in the air. ‘I am pretty sure I agreed to you doing something with the excess food.’
Christa couldn’t look at him.
‘But I should have been more open, transparent about it all. I might as well have stolen it. I’ve been underhanded,’ she cried. She had stolen it. No matter how she tried and convinced herself otherwise, she had stolen the food and handed it out to people for free.
‘You used what would have gone into the trash and you gave it to people who needed it more than me or you. There is nothing devious about it. You mentioned it to me and I said yes. Why are you so upset?’
Christa sipped her watery tea and grimaced.
