Cafe's Lost Boys

Daisy rolled the cigarette filter between her forefinger and thumb as she exhaled the strange mix of smoke and mint. The unfamiliarity of smoking after so long made her knees feel like jelly and her mouth water with nausea. She watched the mourners return to their cars with their hearts sore but bellies full. “You should go back in, your mum’s looking for you. Who are you kidding on with that- think you’re Lana Del Rey?” Callum, her cousin, interrupted her, taking the menthol off her taking a long draw before exhaling quickly in distaste and stamping the offending item out on top of the bin. Daisy scoffed a laugh and responded “It’s what grieving people do right? Weird stuff” she answered by way of defence. Callum raised a hesitant eyebrow. “Maybe, but what would Café say if she saw you now?” he responded. The cousins almost in unison said “I’ll take that and drop it down your knickers!”. They laughed at the memory of the repeated warning they received from childhood while watching their grandmother chain smoke her way through her golden years. Callum smiled and gave her hand a quick squeeze before going back inside. Such an intimate gesture would have made her balk 2 weeks ago but it seemed so much had changed. She and Callum had become much closer, like they had been as children, only now, they had become entangled in a mission Indiana Jones may have politely declined. Daisy was still trying to make sense of it but for now, needed to help her mother tidy up.

“You want to keep the little jam jars?” Daisy held up the miniatures across the table to her mother who was saying goodbye to distant relatives. Her mother tutted and instructed her to just clear the rubbish. Disheartened, she started to pick up some paper plates when Callum reappeared with two strawberry miniatures which he was discreetly trying to ‘peddle’ her. “Quick! Quick! Stick these in your pocket”. They both giggled. Both remembering how their grandmother Cathy or ‘Café’ as affectionately mispronounced by her grandchildren, would always lift a souvenir from any restaurant or function. It was the family joke. As children, they proudly presented her with a hamper for her birthday filled completely with pilfered condiments; jams, butters, mayonnaise and pancake syrup. She cackled so hard; her teeth almost fell out. Once composed, she gathered them in tight, so tight that the hair on the mole next to her lip jagged into Daisy. “That’s why you two are my favourites” she whispered and kissed them fiercely before playfully slapping them. Daisy took the small jars now and sucked in her bottom lip to avoid crying again. “What happens now? We failed- really blew it” Daisy started, her voice pitching at the end. “Come on Daisy, what chance did we have? She was losing her speech and her marbles” he whispered his last observation. “We did our best and we couldn’t find it so that’s it, she wouldn’t know any different” Callum finished and put a comforting hand on Daisy’s shoulder. “Want to get out of here and get drunk? Our mum’s can do the clean-up in awkward silence if that’s suits them” he offered sarcastically. “Yes. Absolutely. After you” Daisy threw down the rubbish bag, following her cousin carefully, dodging her mother and her aunt as they headed out the door to the nearest pub.

“What would you have done?” Callum asked pensively while playing with his glass. “What, the money?” Callum nodded so she sat back to think. “Dunno, probably something sensible like pay my student loan or put a deposit down on a house. I can’t stay with my miserable mother forever…you?” Callum rolled his eyes dramatically, “of course you’d do something sensible. I’d have booked a massive hotel room and threw a huge party. Decked it out with drinks and hit up the casinos”. Now Daisy was the one rolling her eyes. “But my idea was stupid? It was £20000 remember? That’s £10000 each. You’d probably be just that in damages in a hotel room knowing you!” The cousins looked awkwardly at each other, keen to avoid an argument. “We’re only young once Dais. Café would’ve wanted us to enjoy it had we bloody been able to find it” he said, softening his voice. Daisy sniffed back some emotion. “You’re right. She’d have wanted us to go to Disneyland. Like we were always meant to? Us three?” The nostalgia hit Daisy in the chest as she remembered them watching Peter Pan, whom she was madly in love with and Callum was ‘going to marry’ Wendy. Café would call them her lost boys and draw little maps in a black book. A book which would normally keep dates, appointments or phone numbers. Perfectly useless for drawing treasure maps but they knew when they’d visit, if Café brought out that little black book, there was treasure afoot. Chocolate buttons, matching pyjamas or a crayons. There was some little prize where the ‘X’ marked somewhere in her house. The problem was, Café had become a hoarder somewhat. There were so many arguments and failed attempts by Callum and Daisy’s mother to help declutter or reorganise the property. Café was not interested. “Will you leave it!” she would screech. “You can burn it when I’m gone but the now, it’s mine and I need it!” Daisy and Callum loved the house. Piles of magazines, the coffee tables (plural) stacked on top of each other, the miscellaneous objects carefully dispersed in various corners. It was the perfect place for hide and seek, building forts and treasure quests.

Café was losing her battle with cancer. She’d wanted to say goodbye to her grandchildren while she was still able to pull herself up in the hospital bed and look them in the eyes. “Listen, there’s money, in the house” Café began. “I’ve got cash here if you’re needing something …” Daisy started but was cut off with her grandmothers’ hand at her lips. “I mean there’s cash for you two, £20000. I don’t trust the banks or your mothers to make sure you get it. It’s in the, in the” she faltered as her memory betrayed her. With the Christmas decorations. No! It’s with the annuals. Her hand flew to her chin in desperation trying to discipline her thoughts so she could remember. She flustered and coughed and Callum rose to help her sip water while Daisy calmed her, shushing her like she did to them as infants to calm her to sleep. “Café don’t worry, we’ll sort it, we’ll find it” she placated her while stroking her head. “Promise me you’ll find it though, it’s important to me, do you promise- both of you?” she said firmly holding one of their hands in each of hers. They nodded and promised and were keen to get out of there, both feeling uncomfortable. “That was weird right, do we just rock up to her house now and go looking for money?” Callum asked as they left the ward. “I don’t know, it feels kind of gross. A bit cloak and dagger since we’ve not to tell our mum’s, what’s that about?” Daisy replied. “We’d better go and look for it. We promised and I’m pretty sure our mothers aren’t’ going to carefully pack everything away, they’ll likely blowtorch everything in sight! Callum half laughed knowing his mother and aunty could be cold and uncaring and especially when it came to the belongings of their mother.

Daisy and Callum had drifted apart since childhood. They visited Café less and less and rarely together and eventually this distance grew to an awkwardness that hung in the air when they were required to be in each other’s company like Café’s birthdays. Neither one wanting to start the conversation or too wrapped up in the small screens before them. After an hour of looking through their grandmother’s house, they were both laughing and joking like they had done years before. Callum had donned a faux fur coat and Daisy had several mismatched bangles up her arms. “She was a stylish bird in her day right?” Callum laughed as he strutted over to the pile of books to check for any strange bags of cash lying on top of them. “There’s some really nice stuff here” Daisy had commented. Callum looked doubtful as he held out a copy of the local advertiser from 1997. “We should pack it up though, sort it for her. She was always raiding the charity shops it’d be nice to put some of this stuff in because mum and ‘Trish will just skip the lot” she almost pleaded in her voice. “Ok, you’re lucky Uni’s done for the summer and I’ve nothing else on” Callum conceded. They spent full days in the house, sneezing the dust and filling the bins with age old magazines and newspaper clippings. They crammed tables and lampshades into Daisy’s tiny Corsa and furnished 2 or 3 of the local charity shops. After the first week, they’d forgotten they were meant to be looking for a bag of cash and felt like children again, in their dream adventure house. The lost boys’ den. Café was in and out of consciousness in her final days and Daisy and Callum would take turns in reading or humming along to the radio so she could hear their voices or simply stroke her hand, so she knew she wasn’t alone. She had died on a rainy Tuesday. Café’s daughters Alice and Patricia wept quietly; Alice, the eldest had an arm around her baby sister as they held their mother’s hand. Callum and Daisy stood at the foot of the bed and waited quietly until the doctor nodded his confirmation of her passing before leaving them to comfort each other.

Callum was now returning from the bar with drinks and a packet of crisps between his teeth as a post funeral snack. “Treasure” Daisy said quietly. “Say again?” Callum asked. “Buried Treasure, lost boys, the cash. I think I know what she’s done!” she exclaimed. They drank up and rushed to their grandmother’s house while Daisy explained her thoughts. She reached behind the carriage clock on the fireplace and found the little black book which had a page folded down. The cousins opened it up together and there it was, a shakily drawn treasure map. “One last treasure hunt” Daisy laughed and they began counting out steps and working out riddles relying on each other’s childhood memories to work out some of the wordings and clues that they used all those years ago. It was a short search, Café obviously not strong enough to mark out the areas or design an elaborate map as she’d done previously. They found themselves in her bedroom which was always surprisingly neat and uncluttered. “Seriously?! Under the mattress? That is incredible, that should have been the first place we looked!” Callum exclaimed incredulously. “I know!” Daisy agreed, laughing heartily while crying. Deep down, they both knew they’d enjoyed this time spent together, enjoyed their rekindled friendship, the money was a secondary prize. There was a small handwritten note in the bag:

‘To my lost boys,

You’ve found your treasure but I’m hoping you found it before finding this money. You’re an incredible team and I love you so much. I hate to think of you as distant as my girls, your mothers. Cherish each other, love each other and hopefully use this money to make your dreams come true.

All my love, Café xx’

They sat on the little single bed for a long time, rereading the note and crying and laughing at how simple the original task of finding the money had been. “So,” Daisy started nervously, “Disneyland?” and a small smile crept over her mouth. “Disneyland!!” Callum confirmed and they continued to laugh and retell each other stories from their childhood and all the stories they’d missed about each other’s years in between.