Reef - Chapter 7: Laundry Day

A rainbow lit the sky, the black clouds were vanishing over the back hill and Reef was bounding about in the garden helping Mhairi and Jeannie hang out the tablecloths to dry. There had been a big dinner dance last night for Jim's seventy fifth birthday party and the place had been full to the rafters, Jeannie said. Reef wasn't too sure what rafters were but it sounded like a seafaring expression, which was appropriate given that Jim was a retired sea captain and at least half the people there had been old sailor friends from his time on the waves.

The party had gone on late. Mhairi and Jeannie made a pact with Bob and Dougie. The boys would stay on till the guests had left and do any urgent cleaning, glasses, crumbs and spillage. The ladies in return got the early morning shift, mopping the floors and washing the linen. Reef stuck with the ladies on this, she was an early riser.

Jeannie sang a song as she worked, it was one of the songs played at the party last night. Mhairi said, with a big beamer for she was happy, that it was a 'wauking song' and how she remembered songs of its type from when her granny used to do all the laundry by hand in a big wooden tub. 'Like singing the shirts clean as she stirred them with a paddle.' The words of the song were all nonsense like, 'hi-diddle-diddle' and, 'yiddle-oddle-irie,' but it certainly seemed to make Jeannie and Mhairi's work pass easier, both of them smiling like loons and skipping about the garden. Reef skipped along too, enjoying their spirits and chasing a butterfly.

Jeannie had been at the Ceilidh Place for nearly three years now and was as familiar to the place as all the rest. Reef remembered the first day they'd taken her on, a shy girl from the islands who appeared to be so quiet that Mhairi was always jumping with fright whenever she realised there was someone hovering behind her. She worked hard and was always on time though and gradually her shyness had begun to peel back like rose petals on the bud and now, blooming, there was barely a hint of her hitherto reticence.

Reef recalled too the night Dougie really fell for Jeannie. As she was an island lass the music was in her blood and Big Bob had asked if she could sing along to a bit of him playing on his clarsach, a type of small harp you hold on your lap. Well, Reef couldn't remember what the weather outside had been but the sun shone warm and golden from wee Jeannie's mouth. Dougie had been so enraptured, Mhairi teased him now,that he'd stood polishing just one glass for three quarters of an hour, his jaw slack as his ears bathed in the sunshine.

Mhairi had told Bob all about this of course, but the two were so kind that, though they had teased Dougie about his crush, neither of them had embarrassed him or Jeannie by saying anything to her. They had simply, in their own kind, gentle way, nudged Dougie in the right direction.

To hear Jeannie now, singing at her work on the back lawn, her ringleted hair bobbing down her back, you could have taken her for Mhairi's daughter, so well did she fit with the scene. Reef ran towards her and jumped in the, now-empty, washing basket. 'Reef!' Jeannie exclaimed, gonnae get out of there you wee rascal. Reef barked, wagged her tail and bounded out again to run round the the lawn once more. She had an invite from two walkers that were staying the weekend to accompany them up the Beinn on the following day and Reef could barely contain her excitement. There was nothing she liked better than exploring and she knew the route up
to the wee lochainn well. Bob had said to the men that Reef would be better than any human guide and keep their spirits up as well, she agreed and wished they were going today but the early morning downpour had made it seem too miserable at 7am.

So she stayed in the garden and spent time with her ladies, the best friends a dog could have. She included Dougie and Big Bob in that too, of course.