The Fabric of Friendship

It would be, Miss Hilda observed to my grandmother over hot buttered scones and peppermint tea, frightfully clever and exceedingly convenient if The Deity had thought to make skin flexible.

In what way, Hilda? my grandmother asked with a sigh.

Thick when you are most in need of protection, Miss Hilda said tarty, Thin when you are not.

Nana considered this for a moment then nodded.

Perhaps you're right, she said calmly, You don't think we can do it on our own?

Do you?  Hilda replied a little fiercely and my grandmother shrugged.

It wasn't clear whether Miss Hilda had had her feelings hurt or whether she'd hurt someone else's but she was troubled by something and my grandmother was wary.  There was precious little of the sugar-coater to our most prominent British transplant - she was considered a sort of displaced royalty by many in the village and was known for an acid although wickedly well educated tongue - she had no patience with dull wittedness or sloth, believed the overly emotional among us to be victims of genetic weakness, condemned drunkenness with a blinding passion - and yet would flog any man who might even think of raising his hand against a child or an animal.  She'd lived on the island for over thirty years and had never married nor lost a trace of her accent.

What need I of some mush mouthed, spineless, parasite interested only in securing his financial future?  she had once demanded when the subject of courting had been raised over a spirited bridge game, I do not adjust my standards for any man.  Better a solitary life than a compromised one!

And so she kept her dogs and her imported-from-England horses.  She lived quietly and quite privately in her gingerbread and turreted house.  She tended her flower garden and watched her posture, walked five miles a day - rain or shine, no matter the season - to maintain her health, and now and then wrote a smidgen of Elizabethan poetry for the Digby newspaper in between tutoring the children with dreams of attending Grade 12 on the mainland.  She was what her dear friend Clara called a woman of true substance, of steel-like convictions.  She was formidable and without a trace of self doubt.  To see her at odds with herself, about anything at all, was impossible, nearly unthinkable.

Is there something on your mind, Hilda?  Nana asked cautiously.

Certainly not! Hilda's tone was brisk and on the dismissive side but, I noticed, she didn't meet Nana's eyes when she answered.  And when Aunt Vi and Aunt Pearl arrived, she was uncharacteristically quiet.  It wasn't until the bridge game was finished that she made her speech.

Viola, she began, as I recall, I called you a mindless, silly creature with no more sense than a single celled amoeba.

Nana's jaw dropped at this and Pearl whitened noticeably.

That was.....unkind.... Hilda continued and my grandmother, determinedly staring out the window, cleared her throat audibly.

Miss Hilda glared at her but amended her words.

That was....cruel.....she said with a good deal of effort, and I had no right to say it.  Apologies are not in my nature, Viola, I make it a point to say nothing which would require them but in this instance, I have failed and I would like to say I'm sorry.

There was a silence on the sunporch the likes of which I'd never heard before or since.  Miss Hilda rapped her riding crop against her boot.

If you don't accept my apology, Viola, I completely understand.....she said finally and that was when my Aunt Vi - my sweet natured, timid, and shy Aunt Vi - got to her feet.

But acourse I do, Hilda, she said gratefully, It's forgotten.

The two women stood facing each other, not quite sure what came next.  It was an awkward and foreign moment, both being on opposite and unfamiliar ends of an apology and badly out of their elements.  It was Aunt Pearl who broke the tension with a totally unexpected war whoop - the three other woman visibly jumped - then all four broke out in relieved laughter.  The moment passed, slipping into the land of shared experience where the fabric of friendship is often tested before it's secured.