The rush of Sydney communters as they got off at each successive retreated although the biggest surge was always at Central. Getting on at the Ashfield station meant that she mostly stood on these journeys and she was keen to get off.
At the train, having extracted herself from the carriage and moving towards the escalate up to the grand concourse, there she saw her colleague who standing with a coffee cup in hand and she waved, trying to remember her name.
"Annie" the woman was heading towards her and she was still stumped on the name. She smiled and then proceeded to get her own coffee from the stand.
From there she would cross through Belmore Park and then across George Street and then onto Elisabeth Street. Chatting about the cases and how they would do. It was warmer in the CBD and she loosened her scarf.
Once in the office she looked at her emails. There was some work to do before she could start.
"Coming, Willehemia," a voice of the partner, Annie was only required to brief the documents not talk to the client directly.
Accompanying the dowager was her son Rueban and a small child that she assumed was Reuben's son. He apologised that he was here for the legal proceedings because he told everyone in the room that he was the main carer.
The meeting started and Annie stuck around to occasionally provide appropriate pieces of paper. Although she was familiar with the legal documents and their contents she was hoping to get out and start on the next set of documents. The partner had given her a discreet hand signal to stay. She seethed inwardly and felt like it was wasting her time. The principal had a notebook and could write it himself. He was just trying to exercise his power. She watched the scene placidly.
The child squirmed throughout the meeting even though there was adequate activities overflowing from the off the shoulder bag. She saw that there was the bright colours of a puzzle or something like that. He sat on Reuben's lap and then moved over to the Grandmothers lap. She practically flung him back onto Reuben's lap and proceeded talking. She was sympathetic to this feeling because she felt the same when she interacted with children and why she'd decided to be child free.
The outcome of the conversation was that there was a problem with the will. The proceeds of the family business had originally been designated for Rueben and his sister Louise. Rueben had stopped suddenly and he'd developed a perturbed face. Before Annie had to figure the source of this change, his voice rang out.
"What about Frankie?" The mood shifted in the room and threw the whole negotiations into a new light. This was news to Annie. Annie hadn't seen anything to do with this person. Willehemia's face changed with the mood. Although frail and sick, she'd exuded a strength and dignity but caught in this moment was a naked vulnerability as this name seemed to take their countenance.
Sensing an important piece of information she wrote it down. Frankie? Then after a few moments she added a few more question marks.
If she had been disinterested before she was alert to the whole scene. Even the child who had taken this moment of vulnerability and had crawled back onto his grandmothers lap. Now in a state she just seemed to pat him gently.
From her countenance, Annie was sure that this Frankie was something unfinished and raw. It was raw enough to change her touch with her grandchild.
Weeks later, when the cancer had taken more of her and she was frailer and more gaunt, she had made some changes and made sure that Frankie was in the will. She never showed another raw moment in Annie's presence and overall she felt like it was something as a outsider she shouldn't have seen.
