Kitchen Meetings
by BarBar
Copyright© 2026 by BarBar
Mystery Story: Set in the early parts of the twentieth century, a widow and her young daughter return home one afternoon and discover an elderly man sitting in their kitchen and drinking tea. What is happening? They talk and slowly discover that there is more going on than meets the eye.
Josephine stood impassively on the pavement outside the gates of St Meredith’s School for Girls as the emerging students swirled around her. Her hair was tied up in a bun and she was dressed conservatively in a long skirt, full blouse and jacket. Her clothes were not new, but they were well cared for. Josephine herself looked thin, almost gaunt, and her skin was pale.
The oncoming crowd of young girls, in their identical skirts, blazers, and boater hats, parted and walked around her without paying her any particular attention. Eventually, one of the students stepped out of the crowd and stopped in front of her.
“Hello Mama,” said the girl, with a happy smile.
Charlotte appeared to be an average ten-year-old, though a little thinner than most. Despite a long day of school, Charlotte still looked neat and tidy in her school uniform with her long blonde hair tied neatly into a careful braid that hung down her back.
“Let’s go then,” said Josephine. She turned and began walking away from the school with Charlotte walking quietly beside her. Josephine herself was only a young woman. Some might have thought she was too young to have a ten-year-old daughter. She was certainly too young to be a widow, but those were the cards which fate had dealt her.
They followed the beaten dirt track beside the road. Josephine walked in silence, deep in her own thoughts, while Charlotte paced beside her with her braid bouncing along behind her. As they walked, Charlotte began to hum the tune of a song they had sung in class that day.
It wasn’t until they turned off the main road and started walking down an unmade side street that Josephine glanced sideways at her daughter.
“How did your classes go, Lotte? Are you working hard?”
Charlotte grinned up at her. “Yes, Mama, I’m working hard. And my classes were good. I know that I need to do well because of the scholarship, so I always try as hard as I can.”
“That’s good. Without that scholarship, you wouldn’t be going to that school. We simply don’t have the money.”
“I know,” said Charlotte with a shrug.
Josephine stopped at the letterbox and checked for letters while Charlotte continued up the path to the front door of their rented cottage. It was an older, single-storied house, but appeared well maintained.
The mail consisted of a single envelope. It contained a bill for overdue rent. Josephine stared at the amount and swayed in shock as she realised that she had no way of paying it. The money from her last pension check was already gone, and there was no food in the house.
Charlotte had opened the door and gone inside, oblivious of her mother’s concerns. A moment later she stepped back out through the front door with a puzzled expression on her face.
“Mama?”
“What is it?” said Josephine.
“There’s an old man in our kitchen,” said Charlotte.
“What? What’s he doing in the kitchen?”
“Sitting at the table and drinking tea, as far as I could tell,” said Charlotte. “I didn’t stop to ask him.”
Josephine scowled. “Wait out here. I’ll get him to leave.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “I said he was an old man. He doesn’t look scary at all. We should go in and talk to him.”
Slightly mollified by her daughter’s assurances, Josephine walked up the steps and joined her daughter. They both walked back into the house together.
The door opened straight into a large room that doubled as a dining room and kitchen. The elderly man sitting at the table looked up as they entered. The tea cup in his hand paused on its way to his mouth and he looked at them with confusion on his face.
He was about to speak, but Josephine got in first.
“Who are you?” said Josephine, in a firm voice. “And what are you doing in my kitchen?”
The man blinked twice and then said, “I was about to ask you exactly the same question. Who are you? And what are you doing in my kitchen?”
The two adults seemed frozen in this strange tableau while Charlotte looked back and forth between the two of them, surprised and confused by this turn of events.
Then the old man’s eyes widened. He put the tea cup down as he scrambled to his feet.
“Of course, Jacob told me he intended to rent out the front rooms before I left. It had completely slipped my mind. You must be the new tenants. I live in the back room, but I’ve been travelling for the last few months.”
Josephine stood and looked at him in confusion.
“Back room? Do you mean the verandah? The door was locked, and we don’t have the key.”
The old man nodded. “Yes, the verandah. Jacob and I walled it in and set it up as a bedroom for me when he first purchased the house. He’s my brother-in-law, you see. He was intending to live in the front rooms, but his circumstances changed and now he lives closer to the centre of town. I moved in earlier this year, and then immediately went travelling.”
“Oh, my,” said Josephine. “I do apologise for the confusion. I don’t recall the landlord saying anything about another tenant. He may have said something, but I don’t recall it.”
“We should introduce ourselves,” said the old man. “My name is Henry Further, Petty Officer, Retired. But most people call me Bendy.”
Josephine nodded her understanding. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Josephine DeStello, a widow. And this is my daughter, Charlotte.”
The old man politely bowed to her. “Madam, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Then he turned to Charlotte and bowed to her. “Miss Charlotte.”
Charlotte giggled at being addressed so formerly. Then she clutched the sides of her skirt and did a little curtsy in return, trying to hold in another giggle as she did so.
Charlotte tipped her head on one side and looked at the old man. “That’s a strange name. Bendy?”
“Yes, Miss Charlotte. It’s a name I acquired in the navy. And now that I think about it, that’s probably all I should say about the matter. Please, Mrs DeStello, Miss Charlotte, take a seat.”
He gestured to the vacant chairs at the table where he was sitting. When he saw them moving to comply, he continued.
“May I offer you some tea, Mrs DeStello? I picked up some tea and milk on the way through town. That’s all I bought because I’m to dine with my daughter and her family this evening. I’ll need to visit the stores for more groceries. For now, I think tea is called for. There may be some coffee if you would rather have a cup of coffee.”
“Thank you, sir, tea would be delightful,” said Josephine as she sat herself down at the table. “And if we are to be sharing a house, perhaps we needn’t be so formal. You may call me Josephine.”
Charlotte quietly slipped into the chair next to her and continued to listen to the conversation with rapt attention.
The old man had turned to fill the kettle at the sink. He looked at her over his shoulder and smiled. “Very well, Josephine. And please call me Bendy. Do you take your tea with milk and sugar?”
“Please,” said Josephine.
He placed the kettle on the stove. He opened several cupboards before he found some cups and then placed two on the counter next to the stove. Then he turned back to Charlotte.
“My granddaughter, Tildy, is probably not much younger than you. She enjoys a concoction consisting of two thirds tea and one third milk. Or I can offer you a cup of straight milk. Which would you prefer?”
Charlotte glanced at her mother for approval, and then said, “Thank you, sir, May I try the tea drink that your granddaughter likes?”
The old man bowed his head to Charlotte. “Your wish is my demand. But, I beg you, please do not call me sir.”
Charlotte giggled and then composed her face and sat up straight in her chair. “Thank you, Mr Bendy. That would be delightful.” Then her face slowly crinkled up into a grin.
Once everything was prepared, he carried the cups to the table and set them in front of Josephine and Charlotte before resuming his own seat.
He sipped from his own cup and put it down again with a sigh. “So, ladies. It seems we are to share a house. I shall do my best to respect your privacy, of course. I have my own bathroom, but we’ll need to share the kitchen.”
While he was saying that, both Josephine and Charlotte had sipped at their tea and put their cups back down. “I believe we can make that work,” said Josephine.
“Excellent,” said Bendy. “So, tell me about yourselves. You said that you were a widow. You have my condolences for your loss. Do you have employment?”
Josephine grimaced. “I was working three mornings a week as a receptionist for Doctor Michaels, but he recently closed his practice and moved east to live near his grandchildren. I’m currently searching for a new position. And yes, I’m a widow. My husband was in the army. I believe there was a training accident. I don’t know all the details. But it was very sudden, and his passing left us in difficult circumstances. I do receive a small pension from the army, but...” She trailed off. “Well, I am not one to complain.”
Bendy shook his head and tut-tutted. “Such a shame.”
The two adults continued their conversation for some fifteen minutes while they sipped their tea. Charlotte sat quietly and listened.
Eventually, Bendy stood up and explained that he needed to get ready for the evening, as he was going to dine with his daughter and her family. He moved to pick up the empty cups, but Josephine stopped him and promised to wash them for him.
Bendy then moved into the back of the house and closed the door behind him. Once he was gone, the mother and daughter stayed sitting at the table. They were silent for a moment, and then Josephine turned to her daughter.
“Lotte, did you eat at school?”
“Yes, Mama. We had sausages and mash.”
Charlotte reached into the pocket of her school blazer and pulled out something wrapped in a white handkerchief.
“I saved you some,” said Charlotte.
She unwrapped the handkerchief to reveal a cold sausage, a few smudges of mashed potato still adhering to one side.
She reached into the other pocket and pulled out a bread roll. She brushed some pocket-fluff off the roll and set it down on the handkerchief next to the sausage.
Josephine reached out and broke the sausage in half. She pushed half back to Charlotte and took a small bite from the half left in her hand.
Charlotte scowled at her mother. “I ate at school. I’m quite certain that you haven’t eaten all day. You must eat, Mama, or you’ll get sick. Again!”
She pushed the other half of the sausage back to her mother and glared.
Josephine dipped her eyes and then nibbled at the sausage, until it was all gone. The food, little though it was, eased the worst of the pangs of hunger that Josephine was feeling, though she said nothing of that to her daughter.
Charlotte picked up the bread roll and tore off a small corner for herself before passing the rest of the roll to her mother.
“I have two more days of school until the end of term,” said Charlotte, her voice sombre. “What will we do then? I won’t be able to eat at school or bring food home for you? The landlord already gave us a discount on the rent. What will become of us?”
Josephine didn’t answer. A tear made its slow track down her cheek. She ducked her head and stared down at the table in dismay.
There was the sound of a throat clearing and they turned to see Bendy standing at the doorway from the back of the house. He was holding a hat and coat and had changed his shirt. The mother and daughter exchanged glances and wondered how long he’d been there.
“I expect I’ll be back very late,” said Bendy. “Well after most decent people have retired for the evening. I’ll try not to disturb you when I enter the house. I shall see you both in the morning. Have a good evening.” With that, he walked across the kitchen and out through the front door, closing it behind him.
The following morning, Charlotte and Josephine were dressing in their room when they heard a knocking on the door that closed their hallway off from the kitchen.
“Breakfast will be served in ten minutes,” Bendy called through the closed door.
Charlotte finished adjusting her school uniform and turned to her mother.
“Breakfast?” asked Charlotte. “We don’t eat breakfast.”
“I’m as mystified as you are, Lotte dear,” said Josephine.
When they opened the door and entered the kitchen, their senses were assailed with the sights, sounds, and smells of bacon and eggs sizzling in the pan. There were slices of freshly cooked toast stacked on a plate in the centre of the table, and the table was set out with plates and cutlery, ready for a meal.
“Good morning, ladies,” said Bendy with a smile. “I managed to get to the stores before they closed last night, so I thought I would treat us all to a nice breakfast. Please take a seat.”
Bendy hummed softly to himself as he served the bacon and eggs onto plates and carried the plates to the table. Josephine and Charlotte took their places at the table. Their eyes wide at the amount of food on their plates.
“Will you have tea? I made some fresh.” On receiving nods, he poured tea into cups and added milk before bringing the cups to the table. Finally, he took his own seat and looked around.
“There’s salt and pepper if you desire it. Please, let’s eat before the food gets cold.”
He picked up his knife and fork and sliced a piece of his bacon. Josephine and Charlotte did the same.
When Charlotte put the first mouthful of bacon in her mouth, her eyes rolled up in delight. She chewed and swallowed the bacon, then said, “Oh, Mr Bendy. This is delicious.”
Josephine patted the side of her mouth with a napkin.
“Mr Bendy,” said Josephine, “there was no need for you to go to this trouble. Sharing a kitchen does not mean you’re obligated to cook for us.”
Bendy swallowed his current mouthful before speaking.
“Nonsense, it was no trouble at all. I was cooking for myself and it’s no effort to throw in some extra bacon and crack another couple of eggs. As a matter of fact, I’m rather pleased to do it. For quite some time, I’ve been living by myself. My daughter married and moved out, and then my dear wife passed on. It’s quite a pleasure to have some company for breakfast.”
“Well, thank you again,” said Josephine. “As Lotte remarked, it is delicious.”
There was no further discussion while they finished their food. While they were sipping their tea, Bendy looked at Josephine with a raised eyebrow.
Bendy cleared his throat. “I recall that you were looking for some means of employment. Last night, my daughter mentioned that there was a sign in Mr Robertson’s window, saying that he was looking for a new receptionist. Mr Robertson is a lawyer who has his office in the main street, next to the Post Office. My daughter said she’d considered applying for the post herself, but then decided that she was content staying at home.”
Bendy reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out an envelope. “I hope you do not consider me presumptuous for doing this. I’ve written you a letter of recommendation to Mr Robertson. I went to school with his father, so perhaps it will carry some weight.”
Josephine took the envelope with a trembling hand.
“Oh, thank you, Mr Bendy. You have no idea what a godsend you are.”
Bendy waved her comment away and took another sip of his tea.
“Hey, Mr Bendy,” said Charlotte. “How do you know the ocean is friendly?”
Bendy’s mouth perked up into a little smile as he looked over at Charlotte.
“I don’t know, Miss Charlotte. How do you know the ocean is friendly?”
“Because it always waves,” said Charlotte with a grin.
Bendy’s eyebrows both shot straight up and he stared at Charlotte for a moment. Then he chuckled.
“Very good. Very good indeed,” said Bendy. “I must remember that one, and tell it to my grand-daughter.
Charlotte finished her milky tea with a gulp and leapt to her feet. “I must be off. I would hate to be late for school. Thank you ever so much for the breakfast, Mr Bendy.”
“Yes indeed,” said Josephine. She stood up herself, and this caused Bendy to stand. Then she looked at the used plates in dismay. “Oh dear! I should...”
“Nonsense,” said Bendy. “I’m perfectly capable of washing dishes. You go off and take Charlotte to school. And then go down into town and make an appointment to see Mr Robertson. I shall tidy up here and then read a book. I usually go walking in the afternoon, so I may not be here when you bring Charlotte home from school. I intend to cook us all dinner this evening, so make sure you bring a hearty appetite home with you.”
Impulsively, Charlotte ran around the table and flung her arms around him in an energetic hug.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Mr Bendy,” said Charlotte, her voice muffled because her face was buried in his jacket.
He patted her back and then he and Charlotte separated. Bendy bowed his head to her and said, “The pleasure is all mine, Miss Charlotte.”
Charlotte clutched the sides of her skirt and did a little curtsy in reply. Then she giggled in delight.
With that, he ushered the other two out of the house and then set about cleaning up in the kitchen, humming happily to himself.
At the end of the school day, Josephine met Charlotte outside the gate of the school as usual, but this time she was bursting with news.
“Mr Robertson has agreed to take me on as his receptionist. I’m to work five and a half days a week. He agreed to allow me to finish a little early each afternoon so that I can meet you after school. Each week, I’m going to be bringing home nearly twice the amount I was receiving from Dr Michael. I’ll be able to pay for rent, and food, and even have a little left over. Lotte, we’re going to be okay.”
Charlotte squealed in excitement, and they hugged each other in their excitement. They turned to begin the walk home as Charlotte quizzed her mother on the details of her new position.
When they returned home, the house was still and quiet. Charlotte tipped her head sideways and then went back outside. A few minutes later she came back into the kitchen with a puzzled expression on her face.
“Mama, come outside. I have something to show you.”
Charlotte led her mother around the side of the house to the small back yard. It was surrounded by a simple wire fence. Beyond the fence was a grass-covered field where a couple of horses grazed. The back of the house looked less well cared for than the front. The yard contained more weeds than grass. There were the remains of an old wooden shed that had mostly collapsed in a long-forgotten storm. An old tree stood in one corner and a knotted rope hung from one of its branches. A rope from which Charlotte would occasionally swing when the weather was nice, and she had no school.
Charlotte pointed out the rickety old verandah at the back of the house. It chopped out a corner of the cottage, giving the verandah two solid walls. The roof extended over it to complete the rectangle of the house. The other two sides of the verandah were open to the elements with spaced posts to hold up the roof and a simple wooden banister marking its boundary.
The pair climbed the three steps and stepped onto the verandah. They looked around and saw a plank of wood balanced on bricks to form a shelf. The shelf held some rusted gardening tools and two dirt filled ceramic pots that had probably once held plants. A rusted horseshoe was nailed to one wall and the door leading into the house badly needed a coat of paint. The back door once had a window in it but at some point, the glass had been replaced with boards, so now the door was solid.
Charlotte pointed at the door. “That’s the door that we don’t have the key for. It leads directly into the kitchen. That’s the door Mr Bendy walked through when he went to get changed for dinner last night. But he said he and his brother-in-law had walled in the verandah when Jacob bought the house. This is very strange.”
Josephine walked over to the edge of the verandah to look at where such a wall should be and pointed. “Look, I think I can see marks where there may have once been a wall.”
Charlotte came over to look at where Josephine was pointing and the two of them examined the evidence in silence. The marks they were looking at may have indicated that there had once been a wall there, or they may have indicated something else. Neither of them were certain.
Charlotte glanced sideways and said, “Look!” She walked several paces along the inside wall and pushed at a simple latch. She was then able to push open a door whose outline had been hidden by the general layer of grime. Inside was a simple tin-can toilet with a wooden seat. A rusted trough with a single tap was attached to the facing wall. Such a room might have been expected to smell, but a window opening protected by angled wooden slats let a constant stream of fresh air into the room. Cobwebs hung in the corners, wafting in the breeze.
“He did say he had his own bathroom,” said Josephine, her voice faint with the shock of these discoveries.
Charlotte stepped over to the sink and opened the faucet. The pipe gurgled for a moment and then emitted a stream of brownish gunk before it choked and spat and then started to flow with clean water. “Huh,” she said.
“But what does it mean?” said Josephine. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”
Charlotte gently pushed her mother back out of the door of the small bathroom and pulled the door shut. The little homemade latch clicked into place as she did so.
“We should go back inside and sit down,” said Charlotte. “I have a guess about all of this, but I want us sitting down first.”
The pair went back around to the front of the house and walked through into the kitchen. Charlotte filled two tumblers with water and handed one to her mother. They sat down at the table.
“I think he’s a ghost,” announced Charlotte with a serious expression on her face. “But if he is, then everything I’ve ever heard about ghosts is wrong.”
“What do you mean?” asked Josephine.
“Well, he cooked us food and we ate it. He served us tea and we drank it. I hugged him and I could feel him against me and I could feel him patting my back. And I could smell tobacco on his breath and in his clothes. And when I was sitting in class this morning, for the first time in ages I didn’t feel hungry at all. That was because we’d eaten the breakfast he’d cooked. Bacon and eggs that we could never have afforded.”
“Yes, I was the same,” said Josephine. “And the extra food he purchased is still on the shelves in the pantry.”
“I always thought ghosts were wispy things that are hard to see and that you could push your hand through,” said Charlotte. “But he looked and felt like a perfectly normal person. Then last night he walked through that door out onto the verandah as if it were his private room and came back having changed his clothes.”
“I have always thought that ghosts were simply stories made up for children,” said Josephine. “But I cannot think of any other explanation.”
“I have to say, he appears to be a really nice man,” said Charlotte. “The stories about ghosts had that wrong as well.”
“I wonder if he even knows he’s a ghost,” said Josephine. “He seems to think he’s living a normal life.”
“We mustn’t say anything about that to him,” said Charlotte. “It might scare him away. We should treat him like a normal person and pretend everything is normal when we’re around him.”
Josephine nodded her agreement.
The mother and daughter were still sitting at the table when the front door opened and Bendy came bustling into the kitchen with his coat over one arm and his hat held in his hand.
“Good afternoon, ladies. I’ll put these away and we can make a start on dinner.” He walked quickly through the kitchen and out through the back door. Both Josephine and Charlotte watched him walk past with wide eyes.
A moment later he came back into the kitchen. He went to the sink and washed his hands and then turned to face the two women. “I’m looking for volunteers to help peel and slice the vegetables.”
“We’ll help, of course,” said Josephine. She stood up and Charlotte immediately stood up as well.
“Wonderful,” said Bendy. “The cutting boards are in that cupboard and the knives are in that block. But first everyone must wash their hands.”
As Charlotte was washing her hands, she said, “Hey, Mr Bendy. What’s brown and sticky?”
Bendy frowned and thought for a moment, then said, “I don’t know. What’s brown and sticky?”
“A stick,” said Charlotte. Then she giggled and used a towel to dry her hands.
Bendy grinned at her. “That’s very amusing. Thinking logically, the answer should have been obvious.”
Bendy opened the door to the pantry and pulled out a couple of aprons, which he handed to Josephine. He tied a third apron on himself. He then stepped into the pantry and filled a small bowl with a selection of the vegetables that now filled a rack that had been empty the day before.
Soon the three of them were sitting around the kitchen table, peeling and slicing vegetables as they told each other about their day. Bendy was very excited to hear that Josephine had been offered a position with Mr Robertson. Josephine thanked Bendy again for the letter of introduction that Bendy had written.
The conversation continued as dinner was prepared and then eaten and the dishes washed and put away. Bendy brewed some tea and the three of them sat around the table and continued the conversation. Bendy was most curious about the school Charlotte attended and the lessons she was taking and so forth. Charlotte asked questions about his time with the navy and listened with rapt attention as he told stories about visits to exotic ports in places Charlotte had either never heard of, or only read about in books.
After the conversation had gone on for some time, Charlotte said that she should get ready for bed as she had school in the morning. Charlotte stood up from the table and Bendy immediately stood up as well. He wished her a good night and Charlotte stepped over and gave him a quick hug. Then she stepped over and stooped to give her mother a kiss on the cheek. She then left the room, closing the door to the hallway behind her.
Bendy gave a little half-bow to Josephine and said, “I think I shall withdraw to my room and read for a little while. Thank you for a splendid evening. Your company, and that of your daughter, has brightened my day. And for that I thank you. Good evening.”
With that he withdrew to the back of the house leaving Josephine sitting alone. She was marvelling at how, in just one day it felt like her circumstances had completely changed and she now had hope for the future and felt good about her life. For the first time in a long time, she did not have hunger gnawing at her belly and she could almost feel the health returning to her body in a slow but inexorable wave.
She stood up and started tidying up the kitchen, putting things away and wiping down the surfaces. Once she was done, she moved towards the door leading to the front rooms. Just as she was about to reach for the door, it opened and Charlotte came walking through. The two almost bumped into each other. They both stopped and half-stepped back because they’d startled each other.
Charlotte was wearing her floor-length white nightgown with a cream-coloured robe over the top of it. She had bathed but kept her hair dry and now it hung in loose curls down her back after having been taken out of the braid.
Once she’d recovered from being startled, Charlotte gestured for her mother to follow and then walked resolutely over to the door leading to the back verandah and knocked firmly on the door.
“Come in,” called Bendy from within.
Charlotte pushed open the door and stepped into the room. Then she stopped and looked around with wide eyes. The room was the same size as the verandah they’d explored earlier, but now it looked completely different. Charlotte had entered a cosy-looking room with a bed against one wall. A wardrobe and chest of drawers lined a second wall. All four walls were covered with wallpaper sporting a repeating design of lines and whorls in dark green on a pale green background. A desk sat under a window that would, during daylight hours, give a view out into the back yard and the field beyond. Beside the window was a door that would open directly onto the three steps that Charlotte and Josephine had climbed earlier that evening. The door Charlotte had discovered that led to the small bathroom was now painted the same light green with the casing around its edges painted dark green to match the wallpaper.
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