“At first, she protested and said that she couldn’t let me, but before she could stop me I had my money on the counter and I had placed her order.
“When I handed over her new stick, Jenifer leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. I know that I must have blushed because I could feel my face burning.”
“Well, it’s so nice to see that chivalry is alive and well,” she said, trying not to laugh at my reaction to her kiss.
“We introduced ourselves to each other, and without even realising it I guided her over to a much quieter area of the field so that we could sit on a bench and talk. I was desperate to know everything about her: where she lived, what she did, what ambitions she had, what her hobbies were, and in the end, I managed to bombard her with questions for so long that the next time I looked up, the sun was starting to set behind the field.
“Of course, the bands were still playing and the crowds in the field were in no way ready to wind down, but when Jenifer put her hand in front of her mouth to stifle a yawn I realised that I had monopolised far too much of her time, and that it wasn’t really fair of me to keep her there any longer.
“The worst part was that even though we had been chatting together for so long, I still did not feel sufficiently confident enough to ask her out on an official date. With a heavy heart I remember mumbling something about letting her get back to her friends who must be worried not to have seen her for so long. But to my surprise, not to mention delight, she announced that the group she had come with had agreed to all do their own thing once they arrived, and that in fact she had not clapped eyes on several of them since they had got there.”
Jonathan could feel his throat beginning to become dry, so he leaned over and lifted his glass to his lips and took several good swallows to lubricate his vocal chords.
“Anyway,” he continued, “as wondrous as this news was to hear, I still felt completely inept at trying to contrive a feasible excuse to keep Jenifer in my company.
“I remember there was a very awkward moment’s silence while I was desperately trying to think of what to say next. Jenifer didn’t help matters by just sitting there gazing around at the field, looking almost good enough to eat.
“In the end I think I asked her if she was hungry, which she wasn’t. So next I offered her a drink, but again she replied that she was fine. The feeling that I was fast losing her interest in me was almost tangible as I continued to wrack my brains to think of what to say next. Finally, just as I thought that all was lost, she laid her head on my chest and gently snuggled into me as if she were about to go to sleep.
“To say that I was taken-aback would be an understatement. I remember feeling completely numb as if I had been shot by a stun-gun, or something equally as ridiculous, and for a moment I could not will my body to respond to Jenifer’s action. Fortunately the effect was merely temporary, and slowly I moved my arms up and around her so that I could hold her properly.
“We stayed like that for ages. It was wonderful, and I for one did not want the moment to ever end. But the sun had well and truly set, and with the darkness soon came the cold. Even though it was the middle of summer the wind soon picked up, and Jenifer only had on a thin blouse so it wasn’t long before I could feel her shivering in my arms.
“Sadly, I didn’t even have anything over my shirt to offer her to ward off the chill, so after a while we were both sitting there, literally shaking from the cold.
“It sounds so ridiculous now, especially saying it out loud, but at the time and given the circumstances, I was so afraid of shattering the magic of the moment that I tried to ignore the fact that we were both freezing, preferring instead just to try and ignore the sensation and pretend as if it were not really the case.
“But, eventually, Jenifer could stand it no longer. She eased herself away from me and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, rubbing them vigorously to try and re-start her circulation. In that split second, I was afraid that she was going to make her excuses and that I would never see her again. The fact that we had enjoyed a cuddle together meant nothing at the time, as everyone was experimenting with being more open with their feelings and women especially seemed less afraid of being given a derogatory label for being too tactile.
“But as it turned out, my fears were erroneous.”
“Well I don’t know about you,” she began, “but I need something more than just your arms to keep me warm tonight.”
“Before I had a chance to respond, she kissed me gently on the cheek and skipped off the bench.”
“Why don’t you go and get something warmer too?” she suggested, “and we can meet back here, afterwards.”
“To some, her words might sound like a brush-off, a polite way of making an excuse to leave with the intention of never returning. But as I gazed into Jenifer’s eyes I somehow knew that her words were being spoken in earnest, and that she had every intention to keep to her promise to return to our bench.
“We set off in our different directions and within five minutes I had collected my jumper and jacket from my tent, and was back on our bench.
“I waited for what seemed an eternity but in reality, it was probably no more than half an hour, before I saw Jenifer re-emerging through the crowd and heading towards me, bundled up in an oversized tan jumper and a padded overcoat with a beaming smile on her face.
“We spent that night snuggled together on that lonely bench, far enough away from the crowds to feel as if we were in our own space but not too far away to hear the music from the various stages dotted around the field.
“I had never believed in love at first sight, until that night. By the morning I found myself engulfed by an overwhelming wave of emotion, and before I could stop myself I blurted out my feelings to Jenifer like some infatuated teenager with a schoolboy crush.”
Jonathan looked around the table at his audience. He wanted to glean from their expressions whether he was boring them to death or not.
It struck him that this was the first time he had ever reminisced about his wife to a stranger, let alone a group of them, and he was surprised by how effortlessly the words were flowing out of him.
There were so many wonderful things about his wife that he longed to divulge, but he knew that this was not the correct forum and definitely not the right time.
Those assembled had only stayed because he had piqued their curiosity concerning his recollection of having heard their song all those years ago, and why the very sound of it now brought back such terrible nightmares. Nightmares which he had lived with for over fifty years, too afraid to so much as share his experiences with another living soul.
But now, it appeared, the time had finally come!
“What was Jenifer’s reaction to your outpouring of affection?” It was the other female band member who asked the question.
Jonathan smiled. “Fortunately for me Jenifer was not only wonderfully kind, but also sensible, and she told me in no uncertain terms that although she was very attracted to me, she needed to know me a lot better before contemplating falling in love with me.”
“Sensible woman,” Meryl observed, shooting her husband a knowing wink.
“That she was,” Jonathan agreed. “Sensible, beautiful, caring, compassionate…I could go on forever bestowing her virtues. But unfortunately, the story I have to tell you has little to do with the happiness my wife brought me, and more to do with the terror I was yet to suffer at the hands of another.
Three
“It all began for me in September 1970. Jenifer and I had married in the June of that year, and as money was a little tight we decided to wait until we could afford a proper honeymoon abroad. One day a letter arrived from a solicitor, informing me that I had inherited a house from a distant relative - who prior to that moment I had never even heard of.
“Apparently, I was subsequently informed by the said solicitor, he was a distant cousin on my father’s side and according to the terms of his will I was eventually traced as his only living male re
lative, and as such I was his sole beneficiary.
“My parents had both been killed in a car accident the year before I met Jenifer, leaving my younger sister Jane and I to fend for each other. Jane was only nineteen when they died, and she had just gone away to university. Our parents’ death left us both shattered and she ended up taking a year off, fully intending to start again the following September.
“We both inherited our family home, and at the time neither of us had any intention other than to live in it together for the time being to help keep some stability in our lives. We had always been close, and both took great comfort in the other’s presence in the house to help us through the darkness of the early days after the funeral.
“I was already working at the bank so at least we had the stability of a regular wage coming in, but after a couple of months at home Jane started to feel guilty about not contributing to the household kitty. Even though I kept telling her not to worry herself about it, in the end she found herself a position at a hotel through a local temp agency just to keep herself busy until she returned to university.
“As things turned out, whilst working at the hotel she met her future husband Neil who was the assistant manager there; and although I was a trifle concerned that their relationship smacked of being a ‘whirlwind’ romance, who was I to talk?
“The bottom line was that Jane never did return to university, but she was, and still is for that matter, very happy, and Neil has always been a good husband and father to their three children, so in the end everything worked out for the best.
“Once Jane and Neil decided to buy a place of their own together, I re-mortgaged the house so that Jane could have her share. I did consider selling and starting again, but I had such happy childhood memories there and even though under normal circumstances the re-mortgage would have been beyond my pocket, as I worked for a bank they offered me a special rate so it was just within my budget.
“I had only had one experience of dealing with a solicitor before, and that was when I had to see to the probate of my parent’s will. The solicitor on that occasion was a dour-faced, sullen individual, with extremely poor customer service skills, as well as a very bad case of body odour. Not that I would automatically tar every other solicitor with the same brush, but the memory of that initial encounter still resonated in me while I was speaking on the telephone to the solicitor for my recent benefactor’s probate.
“The property that I had inherited was in Northumberland, which to my memory I had only travelled to once before, during a family holiday when we went to visit my father’s older sister. My father was a very late child so there was thirty years difference in their ages, and from what I understood they were never that close.
“Both Jenifer and I were understandably very excited to go and view our new acquisition, but as fate would have it we were desperately short staffed at the bank and I had already taken a week off for our wedding, so, when I approached my manager with my annual leave request he made a point of reminding me that loyalty and dedication were the key qualities he looked for in an employee who, one day, wanted to move up the managerial ladder, as he was well aware that I did. As it was he agreed to allow me to take a second week off, but only after a couple of my colleagues had returned from their leave. So, I just had to be patient.
“Jenifer was naturally disappointed, but she fully appreciated my situation at work so she too just accepted it. Throughout the next couple of weeks, the house in Northumberland was all that we could talk about. The solicitor had very graciously sent us some details concerning the property, and when we excitedly opened the envelope neither of us could believe our eyes.
“The description of the property, along with the drawing of the layout and its adjoining land, made it look enormous, and the grandness of the structure reminded us of some of the stately homes we had visited on Sunday outings, with the national trust organisation.
“The building itself, according to the documentation, had been built in the eighteenth century. It was set in its own grounds and boasted three levels, four if you included the basement, which housed the kitchen and scullery. The front entrance was housed in a massive arch, which was supported by two concrete pillars, with a couple of stone lions standing guard at the bottom of the stairs.
“According to the description the property needed some considerable repairs, but my father’s cousin had lived in it his entire life so at least it had to be habitable. Not that we were considering moving to Northumberland! Jenifer was extremely close to her parents and I knew that she would never consider relocating so far away from them. She also worked for her father in his photographic studio, and over the years he had come to rely upon her more and more. She had confessed to me that in many ways she felt obligated to stay, as she was not sure how well he would cope on his own. Added to which she did actually enjoy her job, and she loved dealing with people of all kinds who came in for portraits or to arrange to have their weddings and other special events recorded for posterity.
“Now given half a chance, Jenifer would have loved nothing more than to work on the manor house herself. She wasn’t just a terrific photographer; she could turn her hand to almost anything artistic whether it was painting, drawing, needlepoint, fashion design, upholstery, DIY - almost whatever she tried. She would gush for hours after dinner about how she would design matching curtains and fabric covers for the furniture, as well as what colours she would paint each room, or what wallpaper would suit which walls best.
“Although I have never had any kind of artistic talent myself, it was easy for me to be swept away by her enthusiasm for the project and sometimes, if she was really excited about a particular idea, the time would just slip away until it would be midnight before we looked up and realised how late it was.
“But for all her eagerness and passion, we both took a very pragmatic approach in deciding what we would, in fact, do. Our plan was that once we had settled the death duties which the solicitor was in the process of calculating for us, we would sell the place and hopefully, if there was enough left, pay off our mortgage. It was still a windfall and a very pleasant surprise, but we were realistic enough to consider the fact that although such a lavish property might make a fortune in London, it was not going to be the same story in its present location.
“Also, according to the solicitor’s description, there was the state of the property to take into account plus, besides the death duties, the solicitor had mentioned that there might be some outstanding debts courtesy of my benefactor.
“But with all that, nothing could quell our excitement. We further discussed the possibility of being able to give Jane part of our windfall. Jenifer understood how close we both were, and what’s more they had grown quite close too. Therefore, we both agreed that we would look at the state of our finances once the dust had settled and see where to go from there.
“But the overall fact was that we were still incredibly thrilled about the future, especially with regards to our latest acquisition.
“The days at work leading up to our big adventure seemed endless, and for the first time in my life I actually considered how tedious and boring my chosen profession could be. I began to watch the second hand on the clock as it slowly mocked me for my impatience.
“With less than a week to go before we set off on our quest, Jenifer’s father was offered an extremely lucrative contract for a large fashion house which was just about to branch out into selling accessories as well as clothes. He had been offered the work as a result of a wedding that he and Jenifer had covered a couple of months earlier, which quite by coincidence was attended by one of the directors for the chain that was launching the new collection.
“Under normal circumstances Jenifer would have been just as excited as her father for the upcoming event, as it would be a tremendous opportunity for them to showcase their talent which might in turn lead to future bookings with the same company.
“Typically, however, the booking was planned for the week
that we were going away to Northumberland to visit our new house. Naturally there was no point in asking the fashion house if they could postpone their shoot, as it would doubtless have meant that they would just go somewhere else and Jenifer’s father would lose his commission, not to mention the chance of any future work from the same organisation.
“Jenifer was torn. On the one hand she was desperate to come with me and see the house, but on the other hand she appreciated how desperate her father was to take on this new - and very influential - client, and there was no way that he could have handled the project on his own. He had often commented that if it had not been for Jenifer’s passion for the business he would have either had to scale down the operation or possibly even sell it off altogether.
“Jenifer and I spoke at length about what we were going to do about the situation, but we both knew that the pair of us would feel far too guilty to leave her father in the lurch. I even considered asking my manager if I could postpone my holiday for a week, but after the fuss he had created about my initial request we both decided that that would not be a viable option.”
Jonathan smiled up at the group seated around the table.
“Back in those days a job in banking was about as good as it could be for man with my qualifications, and the law did not protect the employee as much as it does now. I had seen colleagues dismissed on the day for the most minor of indiscretions, so I knew that it was not in my best interests to rock the boat.
“So, in the end we decided that the best course of action was for me to travel down to the house as arranged, and with any luck Jenifer could join me before the week was out, depending on how things went with the fashion shoot. If push came to shove we could always take a trip up there over a weekend, it was just a shame that we had missed the last bank holiday weekend for the year. It would be a tiring journey driving all that way for one night, but if it meant that Jenifer could see the house it would be worth it. Also, the bank was always closed over the Christmas period, so that might give us another opportunity to visit if Jenifer could wait that long.
Ghost Song Page 3