Nothing is Forever

by Grace Thompson

  ‘Leave it, Gloria,’ Jack said wearily. He turned to face Abigail. ‘You have to believe me. How can you think even for a second that I’d leave you? And with that poor Tabitha? Tabitha Bishop?’

  She shook her head dejectedly but didn’t offer him any assurances.

  Late as she already was for work, Abigail waited until Jack had gone then went to see Tabs. ‘Keep away from Jack!’ she shouted, as she opened the door.

  Tabs lowered her head. ‘So you know then, about the baby? That it’s Jack’s?’ she spoke in a whisper. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t ask for anything from him. I’ll manage somehow. I’m not the first nor the last to find myself abandoned.’

  It was true. The quiet conviction of Tabs’s words was far more telling than her mother’s outrage. Abigail stared at her for a few seconds, then ran off in tears.

  ‘About time the truth was out,’ Megan said, when Tabs told them.

  ‘Glad I am, if it makes Abi come to her senses,’ Mali added. ‘She’s put up with him wandering around the place not attempting to support her, believing he’ll marry her next Easter and all the time, you and he …’ She shrugged.

  ‘Best without him, both of us,’ Tabs summed up, brushing her hands together as though wiping the past months out of her life.

  News sped around the town in days. Jack was shouted at and rudely pushed aside by men and women as he walked along the street. Martha and Tabs’s father stopped him in the middle of the town and demanded to know what he was going to do. ‘You’ll pay for this,’ George Bishop shouted and a crowd gathered. ‘Taking advantage of poor simple Tabitha. You’ll pay for this.’

  Jack tried several times to talk to Abigail but she refused and eventually warned him she would talk to the police and tell them he was threatening her. Tabs ignored him when they met and he was in despair. The money was what he still hoped to find. If he had money he’d persuade Abigail to come back to him. Then he saw the To Let notice appear in the window of the flat above the antique shop. Henry had definitely moved out and Tabs was working for the new owner. He waited until he was sure Peter James was not there and went into the shop and locked the door.

  ‘Tabs, please don’t tell me to go away. I want to forget Abigail and stay with you. I’m longing to see our baby and if you’ll come back to me, make a home for us all, I know we’ll be so happy. I was caught up in affection for Abigail but it’s you I love. I tried to look after them as I’d promised my friend but it all went wrong.’

  She went to the door and opened it wide and stood there silently until he left.

  Gloria went to the market the week following Blodwen’s visit, to buy vegetables and a new frying pan. As she sat waiting for the bus, on impulse she decided to walk. It was a brisk autumn day and she felt so well after all the illness of previous winters that the prospect of a walk cheered her. She knew the route through the fields and it was only midday, there was plenty of time.

  She hadn’t bought much, so carrying was easy at first, but after a mile she began to regret her decision. She was on the point of hiding her shopping for her daughter to collect later, when Jack appeared. She adjusted the shopping bag on her shoulder and hurried on.

  ‘Gloria, don’t run away. I’m not angry with you any more, you were right to tell Abigail, I know that now. If I’d told her the truth instead of lying she might not have been so hurt,’ he said catching her up.

  She didn’t deny his assumption that she had told Abi about Tabs’s baby. It wasn’t important what he thought of her. ‘Go away. You’ve ruined her happiness and after she trusted you and allowed you to go off chasing rainbows and fantastic day-dreams. Evil you are and I don’t know how you persuaded my daughter to believe you for so long.’

  ‘She knows I love her and no one else,’ he said. He took the shopping from her and carried it.

  ‘And Tabs’s baby, is that a fantasy too?’

  ‘No, that’s real. I was a fool. Just one mistake, that’s all. I needed her help, see, and it all got out of hand.’

  They crossed three fields, edging around a field of lively young cattle, and walked through a patch of neglected woodland. At the stream he jumped across then pointed further up stream to where a bridge stood.

  ‘Just leave my shopping on the bank,’ Gloria said. ‘I don’t want people seeing me walking through the streets with you. They might think I’ve forgiven you, and that I’ll never do.’

  He put the shopping on the grass a few yards from the stream and began to walk away. He was debating how he could find the money to go far away, forget the inheritance and Abi and Tabs and start again among strangers, when he heard a shout. He turned and there was no sign of Gloria. He ran back and saw that she had slipped on the mud at the edge of the stream and was lying half in the water, below a slide of mud marking her fall. He pulled her out of the water onto the opposite bank as the nearest was too steep, and sat her down to lean against a tree. He hoped she could walk. She was heavy and he wouldn’t be able to carry her.

  ‘Gloria, what happened?’

  ‘I looked down at the swirling water and lost my balance and slipped on the mud.’ He tried to help her up but she fell back with a shout of pain. ‘You’ll have to go for help, Jack. I can’t walk, my leg won’t hold me.’

  He took off her coat and wrapped it firmly around her, then unpacked the shopping bag and used that to cover her legs. ‘Not much help but it’s the best I can do,’ he said anxiously.

  On the way back to the town, running to find a telephone box to ring 999 he saw Tabs. He was about to tell her what had happened but something held back the words. This was perhaps his last chance to persuade her to listen to him, make her see that she needed to help him. She had money and the possibility of a flat. Gloria wouldn’t come to much harm in a few extra minutes. So he slowed his pace and walked back with her to the bungalow she shared with Mali and Megan. He believed that pleading his case was having some effect, he could see by her face that she wanted to believe him.

  He stayed talking to her when they reached the bungalow and he was beginning to feel that there was some hope for him. He was about to leave her and get help for Gloria when he remembered the flat over the antique shop and he at once begged her to take it.

  He tried with all his persuading skills to make her agree and when he glanced at her watch, he was alarmed to find that two hours had passed since he had left Gloria alone by the stream. Abigail would never forgive him if her mother became ill because of him. More alarming, it was already getting dark. As he went to call the police panic filled him. She’d be ill and he would be blamed.

  ‘Where did you leave the lady?’ the constable asked him and he pointed vaguely towards the fields behind the houses of the town. He didn’t mention the stream, it wouldn’t be so bad if he just mentioned her injured leg and said nothing about the fall into the water. He’d easily convince them it must have happened after he left her.

  He went out with several others to where he said he had left her, but of course she wasn’t there. She was sitting in wet clothes beside the stream two fields away.

  A search of the area drew a blank and he was wailing his dismay, ‘She’s a lovely lady, better to me than a mother could be and I can’t find her and it’s dark and cold and it’s all my fault.’ Several people comforted him and said she must have managed to walk, and tried to get herself home. More guilt and more comforting went on through the night.

  Abigail had been told about her mother being lost and she too joined the searchers. She didn’t speak a word to Jack.

  ‘See, she blames me, everyone will blame me,’ Jack told the police loudly. ‘I love Gloria. I wouldn’t do her any harm.’

  It was as dawn was breaking that they found her, still sitting against the tree at the edge of the stream, exactly where Jack had left her and a long way from the area he had described to the police.

  Ambulance men carried her to the road and she was admitted to hospital semi-conscious and suffering from hypothermia.

&nb
sp; Chapter Eleven

  Abigail was waiting near the ambulance when the ambulance men carried her mother from the fields and down the narrow road. She stared in disbelief when she looked down at Gloria’s unconscious face, looking so old she was almost a stranger. How hadn’t she noticed how small and weary her mother had become?

  The police were questioning Jack but she was hardly aware of what was being said.

  ‘She hurt her leg and I came to the nearest phone box and rang for help,’ Jack told them

  ‘Did you try anywhere else, were you delayed in any way?’

  ‘No, I came as fast as I could.’

  ‘Your friend Tabitha says you met her and walked with her for a while.’

  ‘Yes, I met Tabs, but I didn’t stop. I talked as we walked. I was frantic with worry.’

  ‘Tabitha told my colleague that no, you didn’t mention Gloria when you talked and no, you didn’t seem in any hurry.’

  ‘It’s her condition, see, I didn’t want to upset her.’

  ‘Your child?’ the constable asked.

  Jack shrugged. ‘That’s what people believe.’

  ‘The mud slide where she apparently fell into the water, it’s not on the side from where she clambered out.’

  ‘No, the bank is steep on that side, the opposite bank is easer to climb.’

  ‘You noticed that, did you, sir?’

  ‘Yes. When I saw the place where she was found.’

  ‘Her hands were clean, no mud. If she’d clambered out that’s surprising, isn’t it? They’d be covered in mud, wouldn’t they?’

  Jack raised his voice and demanded, ‘What are you implying?’

  ‘Nothing, sir. Yet.’

  Those were the words in Abigail’s mind as she went into the ambulance and sat beside her mother.

  She went with her to the hospital and it was as though time stood still, first as she walked up and down in the waiting-room, then after her mother was put into a ward, sitting beside her willing her to recover.

  ‘Your mother had become very chilled,’ the doctor told her.

  ‘But she couldn’t have been there very long,’ Abi said. ‘How could it happen so fast?’

  ‘She must have been there for longer than you realized. Probably an hour or more. How far did the person who found her have to go for help?’

  ‘Ask him, he’s in the waiting-room,’ she said. ‘I know he wouldn’t have delayed. He loves my mother.’

  ‘I’ll leave all that to the police,’ she was told.

  Tabs went to the hospital and asked whether she could see Gloria. She felt an odd connection with Abigail, probably because they had both loved Jack and had now both been let down by him. Jack’s insistence that he had hurried to get help for Abigail’s mother had been untrue. The reasons behind that lie were impossible for her to understand, but without knowing what he had told them, she had made it clear to the police that he was lying. Abigail came out and at once Tabs began to move away. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come, but I wanted to see you, tell you I’m sorry I told the police what I did. I hadn’t had the chance to speak to Jack, to know what he was going to tell them.’ She was relieved to see that Abi looked worried and not angry.

  ‘You told the truth, Tabs. He left my mother knowing she’d fallen into the stream and was sitting there soaking wet and very cold. How could he do that?’

  ‘Perhaps he’ll explain; perhaps it wasn’t like it sounds. He loved her, didn’t he? He wouldn’t do anything to harm someone he loved.’ And that excludes me, she thought sadly.

  ‘Will you stay with me for a while?’ Abigail asked.

  The pregnant ‘other woman’ didn’t seem appropriate company, but Tabs followed her back into the ward. They sat together, talking to Gloria although she was unconscious; they didn’t know whether or not she could hear them.

  So Tabs was with her when Gloria died. She sat beside her as the formalities were dealt with and then Henry came and took them both home.

  Abigail found it very difficult to go into the rooms that from now on, would be empty every time she returned. No mother and at this time when she needed someone so badly, there was no Jack either, and never would be again.

  Tabs went back to the bungalow and at once began to feel strange, niggling pains. She stood up and the pains began to sharpen. Megan saw her expression and held her. ‘It’s all right, Tabs, just try to relax. We’ll get you to the hospital when things are underway.’

  ‘Thank you. I don’t know how I’d cope with all this without you and Mali,’ she said.

  Three hours later Tabs was back at the hospital and a few hours after that, gave birth to a daughter. ‘Melanie Ruth Bishop,’ she told Megan and Mali when they came to see the new infant.

  ‘As he calls you Aunty, she’s a sort of cousin for our Mickie,’ Megan said happily.

  Abigail couldn’t decide whether she wanted to see Jack at the funeral or not. It was a very small affair, they seemed to have gathered very few friends and she was grateful to see that Ruth and Henry and their group were there to swell the congregation.

  Afterwards, cars took them to Megan and Mali’s bungalow where food was set out and they hovered a while but soon dispersed.

  ‘I’m off to see Tabs and the baby, and tell her about it,’ Megan said.

  ‘I’ll stay with Mickie.’

  ‘I’d like to come too,’ Abigail said. ‘I know its odd, under the circumstances, but it’s Jack who’s to blame here, not Tabs.’

  When they reached the ward they were told they couldn’t go in as there were already two visitors at the bedside. Curious, they peered through the small window in the door and Megan gasped. ‘It’s her father and that wife of his! I hope he isn’t upsetting her, I’ll box his ears if he’s come to cause trouble.’

  George and Martha Bishop gave them a brief nod as they left the ward and they hurried to where Tabs was sitting up in bed, smiling, and holding a five pound note.

  ‘He didn’t upset you then?’ Megan asked.

  ‘Lucky for him,’ Abigail warned, ‘Megan was going to box his ears!’

  ‘He looked at the baby and he wore such a gentle expression. He said he’d help with money each month. I can’t believe it.’

  ‘And Martha? Was she in agreement? Or is she expecting you to work for it?’

  ‘She looked about to explode!’ Tabs was laughing, and then her face softened as they all admired the baby and she looked as near beautiful as they had ever seen her.

  Smiling at her, Abi said affectionately, ‘Motherhood suits you.’

  Blodwen spent a few hours several times a week at Henry’s Country Walks Centre and twice, when they were particularly busy with day visitors as well as residents, she stayed over. So she hadn’t checked her post for a few days when she saw another letter from the mysterious stranger who had asked her to meet him then had failed to turn up. She almost threw it aside unopened but curiosity got the better of her once again and she read that he was very sorry he couldn’t make it last time, but will she please try again. ‘I promise I’ll explain everything when we meet. Until then I would ask you not to say a word to anyone. Time is running out and I do need to talk to you.’ A time and date were given and to her alarm she realized today was the date given. She looked at the clock. She had just two hours to make up her mind and no time at all to get in touch with Henry. If she went she’d be on her own.

  She was there half an hour before the time stipulated and sat where she could watch the door. The day was cold and overcast, the door wasn’t left open as on previous occasions and the room was gloomy. Every time the door opened, she looked up, screwing up her eyes wondering whether the newcomer was the person whom she waited for. Exactly on time a thin, sickly looking man came in. He looked around then went to the bar and asked for a glass of stout. Carrying it, he walked across to her and said ‘Hello, Sis, it’s a long time since we met.’

  She screwed her eyes even tighter, ‘Who the ’ell are you?’ she asked, clutching he
r handbag protectively.

  ‘I’m your brother, Ralph. Blodwen, don’t you recognize me?’

  She stared in disbelief for a long moment, but something about the eyes, the angle of the jaw, that long thin nose …

  ‘Little Ralphy? You never are! Where have you been? What have you been doing? Why the secrecy?’

  ‘You’ve put on some weight, Blod,’ he said, smiling at her.

  ‘You haven’t! Skinny beyond you are and look as much use as a piece of chewed string!’

  He sat down beside her and stared at her. ‘I have a photograph of you and me and Hilda, want to see it?’ He felt in his pocket and brought out a wallet from where he took a small, black and white photograph. ‘Taken in the garden of Ty Gwyn,’ he said. ‘We had a party for my twelfth birthday, but I don’t expect you’ll remember that. But turn it over.’ On the back was a childish scrawl saying, ‘The three musketeers.’

  ‘That’s what we called ourselves,’ she said softly, and stared at him again. ‘It’s really you?’

  ‘It’s really me. Now, tell me what you’ve been doing since we last met.’

  ‘That’s a lifetime, Ralph. It won’t take much telling, mind. I never married and I worked as a cook most of my life. Hilda and William were killed but they had five children. Geraint, Emrys, and twins, would you believe, Tommy and Bryn. And a daughter, Ruth, who looked after them all till they married.’

  ‘Still living at Ty Gwyn?’

  ‘It’s been sold and the money divided. Oh! I suppose you’re entitled to some of that. Heck, that’ll take some sorting, the twins have used their share to buy houses, Emrys too. And Geraint, he’s in London licking his wounds after a divorce and starting up a new business.’ She looked at him. ‘What happened to you? Where have you been all these years? Did you go to Australia like Mam said?’

  ‘Tell me about the others first.’