by Liz Tipping
I said a quiet “Hello” into the microphone but it came out like a squeak, so I cleared my throat and started to speak again. My face was burning hot and my legs were trembling. I thought I was going to be sick, as all these people were looking right at me.
“Hi, everyone,” I said nervously. “There’s been a few administrative difficulties and I’m afraid that we are unable to show tonight’s film because we forgot we needed a licence and we don’t have the cash to pay for it.”
There was a low murmur followed by a few boos and I was going to run away but I wanted to explain to all these people that no one was more upset about this than me.
“I totally understand if you are cross,” I said. I looked around for Stubbs in the crowd to seek a bit of reassurance and found April’s little crew, but not a sign of him. “And believe me, there’s no one more upset than me. You see, the shop I work in is closing down and this was going to be my new job and now it’s all ruined, but please be assured you will receive full refunds.”
I heard a sympathetic ahhh from the crowd, which made me carry on.
“Thank you for being so understanding,” I said. “If there was anything I could do, I would.” It was okay, I told myself, it was okay to make a mistake.
And at that I began to walk away when I heard a voice saying, “How much do you need?” It was Stubbs. He was making his way through the crowd.
I told him the number. I felt sick. I was having to ask for handouts again and I hated it.
“So with all these people here, that’s only a couple of extra pounds each,” he said. “We’ll have a whip round, and you’ll have enough. So you can refund the difference afterwards, yeah?”
Daniel shortly joined Stubbs. “What’s up?” he said.
I explained to Daniel what was happening and glanced over at the official who was waiting for his money. People were starting to leave.
“This is awful,” I said.
Stubbs, jumped up in front of the stage and without a microphone shouted, “Wait. Everyone. Let me tell you what’s happened.”
Stubbs stood there and explained to everyone how much they each needed to contribute to get the film running again and to my surprise people began coming forward with money like a scene from It’s a Wonderful Life. Even Weird Roger coughed up a couple of quid. They handed the money to me and Liv. One by one people threw in money and soon enough we had enough to give to the licence man. We paid him and he said thank you and he even chipped in a fiver himself and took his seat among the crowd to watch it. This was a magic moment.
Liv and I pressed play on Some Kind of Wonderful, which was met with a huge applause, and then it happened. It felt like I was having a moment. A beautiful magic moment where I had made a success of something. People sat hushed for the whole of the film, but the atmosphere was palpable and it felt like magic. Everyone applauded loudly as the film ended. It was perfect. I had never felt so proud in my life. I just had one last thing to do after creating this moment of magic – I needed to create a moment of magic for Stubbs. I took the CD the photo processor made for me of Stubbs’s photographs and loaded it into the player. I looked around into the audience and panicked over whether I was doing the right thing.
I looked out for Stubbs, but I saw him walking away with April, so I took a moment to take to the stage and let everyone know there was a little more to see.
“Hi, everyone, I just wanted to let you know about a local photographer you may know called Aaron Stubbs.”
The black screen was replaced by a title screen, which read: “Photographs by Aaron Stubbs.”
I tried to search him out in the crowd. April turned her head and pulled at Stubbs and he turned around as the screen changed to the first photograph – the teenagers dancing in the road. Stubbs walked towards the stage, until I was close enough to read his face. He looked puzzled at first, then he turned back to see the people watching were enthralled. I was relieved he wasn’t cross with me. I could see on his face he was happy to see the photographs and happy to be sharing them with everybody else. At the end of the thirty-six photographs – each one of them stunning – the crowd applauded again and Stubbs got a little moment of his own.
The whole evening, apart from a hiccup, had been a massive success. People came and spoke to me afterwards, wanting to talk about the film, and asking about the next one. I couldn’t think of anything better, a whole summer of weekly films.
“We could do the next one for free, to say thank you.”
“Yeah, we could, Liv,” I said.
If I was brave enough to stay here and not take the job in Cardiff, I could do this for a job, doing something I loved all the time.
“Really?” said Liv. “Does this mean you’re not leaving then?”
“Yes, Liv,” I said. “I want to stay.”
I didn’t want to think about it at that exact time. I wanted to stay in the moment. This moment I’d created with help from Liv and the people in Broad Hampton, and it was magical. I turned to look at Stubbs and say thank you and he was back with April. I turned to Daniel and smiled. It was true that I would rather have been with Stubbs, but now I had lost him to April. I thought maybe a moment with Daniel wouldn’t be so bad.
Chapter Nineteen
On Saturday morning I went into the shop in the morning to clear a few things out and box a few things away. I checked the rentals return bin out of habit, but there was nothing, not even a battered sausage. I called the woman at the hotel, thanking her for offering me the job, but telling her I was unable to accept as I had found alternative employment. I felt thrilled when I thought about it, me and Liv setting up our own company. I had a last conversation with The Breakfast Club before dismantling them and packing them away. I took a step back and thought of all the happy times we’d had here. It was weird to be leaving.
Tonight was the ball, another party to signal the end of an era, only this time I wasn’t desperate to leave town afterwards like the dreadful school disco experience. This time I didn’t have to wait for Stubbs to save me or wonder whether Daniel was going to ask me out because he already had.
When I had stopped reminiscing, I took myself round to Prefab Pat’s.
“You okay, pet?” said Pat. She was looking in the mirror, patting at the rollers in her hair, adjusting them to her liking.
“I’m fine, Pat,” I lied. “Just the end of an era, you know with the shop closing, but I’m okay. I’m happy.” I looked at the photograph on the sideboard.
“I thought it was your party tonight. Isn’t it your party?” she said.
“Yes,” I said. I picked the photograph up. “Where was this taken, Pat?”
“At the Ritzy ballroom,” she said. “1960.”
“I love the dress. You look so happy, Pat.”
“I’ve still got that, somewhere. Lord knows why.”
“You have?” My heart stopped for a minute.
“Yes,” she said. “Will be a tatty old thing now, I expect.”
“Can I see it?” I said. I felt breathless.
“Yes, love. I’ll go and have a look.” She went to the cupboard in her hall and pulled out a white bin liner that was tightly pulled around the dress. Crumpled netting spilled out over the top and I rushed over to give her a hand.
It was the most beautiful pale lemon and white polka dot satin dress I’d ever seen in my life. It was breathtaking.
“Oh, it’s yellow,” I said.
“I suppose I should sling it really,” she said. “I never liked it much. Not my colour.”
“No!” I said, leaping forward to snatch the dress from its doom with the bin men. “Don’t throw it out, Pat. It’s lovely. And it’s yellow and I like yellow, well I think I do.”
Pat looked confused.
“Can I have it, Pat, please, can I have it? You have to let me.”
“If you really want it,” she said. “Though I don’t know what you’d be wanting with a dress that’s over fifty years old.”
“But
it’s beautiful, Pat.”
“I suppose if you really like it, you could have it. Shall we call it…” She paused to eye me and up and down and calculate how much I wanted it as I held the dress up against myself and admired myself in the mirror above the fireplace. “A tenner?”
I tossed the dress onto the sofa while I routed in my handbag for my purse and pulled out a twenty.
“No, Pat, let’s call it twenty,” I said. I shoved the crumpled note in Pat’s hand and rushed off out the door with my dress under my arm before she changed her mind, leaving a confused-looking Pat shouting at me.
“Cara, love? Aren’t you going to finish helping me with my hair?”
“Sorry, Pat, I’ve got to go get ready for my party!” I shouted back to her, as made it out the front door and ran down the path.
I may not have been getting the whole John Hughes film package tonight, but at least I was getting the dress.
*
At home, I tried the dress on as soon as I got in the door.
“Yellow suits me doesn’t it,” I said to the bear Stubbs won on our day trip. “Anyway, I think it looks nice.” I pressed it into myself at the waist.
Then I messed with my hair, putting it up and making some curls at the front with my fingers.
I wondered for a moment what Daniel Rose would think of my new dress and then I wondered what Stubbs would think. I wished I hadn’t because it caused me to feel a bit deflated. I sank back into the sofa in a heap. I looked around at the flat and felt so sad I was leaving here and having to move back into Mum and Dad’s.
*
“Cara! Open the door.” It took me a minute or two to wonder what was going on. Verity was shouting through the letterbox. I made my way over, stumbling, a bit disorientated from being woken up so suddenly. I’d been asleep for ages and a glance at the clock had shown me there was almost no time left to finish getting ready for the ball.
I opened the door and there was Verity looking breathtaking in a ball gown with Divvy stood proudly beside her in a tuxedo.
“Wow,” me and Verity said to each other at the same time.
“Your dress is amazing,” said Verity.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Your hair’s a mess though. Come on let’s sort it out. We’ve got a car and everything.”
“What, like a limo?” I said looking past her to see if I could see it.
“God no, it’s just Divvy’s Fiesta. But that’s more exciting because it’s Saturday and it means Divvy isn’t having a drink. At all.” She glared at Divvy. “Are you, Divvy?”
“Certainly am not. I’m simply happy to be intoxicated by your company, my love.” He bowed and added a little flourish.
“You weirdo,” said Verity and walloped him with her clutch bag.
“Let us in, then!” she said barging past me. “Let’s sort your hair and make-up out.”
Verity curled my hair and applied my make-up.
“This is like that bit in The Breakfast Club where Molly Ringwald puts eyeliner on Ally Sheedy,” said Verity.
“Except I don’t have dandruff,” I said. “I don’t think.”
“Could be worse, you could have nits,” she said. “Like Divvy.”
“Euwww. That explains all the scratching.”
“Yeah, he caught them off me.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Bloody kids,” she said.
“It’s nice,” I said, taking her hand. “You and Divvy. It’s really nice.”
“Yeah,” she said. “He’s nice. We’ll see.” She was trying not to give anything away even though the beam on her face gave away everything.
The doorbell rang.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“Dunno,” she said, using a big brush to put some blusher across my face. “Stubbs, probably. I told him to meet us here. Thought we could all go together.”
“Stubbs?” I said.
“That’s all right isn’t it?” said Verity.
“Yeah, course.” I felt sick at the thought of seeing him and felt really self-conscious in my dress.
“Come on then.” She squirted me with perfume and led me to the living room where Divvy had let Stubbs in who was sitting on the sofa.
“Blimey,” Stubbs said, standing up. “You scrub up all right.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“You look lovely, Cara,” said Divvy.
“Thanks, Dave,” I said.
“Yeah, you look really, really lovely,” said Stubbs. He looked amazing. He was wearing a tux and he’d had a shave, but still had the slightest hint of stubble showing. He brushed his hair back and while he looked gorgeous, I wasn’t sure if he looked anything like Stubbs. I silently cursed myself. All these years I had been waiting for my Blane to turn up, but Verity was right, it was a Duckie I wanted. No one wanted Andie to end up with Blane and neither did I any more.
“Thanks for yesterday,” he said. “Sorry I didn’t get chance to say thank you properly.”
“I hope you didn’t mind,” I said.
“I didn’t. Especially not when I got a photography commission from it,” he said proudly.
“You did? That’s brilliant.” I felt so happy for him.
“Yeah, so thanks,” he said. “You look…you look really, really great.”
“All right, shut up about it now,” I said, blushing.
“We all ready for this then?” asked Verity.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” said Stubbs who gulped and adjusted his tie. He looked amazing. He was amazing.
The four of us laughed so much in the car on the way. I was happy I was staying. I even believed I could get used to seeing Stubbs with April.
We pulled up onto the gravel drive of the stately home turned hotel that April had selected for her event. It had always been her thing from the start, and although I had hoped this might be my chance at a John Hughes film moment, tonight was going to be even more about her.
Divvy got out first and opened the doors to let me and Verity out. It was a gentlemanly gesture and sweet of him but also rather pointless as the Fiesta was a three-door and we still had to clamber over the front seats to get out.
Once we’d adjusted ourselves after our less than glamorous exit, Stubbs stepped out too. He was fiddling with his collar as if it was too tight for him and I liked that he wasn’t quite comfortable. Divvy offered his arm to Verity and said, “Shall we?”
“We shall,” she said and linked her arm with his.
“And shall we?” said Stubbs.
I nodded and tentatively put a hand on his arm and we walked under the garlands decorated with fairy lights into the reception of the hotel. I was here, me Cara Dunham in my second-hand clothes, feeling great and holding my head up high. I beamed. I didn’t have my cardigan but I had Molly Ringwald’s words ringing in my ears and I whispered them. “They didn’t break me,” I said to myself.
My stomach knotted when I realised I wouldn’t be leaving with Stubbs. I was meeting Daniel there and I would probably be leaving with him.
We passed people from school, some I recognised, some I didn’t. Some people said hello to me. I recognised one of the girls who teased me about being a bag lady and she smiled and I smiled back.
As we neared April, someone approached us.
“How’s it going, guys? Nice to see you.” Verity and Divvy had already made their way over to the bar and were motioning towards us.
Kevin carried on. “What are you two up to?” he asked.
“Working at the bingo, actually.”
“And he’s a photographer,” I added.
“Still? Blimey, haven’t been in there for years. I must come and have a pint. I’m working at our school as a caretaker, would you believe? Place has hardly changed. What are you doing, Cara?”
“Actually, I’ve just finished working at the video shop and really sad about it, because I liked it.” I didn’t feel the need to try and impress anyone. What was the point? I had the confidence
in myself now; I didn’t need to brag about my venture.
“And she’s just launched a successful business,” said Stubbs, puzzled. “And she has a fancy new job in events management,” he told Kevin.
“Actually, I’m not going,” I said.
“As long as you haven’t got her chained to the kitchen sink eh, mate?” said Kevin, giving Stubbs a few playful digs on the arm. “Always knew you two would end up together. Inseparable, you were.”
“Oh we’re not together…” started Stubbs. I removed my hand from his arm.
“Oh shit, sorry. I just assumed.”
“Gonna get a drink. See you in a bit yeah?” said Stubbs to Kevin and pulled me away. “You’re not leaving,” he said. “You’re not taking the job?”
“No,” I said. “Me and Liv, we’re going to make it a regul—” I stopped when I saw April talking to the band. Stubbs caught her eye and she beckoned him over.
“Do you mind?” he asked.
“No,” I lied. “Go on.”
I watched him walk over to April and she kissed him on both cheeks and then she took his hands and swung them out to the sides, admiring him in his tux. I couldn’t bear to watch.
I wanted to be happy for Stubbs but I wanted to be happy for myself too and this was all too much to see. I heard Verity calling to me as I walked away but I ignored her and I walked faster and faster, as the room was filling up with arrivals who were all looking at me like I was a crazy person, until I was practically running out of the hall when I crashed straight into him.
“Daniel,” I said.
“Cara. Hi,” he said. “In a rush?”
I looked straight into his eyes but they didn’t seem to have the same pull they’d held for me before. Daniel wasn’t the one I wanted to be with. It was Stubbs who I wanted, but Stubbs wanted to be with April.
“How are you?” he said. “Glad we finally get to have a night out.”
“Look, Daniel, I know we said we’d meet up here, but you and me, it’s not for me. It’s not what I wanted. I was so worried about being cool and wanting you to like me.”