Fireworks to Thailand

by J. R. Bonham

  “I don’t suppose he would want a sitting tenant either, although if it was cheap enough he might be interested. I’ll give him a ring tomorrow and ask him.”

  Betty’s distant relatives didn’t want any more hassle with the property as it needed quite a bit of renovation with it being so old. There was no proper bathroom, only a makeshift one that Geoff’s father had put in many years before, next to the coal house across the courtyard. With a sitting tenant, i.e. Betty, it probably wouldn’t be worth very much. Jan spoke to her father about it and he said to leave it with him. He would think about it.

  Ken had a dilemma. He could easily afford to buy it; cottages generally were very cheap compared to houses in Bristol of the same size.

  Ken decided that if Jan and Geoff were in the running for it and had first refusal to buy it then he would give them the money for it. It would be a good investment for them and a way of giving Jan some of her inheritance in advance. Ken would be able to claim it back on his tax return, he thought, ever mindful of not having to give too much away. Then he would have to think of a way to give something to his other children. He would find a fair way…

  “I reckon I could give you the money,” Ken told Jan after a few days. “Then you would own it outright. What do you say to that? In fact, I might give it to you as part of your inheritance. Property is always a good investment – and meanwhile, you would get some rent out of it while she lives there. I could probably help you with getting a government grant too, to help with whatever needs doing. I expect there’s quite a lot as she’s been there for years and nothing much has been spent on it.”

  “Thanks, Dad. That would be a great help and, yes please!” Jan was feeling more positive now and happier than she had been for ages. And a holiday agreed too. Were things starting to look up?

  Ken gave Jan the money for Betty’s house and the sale went through without a hitch to her and Geoff and they were very grateful for this. Jan forgave her father for being such a tyrant when she was younger. Maybe he was mellowing in his old age.

  Betty then had to get used to paying her rent straight to her son, which felt an odd sensation for her. Her son a property owner, without a mortgage.

  Whatever next?

  Chapter 10

  Clare rang John to ask him what he thought about Jan’s visit.

  “She seemed quite relaxed and happy. Back to her bubbly self, I should say. Maybe something to do with arriving without Geoff.”

  “Mmmm, I agree,” Clare concurred.

  Jan and Geoff went to stay at Betty’s one weekend.

  “It’s good you’ve come over this weekend because the builders want to talk about what needs doing when you get the government grant for the improvements here. Shall I tell them to come over now? They are only down the road,” Betty imparted. The builders of choice were local lads and were very well respected by all in the village who had used them.

  “Yes, that’s a good idea. Are you going to be OK to stay here while the work’s being done, or do you want to come and stay with us?” Geoff asked his Mum. “The kids can budge up for a few nights.”

  “I’ll be alright as long as there’s not too much disruption.”

  “OK,” Geoff agreed and Jan was pleased because they didn’t really have room for anyone to stay. If they had visitors for a short time Jan would put the two children in together.

  The weekend proved to be very constructive. They organised all the work to be done with the builders and then they filled in all the forms that they needed for the grant.

  The grant was agreed and the work was done almost immediately. Betty was not too happy with all the work going on, but she had agreed to stay in the house. But she was very happy once the work was completed. She could use the bathroom within the house now.

  When Steven was nearly five, he started at the same school as Louise. He was just as clingy on his first day at school as he had been at playgroup, but the teacher came out and dragged him into class. He eventually realised it was a place he might enjoy going to, especially when he saw his sister hopping and skipping into school so happily.

  Jan felt liberated. At last she would be able to look for a job. What she really wanted to do was to use her skills of typing and shorthand by working as a secretary. This was the work to which she had trained for at secretarial college. Although she enjoyed it at the time, she didn’t really relish the thought of waiting on tables anymore. It had been a good stop-gap, but that was when there was nothing else available and she was new to the area. An ideal job would be as a school secretary, and then she would have the school holidays free. Something many mothers would give their right arm for, but it would be difficult without having had training for this type of work.

  Jan tried to talk with the other mothers as they waited to pick up their children from school. She had always been quite shy, but she had to force herself to talk to people. She knew this would be the only way to make friends. There was one woman whom Jan really got to know and like and they would sometimes meet at school, then go for a coffee after dropping off the children. This was a good respite for Jan and she was starting to enjoy life again.

  Although she tried to make friends with the other mothers, she still felt an outsider as she felt the Devonian people very close-knit. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she felt no connection to them. She seemed to make friends with other outsiders like herself – other mothers who had come into the area from away. She seemed to have more of an affinity with them.

  Jan told Geoff one evening what she had in mind about working.

  “No, I don’t want you to work. I’m earning more now, so you shouldn’t need to go out to work,” Geoff told her in no uncertain terms.

  “I don’t need to, I just want to! I can’t just stay in the house all day, that would drive me mad. I have only been looking at part-time secretarial jobs. I would drop the children off at school and then go on to work from 9 am until about 1 pm, four hours a day, then pick them up and be at home with them.” She didn’t really want to have to justify everything to Geoff, but he made it impossible for her. She felt like she needed a little support occasionally. She also needed some independence.

  “You say you’ve already been looking? And what happens in the school holidays?” Geoff thought he had the answer to her not being able to work. “They can’t look after themselves you know!”

  “Of course not! I’m not stupid. I have thought this through, you know. I’ve become friendly with a woman at school who said she would have them in the holidays; her kids are about the same age and they are all friends. She loves having lots of kids around but she wasn’t able to have anymore. Anyway, in the summer holidays she said she would take them down to the beach if it’s fine. They’d love it. She won’t charge much either, she’s doing it because she really enjoys the company of children.”

  “And does this woman have a name?” It was almost as if he didn’t believe her.

  “She’s called Margaret and she’s originally from Bath. Her daughter is called Emily and so if you hear Louise talking about her ‘bestest’ friend Emily, that’s Margaret’s older daughter. Her younger daughter is the same age as Steven, and they get on really well too. She’s called Sophie. A lovely name don’t you think?” Jan tried to change the subject about her going back to work.

  “You can’t have kids just to farm them out when it suits you.” Geoff was being belligerent.

  “I’m not farming them out, as you say. It’s called getting on with your life. I’ve done all the arrangements, the least you could do is support me. Agree to something for once.”

  “Well, I suppose I can’t stop you if you really must go out to work, but don’t think I’m happy about it.” Geoff had to have the last word, but Jan ignored it. “I’m not happy,” he repeated.

  ‘Well then, you must be Grumpy!’ Jan murmured as she left the room. Then she smiled to
herself, glad that she hadn’t completely lost her sense of humour.

  Jan very quickly found a receptionist job with a small firm of Chartered Accountants. The job included typing, answering the phone, dealing with clients when they called in, filing and general office duties. She had to learn quickly as she hadn’t really held a job like this before. She was in seventh heaven, she absolutely loved the cut and thrust of being out at work instead of being in the house all day. It all worked out really well and she got on well with Denise, the full-time secretary there who helped Jan in every way.

  Denise was much younger than Jan and she was just about to get married. Denise invited the whole office to her wedding.

  “I don’t want to go,” Geoff informed Jan when she came home with the invitation.

  “But you must! Denise is lovely and I have already said we will be there. Everyone else from the office will be there, it’s a good opportunity for you to meet them.” Jan didn’t want to go alone but she would if she had to. “Your Mum can have the kids; she’s always saying she wants to have them.”

  “OK, OK. You win. Stop nagging.” Geoff couldn’t think of a way of getting out of it, especially as Jan was getting impatient with him.

  The wedding was everything Denise wished for and Jan was pleased for her. She was only 18 – younger than Jan was when she got married.

  Denise left work when she became pregnant, just a few months after the wedding.

  Denise’s replacement at work was a woman called Sheila who was much closer to Jan’s age than Denise. She was from the Midlands and fairly new to the area. Jan showed her the ropes and they worked well together. Sometimes at lunchtime, they would go out and have a sandwich and a chat before Jan went home in readiness for picking up the children from school. Sheila told Jan one day that her husband, Eric, was cheating on her and asked for advice on how to handle the situation.

  “I’m not sure if I can help. I don’t know what I would do if that happened to me,” Jan told Sheila, who was in tears. Jan tried to comfort her as much as she felt she could. She hadn’t come across this situation before and Sheila didn’t have anyone else to turn to, being new to the area. Jan knew exactly how that felt.

  “All my family are back in the Midlands so they can’t help. I had a feeling Eric was seeing someone, but now I have the proof. I saw them together yesterday. They looked very friendly indeed if you know what I mean.”

  “Oh, dear, I’m so sorry. What will you do?” Jan asked Sheila.

  “Well, if he wants a divorce he can have one. I don’t want him if he doesn’t want me anymore. I don’t know how the kids will take it, I’m sure they will be quite shocked. But I expect he will talk them around, he’s good at that.”

  Steven came home from school one day with an invitation to a party.

  “Can I go, Mum? He’s my best friend, Mark – and he’ll be six,” he said.

  “Of course you can, when is it?”

  “It’s next week. A week on Saturday, I mean.”

  “OK. I’ll take you and fetch you and I’ll buy a present for Mark. Do you know what he likes?”

  “He loves Lego so can you get him some?”

  “OK.”

  Jan took Steven to the party and he came home full of it. Louise was very scathing that someone could get so excited about just a party. She felt that she was so much more grown up.

  “Oh for heaven’s sake, Steven, don’t keep on about it. It’s only a party. I’ve been to loads!”

  “Well, of course you have ’cos you’re so much older than me. This is my first party and when I’m six I’m going to have one too. So there!” He poked his tongue out at her.

  “Of course you are.” Jan came into the room and heard the tail end of their conversation but she missed the poking out of Steven’s tongue.

  “Oh, Mum! I haven’t had one yet!” moaned Louise.

  “That’s because you never asked for one. If you want one, you can have one too. The more the merrier I say! Maybe I’ll have one for my birthday too. And Daddy too if he wants one!”

  Steven mulled this over and thought he would jump on the bandwagon even if it was just to get in before his sister.

  “So, can I have a party just like Mark’s?” Steven asked.

  “Of course you can. We have a few months to plan it. How many friends do you want to come? Do you want it at home, just like Mark had his?”

  “Um, yes at home like Mark’s. The same boys too. Then I’ll get loads of presents like Mark did. He was very pleased with his presents.”

  “Oh good. And how many boys were there?”

  “Ooooh, let me see. About 12?”

  “I think I can cope with that amount here. OK.”

  Louise was listening intently. Secretly planning her own party.

  “If Steven is having his party for his birthday… and my birthday is before his… does that mean I get to have a party here before Steven does?”

  “I guess it does, yes,” said Jan, wondering where this was leading.

  “Oh, goodie.” Louise was delighted and she took herself off to her bedroom to start the planning process.

  Jan really wanted to try and make friends and so she started to think about playing tennis again. She had been a good player at school and won a cup when she was 14. She had played since she was five when the whole family would go to her grandparents’ house to use the tennis court in the big garden.

  Most weekends the whole family would turn out to play: uncles, aunts and cousins as well as her parents and sister, Clare. Her brother John wasn’t that interested, but he would go along to be sociable and to see their cousins.

  Jan met a woman, Val, who had come into her workplace at the accountants. Her husband’s accounts needed doing and she brought them in to save him the effort. She spoke kindly to Jan and started talking about playing tennis. Jan’s eared pricked up and they chatted. Val invited Jan along to where she played. They played on council-run courts which were only open in the summer. Jan was excited at the prospect of playing again as it had been quite a few years since she last played.

  Jan tried to tell Geoff about her thoughts of getting back to playing tennis again.

  “No way! You can’t play tennis, what will the kids do? What a silly idea.”

  “Well, I could play when they’re at school so it won’t affect you, or them.” Jan was annoyed with Geoff always saying ‘no’ to everything that she suggested.

  “Well, I suppose I can’t stop you,” Geoff grumbled.

  “Why can you never say something like ‘oh yes, what a wonderful idea. You go and have a good time’? It’s always such a battle with you. Why?” Jan was getting fed up with Geoff’s negativity. “Anyway, I won’t be playing on the weekends because that is ‘our’ time. We should be taking the kids out to places of interest or to the beach. Anyway, I’m only talking about one afternoon a week. One of the women at work told me about it. It’s just a few women playing on the local council courts for a couple of hours a week in the summer. That’s all.”

  “Oh, I knew it was a bad idea for you to go to work for that very reason. I knew you’d meet someone. I suppose you get on well with all the men there too!”

  “What! What’s that got to do with me playing tennis for God’s sake?” Jan was furious.

  “Nothing.” Geoff sulked as he knew he was losing the battle.

  Jan certainly wasn’t going to tell Geoff about the attention she had had from a man at work. Martin was the only unmarried man there, a bit younger than Jan and quite handsome. Jan gave him no encouragement whatsoever and actually had to tell him she wasn’t interested in order to make him leave her alone.

  She tried out tennis once a week and really enjoyed playing again after such a long time. She really looked forward to that one afternoon a week and she felt the exercise gave her more energy too; it made her feel better a
bout herself and more confident. Her shyness was improving too as she pushed herself to make a few new acquaintances with like-minded interests.

  Not long after this, Geoff had the opportunity for a job as a technician at the Torquay College of Further Education in the engineering department. He applied for the job and got it.

  “Oh, well done, that’s fantastic,” encouraged Jan, and she really meant it.

  Geoff gave in his notice at the garage where he had been working and started at the college a month later. He started to enjoy his work there and felt better about himself. He came home one day and told Jan about some courses going on there that they could probably attend together. Jan was delighted to think that there was something they could do together. They decided on badminton. They took Louise and Steven to play on the trampolines which they thoroughly enjoyed and that enabled Geoff and Jan to learn how to play badminton. There was a college tutor there and so they learned properly, all the techniques.

  Jan became a really good player. Her hand-to-eye coordination was good, better than Geoff’s was – although with more practise, he got better. They played for about a year at the college and then Geoff decided he didn’t want to play anymore. The children were so disappointed as they enjoyed the time they spent trampolining. Jan wanted to carry on playing badminton, in the winter months when she wasn’t playing tennis. She spoke to the ladies who she played tennis with and they suggested a badminton club that they all attended. She decided to keep it to herself for the time being as it was one afternoon a week when the children were at school. She did not like to be secretive but thought that Geoff might object. It was, after all, his idea not to play any more and as she enjoyed it so much she decided to carry on with playing. She would tell Geoff afterwards instead of asking him if she could play.