by J. R. Bonham
“Yes, I can understand that. That would be awful. I’m so sorry to hear all that.”
“Well, enough of me. Your letters to me have been quite sad too. Is Geoff really that bad?” Marian enquired.
“Oh, well, he’s not so bad, just terribly boring. And controlling. Everything is such an effort. I meet with some people in the tennis circle I belong to, and they all seem to have such lovely husbands. Very kind and loving. Everything I want to do or try he puts a block on it. He’s accused me of having affairs too! Can you believe it?”
“That just shows he’s insecure,” Marian concluded.
“I don’t know why he should be insecure. I’ve never shown any interest in another man, not in front of him anyway! I can’t even look at someone on the television and suggest they are good looking, let alone fancy an actor or anyone else who is unattainable. He would get so jealous. He’s possessive and hardly lets me out of his sight. It’s getting quite ridiculous, I just don’t know how to handle the situation. It’s like living with a control freak!”
“I could say the same to you then. Why don’t you leave?”
“Where would I go? My parents wouldn’t want to support me. They’d just say ‘told you so!’ The kids need me and need both parents really, together. I know a lot of people seem to be divorcing these days, but that’s just a way of giving up. We’ll just have to get on with it, I suppose.”
“Same here. Just get on with it,” Marian agreed. “You must try and come out to Thailand and stay with us. I could show you some good sights. You’d love it!”
“I’ll ask Geoff, but every time I’ve done this he’s always said no. I’ve no idea why.”
The men and the children came back in, just at that moment.
“We’ve been to the pier and back. It wasn’t open so we couldn’t go on it. I guess it closes at night,” Geoff said. “Well, thanks for the meal, Kai, it was nice to meet you at last and the kids too.”
“Thanks. Yours are a credit to you,” Marian concluded. “It was lovely to have a catch-up. We must do it again one day. Don’t know when, don’t know where, but we’ll meet again some sunny day.”
They all laughed and waved to each other as Geoff drove his family home.
Chapter 17
Betty moved into the new house with her bed, TV, some special pieces of furniture together with all her kitchen stuff. It all fitted in perfectly. Jan cooked a special meal for them all that evening as a welcome to Betty. Even Hamish had some chicken as a special treat.
“Hope that you sleep well in your new room. You must be exhausted after moving today.” Jan was trying to make her mother-in-law feel welcome.
“Thanks, dear. I think I might sleep very well, it’s been a long day. Good night. I must go now and sort out my things.”
She had chosen the downstairs room so she could easily access all the facilities without having to bother with the stairs. The only bath in the house was upstairs but as she had stopped having baths years before she found that the downstairs cloakroom with shower was particularly beneficial.
Christmas was only two weeks away. Preparations were underway, with presents and new decorations bought and Jan had ordered a real tree. The proper decorating would have to wait. The sitting room had horrible Donkey’s Breakfast on the walls. That was what she had been told it was called and also that it was the devil’s own job to get off. ‘Donkey’s Breakfast! What a funny name,’ she thought. ‘Is someone pulling my leg?’ It had also been painted a neutral colour. She couldn’t wait to get her teeth into something more colourful.
Jan involved the children in decorating the sitting room with Christmas decorations. When the tree arrived she put the lights on it herself and then let them loose with the tinsel and baubles – plus the angel for the top. The turkey from the butcher arrived with all the trimmings, plus food for several days. No one was going to go hungry in her household.
Christmas morning arrived. Jan wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out. Should they open their presents before breakfast? Should they have a big breakfast? Maybe not if they were having a big lunch. Get the turkey on. How long should it take? She had never done Christmas at home before, she had always spent it either at her parents’ house or with Geoff’s Mum in her house. Was everyone going to enjoy it? How was she going to ensure that everyone did enjoy it? What a strain! What stress! Was she going to enjoy it? Probably not!
She couldn’t help thinking how much she enjoyed her Christmases when she was a child growing up. When she shared it with Clare and John in her parents’ big house. She was the youngest, so nothing too much was expected of her. They used to wake up, open their stockings from Father Christmas, have breakfast then open their presents. Her mother used to cook the turkey without too much bother. Then at about 11 am on Christmas morning all the extended family, aunts, uncles and cousins, used to arrive, plus various friends of her parents.
Her father used to make the most amazing champagne cocktails and Jan used to help him. He taught her how to rub the juice of an orange around the rim of the glass and then her job was to dip it in caster sugar. Then to put Angostura Bitters onto a sugar cube and pop it into the glass with a dash of cognac. As people arrived, he would pour the champagne into the prepared glasses and then put a cherry on a cocktail stick as a last minute accompaniment.
Oh, how she loved those Christmases gone by. But gone by they were, never to return.
Would Geoff ever learn to do champagne cocktails? She thought not. It wouldn’t be the thing he would be used to. And of course, there was no other family to drop by, nor any friends either. She had a few acquaintances who might eventually turn into friends.
How could she make friends? She went to the tennis and badminton courts, but not very often. She knew one or two women there, but they were usually too busy with their own families and circle of friends. There was no time for Jan, she thought. She would love to have friends in and to have a proper dinner party. That would be lovely.
Val was the woman who introduced Jan to tennis in Torquay and she also played badminton with her occasionally. She gave Jan an invitation one day, together with some others who they played with. This was out of the blue, although Jan thought she may have mentioned to her that she wanted to meet more people. She hoped Val didn’t think she had dropped too many hints. The invitation was to a party. Jan hoped that Geoff would say yes to going to a party. Something they had seldom done. He seldom said yes either, to anything that Jan suggested.
“Oh, a party! But I won’t know anyone!” Geoff was being as predictable as ever.
“Well, I don’t suppose I will know anyone either but we won’t get to know anyone if we don’t make the effort! I might know some of the women who I play tennis with. I expect they’ll be going, so it would be nice to meet their husbands, won’t it?”
“I suppose you want to go then, do you?”
“I think it would be rude to turn it down.”
“You’d better say yes then, I s’pose.”
As Louise and Steven were now older, they were OK to leave on their own. And now their grandmother was there they could babysit each other.
Jan bought a new dress for the party. She hadn’t bought a new dress for years, so she thought she’d treat herself.
They arrived at the party and it was already in full swing. The music was loud and the booze was flowing. People were milling about in all of the downstairs rooms. Jan and Geoff were ushered into the kitchen after someone had taken their coats.
“Oh, I like the dress! Is it new?” Val came into the kitchen but without waiting for an answer she continued, “let me introduce you to some of our friends here. First of all, this is my husband, Max.”
Max was busy opening a can of beer and hardly looked up.
“How do you do,” Geoff said, offering his hand. Max wiped his hands on a tea towel before shaking Geoff’s and Jan’s hand
s.
“Excuse my manners! How do you do. Lovely to meet you at last. I’ve heard so much about you, Jan. Val tells me you’re a very good tennis player.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that, but I do enjoy it. Val makes it so much fun too. Do you play at all?”
“Me? Oh no! I don’t have time and my hand to eye co-ordination is rubbish! I did try it once when Val asked me to step in one day when they were short. Never again! Look at me and my manners! I haven’t even offered you a drink. What would you like?”
“Maybe a glass of red wine, please,” Jan said.
“A beer for me, thanks.” Geoff wondered who was going to drive home.
Val came into the kitchen again, dragging several people with her. “Jan and Geoff, please meet Susie, Peter, Maggie, Brian and Ron.” She pointed to each one in turn and Jan and Geoff smiled at each one and shook their hands, both thinking they’ll never remember all those names. Val started to take cling-film off plates, and Jan offered to help.
“Could you take these into the dining room? Everything else is in place and then I’ll introduce you to the others.”
Jan duly took in the plates of food and Geoff helped too. Val followed them with more plates, and then took the two of them into the sitting room and turned the music down. This made people stop dancing and look at Val.
“Everyone, the food is ready but first I want to introduce you to Jan and Geoff. I won’t say all your names, but if you can introduce yourselves to them during the evening, that would be nice.”
There was a sudden surge towards the dining room. One by one as they went past Jan and Geoff, they shook their hands and said their names, then filed past to the food.
“I’ll never remember your names but it’s nice to meet you anyway,” Jan said to each of them. They got a plate each and started helping themselves to food. Jan and Geoff then went back to the kitchen where they could at least put their glasses down to eat their food. One or two came into the kitchen too to eat. Everyone was munching away as if there was no more food coming for a month. Geoff finished his plate and suggested to Jan that they went and sat down somewhere more comfortable, on their own, but Jan wanted to mingle.
They found a sofa which had been pushed to one side, in the hall. They sat there on their own and Jan felt very awkward. Everyone walked by them, ignoring them. Jan wanted to go and dance and suggested it, but Geoff felt too self-conscious. The music was still quite low so they could talk, but there wasn’t really much to say to each other that hadn’t already been said. They people-watched for a time and decided maybe these people weren’t for them if they were going to ignore them.
Jan wanted to make the effort and go and talk to someone, but she couldn’t leave Geoff on his own. And what would she say to a complete stranger? She was shy at the best of times, but moving to a strange place had forced her to be a little more forthcoming. As she was getting older, she was becoming less shy.
Jan noticed there were two women who were wearing very similar dresses. They had been in different rooms when they first arrived, so Jan didn’t notice at first. At last, something to talk about.
“Did you notice the woman in the kitchen, I think she was called Maggie, in the stripy black and white dress?”
“No.”
“Well, wait awhile and you’ll see another woman in the dining room, she’s got the same dress on.”
“Do you mean similar?” Geoff was being clever, but he was right.
“Yes, I mean similar.”
“What about it?”
“Oh, never mind.”
That was the vein of the evening. Jan couldn’t wait to get away. It wasn’t for her, not with Geoff anyway. He never seemed to want to make the effort to try and integrate. She looked at her watch several times but decided not to go until a certain time had elapsed for fear of being rude to her hostess. She decided to talk about the children, this seemed to be the only thing they had in common these days.
“Louise is loving it at school and is working really hard for her ‘O’ Levels. I hope Steven works as well when his time comes to take his exams. There’s a long way to go before that I know, but at least he has a distraction now, with Hamish.”
“Why would he need a distraction?” Geoff wondered what she meant. Jan realised she had nearly let the cat out of the bag, with Steven’s truancy and glue-sniffing episode which she had dealt with on her own.
“Oh, you know!” She was playing for time while she thought of something.
“No!”
“Well, the girls! You know! They all seem to be after him, he’s so handsome!” She nearly bit her tongue off as soon as she said this. She knew he wasn’t into girls yet, or so she thought.
“I didn’t know he liked girls yet! He’s a bit young for that sort of thing isn’t he?”
“No, I mean the girls are probably chasing him, not the other way around. There’s nothing we can do about that, is there?” She was flummoxed but there was nothing more she could say in case she got into more hot water.
“I suppose not.”
One of the men they had first met when they were in the kitchen came over to them and sat down on their sofa. It looked like he had had a few too many drinks.
“Where’re you from? You don’t look familiar.” It was Ron who spoke first.
Jan replied before Geoff had a chance to. “We’ve been here about 14 years, but we’re not from here originally. Geoff was born at Shaleham and Bristol is my home.”
“If you’ve been here 14 years, this is your home, surely?” said Ron dryly, laughing as if he’d cracked a huge joke. Jan thought he was definitely the worse for drink.
“I still think of Bristol as my home. Where I belong.” Jan said sadly.
“Ah come from Yorkshire. Have you bin to Yorkshire? Ah don’t think of that as mah home anymore, of course,” he said without waiting for an answer to his question, as he blithely continued. “No, ah’m definitely more from the South now as ah’ve been here longest. Even though you may’ve noticed ah’ve still got a slight Northern accent.”
“Yes, I did notice,” Jan tried to edge away from this man, as did Geoff.
“Eee bah gwm, that lot in there are a rum bunch. It’s much better aht here, don’t you think? Much quieter.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Jan agreed.
“Aye. Ah do like a bit a music, but not too loud. Ah’ve met Cliff Richard you know! Ah used to play in a band when ah were younger. Ah love music, me. Ah used to play t’guitar and also a bit a piano. And drums. Ah love the drums, me. So throaty, you can really get yer teeth into drums. D’you play any instruments?”
“I used to play the piano when I was at school,” Jan started, but she was soon cut off by Ron who actually preferred the sound of his own voice than that of anyone else’s.
“Have you been t’ cinema lately? Sin any new films? We went to see a right good’un last week. It were called Back to t’ Future with Michael J Fox. Futuristic it was. They went back in time.”
“Yes, I know what futuristic means,” Jan was scathing to this man who wouldn’t go away and leave them alone.
“And there’s a new one aht now – Aliens, with that gorgeous woman Sigourney Weaver. Ah can’t wait to go and see that one. I loved Ghostbusters too. Did yer like that film?” He didn’t wait for an answer before he carried on talking about himself. “Bin on any good holidays lately? We went t’ far east last year. Ee it were good. We went to Thailand first to laze on t’ beach. Then we went t’ India for a bit a culture. Well, it was supposed to be cultural, but them Indians have no culture at all. Only what we Brits give ’em in t’ first place. We give ’em railways y’know.”
“Yes, we did know that.” Jan tried to get a word in edgeways.
Before she could say anymore he continued.
“My company makes unusual furniture. D’you like unusual things
? Ee, most people like what ah make. It’s ‘cos ah make ‘em so good, is what it is.”
“Excuse us, won’t you. There are some other people we need to see,” Jan told Ron who looked put out as they started to stand up. Jan took Geoff by the hand and almost ran into another room.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” She went towards the cloak cupboard where someone had put their coats.
“I bet he’s even washed an elephant!” was all Geoff could think of to say. Jan knew that this was one of his favourite expressions, saved for people he considered overbearing.
They sought out Val and Max to thank them for their hospitality.
“Must you go so soon? The music is just about to be ramped up. I thought you’d like a dance or two.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not feeling too well,” Jan lied. “Great party. Thank you for having us.”
With that, they made their way to the door and disappeared as fast as they could.
Chapter 18
Jan decided she would like to invite some people in, but not a party like Val had. For one thing, Jan didn’t know enough people to do that. She wasn’t sure that partying was for her anyway, and she knew Geoff didn’t enjoy it. She would host a small dinner party. She wouldn’t ask Geoff’s permission in case he said ‘no,’ as usual. She would just go ahead and arrange it and tell him afterwards. Not a big one to start with, just one couple so there would be four of them. But who would she ask? She thought of Margaret, the woman who used to look after the children when they were younger. She hadn’t seen her in a while and they used to get on really well. Jan had met her husband, Fred, once and really liked him. They would do! She rang Margaret and asked her.
“Oh, thank you very much, what a lovely surprise! We’d love to come.”
Now Jan had the task of telling Geoff what she had done, whether he liked it or not.
“I’m not happy about having people here! What are you going to give them?”
“Food!” Jan suggested, smiling. “Just let me worry about that. You can be in charge of the wine if you like.”