The Way Barred

by Dominique Kyle

  “He won of course. Tyler reckons Rob’s gonna take the Gold this year.”

  “Thanks for taking over for me,” Quinn said. But his voice lacked animation.

  I put my cheek against his. “Anytime,” I said. His cheek was rough and unshaven. “Poor darling Quinn,” I said sadly.

  He tried to glance round at me, but Daisy came out of her room and gave me a bit of a look. I backed off from Quinn and went to the kettle. “Tea anyone?”

  “Can I borrow your car at lunchtime today?” I asked Jo.

  “Sure,” she said, without asking why.

  “Nasim’s rung to say she’s back from Uni,” I filled her in, trying to follow Sue’s advice not to be so self-contained and to treat Jo like a friend and confidante.

  “Ok,” Jo said without much interest. “That’s nice.”

  I gave up. She got angry I didn’t tell her stuff, but how could I if she never asked anything?

  I looked around for something to cover my blonde hair. Some female customer had left a shawl ages ago and never come back for it so I picked it up and wound it round my head before driving off. As I drove into the street where Nasim’s parents lived, I looked carefully around. I couldn’t see her father’s car anywhere. But I spotted that other car again. Just a few doors up. The one that kept turning up near our flat. After driving once up the full length of the street as a recce, I turned around and came back and stopped outside Nasim’s family home. I got out and rang the doorbell. There was a long pause and then the door opened a crack and Nasim’s mother peeped nervously out. I mimed to her to put her head covering up and wrap it round her face. She stared frozenly at me for a moment then hurriedly did as I had suggested and followed me out to the car as I beckoned to her to come.

  At Nasim and Rajesh’s flat I motioned to her to wait in the car and rang the doorbell. Nasim came to the door and squealed with joy to see me and threw her arms around me.

  “This feels weird,” I said cheerfully. “Being able to see each other whenever we want!”

  She looked older and more sophisticated. I suppose that was to be expected. Maybe I did too. “I’ve brought someone to see you,” I said, waving to Nasim’s mother to get out.

  Nasim burst into tears and ran towards her, and then her mother started weeping too.

  I glanced at the time. “One twenty,” I said to Nasim, tapping my watch. “I’ll be here to take her back.”

  Nasim looked gratefully across her mother’s head at me and nodded. As she guided her mother into the flat, I got back in the car and drove off to find some lunch. At one twenty I rang the doorbell and whisked her home again. My heart thumped as we approached the house, but Nasim’s father’s car still wasn’t there so it seemed we had got away with it. I was back at work within my allotted hour. How often could we get away with that I wondered? Nasim may be able to get insider information about which days were safe, as long as the neighbours didn’t notice and comment on it to her father…

  I called back on Nasim after work.

  “I miss you,” she said. “It was ok while Thrills and Spills was still on because it was like spying on you! But since then I haven’t been able to find out anything…”

  “How’s your course?”

  “Brilliant!”

  “How’s married life?”

  “Brilliant!”

  “How’s your year at Oxford been?”

  “Brilliant!”

  “Got yourself a mosque down there?”

  She nodded.

  Oh well, it all seemed to have turned out pretty well. So all we had to do now was curl up on the settee and fill in all the details of the past nine months. It was good to have her back.

  On the following Thursday, on the way over to Skeggie in the Beast I said in a low voice to Jo so the men couldn’t hear, “I’m a bit nervous about helping Tyler out.”

  “Why?” She frowned.

  “Well he’s like the Entwistle of his own garage isn’t he? He’ll be employing mechanics like me and you and be judging their standard of work. What if I don’t come up to scratch?”

  “You always come up to scratch, Eve,” she reassured me. “And just think of the industrial espionage you can do!”

  “That’s a point,” I agreed with narrowed eyes. “We don’t know what little secrets he’s been keeping from us do we?”

  “What are you two whispering about?” Pete demanded from the front.

  “What industrial espionage I can do while working for Tyler over the next few days,” I reported cheerfully.

  “You two have a very weird relationship,” Pete condemned. “You don’t drop your guard with him for a moment do you?”

  “I wouldn’t call it weird,” I defended heatedly. “It’s just that I’m determined to beat him sometime, and he’s determined that I won’t, except that he also secretly hopes I’ll get good enough to make him have to sweat a bit and up his game.”

  “You’ve beaten him a few times already,” Jo pointed out.

  “Only when he’s not paying attention,” I said. “I’ll only be satisfied when it’s consistent.”

  As soon as we arrived I hopped out and went to find Tyler. He turned round and smiled at me. “This is Tom,” he introduced the other guy there. “He works for me at the garage.”

  We shook hands. I’d seen him around but never been introduced.

  “What do you need doing?” I asked.

  “Nothing right now,” he said. “But maybe between races.”

  Tom and I sat and chatted for a bit. He was in his early twenties, short, stocky, friendly.

  “Do you ever race?” I asked.

  “No, I have terrible reaction speed,” he admitted cheerfully. “Have the occasional crack at the Bangers. Demolition Derbys are quite fun. It’s easy enough to source old wrecks for it in our line of work.”

  Tyler called me over to the van to show me where he kept all his spares in case I needed them in a hurry. He then unnecessarily shut the doors behind us and started to kiss me. I laughed. “I think we’re going to have to come out pretty soon about this,” I advised him. “Especially to Tom, because we really can’t keep this up for four days…”

  “Thank God for that!” Tyler exclaimed relieved. “I thought you were never going to let us tell anyone…”

  “Well we’ll be staying together every night for the next three, so I think someone’s going to notice before the end of the Speed Weekend don’t you?” I pointed out practically. I pushed open the van doors and got out. Tom did look a bit oddly at us as we emerged.

  “Ok Tom,” I said. “I think you need to know that the reason I’m helping out this weekend is because me and Tyler have recently hooked up. So we’ll try not to embarrass you, but he might just grab me every now and again and I wouldn’t like you to imagine your boss had morphed all of a sudden into an inappropriate sexual predator!”

  Tom grinned. “Well I’m pleased you told me, because I was just thinking that he never gets into the van with me and closes the door!”

  “Glad to hear it,” I said tartly.

  Tyler rolled his eyes. “I can see you two are going to get on together like a house on fire.”

  I turned round and put my arms up around his neck. “Ok Tyler, snog me now and get it out of your system, because we’re going to have work to do later…”

  Tyler hesitated for a minute in front of his employee, but I dared him to with my eyes. And he must have thought, what the hell? After all he’d been moithering me to come out about our relationship for ages. So he gave me a good ‘un.

  “For goodness sake, do you have to be so public!” Jo was standing there looking revolted with her hands on her hips.

  “Sorry Jo,” I said penitently. “She doesn’t like anything slobbery,” I explained to Tyler.

  “She’d better not meet my Great Dane then,” Tom remarked. “He has a constant stream of dribble hanging from the corner of his mouth.”

  Jo and I both looked at him with revulsion.

&nb
sp; “Yuk!” I said.

  “Urgh…” Jo commented.

  Tyler threw something at him on behalf of all of us.

  Everyone raced. Tyler won everything. Pete alternated between coming second or third. But even that was progress for Pete, I thought. Pete never used to come so close to Tyler’s results. Afterwards, Tyler and I went back to the B and B he’d booked for us, and we showered and shagged and then we went out for a meal and came back and shagged all over again. It was bliss.

  Next day was glorious weather and we’d arranged to meet the Satterthwaites on the beach at two pm. Pete huffed and puffed when I made it clear that I intended to hold them to the sand car digging competition. But he soon got stuck in once Jo got going.

  “Thing is Tyler,” I said, eyeing the siblings already getting their design laid out. “They’ve been doing this for years so they know what the judging criteria is, and we don’t.” I eyed Paul speculatively and he smiled enigmatically back at us.

  “What kind of car shall we aim for?” Tyler said good naturedly. He hadn’t been appalled at being dragged down here to do this, just amused.

  “F2 of course,” I said sharply.

  “Yes of course, silly me,” he said meekly.

  “You get on with drawing out the basic shape and digging down the bottom half of the chassis, and I’ll going and collect the other things we’ll need,” I ordered.

  “Yes boss,” he said saluting.

  “None of your lip,” I told him repressively and turned away.

  “Ever thought of becoming a dominatrix in your spare time?” Tyler suggested with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

  I stopped short and turned sharply back. “That’s just what Quinn said to me a few weeks back,” I said suspiciously. “Have you two been talking about me or do you both have a dodgy taste in websites?”

  “That would be telling…” Tyler smiled.

  I rushed around collecting up various useful pieces of flotsam and jetsam to enhance our design until Sue called me over and insisted in rubbing factor fifty sun cream all over me.

  “You’re far too fair skinned to be running around unprotected,” she chided me. I sighed and submitted myself to being mauled. I was in nothing but a pair of short shorts and a little vest top, so I guess I had left myself exposed.

  Afterwards I rushed back to Tyler with all the things I’d brought to construct the upper chassis. Sticks for the uprights. Long strands of seaweed to be woven across to create the grid that replaces the windscreen, sticks and a bottom of a broken bucket for the wheel, and other bits and pieces for the clutch and pedals. A board for the roof. I tied my hair up in a knot at the nape of my neck and got constructing. Eventually Tyler just sat back and watched unless asked to hold something for me while I fixed it. Jo across the way was at the decorating with shells stage. I looked around for something for the aerofoil. I didn’t see anything that would work, so I just collected some shells to make a number. “768 or 89?” I asked him.

  “768,” he replied promptly.

  Paul looked at his watch. “Five minutes to go,” he warned.

  We sat cross legged in tense silence for the judging. Paul sucked his cheeks in and walked slowly and deliberately round each of the cars in turn.

  Tyler watched him. “He doesn’t give anything away does he?” He observed out of the corner of his mouth to me.

  “No it’s terrifying,” I agreed in a stage whisper.

  Paul glanced repressively at us.

  “Jo won last year,” I said in his ear.

  Finally Paul announced that me and Tyler were the winners and I erupted into a big leap and cheer and victory dance while Jo and Pete muttered about the unfairness of it being the first time major non-sand structures had been allowed.

  Jo eyed me. “Look at her. When she wins a race she’s as cool as a cucumber, you’d think she’d just returned from nothing more important than a shopping trip. And now you’d think she’d just got the Gold roof!”

  Tyler grinned at me and allowed me to bounce all over him.

  “Now it’s traditional to go and politely admire Mum’s horse,” Jo reminded us.

  We went over. “Yes very nice,” we all said dutifully.

  “Wow, that’s pretty good,” Tyler exclaimed. “A Lipizzaner!”

  Sue smiled. “Yes.”

  “A Lippy what?” I pursued curiously.

  “Lipizzaner,” Tyler repeated.

  “How do you know what sort of horse it is just by looking?” I said blankly, staring hard at the outline.

  “Well how do you tell what sort of car it is just by looking?” He put to me with a smile.

  “Well they’ve got the make and model written on the back of course,” I reminded him, looking at him as though he were mental.

  I stared around at everyone who had collapsed with laughter to the point that Sue was wiping tears from her eyes. “What?” I demanded.

  Tyler bit his lip until he’d gained control of his voice again. “Lippizzaners are the Spanish Riding School horses,” he explained to me. “They’re big and white and very muscular because they do the haute école – ‘airs above the ground’. A sort of extreme dressage that developed from techniques they needed in battle.”

  “Wow, how did you know that?” I said impressed.

  He laughed. “Tilly my eldest is mad about horses. You get to pick that sort of stuff up.”

  “You should loan her to Sue,” I said. “Poor Sue’s on her own in this family!”

  Sue looked thoughtful. “Actually, you’re always welcome to bring the girls over for an outing one day to see the horses and maybe have a ride.”

  Tyler glanced sideways at her. “Thanks, that’s a great idea…”

  I looked round. “Oh my God! Look who’s here!” I exclaimed and I shot off across the sands. The sand was hot and soft under my feet, then cool and sucking, then cool and firm. It felt great running so far and fast on it. I threw myself into Quinn’s arms and he obligingly lifted me swung me around for a moment before putting me down.

  “You didn’t say you were going to be here helping Rob out!” I chided him.

  “It was a last minute thing,” he explained. “A gig got cancelled.”

  “Hi Rob,” I greeted. I guessed Rob had persuaded Quinn to come to keep Quinn occupied – since my plans to occupy him for the summer had gone completely awry by my getting banned.

  “We’re all here, come and see us!” I invited.

  “Who is ‘all’?” Rob queried.

  “Tyler and the Satterthwaites,” I said.

  They wandered over with me. Sue was getting a picnic out. Rob looked ironically at the sand cars.

  “It’s a yearly tradition,” Jo explained. “Since before we were old enough for the Ministox.”

  “Eve and Tyler won this year,” Pete complained. “Personally, I think they were bending the rules using illegal materials.”

  Rob rolled a sardonic eye in the direction of the blandly smiling Tyler.

  “Better call a scrutineers meeting about it then,” Paul said, “and take it to an appeal.”

  Quinn looked my car over dismissively. “Call that a car! I could do better than that!”

  I picked up a spade and threw it at him. “Go on then! You have half an hour starting from -” I looked at my watch. “-now!”

  Quinn got that mean competitive look on his face and started marking a shape out. I went and stood watching. “What is it?”

  “F1,” he said.

  “It needs to be three centimetres longer on the bonnet,” I said. “And two centimetres wider on the main chassis.”

  “Shut up it doesn’t!” He snapped.

  “Rob,” I called imperiously. “Come here and tell him!”

  Rob sighed and got up and came over.

  “Three centimetres longer and two centimetres wider,” I insisted.

  “Told you Dad,” Jo said, watching. “She’s phenomenal with anything spatial, down to the last millimetre.”

 
; Paul nodded.

  “Which is why, Tyler, if you ever pull over when she’s passing you in a small space again I’ll personally come and slap you myself,” Jo directed fiercely.

  Tyler pulled a face. “Point made and threat noted.”

  Rob looked ironically across at him. “You don’t seem to be doing awfully well with the women at the moment Tyler. You appear to have an infinitely slappable physog.”

  “Tell me about it…” Tyler agreed with a grimace.

  I tossed Rob a spade. “Get stuck in, he’ll never do it on his own in half an hour…”

  We all sat and idly watched them, while eating pies and butties and cherry tomatoes. “I hope we’ve got some for them at the end,” I said to Sue. “Men eat so much don’t they? I used to really struggle to stretch the food.”

  “What do you mean?” Jo asked curiously.

  “I mean for Dad and Jamie,” I explained. “I took over the shopping and cooking and cleaning when I was about ten I suppose. But Dad was terrible at remembering to tell me if he was going to be working late. Then Jamie sometimes would stay over at Dylan’s without warning me and I’d get worried about the food I’d made getting wasted because we couldn’t afford it. Before that, Dad did it, but he was a bit useless. When he was working late we used to come in after school and he’d have opened a tin of baked beans and left it on the kitchen table and I’d have to heat them up for Jamie.”

  “God, how old were you then?” Jo asked, pulling a face.

  “Seven probably?”

  Paul and Sue glanced at each other.

  Quinn shoved the spade down into the ground. “TA TAN TARRA!” He announced the conclusion of his car with a fanfare.

  Paul got up and walked solemnly around it hands behind his back. “Hmm.” He stopped portentously and leaned over to examine it from above. “Hmmm.”

  “Well?” Quinn demanded. “Does it beat hers?”

  Paul smiled slightly. “Sorry Quinn, you should have listened to her, it’s still a couple of centimetres out…”

  I leapt in the air cheering and Quinn threw himself down in disgust. Rob sat down by Tyler. Sue passed a box of pies along and Quinn cheered up and tucked in. I sent Rob a grateful glance. He’d been a really good sport doing that. We’d seen a flash of the old Quinn for a moment.