Swansea Summer

by Catrin Collier

  ‘Love you back.’ She blotted her tears as the bell rang.

  Seeing the sister watching him, he left his chair. ‘See you on Friday. I’ll be here the moment they let you out.’

  ‘I’ll count the minutes,’ she murmured hollowly as he walked away.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Much to Sam’s annoyance, Katie wasn’t the only one waiting for him outside the house three-quarters of an hour after she left the basement. Judy was standing alongside her, both of them dressed in sweaters and pedal-pushers with their hair in ponytails as if they were going to the beach instead of an outing he’d hoped would turn into a date. Feeling a fool in his suit, shirt and tie, he thought things couldn’t get any worse until Katie spotted Adam walking up St. Helen’s Road, from the direction of the Bay View pub. Stepping in front of him, she blocked his path. ‘Hello, Adam.’

  Adam glanced warily from her to Judy to Sam, before nodding an acknowledgement.

  ‘We’re going for an ice cream. Why don’t you join us?’ Katie invited.

  ‘I don’t make a habit of going where I’m not wanted,’ Adam growled.

  ‘If we hadn’t wanted you to come with us I wouldn’t have asked you.’ She looked at Sam. ‘This quarrel between you boys is stupid.’

  ‘You don’t know the first thing about it,’ Adam refuted.

  ‘Katie’s right.’ Judy came to her friend’s defence. ‘We were all having fun before it started. And now you aren’t talking to one another. Come on, Adam, can’t you put whatever happened down to you boys having one drink too many?’

  ‘You think that’s all there is to it?’ he asked angrily.

  ‘I know better than anyone that Brian can be a clown after he’s had a few drinks, but from what I can gather none of you behaved like saints at Jack’s stag party or afterwards at the Pier,’ Judy said pointedly.

  ‘She’s right, Adam. We all behaved like idiots. What say you we shake and make up?’ Sam held out his hand.

  Adam hesitated for the barest fraction of a second before taking Sam’s hand and shaking it.

  ‘Ice creams on me.’ Sam led the way into the parlour. ‘Katie, Judy, what flavour would you like?’

  ‘Strawberry, please.’ Katie delved into her handbag for her purse. ‘But I’ll pay for my own.’ She handed him a shilling.

  ‘I’ll have chocolate.’ Judy found a couple of sixpences in her pocket and handed them over.

  ‘Right, independent misses. Find a table for five.’

  ‘Why five?’ Adam followed Sam to the counter.

  ‘We’re meeting Jack after hospital visiting.’

  ‘I thought perhaps you and Katie or Judy …’

  ‘Katie and I aren’t anything,’ Sam said sourly. ‘I only wish we were. And as far as I know, Judy’s only separated from Brian by distance.’ He cornered an assistant. ‘One strawberry ice, one chocolate … What are you having, Adam?’

  Lily glanced at her watch. ‘It’s almost eight o’clock. Katie and Mrs Lannon will be wondering where I am.’

  ‘Not your uncle?’ Joe settled back in the driving seat, linked his hands behind his head and studied the view.

  ‘He’s on afternoons, so he won’t be home until eleven.’

  ‘You could telephone,’ he suggested.

  ‘I have things to do.’

  ‘Like washing your hair.’

  Lily looked at him and realised he was teasing. They had parked on the cliff edge of the car park between Mumbles and Limeslade. Behind them was the big Apple Kiosk where Joe had bought them a scratch meal of crisps, lemonade and Tiffin chocolate bars; although to his annoyance she had insisted on paying for her share. In front was a breathtaking vista of sky, sea and, in the distance, the Devonshire coast.

  ‘Nothing could be more important than watching this sunset,’ he said appreciatively. ‘Have you ever seen such jewelled colours? They could have been mixed on the palette of a Renaissance painter. And that gigantic, colossal sun! Its dying embers look as though they’re about to ignite the sea. I think that’s how it will appear at the end of the world.’

  ‘And when is that going to be?’ she enquired drily.

  Turning, he gazed into her eyes. ‘Never, because this one moment is ours for ever.’

  She looked back out to sea. Below them faint cries and snatches of conversation drifted upwards from teenagers playing the halfpenny shove machines in the Pier’s amusement arcade. Above them gulls circled, screeching before they swooped down to the sea in their relentless hunt for food.

  ‘It is a perfect sunset, Joe. But it is also just like a hundred others.’

  ‘How can you be so prosaic? It’s unique because it is the first we’ve seen from here together.’ He moved one of his arms, resting it on the back of her seat behind her head.

  She sat forward, preventing him from putting his arm over her shoulders. ‘And in Robin’s sports car. Shouldn’t you be getting it back to him?’

  ‘Not until morning. I arranged to pick him up and drive him to college. He’s at a party tonight.’

  ‘Weren’t you invited?’

  ‘I wasn’t fit company for anyone.’

  ‘Except me,’ she observed wryly.

  ‘Not many people are as understanding or forgiving as you.’

  ‘I really do have to go, Joe.’ She dropped her empty crisp packet into the paper bag that held the remains of her Tiffin bar.

  ‘Because Martin’s class finishes at nine and he’ll be home at half past?’

  ‘Martin sat his finals last week so his evening classes have finished.’ She suddenly realised the significance of what he’d said. ‘You know the time of Martin’s classes?’

  ‘Only because Robin and I occasionally pick his sister and Emily up from their evening classes,’ he lied.

  ‘I thought they were at art college.’

  ‘They are.’

  ‘And they study in the evening?’

  ‘Some girl thing or other,’ he muttered dismissively in an attempt to hide just how closely he watched Martin’s movements – and hers. ‘So.’ He finally moved his arm from behind her head. ‘You want to go home.’

  ‘Yes, please.’

  ‘Straight home?’

  ‘Straight home,’ she repeated firmly.

  ‘I haven’t thanked you properly for listening to me. Let me buy you dinner. The upstairs dining room in the Mermaid serve a steak and kidney pie that tastes like home cooking should and never does, and an ice cream gateaux that melts on the tongue like a slice of heaven.’

  ‘Not tonight, thank you,’ she refused politely.

  ‘Soon.’

  ‘I don’t think so. It would be too much like old times.’

  ‘They were good times – or didn’t you think so?’

  ‘They were old times, Joe. Now I’m with …’

  ‘Martin. I know. Tell him I’m grateful for allowing me to borrow you. Thanks to you, I now have a plan of action and the determination to confront Richard Thomas.’

  ‘Don’t do it before your finals.’

  ‘Why?’ He gunned the ignition.

  ‘Because it’s not worth risking upsetting yourself. It could affect your exams.’

  ‘They’ll be over in two weeks.’

  ‘That’s such a short time, it gives you all the more reason to wait.’

  ‘You’re right, as always.’ He smiled at her. ‘You know it is criminal to leave that sunset …’

  ‘Drive,’ she ordered, tying her scarf over her hair again. ‘Are you going to tell Mr Griffiths about Richard Thomas?’

  He pushed the car into reverse gear and backed out of the parking spot. ‘I’ll think about it. I know it will hurt him but I’ve never kept any secrets from him before and I see no reason to start now. And it’s not as though it will cause any more friction between him and my mother. The situation couldn’t be worse.’ Changing into first gear, he drove towards the main road.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘So am I.’ Turning right at the main
road, he headed back towards Mumbles. ‘But no one can colour the whole world rosy.’

  ‘It would be nice if we could.’

  ‘I won’t forgive you for making me leave that sunset.’

  ‘There’ll be others.’

  ‘For us?’ he asked seriously.

  ‘No, Joe.’

  ‘You can’t blame a fellow for trying.’

  As Jack left the ward, a nurse entered it. On impulse, he looked back as she pushed through the swing doors. Helen was still sitting in the chair where he’d left her, tears running unchecked down her cheeks. The door swung shut in his face. It would be so easy to push it open, run over to her, scoop her into his arms and …

  ‘Mr Clay.’ The sister tapped his shoulder.

  ‘I’m leaving.’ He fought the urge to tell her to go to hell for Helen’s sake.

  ‘Doctor would like a word. You can wait in here.’ She ushered him into a tiny office dominated by an enormous desk.

  Angered by the assumption that no one’s time was as important as that of the hospital staff, he moved a pile of papers, perched on the edge of the desk and resigned himself to watching the clock. After twenty minutes the sister returned with a middle-aged man in a white coat. Closing the door, she leaned against it as if trying to block his escape.

  Without acknowledging his presence, the doctor elbowed past and settled behind the desk. Still ignoring him, he lifted out the files in the in-tray and scanned them.

  ‘You’re, Mr …’

  ‘Jack Clay.’

  ‘Mrs Helen Clay’s husband,’ Jack interrupted, incensed that the sister had spoken for him.

  ‘Ah, yes, Mrs Clay.’ Taking care to avoid direct eye contact, the doctor muttered, ‘She’s had a serious operation. Very serious indeed.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘It’s not only the stitches on the outside that you can see. There are many, many more on the inside.’ He spoke slowly as though Jack were a child capable of understanding only the simplest of concepts. ‘She’ll need rest and care – a lot of care. Regular meals, early nights …’

  ‘She’ll get it.’

  ‘And no hanky-panky, eh.’

  ‘Hanky-panky?’ Jack repeated in bewilderment.

  ‘No marital relations for at least six weeks,’ the sister elaborated.

  ‘Not until she receives the all clear from us in the outpatients’ clinic.’ The doctor returned to his papers.

  ‘Given your age and men’s natural predisposition, it would be a wise precaution for you and your wife to sleep in separate bedrooms for a month or two,’ the sister advised bluntly.

  Jack looked pointedly at the sister’s left hand. ‘You are not married.’

  ‘I am a nurse and I am speaking medically. If you force yourself on your wife you will damage her.’

  ‘I don’t need to be told how to care for my wife.’ Jack’s temper, along with his voice rose precariously.

  ‘We are giving you sound medical advice. Ignore it …’

  ‘And I don’t need you to lecture me on the obvious.’ He realised he was shouting, but he was too incensed to calm down. ‘I would never do anything to hurt Helen …’

  ‘You say that now but you may feel differently when you get her home.’

  ‘She will receive the best possible care I can give her until Sunday.’

  ‘And after Sunday?’ the sister enquired.

  ‘My father-in-law will take over.’

  ‘You are leaving your wife?’

  ‘I’ve been called up to do my National Service.’

  A hubbub of voices echoed in from the corridor. Someone banged on the door. The sister barged into Jack as she tried to make room to manoeuvre it open. Before she pulled the door back six inches, Jack saw Helen lying on the floor surrounded by nurses. Grabbing the door, he slammed it into the sister and rushed out. Pushing two of the nurses aside, he knelt beside her and took her head gently into his lap. She was pale – so pale that he held his breath and stroked her face gently. Then he saw the flutter of a pulse at her neck and began to breathe again. ‘You are going to be fine, sweetheart,’ he insisted, wanting to believe it. ‘Just fine …’

  ‘I can’t understand where Jack’s got to.’ Katie trailed her spoon around the inside of her empty ice cream dish before pushing it into the centre of the table.

  ‘Perhaps they gave him an extra half-hour with Helen.’ Sam stacked her bowl inside his.

  ‘If they’re letting her out on Friday, it’s more like they’re giving him instructions on how to look after her,’ Adam suggested. ‘My father and I had to sit through a half-hour lecture from the ward sister before they let my mother out after her appendix operation and even then they sent a battery of nurses in and out of the house at all hours of the day and night to make sure we’d understood their instructions and weren’t doing anything we shouldn’t.’

  ‘That’s probably it,’ Judy agreed.

  ‘As there’s no sign of him, how about I get us all a coffee?’ Sam offered.

  ‘My shout.’ Adam left his chair. ‘Give us a hand, Judy.’

  ‘I’ll be over when you’re served.’

  ‘Do you girls like having men dance attendance on you?’ Sam gibed, as Adam went to the counter alone.

  ‘No,’ Judy snapped.

  ‘Seems like it to me.’

  ‘We weren’t the ones who suggested a walk and an ice cream.’ Katie reminded him.

  Sam smiled in an attempt to diffuse their irritation. ‘You didn’t have to. Your charms did it for you.’ His smile broadened as Katie scowled. ‘Even now, when you’re trying to look angry, you’re irresistible.’

  ‘I can see it’s time I helped Adam with the coffees.’ Judy left her chair.

  ‘Perhaps, like Judy, you prefer Adam to me,’ Sam suggested to Katie.

  ‘Unlike you he does know how to take no for an answer.’

  ‘And that’s an advantage?’ Taking the dirty dishes, he stacked them on an empty table behind them.

  ‘Definitely, as far as I’m concerned.’

  ‘You really don’t like men, do you?’

  ‘I’m not interested in going out with one.’

  ‘At the moment.’

  ‘Ever.’ She left her chair and waved to Jack as he walked in. He saw her and made his way to their table.

  ‘You look as though you’ve lost a shilling and found a penny.’ Sam pulled out a chair for him. ‘Everything all right with Helen?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘She’s not worse …’

  ‘I’m not sure. I don’t think so,’ he reassured Katie, ‘but she can’t stop crying and the bloody …’

  ‘Any more of that language and I’ll call the police,’ the manager threatened.

  ‘Sorry,’ Jack apologised as he sat down. ‘The doctor and the sister wanted a word with me about looking after her when she was discharged …’

  ‘Told you.’ Adam set two coffees on the table and stood back to make room for Judy who was carrying two more. ‘Coffee?’ he asked Jack.

  Jack shook his head as he lit a cigarette.

  ‘They might throw you out, especially after that language,’ Sam warned.

  ‘All right.’ Jack nodded to Adam, totally forgetting that Martin had mentioned he’d quarrelled with him, Brian and Sam, in his concern for Helen.

  ‘You were telling us that you were talking to the doctor,’ Katie prompted.

  ‘I explained that I’d only be taking care of Helen until Sunday because I’d received my call-up for National Service. I think she must have overheard me on her way to the bathroom, because she fainted in the corridor.’

  ‘You’re sure she only fainted?’ Judy asked.

  ‘I don’t know. She was very pale but she was definitely breathing. The …’ He eyed the manager who was watching him and moderated his language. ‘They threw me out. I tried to stay, but the sister called a couple of porters. I tried arguing with them but it became ugly and I decided a fight wouldn’t help Helen.’
/>   ‘Did they say you could telephone?’ Katie pushed her coffee in front of him.

  ‘Tomorrow morning. She’s my wife and I’m not even allowed to ask how she is.’ He pulled heavily on his cigarette.

  ‘Look on the bright side,’ Sam commiserated, ‘she’ll be out on Friday.’

  ‘If she’s recovered.’

  ‘If it was just a faint, it’s not serious. My mother kept passing out all the time for the first month after her operation.’ Adam returned with more coffee and, realising Katie was the only one who didn’t have a cup in front of her, handed it over.

  ‘You’ll have a couple of days together, Jack,’ Katie consoled him.

  ‘And at least a week’s leave after your training,’ Sam handed him the ashtray. ‘Maybe more if they send you overseas.’

  ‘And then I won’t see her for two years.’

  ‘That might not happen. Look at Adam.’

  ‘Look at Adam what?’ Adam bristled, anticipating another insult.

  ‘You spent the whole of your National Service in this country,’ Sam reminded him.

  ‘I was the exception rather than the rule.’

  ‘I’m not sure Jack wanted to hear that.’ Sam looked at Jack who was so deeply sunk in misery that he’d stopped listening to them.

  ‘I know Helen.’ Katie laid her hand over her brother’s. ‘She’ll bounce back from this, you’ll see.’

  ‘The operation, or me being away for two years?’ Jack enquired acidly.

  ‘Both.’

  ‘I hope you’re right.’ Jack ground his cigarette butt to dust in the ashtray.

  ‘I am, you’ll see.’ Katie tried to sound optimistic but she didn’t really believe it. John was in Swansea, and working in Lewis Lewis’s she’d be able to see him, albeit from a distance. But even now when they still worked together, seeing wasn’t enough for her, and she didn’t know how she was going to cope without being able to talk to him – even about inconsequential work matters on a daily basis. If she were suddenly to discover he was going away, possibly even abroad for two years and there was no likelihood of seeing him during all that time, she simply wouldn’t want to go on.

  ‘You’re leaving this car in the street?’ Lily asked Joe in surprise as he parked outside his house.