Who Knew Felix Marr?

by Paul Kelly

  In the fullness of time, September came our way and the operatic stage was set up for ‘La Bohame’ and the company had asked Jason if he would be willing to dance for them in other countries, such as France, Germany and even Ireland, but Jason was reluctant to even think of this idea as he realized the strain it would be on Sylvie and the offer was refused even before he mentioned the proposal to Sylvie and everything went extremely well in the Glasgow opera house where the intentions were to present the opera twice a week for the next six months. The family all took turns of coming to see Sylvie and Jason dance together with a troop of other male and female dancers accompanying them in the back ground and it was because of this addition of dancers on the stage at that time that the Glasgow company suggested to Jason that he might be able to give them advice on the hiring of other dancing staff to assist with the performances as the audiences were getting very enthusiastic and ballet dancing was becoming something of a ‘fine art’ with the citizens of Glasgow and surrounding areas. Ballet schools were being opened and spring up all over the south of Scotland and the standard Scottish dance was incorporated into the ballet movements.

  It was in one of the concert evening performance that someone called at the entrance doors to enquire if a training instructress might be required now that the accompanying dancers were increasing greatly and Sylvie was asked to see this person who was a female and the company thought that she might be the best person to interview this person who was waiting at the entrance hall and when Sylvie came down to do the interview she got quite a shock to realize that the person involved was her old friend, the ‘purfectionist’ Celia, the daughter of Barney Wentworth and Jason was more than a little concerned. He drew my attention one afternoon when he was sitting in our lounge at home by giving me a peculiar look with a twist of his head and I thought he had something private to talk to me about and I let him see that I was going into the garden and he followed.

  Sylvie was delighted to see Celia again and she had put aside any feelings of ‘dislike’ or ‘distrust’ as those were qualities that Sylvie would never give in to and she listened to what Celia had to say about the prospects of taking over the dancing staff both male and female, which she thought would greatly assist with the operatic production and after a discussion with Jason, they both agreed that Celia would do the job, but Jason was rather reluctant... and Celia was engaged that day to be the new instructress of ballet dancing, but although Jason had agreed with Sylvie regarding Celia as a suitable person for the job, he had a few reservations from his memories of his work with Celia in London and he had discussed many of these memories that worried and disturbed his mind with me that afternoon after the agreement to take Celia on as instructress was agreed.

  ““I have memories about Celia Wentworth that I am not happy about.” Jason said very softly, almost as though he didn’t want to talk at all but he continued, “Not at all really, but I think it would upset Sylvia if I told her about these incidents and I would rather just let Celia get on with her work as long as she keeps herself to herself.” Jason said and I could see he was distressed with his memories.

  “ It is better that I let Celia do her job and for me to forget much of what she was in London... “ Jason added... and I became even more curious and interested in what he was about to say and he went on, “Memories that were obnoxious to me; memories of things that Celia had boasted about to her mates in the school; boasting about her nights in bed with me, but the boasting was false and nothing she had said about her conquests with me were true,” I knew what Jason had told me could only be the truth from some of the things he had discussed with me earlier on about his sincere love for Sylvie and as Jason thought again of what Celia could do for his relationship with Sylvia he had even more doubts about taking her on as an instructress for the other dancers, but he realized that if he mentioned any of the worries that he had to Sylvia, it could affect their loving relationship and that was something that Jason certainly did not want. He did NOT want this Celia person to destroy the love he had for Sylvie and he knew the type of person that Celia Wentworth was.

  I told him that I knew he was being truthful with me and ask him if there was anything further I could do to help him, but he shook his head and sighed heavily. There was nothing he could do but hope that Celia would have known what a liar she had been and that her false accusation could lead to disaster , but I remembered Emily’s words to me when she said that Celia was jealous of Sylvie and of her love for Jason, however everything went from good to excellent with the dancing crew and Celia turned up regularly to do her job, but it was on one of these dancing lessons that Sylvie asked Celia what had become of their old ‘friend’ Rutherford; their lady instructress in London and Celia held her hand to her mouth for some time before she was able to give Sylvie an answer, but she spoke d softly when she did.

  “Miss Rutherford sadly had an accident some time ago, She had been involved in some argument with one of the dancers; a rather pretty young girl, but we don’t know the circumstances. All we know now is that this young girl was arrested for having attacked Miss Rutherford and throwing acid into her face so that now Miss Rutherford had to keep her face well covered and I understand she is very badly scarred.”

  When Sylvie heard that, she closed her eyes in horror before she thought again of the incident when she herself had been interviewed by Miss Rutherford and although she felt very sorry for her, she also thought that perhaps the young girl who had done this deed could have been entirely guilty of her actions.

  Meanwhile Celia formed a queue of young recruits into her dancing school, both male and female and in the final count, there were twelve young ballet dancers in the background whilst Sylvie and Jason took the lead and the audience was packed full for every performance, so much so that the Glasgow Company asked Jason again if he would consider dancing for them abroad, but with his mind on how Sylvie would cope with such an immense programme to keep up, he refused with an apology as he realized the praise that was being given to Sylvie and himself alone and that the entire cast of dancers would also be expected to go with them.

  But all the praise wasn’t being handed out to them alone as Freddie decided I should go to Billericay as he had started another branch of his company there and he wanted me to manage a staff until the organization was properly formed and then he would put in a manager and staff and let them get on with it.

  Freddie was always aware of this son’s disability and I know he would have loved to have had his little boy take over his company when he became a man, but that was impossible and he asked me one day if my young Alfie might be interested in becoming one of his managers as the job was well paid and had a good pension when the person retired, but I knew that Alfie would not be interested but to satisfy Freddie who was always so kind and good to me, I said I would contact Alfie in the event that he might well be interested, but when I did get through to Alfie he assured me that he wasn’t at all interested, saying that money did not come into the love of his life. He loved horses and the horses loved him, he said and whenever any of the horses fell ill in any way ill, Alfie would stay up all night cuddling them in to sleep when he could have gone home to a comfortable bed in Umar’s home as they had five bedrooms there and he had one of them... together with an ‘en suite’ bathroom of his very own.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  I had only been in the new Billericay office for a few days when I had a telephone call from Milly at the Glasgow office and she told me that her mother had died and she wold be leaving to look after her bachelor brother who had some sort of health problem and could she have a month’s wages before she went as the difficulty was urgent and I immediately contacted Freddie who arranged the money himself and I think he sent Milly much more than she had anticipated because a few weeks after when I was back in the Glasgow office, Milly came back in to see me to say thanks you for the money but also to tell me that there were too many difficulties
looking after her ill brother and she had to have him sent into a home... and she hoped I could give her back her old job and needless to say, Milly was back with me and everyone was delighted.

  I managed to get a manager for the Billericay office and within a short time we also had four new builders and six new apprentices, including three young men who wanted to be plasterers. Everything seemed to be going alright there and Freddie was pleased... but the hope of having a continuous family with Georgia was still in the horizon.

  News from France was not so good. Assim’s mother had been taken into hospital again, but this time it was a serious matter and she died of some form of cancer. Assim flew over to Paris straight away and Eric looked after the surgery to allow Gerard to go with him and we all sent our condolences, but when I told Emily about the death, she immediately arranged a flight to Paris for herself and Jason and Sylvie who insisted that they wanted to go too as they had an interval in their performance anyway. I stayed at home to look after Shindigger , or perhaps it would be better to say that Shindigger looked after me as he barked if ever I went out of the lounge even to go to the toilet. He kept looking at me as he sniffed around the empty house and jumped up on my knee to show me that he loved me. I was lonely when everyone had gone and my old memories took me back again to my birth and my wretched youth which was never a joy for me and I wished as I had wished so many time before that although I was very happy with my present circumstances, I would be happier if I was dead and could give the people that I loved, peace with their lives. I knew I would never be happy if I had only myself to live with and although I knew nothing about God or the heavens, I thanked whatever or whoever was up there with all my heart for the company that had carried me through life into happiness.

  In my state of misery the telephone rang and Freddie told me that Georgia had given birth to a little girl and they called her Lindy-Lou. I thought that was a strange name for any child, but if Freddie and his wife were happy, that was all that was required and I felt sure that the little girl would only be called LINDA but because of the joy and happiness that her parents went through at that time, the LOU was added.

  The family arrived back into Glasgow after the funeral had taken place and Umar came with them as well as Farida and Alfie and I was delighted to see then all, especially Alfie; the sod who wanted to marry a horse... or many horses if that was allowed.

  We chatted for ages about everything we could think of, but purposely avoiding the death of Marianna. Apparently she had wanted to be buried in Germany as that was where her husband had been buried as he was German born, but Assim thought it best to have the funeral in Paris when he considered all the agonies his family had suffered in the past from the German Nazis and the terrifying concentration camps where his grandfather and grandmother had been murdered.

  Umar said he could not bear to go home to the house where he had lived so long with his beloved mother and he was grateful for us allowing him to stay with us for a time until he could feel better about the situation. Farida said very little but she cried a lot and as Shindigger spotted her in the crowd, it looked as if he knew what was going on in her mind as he cradled up to her and made her his object of desire for the evening and that made her happy. Emily made them all very welcome with a lovely meal and insisted that they should all be with us for as long as they wished as we had plenty of room, emphasising that Umar would have to sleep in Alfie’s bed and stay on the left side... or was it the right side, I could not remember, but I knew there would be an argument if I had got it wrong... Farida and Sylvie slept in the same bed, but Jason slept out in the conservatory with Shindigger and I never asked him if he had slept well or not, as Shindigger answered for him with a resounding bark, letting me know that HE had slept well and anything else was of little concern. I could see Jason laughing as he ate his breakfast, but my pet dog was too busy eating to notice anything.

  The operatic concerts continued with Assim and all his immediate family there with him, but Eric had to leave the surgery to Gerard as his fiancée thought she was pregnant and I wondered how many more pregnancies we would know of before the end of the six month’s ballet dancing and of course that brought my mind back to the conversation I had in the garden with Jason. I could realize only too well how he felt as he was madly in love with Sylvie and when a man is in love like that, he has problems in the lower region as it won’t stay still, but whether it was wishfull thinking on my art, I will never know but it was on a Saturday evening after the show had ended and everyone in the hall had cleared out leaving only a vacant space, that Jason accompanied me in my car and left Sylvie to go home with Emily in her car and he started to cry as he told me again how much he was in love with Sylvie and he felt he could not endure the agony of love for very much longer. He then pleaded with me to allow him to marry my daughter and I couldn’t say ‘yes’ quickly enough.

  Sylvie and Jason got married a month later and I could see that Sylvie didn’t need to be asked twice. Fortunately Assim and all his family were still with us and the wedding went off beautifully. Umar and Farida made a great fuss of the married pair and of course Emily cried with sheer joy. I thanked whoever was up there in the heavens and had a little tear in the silence of the bathroom when everyone was enjoying the occasion downstairs.

  Sylvie and Jason continued with their dancing until the end of the session which lasted the full six months and then they went to Japan on a honeymoon.

  I asked Umar if he had a girlfriend and he smiled as he looked at Alfie as if Alfie could give me the answer I sought, but Alfie looked back at Umar and winked as Umar told me that he had been in touch with a girl for the past four years and that she was from Birmingham in England, but that she was married and just wanted to have a male friend who would speak French to her as she was learning the language. I found that hard to believe but as I was having a thought on the matter, Alfie came in again and said that the girl from Birmingham wouldn’t stand a chance of a relationship with Umar even if she was not married, because she wasn’t keen on horses and that disqualified her for any romance with his friend, Umar.

  When I sked Alfie once more if he would ever get married, he laughed and told me that he couldn’t find a wedding ring that would fit any one of his horses, so I gave up the question and wished him well.

  It was some time before the family from Paris returned, but Assim remained in Glasgow and continued with his work in the hospital operating theatre whilst Gerard and Eric ran the surgery together. It transpired that Eric’s fiancee was not pregnant, but suffered from ‘piles’

  Sylvie and Jason returned from Japan with presents for everyone at home and what surprised me most was the fact that Sylvie told us all that she would be happy to dance in any country other than Scotland if the Glasgow company asked her, ONLY IF SHE WAS NOT PREGNANT when they asked her and I thought her conclusion was very wise when I looked at Jason’s face and he was BEAMING.

  Some days after Sylvie and Jason has returned from their honeymoon and had settled in again to the ballet dancing twice a week, a surprise visitor came to the opera hall one afternoon and asked to see Miss Southdown and we realized that this visitor had never reaized that Sylvie had got married and her name was now Mrs. Rogers, but Sylvie came down from the stage to see the lady in question. There seemed to be no-one about when Sylvie looked around, but suddenly a woman appeared from seemingly nowhere with her face covered with a scarf of some kind and within a moment of removing the scarf, Sylvie gasped as she recognised Miss Rutherford, her instructress from London.

  “Good afternoon Sylvie,” she said and Sylvie knew in that moment why this lady had come to see her. She never expected that she would see her again, but Sylvie had written a letter expressing her sorrow for the incident concerning the acid that was thrown at Miss Rutherford’s face and this was Miss Rutherford telling Sylvie how much she appreciated the letter and the sympathy that it contained. Sylvie invited her into her dr
essing gown but Celia came around the corner at that time and glared at Miss Rutherford, amazed that she should be in Glasgow and wondering what she was doing up in Scotland when she should be in some hospital in London, until Sylvie explained her letter of sympathy and asked Celia to bring some tea to Miss Rutherford which made Celia grunt her disgust, but nevertheless the tea appeared.

  Celia went off down the corridor when she had taken the tea and biscuits to Miss Rutherford, cursing under her breath as she went and Sylvie closed the door of her dressing room and asked Miss Rutherford to sit down as she tried to say something that would make her visitor feel welcome, but Miss Rutherford sat uncomfortably, shaking her fingers repeatedly as she sat and Sylvie did what she could to ease the situation.

  “I am sorry to hear about your accident, Miss Rutherford, but I am surprised that you have come here as there is little if anything we can do for you. You do understand, don’t you?” Miss Rutherford smiled gently and shook her head.

  “I have not come here expecting anything in return, but now that you are married, I would like to use your Christian name if I may?”