by Dizzy Girl
“Patrick, this is Sunny. Sunny, this is Patrick” I said, gesturing to each of them in turn.
“Pleased to meet you” Sunny said, ever the gentleman.
Patrick’s face went red, and he slammed the papers back on the table. “This is him isn’t it? How could you do this? How could you bring him into our home?” He was so angry he was almost spitting as he hissed at me.
“Our home?” I felt my own voice getting louder. “Our home? This was my home til you started acting like an arsehole and made it impossible for me to stay.”
“What was I supposed to do?” he yelled. “You could get knocked up by this, this…” Words failed him and he gave up and merely pointed at Sunny. It was a good job that I had broken the news to Sunny myself, but Patrick wasn’t to know that. Clearly he had level to which he wouldn’t stoop to hurt me.
“There was no reason that we couldn’t have had a baby if we had kept trying, and if you hadn’t got so angry about the past. You knew what happened, how could you try to use that to hurt me?”
“He’s not the past though is he” Patrick said, his voice still loud enough that I wanted to step further back from him.
“No, not any more” I said.
“And not ever again” Sunny told him. “I don’t plan to be stupid enough to lose Amy or to push her away.”
Patrick picked up his papers once more and walked towards the door. “Make sure you leave the keys when you’re done” he spat.
“No worries” I told him. “I’m not planning to come back even again.”
He opened the door and walked out. “Goodbye Prat-rick” Sunny shouted after him.
“Well, that went well” I said, sinking into the sofa.
“Come on” Sunny said. “Let’s finish up and I’ll drive you home. I can sleep some more once we get back.”
“Are you sure you’re awake enough?” I asked.
“I am now” he reassured me.
“In which case” I got up and poured myself a glass of Patrick’s most expensive brandy. He’d always been careful with it, limiting himself to a small measure in the evenings and savouring it as though it were precious. “I think a small medicinal drink might be in order.” I poured a hefty measure into a large glass and knocked it back. “Let’s get this finished.”
Chapter Twelve
It was nice to be back at home again after the trip. Somehow having the last of my stuff made it feel final. I went back to work on Thursday, determined to throw myself into it. Charlie came to meet me for lunch and we walked to a little café next to the library in Stratford.
“I remember when we used to come to the market here when I was a kid and there would be pigeons flying inside” I mused.
“There still are sometimes” Charlie told me. “Jason loves chasing them. It’s much nicer now since the Olympics were here though. The new shopping centre is amazing, not that everyone can afford to shop there.”
I wondered if she was talking about herself but I didn’t like to ask. “So you and Mark?” I asked her. She nodded.
“And you and Sunny” she replied. I felt my tummy skip and my pulse pick up, just thinking about him.
“I take it you haven’t heard from him?” I asked.
“No, or you either ‘cos I know you said you’d ring if you did. I keep thinking of where he could have gone. If it was me wanting space I’d have booked myself a nice hotel, with a swimming pool, I’d have got room service meals for a few days and just chilled out. But that’s not really Mark’s style.”
I agreed with her. I tucked into my sandwich, but I noticed Charlie was mostly just pushing the food around on her plate and hardly eating any of it. She saw me watching and took a bit mouthful. A moment later she got up and ran into the bathroom at the back of the café. When she emerged a few minutes later she still looked a little green.
I wasn’t sure whether to ask if my suspicions were correct or whether to let her tell me when she was ready. Perhaps she decided that when the morning sickness is so obvious it is hard to keep it secret for long anyway. She smiled. “You might also have just guessed that I’m pregnant.”
“That’s great news” I said. “Did Mark know?” I hoped that the news wasn’t what had sparked his disappearing act.
“We’ve known for a few weeks. He was so excited. That’s why I’m surprised that he’s gone away now.”
“I wonder whether he’s going to that festival he was looking at” I said. “We couldn’t find any other suggestions.”
“I’d go and look for him but I don’t really want to take Jason. It wouldn’t be fair to drag him round looking all weekend. And I really don’t want to have to use portaloos every five minutes when I need to throw up. Could you go do you think?”
She looked at me with such hopefulness I found myself nodding. “I’ll look to see if I can get a ticket, and if I can, I will.”
She seemed happier after that, and told me all about Jason. He sounded like a really sweet kid and she clearly adored him. I could see why Mark had enjoyed getting to know them.
“It’s funny” she said, “if you’d told me at school that I’d get together with him I’d have thought you were crazy. Goes to show I was a spoilt madam.” She laughed.
“Well, if you’d told me I’d be sat with you having lunch I don’t think I’d have believed them either. We didn’t exactly see eye to eye back then.”
“Here’s to being older and nicer, both of us, now we know that there’s more important things in life than being popular in school” Charlie said, raising her glass of orange juice and clinking it against mine.
I walked back to work afterwards feeling like I’d gained a new friend. I got back to my desk and as much as I tried to concentrate on the budget in front of me, I kept finding myself googling the music festival and looking up ticket prices. Eventually after I’d read the same line of figures six times, I picked up my mobile and texted Sunny.
We met up for dinner and I outlined my plan to go to the festival on Saturday, stay for the last night and head home on Sunday.
“Ok” Sunny said, “I’m in.”
I laughed. “I’m going to be camping” I said.
“I know, I do know what a festival involves” he said.
“Camping, in a tent, in a muddy field, with portaloos” I reminded him.
Sunny seemed surprised that I doubted him.
“If you think you can do it, I’m game” I said. “I think my parents have some sleeping bags we can borrow, but their tent hasn’t been used in years. It’s probably moth eaten by now.”
“I can grab us a tent” Sunny said. “I’ll be in the car tomorrow so I’ll stop at the Army and Navy store round the corner and pick one up.
“Is that shop still there?” I said.
“Yes, of course” he told me.
“That’s where I got my first pair of DMs as a teenager. I loved those shoes.”
“I remember you kicking Paul Steen with them when he wouldn’t let you play football at lunchtime.”
“Ah yes” I said. “It is probably lucky that my dad took my side. He ran rings around the head of year, accused him of being sexist and not promoting inclusive sports. I can’t believe I got away without even being suspended.”
I went home to try and pack. Throwing some clothes in a bag, I added a waterproof jacket and some hand wipes.Then I thought of Sunny and added a bottle of hand sanitiser. I raided the wine cellar for a bottle of red wine, added some sun tan lotion and I was sorted.
Saturday morning soon rolled around and still no word from Mark. Sunny picked me and, as usual, his car looked spotless.
“Did you wash your car to go to a festival?” I asked him. He didn’t answer so I presumed he had. This was going to be interesting. “Would you like me to drive, seeing that I’m insured now?” I offered.
“Thanks but it’s ok, I wasn’t on duty last night so I’m fine this time” he replied. I wondered whether he was thinking about my parking skills again.
; The festival had started the night before so we had no queues to get into the field, but once we’d got the bags out the car and started walking towards the campsite we realised the drawbacks of being one of the last in. I looked at the campsite and said “it looks like we have two choices. We can camp right near the toilets, which I don’t recommend if you have any sense of smell, or we can camp there.” I pointed at the next empty space, about half a mile away.
“Away from the toilets sounds better to me” Sunny said, so we headed over and started to unpack the tent.
“Did they show you how to put this up in the shop?” I asked.
“No, but how hard could it be?” Sunny replied. Plenty hard, it turned out, though I think persuading him to finally admit defeat and read the instructions probably saved us about an hour. Finally, we walked into the festival proper and started looking for Mark. We quickly realised that looking for a long haired hippy bloke at a festival was probably harder than looking for a needle in a haystack. Every third man there looked like Mark from a distance.
I pulled my mobile out to try and ring him again but there was no reception. One afternoon in and I was already missing civilisation. There were three separate stages and we wandered between them, hoping to see Mark as we walked. Charlie had been so relieved when we said that we were coming here, I wasn’t looking forward to going back without him. It had been a week now since his last contact with us. Surely that was enough time for him to think through whatever he needed and come home.
A young woman walked on stage wearing a floaty dress, barefoot and carrying a guitar. She started to sing and her voice was soft and soulful. We let go of why we were there and instead sat together on the ground to listen. It was magical. She sang of heart break and loneliness, and it was like hearing my teenage memories performed for me. She ended on a love song, Sunny and I listened, hand in hand and speechless. We cheered as she finished her set, and I was about to suggest that we find some ice cream. Sunny sat up, took my hands in his and said “I love you.”
I was surprised, he had never found it easy to put his emotions into words. I knew my reply though, I knew it as strongly as I knew my own name. “I love you too.” That had never stopped being true. Not in all the years that we had been apart.
We kissed again but despite feeling a sense of relief that we felt the same way, I knew that there was another reason why we were there. I kept trying to remind myself to look for Mark, but I must admit it was no longer the first thing on my mind. I pulled out my mobile though to have one last attempt at calling Charlie. We were due a stroke of luck and here it was, there was one bar of reception. Charlie’s mobile rang briefly, and then my battery died. Maybe this wasn’t the best plan I’d ever had.
We heard a few more acts on the little stage then walked over to the main arena in time for the headline act of the festival. They were just starting their most famous song when Sunny suddenly gipped my hand and announced “I think it’s time we went home.” He looked so serious, and a little pale in the moonlight. “Are you ok?” I asked.
“Yes, but I’d like to go home now, please.”
“Are you ill?” I asked.
“Erm, yes, ill. Let’s go.” He took my hand and led me out of camp, he started heading for the car.
“What about the tent? Our stuff?” I reminded him.
“I’ll buy us more” he said, walking fast. I caught up to him and took his hand.
“Sunny, please stop, you’re scaring me. Are you ok?”
“I’m fine” he said. “I just need the toilet and I don’t think I can use these portaloos.”
“You used them fine earlier” I pointed out.
“Yes, for a pee. I need a little more quality time now, and they smell worse than they did when we got here.”
“Did you not think about the toilets when you agreed to come?” I asked.
“I thought about it, and thought it would be fine. But now it’s not” he said.
“The nearest services are an hour away” I reminded him. If you need to go that badly I suggest you get over it and use the toilets here. Otherwise it could get even messier.”
He sighed in defeat, took the loo roll from my bag and trudged off, back towards the row of bogs. I made my way back to the tent to wait for him. He returned ten minutes later looking relieved, if slightly shell shocked out by his experience. “I never want to talk about that again” he said.
I found the wine I’d nicked from Dad and grabbed some plastic cups from my rucksack. “Screw tops” I said, “makes life at festivals easier.”
“I’ve never known you as a red wine drinker” Sunny said.
“Not usually, you’re right, but most alcohol is best served chilled, this is the only thing I could think of that you can drink easily at a festival. I was really hoping that by the time we opened this we’d be celebrating. I even brought a third cup in case we found him.”
I poured the wine and Sunny picked his cup up and tried to clink it against mine, though the plastic made only a small tapping noise.
“I’m celebrating” he said, and kissed me. We crawled into the tent. He ran his hands over me, murmuring my name gently into my ear. Whispering that he loved me and covering me in kisses. We slowly undressed each other, and I was glad that we’d only arrived at the festival that day. I wasn’t sure that being here any longer without a shower would have been quite so conducive to romance. But I’d come prepared just in case.
“I didn’t like to presume” I said, pulling a small packet of condoms from my bag, “but I thought it was better to be safe just in case. Not that these things helped last time, but I’m guessing we know how to use them properly now.”
Sunny ripped the plastic wrapper off the box and pulled one out. He was just about to open the foil packet, when we heard moaning outside. It seemed our neighbours had beaten us to it. The moaning continued, and then got louder. A few minutes later the woman was still moaning, when we heard her partner join in. Moan, grunt, moan grunt. Sunny put the condom back in the box, then the box back in my bag.
“I hadn’t thought about how far the sound would travel” he said. “Do you think those guys are aware we can all hear them?”
“I guess they don’t really care at this point” I replied, as the noise outside finally appeared to reach a crescendo. The couple finished, and from the other side of our tent I could hear someone begin to clap them, slowly. Other campers joined in and within a few seconds there was a loud round of applause.
“This time next year that’ll be a game show” Sunny said. “They’re only lucky we’re not all sat outside now holding up score cards.”
I laughed, and tucked myself against him. We fell asleep holding each other.
I slept surprisingly well, I’d been expecting to wake up several times in the night with the noise of other campers, but eventually it was my bladder which woke me and I crept from the tent in search of toilets.
I returned to find Sunny sat up, still half naked and blinking in the daylight that streamed through the tent walls. “What’s the time?” he asked.
“Six” I told him, checking my watch.
“Do you realise, that’s the first time we’ve ever spent a whole night together” he told me. It felt so right, it was amazing how long it had taken us to get there. We snuggled down again, and a few minutes later I heard snoring.
Eventually Sunny woke up, we got dressed and went in search of coffee. We caught a few of the early acts as we scoured the fields looking for Mark, but by mid afternoon I could see Sunny was getting itchy feet.
“Shall we head home?” I suggested. “We’re not realistically going to find him here.”
“And if we go home now we might have long enough to shower half a dozen times and get clean again before work tomorrow” Sunny said.
It took half as long to pack the tent away as it had to set it up, and in no time we were back on the road. An hour later we pulled into the services, I needed a wee but I’m sure for Sunny it was more for a
chance to wash his hands and face and feel cleaner again.
“Did you enjoy it really?” I asked.
“I actually did, believe it or not” he said. “I enjoyed the music, especially that young woman singer last night. I enjoyed being with you. I’d have enjoyed being with you a bit more if it wasn’t for our neighbours.”
I grinned. “Well, we’re all grown up these days. No more sneaking around. You can enjoy being with me tonight if you like? I could stay over?”
“I’d like that” he said, and rested his hand on my knee as he drove.
Chapter Thirteen
“Where to first?” Sunny asked me as we drove back down the main roads and neared home.
“My house, please, for a shower, to recharge my phone and call Charlie. I’d better break it to her soon that we had no luck.”
“Your wish is my command” said Sunny, turning left onto my road.
“Do you want to come in?” I asked, thinking about how wonderful it had been to spend time with him and realising that I wasn’t ready yet for him to go again.
“I would, but I really need a shower.”
“If my parents are home you can go in after me” I said.
“And if they’re out?” he asked.
“You can help wash my hair” I told him, then braced myself as he drove up the kerb. He got his eyes back on the road, and pulled over safely. I could hear him muttering under his breath “be out, be out, be out.”
I grinned. I was thinking the same thing. We jumped out of the car and grabbed our bags from the boot. I called out a greeting as I opened the door, and we both grinned when we didn’t get a reply. We dropped the bags, and raced up the stairs. By the time I’d grabbed some towels Sunny was already undressed and starting the shower.
I was lifting my t-shirt to take it off as the doorbell rang. I swore, and Sunny joined me, adding a list of what I presumed were curses in Chinese. I couldn’t understand a word he said, but I could understand the frustration he felt.