by Marian Phair
“I heard it, it is beating so fast,” she told him. “Thank you, you have made me so happy.” Dr Sam took her blood pressure, measured her height, and weighed her.
“Well young lady, everything is fine with both you and the baby. I will keep a close watch on things. Make another appointment with Ellen before you leave as you will need to see me once a month for the time being. In the meantime, if you have any problems, just give me a call.” He made a note on her file as he spoke to her, and then escorted her to the door, giving her one of his ‘false’ smiles, false because the smile never reached his eyes.
“Is anyone waiting to take you back to Rojo Tejado?”
“No, I came by bus,” Amie replied, “I took this opportunity to take in some of the sights, before my appointment with you. I love what I have seen of Tarragona.”
She went through the door he held for her, not wishing to take up any more of his time, mindful of the elderly woman with toothache.
Dr Sam beckoned the old woman into his office, as Amie was making a further appointment with Ellen Rodriguez. When she was leaving, she heard their raised angry voices arguing in rapid Spanish.
On the bus ride back to Rojo Tejado, Amie sat wondering if she should take Millie into her confidence and tell her about the scene she had witnessed earlier. How could she face Melissa? Amie’s mind was in turmoil. She got off the bus in Salou; she knew she could not face Melissa in her present state of mind. She sat on a bench facing the ocean, chewing at her bottom lip as she turned things over in her mind. She was so lost in her thoughts; she had not noticed that a man had sat down beside her on the bench until he spoke. “I’ll giv’ yer a penny for ‘um.”
Amie looked up startled, to find Charlie’s smiling face.
“Gordon Bennett, yer look like yer lost a bob an’ found a tanner.”
“Oh, Charlie, you startled me, what are you doing here?” she said, looking at him with wide eyes.
“I could ask yer the same, are yer okay gel, yer look at bit peaky ter’ me?” He placed a concerned arm across her shoulders and gave her a hug.
“Tell yer ole Uncle Charlie wot’s bov’erin’ yer.”
“I only wish I could Charlie,” she said, “I’m not sure what to do about something that is all.” She could really use some sound advice, right about now, she thought.
“Are you ‘avin trouble wiv’ Melissa?” At the mention of Melissa’s name, Charlie felt a shudder go through Amie and he knew he had hit the nail on the head.
“Charlie, just how well do you know Melissa, is she a friend of yours?” Amie asked him.
“Nah, Mel’s a bleedin’ good actress, but she’s a lousy muvver, and she ain’t a friend ov mine, I ‘ave to work wiv’ ‘er is all. To tell yer the truth gel, she’s got the morals ‘ov an alley cat!”
“Charlie, if I tell you something, do you promise to keep it to yourself?”
“Cross me ‘eart an’ spit. That’s a promise darlin’,” Charlie told her.
Amie told him what she had witnessed in Tarragona and stated she did not know how she could face Melissa now, without giving herself away.
“its okay gel, all ov’ us know Mel likes the men, all except the poor bleeder she married,” said Charlie, giving Amie’s shoulder a quick squeeze.
“Come on I’ll buy yer a cup ‘ov tea, yer got nuffink ter worry abaht, you’ll see, trust yer ole Uncle Charlie.” He took her to a little café across the road seating her at a table next to the window where they had a view of the ocean. Charlie ordered refreshments for them both. The waitress brought their order and when she left them to serve another customer, Amie told Charlie what she had witnessed in Tarragona. Chattering over a cup of tea, Amie found her first male friend, in the larger than life, Charlie Makepeace.
CHAPTER NINE
Melissa read the telegram twice; it had been delivered that morning. It read,
I am in Lisbon. Join me bring Peter. Here for 10 days. We must talk! Staying at the Hotel Estrela.
Room 204. Joe.XXX
Melissa had missed him, realising she stilled loved him. The first year of their marriage had been bliss; they had so much fun together.
Joe had told her of his dreams for their future and she had been the centre of his world that is until Peter was born. She hated the name Peter but Joe had insisted they name the boy after his father, saying he owed him that at least, but refused to tell her why, now she didn’t care.
Joe had doted on his son from the day he was born; nothing was too good for Peter. Gradually, bit-by-bit, Melissa had been pushed into the background; she had never really bonded with the boy. Children to her were just a burden; they prevented you from getting on with your life. They held you back and were a pain in the backside with their constant demands on your time and everything else, from the day they were born.
Melissa had always been materialistic, she hadn’t a single maternal bone in her body, she always put her own needs first, or so she had been told. She had been a struggling actress, trying to make the big time, when they first met. Joe had dropped out of medical school, to follow his dream.
They had their first sexual encounter on their second date, on the back seat of the old Morris he drove. Joe had parked down an alley and they were ripping the clothes off each other before getting into the back of the car, in their eagerness to be naked together.
Joe was a terrific lover; Melissa had her first orgasm in months that night. They spent every spare minute together, having sex and making plans for their future.
“We won’t have children for at least four years after we are married,” he had told her, “it will give us both a chance to pursue our careers and get the bugs out of our systems, before we settle down to raising a family.” Then laughingly, he said, “we will have four children, two boys, handsome horny devils like their father and two beautiful girls, hot and sexy, like their mother. Melissa had told Joe she was on the pill, so he never used a condom. She hated the damn things, all that rubber that kept her from feeling his hot throbbing penis ejaculating inside her.
Melissa recalled the day she had been studying her script for a bit-part in a television commercial. Joe had burst in on her, waving the letter under her nose. He had been so happy and excited, unable to stop smiling as he told her of its contents. In less than three weeks he was going away to Africa. At long last he could follow his dream.
“Come with me,” he said, “we can get married out there; think what an adventure it will be.” What of her dream? She wanted to be an actress, wanted to see her name in lights and up on the silver screen.
Melissa had gone through a hell of a lot to get her foot on the first rung of the ladder, far too much to give up on her dream now. She had spent too many hours on her back and on her knees, courting the right people to help her up the ladder of success, only to give it up now and for what! So that Joe could have his cake and eat it.
“I’m pregnant, “she lied, “It happened when we went to Bundoran together and I forgot to take my pills with me.” The truth was, she was still taking the pill, to avoid getting pregnant. She really had no intention of raising a family, with Joe or any other man. She intended to get to the top of her chosen career. She did not care what she had to do to get there, or how many men she had to sleep with, or who’s toes she stepped on to get there and there was certainly no room for children in her plan.
“You’re lying,” Joe accused her, “I saw you take the pill every night, for heaven’s sake, I brought you your water to take it with and saw you take it.”
“What I took were aspirins,” Melissa told him, “because I was afraid to tell you I had forgotten the real ones.”
“So why,” he asked, “did you not get some more when we were down there, or at least tell me so I could have used some protection?. I don’t believe this is happening to me!”
“Because you can only get them on prescription and I did not want to spoil our first holiday together.” She had sobbed, and had clung to his legs begging him to d
o the decent thing by her. Melissa felt a pang of guilt, as she saw the look of utter defeat on his face. She could see Joe was close to tears, but he kept control of his emotions.
Joe had stood by her and they had married in a registry office a month later. She really did love him, as far as she was capable of loving anyone. Melissa had promised Joe that once the baby was born, she would go with him anywhere in the world, but not before. She did not want their baby to be born in Africa. At first she had planned to tell him that she had aborted the child and get out of the situation that way, but she knew him too well for him to swallow that story, so she had set about getting herself pregnant, rather than risk losing him.
The months had gone by and when the baby had not arrived by the date the doctor had given, she had lied to him again.
“The doctor told me he may have got the dates mixed up, I am over due, but he wants to give me another two weeks. If the baby has not arrived by then, he will induce me.”
Melissa had moved all the heavy furniture in the house, when she was alone and had done almost everything she was told to avoid doing, during her pregnancy and finally her plan worked. Peter was born one month premature, Joe was unaware of the fact and she had duped her husband well.
They had been happy enough at the start, until one fateful day, something from her sordid past caught up with her, and their marriage had gone into steady decline.
Joe had stopped off for a drink in O’Brien’s public house, with Eamon Malone, a colleague from work. Melissa had been out shopping and was waiting for the set of traffic lights outside of O’Brien’s to change, when Eamon Malone had spotted her from his seat near the window.
“Quick, look out the window; see the blonde in the green top,” Eamon had said pointing out Melissa.”
“What about her?” Joe asked, thinking he would have a little fun at Eamons expense, before letting him know that the woman was his wife.
Taking a drink from his pint, Eamon said, “You should have been there, honest to god, she ‘pulled-a-train’ one night, a couple of years or so back, in the field behind this very pub.” Joe sat rigid in his seat, keeping his expression blank, whilst Eamon relishing in his story continued to enlighten him.
“There were eight of us, no sorry, nine, I was forgetting Jerry Finch,” said Eamon, “We were all hanging around waiting our turn at her. She was as drunk as a skunk, lying there in the grass, no knickers on, her dress pulled up to her throttle, displaying all her wares. Be gad’s I can feel me self getting horny just telling you about it” he laughed. “Anyway, there she lay loving every minute of it and you’re not going to believe this, after we had all done, she asked if anyone wanted to go the rounds again. She just couldn’t get enough of it!” He exclaimed.
Joe felt like throwing his pint into Eamon Malone’s face. He felt sick to his stomach at what he had just heard. Eamon had no idea he was relating this to Melissa’s husband.
Joe had come home in a fury, raging at her, calling her a dirty whore, spitting out the words he had just been told about her. He stood over her his clenched fists just inches, from her face, but he did not strike her. Joe had turned on his heel and left. He came home three hours later, in a drunken stupor, collapsing in a heap across the couch and not a move out of him until the next day. Melissa had fallen off her pedestal.
She had made him a pot of coffee the next morning, and pouring a cup for him she had apologised.
“We all make mistakes in our lives, and do things we regret, and are ashamed of; it was a long time ago, before I met you.” It had made little difference; Joe had started to push her away from him, giving the baby his attention. Melissa found herself turning more and more, to the bottle for comfort.
They had moved away from the area. Joe could not stand the thought of coming face to face, with any of the men that had ‘screwed’ his wife, as he put it to her. He was prepared to make a fresh start for the sake of the baby.
Eventually, they made new friends and had some form of social life as a couple, and at long last her career had taken off.
Melissa had managed to get a part in a film called ‘Other People’s Lives.’ She played the part of a woman dying of cancer, who made a video to leave behind for her year old twins. They could learn something of their mother, when they were older and she was no longer around.
The film got rave reviews, she had made it, and in next to no time at all it seemed, the offers came in and script after script was sent for her perusal. Joe never mentioned Africa again, or the promise she had made to go with him. She had many dark secrets to keep from him, far too many ghosts from the past.
Melissa had lost her virginity at the tender age of thirteen, to a baker’s delivery driver, Stanley Mulligan, a man old enough to be her father.
Having enticed her into the back of the van, he had planted sloppy wet kisses on her mouth. Slipping a hand inside her panties, he had stroked her clitoris, causing pleasurable sensations to ripple through her body, whilst he played with himself. Then as his excitement grew, he had lain her down on the hard floor of the van and mounted her, taking her virginity, his body sweat mingling with the aroma of freshly baked bread.
Melissa had sneaked off to be with him at every available opportunity, playing truant from school to be with him, Stanley had performed oral sex on her and taught her to do the same on him. He had been her tutor, teaching her all about the pleasures of sex and putting them into practice, in every conceivable position. Awakening in her an excessive desire for copulation, this was never truly sated.
Stanley told her she was his little nymphomaniac and he loved her for it and could not get enough of her. The affair continued throughout the rest of her school days and even after she had left school. Their affair lasted four years. They had to sneak around, because he was married and a father of six children. They always had sex in the back of the van after he had made his deliveries, except for just that one time.
They had their own secret place, a broken down old barn, in a field on the edge of a rundown farm, a mile from town. This one particular occasion happened when he took her to the barn before making his deliveries. Stanley drove the delivery van through a gap in the hedge, then into the old barn. Once inside they could not be seen from the road by any passerby.
Surrounded by racks of freshly baked bread and cream cakes, they lay stark naked on the blanket he had provided. Stanley had taken the cream from one of the cakes and smeared it over her breasts and inner thighs and then proceeded to slowly lick it off. She became so excited, not waiting for him to fit a condom, in her need to feel him inside her.
Melissa climbed on top of him, taking hold of his penis; she quickly rubbed it against her vulva to get him good and hard, and then inserted it. She moved her body back and forth furiously over his, until they climaxed together. That was the time she became impregnated with his seed.
When she had missed her periods for the second time, she had bought a self-pregnancy test kit from the local chemist. Conducting the test in the public toilet, rather than at home where she might have been discovered.
When she told Stanley she was pregnant, he panicked, refusing to leave his wife and family for her.
Melissa had been attending drama school, studying to become an actress. It had been her life-long dream as far back as she could remember. Stanley arranged for her to have an abortion, convincing her it was the best thing for both of them, to get them out of the mess they found themselves in.
Under cover of darkness, he had driven her to the house the abortion was to be performed in. He paid the man at the door five hundred pounds and left her there. Melissa never saw Stanley Mulligan again.
In a seedy back room of the house, she had lain on a dining room table that had been covered with a blanket, her legs apart and bent at the knees. She had been given something to help her to relax and became drowsy.
Melissa felt the instrument being placed inside her vagina, which gave the man access to her cervix and before he could scrape the
tiny fetus with a curette, she passed out.
Coming to, she found a bloody pad between her legs; she was relieved it was over. The man gave her two small white tablets to take the next day and told her to rest up for a few days. He had driven her through the rain sodden streets to her home and leaving her at the roadside, he drove off.
She stood in shock where he had left her, the tears running down her face mingled with the raindrops. It was Melissa’s first meeting with Dr Samuel Morrison.
She had no idea then, of the psychological effect her experiences over the past four years, would have on her life and that this first meeting, with doctor Sam, would turn out to be one of many!
Coming out of her reverie, Melissa wondered how she could get out of filming for a few days. Picking up the telephone, she dialed a number then called out to Millie. “I want you to pack a bag for Peter; he will need clothes for a week. I will do my own packing, and then we are off to Portugal.” Millie had not seen her employer look so happy in an age and hoped this good mood would last.
“Will you need me with you?” Millie asked her, hoping she would not.
“No, I am off to bury the hatchet,” Melissa said. “I plan to do some serious seducing.”
“Seducing,” questioned Millie, “you mean you are going off to seduce a man and you are taking Peter with you?”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head Millie,” she replied, “I am married to the man I plan to seduce.” Now, let’s see if that bitch Joe went with, is a match for me in bed, she thought, “when it comes to giving a man sexual pleasure Millie, I know more tricks than Oliver Twist,” she laughed.
“Have you informed Peter’s nanny of your plans?” Millie asked. She deliberately left out Amie’s name in her question, not wishing to let Melissa know just how close they had become, two conspirators, ganging up on the boss, to protect the child.
“Not yet, anyway, she would more than likely enjoy some time off, it would give her chance to spend some of that money I have been paying her,” Melissa said, giving Millie a quick hug, completely taking her by surprise.