by Rosie Harris
‘Yes, that’s true,’ Sandra agreed.
‘Where’s your girl then? Now she would be able to catch them. Has a way with pigs has your Becky, look at how she takes that Moses for walks. Treats him like she would a pet dog.’
‘Rebecca has gone back to university, she went off yesterday,’ Sandra said primly.
‘What! She’s still at school then? That friend of hers, Cindy Mason, has been working for almost a year now. Down at the new supermarket I’m told, though I’ve not been in there yet.’
‘Quite right! I haven’t been in there either,’ Sandra murmured.
‘Really?’ Mrs Beech looked surprised. ‘I keeps telling myself that it’s silly not to. All that convenience right here on our own doorstep, why take the bus to Gillingham or Wincanton?’
‘Quite so, Mrs Beech. Now, what was it you wanted?’
‘Couple of slices of cooked ham and a pound of mince,’ Mrs Beech said, consulting a list she’d taken out of her shopping bag.
‘Perhaps it’s a good thing your Becky is still at school. At least you knows where she is, and she isn’t getting herself into mischief like that Cindy seems to be doing.’
Sandra said nothing and concentrated on weighing the mince.
‘Very nasty all these rumours going round the village about her. Some folks even think they know who the married man is, but I says I don’t think they’ve got the right one.’
The woman looked at her expectantly, but Sandra tightened her lips as she whipped the meat off the scales and set it down on the counter alongside the slices of ham she’d already wrapped up.
‘Thank you, Mrs Beech. Will that be all?’
‘Yes, I’ll pay you for those and then be on my way. I want to make sure none of them piglets get into my garden, they can certainly do some damage. I suppose this will be the talk of the village for the next few weeks,’ she added as she made for the door. ‘Still, it might stop the tongues wagging about Cindy Mason.
‘Well, talk of the devil! Here she is!’ she exclaimed as Cindy, clad in tight jeans and a dark-blue sweater, pulled up on her bicycle, which she parked against the kerb before coming into the shop.
‘You come to round up them piglets then, Cindy?’ she greeted her.
‘That’s right, Mrs Beech.’ Cindy smiled then looked across at Sandra. ‘Where are they? Dad and Jake couldn’t come right away as they’re unloading the tractor, so I thought I would come on down and see if I could do anything to help.’
‘You’ll do a fine job, Cindy, far better than your dad or young Jake, because them piglets know you so well,’ Mrs Beech chimed in before Sandra could speak.
‘After all,’ she added as she made her way towards the shop door, ‘you spends most evenings up there along with them, so they must think of you as one of the family.’
When neither Sandra nor Cindy made any reply, Mrs Beech opened the door ready to leave then stopped with a gasp. ‘Look!’ She waved her hand holding her shopping basket towards the road. ‘Them piglets is right here. They’ve come to meet you, Cindy.’
Both Cindy and Sandra ran towards the door and Cindy squeezed past Mrs Beech, who was still holding the door open, jumped over the step, landing in the middle of the pavement, and grabbed the two piglets before they could run away.
Sandra watched from the doorway as her husband came out of the side road from their house. He looked very dishevelled and panted for breath as he paused, looking up and down the road for the piglets.
‘They’re here, Bill,’ Cindy yelled as she tried desperately to hold the two squirming bodies struggling in her arms. ‘Can you take one before I drop both of them?’
As Sandra and Mrs Beech watched from the doorway, Bill Peterson grabbed hold of one of the squealing piglets while Cindy held on to the other one.
‘I need more help, there’s another eight of these little terrors to find,’ Bill told Sandra as he waited for Cindy to collect her bicycle from where she had parked it by the kerb.
‘I phoned the farm, but Cindy said Jake and Tom couldn’t come until they’d finished unloading the tractor.’
‘Well, she’s probably more use than either of them,’ Bill said with a wide grin as Cindy came towards them holding the other piglet under one arm and pushing her bike with her free hand.
‘We’ll take these two little rascals back up to the pen and then we’ll see how many of the others we can find,’ Bill said to Cindy.
Sandra bit her lip and hastily withdrew into the shop before Mrs Beech could make any comment, as she saw Bill place an arm around Cindy’s shoulders as they turned into the narrow road leading up to Woodside.
Eleven
Rebecca reread her mother’s letter twice, then went to make herself a cup of strong instant coffee before sitting down to read it through again.
She simply couldn’t believe what her mother had written. She knew her mother hadn’t liked the pigs from the very day they arrived. She also knew that Tom Mason didn’t care too much for them either. Although she had no idea why this was, she knew he wouldn’t even consider rearing them on his farm.
For her mother and Mavis to fall out about them was beyond belief, though, and Rebecca simply couldn’t believe it had happened, having been close friends all their lives, the same as she and Cindy.
‘I never thought I’d live to see the day when Mavis would say things like she has,’ her mother had written. ‘I know there’s been a lot of gossip in the village about Cindy and talk that she is seeing a married man behind his wife’s back, but to accuse your father of being the man involved and say that he was using the pigs to entice Cindy to come up to our place every night is beyond belief.
‘I know that when Cindy comes up each evening to collect Moses, she sometimes stops and chats to your dad and gives him a hand with the pigs. What she really comes up for, though, is to take Moses for a walk, like she promised you. But that’s all there is to it. The minute she’s done helping to feed them and clean them out and settle them, she takes Moses out. Where she goes with him I have no idea, but she is never away for more than an hour. When she brings him back, she puts him in his special little sty and shuts him in. Then she comes to the back door and shouts out goodnight to us, and then she’s off. She won’t even stop to chat or have a drink with us because she says she has things to do, and as far as I know she goes straight home.
‘All this gossip has upset Cindy and although she still comes up and takes Moses for a walk as she promised, she says she can’t go on doing it for much longer. The gossip really is making her very unhappy and causing her problems at home.
‘Mavis and Tom are upset as well. Like her, they both say there are no grounds for people saying the things they are saying about her and your dad, and I believe them and her.
‘Anyway, your dad has agreed that he will give up keeping pigs altogether and hopes that will put an end to all this scandalous talk. He’s planning to take the pigs to the very next cattle market, even though they’re not quite the weight they ought to be for him to get the top price for them.
‘I know he’s said all this before, but this time he really means it. He says things can’t go on like they are. It’s not right to have Lizzie Smith and the other old gossips in the village all talking about him and Cindy like they’re doing. It’s ruining her reputation, and it isn’t doing his any good either and in time it will start to affect our business.
‘I know he is serious because he is even prepared to sell Molly. If he can’t find a buyer for her at the market, then he’s going to send her straight to the abattoir.
‘The reason I’m telling you all this is because we need to know what you want to do about Moses.
‘I know both you and Cindy think of him as a pet, and I’m sure that if Tom Mason had been willing to let Cindy keep him on their farm you’d have agreed to that. But since he won’t, what do you want us to do about Moses?
‘It’s a hard decision for you and it’ll probably be hard for Cindy as well, but we simply ca
n’t have her coming up here every evening to take him for a walk.
‘Making a clean break with the pigs is the only way we know to stop all the rumours and gossip.
‘I’ve tried to explain all this to Mavis, but she simply won’t listen. Perhaps you can get Cindy to talk to her mother? It’s heart-breaking for me because I’ve been friends with Mavis since we first went to school, the same as you and Cindy.’
Rebecca put down the letter and finished her coffee. It was a tough decision but she reckoned it was one that had to be made. As far as she could see, the only thing they could do was get rid of Moses, but she thought it was only fair to ring Cindy and see what she felt about it.
When she dialled Cindy’s number, there was no response. Wondering if she had misdialled, she tried again but the line was completely dead. Mystified, she tried Jake’s mobile.
‘I’m trying to get hold of Cindy but her phone seems to be dead,’
‘It will be,’ Jake cut in. ‘She’s switched it off and she’s locked herself in her bedroom and won’t come out or speak to anyone, not even to me.’
‘Why? What’s happened?’
‘I thought you would have heard about all the gossip that’s going around about her,’ he said in an angry voice.
‘I’ve just had a letter from my mother detailing everything. I don’t know if you have heard or not, but my dad is getting rid of the pigs – all of them, including Molly.’
‘Good!’ Jake retorted. ‘Not before time.’
‘I wanted to have a word with Cindy, to see what she thinks we ought to do about Moses.’
‘In my opinion the sooner you get rid of him the better,’ Jake said. ‘Crazy the way you two petted and pampered him. He’s an animal for goodness sake, he was never suitable as a pet.’
‘Well, yes, I’m sure you’re right but we were both very fond of him and I wanted to know if Cindy agrees he should go. If she does, then how do we dispose of him?’
‘Send him to market, the same as your dad’s doing with all the others.’
‘No, we couldn’t do that to Moses,’ Rebecca protested. ‘He wouldn’t settle into a herd, not after being so tame and being treated like a pet.’
‘Then there’s only one answer, isn’t there?’ Jake said quietly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘The abattoir. He’ll be all right for the butchery trade, they won’t care if he’s been a pet or not.’
Rebecca shuddered and bit down hard on her lower lip to stop herself crying.
‘Hello? Hello? Are you still there, Becky?’
‘Yes, I … I was thinking,’ Rebecca said in a shaky voice. ‘It seems so hard on Moses but I suppose you’re right.’
‘Of course I am, it’s the only way. It’s always a mistake to get overfond of any animal you raise,’ he said. ‘Give them a name and suddenly you find yourself treating them differently.’
‘You give all your cows names.’
‘That’s different. Cows have got to feel you are kindly towards them or else they won’t let down their milk for you. You give them a name and treat them as individuals, but you must never get overfond of them.’
‘Whatever you say, Jake,’ Rebecca sniffled. ‘That still hasn’t solved the problem about Moses.’
‘I’ve already told you, he will have to go to the abattoir.’
‘I can’t send him there without talking to Cindy first. She’s had enough to put up with over the past few months and I wouldn’t want to distress her any more.’
‘Cindy’s a farmer’s daughter, she’s been brought up to treat animals as they should be treated, the same as I have, so she’ll understand,’ Jake said firmly.
‘I’d still like to talk to her about it,’ Rebecca insisted. ‘Will you ask her to phone me, please?’
Although he promised he would do so if Cindy ever came out of her room again, Rebecca waited in vain for the call. Finally, when none came she phoned through to her mother and asked her if she would tell her father that she thought the best thing to do about Moses was to send him to the abattoir.
‘Your father has already done that,’ her mother told her. ‘That wretched animal was kicking up such a commotion because Cindy wasn’t here to take him for a walk in the evenings that we couldn’t cope with him any longer. Twice he broke out of his sty, and it took your father and a couple of other men over an hour to catch him. When they did, he turned on them and bit one of the men on the leg. Ruined his trousers, but fortunately his teeth didn’t get through to the man’s flesh. Your father had to give the man money for a new pair of trousers, though.’
‘Oh, Mum! I’m so sorry. You’ll definitely have to get rid of him.’
‘I’ve already told you, your dad has done so. He sent him and the old sow Molly off two days ago. The rest of the pigs are being taken to market next week.’
Rebecca felt too upset to even cry. She couldn’t believe that Moses and Molly were now merely carcasses. Lumps of juicy pink pork chops, spare ribs, hamburgers and sausages on display in a butcher’s shop window.
She would never be able to eat meat again. Well, certainly not pork, in case it was either Molly or, worse still, Moses.
She felt she needed fresh air. It was still light, so she went for a walk around Cathays Park.
After walking aimlessly for almost an hour, she stopped and studied the names on the impressive cream Portland stone War Memorial and wondered if she ought to erect a plaque in their garden at home to the memory of Moses.
She didn’t have a body to bury, she reminded herself. Then, she thought sadly, nor had the wives and mothers and children of the men who had died in the war, but they had still erected a monument to their memory.
The late-February evening had suddenly turned cold and Rebecca shivered. She hadn’t even thought to pick up a cardigan before coming out and now she felt really cold. Folding her arms across her chest, she hugged herself and hurried home.
Before she went to bed that night, Rebecca emailed Cindy inviting her to come to Cardiff either the following weekend or the weekend after that.
‘Try and get the Saturday off, so you can travel down after you finish work on Friday night. Then we will have all day Saturday and Sunday together. I’ll check out the time of the last train home for you on Sunday and you can ask Jake to collect you from the station.
‘I have so much to tell you and so many questions to ask. And it will be great to be able to show you round Cardiff. I’m sure you’ll love it.
‘Let me know which weekend you decide to come and the time of the train you’ll be on, and I’ll be waiting for you at Cardiff Central when you get here.’
Rebecca read the email over twice and then rewrote it leaving out ‘and so many questions to ask you’. Satisfied with the result, she pressed ‘Send’.
Twelve
Rebecca started to think of all the things she wanted to discuss with Cindy. It was several months since she had left Shelston and she was sure she would get sidetracked once they began talking and forget something she meant to tell her or ask her.
The most important thing of all was to clear up this rumour about her father being involved with Cindy. It was all rubbish, of course, and had only arisen because Cindy went up to Woodside every evening to help him with the pigs.
It seemed ridiculous that Cindy couldn’t do a good turn to help a friend without being maligned by people. She wondered when the rumour had started and who had started it. She suspected that Lizzie Smith was probably the culprit since she was such a well-known gossip.
She had so many questions to ask Cindy she decided to make a list in case she forgot some of them. She found a sheet of lined notepaper and started with the most important question of all. Did the rumours start because Cindy had been secretly meeting someone after taking Moses out?
There were so many things she wanted to find out that the page was completely filled before she had listed them all.
Whew! As she ran her eye down the page, she thought �
�Poor Cindy! If I’m not careful, there isn’t going to be time to talk about anything else.’
She looked through the list again, wondering if she could cut out some of the questions. Then she realized she had to ask Cindy which of the boys they had grown up with in Shelston she was seeing. Was it serious? And was she planning to get engaged?
If there was someone special in Cindy’s life, then it was obvious that was the person she was seeing. That would immediately make all reference to her father or some other older man ludicrous.
If that was the case, why hadn’t Cindy told her parents? Or told Rebecca’s mum and dad or written to her, so the rumours could be scotched?
Shaking her head, Rebecca tucked the list away in a drawer. She’d look through it again once she’d heard from Cindy and knew when she was coming to Cardiff. In the meantime she’d get on with her studies and try to get well advanced with them, so she could devote the entire weekend to going out and enjoying herself with Cindy without having a guilty conscience about getting behind with her work.
Cindy’s reply came three days later, saying she had chosen the second weekend Rebecca had suggested.
Delighted, Rebecca phoned her mother to tell her the good news.
‘The last weekend in February? Oh dear, that’s the weekend your father has arranged for the pigs to go to market. I think he was relying on Cindy to help him load them on to the lorry and be at the market with him.’
‘Well, she couldn’t do that because she’d be at work,’ Rebecca pointed out.
‘Yes, I suppose she would. Oh well, not to worry, I’m sure he can make other arrangements now you’ve let us know she’s coming to visit you.’
They chatted on about various things and then said goodnight to each other. After she’d switched off her phone, she thought again about what her mother had said.
Why on earth had her mother thought Cindy would help get the pigs to market? Surely it was the very last thing Cindy would want to do, knowing that only a couple of weeks earlier her father had disposed of poor Moses? She thought about it for a while then, shrugged her shoulders and gave up.