Lettuces and Cream

by John Evans

  ‘Dad, dad, there’s a big hole in a tunnel.’

  ‘Big hole, David?’

  ‘Yeah, the plastic is all open.’ David insisted.

  Not really knowing what they meant Mike swigged the last of his coffee.

  ‘Okay kids lets see what’s what shall we? I’ll get my coat and wellies.’

  Mike, with Mandy and David traipsing along behind him, headed for the tunnel field.

  ‘Bloody hell, how the hell did that happen?’ For once the children didn’t censure him for his swearing and he stood leaning on his crutches looking the huge slash in the plastic covering. The cut ran for about half the length of the tunnel, some thirty foot long. The gash looked like a clean knife cut, and there had been no gales of late, so what the hell had happened? Some of the plastic had been flapping about in the breeze, damaging the lettuce crop within. With the initial excitement over, the children went back to their bikes and Mike walked, or rather limped back to the house with a heavy heart, too heavy in fact to be angry. To add to his discomfort, as he approached the house two jet planes screamed low over the house making him cringe with surprise, and the noise. And you lot can sod off too, he mumbled. Chris had been right, one never knew when they would suddenly appear, but usually spoiling the calmest and sunniest of days

  ‘I just can’t understand what’s happened, Jan.’

  ‘Are you sure there wasn’t some sort of fault in the plastic? ‘

  ‘No, the plastic looked perfect when it went on. I just don’t understand it. And we’ve lost over two hundred lettuce plants.’ Mike said gloomily.

  ‘Can we patch it up with something?’

  ‘We’ll have to. Have we got any Sellotape or something like that? Just for now. And I’ll send for some proper repair tape. It’s more expense I know, but it would be handy to have some here –just in case.’

  ‘There is some Sellotape, somewhere. I’ll come and give you a hand with it. It will be easier with the two of us.’

  ‘Okay, thanks love,’ he spoke thoughtfully, ‘I can’t understand it, I suppose it must have been a fault in the plastic. But it’s funny that I didn’t see it. It’s strange though, Keith has been having weird things happening too. It’s a mystery, but I can’t believe any one would do such a thing. Why would they?’

  ‘No, nor me.’ Jan agreed.

  Mike, and his spooky idea that the place was cursed came to the fore again. Surely nothing else bad could happen – could it?

  NINETEEN

  Sundays were now more or less like any other day. True, the children usually got up later because they were allowed to stay up for an extra hour or two on a Saturday night. And Mike tried not to do too much work because he liked the idea of Sundays being different, restful. But even so, he now had to be up for the routine feeding and milking. Back in town he rarely had a Sunday morning at home because of the shifts he used to work. In those days he would be lucky to get one lazy Sunday in four, and sometimes on such days, he would leave Jan in bed and go and buy a stack of Sunday papers to read. Ah, rose coloured days indeed. No Sunday papers out here, and back then he certainly didn’t have to brave inclement weather to look after animals.

  ‘It’s cold out there this morning’ Mike said, putting the pail of milk on the kitchen table, ready for Jan to filter, then put in the fridge. They didn’t have a posh expensive stainless steel bucket, just an old plastic job, but it did the job well enough.

  ‘Not much better in here either,’ Jan did up some more buttons on her cardigan.

  ‘Okay, I’ll get the Rayburn stoked up before I have breakfast.’

  ‘Yeah please, I’ll need it hot for the cooking anyway. I thought we’d have that bit of beef from the freezer that I bought when my mum and dad came to see us.’

  ‘That’ll put hairs on our chests.’

  ‘I’m not sure I want hair on mine,’ Jan quipped without a smile.

  There was a thumping on the old uncarpeted stairs and David romped into the kitchen.

  ‘Can I have cream on my cornflakes, mum.’

  ‘Of course you can, love. Is Mandy coming down too?’ Jan turned to look at her son.

  ‘Have you combed your hair this morning?’

  ‘Yeah, I think so, and I have combed it, honest, mum. When is Grandma and Aunty Marion coming.’ David replied trying to change the subject.

  ‘Well it doesn’t look combed to me, David -next week, on Friday night.’

  ‘Cor great.’ He tucked in to his cornflakes with gusto.

  Later, about eleven, and Mike had come in for his break. Just as he lifted the coffee cup to his lips, once again the kids dashed in.

  ‘There’s a posh white car coming down the track, dad.’

  ‘Probably the Pools man telling us we’ve one a million pounds.’ Mike teased

  ‘Pity we don’t do them then,’ Jan retorted

  ‘I wonder who the heck this can be on a Sunday too, perhaps someone is lost.’

  ‘Uh, They would be very lost if they’re coming down our lane,’Jan said.

  ‘I suppose I better see who it is,’ Mike sighed.

  Mike watched as the car slowly approached the yard. Bloody hell a white sports BMW someone’s in the money. He looked with envy as the vehicle got closer, but he couldn’t yet make out the people inside. The kids were riding their bikes around the yard with Spot following them yapping playfully. They were waiting to see if anything of interest was to occur, visitors were a very rare event. The car was closer now and Mike recognised the driver. Jesus bloody Christ, Roy. The last person he and Jan wanted, or expected to see. Mike gave a huge double-barrelled sigh, the curse on this place strikes again, will it never end. The last time he had seen Roy, was nearly three years ago at a Christmas party. Mike remembered it well because it had been the one and only time he had ever punched anyone. An act totally out of character. Roy had been showing the men at the party explicit Polaroid’s of his wife, Barbara, Mike had struck out in total disgust at such behaviour. How the hell did he find us? Even knowing the address, it’s remoteness made it a difficult place to get to. As Mike well knew from getting lost that night they went to the cinema. The car drew up into the yard and Roy got out. He was, as always, immaculately dressed. He was wearing a light coloured suit, tie, and his dark hair parted with a crisp, scalp white line. He wore smart spectacles, which he frequently pushed up over his nose.

  ‘That track is a mess, you want to do something about that.’

  Cheeky bugger, Mike thought, as arrogant as ever. Roy walked around the car inspecting the mud and cow muck on the gleaming white bodywork.

  ‘Get your kids to wash it for me, I’ll give them a few quid.’

  My God he’s worse than ever, Mike inwardly fumed, he had never really liked him and back in Barey had tolerated him only because he had allowed – encouraged, him to have sex with his wife.

  ‘Bit of dirt won’t hurt it.’

  ‘Like the car do you? I’m area manager now, comes with the job.’

  ‘It’s okay, not much use out here on these rough tracks.’

  Roy ignored the put down and looked at Mike with crutches and a leg in plaster.

  ‘What the hell have you been up to, Jan kicked you for chasing the women, eh?’ He gave one of those well-remembered condescending smirks. Without waiting for a reply he looked around the yard and at the house.

  ‘Blimey, bit of a dump, couldn’t you find something better than this.’ Mike bit his tongue, took a deep breath and counted to ten.

  ‘It won’t be like this for long we’ve started work on it already.’

  ‘Making lots of money, are you?’ He sneered again and looked at Mike over the top of his spectacles.

  ‘Yeah, doing okay,’ Mike lied. ‘You better come, in it’s cold standing about out here.’

  He was dreading Jan’s reaction. She disliked Roy intensely and believed he was a slimy weird bloke. Or, as Mikes grandmother would have said, ‘He’s as greasy as an oil well.’

  Almost absent
mindedly Roy gestured to the female in the car. She got out and tottered about on the uneven surface wearing stiletto heels. She looked a lot younger than Roy who was about the same age as Mike, and it seemed that Roy was now looking for younger and younger women to boost his enormous ego.

  ‘This is Sam.’ He gave Mike a look that said, you like?

  ‘ Hello Sam.’

  ‘Hello,’ she shivered. ‘It’s cold out here,’ she crossed her arms around her. Hardly surprising she was cold, she was dressed in a mini, mini dress with a low neckline. Close up, with her short blond hair, blue eyes and make up, she looked even slimmer and more juvenile, than his first impression. She certainly wasn’t Mike’s type, he liked women that looked like women - women with a bit of meat on them.

  ‘Lets get in.’

  ‘We’ve got visitors Jan,’ Mike called, ushering then into the tatty kitchen and waited for some snide remark or other from Roy.

  Jan was stunned and displeased, ‘Roy, what are you doing here.’

  ‘Well that’s nice, I come all this way to see you, and not one kiss.’ In the old days of the swinging sixties, back in Barey, he had tried many times to get in her knickers and resented the fact she had never responded, so she ignored his remark.

  ‘And who is this?’ Jan looked toward the young woman.

  ‘I’m Sam, Samantha, pleased to meet you,’ she whimpered holding out a limp white hand, and tottering on her silly shoes towards Jan.

  ‘Well, hello Sam, I’m Jan.’ Jan shot Mike a glance that said, isn’t she a bit young for him? ‘Coffee, everyone,’ Jan said as cheerfully and politely as she could pretend.

  Even the most straightforward and simple human lives can, in reality, be hugely convoluted. Most people are, in some way or another, interwoven with others, whether they want to be or not. So it was with Mike and Jan. They had believed their new way of life was to be simple and uncomplicated. How wrong they had been. Jan in particular was enmeshed in a very complex web of human interactions, by accident really. Mike wasn’t involved in the same way, and his problems were a little more tangible, planting crops, ditch cleaning and the like - and now, builders. But now, on this day, the past had come to visit them. It was part of their life they had wanted to leave behind and seeing Roy again had refreshed many memories. Not all were pleasant, and usually the less palatable ones have the tendency of fading first. But unfortunately for Mike, his memory was excellent. But he didn’t want any of it be brought back to life. Especially when they were already in such a depressed mood.

  The day wore on and later they were standing in the yard, waving very half- heartedly at the back end of Roy’s car as it travelled slowly from view.

  ‘Goodbye and good riddance,’ Mike muttered.

  ‘I don’t know why you asked him in, in the first place.’

  ‘Aw, come on, love, I couldn’t leave him on the doorstep could I?’

  ‘No I suppose not,’ Jan conceded, ‘he’s such a show off, flashing his expensive cigarettes and boasting how much he earns.’

  ‘Huh, yeah it’s a pity he never gave any to poor Barbara. She was always short of money for the kids,’ Mike said with feeling.

  ‘I think he was trying to wind us up.’ Jan said.

  ‘Anyway, we didn’t make them that welcome,’ Mike replied.

  ‘Huh, I wasn’t going to offer them a meal, turning up uninvited, and on a Sunday. He can afford to buy a meal somewhere on the way back. Anyway it’s only a small joint of meat, and if there’s any left I can use it up during the week for us – not him.’ Jan didn’t like Roy at all.

  ‘And that girl, Sam, mincing about the place on those silly high heels. Talk about a dizzy blond. She can’t be much older than his two girls,’ Mike exaggerated somewhat.

  ‘She’s not that young, and his kids are about David’s age, but I know what you mean. I wonder who looks after them, now that he travels around so much?’ Jan answered the question herself. ‘Barbara’s mother I expect. It must have been awful for them when Barbara - you know – killed herself.’ At the time Jan had wondered how she got hold of the tablets that killed her. After all Roy was a medical Rep with a car boot full of pills…

  ‘Yeah, come on it’s gone three, lets have a cuppa before I do the milking.’ Mike had had enough of thinking about those now distant days.

  ‘And I’ll get the food cooking. It’s going to be late though.’ They headed for the door; Mike paused, leaning on his crutches he let out yet another a deep sigh, ‘You don’t regret coming here do you, Darl?’

  ‘No of course not, what made you think that?’

  ‘Well we’ve no money, not like Roy, and you scratch around for food.’

  ‘No I don’t, we’re okay, and we’re not starving are we?’

  ‘No, but we need money. The kids need shoes and clothes. And more food for the pigs – the mortgage. And we need more coal for the Ray…’

  Jan interrupted him,’we’re okay. We’ll have something to sell soon. There are the calves and the pigs, and the lettuce in the spring.’

  ‘But we need money now. I could go back to Barey - get a job - come home weekends.’ Mike persisted.

  ‘No, that would be awful, we are not going to do that,’ she spoke adamantly, and gave him a peck on the cheek. ‘Go on, O wounded soldier, get in the house and lets have that cuppa.’

  The day hadn’t been a good one. Mike had been left feeling very inadequate. Roy’s visit had brought their difficulties into sharp focus. Money, that was the problem. But without working for someone else he wasn’t going to get any, well, not quickly enough. Jan’s reaction to the day was to put it to the back of her mind – for the time being at least. She put on a brave face and got on with her cooking. That night, each in their own way, needed comfort and reassurance, and once in bed they kissed and cuddled - and made love - it had been a while since they had. And really each of them were looking comfort and release of worry, rather than for passionate eroticism. But their giggling at the difficulties caused by the cold lump of plaster made it a very rare occasion of fun. Where there is desire, there is a way. However, later, in the darkness, with Mike sleeping contentedly beside her, Chris walked back into her head…

  ‘How’s it going Mr Williams?’

  ‘Slow, but we’re getting there.’

  Eight of the clock, Monday morning, and thankfully the rain had held off and the JCB was grinding away at the hard rocky subsoil.

  ‘If all goes well, and we can get these land drains in, then the concrete for the foundations will be going in at the end of the week.’

  ‘I can give you a hand to mix the concrete.’

  ‘Bit awkward for you with that leg of yours, isn’t it? No, don’t worry Mr Jones, Joe’s on another job at the minute but he’ll be here to mix the concrete.’

  ‘Oh, okay.’ Mike was disappointed because he wanted to be involved, and also to save on Joe’s wages, but decided not to push the issue, for the moment anyway. ‘I’ll leave you to it then.’ He gave Mr Williams a wave then he limped away to do the milking and to feed Pinky and the piglets, which were now in a pen of their own. The calves were now strong enough to be grazing in the field with Primrose, when the weather was good enough. Not that they grazed much themselves, but at least they were in the fresh air with their mother. That done, he was back in the house having his breakfast.

  ‘What’s on the cards today?’

  ‘Well, if it stays dry push on with the new tunnels I suppose. It’s taking me ages, with this lump of plaster I’m dragging around. Then some more work getting the veg garden ready for planting the fruit trees. Strange that the Davis’s didn’t have a veg garden or some fruit trees, God knows there’s enough land here.’

  ‘It is a bit odd. Perhaps they couldn’t be bothered and bought everything in. Any way, I’ve got to go to Llanbed to get some food in ready for your mum and sister. I know you’re sick of chicken but I thought I would get one for roasting for Sunday dinner. But I’ll have to get some money from the bank
‘cos I need some new cheap Jeans or trousers for working in.’ Her faced puckered with concentration, and apprehension. She hated going into the bank knowing that they must be approaching, once again, the overdrafts limit. She just prayed she wouldn’t be called into the manager’s office.

  ‘Roast chicken would be nice Darl, it’s not the same as pies is it?’ He was aware of Jan’s worries but thought silence was the better ploy rather than expanding upon their concerns.

  ‘Good, that’s what I thought.’ She liked having Mikes backing for her suggestions, it gave her confidence somehow. Jan didn’t like cooking for other people, especially parents, and she often had the silly notion that they were secretly critical of her efforts.

  ‘I’m doing the washing this morning, so I’ll do the shopping in town this afternoon. Then I can pick the kids up on the way back before it gets dark. And it’s rehearsals tonight.’

  ‘Okay, sweetheart, just another quiet day then,’ Mike said with irony.

  Things were equally as fraught at Chris’s place.

  ‘So, are you going to put some extra yard lights up, or not?’ Chris slammed her coffee cup down on the kitchen table.

  Keith swallowed a mouthful of his cooked breakfast. ‘I don’t think we need more lights - too bloody expensive.’

  ‘You don’t believe me do you?’

  ‘Aye, but you didn’t see anything did you?’ He stuffed in another mouthful of bacon.’I told you, Cindy was barking at something,’ Chris persisted.

  ‘Nothing new in that, is there, stupid bitch is always yapping at something –typical bloody woman.’

  ‘So now I’m a stupid dog -aw piss off, you bastard.’ She got up from the up from the table and reached for her jacket and walked to the door.

  ‘You said it,’ Keith said under his breath.’

  ‘I bloody well heard that, sod you.’ She slammed the door behind her.

  Outside in the yard she reached into her coat pocket, taking out her secret pack of ciggies and lit up. Her head was pounding with rage and she sucked hard on the fag. She exhaled a cloud of smoke with equally vigour. Why was he being such a bastard? They hadn’t ever been a lovey dovey couple but now there was viciousness in their rows that surpassed all their other rows. And she seemed to be losing her control over him, what was going on? Another cloud of cigarette smoke hit the early morning air. Thank Christ he would be away at least one more time. Chris had become used to her additional freedom, and of course all that extra sex. Carefully disposing the remains of her illicit ciggy, she walked into the cattle yard and began the feeding routine with anger raging in her heart.