“These plastic wristbands, Ralf. Would you like to wear one while you were on holiday? They get in the way and look rather silly when you are wearing an expensive Rolex, which I am.” He put out his wrist to demonstrate and laughed when Ralf pulled his shirt sleeve back and said, “ snap.”
“I know what you are saying, Paul, but what alternative do I have, when outsiders can walk in at anytime and purloin our All Inclusive and our entertainment?”
“Identity badges,” replied Paul, his eyes shining at being able to give this man the benefit of his advice. “A little camera set up behind reception, one of those encapsulating machines and everyone is happy. We have them at work and they would be far nicer than wristbands.”
“Go on,” said Ralf. “ It sounds good up to now and what is the other petty regulation?”
“Well, I wasn’t happy that your hotel can keep our passports for the duration of our stay. What if I need mine at a moment’s notice? I feel very uncomfortable that my passport is in your hotel safe.”
“Spanish regulations, I’m afraid.”
“Maybe so, but it is a petty regulation and I think it should be changed.”
“That is where you and I differ,” Ralf replied, finishing his coffee and leaning back in his chair.
“I can give you a scenario that will explain it. This morning we had to eject a guest because of his behaviour. Imagine if I had not sent my security guard with him to oversee the packing of his luggage, what might he have done to the bedroom in spite? Then there are the people who do not settle their accounts for payment of extra facilities used. We are a business Paul, not a charity. If you need your passport though, you only have to knock on my office door and I will happily hand it over.”
“Thank you,” said Paul courteously, but feeling like he was in his boss’s office back at the garage.
“I will probably need it for car hire, if I don’t book it through the rep’.”
“No, no,” replied Ralf quickly, pulling a black leather wallet out of the inside pocket of his jacket. “ If you want to hire a car, here, take my cousin’s business card. He has a car hire business down in Las Americas. I will telephone him and he will give you a good deal. Now I must go, I promised my wife I would take her out for dinner. We must reward our women with some treats, eh, Paul?”
He bent over Cheryl’s hand and kissed it, then after shaking Paul’s hand, he walked away.
“Phew,” said Cheryl. “What a charmer, I wonder if he’s like that with his wife?”
***
Jenni told her sorry tale to a horrified Lucy. “You mean he’s taken everything? Not even left you a bar of soap?,” she gasped. “Oh, you poor thing. Come here, let me give you a hug. What a rotter. How on earth could anybody do that? What will you do? Have you got any money, ‘cos when I’ve finished here, we’ll go down into town and find an A.T.M?”
“I have no money.” Jenni’s tears began to well up again.
“What he’s taken all the money too?”
Jenni nodded.
“Let me think. Well, you can have a use of anything I’ve got in my bathroom, though I suppose you won’t want to use my makeup for hygiene reasons, of course. I have a spare toothbrush you can have, but oh, you’ll need a hairbrush, shower gel and maybe personal things.”
“He took my tampons and I’m due on next week.”
Lucy raised her eyes in disbelief. This Simon wanted birching, as her granny would have said.
“Look, I’ll let you have some money, I’ve a bit tucked away in my underwear drawer. You can pay me back when you get home, send me a bank transfer.”
“Oh, is that possible for someone to send a bank transfer from England to Tenerife? Is your bank in Costa Adeje?”
“Well, it’s in Playa de las Americas, actually. Why, do you have someone who can send a bank transfer?”
“My father,” said Jenni, her eyes shining happily, “ he wouldn’t see me stuck. Where can I ring him from? Oh, I forgot I haven’t got any money, Lucy.”
“No need. Use the one on my desk, Kath will never know.”
Lucy sat down on a sofa, while Jenni was putting her call through to her father. My, this girl she had just got to know had been through the mill in the last twenty four hours. She looked at her watch and saw to her delight that her shift had finished. Time for a cool drink, a lazy bath, then see if Jenni would like to join the crowd tonight in the Sunlight Bar. Kath was going to be very pleased, that some more seats on the excursion coaches had been allocated. She wondered if Kath was going to send her on the one tomorrow, to the Jungle Park? She’d been there three times since she started the job and once you’d seen one parrot show, you’d seen them all, as far as she was concerned. Still, it was better than working in rainy old Manchester.
Her mobile rang, just as Jenni finished her call through to her father. It was Kath.
“Yes, sorry about that Kath, the telephone rang but I was dealing with a customer, so I left it off the hook for a while. Oh, you were trying to get through and it was engaged, well like I just said……
Oh, you poor thing, you’ve only just managed to get him away on a mutually aided flight? What did you have to do, sit with him in the airport? I bet it wasn’t pleasant. According to Jenni, he trashed her clothes, left them all over the place and took all her things out of the bathroom. Didn’t you go in with him when you went up with the security guard? Oh, you had a call on your mobile so you let the security guard go in with him? That’s typical isn’t it? Just like a man, I bet he didn’t even notice that Simon had left the place in a mess. Oh well, what do you want me to do tomorrow, Kath? Oh, you’re getting Heather from Los Christianos to go, while I stay here in case there are any more bookings. Do you want me to go through what I’ve taken today? Yes, the money’s in the safe, half a mo.”
***
Sonya woke up to the sound of Evan crying next door. He always did that when he awoke. It was as if he was having a nice dream and suddenly he wasn’t anymore. She lay on the bed for a while, wondering whether to go and fetch him to her room, but the sound of her parents moving about decided her not to bother. They would probably be around in a minute asking for a change of clothes for him anyway.
She looked at the crack in the drawn curtains, which told her it had got dark while she’d been sleeping. She supposed she should get up and get a shower, in readiness for the exciting evening she was hoping to have. It had to be more exciting then the evenings she had at home anyway. Her parents were good, would baby sit at the drop of a hat, but she hadn’t had a date with a guy for some time now.
There had been someone, that she thought was interested in her. She had met him a couple of weeks ago, when she had gone dancing with her friend Elaine, to a Manchester night club. He’d looked nice, a gentle sort of person. Not very handsome, but the type she perhaps could settle down with one day. They’d danced together, had a bit of a snog, while Elaine was busy being chatted up by someone who had kept asking would she like a drink with him. When it was time to go home, he had asked could she meet him the following week in there? She’d agreed and had been looking forward to it, even behaving herself when she went to Salsa dancing at the Copacabana club, a few nights later.
She was always being pestered for dates when she went to that place, but unfortunately when she had turned up on her own the following Saturday to the night club, the swine hadn’t bothered to turn up to meet her and she was left to drink at a table on her own.
Of course, being a woman on her own, attracted a stream of nuisances wanting to know did she want a good time with them? She had left within the hour and gone back on the bus to Bury.
Sighing to herself, she went to look in her wardrobe. The pale blue knee length chiffon plunge neck dress was always a winner. It seemed to bring a sparkle to her eyes. It certainly did something for her self esteem anyway.
***
“Oh, good, Paul hasn’t kept any places for us at the table,” Greg said, when the family walked in the rest
aurant later. “Let’s sit over there by the kiddies’ selection, then Evan can choose what he wants to eat this evening.”
“It’ll be chicken nuggets,” said Sonya. “That’s all he wants when he goes to Mc Donalds anyway.”
“Well, we’ll see,” said Greg, disapprovingly. He had only been once to the fast food restaurant and then he had only had a coffee. Kate was a fan though, she liked their veggie burgers and a vanilla milkshake.
“Oh, look, it’s Chinese this evening,” said Kate happily. “Spring rolls, barbecue ribs, fried rice and sweet and sour pork. Good job I only had a salad at lunchtime, I can make a pig of myself now.”
“Prawn crackers!,” said Evan, seeing a bowl of them on the children’s counter. Greg sighed, that was all the child would probably eat now.
“Evan,” said Sonya, “there’s Jack over there. They’re sitting with another family though. Probably because Annabelle has found herself a friend.”
“Good,” said Greg. “I don’t know what it is about Paul and his family, that I don’t like.”
“I think the word is pretentious, Greg,” said Kate, as she walked away to get herself a plate.
***
“So, Steve,” said Paul, as both of their families sat eating their meals and the two little girls were happily chatting together. “How long have you been interested in politics?”
“Since I looked around and saw what a pig’s ear our country has become.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Paul, “ there doesn’t seem a shortage of money in the line of business I’m in. Everyone seems to be changing their cars more than they use to do.”
“That’s the feel good factor,” replied Steve, a dark blonde haired man in his late thirties. “It’s what’s going on behind our backs that frightens me. Things we have no control over, other than a say at the ballot box every few years.”
“But surely if most people have a good standard of living, a few luxuries like a holiday like this, a decent house, a nice car, what more should we be wanting out of our lives?”
“Ah, but what about when our children grow up, Paul? What kind of lives are our children going to have, when they have to carve a career out for themselves?”
“Oh, I don’t know, same as us probably?”
“You hope so. I would be more worried than you are about your children’s futures, especially now when we’ve got tangled up with Europe. All the member states, where one size cap fits all. Then we’ve got to start absorbing the new countries that have applied to join us well. The money we contribute amounts to billions, money that could be used for our schools, our hospitals, our roads, our children’s futures. That’s why I’ve joined U.K.I.P, who are all for us getting out of it.”
“Mmm,” said Paul, “that’s something for me to think about.”
***
Jenni sat with Lucy at their table, thoroughly enjoying the food she’d chosen. Chicken with black bean sauce, fried rice and prawn crackers. Lucy was similarly enjoying her sweet and sour pork, with spring rolls and barbecue ribs all on one plate. Life had become so pleasant, thought Jenni. The nightmare was over and it was time to enjoy herself. How had she ever fallen for someone like Simon? Next time she’d be more careful, be a bit more picky? She wondered if Lucy had ever experienced problems like she had, though Lucy was older and more level headed. She couldn’t see Lucy making a fool of herself. Perhaps she would ask her this evening, when they had got a few drinks inside them. She would probably be a bit more inclined to talk when she was more relaxed in herself.
Lucy had lent her the money to buy more toiletries. They had purchased them from the small shop upstairs, after Jenni’s dad had agreed to send a bank transfer. Lucy had felt tired and hadn’t wanted to walk down to the pharmacy. She had said that Jenni could borrow anything the shop didn’t have.
It had been nice speaking to her father, though she hadn’t gone into detail and said where Simon was. Just that she’d hit a problem and could he send some money through?
***
“What do you want to do tonight, Mavis?”, asked Fred, as they walked out of the dining room. “Whatever you like,” sniffed his wife, taking her glasses off and rubbing the lenses on the hanky she took out of her handbag.
“Oh, come on love. Do you want to watch the kiddies dancing, do you want to have a drink in the bar, or would you like to have a walk to the sea front and I’ll treat yer to something in that cafe we used to go to before?”
“It’s a big dark to go piking off to the sea front. Anyway, what about my leg?”
“O.K, so it’s a drink in the Quiet bar first, then we’ll watch what ever’s on later,” Fred said, with gritted teeth. She wasn’t going to give up blaming him for not booking the Antilla.
***
“It’s a Spanish dance troupe tonight,” said Kate, as they passed the poster advertising La Mariquitas, which showed three pretty girls wearing red and black sparkly costumes.
“All castanets and foot tapping, I suppose,” replied Greg. “Still, Evan will probably enjoy it and then I’ll take him off to bed. Now, take it easy with the drink, you two, while I’m not with you,” he warned. “I don’t want to hear that you’ve been carted off for being drunk and disorderly.”
“Ha, ha,” said Sonya. “We’re going to enjoy ourselves, aren’t we, Mother, Dear?”
***
“I wonder whether we should make some space for Kate and her family?”, asked Cheryl, as she and Paul began to arrange armchairs around two tables in the Sunlight Bar. “Jack likes playing with Evan, but now that Annabelle has Emily to play with, Emily’s family may want to join us as well.”
“Oh, we’ll see what happens, Cheryl. We’ll leave these as they are and then it’s up to them whether they want to join us. I’m glad Annabelle has found Emily. Steve seems very nice and Fiona his wife is very pretty, isn’t she?”
“She doesn’t have a lot to talk about though, Paul. I think we exhausted cooking, holidays and shopping while you were talking to Steve. Though I guess there won’t be much chance to talk tonight, with the dancers clacking their castanets.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right, though I was hoping to ask some questions later about this party of his. Perhaps I’ll suggest we meet up tomorrow, take the kids on the trampoline again?”
“I thought you said you were thinking of hiring a car tomorrow?”
“I will. We can walk down to Las Americas via the sea front after and speak to that cousin of Ralf Sanchez.”
“Oh, do we have to go and sit with them?”, said Greg, as he and his family walked in through the entertainment bar door.
“‘Fraid so,” answered Kate. “It’s obvious that they are expecting us to join them, they’ve set the tables up again.”
“Anyway, Dad, Evan and Jack will want to play together. Come on, get your bottom lip up and act as though you’re pleased to see them.”
***
“Evening, everybody, good grub tonight wasn’t it?”, said a smiling Paul, as the Lewis’s joined them. “I like a Chinese now and again. We usually get a take away once a week, don’t we, Cheryl? Usually on a Saturday night if we can’t get a baby sitter.”
Paul leapt to his feet and stood back while everyone got comfortable. “You’re looking very nice, Ladies. Cheryl, isn’t that frock that Sonya’s got on attractive? You’ve got one similar haven’t you, the one you got from Selfridges?”
“This one isn’t from Selfridges, Paul,” laughed Sonya, “ it’s from Etam, so it didn’t cost so much.”
“Well, where ever you got it from, it really suits you. Anyway, can I get any one a drink? Cheryl Darling, a coffee? Kate, Sonya, what will you have?”
“I’ll come and help you,” said Greg, feeling a bit mean in his attitude towards Paul. The fellow meant well. He was just a bit full on, which Greg disliked in a man.
Paul lit up his cigar, after giving his order into the barman. “ Phew,” he said. “I’ve waited all day for this. I love a cigar after I’ve
had my dinner.”
“Can’t say I’ve ever tried a cigar, Paul,” said Greg. “I once tried a cigarette when I was younger, but it made me feel sick. Kate used to smoke, I think she would be a smoker now, if I didn’t nag her.”
Paul nodded understandingly, as they watched the Kid’s club rep’s going around to the children who were a little shy of getting up to dance. Annabelle needed no coaxing and was standing by Cheryl, looking at the door, wondering where Emily was.
“I had a bit of a surprise today,” said Paul, as their tray of drinks arrived and he began to sip his lager. “Ralf Sanchez, the owner of the hotel, came over while Cheryl and I were having drinks at the pool bar. He spent some time with us chatting and we seemed to get on very well. In fact, he’s told me to go to his cousin who has a car hire place down in Las Americas. I’m to mention his name and I’ll get a discount. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to come in with me on it?”
Greg shook his head. “Thanks for asking, but I honestly don’t know what we’re doing yet. Shall we get back to the others now? Oh, I see the other family’s arrived.”
***
“This is Steve and Fiona, Emily’s their little girl. That’s Greg, Kate and Sonya, Evan is their little boy. And you know us anyway.”
Everyone shuffled their armchairs around, after Paul had made the introductions, so that the other family could fit in as well.
“You’re looking very nice, Fiona, very pretty colours. The dress hides the bump too.”
Paul thought he would throw it into the conversation, as Cheryl had told him that Fiona was expecting in a few months.
“Congratulations”, was the muted embarrassed response of the Lewis’s.
“Can I get anyone a drink?”, asked Paul, dying to finish off his cigar.
“No, you’re all right, I’ll get mine and Fiona’s,” Steve said. “Emily, do you want a drink?”
The little girl ran to him from the dance floor. “A gin and tonic please, Dad. No, make mine a glass of orange,” she laughed. “Little minx,” said Steve, looking with something like adoration at his yellow haired child.
Clouds Below the Mountains Page 11