Clouds Below the Mountains

by Vivienne Dockerty

  ***

  Kate lay on her back staring up at the ceiling, not that she could see the ceiling because of the blackout curtains blocking everything out, but she knew it was there and the red light in the smoke alarm was twinkling anyway. She listened to Greg breathing evenly and Evan over by the window in the little bed, snoring like a piglet. She felt like crying, but crying was fruitless, tears didn’t work with her husband anyway.

  She wondered why she bothered at times, it usually led to rejection. She couldn’t remember the last time he had held her in his arms. Well, she could if she put her mind to it. It was usually on holiday, so it must have been Cyprus. That was where they’d had their last holiday. What a debacle that had turned out to be.

  ***

  “Come here, honey bun,” said Paul affectionately, as he switched the television off and settled down in the bed with Cheryl in his arms. “Have I told you lately that I love you?” She giggled and said he should make those words into a song.

  “No, seriously. Sometimes I don’t think I give you enough love and attention. I go off at a tangent, chatting with people that aren’t really important. I guess it’s probably the salesman in me.”

  “Paul, as far as I’m concerned that is why I fell in love with you. You chatted me up, sold me a dream and it didn’t cost me anything but the price of my love. I’m so happy sometimes that it scares me, but what is more important is that dream came true.”

  ***

  “Oh, I can’t sleep, Fred, “ said Mavis, as she sat up in her twin bed and switched the light on.

  “What do yer want me to do about it?”, grumbled her husband from under his covers.

  “It used to be that you’d give me a cuddle and then I’d drift off to sleep.”

  “Don’t be daft Mavis, all that kind of thing finished years ago. Why do yer think we sleep in separate beds at home?”

  “I’m not asking for sex, Fred,” she answered, flushing brightly as she said it, because such an intimate word wasn’t used between them. “I’m just mentioning that when you used to give me a cuddle, I’d drift off to sleep.”

  “Oh, that’s all right then,” he said gruffly. “ I thought perhaps you were wanting to make demands on me body. I’m not Charlie Chaplin, yer know?”

  “I know Fred, (and never have been ),” she said quietly. “I’ll just go to the bathroom and find an aspirin, maybe that will help me to get to sleep.”

  ***

  Lucy had no such trouble sleeping. She was dead to the world as she soon as she hit the pillow and didn’t wake again until the alarm went off. “Botheration,” she said, switching her little travel clock off and lying back with her hands behind her head. What day is it?, she wondered? A working day obviously, if she had just switched off her alarm. It’s Thursday, two more days and she could have a lie in.

  She steeled herself to get out of bed. Although she was getting used to the amount of alcohol she was consuming each evening, she still felt dehydrated every morning when she woke up. Maybe tonight she’d stick to soft drinks, but there again she might not.

  Her thoughts flew to Jenni, as she dried herself after her shower and began to massage her body lotion into her torso. She wondered if the girl had felt lonely after the gang had said goodnight to one another and got off to bed? She was glad she had stepped in with Mikey, when he had asked Jenni if he was in with a chance with her. He was twenty five for heaven’s sake, while the poor girl was only seventeen. Even if Jenni had been older, she still would have watched out for her. Mikey was a rat, a love them and leave them rat and kept his brains inside his trousers as far as she was concerned.

  ***

  “Your turn today to look after Evan, Mother?” asked Sonya, as the family walked down the corridor on their way to breakfast.

  “Yes, love, my turn,” Kate replied brightly, though she would rather have been able to stay in bed. She saw that the clouds were down again below the mountains, so if that was a prediction of the same weather as yesterday, she wouldn’t be able to have a sleep on a sun lounger today anyway.

  “Your mother didn’t sleep very well last night,” said Greg. “ She woke me up enough times while she went to the bathroom. It was probably all that alcohol you were drinking, Kate.”

  And because I was so tensed up with your attitude toward me, she thought.

  “Evan will probably want to go to Kid’s club again, Kate,” Greg said kindly. “ So if you want to get your head down after breakfast, I’ll be willing to pick him up.”

  “We’ll see,” she answered. “We’d have to think of something to do anyway, with the sun not being out.”

  “I thought I might go to the stretching they do by the tennis courts at ten o’clock,” said Sonya.

  “You could come with me, Mum.”

  “I might just stretch out on the bed and read a book. That’s about all the stretching I think I could do.”

  They sat down to breakfast, waving at Paul and Cheryl, who hadn’t saved them places that morning. Greg went off to find a high chair, while Evan sat on Sonya’s knee.

  “Good morning, Senora,” the waiter said to Kate. “Can I bring your family drinks? Coffee, fruit juice maybe.”

  “That would nice, thank you. Coffee, Sonya?” Sonya nodded, but kept her head down buried into her son’s shoulders, instead of smiling at the friendly young man.

  “What’s the matter with you?,” asked Kate, when the waiter had gone off with their order. “ I thought you and Juan were getting it together, when I left you last night?”

  Sonya shook her head and was saved from answering when Greg came back, annoyed that he had to wait for a high chair, until a family had vacated their table.

  Never mind, thought her mother, if she’s got anything to tell me, she will in time.

  ***

  “What are we doing today, girls,?” asked Milly, as they sat eating their breakfast, “any ideas?”

  “Well, the weather doesn’t look too good again. I hear we missed an hour of sunshine yesterday,” Doreen replied.

  “Oh, don’t remind me, Doreen,” said Jean, shaking her head in exasperation. “How I let you get me in that state yesterday, I really don’t know. And then last night again! I’ll have liver trouble when I get back home.”

  “No one was forcing you, Jean,” laughed Doreen. “ Go on, you’re on your hol’s. You need to let your hair down a bit.”

  “So, what do you want to do today?”, Milly persisted. “Shall we go on a trip somewhere? We could catch that little train that the rep’ mentioned that takes you on a tour round about, or we could walk to the sea front and see if we can get as far as the harbour.”

  “I wouldn’t mind having a walk,” said Jean, thinking she needed to conserve her spending money and the train might be expensive to ride on.”

  “Yes, it would probably blow a few cobwebs away,” agreed Doreen, knowing that Jean was a bit strapped for cash and didn’t like to offer to pay for her ticket.

  “Perhaps we could book something with the rep’ when we get back,” said Milly. “ I quite fancy going on that Mount Teide tour.”

  “Oh, that’s expensive for what it is,” said Doreen hastily. “I’m sure the sun will be out tomorrow and we can do what we said we were coming here for. No point sitting in a coach, when we could be stretched out on sun loungers.”

  ***

  “Hi Lucy,” said Jenni, as she came across her friend tidying up some leaflets under the rep’s desk. “Have you had breakfast?”

  “I whipped in and had a cup of coffee, that’s all, Jenni. I have to be at the entrance in five minutes, to make sure the guests get on the coach for today’s excursion. Did you sleep well, I went off as soon as my head touched the pillow?”

  “I must admit I felt strange at first, thinking that Simon should have been at the side of me, but I just thought, it’s his loss, and I should make the most of having a double bed to myself. So I spread myself out and within minutes I was gone.”

  “So, have you th
ought about what you want to do today? I’m tied up here of course and someone wants a room change, so I have to see Reception, but I can keep you company at breakfast in about twenty minutes or so.”

  “Oh, that’s great, we can have a natter before I have a wander. Doesn’t look as if it is a day for lying on a sun longer. Maybe I’ll walk to the sea front and have a little look around.”

  ***

  “What do yer want to do today, Mavis?”, asked Fred, as the couple walked out of the dining room.

  “Not a lot. As you know I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

  “Have yer got a book yer want to read, ‘cos I can go and get a game in? It’s archery at ten o’ clock and then another game of boules.”

  “I might go and do some of that stretching I saw advertised, it might help with me leg, you know?”

  “Eh, that’s for young women, not old biddies like you. They’ll all be dressed in them skimpy shorts and bustlers, I think they call ‘em.”

  “Well, I’ve decided I’m going, Fred,” said Mavis, annoyed that he called her an old biddie. “ I don’t have to do all the exercises and I think you’re wrong about what these young ‘uns wear. I think it’s hooded tops and trackie bottoms. I’ve got a leisure jacket on over my blouse and my trousers are called jogging pants, so I think I’m suitably attired.”

  “Please yerself then, I don’t care really what yer want to do. I’ll see yer at twelve thirty outside the restaurant.”

  Good, said Mavis to herself, as her husband marched off with his nose in the air. A bit of peace from you for a few hours, will do me the world of good.

  ***

  “Anyone for stretching?”, Susanne asked, walking around the swimming pool area, where a few diehards were sat in cardigans or coats over their swim wear. She sighed to herself, it was like this most mornings, people just couldn’t be bothered making the effort. But Mikey, the head of Animacion, said the stretching class had to be available, just in case.

  “Come on, ladies,” she tried again. “It will set you up for the morning. Get your blood racing through your bodies, ready for relaxing when the sun comes out.”

  Susanne walked over to one of the tennis courts, where she had laid out five roll mats in preparation, and Mikey, who was overseeing the archery on the next court, whistled at her suggestively, because she was wearing a tight yellow figure hugging top and her navy blue shorts.

  She looked at her watch, she would give it five more minutes then she would go and get a coffee by the pool.

  “Are you the stretching lady?”, asked a white haired woman tentatively, who looked as if she was old enough to be Susanne’s great grandmother.

  “Yes, I am here to take the stretching class,” she answered kindly.

  “I thought you might be, dear, you look very athletic,” said Mavis. “ Is there only us, because I’ve never done anything like this before?”

  “Oh, “ said Susanne, not knowing whether to continue. “Maybe someone else will join us in a little while. The exercises are not very hard and if there is any you cannot do, you do not have to.”

  “Good,” said Mavis, taking her place by one of the roll mats.

  “ I see I’m not the first,” smiled Sonya, as she sauntered over, having helped to put Evan into Kid’s club with Greg.

  “Is this it, just me and you?” she said to Mavis.

  “Looks like it,” Mavis said wryly.

  “Oh, I think I see two other ladies coming over,” said Susanne, thankfully. “ Good morning, would you like to take a place?”

  ***

  “I enjoyed that,” said Mavis to Sonya, as they finished exercising with the other two ladies, named Rita and Maureen, who had been staying at the hotel since the Friday before.

  “I think I would like a nice refreshing cup of tea, would you like to join me?”

  “I’d like that. My mother is lying down and Father has disappeared somewhere, so why not?

  Though I think I’ll have a drink of orange juice.”

  “Good morning, Senora, Senorita,” said Miguel, who was on duty again at the pool bar. “What may I get you to drink?”

  “An orange juice and a tea, please,” said Sonya. “ Do you want sugar and milk?” she asked Mavis.

  Mavis nodded, then fell wearily into a chair. Muscles that had not been used for years were slowly beginning to ache.

  “I’ve never been to an exercise class before,” she said to Soya, when the girl had brought the drinks over. “I hope I’m not going to suffer for it.”

  “They were only gentle exercises really. Some to stretch the muscles that perhaps have become sloppy and need tightening and ones to keep you supple. You should do them every day, not just here, but at home.”

  “I suppose you are right, I’ll start making the effort. Do they have the stretching class every day?”

  “I think so, but you can look at the board and see if it’s on tomorrow.”

  There was silence for a while, because the generation gap between them was quite enormous and although Sonya worked at a medical centre and dealt with the elderly every day, she never got into conversation with them.

  Mavis broke the silence.

  “I think your little brother is very advanced for his age. He and his little friend came to say hello to me and Fred, when we were in the Sunlight Bar and he told me about a dragon who lives in a cupboard. I don’t remember any of my grandchildren being so confident when they were so young.”

  “That’s Evan for you. He’s my child, not my parent’s child by the way, but they take care of him a great deal and I suppose they’ve instilled that confidence in him.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry if I’ve got the wrong end of the stick,” said Mavis, a bit flustered. “You don’t look old enough to be married and I thought perhaps he was a late baby for your mother.”

  “A lot of people think that, she’s quite tickled over it, but I’ve never been married. Evan’s father left me a single mum.”

  “You poor dear, it’s so different for you girls nowadays, isn’t it? In my day if a man wanted to sleep with you, he had to get permission from your father to marry. That’s the way it was in those days.”

  “I suppose it could have lead to a lot of unhappy marriages though, finding out you were unsuited, when there was a baby on the way?” said Sonya, philosophically.

  “Yes, I think you could be right, but also we never went in for examining our feelings. We got married and got on with it, but between me and you with hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have married at all.”

  “Oh,” said Sonya, a bit horrified that this lady seemed about to open her heart to her. “That’s tragic, how long have you been married……a lot of years?”

  “Fifty tomorrow,” said Mavis, with relish. “I’ve borne him three kids, been at his beck and call for all of those years, the only respite I’ve had was when he was in hospital having his appendix out. And the kids we’ve got are neither use nor ornament to us. One lives in Australia, one in Ireland and the son whose in London, won’t give us the time of day.”

  “And is this why you’re on holiday? A celebration of fifty years married, as it were?”

  “Celebration, my foot,” scoffed Mavis, the tears threatening in her eyes as she said the word.

  “He found this holiday on the computer he keeps meddling with at home. The hotel was cheap and everything is all inclusive, so he don’t have to put his hand in his pocket. He’s done me out of a big party, that I could have organized for all our friends from the Conny club.”

  Her indignation seemed to sap her strength for a moment and Sonya felt a wealth of pity for the tired looking woman before her.

  “Never mind,” Sonya patted Mavis’s arm in sympathy, desperately thinking of something to say in comfort to her. There was nothing that came to her mind.

  ***

  “This is nice,” said Milly to the two sisters, as they tottered down a sharp hill to find themselves on a paved promenade. “ Look at those cakes in tha
t cafe window, we’ll have to come here one afternoon for tea.”

  The three women stared into the display window of the cafe, where huge confections of rich looking chocolate cake; black forest gateau with cherries as big as a two penny piece decorating the top of it; slices of apple streudel; custard pie with meringue on top and strawberry topped sponges, vied for place on the large cake stand.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a delicious looking display of cakes before,” said Doreen, her mouth watering as she looked at them.

  “They’ll only make you fat,” said Jean. “Oh, look over there, a pirate ship sailing across to the island.”

  They walked down the steps, to where another promenade stretched out for miles to the left and about two hundred yards to the right. Below them was a wide expanse of black gritty looking sand, where an angry crashing sea came thundering onto the shore.

  “It’s chilly down here,” said Jean, burrowing herself further into the red padded raincoat she was wearing. “But if you look over there you can see people running into the waves with only a swimsuit or trunks on. They’ll get pneumonia or drowned the way they’re carrying on.”

  Doreen and Milly agreed and it was decided that they would have a look in the little shops, that abounded beyond the grassy area and shelter themselves from the nippy wind.

  ***

  “Buenos dios, Lucy,” said Mr. Sanchez in a friendly tone, as he passed her desk, after parking his car in the staff car park at the back of the hotel.

  “Do you know how Senorita Woods, Jenni, is this morning, after taking up residence on her own last night?”

  “I think she’s fine, Sir, thank you. I had breakfast with her this morning and she seems to be looking forward to her stay with us.”

  “Good, good. I’m glad you are keeping an eye on her. It is well for the reputation of our hotel and of course for Periquito Travel, that we look after the welfare of our guests.”

  “Yes, Mr Sanchez,” Lucy replied, putting on her most pleasantest smile, then remembered guiltily that she hadn’t done anything about that room change yet. It appeared that the wife was a light sleeper and was most annoyed that their bedroom was by the lift.