by Ivan B
She winced at the use of the name; the name that she hoped would soon be her name. “No.”
The vicar started to roll his pen up and down his thigh and he looked at Mary.
“Did you know all this?”
“Yes.”
He began to go a slight shade of pink and said softly.
“You do realise Mary that marrying a man that has already had a wife is not an easy option. Inevitable there will be some comparison in his mind, is your cooking as good? Do you look after Josie as well?” His voice tightened up. “Is the sex as good? Are you happy with that?”
Mary swallowed.
“Yes, but at least he knows that I won’t walk out one sunny day.”
He peered over his glasses at her rather like a benevolent schoolteacher and gently said.
“It’ll be a different way of life you know, suddenly gaining a husband and a daughter, is that what you want?”
Mary nodded.
“I know, we both know and the answer is still yes.”
He looked from one to the other and then he sighed.
“Let me make my position clear, perhaps I should have done this earlier, but I don’t normally marry divorcees, instead I recommend a registry office wedding and then give a service of blessing.”
Everyone sat perfectly still for what seemed an age, then he continued.
“I say normally. It’s being judge and jury I don’t like and being forced to ask questions I’d rather not. Beside that I don’t like the church putting me in the position of having to say no to some couples and yes to others.”
He suddenly beamed.
“But in your case I will marry you, and the point that tips the balance is Josie. I firmly believe that two parents is best.”
He picked up the form.
“I take it Josie will be a bridesmaid?”
Half an hour later they exited his study and collected Josie. The vicar riffled her hair.
“What did you think of Safari Hunt?”
She smiled from ear to ear.
“Brill.”
She turned to Robert.
“You’re in this land-rover driving down a dirt-track and you have to spot all the animals hiding in the bushes.”
Margaret laughed.
“She did well. Spotted the lions and most of the animals, but she missed the giraffe.”
Mary laughed.
“How can you miss a giraffe?”
Josie put her hands on her hips.
“Well it’s easy for you to say, but it was night and the giraffe was standing very still.”
The vicar chuckled.
“If it’s any consolation I missed it as well.”
His wife laughed.
“And he missed the tiger and the cheetah hiding behind the tree.”
Josie turned to Margaret.
“Thank you very much.”
Margaret beamed.
“My pleasure.”
The following morning Mary opened the door to the book-shop to find a causally dressed young woman waiting for her. She gave Mary a professional smile and pushed her long blond hair off her shoulders.
“Hello, you must be Mary. I’m Geraldine Gardner from the Echo, can I ask you a few questions?”
Her voice had an odd accentuation, but Mary failed to notice this in her immediate panic. Mary played for time as her thoughts raced.
“Which Echo? The Daily Echo, the Eastburgh Echo of the Scottish Echo?”
Geraldine kept her professional smile in place and her eyes locked onto Mary’s face.
“The acquisition echo for antiquarians, philatelists and numismatists”
Mary suppressed a smile.
“That’s a bit of a mouthful.”
“Collecting is not the hobby it used to be and we had a few mergers.”
Mary let her in and led her upstairs to the library, conscious that her every move was being observed. They went to her desk and sat down, Mary smiled.
“Now you’d better tell me who you’re really from, the magazine is called , ‘The acquisition echo for philatelists, numismatists and antiquarians’.”
Geraldine smoothed her hair back over her ears.
“I’m freelance, but I do write the odd article for the magazine.”
Mary pursed her lips.
“So what are you after?”
Geraldine leant forward and fixed her eyes on Mary’s face.
“Rumour has it that you have one of the legendary 1952 gold guineas.”
Mary feigned surprise.
“I rather thought that the last golden guinea was issued in the Nineteen Century, not the Twentieth.”
Geraldine merely grinned and interlocked her fingers that were tipped with impeccable bright orange nail-varnish. She kept her gaze on Mary’s face, Mary began to find it slightly intimidating.
“I suppose I ought to tell you that I’m Angela Fennel’s flat-mate.”
“Angela fennel being the Angela in the Council property department who dealt with my rent and rates appeal.”
Geraldine nodded. Mary shuffled some papers.
“Well what does she say?”
Geraldine made a sour face.
“Nothing, but she did say that you and Mrs Church had struck a political deal over the library and that the council had found its lost war-room in your loft.”
Mary laughed.
“It’s not a loft it’s a third storey, and if you hang around I believe the curator of the Eastburgh Military Museum is coming back to take an inventory so you can have a look around.”
Geraldine leaned forward, eyes still fixed on her.
“But did you find any coins, Charlie Jamerson hinted that you had one and knew where the others were.”
Mary raised an eyebrow.
“Charlie Jamerson?”
Geraldine licked her lips.
“He works for the Bank of England and he was at the centre of all the metal hunting on the beaches north of here.”
Mary tapped her desk with her hook.
“You’re fishing.”
She tossed her head.
“That’s what reporters do.”
Mary admired her boldness.
“Look here’s what I’ll do. You come with some concrete evidence of what your talking about and I’ll talk to you; otherwise nothing, well nothing about any fictional coins.”
Geraldine rolled her eyes.
“Oh I see you’ve bee got at by Ozzie Osbourne.”
Mary gave her an enquiring look.
“Seedy little man who said he was from the home office, he waylaid Angela as she was getting in my car and I made him show some identification. It said his name was Oswald Beyton-Osbourne of the Information Provision Department of the Home Office. Of course I’ve checked and there is no such department, but since then Angela won’t talk to me, least not about whatever happened here.”
Mary tapped the desk again.
“Something concrete.”
Geraldine’s eyes narrowed.
“Did you sign his blasted form?”
Mary stood up.
“No, but we’re going to get nowhere unless you bring something of a material nature.”
Geraldine stood up and re-aligned her skimpy tee-shirt.
“OK I get the message, thanks for the time.”
She paused.
“Can I interview you some time about living with disability.”
Mary’s mouth dropped open at the effrontery and Geraldine smiled and lifted her hair from her ears, behind both of which was a hearing aid.
“I turned onto the inductive loop when I saw your sign on the desk.”
She pointed to the ‘this desk is equipped with an inductive loop’ sign.
“I write for some magazine aimed at the physically challenged. Stories of success are always welcome.”
Mary shrugged.
“What makes you think I’m a success?”
Geraldine fixed her with her unnerving gaze.
“Look ar
ound; you run this place, getting married I believe and have apparently run rings around our Mrs Church.”
Mary suddenly smiled.
“Of course, but if you don’t mind not for a couple of months.” Mary hesitated. “Why journalism?”
Geraldine smiled.
“It’s not all interviews in noisy places. I specialise in coins and stamps and most of the information gathering is done from data and history books.”
“Enjoy it?”
“Immensely. At first when I lost most of my hearing I thought it was a curse, but it’s not it’s just a different way of life.”
She dropped her card on the desk, gave a casual wave and walked off. Mary sat down and sub-consciously put her hand on her right knee. That was the second time in twenty-four hours that someone had talked to her about a different way of life. No it was the third, she pulled the book Live a different life out of her backpack and laid it on her desk. After a few seconds thought she stood up and walked to her little room, closed the door and sat on the edge of the table. She glanced at the ceiling.
“Look God, I’m not used to this praying in the daytime lark, but I’ve just realised something. I’ve been looking back in my life, back to that day when I fell through the roof, back to my sisters bullying and back to what I used to be like before. But that’s no good is it? I obviously can’t ignore what happened, but I don’t need to dwell on it. I want to accept that it’s just a different way of life, now and when I get married, and I want to live out my new found faith. I just need your help OK?.”
She stood up and then sat down again.
“And thank you. Thank you for Robert and Josie, thank you for listening,” she paused. “And answering. I’ll keep in touch – promise.”
She finally stood up and went through the doorway, into her new, and different, life.
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