EPISODE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE
Donald chuckled
softly as he stared at Ted across the breakfast table. ‘That bruise is amazing.’
Ted pursed his lips before replying. ‘I’m glad you think so. It bloody well hurts, I can tell you.’
Irritatingly, Donald laughed again. ‘I
don’t think I’ve seen so many colours in a bruise before. There must be at
least seven. That’s it! It’s the spectrum! You’ve got a rainbow shiner.’
Ted sighed deeply. ‘Seriously, Donald,
what am I going to do about my things?’
‘Buy a new wardrobe of clothes. You can afford it with your winnings. I’ll take you out shopping. Make a new man of
you. A new, trendier-looking Ted.’
Ted shook his head unbelievably. ‘Oh my
God! That’s what I was afraid of.’
‘Come on, Ted – cheer up. You’re free of
her at last.’
‘But it’s Miranda I’m worried about.’
Donald eased his chair back from the table and stood up. ‘We’re seeing the solicitor this afternoon. Wheels
will be set in motion.’
Ted frowned. ‘Yes, but what worries me
is what Marjorie will say about you and me.’
Donald walked over to the window and stared out at the garden, talking to Ted
with his back to him. ‘She’s bound to
say we’re living together as a gay couple.
So we just deny it. Who can prove
otherwise?’
‘I’m not very good at lying.’
Donald spun round and grinned at his partner.
‘Now that is a lie. I think you’re better at lying than you think
you are. And look at the lie you’ve been
living all these years – with her.’ He
glanced round at the garden again. ‘Oh this
dull, depressing, damp weather. It would
get me down but for one thing.’
‘What’s that?’ said Ted.
‘Even though the weather’s been like it for weeks now, the same old everyday
drizzle...I still feel brand new. And
you must too, Ted. Changes are taking
place. Changes for the better. Come on, let’s get ready and go out
shopping.’
*
In spite of the never-ending tedium of the overcast sky, hanging over the
country like a shroud, and the mild unnatural temperature for the time of year,
changes were taking place. Not only with
Donald and Ted, but also with Maggie, who, along with Mike’s support and help,
recognised she had a major problem and made a start by going to see her GP and
speaking openly about her condition.
Because of her behaviour over the last few weeks, Craig and Mandy had been left
to run the wine bar on their own.
Neither of them minded. In fact,
they were glad they no longer had to contend with Maggie’s behaviour, which they
suspected was losing them customers.
Late one midweek night, Mike arrived at the wine bar. Craig greeted him hesitantly. He was reticent in committing himself to
being to over friendly with his sister’s boyfriend, as he saw Mike as a bad
influence. But when Mike outlined his
plans to attend counselling with Maggie to help her through the bad times,
Craig became slightly more affable, telling Mike a few topical jokes he had
received by text on his mobile.
Mike laughed diplomatically, not wanting to spoil the developing relationship,
as they were now practically brothers-in-law, by admitting he had already
received the same jokes on his
mobile.
‘Look, Craig,’ he said, ‘I know we’ve been absent from the wine bar
recently. But I think Maggie should
still have some time off, spend a little time away from temptation for a
while.’ He waved a hand towards the
alcohol stacked behind the bar. ‘I know
you can’t go on working seven days a week. So I’ll be quite happy to work on
the quieter nights, then you can have some time off.’
Mandy, who was stacking glasses in the dishwasher behind the bar, said, ‘That
would be great, Mike. Because Craig needs time off to look for a new flat.’
Craig’s mouth dropped open as he looked at Mandy. Her eyes twinkled
mischievously as she stared back at him.
‘You’re right, Mandy. But I’m only going
to move into a new flat if you move in with me.’
Her expression was impassive, and Mike could see the wheels turning in her
mind. Suddenly she beamed at Craig, and
said, ‘I thought you’d never ask.’
*
Change too was taking place at Dave and Mary’s, where they’d had an offer for
his house, this time from a genuine buyer.
They had accepted the offer, and Dave hatched a plan to put Mary’s
ex-husband off the scent when he came out of prison.
‘I don’t really want to leave the district,’ he said. ‘I’ve got used to it here
down south. And now we know it’s pointless trying to run away. Ronnie can always find us.’
‘So what do we do, now that we’ve sold the house?’
‘I think we make it official...you become my other half, and change your name
to Whitby.’
Mary’s intake of breath was an excited gust as her eyes lit up. She threw her arms around him. ‘D’you mean it?’
‘I wouldn’t joke about a thing like that.
Once we’re married, you go and see Ronnie in prison and give him the
news. Then you can tell him the
newlyweds are going to settle in Blackpool. He’ll have no
reason to disbelieve you, especially as he’ll already have heard from his mate
how we planned to escape up north. With
any luck, he might just consider you a lost cause.’
Mary snuggled closer to Dave. ‘I don’t
know about that. Ronnie’s hell-bent on revenge.’
‘Well, we go and see that detective who gave us his card. And we tell him about what happened; about that
bloke coming round to see the house and threatening us. Then, when Ronnie’s released, if we have any
more problems, we get straight in touch with the police again. Any more nonsense, and they’ll bang him up
again. But for a while, he’s going to
think we really did go to Blackpool.’
Mary looked into her lover’s eyes and frowned.
‘So what do we do about this house, now you’ve accepted the offer?’
‘Oh, we go through with the sale – hopefully.
And I’ve been looking in The
Courier. There’s a nice house in
Rusthall I want to look at.’
Mary giggled. ‘I feel really safe
now. I mean, Ronnie’ll never be able to
work out how we escaped from High Brooms, and made it to the wilds of Rusthall.
One mile the other side of Tunbridge
Wells.’
*
Most changes that were taking place in the new year were positive. But if Ted could have been the proverbial fly
on the wall and seen his wife after she returned from the meeting with a
solicitor, he would have been shocked.
The solicitor had explained to her how, even though she had inherited
the house from her grandmother, Ted might be entitled to half. As soon as she got home, her face white with
the deadly heat of suppressed rage, she suddenly exploded. Everything Ted owned she dragged out of
drawers and cupboards, took out into the garden and set alight. Then she got every photograph, memento of
their lives together – weddings, anniversaries, birthdays – tore them into
shreds and added them to the pyre. She began to feel cleansed as she
air-brushed him out of her life completely.
And then she remembered Tracey, whom she had left with her friend Freda
while she visited the solicitor. Tracey
would be the perpetual reminder that she would never be able to expunge all
traces of the man she had grown to hate.
*
Vanessa moved in with her boyfriend. Not
long after, unable to bear living in the same house as Nigel, Nicky found
herself a small flat in Tunbridge Wells.
A week later, Jackie arranged to meet up with them and took them out to
lunch at Prezzo.
After they had ordered, Jackie sniffed, brought out a small lace-bordered
handkerchief, and dabbed delicately at her nose and eyes, as if she was
appearing in a television costume drama.
Vanessa could see her mother was upset, and was both annoyed and amused
by this over-genteel display.
Nicky asked: ‘Is everything all right, Mummy?’
Jackie sighed and shook her head. ‘It’s
just such a wrench. My babies leaving
home for good. I know you both used to
irritate me. But I do love you. And I loved having you around. Now you’re no longer there...well, it’ll take
some getting used to.’
‘I’m sure you’ll manage,’ said Vanessa. ‘Now you’ve got lover boy all to yourself.’
‘I do wish you wouldn’t call him that.’
Vanessa smiled cruelly. ‘And how is
our...er...stepfather?’
Jackie blew her cheeks out, showing how difficult life was. ‘He’s hard work sometimes. I bought him some socks for Christmas...’
‘Socks!’ exclaimed Nicky, and startled herself.
Jackie glanced around the restaurant nervously.
‘Keep your voice down. I did buy
him other things as well. The socks were
an extra present. Pretty dull I
know. Especially as he only wears black
socks. The day after boxing day, he came
into the kitchen, dropped the socks onto the kitchen table and went on about
his sock stock rotation. And I had to
sit down there and then and sow in little pieces of different coloured wool
into the ankle of each pair so that he can tell them apart.’
Vanessa caught Nicky’s eye and they both spluttered and laughed.
‘I think he’s a sandwich short of a picnic,’ said Nicky.
Jackie surveyed them both and smiled.
‘At least he’s reliable. I didn’t
think I could cope with all the changes. Especially you two leaving home. But at least Nigel with his stick-in-the-mud
ways will always be solid and dependably dull.’
Vanessa grinned hugely at her mother’s forthright confession of how she really
felt about Nigel. ‘No change there then,’
she said.
‘No, thank God!’ said her mother.
IN EPISODE 124
Ivor, a postman in his late thirties, decides it’s time he enjoyed his
first ever relationship with a woman.