Inseparable Bond (68 page)

She walked
with George to the car, kissing him on the forehead as he climbed
into the back seat. She waved him off as he peered through the back
window with a fearful expression on his face as the car went out of
sight. She quickly ran up the drive and back into the house.

Molly wasn’t
due in today, as she had substituted her normal Thursday for
yesterday as her mother had to be taken to the doctors.

George arrived
at the hospital and made his was through the endless corridors
until he reached the reception desk at the outpatients ward.

The staff
nurse was a big woman, bulging out of her blue uniform. She had
arms like a man and an unattractive face with a jutting chin and
calculating eyes. She scowled at George as he registered his
details at the desk before being shown through to a bed hidden
behind curtains.

On the bed lay
a blue and white gown and a pair of paper underpants in the same
colour.

The staff
nurse returned swiftly, throwing the curtains back to reveal George
sitting on the side of the bed dressed in the gown which was open
at the back.

The doctor
standing behind her looked down at George’s foot, removing his
glasses and pinched at the bridge of his nose as he bent down to
look closely at the infected area.

‘No problem
there, we’ll soon have that sorted,’ he said, smiling
confidently.

George’s face
looked haggard, with nervousness in his eyes as the doctor flicked
over the papers on his clipboard. The staff nurse frowned at his
foot before swiftly drawing the curtains closed and stomped off
down the ward behind the doctor.

George lay
back on the bed, looking up at the bright fluorescent lights which
brightly lit the ward, his eyes fixed on the clock at the far side
of the ward in anticipation of getting out of the place as quickly
as possible. George had always feared hospitals.

It was after
10.30 by the time a young male nurse entered the ward with a
wheelchair, looking around the ward as he approached George,
assisting him into the chair and wheeling him through to the
surgery.

The doctor was
writing up notes as the nurse helped George onto the examination
bed, which was covered in thick polythene.

Now George had
been detained in hospital for the majority of the day, Jennifer was
free to go about her secretly planned day.

She had
telephoned John shortly after the taxi had left, inviting him for
lunch at the Scalby Mills pub, which was situated at the far end of
the North Bay.

At first he
had refused to go, considering 11 o’clock in the morning to be the
middle of the night after only getting back home in the early hours
of the morning.

Jennifer
managed to persuade him by offering him a free liquid lunch and
some spending money to see him through the rest of the week.

She had also
phoned the bank to cancel the standing orders for the rental,
council tax and electricity payments for the flat along with direct
debit payment to Burtons. She finally telephoned the estate agent,
giving one months notice on the flat.

She dressed in
her warm winter coat with a fur-lined hood to keep her warm against
the bitter wind which had blown in overnight, bringing with it
drizzling rain. She grabbed the car keys, locked the back door and
walked over to the garage. Once inside, she unlocked the car and
sat in the driver’s seat, looking around at the controls before
placing the key into the ignition. She adjusted the electronically
operated seat from the controls on the door panel to its closest
position possible to the steering wheel.

After turning
the ignition, she placed the gear lever to ‘R’ and reversed slowly
out of the garage. Her thin legs shook as she shuffled in the seat
to get into a more comfortable position for the short drive into
town.

Moving the
gear leaver to ‘D’, she precariously moved the car down the drive
and onto the main road, her eyes frantically searching the
neighbour’s houses as she slowly drove past, hoping she hadn’t been
recognised.

She quickly
became familiar with the car, but nerves trembled in her stomach as
she approached the busy High Street. She parked in the small ‘pay
and display’ car park, avoiding her having to manoeuvre into a
parking space on the street.

As she walked
back up the hill towards the flat, Lilly Parker waved frantically
at her from the other side of the street. She crossed the road and
approached Jennifer, giving her a couple of air kisses before
indulging in conversation.

‘I haven’t
seen you for ages, Jennifer, where have you been hiding yourself?’
she said, dragging Jennifer’s arm into the doorway of the Victorian
teashop to shelter from the drizzle.

‘I can’t stop,
Lilly, I’ve lots to do and I’m late already, but I’ll give you a
call and we can meet up for lunch when I have more time,’ Jennifer
said, releasing her hand from her arm as she smiled at Lilly’s
bewildered expression.

Jennifer
continued up the hill, looking behind her to see Lilly Parker
disappear into Marks & Spencer before she was able to go into
the house unrecognised.

She looked
around as she placed the key into the lock of the front door,
quickly closing it behind her, taking a deep breath before
attempting the long flight of stairs up to the top floor.

She was
pleasantly surprised to find John washed, shaved and dressed but
disappointed to see no attempt had been made to clean the kitchen
or the rest of the untidy flat.

‘Why the
sudden urgency to see me?’ John asked her.

‘No reason,
dear, I normally take Walter for a run on the north cliff and
occasionally have lunch at the Scalby Mills pub so thought it would
make a nice change for you to accompany me and for you to get some
fresh air for a change,’ she said plausibly.

‘I’m not
walking all the way to the north cliff, it’s pissing down,’ he
replied, turning his head towards the kitchen window.

‘I’ve got the
car, so you won’t need to walk,’ she said, holding the car keys in
front of his face.

‘I thought
you’d given up driving,’ he said, frowning at her.

‘Whatever gave
you that idea?’ I’ve always driven a car, but I don’t often drive
into town,’ she said, placing the keys back into her coat
pocket.

She walked
down the stairs as John closed and locked the door behind him. She
could hear his heavy breathing as he followed closely behind her as
she held onto the banister rail until she got to the bottom.

She pulled her
fur-lined hood over her head against the drizzle and to avoid being
recognised by the few shoppers who had braved the miserable
weather.

John climbed
into the passenger seat as Jennifer fumbled with the keys, trying
to get them into the ignition. She drove slowly out of the car park
as John looked around the car, opening the glove box and pulling
down the sun visor, opening the vanity mirror and slamming it
closed quickly after looking at his dishevelled facial appearance,
unimpressed at the refection he saw.

She carefully
drove along the North Bay Road as John looked up at the castle that
towered above them.

She avoided
parking in the pub car park and drove further on to the ‘pay and
display’ car park a short distance down the road. There were no
other cars parked, only a camper-van at the far end with the
curtains closed, blocking out the appalling rain which was blowing
in from the sea.

It was high
tide as they walked over to the pub. The parasols, which had
shielded the sun the day before, were now lowered as the rain fell
heavily on the unoccupied seats.

Walter
excitingly trotted alongside Jennifer as they walked over the small
footbridge adjacent to the pub.

‘I though we
were going to get some grub?’ John asked, with aggression in his
voice.

‘Let’s give
Walter his run first, then we can come back and have a nice chat
over a good hot lunch,’ she suggested, pulling his arm forward as
she walked across the bridge, Walter tugging at the lead in
desperation to run wild on the open cliff.

John
apprehensively agreed, pulling the hood of his jacket over his head
and putting his hands in his pockets as he followed Jennifer over
the small foot bridge and climbed up to the top of the cliff, as
Walter frantically ran in and out of the bushes.

The higher
they climbed, the more the weather deteriorated. Jennifer shielded
her face from the oncoming rain as John slouched behind her,
dragging his muddy shoes, mumbling and grumbling as he walked.

Jennifer
stopped to gaze at the open sea as John huffed and puffed at the
side of her. She peered over the edge of the cliff with a surprised
expression on her face.

‘John, look,
there’s a car down there, why would a car be down there?’ she
said.

He looked over
the edge, seeing nothing but the sea lashing over the rocks
below.

‘I can’t see a
car, what car?’ he said, dangerously peering over the side.

Jennifer
watched his body bending over as his eyes searched for the elusive
car. She placed her hands on the back of his jacket and with all
her strength, pushed him over until he fell. His fall was broken as
he clung in desperation to a tuft of wet earth, his body dangling
precariously over the edge, his large weight supported by his foot
which rested on a narrow ledge.

His mouth was
moving but she couldn’t hear what he was saying due to the strong
wind which whipped around her. His eyes were wide with fear as he
slowly looked over his shoulder at the sheer drop below him.

Jennifer
looked each side of her as she slowly approached the cliff edge,
her shoes slipping on the wet grass under her feet. She looked down
at his fearful expression, slowly lifting her tiny feet and placing
them on the back of his grubby hands as they clung to the tufts of
grass. With the full strength of her small body, she pressed her
shoes hard onto his hands until the earth gave way under the
force.

She watched
his body fall to the bottom of the cliff, his screams reminiscent
to that of the seagulls which were the only witness to his
death.

She
precariously peered over the edge of the cliff, surveying the
lifeless body of her brother, the sea lapping at his disjointed and
mangled limbs.

The sun broke
briefly through a break in the clouds, sending a beam of light
across his broken body. Jennifer looked up to the sky, feeling a
shuddering vibration through her body as the soggy earth beneath
her tiny feet slowly detached itself from the surface of the cliff,
sending her through the air and down towards the rocks and boulders
where her brother lay. She screamed as she fell, her arms reaching
out in a desperate attempt to break her fall.

She fell to
the ground, landing heavily on the boulder next to John.

Her disjointed
arm rested across his chest as the seagulls dived and swooped over
their lifeless bodies.

The taxi
pulled up outside the house as George hobbled up the drive and into
the dark kitchen. The house was unlit and silent as he carefully
lifted the cooked casserole out of the oven.

He looked out
of the window as the sun went down over the horizon. His eyes
turned towards the North Bay, unaware that the inseparable bond
between his beloved Jennifer and her beloved John had finally come
to an end.