Clouds Below the Mountains (25 page)

Lucy and Jenni, sat with Emily at their table later, trying to cheer the little girl's spirits up, but not having a very successful time.

“I've told you, Darling,” said Lucy, “ in a short while, Daddy will be back and he'll let you know how Mummy is then. Now, eat up those lovely sausages. You know, I should have had them instead of this chicken curry, your dinner looks much nicer than mine does.”

“Will Daddy be bringing the baby back with him from the hospital, Lucy?” asked Emily hopefully, “ though we haven't any clothes to put on it, because we only brought our clothes to wear.”

“I don't think the baby is ready to come yet, Pet,” said Lucy, trying to be careful in what she said, as she wasn't sure if the child knew where babies came from. “ But when Daddy comes, I'm sure he'll put your mind at rest about Mummy. Now, do eat up your sausages, there's a good girl and then you can choose a yummy pudding. I'm going to have chocolate profiteroles when I've eaten my dinner.”

“What are you going to do with Emily later?” asked Jenni quietly, having been filled in earlier on about Fiona being taken into hospital.

“I've asked Tina if she'll baby sit, if Steve doesn't come back. She said she would take Emily to the Mini disco later on.”

The two girls carried on making small talk and watching over Emily, then suddenly they heard a loud shriek coming from a table, in the direction of the patio doors.

“Oh, no!” cried Lucy, standing up, in preparation to dash across to where a young woman was looking in horror at her plate. “I'll be back in a minute, Jenni. It's our honeymooners and she looks in a bit of a state.”

“Calm down, Tracy,” Gary was saying in an embarrassed voice to his wife, as he looked around at the other diners, who were staring over curiously. “ Now look what you've done, Darling, the rep' is coming over, sit down and take some deep breaths.”

“Is there a problem?”, asked Lucy, as she came over to where Mrs. Greenfield was still trembling, but had managed to get a grip on herself.

“Look, there,” Tracy pointed with a shaking finger at a lettuce leaf, her Brummie accent more apparent as she spoke. “ Look what's been sitting in my salad. A caterpillar! I nearly ate it, I nearly ate a caterpillar! I wouldn't mind, but I'm a vegetarian!”

***

“Do you mind if I sit with you again, ladies?” asked Mr. Wilkinson, as he spotted his three favourite women sitting near the buffet in the restaurant.

“Not at all,” simpered Doreen, pleased that he'd made an effort to come over. It was obvious that out of the three of them, Harry was attracted to her, because he had pulled up a chair especially to sit beside her.

“Did you have a nice day?” asked Jean, who was sitting at the other side of him, though she immediately regretted asking him, when a shadow came over his previously smiling face.

“You could say that the day was nice, when you think that I had the opportunity to think of cherished memories. My wife thought the views from the top of Mount Teide were breathtaking and I stood in the same spot as we did before and felt her presence with me.”

The three women made sympathetic noises and kept their attention on their meals they were eating. None of them felt up to continuing a conversation while the man was feeling his loss.

“Anyway, enough of me being morbid in such pleasant company, I should be thinking of the present not the past. What do you recommend I have to eat, that curry looks good, Doreen? Is it spicy or on the bland side, only I have to be careful of what I eat as I have a problem with my oesophagus?

***

“Oh, here's Daddy,” cried Emily, jumping up from her chair and rushing between the tables to meet Steve. “Where's Mummy? Isn't she with you and did you bring the baby with you?”

“Give me a minute to get my breath back, Emily, sweetheart, then I'll tell you about Mummy. I just want to go and thank Lucy for looking after you.”

Steve walked up to Lucy and Jenni's table, with Emily trailing after him, anxious that her daddy didn't go out of sight.

“Lucy, thank you for looking after Emily while I was away, I'll take over now. Fiona should be out of hospital tomorrow, thank goodness and I'll take Emily with me to pick her up in the taxi.”

“I'm glad to hear that your wife will be out tomorrow, Mr. Golland. It is so near to you going home on Tuesday, that I was beginning to wonder if we would have a problem over your flight. Emily has been a joy to look after, she's not been any trouble at all. Are you coming to join us while you have dinner? Emily has had her main course and she's got her eye on some profiteroles.”

“If you don't mind Lucy, I've spotted some friends over there that we'll sit with. Emily gets on well with Annabelle and they'll probably be wondering where Fiona is. Once again,” said Steve, looking fondly at his daughter, “ thank you for taking care of my Emily.”

Father and daughter walked over to Paul and Cheryl's table, where Cheryl was spoon feeding Jack from a congealed plate of spaghetti, as he looked as if he was going to fall asleep.

“Mind if we join you?” asked Steve.

“Of course you can,” said Paul. “ We wondered why Emily was sitting at the rep's table, but felt it wasn't our place to inquire. Where's Fiona, isn't she up to joining us?”

“Oh, so you didn't know she'd gone into hospital?” Steve said, sitting down beside him, while Annabelle beckoned to Emily that she should sit beside her.

“No,” said Cheryl looking alarmed, “ has Fiona started with the baby?”

“No,” said Steve hastily. “ Forgive me for mentioning it while you're eating your meal, but there seems to be a problem with her bowel. Seems its shut down or something and all the doctor can do is starve her and give her plenty of water. He would have opened her up to look at the problem, but as that could have endangered the baby, they are just giving her a mild purgative and hope that does the trick.”

“Poor Fiona,” said Cheryl sympathetically. “ I suppose they can't give her an enema in case it starts the baby off.”

“That wasn't mentioned. Anyway she's fairly comfortable although she's had to have a saline drip. But enough about us and our problems, what have you folks been up to today?”

“Did you hear that lady over there screaming before, Emily?” asked Annabelle, as her parents were telling Steve of all the animals and birds they had seen at Loro Parque. Emily nodded, but said she didn't know why.

“It was because she found a caterpillar in her lettuce,” Annabelle said giggling, “ and did you know that caterpillars turn into butterflies eventually?”

Emily said she didn't know. “ Well, if she had eaten it, she would have had butterflies in her tummy!”Annabelle said beginning to shake with laughter.

***

“So is there to be a standoff, you two?” asked Greg as he looked over to Paul and Cheryl's table, then frowned at Kate and Sonya. “If you do that, it's going to make life very difficult for the rest of the holidays.”

“There's no reason why we can't just get on with our evening, go to the Mini disco with Evan, watch the comedian, then have an early night,” said Kate. “ They've got Steve with them anyway, so no doubt they'll be thinking about Fiona now.”

“Well, I for one will seek him out later and ask how his wife is and I will also have a drink at the bar with Paul, if he asks me to,” replied Greg firmly. “ Anyway Sonya, I suppose you'll want to stay up late for the adult disco.”

“Not particularly,” she answered, conscious that she had told Juan that they would be together tonight, but he hadn't even looked in her direction that evening and they had been served their drinks by Miguel. Well, she certainly wasn't going to give Juan any encouragement. If he was going to ignore her, he could go to Hell!

“Let's play it by ear and see how we feel as the evening wears on,” Kate said evenly. “ It's our turn to baby sit Evan anyway, Sonya, so if you decide to go to the disco we'll leave it up to you.”

***

“I'm not going in that entertainment room, Gary,” said Tracy, as she emerged from the Ladies later, where she had repaired her damaged makeup. “I'll be a laughing stock after making a show of myself over that caterpillar, so I want you to take me to one of the bars nearby, or I'll go and read my magazine in our room.”

“Darling, are you sure?” asked Gary, his face creased with anxiety at the evening's events. “ I thought you would enjoy listening to a comedian. It will cheer you up, my princess.”

“No, it won't cheer me up, Gary, because I'm not feeling like being cheered up. Anyway, I think I overdid it with the sun today, I feel all red and itchy. You go and watch him if you don't want to be with me. I'm not bothered, right?”

“Oh, Darling, I want to be with you every minute of every night and day. Why don't I buy us a couple of glasses of champers and we'll go and make love in our bedroom. Or better still give me some money to purchase a bottle and then you'll be as right as rain?”

“You know, Gary, you're going to wear me out with all these demands on my body and we've only been married since Thursday. Still, I suppose you're entitled seeing as you are my husband now, but once I get to forty, all this pestering will have to stop!”

***

“Are you not looking after the little girl this evening, Tina?”, asked Anna, as the two children's rep's came out of the restaurant where they had been sitting together.

“Doesn't look like it. As you can see Emily's father has come back, so it looks as if I have a free evening,” Tina replied, shrugging her shoulders.

“I thought that maybe he would go back to sit with his wife in the hospital,” said Anna. “ So now we have a choice of joining the kids at the Mini disco or going for a drink at one of the sea front bars.”

“It will have to be joining the kids as I'm nearly broke again. I've got to spin my money out until next pay day.”

“You've only just got paid, Tina,” said Anna, looking at the girl in amazement. “ Though come to think of it, you never have any money, what do you spend it on?”

“I send quite a bit of it home, actually,” said Tina, feeling stung by Anna's accusation. “ I like to give some money to my mother to get a few luxuries for her and my little brothers. I have no father as you know and things aren't easy. That's why I applied for this job, when I saw it advertised in the U.K . Because I get all my meals free and the rent's not expensive, I'm not a drain on my mother's purse.”

“I too have to be careful, Tina, but I can always find some money to have a good time. Though I have been thinking recently that I might go back to Germany to work, as the pay is better there and I can live rent free at home again. There's always work to be found in the kindergartens and now that I know that Miguel prefers the English girl, there doesn't seem much point to staying here.”

“Oh, Anna, it's just a fling. He'll have forgotten her by the time her ‘plane has landed in Manchester.

Stick around, at least you're here working in the sunshine. I bet it's freezing in Germany now, just like it is at home.”

***

“I couldn't help but notice that your dear wife was taken into hospital this morning,” said Mavis, as she spotted Steve sitting at a table with Paul and Cheryl, watching his little girl dancing with Annabelle, and Jack trying to copy them, “ I hope you don't mind me asking how she is?”

“Oh, she'll be as right as rain tomorrow,” Steve replied, surprised that this white haired old woman should concern herself with the health of his wife.

“Pregnancy can be fraught with danger to the unborn child,” said Mavis. “ I should know I've had three and a couple of miscarriages as well. Did they say what was wrong with her or will you find out tomorrow? It can't be nice for your wife taking ill in a foreign land.”

“She just needs to rest,” said Steve, not wanting to go into the bowel situation. “ Then when we get home next week, she'll go and see her own doctor.”

“Yes, she should do that. There's nothing like the comfort of knowing you'll be cared for by the N.H.S. Of course in my day you had to pay for your treatment. My parents had to put a few coppers away each week, in case one of us needed a doctor. There were seven of us and our mother and father and it was hard on a miner's wages to put the money away.”

“Can I get you a drink?”, asked Paul, seeing Steve's eyes glaze over at Mavis's reminiscences. She was going back nearly seventy years at least, until before the War.

“No, no, you're all right, I've got a glass of sherry on the go over there. I just wanted to put my mind at rest that his wife isn't ailing. Such a nice young couple and a lovely daughter too.”

She limped off back to where Fred was sipping on his second pint of Guinness, feeling a glow of well being because she'd put herself out.

“Nosey old bat,” said Cheryl at Mavis's retreating figure. “ Some people are only happy when they hear of other people's misery.”

“Oh, it's all right,” said Steve smiling ruefully. “ Old ladies are like that. My grandma always wants to know what's going on around her. Forgive me if I too sound nosey, but why has Greg and his family not joined us this evening? Poor Evan looks lost, watching what is going on from over there.”

“Feisty women,” cut in Paul quickly. “ Do you fancy a drink at the bar Steve, I feel like having a cigar?”

***

“Jenni, I'm off to get changed out of this uniform, I didn't have chance with all the paperwork I've had to do this afternoon. Do you want to go ahead to the Sunlight Bar, or keep me company at my apartment?

“I think I'll get another coffee and sit here for a while, Lucy,” said Jenni. “ I'm hoping to have a quick word with Miguel, so I'll see you in the bar later.”