Clouds Below the Mountains (5 page)

She shivered a little, though it was still warm in the sunshine. She had taken a shower after Simon had finished with her, now her head was thumping and she was glad he'd abandoned the idea of a swim in the pool. She had changed into a pair of white shorts and a pink boob tube and had tied her brown shoulder length hair into a pony tail, though now she wondered whether she should go back to the room and get a cardigan on? Perhaps later, after we've had something to eat, she thought. It's because I'm tired that I'm feeling the chill. At least that's what her granny would have said.

Jenni looked at Simon as he sat opposite her, he was staring at something in the sky with a blank expression in his eyes. He did that sometimes, looked as if the lights were on but there was no one at home. She wondered not for the first time, what she saw in him?

A psychoanalyst would say that she had thrown her lot in with Simon, because she felt she was no longer loved by her parents. Jenni had thought about that when she was studying Sociology for her G.C.S.E. Maybe that could be said of her mother, who had recently got married for the third time, but not her father, who she was still in contact with and had been since she was a little girl. She supposed it was to get away from the sick making lovebirds that she had thrown herself at the first lad who made a fuss of her, she thought, remembering how she had met Simon at her mate's house. Melanie was Simon's cousin and because her house was near to the bread making factory, where he worked a three shift system on the conveyer belt, it was easy for him to drop in for a brew before or after he started work.

Somehow, she had got sucked into a relationship with him and had found it pleasant at first to have a boyfriend on her arm. She had read all the magazines that told her of love and teenage sex, what boys liked to do with girls and what experiences girls had with boys and she had listened to the sex information given out at her school. Everyone was doing it, girls in her class who wanted to have a baby, girls in her class who didn't want a baby, so that like her had been given the Pill. She didn't know what she really wanted to do with her life, though a couple of A levels would be nice.

She felt as if she had been talked into this holiday, while the first flush of romance had been between them, but as the months passed, she had begun to feel like a prostitute. An unpaid prostitute, unless you could call this holiday that Simon had paid for, reward for what she was having to put up with. There had to be something better than this for the rest of her life!

Simon looked at his girlfriend with a huge wave of tenderness. She had always reminded him of a little puppy he'd been given when he was a child. Jenni had the same velvety brown eyes and shiny hair like the puppy and she was small, only five feet two, compared with his six foot nothing in stocking feet. That puppy had followed him everywhere, was devoted to him just like Jenni was. In fact the puppy eventually got on his nerves and he gave it a good kicking. His mother gave it away to someone she knew at work.

He hoped that he would never do anything like that to Jenni, because she too could go away like the puppy had. He ordered another pint of beer when the waiter came with their food order. This was the life, as much beer as he could get down his neck, fast food in plenty which was the type of grub he liked, and his bird willing to open her legs anytime he felt like shagging her. What more could he want and the sun was shining as well!

“Does the restaurant have two sittings for dinner, Paul”, asked Cheryl, as she came out of the bathroom wearing a white towelling robe that the hotel had provided. “Oh, don't smoke that in here, go out on the balcony if you have to smoke.”

“Do you want me to answer your question or go out on the balcony, Darling?” asked Paul, hastily stubbing out his cigar, then carrying the ashtray out to the white plastic table. He knew she hated him smoking. She said it made her clothes and hair smell and it wasn't good for the children's chests, but hell, he had to have some pleasures in his hard working life.

“Sorry, I forgot to ask with having to put up with their petty regulations. I've already nearly poked my eye out with the tip of this bloody wristband thingy.”

“Don't swear in front of Annabelle, Darling. It's a good job Jack is asleep in the bedroom, you know he's like a parrot. Anyway, I'm not finding the wristband intrusive, it goes very well with the white bracelet on my watch.”

“Well it doesn't look good with my Rolex. I'm very annoyed still, even though that rep' was very understanding.”

“So, what time shall we eat? Annabelle, are you hungry yet?”

“No, Mummy, and I want to read my book anyway. I was really cross this afternoon in the Kid's club, all the boys wanted to do was play pirates. The lady called Anna had me and another girl making pirate hats for them and they didn't have to do anything. A whole afternoon wasted when I could have been reading my book. I am not going again tomorrow, you won't be able to make me go.”

“You don't have to do anything that you don't want to, Gorgeous,” Paul soothed. “This is your holiday too and if you want to spend it reading your books, then that's fine by us.”

“Don't be silly, Darling. She could stay at home and read her books. We've taken her off school so that she could get a little tan on those pale cheeks of hers, so tomorrow she will be in the pool or down on the beach with a bucket and spade.”

As Annabelle stared mutinously at her mother, Paul tried to break up the atmosphere. If Annabelle started kicking off she would wake Jack and also put Cheryl into a nervous mood. She always got nervous when Annabelle tried to push the boundaries. Time out in her bedroom didn't seem to work anymore.

“They have a Mini disco here after dinner, Annabelle. I'm sure Mummy will help you choose one of the lovely dresses we've bought you and then you can show everybody how you strut your stuff.”

That brought a smile to his daughter's pretty rosebud mouth.

“Oh yes Daddy, I've been practising in front of the mirror in my bedroom at home and Rosalyn Jacobs says that I look like Britney Spears.”

***

“Do you know the maid has only left two bath towels?”, said Milly, poking her head out of the bathroom at her two cousins, who were sitting on their beds watching the television.

“She must think that the third person sharing is a child,” Doreen replied. “I'll go down to Reception if you want and get another one.”

“You're all right,” said Jean. “You can use the second towel. I only have a bath once a week and they say in the literature that towels are changed every other day.”

Doreen and Milly looked at each other over Jean's head, both with their eyebrows raised. Milly, who had wrapped herself in her fluffy dressing gown came out and stood at the end of the bed that Jean was sitting on.

“Do you mean to say that having travelled all the way from Manchester in the same clothes as you've got on now, you won't be having a shower or a bath before you change your clothes for dinner?”

“I didn't know you had to,” said Jean blushing furiously. “I've never been on a holiday abroad before.”

“Well I have for several years now and when I go on the cruise ships, I have a shower in the morning and a bath at night. Even at home I have a shower every morning.”

“Perhaps it's because you have a house with all the mod' cons and you're not watching every penny to pay your electricity bill,” said Jean in a very choked voice. She felt so embarrassed at the way the two other women were staring at her, as if she had just crawled out of a mucky hole.

“Eh love, don't take on so,” her sister soothed, putting her arm around Jean's shoulders. “ Milly didn't mean anything by it, did you Milly? We just forgot that you've had it rougher than we have. Tell you what, you have the next shower or have a long soak in the bath and I'll go and ask the woman at Reception to ring Housekeeping. Then if you want, I'll give you a lend of my nice pearl earrings, I know you've always liked them when I've worn them before.”

***

Kate Lewis looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, pleased to see that already after only two hours basking on the sun lounger, her tan had begun to appear again. It must have been because they had only been in Cyprus last October and because she had been in winter clothes since then, that her skin had gone back to being pink.

She wasn't in bad shape for fifty six, she thought, as she looked critically at her face that she slapped all manner of daytime creams on and visited the beauty salon for age-defying facials as often as she could. There were just two frown lines between her eyebrows and one or two creases above her lips because she used to smoke, but honestly wouldn't anybody have smoked, with the problems she'd had to contend with over the past ten years?

She had never had much support from Greg, as most of their married life he had been out making a living for his family. Then there was the Rotary club, the Golf club and the trips abroad to make contact with new manufacturers, so it been left to her to bring up her son and daughter mostly on her own.

Not that she had minded really, Greg had given them a good standard of living and had left her to build the family nest without much interference.

Then five years ago, her son, who was younger than Sonya by three years, left home because she had caught him smoking cannabis in his bedroom. He didn't have to leave, she didn't tell him to, but had read him the riot act. Laying down the law on what she expected from the people who lived under her roof. Did she get any support from Greg, did she bollocks?

It had all kicked off when he'd been in Malacca, looking around a factory that processed rubber. Sonya had been twenty one at the time and was just about to take her exams at uni'. He'd gone mad when he got back and found his precious son had disappeared to heaven's knows where. That was the first time they'd had a major “divorce on the horizon” row in their marriage, though they'd had a quite a few of them since.

“Are you ever coming out of that bathroom, Kate?,” asked her husband, in a pained voice, breaking into Kate's reverie. “I need to get changed yet and I can hear Evan in the corridor. Sonya must have sent him round while she gets ready.”

***

Mavis Baker lay on her bed, listening to the sounds of her husband as he gave himself a shave with his electric razor. All that panic, she thought, as he had tried to find the conversion plug to put in his hand luggage early this morning. Why he had to leave everything to the last minute she'd never know? It was a good job she'd packed their suitcase herself yesterday afternoon, or he'd be wondering where half his underpants were. She heard him whistling tunelessly, as he continued with his ablutions and sighed as she thought that on Friday, they would have been married for fifty years.

Where had the time gone, she asked herself? It didn't seem fifty years ago since they walked up the aisle at St. John the Baptist church, then had their children in rapid succession over the next five years. Three little dotes, who were in their forties now with children of their own, all with their busy lives that left little time to visit their parents. Still, she was being a bit unfair, when she thought about it. Valerie was in Australia, had been for the past eleven years. It had been heartbreaking when she'd taken little Tommy with her, but Ken, her husband had got a good job out in Melbourne and who were they to put the mockers on it?

Lilian , her second daughter, had gone to live in Southern Ireland with her great big Irish husband, who hailed from Galway. They had four children, big lumps just like their father. She and Fred had visited them there. They had a small cottage on a big farm belonging to Seamus's parents and one day he would inherit the lot, but money was tight and it wasn't often that they came over for a visit.

Graham, the baby of their family, lived with his wife in London. They only had one child. A daughter who attended boarding school, as her two parents were something in the City. They'd come up to visit two Christmas's ago, but had put up in a local hotel.

So why where they in the Hotel Valia on Tenerife, three days before their biggest milestone, fifty years married? They should be looking forward to a big celebration at home with their friends and family. Because Fred had said he didn't want a fuss and everyone was too busy to come to a party anyway.

***

Jenni came out of the bathroom, all dressed up in a pretty pale green georgette dress with shoe string straps, her hair newly washed and scrunched into curls. She was looking forward to a lovely meal, because somehow the pizza and chips had seemed a bit samey. She could have that anytime back in England.

“Your turn Simon,” she said looking at her boyfriend with a bit of disgust, as he was lying across the bed flat on his stomach, with his clothes all crumpled and his hair in a mess.

“I'm not hungry,” he mumbled. “I've drunk too much. Stay with me and keep me warm, then we'll get up later and have some dinner.”

“I've just spent an hour getting myself ready,” Jenni said coldly. “ I was looking forward to a romantic meal. Just you and I sharing a bottle of wine together.”

“Bottle of fucking wine, don't make me laugh. I'm a beer drinker and don't yer forget it. Now get into bed like I've told yer to.”

“No, Simon. I'll tell you what I'm going to do,” said Jenni, feeling fury rising up inside her at him using the F word. “I'm going downstairs and I will sit at the table on my own and have my own romantic dinner. I have my wristband on, so I should be able to order anything I want to.”

“Then get the fucking hell out then, see if I care.”

***

Jenni slammed out of their room, her eyes welling up with tears as she thought of the situation she had got herself into. It was all her mother's fault. When she had told her that she was going to Tenerife with Simon, what had her mother said? “I hope you enjoy yourself.” Not, “ Jenni, you're too young to be having a relationship with a man of nearly twenty one. Stay home and do your revising for your exams,” like any normal mother would have done. So, Jenni had gone ahead with it and look where it had got her now? With a drunken boyfriend, who she suspected might be also taking drugs!

It was only recently that he had started taking her for granted, though thinking about it, it had been ever since they'd had sex in the back of his Mazda. His drinking had increased as well. When they had first started seeing each other, he hardly touched the stuff. Though that was because Jenni couldn't go in a pub' because she looked under eighteen. But then he started suggesting she met him after he had been for a drink and sometimes when they met he was a little unsteady on his feet.

***

“So, whose going to be first with the baby sitting?”, Greg asked Kate and Sonya, as they sat finishing their desserts, with Evan licking the last bit of his chocolate ice-cream off his teaspoon.

“I think I will, Dad,” answered Sonya, “ I'm really tired. We could go to the Mini disco, let Evan play with the other kids, then you and Mum enjoy yourselves for the rest of the evening.”

“Well, that would be very nice Dear, thank you,” said Kate. “Perhaps we could stay up for the disco, Greg? We never got much chance on the last holiday, did we?”

“What is that supposed to mean, Kate?”, asked Greg, his face darkening with anger at her words. “You were dancing to that resident band, every time it was Sonya's turn to do the baby-sitting.”

“With the emphasis being on “I was doing the dancing”. You were too busy networking around the place if I remember rightly.”

“Stop it you two,” intervened Sonya. “ Let's not bring up Cyprus again, we're here to try and enjoy this holiday.”

***

“I must say I enjoyed that meal,” said Paul, sitting back with a glass of red wine, after polishing off a roast beef dinner with all the trimmings and a plate of sticky chocolate cake.

“Strange to be eating a roast dinner on a Tuesday evening, I wonder what you get on a Sunday instead?”

“Probably paella,” his wife replied. “That or a Spanish omelette, seeing as we are in Tenerife.”

“Ready for the Mini disco, kids?”, Paul asked Annabelle and Jack, as they both started squirming in their seats.

“Yes, Daddy,” said his daughter. “ Are you going to get up and dance with me, like you did last year in Majorca? It was really funny watching you do that John Travolta stuff.”

“We'll see, Poppet,” Paul replied a little reluctantly, remembering that he had to get a bit squiffy before he showed himself up on the dance floor. “Come on Jack, let's go and see if we can find your new friend, Evan. He seems to have finished ahead of us, but he's sure to be in the Sunlight Bar.”

***

Jenni tucked herself away in a corner of the restaurant. She felt foolish sitting on her own without Simon. Surely everyone would be looking at her, knowing that she had come from Manchester with her boyfriend. Common sense began to tell her, that her fellow diners wouldn't be at all bothered. After all they were on their holidays too and out to enjoy themselves.

She toyed with the idea of going back to the bedroom to see if Simon had sobered up a bit and was willing to come down and join her, but the waiter arrived and asked could he fetch her a drink, so she ordered a glass of white wine from him.