Step Back in Time (27 page)

We find a little café on the King’s Road and order some coffees and baguettes. I’m a little more hopeful of some decent coffee today when I see cappuccino listed on the hot drinks menu. I know cappuccinos have been around for some years, but sadly the food and drink establishments I’ve been taken to in my time travelling so far haven’t been quite forward enough to be serving them yet.

‘So,’ Billy asks desperately, looking between the three of us once the waitress has taken our order, ‘what’s the goss then? What am I missing?’

Ellie looks over towards Harry and me sitting on the opposite side of the booth we’re all squashed into.

‘Go on, Ellie,’ I encourage her, ‘you’re the storyteller.’

‘I’d really rather one of you two told this,’ she says, looking at us again. ‘But if you really want me to…’

I nod encouragement at her.

She shrugs. ‘Basically, Billy, last spring term there was an
incident
in the music room.’

‘An incident?’ Billy says, his eyes lighting up. ‘Sounds juicy!’

‘I wouldn’t call it juicy, exactly. But it created quite a stir in the school at the time, didn’t it?’ she asks, looking at us again.

Harry and I both nod.

‘Why, what happened?’ Billy asks.

‘One morning John the caretaker came in to unlock before school had started as he does every day, except when he got to the music room cupboard there were a couple of surprises waiting for him in there amongst all the instruments.’

Billy thinks about this for a moment. ‘What – you two?’ he exclaims. ‘How? Why? Had you been there all night? Ooh, how naughty!’

‘It wasn’t quite like that,’ Harry says, flapping his hand to calm Billy down. ‘We’d got locked in accidentally and we had no choice but to spend the night there.’

Billy looks at us in disbelief. ‘How can you get locked in a cupboard
accidentally
?’

‘Very easily, apparently,’ I reply, my mind racing.
So that’s what happened? I thought it might have been much worse
.

‘So how big was this cupboard?’ Billy asks. ‘Snuggle up together size? Or walk-in wardrobe?’

‘It holds all my practice instruments, music stands and sheet music,’ Harry explains. ‘It’s more like a small room than a cupboard.’

Billy nods. ‘So what happened when the caretaker fella found you?’

‘After he’d finished quoting the Bible at us – and boy, did John go to town that morning! – it was all round the school by lunchtime,’ Harry explains.

‘And then of course it leaked out into the playground via the kids to their mothers by home time,’ Ellie adds, rolling her eyes.

‘Playground gossip can be so nasty,’ Billy says, grimacing.

‘Tell me about it,’ Harry says. ‘And by home time not only were we found in the cupboard together, we were apparently naked too.’

Billy’s eyes light up. ‘You weren’t, were you?’

‘Of course we weren’t! But by that time it didn’t matter: the damage was done. We got called into the head’s office the next day, and how we didn’t lose our jobs I’ll never know. Enough parents were calling for it. Apparently we were a bad example to their kids.’

Maybe it
was
worse than I first thought.

‘But,’ Harry continues, ‘Walter, who was our headmaster at the time, was in a particularly good mood that day. He’d won some money on the lottery and was in the process of getting a new car, so I think someone was looking down kindly on us when we went in to see him. He used to be a right tyrant, ran the school with a rod of iron, did Walter Maxwell.’

‘Ran?’ Billy asks. ‘What happened to him?’

‘He died, sadly. Food poisoning. It was a strange thing; everyone else who ate the same thing as him at a school awards dinner he attended was absolutely fine. Not Walter though, it got him really bad and really quickly.’

Oh my God! Walter Maxwell, my old boss from the sixties was the headmaster at the school I’m now teaching in before he travelled in time? If only I’d got here sooner… but it hadn’t worked before, had it? I’d never prevented anyone like me from jumping through time. Maybe this was our destiny, to move around like this. Maybe it couldn’t be prevented, however hard someone tried. Ringo had said as much. But how odd that Walter should come from this year, from the very school I’m teaching in. Could it be another link?

‘Are you all right, Jo-Jo?’ Ellie asks. ‘You’re very quiet. Are we upsetting you by bringing all this up again?’

‘No, no, not at all. I’m as amazed by this as the rest of you.’

Three puzzled faces stare back at me.

‘What I mean is, it’s still amazing how we got locked in that cupboard at all, isn’t it, Harry?’

‘Er, yeah,’ Harry replies, looking at me with a strange expression. ‘Very odd indeed.’

After we’ve eaten our lunch Billy and Ellie decide to head back over to the hotel.

‘Sure you don’t want to come?’ Ellie asks as they stand up to leave. ‘Even if they don’t come out and sign autographs again, you’ll see them when they come back from their sound check.’

‘No, you’re OK, I think we’ll probably head back home soon.’ I look over at Harry. He nods.

‘Then we’ll see you tonight at the gig? We’re getting there at about seven, aren’t we, Billy? So we can suss out the merchandise and soak up the atmosphere.’

The tour must start tonight.
 

‘Yes, of course, I’ll be there. What time does the show actually begin?’

‘I reckon they come on stage at about 8.45, but the support band is on first,’ Ellie says eagerly. ‘They’ll probably be rubbish, but you need to try them once, don’t you?’

‘I’ll be sure to be there before Take That come on, don’t you worry,’ I assure them.

Ellie shakes her head at me. ‘I don’t know what’s become of you,’ she says, looking at me in disappointment. ‘You’ve completely lost your sense of fun. You’ve gone all serious on me these days, Jo-Jo.’

Didn’t another Ellie say something similar to me once before?
 

Then she bends down next to me. ‘Just be careful,’ she whispers into my ear. ‘I know how much you like him. But he’s married, Jo-Jo, and the two of you work together. It’s doomed before it’s even begun.’

‘Don’t worry, Ellie,’ I assure her. ‘I’ve been in worse scrapes than this. It will all work itself out, I’m certain of it this time.’

Ellie, still looking unsure, shrugs her shoulders. ‘All-righty then, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Come on, Billy!’ she calls brightly, standing up again. ‘Let’s go party with Take That!’

‘Shouldn’t that be
Take That and Party
?’ Billy says, referring to the Take That album.

‘Very funny! Thinks he’s a comedian as well as a singer now.’ She winks at Harry and me. ‘Come on Lenny Henry, let’s go!’

They disappear out of the door together, laughing like a couple of schoolkids.

Next to me, Harry sighs. ‘I think we just got away with that,’ he says with relief.

‘Away with what?’

‘The getting locked in the music room story. If only they knew the truth.’

‘The truth?’

Harry smiles and puts his hand over mine on the table. ‘I think we both know the truth by now, Jo-Jo, don’t we?’

‘Another cappuccino, please!’ I call urgently to the passing waitress. ‘And make it a strong one this time!’

Later, when we arrive back at the house I’m still no closer to finding out what Harry meant by ‘the truth’. He suddenly went all vague when I tried pressing him further on the subject, reminding me very much of George. Then we find two large holdalls sitting on the doorstep, with a note.

You can collect the rest of your stuff tomorrow when I’m out of the house visiting my mother.
 

Harry sighs as he reads it. ‘I’ve really gone and blown it this time,’ he says, showing me the piece of paper.

‘She’s angry. She’ll calm down after a day or two.’

Harry lifts the bags off the step. ‘Maybe I don’t care whether she does or not.’

‘You don’t mean that,’ I say as we go into the house and I close the door on the outside world once more.

‘Yes, I think I do, Jo-Jo. I really think I’ve had enough this time. Life is too short for this sort of nonsense. I don’t want to spend my life with someone I don’t love any more. I want to spend it with someone I do.’

His blue eyes don’t move from mine while he says this.

I look away.

Harry drops the bags on the floor and walks over to me. ‘I mean it, Jo-Jo, you must know how I feel about you, and I have for a very long time.’

He gently strokes my hair away from my face, and I have to close my eyes for a second at the intensity of feeling that surges through me at his touch.

‘Getting locked in the music room was an accident, but a happy accident,’ Harry whispers. ‘Serendipity, some people call it. Something that was supposed to happen so something else could take place as a result – and that something was realising just how strongly I felt about you, and that I couldn’t hide it any longer.’

He pulls me into his arms, and for once I don’t see a Beatles look-alike, a teenage punk or a yuppie in front of me, I see the real Harry, the one I want to be with.

‘And I know you feel it too,’ he continues, looking down at me. ‘I can feel it, Jo-Jo, right here.’ He takes my hand and places it on his chest so I can feel his heart beating strong and fast. Then he puts his hand on my heart.

‘We’re the same, you and I,’ he whispers, as we stand with our hands on each other’s chests, looking deep into the other’s eyes. ‘The same, Jo-Jo.’

‘Are we?’ I ask, my own voice breathless with anticipation. ‘Are we really, Harry? Do you know my secret?’

‘Of course,’ he whispers, leaning forward to kiss me.

The doorbell rings.

Harry’s head drops forward. ‘Every time!’ he groans. Then he looks up at me. ‘You’d better get that, I suppose.’

‘Don’t go anywhere!’ I insist, pointing to him as I dash out to the hall and open the door.

It’s Ellie and Billy, holding pizza boxes.

‘We were worried you wouldn’t find us tonight, or you’d be
late
!’ Ellie says, pushing past me into the hall. ‘So we thought we’d pop by and spend the afternoon getting in the mood for the gig.’ She holds up some Take That music videos. ‘That’s if we’re not interrupting anything?’

Billy shrugs as I hold the door open for him and he walks past me into the house. ‘Sorry,’ he whispers. ‘She’s a pretty unstoppable force when she puts her mind to something.’

‘Oh, don’t I know it,’ I mumble as I close the door behind them. ‘I’ve been dealing with her for over thirty years now.’

‘Sorry,’ I whisper to Harry later, when we’re all snuggled up on the sofas, and Ellie and Billy are busy singing along to Take That and eating pizza. ‘I didn’t know they were coming over.’

‘It’s fine,’ Harry says, putting his arm around me. ‘At least I still get to spend some time with you.’

‘That secret we were talking about earlier, what was it?’ I’m still desperate to know what he was going to say.

‘This, of course,’ he says, gesturing at Ellie, Billy and then the television. ‘Your little Take That obsession. Why, what else did you think I meant?’

Everywhere I look there are girls.

Some of them are young girls. Some of them can’t really be classed as girls any more but are still sporting the same uniform as their younger counterpart: Take That T-shirts, scarves, badges – in fact, anything with the Take That double TT insignia they can lay their hands on, is covering their pubescent, and in some cases menopausal, bodies.

As I look around the inside of Wembley Arena, it’s not just visually that my senses are tested, it’s audibly too, and even though I’m not actually in the main auditorium yet, the noise is incredible. Excited voices bounce between food kiosks and merchandise stands as females chat, gossip and scream their way through the last few minutes before showtime, and the anticipation builds for the evening’s entertainment.

‘Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo!’ Is someone calling my name? I wonder, as I try to distinguish the lone voice in amongst the sea of noise. Then I spot Billy, madly waving at me above a forest of deely boppers, glittery hairbands and baseball caps, and as he pushes his way through the crowd I spy Ellie, her tiny frame almost swamped, following in his wake.

‘We thought we’d lost you in the crowd,’ he gushes, hugging me.

‘No, it all got a bit mad in there for me,’ I reply, nodding in the direction of the main auditorium. ‘But I think it’s even worse out here.’

‘And that’s only the support act, babe. Wait until the fab five come on!’

‘Ooh, let’s get foam fingers!’ Ellie coos, looking across at one of the merchandise stands. ‘I’ve always wanted one of those.’

‘That’s only so people can see you in a crowd,’ Billy jokes.

Ellie pretends to turn her nose up. ‘I don’t care what it’s for – I want one. Back in a mo!’ She skips over to one of the merchandise stalls and manages to wriggle her slim frame to the front of the table immediately, even though it’s three deep with fans waiting to buy Take That pillowcases and the like.

Billy smiles at me. ‘Everything OK?’ he asks. ‘With Harry?’

‘Yeah, he’s fine. He’s gone to have a drink with George at the World’s End so he’s not on his own. This really wouldn’t have been his thing.’

‘We wouldn’t have been able to get him a ticket anyway,’ Billy says, looking around him at the ever-growing crowd. ‘It’s been sold out for ages.’ He looks at me again. ‘I’m sorry if we messed up your time with Harry earlier, but sometimes these things are for the best.’

Until now Billy’s just seemed like a nice young man, if a bit over the top with his flamboyant outfits and flowery language. But now, as we stand looking at each other in this odd setting, he seems different. Older somehow. Perhaps even wiser?

‘What do you mean – for the best?’

‘I think you know what I mean, Jo-Jo. It’s not the right time for the two of you yet, is it?’ He looks at me meaningfully now. ‘I’m sure that time will come though, if you just let it be.’

‘Here!’ Ellie cries jubilantly, poking me with a huge pink foam finger. ‘I got us all one. Bit expensive, but hey, you only live once!’

I look questioningly at Billy as I pull a blue foam finger on to my hand.

‘Do we, Billy?’ I ask him. ‘Do we only live once?’

I enjoy the concert much more than I thought I would – when I can actually hear it, that is.

The music is almost constantly drowned out by the sound of screaming and singing girls. But when I do hear something I’m treated to a very young-looking Take That singing some of their early hits like ‘Babe’, ‘Pray’, ‘Could It Be Magic’ and ‘Relight My Fire’.

‘I
love
Gary!’ Billy shouts across at me when Gary is singing ‘A Million Love Songs’. ‘He’s gonna go through some tough times when they split, but I hope he’ll pull through OK. He’s destined for greater things, I know it.’

I stop swaying to the music and stare hard at Billy. Then I lean into him again.

‘You mean like Robbie,’ I shout into his ear, ‘he’ll have ups and downs, but give them both, what, say nineteen years or so, and they’ll be top of their game again. Hey, they might even be married with kids, too?’

Billy nods, still looking at the stage. ‘I hope so. If only they knew now what was to come in their future, they’d be able to prepare themselves.’ Then he turns towards me so quickly that his foam finger, still held aloft in the air, flies off and lands in the row behind. His fearful expression tells me everything I need to know.

‘You’re like me, aren’t you?’ I whisper in his ear while he still stares at me.

‘I – I don’t know what you mean,’ Billy says quickly. He reaches into the row behind us to retrieve his finger.

‘Yes, you do,’ I say as he stands upright again and begins to applaud with everyone else. ‘You’re from the future, aren’t you?’

‘Not now, Jo-Jo!’ he hisses. ‘In the interval.’

As the band launches into ‘Everything Changes’, I stand thinking about what I’ve just discovered. It’s Billy, this time; he’s the time traveller. But why didn’t I spot it sooner? I look over at him again happily dancing and singing along with everyone else. He’s not the same as Walter, Stu, or Lucy, he doesn’t have the same look they all had. The aura they all carried was one of not quite belonging, of being an outsider – I could see it in their eyes, and I’d got good at spotting it. Billy doesn’t look like that at all; he seems quite content with his life, happy even.

Why is he so different?