| Chapter 1 Three weeks ago |
Eric shouted: ‘I’m home darling. I’ve had a really bad day, how’s your day been?’
‘So-So! By the way, darling I’ve invited Winona and Bill and Pat and Peter round for dinner tonight. Hope you don’t mind. They are such good fun! I know you have probably had a very busy day, but then you have three hours to rest as they are not coming until 8:30pm!’
‘Oh God! Have we got to wait that long! I’m famished! Really Barbara! You’re the giddy limit! Why can’t we have an evening to ourselves, for a change?’
‘Come on Eric! We haven’t seen them for ages! You need to relax a little bit more – just sit there and I’ll mix you a drink – what will it be, your usual – whiskey and soda or ginger ale? Would you like a sandwich to fill in the time till dinner?’
‘NO! I think I’ll have a bath. I have some thinking to do.’
‘I hope you are going to get in a better frame of mind by the time our guests arrive – I was only just saying to Winona the other day how grumpy you were lately.’
‘You’re telling your friends about me?’
‘Don’t be silly!’
‘I’m not being silly, what happens between us should never be discussed outside these four walls – I know I’m like a bear with a sore head sometimes, but work is piling up and your Dad is not able to cope as well as he used to.’
‘I can see where you’re coming from, but it still makes me want to chat to someone I know, other than you about things sometimes. It helps in some way and I do trust Winona not to repeat it to anyone else.’
The phone rang and Barbara picked up the receiver – ‘it’s for you!’
Eric grabbed the phone from her.
‘Yes! Hmm! Yes! Hmm! Yes! Hmm! Hmm! Yes! But! But! If you would let me get a word in edge-ways! But! But! Yes! Hmm! Hmm! Hmm? Yes! I hit a bollard! But! But! Yes! It’s a small dent, can you fix it or not! HOW MUCH? Oh well Mr. Jackson, just fix the dent in the car please. Yes! Hmm! Hmm! Look Mr. Jackson – just fix it – I’m having a row with my wife – I don’t want one with you!’
Eric slammed down the phone. ‘That was the garage!’
‘I know!’
‘Mr. Jackson!’
‘I know!’
‘Blooming Garage!’
Barbara said ‘For heaven sake Eric!’
‘You don’t want to know what he’s going to charge!’
‘I’m sure you’re going to tell me!’
‘£210.02p plus VAT for a little dent like that! Such a little dent! Bloody garages! I’ll have my bath and then if you don’t mind, I’ll just pop off out for an hour – alright?’
‘No! – it’s not alright, you’re always doing that, after we’ve had a word or two and then I don’t see you all evening and then you walk in the house swaggering all over the place, belching and farting and start to tell me dirty jokes, I’m not having it! Besides we have guests coming tonight!’
’Hard luck! I don’t think I’ll bother with a bath – I’ll just go out!’
‘You always do what you want to do. Go to your silly pub and get blind drunk!’ Eric grunted, rose from his chair, picked his brief-case up and walked to the stairs. He paused and turned round and glared and grunted in Barbara’s direction and went. He trudged upstairs to the bedroom. Many doors opened and slammed and then Barbara heard the distant rush of water and the echoing sound the bathroom always made.
She always thought the bathroom was too big, like a Mausoleum.
‘When he starts singing, it’s like listening to a Penguin with wind.
I wonder why he’s argumentative tonight, must have met someone who disagreed with him. Oh yes! Now I remember – Work and now the garage, I had forgotten about the office, but surely…..Oh well not to worry!’
The evening had started well and then ended in a slight tiff. Barbara walked to the foot of the lounge steps and hears Eric singing ‘She’s funny that way!’ She smiled and walked back to the kitchen to start preparing the evening meal.
She started talking to herself – ‘Eric’s got everything! He’s a co-director of a firm owned by my dad and has two strapping boys – I must admit they never come to see Eric and only visit when he’s at work. I‘ve often remarked on this to the boys, but for some reason it’s never quite convenient.’
She cleared the dining room table of bric-a-brac and extended the table to take six people and then went to the Welsh Dresser, and laid the table. Having completed that task she looked at her watch, time was pressing and she hurried back to kitchen, moving the partition to one side – it was beginning to look tatty and as soon as this dinner party was over she was going to chop it up and chuck it all in the garage.
Barbara said, ‘Oh drat! Is that the time – must get a move on – they will be here in one and a half hours! Now where are those other saucepans?’
She had already placed two saucepans on the hob, one with carrots and the other broccoli and had lit both the burners and was searching the cupboards for the other two elusive pans, opening doors and shutting them in a hurried way until she found them and took them out – they looked clean and she shut the doors of the cupboard with her elbow.
She was lost in thought when the phone rang. She thought for one instant that it was the Monkton’s or the Ryan’s crying off.
‘How awkward! What shall I do! Oh dear!’
She just managed to press the monitoring telephone system button with her elbow. At first there was a shushing noise and then a voice boomed across the kitchen and lounge.
‘I’M COMING TO GET YOU!’
The voice seemed vaguely familiar and for one moment it sounded like Eric’s voice – but he was upstairs in the bath.
Barbara spoke hesitantly ‘Who, who’s speaking?’
The voice just kept repeating itself over and over again. Barbara screamed and dropped the saucepans with a clatter on the stone tiles. As she moved towards the lounge she brushed against the telephone and it fell from the breakfast bar and was hanging by the cord. At this point Eric rushed down the stairs with such force that he collided with a small ornamental table. It fell almost silently onto the carpet, spilling the potted plant and scattering earth all around. He was half dressed in underpants, shirt and socks.
Eric shouted, ‘WHAT’S THE MATTER DARLING?’
Barbara rushed into his arms – ‘Oh Eric!’
Eric was holding Barbara very tightly, who by now was quivering with fright. Barbara turned and pointed to the telephone which was swinging backwards and forwards. At first no words seem to come into her mouth. She just nodded her head and then blurted out – ‘the – the phone – the phone – a man’s voice! He said – said – said he was coming to get me! He just kept repeating it! I thought it was you – mucking about – it sounded like you!’
Eric said nothing and sat Barbara down and walked over to the phone and replaced the receiver – and he could just hear faintly the last of the words, which seemed to be slurring and slowing down just like a recording. He eventually heard a click and the monitor stayed silent. No noise except for the sauce-pans which were bubbling away. Eric turned the gas off under each saucepan and walked towards Barbara. He gently gathered her into his arms and she sobbed over his clean white shirt.