As the smiling, waving couple finally got into the car, Gussie and his cousins were roaring out the chorus of ‘Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?’ Francis realised that Gussie didn’t have his 8mm camera with him. He’d miss them taking off. Francis ran back into the function room and found the camera on the bar counter. He grabbed it and brought it back to his brother.
‘Can I film them driving off?’
‘No. You don’t know how to use it. Give it to me.’
Francis knew from the way Gussie was swaying that he’d make a mess of it. He had watched him enough to know what to do. The car engine started.
‘Please let me.’
‘OK, but if you break it, you pay for it.’
Francis put his eye to the viewfinder, turned the clockwork dial and released it. Just in time. The clicking sound began and he saw the flickering image of the car pulling away, the cans dancing on the road. Then waving guests came running into the shot and the JUST MARRIED sign was blacked out by all the bodies.
Ann didn’t cry, but watching Ritchie drive off with his new wife, naturally she recalled her own honeymoon. London, just after the war. They’d stayed with Fonsie’s brother Peter and, even though the city was practically in ruins, Ann remembered how everyone was so full of fun, making the best of it. Laughs and songs. She and Fonsie had talked seriously about emigrating that time. Peter said he could fix him up with some job in the Royal Mail. Imagine if they had. All the children would be English. She was glad they’d stuck it out here, hard as it was. Hadn’t things turned out fine so far?
Ann thought about the night seven months ago when Cormac and Louise had so kindly invited Ann and Fonsie to their lovely home for dinner to celebrate their children’s engagement. It turned out to be a right good session with many laughs and Noble Calls. Cormac Kiely knew all the old songs. Afterwards, in bed, she and Fonsie had started talking about Ritchie and all their memories of him since he was baby. Ann didn’t mention it when she thought of the rattly old bed in the tiny spare room in Peter Strong’s house in Croydon. Of course, she couldn’t be sure which night exactly Ritchie was conceived, but it was definitely some time that first week after they married. The strange thing was, just as all that was going through her head, Fonsie started to kiss her and next thing he was pressing her back on the bed. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed to let him know he could keep going and, next moment, she felt the excitement of his cracked palms scratch along her thighs as he nudged her nightdress up and then, in no time at all, they were crushed together. In all their years married it had never been their habit to speak during such moments, but this time, in the cascade of excited breaths and moans, Ann was sure she heard Fonsie whisper, ‘I love you.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Donal Beecher, Ann Richardson, Tony O’Dalaigh, Harry McGee, Neal Shanahan, Louis Lenten, John McGuigan, John Allen. To Ben and Sophie for taking it on and making so many intelligent suggestions and, most of all, to my agent Gráinne Fox, without whose advice and support this book might not exist.
About the Author
Gerard Stembridge is the author of two novels, Counting Down and According to Luke. He has also written and directed film and television. Credits include About Adam with Kate Hudson, the screenplay for Ordinary Decent Criminal (starring Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Linda Fiorentino), and he co-wrote Nora (a film about James Joyce and Nora Barnacle, starring Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch). He is the co-creator, with Dermot Morgan, of Scrap Saturday.
ALSO BY GERARD STEMBRIDGE
Counting Down
According to Luke
Copyright
First published in 2011
by Old Street Publishing Ltd
Trebinshun House, Brecon LD3 7PX
This ebook edition first published in 2011
All rights reserved
© Gerard Stembridge, 2011
The right of Gerard Stembridge to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–1–906964–66–5
Unspoken Page 43
