The English Woman

by Inch, Jennifer

  **********

  The warm breeze ruffled her hair and Fran felt good even though she had a restless night. She had been back to the agency from where she had spoken on the ‘phone with Nina Wallace, who had raised her hopes with her light, bubbly voice. Fran was now on her way to see her apartment. Although she had to walk along many streets her optimism had returned. The apartment was in a typical suburban neighbourhood, lined with trees that portrayed she was in a sub-tropical climate. Colourful birds sang in the trees, grasshoppers hummed and beautiful butterflies balanced on leaves.

  “Hi there!” greeted the sandy haired landlady with a friendly smile. She was very attractive, appeared to be about ten years older than Fran and was dressed in denim shorts and a pink tea shirt. Fran liked Nina instantly. She felt comfortable as she looked around the apartment that was fresh and tastefully furnished, although small with only one bedroom, lounge, kitchen and bathroom.

  "Well, what do you think?" Nina asked Fran.

  "I love it, but I only need it for a month because I'm just travelling and want to get to California. I can pay you a month's rent in cash now" she replied.

  "Okay, great. As you can see the apartment joins onto my house. I have a studio at the other end of the house where I design fashion, so as I work from home you will see me about a lot" Nina added.

  "That's fine by me. Can I move in today please?" Fran asked.

  "No problem" laughed Nina.

  Excitedly she paid Nina a month’s rent and hurried back to collect her holdall from the bus depot.

  After unpacking Fran walked the short distance to the nearest supermarket for groceries, and to save money she purchased plastic cutlery, Pyrex mugs and bowls, and tinfoil trays to be used as plates.

  **********

  An angry thunderstorm raged outside the apartment on her first day, so Fran spent the afternoon ironing her clothes and sorting out the apartment to make her feel at home. When the storm abated Fran decided to visit Nina in her home. The house had been converted to add an apartment on the side and there was still a door from the main house into it. Fran found the door to be locked from the house side so she walked out of her apartment around to the back door of Nina's house. As she knocked on the open door a small middle-aged woman shuffled passed her and went into the garden.

  “My sister is retarded,” explained Nina as she came to the door "come in Fran."

  Fran walked into the house and was immediately introduced to a dark haired, sun-tanned, well-built attractive man about fifty, who Nina affectionately called Teddy. Teddy shook Fran's hand, "Hi, I understand you are from England and are travelling around the States. I am originally from Lithuania."

  "Yes I'm hoping to see lots of interesting places. I was made redundant so I thought I would spend the money sightseeing. It is such a big country and there is so much I want to see, but first I want to spend some time relaxing and enjoying the climate. Have you been in this country long?" Fran asked.

  "Quite a few years now. I immigrated with my parents after the war. My mother died about ten years ago and my father spent all his time building up a landscape gardening business which has acquired a good name locally. He passed away recently so now I have taken over the business" he said with a sullen look.

  Fran didn't know how to respond, so she gave Nina and Teddy her opinion of what she had seen in the States so far. Then the three of them talked of other countries in relation to the USA and Fran drank her first cup of green tea. Afterwards Fran went home laden with coat hangers and crockery.

  It had stopped raining and the late afternoon air was warm, so Fran walked around the neighbourhood before dusk fell. It would have been called a ‘middle-class’ area in England; the houses on their small plots of land boasting orange and grapefruit trees, swimming pools, boats and trailers. Fran walked high in spirits, elated at her good fortune.

  **********

  The next two days were spent quietly relaxing in her apartment and its interesting garden. Fran enjoyed those days sitting in the sun, reading or writing, watching nature. After living such an active life she was glad of a break and enjoyed the freedom from responsibilities and being able to do as she pleased.

  Ruth, Nina’s sister, pottered around the garden followed by her pet rooster named Nicodemus. She held conversations with him as if he were a child. When she talked she flicked her tongue, which made her voice resemble that of the rooster clucking. There was no grass in the garden because of Nick’s natural instinct to peck anything within reach. One day Ruth saw him pecking the plants.

  “Get out of there!” scorned Ruth, hitting the rooster on the beak. “I told you it was going to be difficult to live here.” The rooster cowered and scraped the ground. “Come on!” Ruth ordered, and as she walked off followed by Nick, she unwrapped a bar of chocolate.

  Fran grew to like this unfortunate woman who was labelled retarded, but who on many occasions showed that her level of intelligence was not to be undermined. Fran felt angry at the anonymous person that had raped her, which was the reason why she was living with Nina.

  Rip, Nina’s small, grey-haired schnauzer dog, was very friendly and made Fran feel at home. He would sit by her feet and look up at her with endearing eyes waiting for her to ruffle his hair or tickle his belly, and throw a stick for him to fetch. How he would bring laughter by jumping and barking when the rooster puffed out his feathers, held up his head, affirming that old saying “ruling the roost’. Fran believed that Rip was afraid of the bird!

  Fran also found great pleasure in watching the birds, which spent their day in the many varieties of trees in the garden. The enormous tree that continually shed dead leaves and dominated the garden was the home of grey squirrels. They were delightful to watch; so light on their feet that she almost expected them to fly. Occasionally a Woodpecker would visit the tree, drilling at the trunk with its beak. In the plants, dead leaves and stones at the bottom of the tree lived Fran's favourite friends, tiny creatures called Anole lizard. They moved quickly by hopping on all four legs in the shade, but in the sun they had to rest. What brought a smile to Fran's face was the way they would bounce up and down as if they were doing press-ups. Their throats would bellow to show a flare of red. There were many different shapes and colours, some as long as eight inches, and all were fascinating to watch. Nina's next door neighbour’s ten year old son would pick up the small Anole lizards, and as they would grip to anything with their mouths, he would hang them on his ear lobes like earrings.

  **********

  Fran looked at the sign through the bus window which read Ybor City. She had been told it was pronounced eebor and that this was the Latin quarter of Tampa.

  She alighted from the bus and walked to what was the cigar capital of the world where the Tampa cigar industry was found. She entered an interesting building that was once the cigar factory where Cuban patriots met during Cuba’s struggle for independence. The building was now a unique collection of shops that captured the charm of yesteryear. Four men and two women still made cigars by hand. Fran watched them with nostalgic interest.

  “You are English. I’ll show you the cigars that Winston Churchill smoked” said the old Cuban as he proudly brought out an enormous box of cigars. “He bought a lot of his cigars here” he said smiling. With Joe in mind Fran purchased a box of the small hand-made cigars and carried on the tour.

  As Fran stood on the steps of the ‘factory’ her thoughts went back to those days when Jose Marti led an army of cigar workers to fight for Cuba’s freedom from Spanish oppression. How rousing to hear over 10,000 Cubans shouting “Cuba Libre!” Free Cuba!

  Across the street was a building that was once the Cherokee Club where Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and other notables had gathered. The Rough Riders Brigade, who had helped bring an end to the Spanish-American War and brought freedom to the people of Cuba, had made Ybor City their second home. Fran was amused to learn that by riding their horses into the Las Novedades restaurant one night they had giv
en rise to another historic event known as the ‘charge of the yellow rice brigade’.

  “Guantanamera.” The song written by Jose Fernandez from the words of Jose Marti was in Fran's head. She was standing in a small park, the land of which was deeded to Cuba and the soil had come from every Cuban province.

  **********

  Fran pushed open the door that displayed the small sign ‘Cuban food served here’. Dark faces turned towards her and she felt out of place in the small crowded cafe. The menu looked interesting; to Fran it appeared to be in Spanish and fortunately was translated into English. Fran sat at a table and listened to Spanish looking people at the other tables talking in another language, so she assumed they were Cuban. A young Cuban man took her order, which was hot Cuban bread, kingfish and steak, followed by plantains, which he told her was green bananas. When the food came it was delicious and Fran felt very full.

  When she left the cafe she spotted an interesting shop, the window of which was full of new and used goods. She opened the door to a dark and cluttered shop where a young man was serving. Luckily for Fran he spoke broken English so she managed to buy an inexpensive transistor radio.

  **********

  Fran sat on the bus stop seat, plugged in the ear piece and started to tune in her new radio.

  “Someone has just tried to shoot the President. Five people have been injured!” came a panicky voice on the radio. “A man in his twenties has been held.” The voice went on “we will make further announcements when we have more information.”

  Two black women were sat beside Fran. One laughed aloud saying “He probably didn’t try to shoot Reagan, he knew that the shock would kill him! He’d be so scared he’d die from heart failure.”

  A large black man ran across the street. “Someone tried to kill Reagan,” he shouted.

  The second black woman responded, “I expect a lot of people wished he had!”

  Fran boarded the bus which was bursting with talk of the assassination attempt. She was in a black community and these black southerners seemed to have little feeling for President Reagan.

  When Fran arrived back in the apartment she turned on the television to learn that the President whilst in Washington had been shot in the chest. His assassinator was John Warnock Hinckley Jr, aged 25 from Evergreen, Colorado. A photo of him appeared on the screen; he had medium brown hair, a round face and looked well built. Fran thought he looked familiar, and wondered if he was the guy that she had coffee with when they got off the bus in Washington. It was the image of those deep mysterious eyes that had stayed with her. They said he had been travelling around the country so he could have arrived in Washington at that time.

  News coverage over the next week not only concerned the welfare of Ronald Reagan, and James Brady, who had been shot in the head, and the other four injured men, but also the restricting of arms. It was felt that there should be tighter control on the sale of handguns. However, on this occasion the trend that followed was as in previous assassinations, that the sale of handguns rose dramatically. It was later reported that John Hinckley Jr had been obsessed with Jodie Foster, the actress in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver. He had been stalking her and wanted to impress her. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and placed in a mental institution.

  **********

  The next morning Fran awoke early to the sound of thunder and heavy rain beating on the windows. Then suddenly there was a loud crashing sound and she leapt out of bed and rushed to the window. She could see that the banana tree lay on the ground; luckily it had fallen away from the apartment. After about an hour the storm passed and Fran went into the garden where Nina was already staring at the fallen tree.

  "I will call Teddy and ask him to cut the tree up and dispose of it in his truck" Nina told Fran as she walked into her house.

  After a while Teddy appeared with a large knife and as he cut up the branches Fran helped him load them on to his truck. Because the storm had awaken her early Fran felt tired when she finished helping Teddy, so she went back into her apartment and lay on her bed. She awoke to find that a few hours had passed and she needed to go shopping. As the weather was getting hotter she needed to buy some summer clothes and so she decided to ask Nina how to get to the shops.

  As she walked through the garden she noticed that an Anole lizard on the low wall had been cut in half, and was lying next to what looked like the knife that had been used to cut up the banana tree. The sight of the lizard and bloody knife disgusted her. She had avoided knives since she was a young teenager and recalled the reason why.

  Fran was about eleven years old and there was a boy a few years older living at the end of the street. His name was David and he was adopted, but all she could remember about him was that he was a crazy mixed up kid. They would play in the garden, and he would make her stand with her feet apart while he threw a knife into the ground to see how near he could get to her feet without actually stabbing them. She remembered going into his house when his parents were out and he showed her the stab marks that he had done in the back of his living room door, and once he slashed at the settee in a mad frenzy as she stood in the doorway unable to move. One day they were sitting on the swings in the local park when Fran spotted her brother and waved, then as he got closer David threw his knife at him and it penetrated her brother's face just below the eyebrow, luckily he did not lose his sight in that eye. Why did she hang around with David? Why wasn't she afraid of him? Was there something in her that thrived on fear? Fran shuddered at the thought and turned away from the knife on the wall.

  As she knocked on the door Nina came from the front of the house.

  "Hi Fran, thanks for helping Teddy earlier; I had to get some things for Ruth and so had to go out" Nina informed her.

  "That's okay Nina. I didn't mind, although I was tired after, what with the storm waking me early. Can you tell me how to get to the shops; I need some summer clothes?" Fran asked.

  "We have a great new shopping mall that is under the ground and fully air conditioned. I could do with getting out so I will take you, if you like; give me ten minutes to change."

  "Great, thanks Nina, I'll be ready."

  Fran found the new shopping mall to be breathtaking, having never experienced anything like it before. As she passed the window of an accessory shop Nina said “Fran you can’t keep carrying that rucksack around you’ll have to buy a purse.”

  Fran looked confused “A purse?”

  “Oh yes, I forgot you call them bags in England!” Nina responded with a grin.

  So they went into the shop and Fran bought a brown leather shoulder purse with ample room for her important personal items. She had a great time looking around the shops and Fran really enjoyed Nina's company. As they got back to the car, Fran carrying bags containing a new bikini, white shorts and flip flops, Nina said "I really enjoyed shopping with you. It's not the same shopping with Teddy; he shows little interest in clothes and just wants to look at all the latest gadgets."

  "I understand; that is a normal man thing" Fran said as she put her bags into the car.

  "We must go to the beach together soon, now it's warmed up." Nina had also bought a new bikini which she put into the car. "Besides we can flaunt ourselves in our new bikinis" she added laughing.

  On the way back Fran asked Nina if she could use her ‘phone to call Joe, and Nina agreed so as soon as they were home Fran dialled the ranch. Nancy answered and Fran explained who she was and Nancy told her Joe was still working, so she took the number and said she would ask Joe to call her when he came in. A few hours later, as Fran was finishing her evening meal, Nina shouted from the other side of the adjoining door that Joe was on the line as she unlocked the door for Fran.

  “Hi Joe” Fran said excitedly as she grabbed the ‘phone from Nina.

  “Fran, it’s good to hear your English voice. It’s been so long; how are you?”

  “I’m very happy Joe. The apartment is really nice and I’ve made some great friends,”
she said as she looked at Nina and smiled. “How are you Joe and how is your sister?”

  “I’m okay, but Sara is getting worse. It is very upsetting seeing her so ill” Joe said with sadness in his voice. Then added, “When will you be in California?”

  “I’ve rented the apartment for a month, and will then travel the Southern States. It should be the beginning of May. I will call you nearer the time.”

  “I’m so looking forward to you being here. Sorry Fran, mother is calling me for dinner. I have to go; goodbye Fran.”

  “Goodbye Joe. I’m looking forward to seeing you” Fran said as the ‘phone disconnected before she put the receiver down.

  **********

  Fran's very enjoyable stay in Tampa was hampered by the fact that she could not afford to hire a car, and the buses stopped running at 9 pm. What would be short trips to most became day long excursions for her. A visit to Tampa Art Museum took a day. This was an experience in itself, with a mind exploding light/space exhibition, and two original paintings by Andy Warhol – Chairman Mao and Marilyn Monroe. Other trips by bus and foot included an attempt to see the banana boats unload, only to discover that there were none that day. Another day she walked for hours to Adventure Island and was completely deflated when she found it to be closed. However, she made up for her long walk by sneaking into a trailer park and using their swimming pool.

  A few times Fran visited Lowry Park, which was a small park within walking distance and boasted a free zoo and fairyland for children. Being free meant that it was ideal for her, and she was pleased to see so many mothers with their children enjoying themselves in the park. As well as the zoo, stadium and rides there was a miniature village where toddlers could learn their highway code by being pedestrians or peddling small fire engines or police cars. There was a food van in the park which sold 'Corn Dogs' and Fran couldn't help but smile when she asked for a Corn Dog. It was a sausage wrapped in a corn batter which Fran found to be a very enjoyable snack, and so she bought one every time she went to the park.