by Jo Meadows
Georgie
By Jo Meadows
GEORGIE Copyright © Jo Meadows 2015
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental.
Edition: November 2015.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 1
Where is he, and what the hell can he be doing? Georgina wonders as she lies in her bed. From what she can see through the window it looks as though today is going to be another lovely day. Although it’s only ten minutes past seven, the sun is well up, its warmth already washing over her room making her feel contented and happy. She would be happier if David had delivered her cup of tea on time. Seven o’clock. He knew what time it should be there, where is he, it’s ten minutes past? What will his excuse be today? It had better be good, but then again, the day seems so lovely perhaps he can be excused for making her wait; at least she’s had a few precious minutes on her own to appreciate the beautiful morning.
There’s a light tap on her door and he carefully trips into the room with her cup of tea on a little tray. With it is a small rose in a little glass.
‘Sorry I’m a bit late. I saw this growing over the fence in the park and thought I’d get it for you, it’s beautiful don’t you think?’
‘You know I like my tea at seven but, I suppose I can let you off just this once. Thank you. Yes it’s lovely, but why didn’t you leave it where it was and show me later? It’ll die now.’
Sighing quietly David slowly leaves her room. Ten minutes! She thinks. Ten minutes I’ve had to wait and all for a silly little flower. You’d think he’d have more sense after all these years, he should know better. He knows my tea is priority first thing in the morning. How can I start my day properly if I don’t have my tea on time? I suppose he means well. I shouldn’t be so hard on him he’s only doing his best and trying to get me in a good mood for the day, and I suppose the rose was a nice thought. She slowly sips her tea and then settles back deep into the duvet, she smiles, her mind drifting back to the days many years ago when her children Michael and Lynnette were only little and running around the house creating all kinds of chaos.
Those were the days. Michael was older by just over a year and it showed. He would boss little Lynnette around but always in a good way, besides, she needed to be kept in her place that one. Georgina could recognize potential problems brewing when no-one else could and from the very early days she knew that Lynnette would need to be kept an eye on. They were good kids most of the time, and life was good back then. Everyone did as they were told, including David and no-one argued when she decided what they would do on weekends and holidays. After all, she was the one who did most of the cooking and managed the home. Why shouldn’t they do as she “asked” and that included a few little jobs around the house? She wasn’t the only one that lived there so why should she do all the cleaning? What was she, some kind of maid? If they did as they were told then everyone was happy, what’s wrong with that? If they didn’t then god help them, she thought with a little smile.
Georgina was proud of the way she’d brought up her children. No-one would disagree that they were always very polite and well-turned out. I suppose it’s a good job that no-one saw what truly went on in the house behind closed doors, she thought. Then again, it was all necessary and nothing had been really over the top - had it? You don’t need to smack a child for it to know it was being punished and after all, discipline is good for them.
From the outside her family was a happy and cohesive little unit that had none of the problems that many other families that lived nearby seemed to be inundated with. That was what was important. To be seen to be like some of those others would be horrifying. She’d kept a close eye on the kids as they’d grown up and everything had worked out really well. David however had been another matter. He was always so keen to talk to everyone he met that before you knew it he was telling the world all their business. Georgina hated that anyone knew anything about their lives and it had taken years to get David to toe the line. For many years she had had to be quite ruthless with him but he’d finally seen the light and he now knew where he stood and what he could and couldn’t say. He also knew who and who not to talk to.
Thinking about David brought her back to today and the fact that he’d been late with her morning tea. Yes, the rose was a nice thought but she wasn’t about to let him get away with those ten minutes. She picked up the rose and, smiling, slowly began to pull off the petals, humming the tune to - “He loves me, He loves me not.” In her mind however, the words were - “Verbal or physical, Verbal or physical.” By the time there was only one petal left her decision was made - His punishment would be physical. Nothing too bad, nothing that would cause him any real grief, just something small and something to make sure he was more mindful of the time and his priorities in the future.
Yes, today should be a lovely day. Lynnette, Leon and Emily were coming to visit for a week and as long as David had finished everything he’d been told to do in time, and he behaved himself when they got here, it would be lovely.
***
In the kitchen David was just finishing up the dishes from his breakfast. In a few minutes he knew Georgina would be coming out of her bedroom and heading towards the bathroom. That was his cue to put on her toast and make sure there was enough tea for her second cup. Usually this meant making fresh because if she’d taken her time with the first cup, what was left in the pot was wasted. Today, because of his stupid idea about the rose he knew that fresh was the only option. What an idiot, he thought, why on earth did I think getting the rose was a good idea? Making more tea wasn’t a problem, as long as she didn’t realise what he was doing, the problem was, that by being late for ten minutes, he knew that she now had ammunition to use to give him grief later on. He’d have to be on his toes for at least the rest of the morning. If he made it to lunchtime he’d probably be okay.
As he made more tea he wondered how it had come to this. He’d seen the rose out in the park and thought what a nice little gesture it would be to give it to her with her tea. He didn’t realise that by the time he’d been out and got it, nearly eight minutes had passed and then before he knew it the tea was already well overdue. His only thought had been to make her happy but as usual he’d screwed up. It bothered him that these days his every waking moment was filled with worries about her moods and how she was going to be. It didn’t seem to matter what he did or what he said, he couldn’t do right for doing wrong. It was as though her mission in life was to ruin his, and his mission was to avoid upsetting her. These days! It wasn’t these days that he was bothered, he’d been bothered from not long after they’d met.
Life was great, and then one day she dropped a small bomb. She thought she was pregnant. That was that. No more sex or even close contact. Intimacy was out of the question. She started to work out the way their life was going to be from that day on. He had little say in the matter although, at the time he knew what she said was for the best and of course he had a duty to stand by her. He had the onerous duty of telling her parents but he needn’t have worried, they seemed strangely happy about the whole thing. The wedding was quickly planned and took place with just a few close friends as guests. It was like a sudden unexpected thunder storm; before he knew it they were married and living in a small rented flat with the baby on the way. For a while they continued to go out occasionally on a Saturday night but once Georgie started to show, it was all over. She wouldn’t be seen looking anything but her best and despite his attempts to assure her that she looked gorgeous, to her she was fat and ugly and of course, it was entirely his fault!
From that day on his life stopped being his own. No more going to the dance hall or even just to the pub with his mates. In fact, it didn’t seem long before he felt he had no mates, they seemed to just drift away. He would go to work each day and come home to Georgina. Once they were married she’d made it very clear that “Georgie” was gone.
The bedroom door opened and David was quickly brought back to reality. ‘Would you like anything on your toast this morning?’ he asked.
‘No! I’ll have it dry and burnt no doubt. What do you think? Butter will do, as usual.’ Oh well, here we go, he thought, wondering what delights today would hold.
Later, Georgina was out doing her usual daily shopping and David was taking out the rubbish, one of his many “chores” of the day. Why she needed to shop every day was beyond him but he didn’t mind, it gave him a little while on his own. As he emptied the small kitchen bin, he saw what remained of the rose. That went down well, he thought, no surprise there then, perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered. Going back into the kitchen he reached into the cleaning cupboard for the things he needed to clean the windows; another “chore” he had to get done today. As he felt for a cloth he felt a sudden sharp pain in his hand. Looking down he saw he had a deep cut between his thumb and forefinger and as he looked, the blood quickly started to flow.
‘What the hell?’ he cried out loud. He quickly grabbed some kitchen paper to cover his hand and stop the blood from going all over the place and then looked into the cupboard. In the container where the cloths were kept, he saw the base of a broken bottle sticking up at just the right angle to have caught his hand as he went in to get the cloth.
‘Now how on earth did that get there?’ It was the base of one of his beer bottles. Odd, he thought, he hadn’t had a beer for two days, being only “allowed” a maximum of two bottles on a weekend. Besides, he always put the empty bottles outside in the recycling. How could a broken piece of bottle have found its way into the cleaning cupboard?
No, he thought, she couldn’t have - she wouldn’t have, surely. It was only ten lousy minutes. God she’s quick. She gets me every time. Oh, don’t be so stupid, stop it; you’re becoming paranoid why would you think it had anything to do with her? Anyway it’s my own fault, I should have known better; stupid rose.
A little while later Georgina came back from shopping, the only item in her bag being the daily newspaper. David didn’t bother to ask why buying the paper had taken the best part of fifty minutes. You took advantage of these small gifts of time and besides, he’d had the time to dress his hand and make a good start on the windows.
‘You missed a bit,’ she said as she came up the path.
‘Where?’ he asked. Typical, he thought, I’ve barely got going and here she is finding fault.
‘JOKE David! It’s a joke, my, you’re so sensitive.’
‘I never know when you’re serious sometimes and I want to do a good job, you know that, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I know and you do a good job most of the time, you just need to keep an eye on the details. You know you can easily get distracted when you’re on your own.’
‘That’s why I need you to keep an eye on me Georgie.’
‘When you’re finished come inside, I’ll make us a nice cup of coffee. By the way, what have you done to your hand? Having a clumsy day?’
‘Yes, something like that. I’ll be about ten minutes or so.’
When he went into the kitchen just over ten minutes later she asked what had taken so long. ‘I said about ten minutes or so,’ he said.
‘You’ve been way over ten minutes but never mind. What did you do to your hand, you never said?’
‘I cut it on some glass in the cupboard. But it’s odd, it was glass from a beer bottle and I always put them straight into the recycling, I know you hate them lying around in the kitchen.’
‘I don’t hate them David, I just don’t like the smell of stale beer. There’s nothing worse than that smell in the kitchen. It reminds me of the smell of pubs and that awful dance hall we used to go to.’
‘Hey! Don’t knock the Palais, that’s where I first saw you and where we met. We wouldn’t have got together if it weren’t for that place. Where would we be now if we hadn’t gone there?’
‘Yes I know, but wouldn’t it have been nice if we’d met somewhere really special?’
‘Well it was special for me. I think I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. I couldn’t believe my luck when you agreed to dance with me.’
‘Yes, I suppose you were pretty lucky, I was a bit of a dish wasn’t I? I quite fancied your mate Steve you know.’
‘You still are a dish Darling. But, Steve? He was always half drunk and couldn’t dance for toffee.’
‘Yes, but he was a bit of a looker. You were okay though, so don’t worry, I chose you didn’t I?’
‘Chose me? It was me that asked you to dance wasn’t it?’
‘I know. I must have had a moment of weakness when I said yes. Then again, you had a decent job and were a far better prospect for the future. That’s what counts.’
‘You were thinking about the future even then?’
‘I’m always thinking David. Anyway, back to the glass. How did it end up in the cupboard?’
‘I haven’t got the faintest idea.’
‘You need to be more careful don’t you? I’ve told you, you sometimes have one too many or do something stupid and then we get accidents.’
‘I only ever have two.’
‘How’s your hand, okay I hope, we can’t have you disabled. You’ve got quite a lot on today what with Lynnette, Leon and Emily coming. Have you finished the windows ye
t?’
‘Yes, the windows and the other jobs you wanted done are all done. By the way, what took you so long shopping today? You seemed to be gone quite a while?’
‘Observant aren’t you? I’ve been to the hairdresser’s. I wonder why I bother; you don’t even look at me these days.’
‘Sorry Georgie, your hair does look really nice.’
‘Whatever David. Go and get cleaned up, they might be here soon.’
Oh dear, he thought to himself, that’s strike two today, I’m on a roll. Had her hair done? Really? You could have fooled me. At least with Lynnette, Leo and little Emily coming I might get lucky and she’ll forget about that little faux-pas. I’ll just have to make sure I don’t do anything else to give her cause to have a go. I need to be more careful.
Chapter 2
‘Michael, Lynnette, come in, it’s time for dinner,’ Georgina called, and pretty soon, there they were the little darlings. ‘Where have you two been and what have you been up to?’
‘Just outside in the garden playing,’ said Michael.
‘Michael found worms,’ said Lynnette smiling.
‘Why were you playing with worms Lynnette? I’ve told you you’re a little girl; little girls play with dolls and dress-up. They don’t get all dirty. You’re not a boy.’
‘Michael found them and said it was alright. We didn’t hurt them.’
‘Who cares whether you hurt them or not, they’re filthy little things. How do you expect to grow up into a pretty young lady when you’re always dirty? We’ve got enough problems with you looking the way you do. Most little girls are slim and pretty.’
‘Dad says I’m beautiful,’ said Lynnette with a little tremor in her voice.
‘What does he know, he’s a man. I’m the one who’ll make sure you lose that chubbiness and dress properly. We can’t have you looking like that friend of yours, what’s her name?’
