by Jo Meadows
‘That’s the spirit Georgie!’ said Leo.
‘It’s Georgina to you Leon, don’t be so cheeky!’ she said smiling.
The meal turned out to be pretty good and everyone seemed to have a good time. David thoroughly enjoyed his ribs and, along with Lynnette, Leo and Emily, got into a nice sticky mess. However, with the bibs and finger bowls, they all left the pub nice and clean and they all felt better for a great lunch. Even Georgina seemed relatively happy. As they drove home, David seemed to be favouring his hand and Lynnette asked if he was alright.
‘Don’t take any notice of him Lynnette. I asked him this morning if he needed it looking at and he brushed me off. He’s making a fuss about nothing.’ said Georgina.
‘If it’s painful it probably needs to be checked. What about making you an appointment to see the nurse tomorrow Dad?’
‘I suppose I should get it checked, it seems quite swollen today.’
‘What a drama queen,’ said Georgina. ‘I expect we’ll be hanging around all day for you and get nothing else done. I bet there’s nothing wrong with it when all’s said and done. Men!’
The next day, Leo took David down to the doctor’s surgery and sat with him while he waited for his appointment. ‘Did you enjoy lunch yesterday Dave? It was good fun wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, it was really good and it made a nice change, we haven’t been out for a while and certainly not to a pub. Its great having you guys here, you’re always a good laugh.’
‘Well life’s too short isn’t it,’ said Leo. ‘You’ve got to make the most of each day and have fun when you can. There are too many little things that come along to trip you up and give you grief, don’t you think?’
‘Yes, you’re right there. There’s little enough opportunity to have fun in our house at times,’ he chuckled mainly to himself. Leo was just about to reply when the nurse called David in.
When he came out several minutes later, he had a new dressing on his hand, a prescription for some antibiotics and a puzzled look on his face.
‘What’s up,’ said Leo. ‘You look worried, is everything alright?’
‘Yes, everything’s fine thanks. My hand will be okay, it’s just a small infection and these antibiotics should sort that out pretty quickly.’
‘What is it then,’ asked Leo, looking a little concerned.
‘It’s nothing really. The nurse asked me why I hadn’t been in for my annual checks for some time. It was a bit embarrassing actually, I asked her what she meant and apparently they’ve sent out several letters requesting me to make an appointment. Of course I said I hadn’t received any letters because I would definitely have come in for the checks. They’re important at my time of life aren’t they?’
‘What do you mean, your time of life? You’re as fit as a fiddle and look very good for your age. You’re right though, you should be getting regular checks, or how else could they spot something untoward? I wonder what happened to the letters; did you make sure they had the correct address for you guys?’
‘Yes, all that’s correct. Perhaps they went missing in the post or something, I don’t know. I’ll ask Georgina when I get home.’
‘It would be odd if several letters went missing, the post is pretty good normally. Have you got to make an appointment for the checks?’
‘I don’t need to, the nurse did a quick check on my height and weight, and I just need to pop in tomorrow for a blood test at the drop-in clinic. She said they’d let me know if there’s any problem.’
‘What time is that? I’ll bring you down and save you the walk and a bit of time.’
‘Thanks Leo, you’re a good lad.’
‘No problem Dave, anytime, you know that. What did you mean earlier when you said there wasn’t much opportunity to have fun these days?’
‘Oh nothing, you know the way Georgina can be. I just always seem to screw up with the smallest of things and it’s as though she’s always finding fault with what I do lately.’
‘Is she okay, there’s nothing worrying her is there, you know, she’s alright health-wise isn’t she?’
‘I think so, she hasn’t said anything and I’m not going to ask her outright. We don’t seem to get on so well these days, I assume it’s because we’re getting a bit older and we’ve been together for so long.’
‘She does seem to pick you up on things quite a bit these days, I hope you don’t mind me saying,’ said Leo.
‘She picks me up on everything lad, absolutely everything. But hey, what can you do, that’s just Georgina; she’s always been a bit of a mystery to me. You won’t tell her I said anything will you?’
‘No, of course I won’t, don’t worry.’
By the time they got back home, it was a bit late to go anywhere so Lynnette suggested going to the beach for a walk. Emily was all for it and rushed to get ready. ‘Anyone else fancy a walk? It’ll only take us a few minutes to get there and it will satisfy Emily about the beach for a while. If we don’t get to go later on at least we’ll be able to say we tried.’
‘I’m up for it,’ said Leo, what about you guys?’
‘Not me,’ said Georgina, ‘I’ve got to get some things ready for tea.’
‘Nor me, sorry,’ said David. ‘I’m feeling a bit rough today.’
‘There’s always something with you, isn’t there? Oh well, you lot go off, I’m sure Emily will love it even if it is a bit chilly. I’ll make us a nice tea for when you get back. Don’t be too long will you?’
‘No, we’ll only be an hour or so,’ said Lynnette and pretty soon they were all out of the door with Emily skipping away way out in front and telling her Mum and Dad to get a move on.
‘Now we’re alone I think I’ll pop in the kitchen and start to get tea ready,’ said Georgina.
‘Would you like a cup of tea while it’s a bit quieter?’ asked David.
‘Yes, that would be nice, remember, only half a spoon of sugar in mine and please remember to stir it. Since Lynnette and Leo have been here I’ve had to do that for myself several times. You think they could get a simple thing like sugar in my tea right wouldn’t you?’
‘Yes dear, don’t worry; I know how you like it,’ said David as they walked into the kitchen. ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you, I’ve got to pop back to the doctor’s for a blood test tomorrow.’
‘Why’s that? I thought we could go out somewhere as we didn’t manage to do anything today. There you go again causing problems and upsetting my plans.’
‘Well, I’m well overdue my annual health checks and apparently the surgery have been sending out letters asking me to make an appointment for them so the nurse asked why I hadn’t been in. I was a bit embarrassed actually, I told her we hadn’t received any letters which she thought was odd. Anyway I checked that our address was correct and it was. We haven’t had any letters that you’re aware of have we?’
‘We may have had one or two, I’m not sure. We get a lot of junk coming through the door these days,’ said Georgina offhandedly.
‘Letters from the doctors can hardly been classed as junk can they? How many have we had and what did you do with them?’ he asked.
‘Don’t go getting all uppity David. You don’t see half the rubbish I have to deal with; you just leave it all to me. Those checks are a waste of time anyway, what do they look for that you wouldn’t spot yourself?’
‘Some of the checks are, granted, but that’s hardly the point is it? What about things that are only noticed from the results of blood tests? You can’t spot them yourself can you? Going to the doctors occasionally is only a minor inconvenience, I’d rather have the tests than ignore them and that way if something gets spotted early, you might be able to do something about it. In the future, if you don’t mind, I’d rather see any mail that’s addressed to me.’
‘Oh my, we have got ourselves all wound up today, haven’t we?’
‘About this I have yes! As I said, I was quite embarrassed today not knowing we’d even had any letters.’
‘Well that’s a regular occurrence isn’t it David? You embarrass yourself all the time with the way you go on?’ Georgina laughed.
‘I’ve about had enough of this!’ snapped David. ‘I don’t embarrass myself, you say I embarrass myself! What you mean is I embarrass you! For some reason, everything I do or even say is either wrong or stupid; I can’t do right for doing wrong these days.’
‘Alright, alright,’ said Georgina with a gentler tone in her voice. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you David. I really didn’t think those checks were so important to you. In the future, I’ll make sure you see all the mail and I’ll check with you before I throw anything out. I do love you David, you know that don’t you? I don’t mean to have a go at you all the time, I haven’t been feeling very well myself lately and I haven’t been sleeping well; I suppose that’s made me a bit irritable.’
‘Why haven’t you said anything before now?’ asked David with real concern in his voice.
‘David, Darling, if I told you about every little problem I get you’d think I was a hypochondriac. I’ll try to be a bit less snappy and more tolerant from now on. I’m so sorry.’
‘I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to snap at you, I love you too Georgie.’ David reached over and, gathering Georgina into his arms, he hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead gently.
Over his shoulder, as she gently returned his hug, the expression on Georgina’s face became one of seething anger. In her head her thoughts were raging. Over the last couple of days he’d taken several liberties and now he’d had the audacity to question her over the mail and worst of all; he’d raised his voice to her. However, she recognized when to back off and let him think he’d exerted his authority. But this! Now, right this minute! She’d had to allow him to touch her and even kiss her! Thank god it would only last for a few seconds, she could barely stand it. Let go! Please let go! By god would he pay later! Patience, patience, calm down, she thought, taking a deep breath. I’d probably better wait until Lynnette has left at the end of the week though, just in case.
David had been quite astute about the glass in the cupboard and for a moment she’d thought he was actually about to accuse her of putting it there deliberately. She needed to be more subtle; a little less obvious. Perhaps she should allow more time before delivering her retribution and perhaps she should give a little more consideration to what the retributions should be.
Verbal punishment was almost a waste of time these days. Not only did it provide little in the way of satisfaction for her, he was starting to openly react to it; look at today with this nonsense about the letters. With physical punishment she could feign sympathy initially but, she could also still have the opportunity to add a few choice words to keep him in his place. I’ll think more carefully this time, she thought, besides, I need to devote some time and thought to Lynnette, Leo and Emily before they leave. Emily probably thought I didn’t notice that she didn’t seem to want to kiss me, little madam. She’ll learn to have a bit more respect over time, especially if she gets a little reminder or two. As for yesterday; it was almost a conspiracy to get me into that awful pub, and then, to order food that they had to eat using their fingers, Disgusting! And out in public too!
As David slowly let her go, she looked up at him and smiled. She could see the love in his eyes; he adored her. Stupid man, she thought, as she continued to smile at him, you don’t know what’s going to hit you. You make it so easy.
Later, after they had all had tea, Georgina was in the kitchen tidying up the dishes. ‘Do you want a hand Mum?’ asked Lynnette.
‘No, not really, perhaps Emily could help me wipe the table and tops if that’s alright. You go and sit down, I’ll make us all a nice cup of coffee when I’ve finished.’
‘Alright, I’ll get Emily to come through, I’m sure she’d like to help her Nana.’
When Emily came in Georgina gave her a cloth and asked her to give the table a wipe.
‘Okay Nana, but I thought Mummy was helping you.’
‘She was Sweetheart but I thought you would like to give me a hand. You like helping me don’t you?’
‘Yes I do but Grandpa said I could watch a DVD, we were just looking at what to put on.’
‘You can still watch a DVD when we’re finished. Besides, I wanted to have a little chat with you.’
‘Oh, alright,’ said Emily. ‘What about?’
‘Oh you know, just little things between us. Things that can be secret, things that Mummy and Daddy don’t need to know about.’
‘What things? Mummy says I shouldn’t have secrets from her and Daddy.’
‘Don’t be silly, this is just between you and me. We can have one or two secrets can’t we? Just between us? I always had secrets with my Nana.’
‘Did you? Okay then,’ said Emily mischievously.
‘You know yesterday when I asked you if you had many chips to eat? Well, I know you don’t really eat many but I’m only worried that if you have too many things like chips, sweets and ice-cream, you might get fat.’
‘I’m not fat,’ said Emily looking puzzled.
‘I know you’re not, but you are just a little bit chubby and, if you do eat too much of the wrong things you soon will be. You don’t want to be fat do you? Fat people look terrible and it would be such a shame if you were fat. You’re really pretty as you are.’
‘Ugh! No, I don’t want to be fat. But don’t worry, I’ll be really careful, I won’t have chips anymore if you think that’s best. Would it be alright if I had sweets, just sometimes, not every day?’ asked Emily looking worried.
‘Yes of course Sweetheart. As long as you remember what I said and make sure you don’t eat too many. Fat people are disgusting, don’t you think?’
‘I suppose so, my friend Sammy is a bit fat and the other girls laugh at her sometimes. It makes her cry and it’s not very nice.’
‘You see, you don’t want to be like Sammy then do you? Everyone would laugh at you as well. That’s funny; when your Mummy was little she had a friend called Samantha too. She was fat and I told your Mummy that I didn’t want her to get fat and ugly like that and that she should play with other girls.’
‘Mummy’s never told me that.’
‘No I’m sure she hasn’t and, as this is our secret, just between us, you shouldn’t tell your Mummy what we’ve talked about. She might think I’m interfering. But you know I love you and you know that I only want you to grow up slim and beautiful, don’t you?’
‘Yes Nana, I know, and I won’t say anything to Mummy or Daddy. It’ll be our secret and I promise I won’t eat chips and sweets and things again without thinking I might get fat. When I get home I might tell Sammy that she shouldn’t eat so many chips too.’
‘There’s a good girl, now, there was just one other thing I wanted to ask you,’ said Georgina.
‘What’s that Nana?’
‘Why didn’t you want to kiss me when you arrived the other day? You haven’t got a cold now have you?’
‘No, I don’t. I’m sorry I lied, it’s just that sometimes you squeeze me really hard and it hurts.’
‘I squeeze you because I love you Sweetheart, I’m sorry it hurts but you hurt me when you don’t want to kiss me. It’s like a pain in my heart.’
‘I’m sorry Nana,’ said Emily and her eyes started to fill up with tears. ‘I never wanted to hurt you, honest.’
‘I know you didn’t but you did nevertheless. Please don’t do it again. Your old Nana won’t be here forever and you’ll be sorry when I’ve gone and you think about the times you might have hurt me. It will be too late then, won’t it? Another way to hurt me is to break a promise, so you will remember that you promised to keep secrets just between us won’t you?’ Emily rushed over to her Nana and hugged her, squeezing so hard that Georgina knew that she’d got to the little madam.
‘I’m sorry Nana, I never want to hurt you ever, and I promise that I’ll never tell anyone about our secrets,’ said Emily, crying
softly into Georgina’s shoulder.
‘There’s a good girl Emily. Now, dry your eyes, you don’t want your Mummy to know you’ve been crying do you? Would you like some ice-cream to cheer you up?’
‘But you said -’
‘Yes, I know what I said but remember that was just between us. A little bit won’t hurt now will it?’
‘Thanks Nana, you’re the best,’ said Emily with a grin.
Yes I am, and I’ll make sure you don’t forget it, thought Georgina, smiling inside.
Chapter 3
The rest of the week went quickly by and pretty soon it was time to say their goodbyes. David seemed a little sad as they all stood in the driveway by the car.
‘You okay Dad?’ asked Lynnette.
‘Yes I’m fine thanks. I always hate to see you go. I do enjoy your visits so much and I miss you all terribly when you’ve gone.’
‘We’ll be back before you know it Dave,’ said Leo. ‘We won’t leave it so long next time, promise.’
‘You’re a good lad Leo; I’ll keep you to that.’
‘Come on now David, stop making such a fuss and let them get on their way. You know they’ve got hours ahead of them,’ said Georgina with a little smile. Then, taking hold of David’s hand, she said, ‘Now go on all of you, it’s time you were going before we all start getting upset.’
After hugs and kisses all-round with a special hug and kiss, and a private little wink, between Emily and her Nana, they were in the car and off down the road.
After they got going Lynnette turned round to Emily in the back seat and said quietly, ‘I saw that little wink your Nana gave you when we were leaving, what was that all about then?’
‘Oh nothing Mummy, that was just between me and Nana.’
‘Oh, alright, I just wondered,’ said Lynnette, not wanting to push it. ‘What are you going to do now, are you going to read or play with your dolls?’
‘Play with my dolls I think.’ Lynnette knew that Emily would probably be fast asleep in a few minutes and would wake up eager for a drink and a snack when they stopped for a break in a couple of hours.
