Clouds Below the Mountains

by Vivienne Dockerty

  That brought a smile to his daughter’s pretty rosebud mouth.

  “Oh yes Daddy, I’ve been practising in front of the mirror in my bedroom at home and Rosalyn Jacobs says that I look like Britney Spears.”

  ***

  “Do you know the maid has only left two bath towels?”, said Milly, poking her head out of the bathroom at her two cousins, who were sitting on their beds watching the television.

  “She must think that the third person sharing is a child,” Doreen replied. “I’ll go down to Reception if you want and get another one.”

  “You’re all right,” said Jean. “You can use the second towel. I only have a bath once a week and they say in the literature that towels are changed every other day.”

  Doreen and Milly looked at each other over Jean’s head, both with their eyebrows raised. Milly, who had wrapped herself in her fluffy dressing gown came out and stood at the end of the bed that Jean was sitting on.

  “Do you mean to say that having travelled all the way from Manchester in the same clothes as you’ve got on now, you won’t be having a shower or a bath before you change your clothes for dinner?”

  “I didn’t know you had to,” said Jean blushing furiously. “I’ve never been on a holiday abroad before.”

  “Well I have for several years now and when I go on the cruise ships, I have a shower in the morning and a bath at night. Even at home I have a shower every morning.”

  “Perhaps it’s because you have a house with all the mod’ cons and you’re not watching every penny to pay your electricity bill,” said Jean in a very choked voice. She felt so embarrassed at the way the two other women were staring at her, as if she had just crawled out of a mucky hole.

  “Eh love, don’t take on so,” her sister soothed, putting her arm around Jean’s shoulders. “ Milly didn’t mean anything by it, did you Milly? We just forgot that you’ve had it rougher than we have. Tell you what, you have the next shower or have a long soak in the bath and I’ll go and ask the woman at Reception to ring Housekeeping. Then if you want, I’ll give you a lend of my nice pearl earrings, I know you’ve always liked them when I’ve worn them before.”

  ***

  Kate Lewis looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, pleased to see that already after only two hours basking on the sun lounger, her tan had begun to appear again. It must have been because they had only been in Cyprus last October and because she had been in winter clothes since then, that her skin had gone back to being pink.

  She wasn’t in bad shape for fifty six, she thought, as she looked critically at her face that she slapped all manner of daytime creams on and visited the beauty salon for age-defying facials as often as she could. There were just two frown lines between her eyebrows and one or two creases above her lips because she used to smoke, but honestly wouldn’t anybody have smoked, with the problems she’d had to contend with over the past ten years?

  She had never had much support from Greg, as most of their married life he had been out making a living for his family. Then there was the Rotary club, the Golf club and the trips abroad to make contact with new manufacturers, so it been left to her to bring up her son and daughter mostly on her own.

  Not that she had minded really, Greg had given them a good standard of living and had left her to build the family nest without much interference.

  Then five years ago, her son, who was younger than Sonya by three years, left home because she had caught him smoking cannabis in his bedroom. He didn’t have to leave, she didn’t tell him to, but had read him the riot act. Laying down the law on what she expected from the people who lived under her roof. Did she get any support from Greg, did she bollocks?

  It had all kicked off when he’d been in Malacca, looking around a factory that processed rubber. Sonya had been twenty one at the time and was just about to take her exams at uni’. He’d gone mad when he got back and found his precious son had disappeared to heaven’s knows where. That was the first time they’d had a major “divorce on the horizon” row in their marriage, though they’d had a quite a few of them since.

  “Are you ever coming out of that bathroom, Kate?,” asked her husband, in a pained voice, breaking into Kate’s reverie. “I need to get changed yet and I can hear Evan in the corridor. Sonya must have sent him round while she gets ready.”

  ***

  Mavis Baker lay on her bed, listening to the sounds of her husband as he gave himself a shave with his electric razor. All that panic, she thought, as he had tried to find the conversion plug to put in his hand luggage early this morning. Why he had to leave everything to the last minute she’d never know? It was a good job she’d packed their suitcase herself yesterday afternoon, or he’d be wondering where half his underpants were. She heard him whistling tunelessly, as he continued with his ablutions and sighed as she thought that on Friday, they would have been married for fifty years.

  Where had the time gone, she asked herself? It didn’t seem fifty years ago since they walked up the aisle at St. John the Baptist church, then had their children in rapid succession over the next five years. Three little dotes, who were in their forties now with children of their own, all with their busy lives that left little time to visit their parents. Still, she was being a bit unfair, when she thought about it. Valerie was in Australia, had been for the past eleven years. It had been heartbreaking when she’d taken little Tommy with her, but Ken, her husband had got a good job out in Melbourne and who were they to put the mockers on it?

  Lilian , her second daughter, had gone to live in Southern Ireland with her great big Irish husband, who hailed from Galway. They had four children, big lumps just like their father. She and Fred had visited them there. They had a small cottage on a big farm belonging to Seamus’s parents and one day he would inherit the lot, but money was tight and it wasn’t often that they came over for a visit.

  Graham, the baby of their family, lived with his wife in London. They only had one child. A daughter who attended boarding school, as her two parents were something in the City. They’d come up to visit two Christmas’s ago, but had put up in a local hotel.

  So why where they in the Hotel Valia on Tenerife, three days before their biggest milestone, fifty years married? They should be looking forward to a big celebration at home with their friends and family. Because Fred had said he didn’t want a fuss and everyone was too busy to come to a party anyway.

  ***

  Jenni came out of the bathroom, all dressed up in a pretty pale green georgette dress with shoe string straps, her hair newly washed and scrunched into curls. She was looking forward to a lovely meal, because somehow the pizza and chips had seemed a bit samey. She could have that anytime back in England.

  “Your turn Simon,” she said looking at her boyfriend with a bit of disgust, as he was lying across the bed flat on his stomach, with his clothes all crumpled and his hair in a mess.

  “I’m not hungry,” he mumbled. “I’ve drunk too much. Stay with me and keep me warm, then we’ll get up later and have some dinner.”

  “I’ve just spent an hour getting myself ready,” Jenni said coldly. “ I was looking forward to a romantic meal. Just you and I sharing a bottle of wine together.”

  “Bottle of fucking wine, don’t make me laugh. I’m a beer drinker and don’t yer forget it. Now get into bed like I’ve told yer to.”

  “No, Simon. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do,” said Jenni, feeling fury rising up inside her at him using the F word. “I’m going downstairs and I will sit at the table on my own and have my own romantic dinner. I have my wristband on, so I should be able to order anything I want to.”

  “Then get the fucking hell out then, see if I care.”

  ***

  Jenni slammed out of their room, her eyes welling up with tears as she thought of the situation she had got herself into. It was all her mother’s fault. When she had told her that she was going to Tenerife with Simon, what had her mother said? “I hope you enjoy yourself.” Not, “ J
enni, you’re too young to be having a relationship with a man of nearly twenty one. Stay home and do your revising for your exams,” like any normal mother would have done. So, Jenni had gone ahead with it and look where it had got her now? With a drunken boyfriend, who she suspected might be also taking drugs!

  It was only recently that he had started taking her for granted, though thinking about it, it had been ever since they’d had sex in the back of his Mazda. His drinking had increased as well. When they had first started seeing each other, he hardly touched the stuff. Though that was because Jenni couldn’t go in a pub’ because she looked under eighteen. But then he started suggesting she met him after he had been for a drink and sometimes when they met he was a little unsteady on his feet.

  ***

  “So, whose going to be first with the baby sitting?”, Greg asked Kate and Sonya, as they sat finishing their desserts, with Evan licking the last bit of his chocolate ice-cream off his teaspoon.

  “I think I will, Dad,” answered Sonya, “ I’m really tired. We could go to the Mini disco, let Evan play with the other kids, then you and Mum enjoy yourselves for the rest of the evening.”

  “Well, that would be very nice Dear, thank you,” said Kate. “Perhaps we could stay up for the disco, Greg? We never got much chance on the last holiday, did we?”

  “What is that supposed to mean, Kate?”, asked Greg, his face darkening with anger at her words. “You were dancing to that resident band, every time it was Sonya’s turn to do the baby-sitting.”

  “With the emphasis being on “I was doing the dancing”. You were too busy networking around the place if I remember rightly.”

  “Stop it you two,” intervened Sonya. “ Let’s not bring up Cyprus again, we’re here to try and enjoy this holiday.”

  ***

  “I must say I enjoyed that meal,” said Paul, sitting back with a glass of red wine, after polishing off a roast beef dinner with all the trimmings and a plate of sticky chocolate cake.

  “Strange to be eating a roast dinner on a Tuesday evening, I wonder what you get on a Sunday instead?”

  “Probably paella,” his wife replied. “That or a Spanish omelette, seeing as we are in Tenerife.”

  “Ready for the Mini disco, kids?”, Paul asked Annabelle and Jack, as they both started squirming in their seats.

  “Yes, Daddy,” said his daughter. “ Are you going to get up and dance with me, like you did last year in Majorca? It was really funny watching you do that John Travolta stuff.”

  “We’ll see, Poppet,” Paul replied a little reluctantly, remembering that he had to get a bit squiffy before he showed himself up on the dance floor. “Come on Jack, let’s go and see if we can find your new friend, Evan. He seems to have finished ahead of us, but he’s sure to be in the Sunlight Bar.”

  ***

  Jenni tucked herself away in a corner of the restaurant. She felt foolish sitting on her own without Simon. Surely everyone would be looking at her, knowing that she had come from Manchester with her boyfriend. Common sense began to tell her, that her fellow diners wouldn’t be at all bothered. After all they were on their holidays too and out to enjoy themselves.

  She toyed with the idea of going back to the bedroom to see if Simon had sobered up a bit and was willing to come down and join her, but the waiter arrived and asked could he fetch her a drink, so she ordered a glass of white wine from him.

  Once the wine had been brought over, she got up and wandered self consciously to the Carvery. She piled her plate up with some slices of pork, a spoonful of apple sauce, a few roast potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli, then wandered back to her table again to savour the food slowly.

  “Hi,” came a female voice at the side of her. “Mind if I join you?”

  Jenni looked up in surprise to see Lucy, the Periquito rep’ smiling down at her.

  “Please, that would be lovely,” answered Jenni, swallowing her food quickly as she didn’t like to speak with her mouth full. “My boyfriend isn’t feeling too well. He had a bit too much to drink this afternoon, so wasn’t feeling up to eating dinner.”

  “Oh, that sometimes happens when you’re All Inclusive,” commiserated Lucy, putting her navy handbag on the chair opposite. “Never mind, I’ll just go and get something to eat and then I’ll keep you company.” She walked off to the Carvery, leaving Jenni feeling her spirits rise,

  “So, what do you plan to do if your boyfriend isn’t up to joining you?”, Lucy asked, after she had shovelled some of the contents of her plate into her mouth. “Sorry, I don’t know your first name.”

  “It’s Jenni,” the young girl answered, wondering what she should say in answer to Lucy’s question.

  “I suppose he’ll come down when he’s feeling better, or I might go up and see how he’s doing later.”

  “Well, why don’t you join me after we’ve finished eating? Let me get out of this uniform, I’ll go back to my room and change, then I’ll meet you in the Sunlight Bar. It seems a shame for you to have your evening spoiled and there’s so much going on in there tonight. They start with the Mini disco at eight thirty, then there’s Bingo and usually the top prize is worth having, then at ten o’clock there’s a show on. Tonight there’s a couple of singers and at midnight we have a disco too. Everyone joins in, all the staff and a couple of delicious looking waiters called Miguel and Juan. That’s Juan, the one who brought me the glass of water. Isn’t he dishilly handsome?

  Jenni agreed that he was and thanked Lucy for inviting her.

  Why not?, she thought with sudden resolve. If Simon wanted to apologize he could come and look for her.

  ***

  “What are we doing after we’ve finished our meal?” asked Milly, as she brought back a plate of cheese and biscuits with a few grapes from the buffet.

  “I vote we go and sit in the quiet bar where no kids are allowed in,” said Doreen, feeling terribly full after a bowl of lentil soup, a loaded dinner plate of the same type of food she had eaten at lunch time and two slices of black forest gateau. “I don’t really want to watch the children prancing about at the Mini disco. We can have a couple of drinks first, before we go in for Bingo.”

  “I’m happy with that,” agreed Jean, who had eaten sparsely as her stomach had got used to only plain food, with there not being a lot of money to spare. Milly nodded, feeling pleased that her two cousins had seemed to have forgiven her for upsetting Jean earlier. It had been a long day and a bit of peace would be welcome to the three of them.

  ***

  “I can’t see why yer couldn’t have put on that nice sparkly jumper I bought yer last Christmas,” remarked Fred to his wife, as they finished off their meal, with a cup of coffee each that the waiter had brought them. “Look around yer. Most people have made the effort this evening, but you’ve still got on the clothes yer started off in this morning”

  “Well, it’s hardly the Antilla, is it Fred?”, Mavis said quietly, still seething inside that he wasn’t making much of their coming anniversary. “Any road, there’s nothing wrong with what I’ve got on. It’s not as if you’re dressed up to the nines either. My clothes are clean and paid for. Why should I care if other people want to get dressed up for dinner?”

  “Oh, there’s no talking to you when you’ve got a cob on, Mavis. I was just looking at those three women over there, that’s all. They all look as if they’ve taken care with their appearance, well two of them do anyway, the little un’ looks a bit shabby compared with the other two.”

  “So are you saying I look shabby, Fred, is that what you’re saying? Maybe if I didn’t have to wait until Christmas for sparkly jumpers, I could look as good as them.”

  “Come on, out with it, this is because I wouldn’t have a fuss made for our 50th, isn’t it? I told yer, nobody’s bothered and we can’t afford to fork out the kind of money they want for a big do at a posh hotel.”

  “I wasn’t after a posh do, Fred. It would have been nice to have a party at our house. I would have done the cat
ering and got my sister Ethel to help me. Or you could have booked the Antilla again, you know I loved staying there.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Mavis, if you mention that bloody hotel once more, I’m going to go upstairs and pack the suitcase. Look, listen to me and listen good. The Antilla was half board and this year the price there has rocketed. You’d have still wanted to go out and have lunch at one of those places by the harbour. We’d have had to pay for all our drinks and it wasn’t what you call it, cost effective. This place was cheaper and everything all in and as for our 50th, when we get home we’ll invite George and Ethel and I’ll take us out for a special dinner somewhere. You name the place and I’ll book it. Now, before we go to the Sunlight Bar, will yer go and put your sparkly jumper on and a smile wouldn’t go amiss neither?”

  ***

  The Sunlight Bar was beginning to fill up with people, as Sonya and her family made their way to a group of comfortable looking armchairs, arranged around a small wooden table near the front. There were children already running around the place. Some however had decided to jump up and down off the stage or show off their dancing prowess before the music started.

  “What shall we have to drink?”, asked Greg. “Gin and tonic, Kate? Bacardi and coke, Sonya? What about you, little one, would you like a glass of lemonade or an orange juice?”

  “Lemonade please, Granddad, with a straw.”

  “Good boy, Evan. I’m glad to see you’ve brought your manners with you.”

  Evan looked puzzled, Granddad said some funny things at times.

  Greg went off to the bar to get the drinks, while Sonya and Kate looked around them.

  “It’s quite big this room, isn’t it?,” observed Kate. “I wonder what it’s like in the summer here? I suppose they’ll have the entertainment outside.”

  “Bound to,” replied her daughter. “Unless behind all those big blue curtains they have long opening windows, like patio doors.”