Clouds Below the Mountains

by Vivienne Dockerty

  “The sky is looking brighter,” said Miguel. “So maybe we can sit by the playa, there are some seats near the old castilla which look out to the island of La Gomeras.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” said Jenni, increasing her steps, as Miguel had long legs. “That will be very nice.”

  ***

  “Are you coming in for a spot of lunch, Mavis?”, asked Fred, as he found his wife sitting on a sun lounger reading by the swimming pool, wearing blue track suit bottoms and a lighter blue thin fleece jacket.

  “You go in if you want, I’m not bothered. I might wait until the pool bar starts serving snacks and I’ll get a beef burger.”

  “Are you sure? All that exercise I’ve been doing has made me hungry. I saw you doing that stretching, hasn’t that made you hungry too?”

  “I’ll get a beef burger,” Mavis said firmly, turning over a page in her book. “Oh, for goodness sake Fred, can I not have a bit of peace once in a while?”

  “Suit yourself,” her husband said huffily and walked off to the dining room.

  ***

  “I must say that hairdresser has done you proud, Jean,” said Milly, as the three ladies sat on their sun loungers, sipping fresh orange juice from plastic glasses. “If it wasn’t that we are going home on Tuesday, I might have booked an appointment too. As it is they’re only open tomorrow and they’re shut on Monday.”

  “They might have a free appointment tomorrow,” said Jean, feeling pleased with the results of the young hairdresser’s efforts. Instead of curling her hair into a frumpy shape, making Jean feel that she looked like the Queen Mother, she had given her a more sleeker look, with a bit of a fringe instead of brushed off her forehead like the hairdresser did back home.

  “I’d say she’s made you look ten years younger, with that modern cut she’s given you,” said Doreen. “We’ll have to watch you tonight in case you get pulled by some handsome Adonis.”

  “I don’t think so,” Jean gigggled. “More likely someone with silver hair, false teeth and a beer belly, if there’s any spare men going begging. Anyway, are either of you putting your name down for the Karaoke or are we going to watch everyone else making a fool of themselves?

  “I think I’ll pass,” said Doreen. “Not everyone wants to hear my rendition of “the hills are alive.”

  ***

  “I enjoyed that,” said Kate, as the family alighted from the cream coloured carriage, pulled by a motorized train. “Did you like going on the train, Evan?”

  “Yes Grandma, choo choo, choo choo, it was very exciting.”

  “Perhaps we could buy you a bedcover with Thomas the Tank Engine on it when we get home,” she continued. “You like those story books too, don’t you?”

  “I don’t like Gordon,” Evan said, “ sometimes he gets angry.”

  “What shall we do now?”, asked Greg. “Perhaps we could have a late lunch and treat Evan to an ice cream now, at that kiosk down on the sea front.”

  “Okay by me,” said Sonya. “Can I have one too?”

  “If you must,” smiled Greg.

  They sat down on a bench overlooking the black sand, while Evan, having finished his ice cream in double quick time, ran around the little playground nearby.

  “Coo-ee,” shouted a female voice from across the grassy area behind them.

  “Is someone shouting you, Dad?”, asked Sonya, as they all turned around to look at the people who sauntered along by the beach front shops.

  “Look, over there, some woman’s waving at you.”

  A plump, blonde streaked haired lady, dressed in red shorts and a white T’ shirt, looked very excited about something as she waved gaily in their direction.

  “I don’t think she’s trying to attract our attention,” said Greg turning away. “Who do we know over here anyway?”

  “Well, she’s coming over Dad, so she must know you”, said Sonya, as the woman in her early fifties began to grin wildly as she neared their bench.

  “I thought it was you,” she said breathlessly, addressing Greg. “Remember me, Brenda from Cyprus? Me and Stan met you and your wife in Pathos in 1991, we stayed at the Phaethon. What are you doing in Tenerife?”

  “On holiday, same as you,” Greg replied coolly. “ Well, well, it is a small world. Is Stan with you?”

  “Yes, he’s having a look at some shorts in that shop over there. He’ll be tickled pink when he sees you,” Brenda answered, undeterred by the lukewarm reception.“He often says he wondered what happened to you and your family, seeing as you didn’t reply to that letter he sent.”

  “What letter was that?”, asked Greg innocently. “Do you remember getting a letter from Stan, Kate?”

  Kate just smiled and shook her head. There had indeed been a letter, asking would they like to spend a weekend in Scunthorpe with the couple, as they had a caravan there. Greg had chucked it in the rubbish bin, saying he had no time for holiday friendships.

  “Kate,” said Brenda. “You’ve not changed a bit. Still smart and elegant and looking younger than your years. Not like me, eh, Kate? I’ve piled the weight on, haven’t I? Must have put on two stone since I last saw you. It’s the change that does it, but it doesn’t seem to have affected you. And who’s this, let me think, it’s Sonya, isn’t it? Your Mam told me all about how you left home to live with your boyfriend. This will be your little boy then, have you been married long?”

  Without waiting for an answer, Brenda started suddenly waving madly at her husband, who had just appeared from one of the shops.

  “Coo-ee, Stan, I’m over here and look who I’ve just bumped into!”

  Her husband, a large sandy haired fellow with a beer belly jutting out of his blue Caribbean short sleeved shirt and resting on his khaki pedal pushers, came sauntering across the grass holding a plastic bag that contained his purchase.

  “Well I never Bren’, who have we got here? Kate and Greg from Manchester, isn’t it? Well, I’ll be blowed, fancy meeting you here. What are you doing in Tenerife then?”

  “Same as you,” said Greg patiently. “We’re on holiday with our daughter and grandson.”

  “Where are you staying?”, Stan asked. “We’re up at Playa de las Americas in the Paloma Park hotel. Quite nice, but I have to say it’s not a patch on the one we stayed at in Cyprus. Are you here for the week?”

  “No, we’re booked in for a fortnight,” said Greg. “Hardly seems worth flying all that way just for seven days.”

  “Yes, we agree with you there, but we’ve just had a cruise around the Caribbean islands. Well before Christmas anyway, so we can’t be greedy, can we, eh? So, have you told Bren’ where you’re staying so we can catch up with each other? What about meeting one night before we go?”

  “Well, we have to consider Evan,” said Greg, trying to find a reason for not meeting the couple.

  “We like to get him to bed early if we can.”

  “That’s the ticket,” Stan agreed. “ Best to keep them in a routine when they’re so little. Well, what about if you come over to our hotel during the daytime? The lad can splash about in our kiddies pool, while we sit and have a few beers together.”

  Greg groaned inwardly. They were a nice enough pair, but he really didn’t want to renew their acquaintanceship with them, holiday friendships could be very taxing as far as he was concerned.

  “Perhaps we will,” he said. “Where was your hotel again, the Paloma Park in Las Americas? We’ll wander up one afternoon and see if you’re there, shall we? Anyway, we must be off for lunch. Our hotel is All Inclusive, so seeing we’ve paid for it we may as well get our money’s worth. Nice to see you again.”

  He took hold of Kate’s arm and began to walk the way they’d come, expecting Sonya, who was now carrying Evan, to follow them.

  “Oh, sorry Greg, where are my manners? said Stan, doing a shuffle alongside so he could delay them. “This must be Sonya, your daughter and what’s the name of this little chap?” He patted Evan on the shoulder, who looked the other way
shyly.

  “It’s Sonya’s son,” said Brenda. “Do you remember, she was living with her boyfriend and Kate was very upset?”

  “Oh yes, it all came right then in the end, eh, Kate? Did you have a big do for your wedding, Sonya?”

  “We really must be going, Dad,” said Sonya stiffly, feeling annoyed that her dirty washing had been aired in public by her mother. “ Evan will be wanting a snack before he goes down for his afternoon nap.”

  “Well, what if we go to that cafe over there and get something for him?,” said Stan, not willing to let the family go, now that they had met up again. “We can get him a pizza, most kiddies like a pizza, don’t they?”

  “I really think we should keep him to his routine,” replied Sonya.

  “OK. then, never mind, we’ll catch up with you later. By the way, did you ever get that villa in Pathos you were after, Kate? You did say you would write and let us know.”

  “No, we didn’t,” said Kate unsmilingly, suddenly feeling irritated. “I’m sorry Stan, Brenda, we really must be going now. Evan is really in need of a nap.”

  “Then we’ll see you at our hotel then, we’re usually around the pool about two-ish. Oh, by the way

  Greg, what happened to your son? Andy, wasn’t it. Didn’t you say he was batting for the other side now?”

  ***

  Jenni and Miguel walked hand in hand, around the headland from Playa del Duque towards the more built up area of Torviscas. They had spent the time talking about their families, whilst watching the many ships that sailed out of Puerto Colon harbour. Miguel though, had been apt to play down his rather wealthy background, saying that the property company his father had built up over the years was nothing special. His father had been in the right place at the right time, when he was striking his property deals. “But what are you doing working as a waiter?” Jenni had asked in amazement, when Miguel had let it slip that his parents had a Filipino couple working as maid and gardener at his home, a pleasant villa in hilly Nerja.

  “One day in the not too distant future, I will be called upon to take over my father’s business,” he had said seriously. “I decided to see a bit more of the world, although we have had holidays in many countries over the years, I wanted to go alone and see what it is like to live independent. I must say that working for a living is much harder, I think, than having a silver spoon put on a golden plate.”

  Jenni had giggled at his use of words, but understood the gist of it. She had learnt that Miguel had been sent to a very exclusive school in Barcelona, along with a term at an English language school in Brighton. She understood then, why he spoke English so well.

  What a difference though in their life styles. She had felt quite poor when she had told him of the terrace house she had grown up in Bolton, her parents divorce when she was small and the fact that her mother had a part time job as a school cleaner. “My father has a good job though,” she had informed Miguel, trying to talk up her pride. “ He’s an electrician and has a nice three bedroom detached house in Harwood and drives a really nice car.”

  Miguel had wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek, wishing that he’d kept his mouth shut about his family. He had felt her dismay, when learning that their backgrounds, were poles apart from each others.

  ***

  “Don’t talk to me, this isn’t the time or the place,” snapped Kate, as the family fled along the promenade away from Stan and Brenda. “I don’t want to listen. I’m on holiday and that is that as far as I’m concerned.”

  “But Mum,” cried Sonya, as she jogged along breathlessly behind her parents with Evan in her arms. “But Mum, what about Andy? Don’t you think we should talk about my brother sometime?”

  Kate stopped in her tracks and glared first at Sonya and then at Greg. “Is this the place to do it? In the middle of crowds of holiday makers, after some insensitive couple turn our lives upside down again?”

  Greg put his arm around her shoulders, as angry tears began to well up in his wife’s eyes. “Yes, you’re right Kate, let’s just calm down, have our lunch then we’ll sit out by the pool and talk. Perhaps we could put Evan in the Kid’s club for an hour?”

  Sonya nodded. Perhaps a talk would clear the air. It had been like living on a knife edge at home since their holiday in Cyprus last October. Everything had been brushed under the carpet and as far as she was concerned, she wanted it brushing out again.

  Kate fumed to herself silently as they hurried along back to the hotel, while Greg carried a whingeing Evan, who could feel the tension in the people he loved. Sonya was feeling annoyed, that the stupid couple they had just met could cause such discord between her parents. Her father looked tightlipped and drawn, suggesting to her that he too was finding the situation hard to handle.

  “I don’t want to do this,” said Kate abruptly,sounding at the end of her tether as they walked into the porticoed reception foyer. “I want to go back home. I’ve had enough of all this pretense that everything in the garden is rosy. We’ll get a separation and I’ll find a place of my own.”

  “Mum,” cried Sonya horrified, while Greg looked dumbstruck at his wife’s bitter words.

  “I mean it,” said Kate, “I’m fed up of walking on egg shells with both of you. I’ve tried my best for you Sonya, by looking after Evan while you go out to work. I’ve tried to keep a pleasant home for you to live in, Greg and tried to block out the fact that my son doesn’t give two hoots for me and what do I get out of it? Nothing, just a couple of weeks holiday and I can’t even get some peace then.”

  “Kate, you’ve had a shock, meeting that couple has knocked the wind out of you,” said Greg urgently. “Sonya, take Evan and get him something to eat, while me and your mother sit out on the patio. I’ll get you a gin and tonic, Kate. You’ll feel better in a little while, I promise you.”

  He propelled his wife to a chair near the pool bar and summoned a waitress to take his order.

  “Listen Kate,” he said quietly, once their drinks had been put on the table. “You can’t just take off back home, just because of some ignoramus’s throw away comments. We have to meet our problems full on, like we always have in all our years of marriage.”

  “Like you did in Cyprus?” Kate replied, looking at her husband scornfully. “You didn’t listen to anything I had to say, did you, just packed your bags and wanted to fly back to England the very next day?”

  “That was different, Kate. You wanted to spend all that money on a property out there, which we probably would have only stayed in a couple of times a year. I told you time and time again that it wasn’t economical, but you wouldn’t listen, went ahead and nearly got us signed up to a whole load of headaches.”

  “It was meant to be my bolt hole. I could have spent time on my own and got my head around things that weren’t meant to have happened in our marriage.”

  “Well, they have happened Kate and we have to deal with them. You made your choice last November anyway. You could have stayed there in Cyprus if you’d wanted to, but you chose to come home to look after the family. Don’t you think that I’ve had to make sacrifices in my life as well?”

  “I suppose,” said Kate grudgingly. “Though it’s more difficult for me, you know, with being Andrew’s mother?”

  “Ah, so we’re talking about our son now, not what happened in Cyprus. The fact that he’s no longer in touch with you, or the fact that he might be gay, or the fact that Stan mentioned something that you knew nothing about?”

  “All of it,” Kate said.

  ***

  “Well, that was a very pleasant trip out, if I do say it myself,” said Paul, as he parked the Espace in the hotel car park.

  “Even if we did get nearly lost in all that fog, Daddy,” commented Annabelle seriously.

  “Yes, Poppet, even that. We found our way eventually.”

  “It was because Mummy had the map instead of me,” his daughter continued.

  “No, Darling, it was because the mist over the moun
tains hadn’t cleared as we were travelling upwards. We were on the correct route all the time,” said Cheryl firmly.

  “Well, never mind that,” said Paul hastily. “Why don’t we go and sit by the pool and get some cooling drinks inside us? I don’t know about you, but three cans of coke between the four of us in that lunch box, didn’t seem to go very far.”

  “Nor did the sandwiches, Daddy,” said Annabelle. “Do you think I could have a hot dog now?”

  ***

  “You should have come with us,” said Paul to Kate and Greg, as he and his family joined the couple at the table by the pool bar. Funnily enough, Kate and Greg hadn’t seemed very pleased to see them, though they must have been dying to know how the trip to Mount Teide had gone.

  “The Espace was a dream to drive through all that rugged landscape. It was like travelling across what I would imagine, is similar to the surface of the moon,” Paul said, warming to his role of travel guide. “Do you know that Mount Teide is Spain’s highest mountain, it’s over twelve thousand feet high and the views, well, they were spectacular? We took a cable car right up to the summit and we could see all over Tenerife and across to all the other islands too.”

  “Daddy bought me a pair of binoculars,” said Annabelle, “ and I could see for ever. Daddy, you

  promised me a hot dog and Jack is wanting one as well.”

  “Excuse me a moment,” said Paul. “Does anyone else want something while I’m up? Kate, Greg, Cheryl?”

  “Didn’t you find it rather chilly up there, Cheryl?,” asked Kate politely, while Paul was putting in his order at the pool bar. “I would have thought that at such a height the air would have been rather cold.”

  “It was,” Cheryl replied, “ but luckily I had the foresight to put in our fleeces and a sweater each, so when we started going over snow we didn’t get frostbite. I have to say though, that my favourite part of the trip was through the pine forests. Seeing the volcano still smoking was a bit daunting to say the least.”

  “The volcano last erupted at the beginning of the twentieth century,” Annabelle said with relish.