Clouds Below the Mountains

by Vivienne Dockerty

  “Jenni, you know this is my day off, what can be so important that you have to drag me out of bed?”

  “Miguel wants to come and work in Manchester,” said Jenni, hurrying past Lucy and settling herself on the sofa. “ You’d think I’d be happy that we are going to be together, but I’m petrified. I’ve lain awake all night worrying and I just had to come over and tell you. I know it’s your day off and I’m sorry for disturbing you, but who else could I turn to?”

  “I’ll just switch the kettle on,” said Lucy resignedly, walking over to the kitchen area. “ I would have thought you’d be over the moon that he cares so much about you.”

  “It’s not that,” said Jenni, covering her face with her hands despairingly. “ I’m pleased that he cares about me, but I thought we’d only be writing letters, having the odd ‘phone call. Maybe I would come over again and stay for a week or two, but I didn’t expect him to throw up everything and follow me to England. I have to say it’s a bit of a shock.”

  “Have you told him that?”

  “No, Lucy, I couldn’t, he was so full of it last night. I couldn’t burst his bubble.”

  “And would it be so bad if he got a job in a Manchester hotel?”

  “Yes, it would,” Jenni squeaked, turning her face fearfully to Lucy. “Simon would kill him for a start, as he would see Miguel as the cause of our break up. Then there’s the dump I live in and my mother, oh hell, my mother. If he met her he’d take the first plane home. And besides that I’m still at school studying for my A levels. He’ll want commitment, marriage, a family and I can’t say honestly that I’m ready for settling down.”

  “Then tell him that,” said Lucy, finding the box where she kept her T’ bags. “ Really Jenni, the way I see it, you’ve just got out of one cloying relationship and you’ll be going straight into another.”

  “I know, but I don’t want to hurt him and I’m not good enough for him, never will be, but if I tell him that, he’ll only insist none of my past matters to him.”

  Lucy ran her fingers through her hair, trying to come up with a solution to Jenni’s dilemma. She put milk and sugar into the two cups of steaming tea and brought one around to hand to her friend.

  “If it was me, I’d go along with his plan until you leave on Tuesday. Is he going to contact some hotels there, or has he asked you to?”

  “Me,” said Jenni, sipping on her tea.

  “Then it gives you time to think about everything carefully, but for now go for a walk and try and get your head around it. Treat yourself to those pretty shoes you were on about to try and lift your spirits, then have a wander along the sea front and sit on a wall looking out to sea. That’s what I try to do if I have a problem. I put my mind on something else and it usually calms me down. You know, when you’re back on familiar territory in Bolton, you’ll see if there’s room in your life for

  Miguel and if you think you could cope in the face of adversity, then go for it. If not, write him a

  “Dear John” letter, tell him that you’ve decided the timing isn’t right, but you’ll always think fondly of him. He’ll be crushed of course, men usually are for a week or so, but he’ll manage.”

  “I just feel scared, Lucy. What if I make the wrong decision and he ends up hating me?”

  “Sorry, I can’t help you with that one, Jenni,” Lucy shrugged. “ As they say “ that’s life.”

  ***

  “You know, Darling, I’m feeling a little bit guilty about the way I treated Sonya yesterday,” Cheryl admitted to Paul, as they sat in their dressing gowns in the lounge drinking their morning cuppa from the hospitality tray. “It can’t be easy being a single mum and having to remember things like push chairs. I usually have you to help me, don’t I? I’m a very lucky lady and I should be more sympathetic to people like her.”

  “Oh, Darling,” said Paul, reaching over to stroke his wife’s face. “ That’s what I love about you, you’re such a caring person. I’m so glad I married you.”

  “Well, anyway, to get my brownie points back, I thought I would ask Steve at breakfast if he would like us to take care of Emily for him today? It might be that there are complications with Fiona and it won’t be pleasant for Emily to have to hang around the hospital, will it? I’ve been looking at all the tourist brochures and I thought maybe we could take the children to Aqualand. Of course I won’t go in the water with them, I’ll leave that to you, because I don’t want to be coated in chlorine and ruin my makeup and hair.”

  “It sounds a jolly good idea from where I’m sitting Cheryl, especially as when I was standing on the balcony before, it looks as if it has the makings of a very pleasant day.”

  “I’m sure I could find a place to sit quietly and sun myself, while you enjoy riding on the water slides and there looks as if there’s a dolphinarium, that I could join you to have a look at later.”

  “Marvellous, Darling. Do you want me to go and wake the children and tell them? I’m sure they will be very happy with their Mummy’s splendid idea.”

  ***

  “Gary, my feet are crippling me in these sandals, why did you let me put them on when you knew we’d be walking this far?” Tracy grumbled, as she and her husband ambled along past McDonalds towards the cliff path.

  “I didn’t think, Darling. Perhaps we should stop for a coffee here and you can rest your feet for a while.”

  “That’s not going to help, I think I’ve got blisters on my toes now. You’ll will have to look for a chemist and get me some plasters and don’t think I’m walking back to the hotel. We’ll have to go back in a taxi.”

  “There’s a pharmacy just around the corner,” Gary said resignedly, because he had hoped they could have walked as far as the harbour that morning. It had looked very interesting when he had come down to look for toilet paper for Tracy, with the expensive looking boats lined up waiting for their owners to come and take them for a spin and the wicked looking wooden ship, with its flag bearing the scull and cross bones. Ah well, they still had a few more days left of their holiday, so perhaps he could persuade his wife to come this way again.

  “Good morning, Sir,” said a young woman, leaping out in front of Gary, as he and Tracy came down onto the promenade. “Are you and your lady wife here on holiday?”

  “Yes,” said Tracy, preening herself and making sure that the woman could see the sparkle of her matching diamond ring and wedding band on her left hand. “ We’re actually on our honeymoon.”

  “Oh, how wonderful, congratulations!” the woman exclaimed, her face lighting up with happiness for them. “And is this your first day here or will you be going home soon?”

  “We’ve still got nearly a week,” Tracy replied blissfully. “ We had such a lovely wedding day, even if it was raining. We enjoyed every minute of it, didn’t we, Gary?”

  “Yes, my love,” he said, not remembering his wedding day through the same pair of rose coloured spectacles that Tracy was wearing. “ It was a very nice day.”

  “So, where are you staying?”

  “At the Hotel Valia. We’ve a lovely room there with a balcony facing the sea. It’s near a lift, so there is quite a bit of noise until the hotel settles down for the night, but we don’t really notice it, do we,

  Gary?”

  “Well, Gary…it is Gary, isn’t it? Only I couldn’t help but hear your new wife calling you that. My name’s Janice, by the way. I stopped to have a chat because I said to myself, “they look a lovely couple.” I’m giving out scratch cards to people like yourself to win fabulous prizes. All you have to do is scratch over these pictures of coins with a peseta and if you are one of the lucky ones, you can win something really worth having. I haven’t had anyone win this morning, so maybe with you still basking in the rosy glow of your honeymoon, it could be you who is my first big winner of the day.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so, Tracy needs to get to a chemist because her shoes are rubbing.”

  “Gary, don’t be silly,” cried Tracy. “ We co
uld have won something. Here give me that peseta that you’re holding, Janice and I’ll do it for him.”

  The first and second squares revealed nothing but a blank piece of silver paper, but the third square revealed a picture of a wad of bank notes, that Janice excitedly told them meant they had won fifty pounds!

  “I must call the others,” she shouted, waving over to three women and one man who were positioned at intervals along the promenade. “ Look we’ve got a winner, come and see, they’ve won fifty pounds!”

  The other promoters came running over, slapped the couple on the back and said how envious they were of their good fortune. Tracy couldn’t help but laugh and laugh excitedly, as she had never won anything before.

  “But where do we collect our fifty pounds?” asked Gary, as he surfaced to normality before his wife did.

  “Oh, that’s easy, you come with me,” said Janice, “ and I’m sure Tracy would welcome a sit down.”

  ***

  “Let’s have a walk to the harbour this morning,” said Greg, as the family finished breakfast and were wondering what to do with their day.

  “It will have to be a slow amble,” Kate replied. “ That sleeping pill knocked me out good and proper last night and I’m still feeling dopey.”

  “Feeling dopey,” mimicked Sonya, tittering at her mother’s choice of words.

  “Don’t be childish, Sonya,” she replied, frowning. “ You’re putting yourself on Evan’s level and he’s only three.”

  “Sorry, Mum, yes, Dad, I fancy a walk this morning and I’m sure Evan would be happy to have a look at the little boats. Perhaps we could stop at the children’s play area on the way, but we’ll have to keep an eye out for the pirates as well.”

  “Pirates, Mummy?” Evan queried, wide eyed.

  “Yes, Evan, one’s called Brenda and the other one’s called Stan and if we see them we must run away very quickly.”

  “Mummy,” said Evan looking puzzled. “I thought pirates were called Captain Hook and Snee, that’s what they are called in the Peter Pan story?”

  “Oh, aren’t you clever remembering that Evan?”, said Kate. “ Come here and give me a kiss.”

  “We’ll take his push chair,” said Greg. “ We don’t want a repeat of yesterday’s fiasco.”

  “Cheryl said good morning to me, as we passed in the foyer on the way to breakfast,” said Sonya, “I was really surprised, I thought she would blank me and only say hello to you two.”

  ***

  “Oh, Gary, wasn’t that apartment they showed us just perfect?” said Tracy excitedly, as she and her husband settled down in the taxi, which the promotions company had called to take them back to the Hotel Valia. “ And look at all this money they gave us, just because we went to have a look at their new apart-hotel”

  “But Tracy, don’t you think we were just a bit hasty signing that contract they gave us? I mean three thousand pounds is a lot of money to put on your credit card. I thought we were going to use our wedding money to buy some more furniture and you said we were going to change the car later on.”

  “Yes, I know that, Gary,” said Tracy, giving him a frosty look. “ But now we’re guaranteed to stay for two weeks every year, in a three bedroom apartment looking over the sea.”

  “The man didn’t actually say that we’d be staying in that apartment, Darling. He said we would have the equivalent. In fact the apartment might not even be in this country. He said it was all down to availability and how much share we had bought.”

  “Oh, stop being a spoilsport, Gary, you burst my bubbles at every bloody opportunity. Whose money is it anyway? I’m the one who earns the most between us. My job is far better paid than yours, with me being a supervisor and you only driving a van.”

  “Well, I’m just advising caution that’s all. I think that when we get back to our hotel we should go through the contract with a fine tooth comb.”

  “Please your bloody self then, Gary. If you don’t want to come on my timeshare, I’ll damn well take my Mum.”

  ***

  “Look Mavis, there’s Andreas, I wonder if he will remember us from last time?”

  Fred and Mavis had wandered along to the sea front hotel, let themselves in through the rear gate that opened onto extensive landscaped gardens and followed the winding path that lead to the dining room doors.

  Andreas, the maitre d’ of the Antilla did indeed remember them, though it wasn’t for the tip that Fred had left him on departure. It was because he moaned every time another guest took his precious window seat in the restaurant.

  “Welcome Senor, Senora,” he said, when he saw them, hoping that he could understand the man’s accent as he had great difficulty last time. “ For how long you stay in our establishment?”

  “Oh no, Andreas we’re not staying at your hotel,” said Fred, trying to think of a convincing story that wouldn’t lose him face. “ We couldn’t get into this hotel when we tried to book, something about the flight being full, so we couldn’t have our first choice. We’re at the Hotel Valia. Not a grand place like yours is, but it’ll do fer us fer now. No, we’re here to see if we could make a reservation at Reception, for four of us to come here again in October. You remember George and Ethel, well they couldn’t come with us this time? It’s George’s chest, yer know. We thought if we can get in, we’ll book the flights ourselves from Manchester. Probably cost us a bob or two extra but it’ll be worth it in long run.”

  “Si, si, Senor Baker. See, I’ve remembered your name. You will be made very welcome, I’m sure. I must go, as I want to supervise the corkage in the wine cellar. These young waiters,” Andreas shrugged, “ you know how it is?”

  “Yes, yes of course,” said Fred. “ Must keep them on their toes, as it were. I say Andreas, did that young woman from somewhere up near Barcelona keep on working here? Eh, she was a lovely girl, what was her name now, Mavis? Do yer know, I can’t remember now.”

  “Isabella, I think you are talking about Senor. No, she left us soon after your departure. She married and now I think she will be expecting a baby. There’s no one left now, who was working when you were here.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, we would have liked to have seen them all again. Never mind, we’ve seen you and we’ll look forward to seeing you in the Autumn.”

  “Si, adios, my friend, I will see you then.”

  ***

  “Kate, Sonya, will you look at those two over there trying to get out of the harbour,” cried Greg, as he stood behind Evan’s push chair, watching an old couple trying to row their small yacht, out of a line of similar vessels by the harbour wall, although the wind had got up and the vessel was rocking quite dangerously on the choppy water.

  “Oh no, they’ve banged into the side of that one. Let’s hope the owner doesn’t see what they’ve done to the paint.”

  “Oh, Dad, how can you stand and watch them? Couldn’t you go over and give them a push with a pole?”

  “Do you think I’m mental, Sonya? If I did that I could end up in the boat beside them and it’s a hell of a drop from that harbour wall.”

  “Well someone ought to help them,” said Kate, sympathetically. “ They look ninety if they’re a day

  and one of them might have a heart attack.”

  “It’s their own fault for choosing a choppy day to go out in,” remarked a bystander, part of a group of people who had come to have a look. “ It looks like two steps forward and one step back to me.”

  The crowd got bigger, as the two hapless sailors scrabbled about, first putting up the small mast, in case they could blow themselves out of their predicament. Then the woman of the duo, dressed in black oilskins and a yellow souwester hat, fell against the side of the yacht and nearly tipped herself out!

  “Obviously not taken a course in tacking,” said a smart alec nearby, but continued standing where he was, instead of shouting his advice.

  “This is like watching Mick, Mac and Morency,” said someone else who had come to ogle.

&n
bsp; “My, you’re showing your age, aren’t yer? Weren’t they going before the War?” said another.

  “Look, look they’re out,” shouted Kate. “ Come on, go for it, swing to your right, swing to your right!”

  “Hush Kate, you’re showing us up. Move to your left now, watch the boom!” shouted Greg. The crowd sighed en masse, as the little boat smacked into a bigger boat, where the outraged owner leapt up from where he had been working in his galley.

  “Get your pole and give them a push!” the crowd began shouting at the startled owner, which he did immediately, adding a few oaths in Spanish as he did so.

  “Give it up, give it up,” the crowd started chanting, when the little yacht smashed into another boat, not much bigger than itself and it began to list to one side. “ Oh no, I can’t look,” said Sonya, burying her head in her father’s shoulder. “ They’re going to capsize their boat, the way they’re carrying on.”

  At last the two would be sailors decided to call it a day and try to daddy their little yacht back into its berth, but not without difficulty, as the crowd looked on. They tied up, mounted the steps and looked sheepishly at all and sundry, while a ripple of applause from the spectators began.

  ***

  “I’ve got my own news to tell you,” said Lucy, as she and Jenni sat on sun loungers after they’d had an early lunch, Lucy having completed her laundry and now had a pile of ironing and Jenni, after buying her sparkly sandals, had spent ten minutes looking out to sea and then had come back again.

  “Well, I hope it’s good news,” said Jenni, peering at her new sandals that she had worn as soon as she’d bought them, wondering if she was going to see a blister on her little toe.

  “I don’t know if it is actually. I got this call on my mobile last night from a chap who works on one of the travel desks. I didn’t know I had an admirer, but it seems he has had his eye on me, whilst I’ve been tooing and froing from the airport and he asked one of my colleagues for my mobile number.”