“Are we going as soon as I get up?"
“Yes, so go and have your wash now for me and I will get you some cornflakes before we go”.
Gail went to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face and hands, then went back to her bedroom where Mum had laid out on the bed her best Sunday suit of a lilac skirt and top, her white ankle socks and her black patent leather shoes. She thought that this must be a very important visit as she would not normally wear Sunday clothes on a weekday. This was Tuesday; she knew it was Tuesday as Daddy had told her yesterday that it was Monday, and Tuesday always follows Monday. She learned this at Nursery School. Today must be very special as Mummy was not going to work, she was not going to Nursery School and she was going to wear her Sunday best suit. Mum came in and helped her to dress and told her that soon she would be a big girl and be able to dress herself, Gail found doing up the buckles on her shoes difficult and was worried that she would never be able to do it herself. She shared this worry with Mum, who smiled a little.
“Don't worry Gail, I am sure that as you get older it will come more easily to you, you just wait and see”.
Fully dressed, she climbed down the stairs and went through the front room into the kitchen. Her bowl of cornflakes was on the table and Mummy was standing by the sink.
“As it is a special trip Mummy can I take my new handbag to show Nanny? She hasn't seen it yet.”
“Your new handbag? Of course! Nanny would love to see it!” Gail finished her cornflakes, got down from the table after Mum said that she could, and went back to the front room where she found her new handbag hidden behind the settee where she had left it when going to bed the previous evening. It was a lovely handbag just like Mummy's, made of blue plastic with a handle over the top and a flap which fastened over the top with a butterfly clip. There were three plastic blue flowers attached to the front.
She told people proudly that three flowers were the right amount, four would have been too many. She had heard her Mum say this to someone else about buttons on her coat, so copied her, it was the right thing to do, the right thing to say. Inside the bag she had put her little purse which contained a silver sixpenny piece. The bag, purse and sixpence had been given to her by her Aunt and Uncle. When they had given it to her her Mummy had told her to say “thank you” and to give them both a “thank you” kiss. Her mother said this every time someone gave her something and that she must not forget to do this.
Mum put her into her pushchair and said they might be doing a lot of walking so it would be sensible to take it. They didn't use the bus stop close by but took a longer walk into the village centre.
“We can catch the long distance express bus here”, her mother explained. It stops at less bus stops so it can go faster. The bus arrived and Mum took her out of the pushchair, folded it up, carried it up the step of the bus and stashed it in the luggage compartment. Gail walked in and took a seat by the window and watched the world whoosh by, buildings, trees, cows: and later on as they entered the conurbation of Greater London, she saw the scene slowly changed to one of thick traffic, terraced houses, gasometers, small parks, rows of shops, lots of red buses and crowds of people.
After what seemed an eternity to Gail they got off the bus outside a huge building with lots of people coming and going through an large open entrance. “We are going to catch an underground train now”, said her Mother. “It's a train that travels underground in a tunnel, you have never been on one before, but don't be afraid, its really quite safe”. Gail wasn't afraid at all. She was very excited at this new experience and enjoyed standing on the escalator to travel down to lower levels, standing on the platform lit by lights enclosed in a low curved ceiling, and looking at the metal rails in a black ditch lower down to the platform. She felt the wind rise in the tunnel just before the train arrived, heard the noises of the train, saw sparks and smelt the burning of electricity. The train stopped and the doors opened automatically, she stepped onto the train and Mum carried on her pushchair. They sat on the seats next to the doors which closed automatically behind them.
The train made a rhythmic slow clicketty clacketty noise as it ran over the tracks into a long dark tunnel. She had never done anything like this before. They stopped at a few stops, and at the next one Mum got up and they stepped off the train, stood on the escalator again, moving up to the weak Winter sunshine. Mum put her back in the pushchair and wheeled he towards a large multi storied building with a large gaping entrance. On entering Mum went to a table with some women sitting behind it and spoke briefly with them. She nodded seriously, then looked at a notice on the wall, Gail couldn't read it; she didn't know how to read.
“That's where Nanny is!” said Mum, “Come on!”, and she pushed her into a lift. Gail didn't like lifts, but she had got over the stage where she screamed if anyone tried to take her in one. She had done this when she had gone into hospital to have her tonsils removed, now it seemed like a long time ago.
The lift went up a few floors and they got out into a long corridor which Mum pushed her down; they stopped outside a door with a window obscured by a half open Venetian blinds.
“Here she is! Here's Nanny” said Mum as she opened the door , “Get out, and I'll fold it up”. Gail got out and they entered the room. It seemed huge to her. On one side was a window opening onto a view of a lot of buildings a long way away on the ground. There was a sink and another door half open onto a bathroom. At the end of the room was a single bed, and in the bed was Nanny lying propped up against some pillows and covered up to her waist by white sheets and a green blanket. Gail felt a little shy, and hid herself behind Mum.
“Hello Mum”, said Mum. “How are you? Don't be shy Gail, say hello and give Nanny a kiss. I don't know why she is so shy, Mum, she was quite outgoing on the journey here”. Mum went to Nanny and gave her a kiss on the cheek, so Gail copied her and kissed Nanny as well. Mum pulled out a little stool from under the bed for Gail to sit on and Mum sat on a larger chair by the bed. Mum and Nanny talked for ages; Gail couldn't understand it all and got bored so she went over to the window and looked at the metropolitan scene below. After an eternity Mum got up to leave and told Gail to kiss Nanny good bye, which meant that they were leaving.
Gail suddenly had a good idea. She took out the purse from her bag and whispered that she wanted to give it to Nanny as a present and held it up.
“Oh that's such a lovely thing to do Gail. Look Mum, Gail is giving you sixpence as a get well present.”. She took the coin from Gail's hand and pressed it into the thin, bony hand of the bedridden woman who became a little red eyed.
Gail and Mark walked down the front path and rang the door bell. They had just had an argument about what they were about to do. Mark didn't want to spend Sunday afternoon with her parents; he wanted to spend it with Gail on their own together in their new flat. They had only just got married a few months ago after all and Sunday was the only day off that they had together. Gail had pointed out that they hopefully would have a whole lifetime of Sundays to spend together and she really did want to see her parents again after a gap of a few months.
Her Dad opened the door and ushered them in. Mum was cooking a joint of pork for their Sunday lunch; the whole house smelt of roasting meat. They were very glad to see them, made them feel welcome and Gail felt content by being in her old home again. The lunch was eaten, the washing up done communally and the family sat down in the front room and chatted. Dad was very happy to show them the things he had bought since he had last seen them.
“I have bought some more records, would you like to have a look? Here they are”. He selected a thin handful from his main collection housed in a piece of wooden furniture hanging on the wall. Gail had designed this cabinet and he had built it himself when Gail still lived at home. A hi-fi turntable lay on the one shelf which ran into a cabinet where long playing records were vertically stacked; wires ran from the turntable to a couple of speakers attached either side, hanging higher up on the wall. “You still got that old thing we built together, ha! Its still on the wall, hasn't fallen off yet!”.
“Of course” he replied, “you designed it well, and I built it with care. It's a good piece of solid furniture, it will last a lifetime. It means a lot to me”.
He handed over his selection to her and she thumbed through it. “Trini Lopez? I didn't think you would have liked him Dad? A bit Spanish isn't it?”
“No actually Gail you are wrong. He was born in America, the Hispanic connection came from his Father who was Mexican. Shall I put it on?”. Gail nodded in agreement. He placed the disc on the turntable, placed on the dust bug device to keep it clean, lifted the arm which started the turntable and carefully set the stylus on the run-in grooves; round and round went the black disc and the music started.
“Would you like a tin of beer Mark? It's nice to have a drink on a Sunday afternoon”, said Dad. He didn't really need to ask. Mark suddenly looked very happy and nodded in agreement. A tin of cold Tartan beer and a glass for each person was placed on the coffee table. Mark was the first to start drinking, pulled off the tab, pwsshh, and poured half of the fizzing amber liquid into his glass.
“I'm so glad that you both enjoy married life, you both look so happy with each other” said her Dad. “You are both very sensible and taking things slowly; getting secure housing, steady jobs and waiting to start a family when you are totally ready, not rushing into things”.
“Why would we rush, we want to enjoy our time together” Gail answered. “Oh I see, you are talking about having babies, have you started on that subject already? Of course we will wait to have children, we just aren't ready for that, we are far too young and we haven't even got a permanent place to live yet. I hope you aren't hinting for grandchildren already Dad! Isn't it a bit early for that?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course it's far too early, I am so glad you are waiting, You might even not want children at all”.
A new track from the record started to play through the speakers, Shame and Scandal In the Family. Gail's Mum sat up in her chair. “It doesn't always work like that. Some people don't wait.”
“Are you going to go on about your brother again?” said Dad.
“Not really, not 'go on', I was just thinking again because of what you said and the music you are playing”. Gail laughed “yes, she was a bit young, it seems impossible to believe it”. Gail looked at Mark, “Of course, you don't know, do you. Welcome to our family!” Mark took a swallow of beer and asked
“What do you mean? I don't understand.”
Mum took over, “My brother started a bit early with his family”, she laughed and took a swill of her beer, "he was fifteen years old and his girlfriend was twelve, and thirteen by the time the baby was born. They are married now and have two children but at the time it was considered scandalous.”
“I said she was pregnant didn't I” said Dad, “She was standing by the sideboard at your Mum's that Sunday afternoon. I saw her looking very big for a twelve year old, I said afterwards to you that she was pregnant, and you just laughed at me. But I was right, we all found out a few weeks later. You probably don't remember it exactly Gail, I think you were only about two at the time. Of course your Grandmother was stupid as usual. She went bananas, overreacted like she always does, the next thing we know, Mark, is her other son came home one afternoon and couldn't get in as usual by the backdoor, it was locked. Through the glass he could see her lying down on the floor with her head on a cushion inside the open door of the gas oven, she was trying to gas herself. He smashed the door down and dragged her into the garden, went round to the neighbours who had a phone and called an ambulance. They were in time, took her to hospital and saved her life. In those days it was coal gas and poisonous.”
They all took a swallow of beer.
“Its a good job he got there in time then” said Mark.
“They got married later on, they are very happy together now” said Mum. “It just seemed like a very abrupt beginning, they were far too young”.
“Someone should have told them about condoms” said Dad, “or not to do it at all, they never spoke about that sort of thing in those days. But it's something that you will never stop and life goes on”. He looked at Mum, “trust your mother to try and top herself”. Suddenly Gail remembered her trip to the hospital all those years ago.
“Was that when we went by bus and tube to visit her in the hospital? I don't remember a lot about it but I do remember that she was in a private ward on her own and I gave her sixpence from my new handbag.”
“That's right Gail, we did go, you were still in a pushchair and you were out of nappies. I am surprised that you remember those details, about the sixpence and hand bag, that's amazing!”
“Now it all makes sense to me, I never knew then why she was in hospital. I was too young to know." Gail took a swill of beer and remembered her Nan's red eyes when she gave her the sixpence. It was a gift to welcome her back to life and show her that her family cared about her. Gail suddenly felt very emotional.
No comments:
Post a Comment