Clouds Below the Mountains (3 page)

An airport coach drew up outside, as Paul was just about to go to the desk and ask if he could change his money for some pesetas. He wasn't looking forward to having to face Maria again, but that was what she was paid for anyway. He stood aside, as it looked as if there was going to be another dash for the reception desk, but this time a woman dressed in the same outfit as the rep' that was on his coach, led the party through the foyer and could be heard addressing the receptionists in a very strident voice.

Paul thought that this was a woman he could deal with. A voice of authority, someone in a position in the company who would have to listen to his point of view. He sidled over and waited until she had finished her instructions to the Gatwick passengers she had just brought in.

“Excuse me,” he said politely. “Could I have a word with you in private? I have just come in from Manchester and I find I have a couple of problems. There isn't a rep' on duty at your desk, so I wondered if you could help me?”

“Certainly, Sir,” Kath replied, her eyes narrowing as she realised that it was Lucy that was missing.

“Shall we sit over by the window and I'll order us a couple of cool drinks? I don't know about you, but I'm extremely thirsty.”

The senior rep' lead the way, her annoyance at the non appearance of Lucy, bristling in her thin features. Two spots of colour began to show on her boney cheeks, a sure sign that someone was going to get a talking to. She smoothed her brown hair back onto her forehead and checked that the pins from her chignon were still secure, as she sat opposite this guest, who she knew was about to make a complaint.

“Juan,” she said to a hovering waiter. “Will you get us some drinks? What will it be Mr…? Sorry you didn't tell me your name. I'm Kathleen Jones, senior rep' by the way.”

“My name is Cooper. Paul Cooper. Could I have a gin and tonic? I know it is quite early to be drinking spirits, but I could do with a little alcohol. I've already had quite a stressful day.”

“A gin and tonic and a still orange, please Juan. Bring a chitty over and I'll put it on the company bill. Now, how can I help you, Mr. Cooper? You say you came in on the Manchester flight? Didn't Lucy our rep' stay to help you book in?”

“Unfortunately not, she left us to it, but that isn't what I would like to complain about. Firstly, I am not happy that I have to leave my passport at Reception for the whole of my stay. What if I want to hire a car and need to prove my identity? And secondly, when I booked this holiday for me and my family, there was no mention on your website about having to wear a wristband to prove that we had paid for All Inclusive. I have a colleague at work, I'm a Sales Executive with a Ford dealership by the way and he told me that when he stayed in an All Inclusive hotel, he and his family were given an identity card each, to show in the dining room or the restaurant and bars. To be honest, I object to me and my family being tagged as it were and considering I have paid a lot of money for the only suite of rooms that the hotel boasts, I feel that I should be treated with more regard.”

“Ah,” said Kath, wondering what she was going to do about this one. She took a sip of her drink that had just arrived, praying that somewhere in her conscious she could come up with an answer.

She wondered if she could use her persuasive charm, it sometimes worked if she put her mind to it.

“Well, to answer your first concern, I can understand your hesitation in handing your passport over, but they are well looked after in the hotel's safe. Unfortunately there have been a few unscrupulous guests who have left without settling their final bill and although there is an All Inclusive tariff here, guests have run up charges for other facilities. If you want to hire a car, we can help you by putting you in touch with a reputable local company and of course you being a guest here is proof enough for them.”

Kath took a quick glance at her guest to see his reaction before continuing with the second issue. He seemed happy enough with her explanation.

“And now to your second concern. To be honest we have never had a complaint regarding the wearing of an identity band before. As it is hotel policy for guests to wear a wristband, our company has never felt the need to advise our clients of it. But I am sure that if you were to put your suggestion of identity cards in writing to Head office, they would be more than willing to take it up with the owner of the hotel.”

“Do you think so?”, Paul answered, feeling a little more relaxed now that his gin and tonic was kicking in. “I know that my employers are usually very pleased when their staff come up with new proposals. Yes, I'll do that as soon as I get home.”

“Good,” said Kath, feeling a sigh of relief beginning to bubble up inside her. “Now, when we've finished our drinks, can I come with you to Reception and help finish up their processing? Then perhaps you would like me to come to your suite and we'll see if the accommodation is to your satisfaction?”

“Yes, I'd like that, thank you,” said Paul, feeling very gratified with the woman's manner towards him. “You've been jolly decent listening to my grievances. I'll just whistle up the family and we'll continue on from there.”

Lucy hummed a little tune, as she stood under the shower feeling the pinpoint needles shafting into her sticky body. Oh, it was good. Not too hot and not too cold, the temperature was just right to make her feel like herself again. Perhaps she'd go over to the pool bar next, after she had got herself into her clean blouse that was hanging over the balcony railings to air. Get herself a cool drink before she went to man the rep's desk.

She took a look in the mirror over the vanity unit as she dried herself. The tan was coming along well, although there wasn't much on her oval face as she was scared of getting sun spots. She had definitely put on weight since she got there. Her thighs were beginning to develop cellulite and there was a little pouch on her stomach that had never been there before. Perhaps she should ask Kath how she went about getting a skirt size larger. It was all this food she was eating in the evening that was doing it, besides her nightly glasses of wine.

Thinking of Kath made her speed up getting into her uniform again. She looked at her silver watch that she had placed on the unit, along with her St Christopher necklace that her mother had given her and her diamante stud earrings that her father had bought her at Christmas time. Her Dad had been really good about her wish to work in a foreign country. He had stood up to her mother and said that Lucy should get things like this out of her system now, while she was only nineteen. It wasn't as if she was emigrating to Australia. Tenerife was only four and half hours away and they could visit her at anytime.

The time on her watch told her that she shouldn't be lingering in front of the bathroom mirror reapplying her makeup. Kath would be back from the airport by now and be wondering where she was. Though surely she wouldn't want a rep' smelling of sweat, with streaked mascara and lack of lipstick manning the desk for her? She spread some pale blue eye shadow onto her eyelids, smiling as she did so because it was a perfect match for her large expressive eyes. Rinsing her hands and noticing that she had a chip in her burgundy coloured nail varnish on the index finger of her right hand, she debated whether to renew the polish straight away or risk a telling off by her superior.

She decided against a tongue lashing, as she wasn't sure that Kath had let her off for failing to inquire about the Harrison's, so after dragging a silver coloured banana clip through her hair to be fixed in place on the top of her head, she locked the patio door of her apartment behind her.

***

“So what have you got to say for yourself, young lady?”, asked Kath, as she cornered Lucy walking along the corridor on her way to the rep's desk. “Not only do you leave the desk unmanned so that one of our clients had been left with no one to answer his problems, but I saw you out of the window as I was inspecting the client's accommodation. Imagine how I felt when I was showing him the view from his balcony, to see you sitting at the Pool bar, without your jacket on I may add, laughing and joking with two of the waiters! It isn't good enough, Lucy. You passed your month's probation with flying colours and now you think you can just sit back and do as little as possible. Well let me tell you, I am issuing a Verbal warning. Pull your socks up or you'll be out on your ear.”

She stalked off then, giving Lucy no chance to defend herself. She had been about to explain that she had nipped back to the annexe to change into a clean blouse and that a waiter had stopped her by the Pool bar to ask her the time. It wasn't strictly true, but Kath might have accepted her explanation. Now she would have a Verbal warning on her record, a blemish she could do without.

***

“Eh, we've got a nice view from here, Mavis,” said Fred to his wife, as he sat on a plastic chair on their third floor balcony, looking at a newly created park beyond the perimeters of the hotel.

“I know we're not near the sea, but it's over there, past all them apartments they've been building since we were last in Costa Adeje. There's a lot of work going on, I can see three cranes on the horizon from where I'm sitting. But still, holidays are what yer make it and there's plenty to do on Tenerife. Did yer remember to put in that shirt I got from BH.S? The blue one with the buttons down collar.”

“Yes, Fred,” said Mavis, who was busy hanging their clothes in the big mahogany fronted wardrobe, that had so much room, a family of four would have trouble filling it. “ I packed everything you asked me to. I still can't see why we couldn't go back to the Antilla. We've a good twenty minutes walk from here and the Antilla was right by the sea.”

“I told yer, Mavis,” answered Fred, going to stand by the sliding door of their balcony window. “This was much better value than the other place. Yer get everything included in the price, well except me morning paper. Anyroad, it'll do yer good, a nice brisk walk down to the seafront after breakfast. It'll set yer up for the rest of the day.”

“Well, I hope you're right,” sniffed Mavis. “ I wasn't planning on doing much walking, what with me leg playing up lately. I was rather hoping to settle in a deck chair after breakfast and read one of the books I've brought along with me.”

“Whatever,” said Fred resignedly. “ Hey, I wonder what happened to yon fella me lad, the one I was telling yer about who was in the queue before me? They don't know they're born these young folk, do they? He were kicking up a fuss because they wanted to take his passport off him. You'd think they were asking fer Crown Jewels. Anyroad, he filled the form out and then started whinging about these wristbands you have to wear. Talk about a palaver. A spell in the Army ‘ud do some of these young ‘uns good, just ter let them see whose in authority.”

“Yes, dear,” answered Mavis. “ I've finished unpacking, Fred. Do you think you could stow our suitcase on that top shelf and then perhaps we could go and find something to eat?”

***

Further along the corridor in a room that she was to share with her young son, Evan, Sonya Lewis was sitting on one of the twin beds feeling exhausted, after unpacking their two suitcases and sending her three year old off to be with his grandparents in the room next door. She hadn't slept the night before, as Evan had been excited and kept waking up wanting to know when they were going off in a taxi? He'd been a little love on the ‘plane, playing with the Play-doh that she had brought along to keep him occupied, listening to his nursery rhyme tape on the tape recorder belonging to her mother, then falling asleep for the rest of the flight until they had landed. She could hear him rattling the chairs about on the balcony next door and her mother shouting at him not to go too close to the parapet. She wondered at the wisdom of putting a toddler in a room on the third floor of the building and vowed that she would keep the balcony door shut while Evan was in this room.

Evan was so precious to her. He was the only thing left from her relationship with his father, who she had broken up with before the child was born. Not broken up with, dumped she reminded herself. Nick, her ex fiance, had made it very clear that he wasn't ready for fatherhood, when she had told him that she was two months pregnant. He had been off like a rocket back to his mother's house, leaving her with a mortgage to pay on their two up two down terrace house.

At first she had been philosophical, thinking that she could manage all the bills on her monthly salary that she earned as a clerk in an insurance office, then she started being ill owing to her pregnancy and her employers were not very supportive. Her spirits plummeted as her condition advanced and she longed to have someone to care for her. Her only option was to return to to her parents, who up to now had let her get on with her life, as they hadn't been smitten with her choice of partner. But giving up her independence had brought its own problems.

Her parents' home, though a detached house with four bedrooms in a very sought after area in Bury, was not big enough for Sonja and her baby to lead separate lives and soon she found she was being absorbed back into the family regime.

Her mother, who had always been a housewife stepped easily into her role of grandmother, hinting almost as soon as Evan had been born that Sonya should return to work and she would look after her grandson. It had suited Sonya, when six months later she had seen an advert in the Bury Times for a job in a local medical practice, though giving up the care of Evan nearly broke her heart in those first few weeks. But gradually she had got used to leaving her baby each morning, knowing that the care he would receive from her mother would be first class and began to like the single life, especially as she was beginning to date again. Though looking back, she thought ruefully, she always seemed to attract the blokes that didn't want commitment. One whiff of the knowledge that she was a single mum, was enough to send them off under their stones again.

So here she was with her parents on holiday, not with a husband or boyfriend that she had imagined she would be with at aged twenty six, sharing the care of Evan, a sweet blonde haired blue eyed rascal, who was always getting up to mischief, and wondering whether to make the effort and go in search of the restaurant with her parents, or try for forty winks on this comfortable single bed.

Her decision was made for her a few minutes later, when a loud knocking on the door heralded her son coming back, with his beaming grandparents in tow.

“So,” said Kate Lewis, as she came through the doorway with her grandson rushing in ahead of her. “What do you think of your room? It's quite spacious isn't it and look, the curtains and bed covers are the same as ours. I always think blue and gold is quite calming, don't you?”

“Yes, Mother,” agreed Sonya, noticing that her mother had changed into a pretty rose coloured knee length sun dress in a halter neck style, along with gold strappy sandals. She had put her shoulder length tinted blonde hair up into a gold banana clip onto the top of her head, where perched a pair of gold rimmed sunglasses. “ Did you want to go down to the restaurant now and get something to eat? I don't know about you, but I'm starving.”

“I think we all are,” said her father, a tall lean fair haired man in his fifties, who had worn glasses for the last few years due to all the paper work at his office. He had changed his travel clothes also and was wearing a short sleeved tropical looking shirt in blues and grey, with light blue shorts to match.

“Are you not getting changed as well, Sonya? I think you should and Evan could do with something lighter,” he continued. “Here, you get changed in the bathroom and your mother and I will see to Evan. I take it you won't mind what we decide to put on him.”

“No, help yourself,” Sonya replied. “He's got the top two drawers, mine are the two below them. I'll just put some shorts and a T' shirt on, then we can be on our way.”

“I'm glad we've got that extra bed in our room, Greg',” commented Kate, as she watched her husband dressing Evan in a pair of red shorts and a navy T' shirt that proclaimed, “I'm a little monster.” “It will be handy when it is our turn to look after Evan. I thought it was a really good idea of yours, when you suggested that we all look after him one day in three. Of course that does mean that Sonya will be free two days in three, but I feel she deserves some time to herself. She works very hard at the medical practice.”

“Well, I'm hoping that she meets some other people of the same age,” said Greg, helping his grandson into a pair of blue jelly shoes. “Though up to now of course, we've only seen those who came on the coach with us. Perhaps there will be someone at the Welcome meeting tomorrow she can pal up with. There was another flight from Gatwick that came in after us.”

“Ready?”, asked Sonya, coming out of the bathroom dressed in a pair of cut off denim shorts and a white top with a plunging neckline, her curly naturally auburn hair lying loose on her shoulders. “I just need my sun specs and then we'll be off.”

***

At the quiet end of the corridor in a room on the second floor, Simon Reeves and Jenni Woods were already trying out their double bed. It hadn't been a conscious decision on Jenni's part. She had been washing her face in the bathroom, when Simon had come up behind her. Perhaps it was because she had changed into her coral coloured bikini, that lit up the pale skin of her heartshaped face, or the fact that Simon was wearing his very tight Nike swimming trunks, that advertised to onlookers that he was very well hung. The intention had been that they would go for a swim together, before partaking of a bite to eat in the restaurant, but Simon had other appetites on his mind. Jenni found herself flung across the bed covers, while Simon did his Neanderthal act. It always seemed to turn him on, this role of man being dominant with his fragile female, though Jenni wished he would sometimes play the Romeo role too.

This wasn't the first time that they had made love. The first time had been in the back of Simon's old Mazda. It had been her seventeenth birthday and she hadn't been going out with him more than a couple of weeks, but he had insisted if she loved him she had to show him how much. The deed was done with a lot of grunting on Simon's part, as it was quite difficult to manoevre in such a small space, with Simon being quite a tall fellow as well. But eventually he had managed to find the necessary aperture and Jenni had lost her virginity, just as he had planned she would.

She gazed into his staring eyes as he drove himself harder inside her, the only tenderness from him would be when he'd finished and she had a sore bum. The consolation was, that he ejaculated quite quickly and then she'd be free to go for that swim that they'd promised themselves earlier.

***

“This isn't bad, is it Darling?”, said Paul to his wife, as they sat on the dark blue velveteen sofa in their suite, listening to their children squabbling over which channel to watch on the satellite T.V. “Two large bedrooms, an en-suite fabulous bathroom, this lounge and a kitchen if we fancy making a cup of tea, plus a mini bar and I do believe that's a dishwashing machine I spy under that work surface. That rep' was saying that the owner and his family stay here occasionally, I suppose if they want somewhere different from the pad they've probably got in the hills. So, what do you think, are you happy to have the fourth floor penthouse suite?”