Clouds Below the Mountains (6 page)

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 catering 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 50
^th,
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.”

“You're looking nice, Sonya. I wonder if one of those skirts would suit me, I'm not sure about this new bias cut?”

“Oh Mum, you could wear anything with your figure and now we've got Evan in nursery, you could start going to the gym' after you've dropped him off in the morning.”

“I was thinking about that, now you've mentioned it. They've got one at the side of the motor way, haven't they? What's it called, the Village or something like that? I might start going a couple of times a week.”

“You should, you'll have to let me know what it's like, then I can take out membership. I haven't really lost my tummy since I had Evan, you know?”

“Of course you have, there's not a pick on you. I don't know, you young girls. What will I do with you?”

“Find me a rich handsome man, who'll whisk me off into the bright blue yonder, Mummy.”

“If I find one of them, I'll be off with him myself.”

***

“Look, there's Evan,” said Cheryl, as they all walked into the bar after their dinner.

“Shall we get some seats near him, Paul, then the two little boys can play together?”

“Yes, go on then, there's a group of seats just at the side of theirs that are empty. Good Evening,” he said to Evan's family. “Do you mind if we sit in these seats near you and then Evan and our Jack can play together?”

“Yes, do sit down,” said Kate. “It's nice for Evan to have found a friend. Only children can get quite lonely sometimes.”

When everyone had settled in their seats, with Jack and Evan having a great time chasing each other and Annabelle looking wistfully at the dance floor, but nervous of getting up and joining another two little girls, who looked to be near her age, Greg came back with the drinks and everyone was introduced to one another.

“Can I get you and your wife a drink?”, he asked. “Perhaps the children would like one as well?”

“Tell you what, why don't we both go to the bar together? We'll have a snifter, shall we, then bring Cheryl and the kids their drinks?”, suggested Paul. “That all right with you, Cheryl, my love?”

His wife nodded and pulled a rueful face at Kate and Sonya. “He only wants to have a drink at the bar, because he fancies a cigar without me moaning at him.”

“I can sympathize with him,” said Kate. “ I'm an ex-smoker and sometimes when I have a drink, I feel like rushing out and buying a packet. I've given it up for a while now, but I'm sure it would be easy to take it up again.”

“Oh, I object to Paul smoking. The smell of cigars makes me feel sick and I hate my clothes and hair smelling as if I've sat in a pub' all night. Still, he's very good, makes sure I'm not in the vicinity and he never smokes in the house.”

“Oh look,” said Sonya, “ here's the Animacion team. Well I'm presuming its them, they've got “entertainer” written on the back of their fleeces.

Suddenly, very lively music started pumping out of the loud speakers and a cheery faced young man with his brown hair standing up like a porcupine, jumped up on the stage with a microphone in his hand.

“Hi kids, I'm Mikey. Welcome to our Mini disco!,” he cried in a very Scouser accent. “Over there is Susanne and she's from DENMARK! Give Susanne a cheer!”

The children, who had started to group in front of the stage, started screaming and jumping about, while a girl with white blonde hair in a yellow top and dark blue jogger bottoms took a bow and joined Mikey on the stage.

“And last but not least is, Damion. He's from GERMANY! Give Damion a cheer!” Again the children jumped up and down and made a terrible noise, as a man in his late twenties, who looked to be more Italian than German, with his long dark hair tied back into a pony tail and his full lips parted in a wide smile that showed a set of white flashing teeth, jumped on stage to be with the others.

“We are the ANIMACION team!”, they shouted and the kids went wild again!

“I don't know how they put up with screaming children every night,” said Paul to Greg, as they each sipped from their glasses of whisky looking over to the scene, which had subsided slightly, since the team was explaining to the children how to do the actions of Agadoo. “They need medals,” agreed Greg. “I don't know, children seem to be more boisterous nowadays since my kids were small.”

“I believe it's something to do with colouring, additives and something called E's. That's what Cheryl tells me anyway. She's always looking at packets in the supermarket and having a look at the ingredients. You know I used to love eating ready meals, but she never buys them nowadays.”

“Well, I think Evan and Jack must have eaten a bucketful of additives today then, by the way they're running around the place. I'll have to get Sonya to get up and dance with him, otherwise he may as well be taken up to bed.”

“Yes, you're right, I'll come with you,” said Paul reluctantly, stubbing out his cigar in the ashtray.

***

Jenni and Lucy sat at the far end of the bar, away from the noise the children were making. They both perched on a red plastic covered stool.

Lucy had changed into a pair of black wide legged trousers and a fluffy pale blue long sleeved top, her high heeled sandals were ornamented with imitation silver diamantes and she had let her gold highlighted hair fall onto her shoulders. She sipped on a glass of pina colada and complimented Jenni on her dress.

“Where did you buy it from Jenni?” she asked. “I can never get things to fit me properly like that. I always need to have the shoulder straps adjusted because the top is too tight or sagging. I think I must be between sizes when it comes to the bust.”

“I got it from a place in Bolton. It sells lots of nice dresses, mostly occasion wear. My father paid for it. Funnily enough for when my mother got married for the third time. I wore it for the evening do she had at the Moat House. Everyone said I looked good in it, so I thought I would bring it with me on holiday. Dad's really good to me, he slips me a bit of money when I visit him. Says it's because he's not at home to give me pocket money.”

“Lucky you,” said Lucy. “My parents never treat me. Only on Christmas and birthdays do I get something from them. My Granny does though and it was because of her that I managed to get over here. The little love had been saving for me in a Post Office account, since I was a toddler.”

Lucy went on to tell Jenni how she had become a rep' for Periquito Travel and the girl listened avidly, to what she considered was a very exciting life.

“Why don't you try it, Jenni?”, asked Lucy after she had finished her tale. “You're a pretty girl and I'm sure you'd love the work.”

“I don't know what I'm going to do at the moment,” Jenni replied. “I passed a few G.C.S.E's in the summer and this year I will be taking my Mocks. I thought maybe I'd try for Uni' if I got the required A levels, but since I've been going out with Simon, I've sort of lost the plot a bit.”

“Do you think you'll get together, live with him, marry him even, in the future?”

“It had crossed my mind. I suppose every girl likes to think they'll get married one day and have a couple of babies, but with my mother's track record I'm a bit hesitant, especially with Simon behaving in the way he has.”