Clouds Below the Mountains (7 page)

Jenni began to confide to her new friend about some of her mother's checkered history and then of how she had met up with Simon, but then Tina and Anna the children's rep's came along to join them and the conversation that the girls were having came to an end. It was agreed that they would bag a few chairs at the far end of the room while Bingo was being played, as the Mini disco had come to an end and the little ones were departing.

***

“I'll take Evan up to bed,” said Sonya to her parents. “ He's worn out and sweaty with all that running about. Kiss Granddad and Grandma goodnight, Evan and we'll see them in the morning.”

“Don't want to,” the little boy muttered, his bottom lip quivering at the thought of having to go to bed. “Want to stay with Jack.”

“You'll see Jack tomorrow at the Kid's club. Come on little man you're worn out.”

She scooped him up in her arms, ignoring his screams and his wriggling, pinning him closer to her so that he couldn't escape. She smiled ruefully at the onlookers as she took him out of the place.

“I suppose we should be thinking of taking Jack to bed,” said Cheryl, “ though he looks as if he might fall asleep in that chair.”

“I don't want to go to bed yet, Mummy,” said Annabelle pouting at her mother. “I'm not tired even though I've been dancing. Didn't we have a nice time doing “Music Man?”

“Yes, we did Annabelle, we had a lot of fun and we'll have to learn that new dance tomorrow night, I don't think I was getting the steps right.”

“You weren't, Mummy. It was slide to the right, then slide to the left, you got it all wrong.”

Cheryl ignored her and asked Paul what he wanted to do?

“Well, things are calming down now, Cheryl and providing the children settle in their chairs, we can watch the duo when they come on. Did you want a Bingo ticket, the girl's still selling them over there?”

“Go on then, get one between us and while you're up get me another drink.”

“I'll get the drinks,Cheryl,” said Greg standing up quickly. “Here Paul, get Kate a ticket as well while you're there and I'll give you the money for it later.”

***

Doreen stood up from the table in the quiet Bar opposite, watching as a few children and their parents came out of the entertainment room.

“Hey up girls, I think the Mini disco's finished. Let's take our drinks next door and get our Bingo tickets. Excuse me, young man,” she said sarcastically, as Jenni's boyfriend lurched into her, as he made his way from the bar to a nearby table.

“You nearly spilt your drink over me then,” she said in her authoritative voice, glaring at him.

“Piss off, Missis,” he said and sat down with a thump, sipping at his beer after it had frothed sloppily onto the front of his shirt.

“Well!”, said Doreen, “ the manners of some young people today.”

The other two women got up and edged to the door with Doreen, but Simon continued with his drink, staring into the space in front of him.

“That's the pretty young girl's boyfriend, who came with us on the coach today,” observed Milly.

“They must have had a row for him to be in that condition. Still, it's none of our business. In my day they would have called the police and had him up for being drunk and disorderly.”

The three of them found seats near the Bingo caller and Milly went to buy the tickets.

***

Fred and Mavis sat with dabbers poised, ready to listen to the numbers being called. They liked a game of Bingo. Sometimes they went to the Mecca Bingo in town, then after, they went around the market and bought their fruit and veg'.

“Wasn't it nice seeing all those little girls dancing tonight?,” said Mavis. “I wish our grandchildren lived closer. I bet Lilian's youngest likes dancing, though I suppose she'll probably be taught how to do an Irish jig. You know we've got all these grandchildren and we're not really involved with their lives like some grandparents are. Did you see that family over there, where the girl took that sweet faced little boy off to bed? Do you know, I thought that the couple were the father and mother and that girl was the toddler's sister? I only found out when I went to the toilet and I heard the child call the woman, Grandma. Eh, don't some people look younger nowadays? I suppose it's because they have the money to spend on beauty treatments and hairdressers. Not in my day though, when every penny had to count.”

***

Jenni sat with Lucy, Tina and Anna listening to the Bingo numbers being called out. Some one had won the line and had been delighted to win the equivalent in pesetas of a tenner. Now people were waiting with bated breath for the last numbers of the Full House to be called out.

She looked at the two children's rep's with interest, wondering how they had got their jobs? Tina was a lovely cuddly type of person, buxom she supposed would describe her. She would probably make a lovely mother one day, with her pretty blonde hair. That was if she loosened it from her pony tail, then she would look like Alice in Wonderland. Anna, though, was a lot different in appearance from Tina. Her hair was cut short and spikey. It was coloured red, which gave a harsh look to her angular face. She supposed that Anna must be good with children or she wouldn't have been given the job.

Someone had got the Full House at Bingo and was gleefully listening as Mikey, acting as caller, was checking the balls with the ticket. The equivalent of thirty pounds sterling was handed over and the very happy man walked away with a grin on his face.

Jenni wished that she had got some money, so that she could have bought a ticket. Thirty pounds would have been a lot of money in her handbag. She wondered again if she should go and see what Simon was up to. Surely, he had come to his senses by now?

She was just about to excuse herself to Lucy, to visit the toilet because the glasses of wine she had been drinking were beginning to cause her discomfort, when Juan and Miguel arrived, after clearing up the restaurant and preparing the tables in readiness for breakfast time. There was another round of introductions which took a few more minutes, before they went off to order a tray of drinks.

“I need to go to the loo,” she confided in Lucy, “ and I think I should go and check on Simon. I would have thought he'd be down by now.”

“Oh, Jenni,” said Lucy, “ don't go running after him. Show him you mean business and let him come and apologize. The act will be on in a minute. Look, there's a Ladies over there. If you're quick you'll be back for the opening song.”

“You know, Kate?,” Paul said, as he sat next door to her whilst they waited for the entertainment to begin. “When we saw you on the coach, we didn't realize that you and Greg were Evan's grand- parents. We thought that Evan was a late baby, if you don't mind me saying so. Women seem to have children right into their fifties nowadays.” Cheryl smiled to herself as she heard his words. What a smoothie her husband was, he was probably trying to set Kate up with a visit to his car showroom.

“Just because I won the Bingo line, you don't have to start chatting me up,” laughed Kate, tickled pink with the compliment just the same. “Ten pounds won't get you very far.”

“What the hell's going on over there?”, said Greg, suddenly jumping up and looking over to the back of the room.

“Where?”, asked everyone at his table in unison, leaping to their feet, nearly knocking their drinks over in their panic.

“Over there! I think somebody should be doing something. Call Security someone!”

He dashed off, brushing past people and knocking into chairs as he went. Mikey was about to introduce the “ Candelaria”, when suddenly he found his audience had nearly all disappeared. A crowd had begun to gather, to stare at the waiter named Miguel, who had served them in the restaurant that evening. He had a dazed look on his face, as he lay sprawled half across a table, while a young woman was on her knees trying to comfort him. Two other females were clinging onto a young girl, despite the fact an angry looking man had a handful of her lovely hair and was shouting abuse in her face.

“Stand back, …STAND back!,” shouted Greg authoritatively, as a few people edged nearer to a hysterical Jenni, who was sobbing uncontrollably.

“Leave her,… let go young man!” he said sharply to Simon, as a burly built security guard came dashing down the room and started dragging at Jenni's boyfriend from behind. His hold on her lessened, as the security guard's grip on him became painful and she pulled away to collapse into a chair behind her. Lucy and Tina knelt down in front of the terrified girl, calmly patting her knees and uttering words of sympathy, as Simon was being levered out of the room in the security guard's arm lock.

Greg followed, in case the man needed any assistance, but it seemed that outside the door Simon had suddenly become aware of what he had done and was beginning to weep unashamedly. The security guard, who didn't speak any English, tightened his grip and frog marched him along. To Greg's dismay, by the time he had got to Reception, a nervous night porter had ‘phoned for the Police, so there was nothing to be done but wait for them.

“I don't think that was necessary,” said Greg to Lucy, who had thought that seeing she was responsible for the welfare of her clients, came dashing along a few minutes later, to see if there was anything she had to do.

“I think it is standard procedure laid down by the hotel owner,” she replied, looking curiously at Simon, wondering how he could attack such a lovely girl as Jenni?

The young man was now sitting on one of the foyer sofa's with his head in his hands, while the security guard was standing over him, doing his job.

“But surely the police will only take him to their cells, if a complaint is made by the young woman or the waiter?”, said Greg. “It looked like spot of jealousy to me.”

The sound of a police siren came to their ears, which made Simon look around him wildly. “Have they sent for the Police?”, he asked Lucy, looking at her with fear in his eyes.

“Yes, it's standard procedure,” she replied coldly, not having much sympathy for him. She had left Jenni in the care of Tina and Anna and instructed them to take her into the quiet bar away from prying eyes. Miguel had got to his feet by the time she had left him, so she thought he'd probably be boasting of the incident in the morning, as he had been mistakenly accused by Simon of trying it on with Jen'.

For that was what it was, mused Lucy. Miguel had only put his arm around Jenni's shoulder in a gesture of friendliness, he was like that with everyone. It was the Spanish way. He had felt sorry for Jenni being virtually dumped by her boyfriend in a foreign country, a quick tale told by Lucy, as he was being introduced to her.

As two Spanish policemen came into the foyer, Simon struggled up from the sofa, causing the security guard to grab him quickly and put him back into an arm lock, whilst over at Reception the night porter had begun to explain what was going on.

“They can't do nothing, can they?”, Simon appealed to Greg', as the truth hit home of what might be happening to him.

“I suppose they can,” Greg said, shrugging his shoulders. “If the waiter or the young girl wants to press charges, you'll be in a spot of trouble, I'll be bound.”

“But I'm British,” he shouted, after the two policemen suddenly turned from speaking to the night porter, walked over to say something to the security guard and found himself being gripped by each arm and taken through the automatic doors.

His cries of alarm were silenced, as he was flung into the back of a waiting car, while Greg and Lucy stood on the hotel steps wondering what to do?

“That's going a bit too far,” Greg voiced his objection to Lucy, as the police car was driven out of the hotel grounds, with Simon looking as if his world had caved in. But as neither of them spoke Spanish, they were helpless to interfere.

“ I'll do something about it in the morning,” Lucy promised. “ There's no point now, there will only be an Ansa machine on at the office. I'll speak to Kath. Yes, I'll speak to her about it, Kath always knows what to do.”

They walked in silence from the foyer together, then Lucy complimented Greg on his swift intervention.

“Have you had much experience in this sort of thing, Mr Lewis?”, she asked, thinking that perhaps he was in the police force or he'd had army training.

“When you've got a factory with young apprentices in it like I have,” he grinned. “You'd be surprised how many skirmishes break out. There would be murder done if someone didn't jump in and stop them.”

“Well, thanks for helping, shall we go back and see how Jenni and Miguel are? I'll probably take Jenni back to my apartment for the night, she won't want to be on her own.”

“That's a thought. What is going to happen to her if her boyfriend ends up in clink here?”

“We'll worry about that in the morning, shall we? See if the police want to prosecute.”

By the time Greg and Lucy had got back to the Sunlight Bar, the entertainment was in full swing, with the girl singer belting out a song by Whitney Houston and her male partner accompanying her on his Yamaha.

Greg and Lucy said goodnight at the door, as Lucy was heading for the quiet bar. It seemed to Greg that all eyes in the room were staring at him, as he took his place next to his wife.

“I'll tell you later,” he said, when she started to question him and with that she had to be content.

***

“What's going to happen to Simon?,” asked Jenni in concern, as soon as Lucy found her sitting next to Tina and Anna, sipping a glass of brandy which seemed to have calmed her down, though her hand shook a little as she held the glass.

“Thrown into prison and the keys flushed down the toilet,” said Anna unhelpfully, feeling quite annoyed on behalf of Miguel, who she had developed a soft spot for.

“There was nothing I could do, Jenni,” said Lucy. “The night porter had ‘phoned the police and they took him away. They'll probably keep him overnight, then bring him back to the hotel in the morning.”

“Oh no, poor Simon,” Jenni said, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. “Could I not go after him and tell the police to let him go, he just made a stupid mistake?”

“I'd leave it until tomorrow love,” Lucy said gently.

“And Miguel might want to press charges,” cut in Anna. “He and Juan have gone off somewhere. The poor man might have had to go to bed.”

“I doubt he's gone to bed, Anna. He seemed all right to me when I left you all in the entertainment room. Talking of beds, Jenni. I have a spare one in my bedroom if you'd like to crash with me.”

***

“So what happened,?” asked Kate when Greg had come back from the bar with a double whisky and the Candelaria duo were on their break.

“Yes, we wondered,” said Paul, moving his chair closer so that he could listen, without Greg having to share the news with the rest of the guests, who were still glancing over at him.

“He got taken away by the police, probably for being drunk and disorderly, though he soon sobered up when they put him in the police car.”

“Gosh what a drama,” said Cheryl, her eyes gleaming. “And weren't you brave wading in like you did? We just sat and watched and did nothing.”

“I would have done something if Greg hadn't,” said Paul stoutly, feeling a little annoyed with her. “It just happened to be that Greg saw what was going on, before I did.”

“Well Greg has some experience with brawls,” said Kate kindly. “He has some apprentices at the factory who need splitting up now and again.”

“Oh,” said Paul suddenly very alert, though he had drunk quite a lot that evening. “ What does your factory do, Greg?”

“We make things from rubber,” he replied diffidently. “The apprentices learn how to cut around the templates for the product. Then the pieces are sent to the sewing room for stitching. After that the articles go to Packing and they are sent off all over the world.”

“You mean like Mail order?”

“Yes, I suppose you can call it mail order, but we do have contracts as well for certain goods and some of our products are sold in the high street stores as well.”

“Like hot water bottles?”, asked Cheryl.

“Or those gloves you wear in the kitchen?”, asked Paul.

“Those as well,” laughed Kate “ and he sometimes has orders for naughty items, don't you Greg?”

“The less said about that, thank you Kate,” Greg said, smiling broadly.

***

The duo came back on again and the dark haired girl singer launched into “Will you still love me tomorrow”, by the Shirelles.

“Oh, I love this song,” said Mavis to Fred. “Do you remember all those songs that came out in the 6o's? Our girls used to play them, on that record player you bought between them one Christmas. Doesn't it seem a long time ago?”

“Yes, love, it does,” he said, taking her hand in his. “Makes yer sad though when yer see that young fella me lad, kicking off at that little girl before. He don't know how precious it is to have someone to care for you, like she seemed to do. Bloody young fool.”

***

“Ooh, I'm feeling tired,” said Jean, stifling a yawn as the three women sat listening to the singer. “Would either of you mind if I got off to bed when this has finished?”

“No love,” Doreen replied. “I don't know about you, Milly, but I think we've had enough excitement this evening.”

“I wonder what happened to that young bloke after Security took him out?”, asked Milly. “That tall chap over there came back without the rep' , so perhaps she's stayed and sorted things out.”

“They've probably made it up. They'll be like a couple of lovebirds as we speak,” said Doreen.

“You know what the young ones are like, one minute they're friends and then they've fallen out.”

“It looked a bit more serious than just a tiff,” Jean remarked. “That waiter had to be helped out and the young girl looked a nervous wreck.”

“Ah well, it will all come out in the wash,” said Doreen, as the flashy looking keyboard player began to sing
“Save the last dance for me.”
“Let's drink up, shall we, and make for the door after this.”

***

Lucy switched the light on in the apartment, then stood back for Jenni to come through the door.

“Welcome to my little abode,” she said, trying to keep upbeat for Jenni's sake, but wanting to crawl wearily into bed.

“This is nice,” said Jenni, looking around the small dilapidated room that served as a sitting room, with a kitchen area at the back and two doors off leading to a bedroom and bathroom. “Does this go with the job or do you have to pay rent for it?”

“I have something taken out of my salary each month, but poor Anna and Tina have to pay money to the hotel to live next door, as they work for an employment agency. I think the hotel was quite glad to have these places occupied, because they wouldn't dare put a guest in here.”

“Well, it only needs a lick of paint and maybe some new plaster on that damp patch,” said Jenni, thinking how happy she would be to have a place like this to herself. “Can I use the loo? I was getting a bit desperate with all the drink I've consumed tonight.”

“Help yourself, do you want to get changed in there? I can let you have a nightie. It's clean, though it's like a long T shirt, I don't go in for frilly things.”

“Anything will do, I'm just grateful that you've allowed me to come here. I wouldn't know what to do if Simon came back and I was asleep in our bedroom. Did they take the key off him at Reception, do you know?”

“I didn't see the night porter doing that, but when the police bring him back, it will be up to the owner whether he'll be allowed back to stay in the hotel.”

“Oh, I hadn't thought of that.”

***

“There seems a lot of clouds on those mountains,” said Jean, as she sat on the third bed in her long blue nightdress looking out of the window, as she waited for her turn in the bathroom next morning.

“Oh, they will have cleared off by the time we've had our breakfast,” replied Milly, rootling around in her part of the wardrobe for something comfortable to wear. “Though I suppose until we've decided what to do today, it would be best not to put on shorts and a T' shirt. I'll wear this sun dress instead.”

“The rep' wasn't confident that we were going to get good weather. I heard her say so when we were on the coach. I think I'll wear those black trousers I got from Bon Marche and my brown twin set, that way I won't have to get changed again after breakfast.”

“Do you want me to get them for you while I'm here, Jean?” asked Milly. “There's not enough room to swing a cat in this place, is there? Did you sleep all right on that “put you up”, only with me and Doreen being bigger than you, we thought it was only fair?”

“It was fine, thank you,” said Jean. “ I drank more than I am used to last night as you know and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.”

Milly threw Jean's clothes over to her, then averted her eyes as Jean began to take her nightdress off. Strange that after all these years, she felt uncomfortable with her cousin. When they were little girls' together she had no such concern. They had been best of pals, as Milly was closer in age to Jean than she was with Doreen. They'd shared their dolls, skipped together, spent their childhood summers running wild, but they'd grown apart as maturity crept upon them and only kept in touch with Christmas cards.

“Your turn, Jean,” called Doreen, wrapped in a towel, as she came out of the bathroom smelling of lavender essence that she had put in her bath. “What kind of day is it going to be, is it perhaps bikini weather?”

“I don't think so,” said Jean seriously, as she scurried by her. “I think it is going to be a gloomy day, like the rep's forecast.”

“Then we will make it a bright day,” trilled Doreen. “After we've had our breakfast, then gone to the Welcome meeting, we'll go and have some beauty treatment. I need my nails doing and I'll mug you to a facial, Jean, if you wish.”