Copper to Red (The Dillwyns' Stories) (4 page)

Meg heard
the grunt of a reply.  She lifted her shoulders at Doris, “Teenagers.”

Sam lumbered
through the door, even though he was only fifteen, he was already reaching six
feet tall.  Unfortunately, his body hadn’t filled out yet and he looked lanky. 

“I need half
a pound of butter too, which is 1/6d.  Just take my purse and get yourself some
sweets too.”

“Mam, I’m
not a child anymore.” Sam replied mainly to himself, too afraid to speak out
aloud as he never knew whether his voice would come out low or as a squeak.

Evan stood back
up after opening the chocolate bar for Johnny who was already shoving it into
his small mouth.  “Hey, that’s your Mam you are talking to.  You might not be a
child, but show her some respect. She asked you to do something for her,
something I might add, she doesn’t do often enough.”  

“Sorry Dad,
Mam.”  Sam’s face coloured, aware of all the eyes on him.  “I just meant that I
don’t need sweets as an incentive to do things anymore.  I’m more than willing
to go to the corner shop.”  Sam replied a little defensively.

Megan noticed
Sam stick his chin out slightly in slight defiance or was it embarrassment? 
Teenagers!  She chose not to mention anything, she looked towards Evan, who was
putting on his old coat.

“Right love,
I’m off to the allotments when you go to Church.  Say a prayer for me!”  He
kissed and hugged his wife, as he did every time he left her.  Evan said his
good byes to everyone else, the grandchildren getting extra spins before he
eventually left. 

Ria finished
wiping the chocolate off her childrens’ hands, thankful that they didn’t get
any on their Sunday School clothes.  She watched Rose look around the room, a
look of realisation appearing on her chubby face.  “Where’s Uncle Tom?  I want
Uncle Tom!”  Her bottom lip came out in a pout as she folded her arms across
her chest.

Ria laughed
as she scooped her daughter up.  “Ah, let’s go and find Uncle Tom before we
leave for Church.”

~~~~

“Knock,
knock.  Any sleeping giants in here?”  Ria pretended to whisper, while Rose who
was squirming in her arms, giggled.  Ria pushed open the bedroom door slowly. 

Tom had
heard all the laughter from downstairs and knew his sister and her family had
arrived.  He had been waiting for his headache to subside a little before
heading downstairs.  When he heard the childlike giggling at the door, he knew,
headache or not, his little niece would want to play.  He pulled the blankets
up over his head, ready to scare his niece when she entered.

“Ssshh!” 
Ria placed a finger over her lips, Rose who was watching her mother, copied the
action.  Her large blue eyes then turned to look towards the lump on the bed. 
Her mother started to tip toe over, clutching her on her hip.  Rose could hardly
contain her excitement; a little squeal escaped her lips as her legs started pumping
against Ria’s hip.  As they reached the end of the bed, a big
boo
came
from under the blankets as Tom sat up.  Rose jumped in Ria’s arms, a fleeting
look of terror flitted over her face for a second, before it split into a huge
grin for her Uncle.  She pulled herself away from her mother and bounded over
the bed to Tom, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.

Ria quietly
sat on the end of the bed taking in the scene. Her daughter loved Uncle Tom so
much.  In fact, all children
and
women seemed to love him!  Even though
he was very tall, especially to small children, they never seemed frightened of
him; they always wanted him to play with them.  Ria inwardly sighed, she
wondered if her brother would ever settle down and have a family.  Apart from
Sarah, he still never seemed to be with anyone more than a couple of months,
most of them, the family never even got to meet.  Tom was the reason Ria had
been so unsure of Morgan’s feeling toward her.  She thought that someone as
good looking as Morgan would have a long list of women willing to go out with
him, like her good looking brother.  Luckily, she had been wrong about Morgan. 
She had been with him for eight years now and she didn’t think she could love
him any more.  She looked back towards her brother, who was now blowing
raspberries on Rose’s belly.  She really wished her brother would find someone
he wanted to build a family with.  Her parents had all but given up on him
finding the special one, but Ria being a romantic, would never abandon her hope
for her brother.

When Tom
lifted his head, the room tilted slightly, all that raspberry blowing had made
the hangover worse.  He could feel the colour drain out of him.  He was hoping
that he would have felt better by now, so he could go downstairs to socialise
with the family, but he knew now that was unlikely to happen.

Ria had been
watching them both intently and noticed the green sheen that came over Tom, a
bead of perspiration on his top lip.  “Did you go to the Red Lion last night?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, that
explains why you now look like a
green
monster
.
”  She tickled
Rose’s ribs as she removed her daughter from Tom’s stomach.  She didn’t trust
Tom not to throw up if Rose bounced on him any longer.  “Let Uncle Tom get some
sleep while we go off to Church.  Come on, hold my hand when we go down
stairs.”  She held out her hand and watched Rose cross her arms in defiance.

“I’m big
now, I don’t want to!” Rose stomped her foot on the floor.

“No, I need
you to hold my hand to help
me
down the stairs.” Ria rolled her eyes at
Tom, familiar now with the little white lies that parents used to get their
children to do things.

Through one half-closed
eye, Tom watched Rose’s stubborn stance quickly turn to one of self-importance
as she grabbed her mother’s hand, a smile gleaming on her face.  Christ, it was
no wonder he didn’t understand women – they changed their moods like lightening,
even when they were three years old! 

He closed
his eye back up and gave a little weak wave goodbye. “See you when you come
back from church, hopefully…” he muttered.

“Whey, hey,
look who has just walked in boys!  It’s the ghost of Christmas past!”

“Wow, it’s
John Bevan in the flesh!”

“Got lost
did you?”  Various light-hearted comments came from the chorus of voices in the
corner, which was full of John’s friends.

“Ha, ha
lads!”  John flopped down on bench, then wished he hadn’t sat as heavy, the wooden
bench was hard.  “You don’t know the half of it!  Sally told me to get out from
under her feet.  She has given me the all clear to ‘wet the baby’s head’.”  A
cheer went around the group.  “That was after the baby chucked all her milk
over me first!”  John interlocked his fingers over his stomach, lent back and
closed his eyes briefly.  It felt like his eyes were only ever briefly closed
since the arrival of his beautiful daughter, Brenda.

“You love
it.” Tom looked at his friend, a contentment seemed to flowing out of John even
though his wife had only given birth to their daughter a couple of weeks ago. 
Tom felt a fleeting pang of jealousy flit through him, which he was slightly uncomfortable
with, as he was really pleased for his friend.  He wasn’t ready for a wife and
child yet, was he?

“How are Sally
and the baby?” 

“Great,
Sally loves being a mother, even though she is really tired.  She is just
amazing.”  John stated, almost gushing.

“Yes, you
have a good one there.” Reflected Tom.

“Hey hands
off, she’s mine!”  John laughed at his friend, while nudging him with his elbow. 

“It’s a good
job our sister rejected you then.”  Tom elbowed Michael, almost spilling some
of his brother’s beer.

John
guffawed and held his hands over his heart.  “Ouch, a shot to the heart.” He
was only clowning around; he was totally in love with his wife, Sally.  For
years John had pursued Ria, Tom and Michael’s sister, he thought he was in love
with her.  It was only when Ria had met Morgan Templeton, and he had witnessed
the looks and chemistry between them, that he had backed off Ria.  He knew he
didn’t stand a chance. 

He felt low
for a while and had started to hang around with Ria’s friends, Karen and
Sally.  Karen was an amazing laugh and Sally was quieter, like chalk and cheese. 
Over the months, he started to see Sally’s true personality and slowly grew in
love with her.  He was totally surprised when she confessed that she had been
in love with him since school, but had never told anyone!  Never mind, they
were together now, where they both belonged.  He would never change a thing. 
Well, perhaps only to add another child after they got over the shock and the
tiredness of the first!

Michael
leaned across and gently poked John as he had fallen asleep.  “Did you get to
see Swansea Town verses Preston North End down the Vetch the other day?”

John raised his
eyebrows with an
as if
look on his face.

Michael
chuckled.  “4-0 to us for a change!  There is talk about the manager being
sacked now it looks like we are going to be relegated to the Third Division!”

Mumbles of
discontent made it around the round table. 

“Enough of
football, it’s time to celebrate John’s new arrival.  Who’s round is it?” Dai,
one of the friends enquired.

“I’ll get
these.”  Tom said as he stood up.  To be honest, he had been waiting for his
turn to get the drinks.  He fancied having a chat with Willow. 

~~~~

Friday night,
like most weekend nights, was busy in the Red Lion, Willow and her parents
literally run off their feet.  The only good thing was that no pies were sold,
only crisps and snacks, which meant no washing up at the end of the long night,
which Willow was pleased about.  She looked up as a group of women entered, more
customers, she knew it was going to be a long night.

Tom and his
friends all turned towards the door, their interest piped by the loud sound of
voices.  A group of women burst through it, all laughing and pushing each other
and made their way over to a corner table, still giggling.  “Vodka, Baby Cham
or Cherry B’s girls?” one of the group enquired. 

Dai rolled
his eyes in irritation at the noise.  Even though he was relatively young, he
was stuck in his ways, not liking a group of women in the bar area.  “Great a
mothers’ meeting!”

“They’re not
mothers!” laughed John.  “In fact…” John looked towards the women again, “…I
think Tom knows that none of those women are mothers.”  He nudged Tom in the
ribs, while laughing at his own joke.

Tom cringed
and reluctantly looked towards the table of female noise.  He immediately got
John’s joke, he had dated all of them at one time or another!  He slid a look
towards the bar, slightly uncomfortable with the thought that Willow had heard
the comments that were now flying around about his love life.  Luckily she
looked too busy pulling pints to notice. 

Tom was usually
pretty immune to the teasing now he was older, part of it was his own fault
anyway.  When he was younger, he had encouraged the comments about his
plentiful love life, or certainly did not do anything to contradict them.  It
served his youthful reputation well.  His peers looked up to him, which didn’t harm
him at all.  He shook his head remembering that most of it was made up, he just
had chosen not to correct the gossip.  Now he was reaching his thirties, it was
different; he didn’t want to be labelled a ladies’ man.  Any decent woman was
scared away by his Lothario reputation and he currently seemed to be picking up
the ‘Janes’ of the world.  An uneasy feeling flowed through him, his reputation
as it stood, would not help him find a wife and family,
if
that is what
he really wanted.  He looked into his pint and heaved a sigh, now wasn’t the
time to figure things out.  

“Hey Jack,
weigh out 2lbs of potatoes for Mrs Jones would you?”  Tom threw a paper bag
towards Jack and the potatoes, which were piled high.  “Mrs Jones, Jack will
weigh out the potatoes for you over there, unless you want to pick them
yourself?”

“Thanks Tom,
I’ll leave that job to Jack.”  Mrs Jones’s face crinkled even more around her
eyes as she smiled at Tom.  She wandered over to Jack, inspecting the carrots
as she passed.

While he
didn’t have any customers, Tom narrowed his eyes and scouted the market.  He
was sure he had seen Willow and her mother come through the main door earlier
on.  Usually they stopped at the store he worked on to get their fruit and
vegetables, but they hadn’t yet.  He looked at the clock which hung from one of
the roof beams, only an hour to go before the market closed and he had promised
to pick up some beef from the market’s butcher for his mother.  He searched
around again, he didn’t want to miss having a chat with Willow, but he wouldn’t
risk upsetting his mother either.  Perhaps he would wait a couple more minutes.

“Yes love?”
Tom plastered the usual charming smile on his face when he served the next
customer.

~~~~

Willow stood
by her mother, while Shirley chatted to the butcher about his best cuts. 
Crumbs, shopping today seemed to be taking forever.  That was the problem
shopping with her mother, she seemed to know everyone.  Willow mused, even
though Swansea was relatively large, everyone seemed to know everyone, which
when you were trying to shop, was not always a good thing.