Narrow Escape (23 page)

“I wouldn't do that if I were you …” Geoff laughed and backed away from him.

“Why, are you scared I'll break you … Granddad?” Drew began to back Geoff into a corner.

“No …” Geoff took his helmet off and tucked it under his arm. “I'm scared that if you do manage to swing that sword, your wrist will break again and then you'll be back where you flaming well started.”

“Oh phut!” Bill had obviously forgotten about Drew's newly healed bones. “That could have been awful.”

Geoff sighed and threw the axe back into the big basket of weapons. “Let's face it, I'm winded after a couple of minutes and I can't even lift the basket of armour without giving myself a back injury. I used to be able to wear it all and still do cartwheels.”

Packing everything back into the basket he dragged it into the storage unit and, with a shove of his foot, slid it along the floor into a far corner. “It's too late to do anything now,” he said. “You lot go back, I'll lock up and be up in a minute.”

I nodded. “I'll put the kettle on.” Geoff was such an easy-going happy person that it was very easy to forget that he had feelings as well, he was always dealing with mine. I wandered over and gave him a hug. He sighed and rested his forehead on my shoulder.

“Aww,” I said. “It'll all come out in the wash, we've been worse off than this.”

I felt him nod and then, determined to give him some space, shepherded everyone else away.

“He's not a happy boy,” Bill looked back, we could just see Geoff against the coming dark leaning against the unit wall and staring up at the sunset. “What's the problem? Loss of home, loss of youth, loss of possessions?”

“A bit of all of them I imagine,” I couldn't believe we had to go through this again. Luckily this time our home moved with us, and due to my almost obsessive need to keep our possessions down to a minimum we had very little that was actually precious to us.

As we walked along the tops we could hear one of the boaters having an argument with a woman that sounded suspiciously like Mrs Owner.

“But this is our home …” It was a male voice, I couldn't see who it was talking. “No,” the woman snapped at him. “Ê»This' is your home.” She gave his boat a push with her foot.

Bill's eyebrows disappeared into her heavy fringe.

“This …” she tapped her foot on the grass, “isn't”

We looked at each other and as one walked down the flood defences and crossed the field. We stood and watched as the owner stamped away back toward the marina.

“Well …” Bill murmured. “I guess that's how she feels about all of us.”

After his one little ‘moment' Geoff became, once more, completely obsessed about getting us all moving. He packed all the re-enactment stuff up and we spent a happy day putting the tent up one final time and taking pictures of all the armour and weapons. The whole lot was put on to a sales site on the net and was sold within the week.

I hadn't realised how much it was all worth and it was a huge relief to finally have a decent slush fund into which we could dip to purchase all the things we needed to take ourselves elsewhere.

Charlie, who, tired of the fast food industry and suitably irritated by working with feet-eating fish, was now working for one of the large supermarkets, had been more than a little worried by our upcoming change of circumstances. One morning she sat us down and said that she wanted a little talk.

“I'm not coming with you when you leave,” she said.

I sighed. “We've been through this before, love,” I said. “Even with your new job you still don't earn enough to get a place in Cambridge, it's so stupidly expensive here. I'm sorry but I don't see that you have a choice, your job's only temporary till Christmas and after that you could find yourself jobless, homeless, and broke.”

“I'm not staying in Cambridge either,” she said. “We're moving to Cardiff. I've applied for some jobs there and, if I get one, Tash and I are going to share a flat, they are so much cheaper than here.”

Tash spent most of her time with Charlie and at over six foot (with a six-inch multi-coloured Mohican) found living on a boat to be quite a trial. I liked having her around, she unintentionally dusted the ceilings for me and I didn't have to worry about the spiders.

“I have to go, Mum,” Charlie shrugged. “I've been trying to do my own thing for ages and I think this might be the push I need.”

“What jobs have you applied for?” I hoped they were ridiculous and unrealistic I didn't want this situation to make her feel as though she was forced out of her home.

“There's a big toy store opening in Cardiff,” she said.

I couldn't see it, she always said that children should be put in a bin and rolled down a big hill into a lake. “You do realise that ‘toy store' will equal vast amounts of screaming kids? What about Tash, what's she going to do?”

Charlie shrugged. “She's lucky, her company will just transfer her to another of their coffee shops.”

Geoff, who had been watching the television piped up. “If you're moving to Cardiff you might want to have a look at this,” he said.

We all turned to look at the presenter on the news.

“Twelve people have been injured in a series of hit-and-runs in Cardiff which have led to the arrest of a van driver.” She sorted out her papers and turned to the camera. “Both children and adults were hurt, and the driver is in custody after a number of apparently deliberate collisions. Eyewitnesses have said pedestrians were deliberately targeted in five or six locations by someone driving a van.”

“Wow,” Charlie looked a little nervous. “Nothing like that happens in Cambridge.”

“I'm glad,” I said.

For the next two weeks it was all move round one, just like the mad hatter's tea party.

Amelia's friend Vera was wonderful and, once Charlie had her job, offered to let her crash at her flat until Tash could join them in Cardiff.

Amelia and Chris, deciding that their tiny one-bedroom flat was far too small for a growing family decided to move into a house closer to where Chris worked. Charlie of course moved straight into Amelia's old flat. With us moving and the kids moving there came a point where I wasn't sure where any of us were, it was a very odd experience.

Finley laughed and smiled through the whole experience. Now four months old, he had turned from pudgy baby into a real little person. I began to get pangs that the girls and my grandchild were too far away and, for a while we toyed with moving the boat to Worcester. This would cover all aspects of life. We'd be closer to my mother and father and we'd only be an hour away from Cardiff; close enough to be there quickly if needed, far enough away that we weren't cramping their style.

The day Charlie left was harder than I ever thought it would be. Possessions crammed into Tash's tiny car, she was leaving early so had to wake me to say goodbye.

She shook me awake and gave me a hug. At four thirty in the morning I'm never at my best so I just said goodbye and went back to sleep.

About thirty seconds after the door closed I jerked awake.

“Oh my God!” I screamed at Geoff who jumped and grabbed for his trousers completely convinced that the boat was in imminent danger of hitting the bottom of the river.

“Wha … WHA?” He looked at me blearily as I rushed around throwing any clothes on I could find, half of them were his.

“Never mind.” I leapt out of our boat and into Charlie's hoping that I hadn't missed her.

I hadn't, she was standing in the middle of her little boat, tears running down her face and just turning helplessly on the spot.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” I panted as I grabbed her and gave her a huge hug. “I don't think I was awake.”

“I didn't think you cared.” Her voice was muffled into my shoulder and I wondered when she'd managed to get so tall.

“Of course I care.” I had to sniff hard to try and stop myself from dissolving into tears. Oh well that was the end of that, with two of us trying hard not to cry both failed and we ended up in floods of tears, each making the other cry harder.

Picking up her last box I staggered with her down the flood defences and toward the car. We loaded it into the back seat and then there was a moment of silence. I looked down at her. We'd always had a slightly odd relationship especially as I hadn't managed to get her back until she was nearly eleven. But she was a survivor. I couldn't imagine what life would be like without her. Quieter, that much was certain. If anyone was going to tell me about ridiculous events it was Charlie, if anyone was going to make me laugh it was Charlie. If I was going to have to bail anyone out of trouble it was always going to be Charlie.

I'd always laughed at women who were worried about empty nest syndrome and had said loudly and often that a child leaving home is a sign that the parents have done their job. One thing was certain; her life was just about to get much more exciting, more difficult perhaps but exciting nevertheless. Mine however would be diminished in ways I already realised and, no doubt, in ways I had yet to discover.

I gave her a last hug and handed her physically into the car. “If you don't phone me and tell me that you are alive at least once a week, I will hunt you down and beat you to death with a dirty shoe,” I said between tears.

Charlie laughed and gulped and then gave a little sob. “Thanks, Momma Bear,” she said. “I love you.”

I tried to smile, “I love you too. Please, please take care of yourself and call if you need anything.”

Charlie shut the door and wound down the window. “I don't think I want to go,” she said.

OK, this had to stop, I wasn't about to make her feel bad. “Go away, have fun, explore a new city, make new friends, and just have a great time,” I said.

“But I'm leaving you,” she said.

“Good, go away.” I laughed. “I'm just jealous and you are so ready to leave and find something new, you've been ready for months. I'm not going to spoil that for you.” I put my head through the window and gave her a big wet kiss on the cheek.

“Oh yeauch!” she said.

I looked over her to where Tash was ready to go. “Tash, just drive away, I'll catch up with you later.”

The tall girl nodded, her bright green Mohican brushing the plush ceiling of her tiny little car. She pulled slowly away up the drive. I stood and waved until they were out of sight. As the car disappeared over the level crossing my phone gave the little trill that showed I had a text message. It was from Charlie, it said:

Love you, see you soon, I promise I'll keep in touch C xxx

I sent her some kisses back and after closing my phone case cried all the way up the flood defences. Geoff, dressed and with coffee in hand was waiting for me as I came through the door. “She'll be fine,” he said.

I had to put the coffee down, there was no way I could drink it with my hand shaking so hard. “I know, I said. “I just wish she hadn't been forced into going by everything that's going on here.”

Geoff shrugged. “She's been looking to go for months.”

I nodded.

“If it hadn't been the move from here it would have been something else.” He gave me a hug and handed me my coffee again. My husband, the most insightful man I know.

I'm not sure if it was Charlie leaving or just the whole situation, but for the next week I just buried my head and completely failed to rise to the challenge of the move. I was driving Geoff insane and although I knew it I couldn't seem to do anything about it. Everything I tried to do either failed or seemed to drop us further into trouble.

The first instance of this was when I phoned the marina that Elaine and Dion were heading for on the Tuesday that that had been specified.

I introduced myself and found that the friendly woman had changed completely. “I'm sorry,” she barked down the phone at me as soon as she found out why I was calling. “We're full, there are no spaces here.”

“Oh,” I said. “But, I spoke to you just before the weekend and you asked me to call again on Tuesday.”

“I don't think so,” she said. “We've been full for ages and I can't see it changing any time soon.” With that the phone went dead.

Confused and wondering what I'd done to deserve such a short brush off I went to find Elaine next door.

“Gah!” she said as she answered the door. “I was going to come and see you.”

I assumed she knew what I was there to talk about so didn't bother with any explanations. “What happened?”

Elaine shook her head, she looked furious. “Were you told there's no spaces?”

I nodded.

“We've been told the same thing,” she said.

“But you'd been to visit them,” I said. “Dion was shown where your mooring was going to be.” I just didn't understand what had happened.

My neighbour sighed. “Rumour has it that they came down here and basically held a beauty contest.”

“Oh.” I looked over at our rusty floating tin can. I could see why, if they were worried about looks, they wouldn't want us. I ran an eye over Elaine and Dion's boat, though not as rusty as ours they had bright orange spots of primer where Dion had been judicious with a paintbrush and sandpaper but hadn't applied any actual colour. “Well, it looks as though we're back to square one then, aren't we?” I said.

Elaine nodded sadly.

There didn't seem to be much to say after that and I wandered back to our boat to tell Geoff the bad news.

He didn't seem surprised.

As the days went on, noticeable gaps started appearing within the marina pond. It was a sad sight. Standing, gazing out over the water one rainy evening I felt a gentle poke at my shoulder and turned to find Drew standing behind me.

We didn't say anything but just stood and looked for a while.