Summer's Edge (16 page)

He put coffee and toast in front of her. She was starving. They hadn’t eaten anything since Castlemorton the previous evening, and it was now nearly lunchtime. Last night seemed ages ago. Alice wondered what had happened to the overdose girl.

"Do you think she was ok? That girl last night," she asked him.

"If she was it was thanks to you. You likely saved her life."

Alice wasn’t certain this was true but she liked the fact that he thought it.

"I should really ring to find out if Jules and Kate got back ok. Can I use your phone?"

"Sure." He left the room, she guessed he was being tactful so she could speak privately to her friends if she needed.

* * *

"Oh my god Alice, I have been trying to get hold of you all day, where have you been?" Becky was frantic when Alice rang her.

"What’s wrong? Is it Jules?"

"No, I can’t get hold of her either. It’s both of you. You were on the news last night, they had a report on Castlemorton. It was only a few seconds but it was obviously the two of you. Everyone’s seen it."

Jules’ parents had watched the news and phoned Alice’s parents, who were already shocked having seen it themselves. They had called Becky’s parents to find out where Jules and Alice were, and a total meltdown was happening.

"Was Kate on there too?"

"No, it was just the two of you," Becky said.

"So no one else? Definitely just us two? And you saw it yourself?"

"Yes, who was I supposed to see? What’s going on Alice, where are you?"

Alice told her. Becky started having her own meltdown. "At his house? How did that all happen?"

"I can’t explain everything now. I need to get home and face the music." And she still had to get to the family planning clinic. And figure out where Jules was. Most likely she was still enjoying herself at Castlemorton, or sobering up, and would be back by evening. Alice hoped so anyway.

She hung up and went to find Mr Walker - Stewart - she still hadn’t got her head around calling him that. He was in the living room.

"Everything ok?"

"Not exactly. Jules and I were on the news last night. Not you or Kate though," she said quickly, to allay his alarm.

"Are you going to be in trouble?"

"Probably. Especially if they find out that Jules and I didn’t stay together and start asking questions."

But there wasn’t a lot she could do about it now.
 

He drove her to the clinic where she was prescribed a morning after pill and a month’s supply of the actual pill. A nurse gave her a kind but stern lecture on safe sex and a brown paper bag full of free condoms.

He had waited for her in the car and was amused by these when she showed him. "Different colours and everything. But the doctor said I’d be fine once I start the pill, so if you still want to then we won’t have to use them."

He laughed. "If I still want to? You think I’m going to go off the idea by next weekend?" To prove it he lent over to her, slipped his hand under her shirt - his shirt - and kissed her. "I’d take you again now except I need to get you home."

"Stewart."

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, I was just getting used to saying it."

"That’s the first time you’ve actually said it," he told her.

"I know. It’s strange, because you’ve been Mr Walker all along."

"Don’t remind me. Except for the next couple of weeks at school. Then I never want to hear it again."

"Or Headmaster?" she said slyly.

"Not unless you want a caning."

Alice thought she possibly wouldn’t mind that from him. Maybe if they went to see Basic Instinct together he might be inspired to try out that scene. She would love him to throw her over the sofa and have his way with her.

They reached her house and he pulled up on the road. "Do you want me to come in?"

"No, it will only make it worse. I don’t think they’ll be too mad, it’s more the embarrassment of all the neighbours seeing it on TV," she told him.

He understood. "I’d like to take you out properly but next weekend is out." Fairmount’s cricket team were playing in a tournament and would be staying overnight at the host school. "Are you free the following weekend?"

"It should be fine. I’ve got Economics the week after, but one night will be ok. If they don’t ground me for Castlemorton."

"I’ll see you tomorrow at school anyway."

"In the pavilion?" she asked.

He kissed her. "I think we’d better stay away from the pavilion. At least until your exams are done."

* * *

"It’s not that we mind you going out darling," her mother was saying. "But we need to know where you are and that you’re safe. Richard and I were very worried, and so were Jules’ parents."

Alice felt all the worse that her mother was being so understanding about this. Particularly as she had no idea what Alice had really been up to.

"I assume Jules is now home safely too? Who drove you back?"

"Just a friend." Alice deliberately avoided answering the first question. She hoped Jules was back already or that she would be soon. "But don’t worry, every one was sober. We only drank a few beers. We just wanted to see what it was like over there."

"It looked absolutely dreadful judging by the television news," her mother said. "Litter everywhere and very odd looking people with long hair and nose rings, in need of a good bath."

Alice refrained from mentioning that Jules was actually dating someone like this. "It really wasn’t that bad. It was quite safe."

"Were there really as many drugs over there as they said on the news?" her mother asked.

"There were some. But no one forces you to take them." It always bewildered them how concerned their parents were about drugs being at a party, as though their mere presence was harmful. It was especially absurd as Cheltenham was rife with drugs. People had been offering Alice and her friends weed and other substances since they were about thirteen, not that they had the money to buy anything at that age.

"It’s all the more embarrassing because Hilary Bowes’ sister lives in Castlemorton village and has had all sorts of things thrown into her garden. And part of her fence was taken away." Hilary was their next door neighbour. "Now Hilary’s seen you on the news being part of it, after we were only discussing the other day how awful it all was."

"We weren’t doing anything like that. We just went for a look." Alice felt bad for her mother but she didn’t feel particularly beholden to Hilary or her sister.

Her mother sighed. "At least you’re back safely. I do worry with you being so close to finishing your exams."

Later that evening Alice’s mother was putting the boys to bed and Alice was sitting in Richard’s study, playing with a paperweight. She had gone in there to fetch a book but stayed.

Jules had finally called to say she was back and to vent about the grilling she’d got from her parents, but they had managed to conceal the fact that they had travelled back separately.

"What was the festival like?" Richard asked Alice.

"Very much like it looked on the news, but it’s different when you’re there of course."

"Was it enjoyable?"

Only Richard would ask a question in this way, Alice thought. "Yes, it was. It felt like being part of something significant, you know? There wasn’t any centre, it was all spread out, but it felt…" she struggled to find the right word.

"Communal?" Richard suggested.

"Yes. I think that’s it. Like it was a new society."

Richard looked for something in his desk drawer. "Many years ago some friends and I were very much into folk music. We also held impromptu gatherings. Not on the scale of the ones this summer, perhaps, but with something of the same spirit."

He brought out a few photographs. They were rather faded but they showed various people with long hair, beards and guitars at some sort of campsite in a wood, with 1960s cars and caravans in the background.

"Which one are you?" Alice asked.

"None of me, I’m afraid, I took the photos. But I did have hair like that in case you were wondering."

Alice look at the photo again and back at Richard. She found it hard to visualise him like that. "What was it like?"

"At the time it was very wonderful. We talked about a new and free society, and had all sorts of idealistic notions. It was the era of psychedelics of course."

"Did you…?" Alice wasn’t sure if she should ask.

"We all did. Some of us were scientists and we regarded it rather as an experiment. The man you see on the left there became a professor of Chemistry at Imperial College. We were interested in the work of Timothy Leary and others," he said.

Alice had never heard of Timothy Leary. She resolved to look him up. "So what happened?"

"Why did we hang up our guitars? Careers and marriage and leaving university brought us back to a more conventional life. It was a brief phase, but I’m reminded of it when I see these events happening now."

PART III

Declaration

When summer brings the lily and the rose,

She brings us fear

April, William Morris

"It has been brought to my attention that Fairmount pupils have attended the illegal gathering at Castlemorton in Worcestershire over the weekend."

There was a ripple of interest when the Headmaster, Mr Francis, announced this in morning assembly.

"I would like to remind you of the conduct requirements for all pupils at this school. Involvement in illegal activities, within the school grounds or outside, is absolutely unacceptable. To defy the police and the law of this country is disgraceful behaviour and the culprits will be dealt with accordingly."

Alice cursed the television news again. Out of the thousands upon thousands of people there, why did it have to be Jules and her they filmed? She could only assume the announcement was directed at them. It gave her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach to think about the chastisement ahead. Surely they wouldn’t be suspended or anything, so close to their final exams?

She filed out of the hall behind Jules and Becky. Mr Walker - Stewart - was still outside, talking to another member of staff. He called over to them.

"Jules, about those tickets for your father for the Worcester match…"

"What tickets?" Alice asked Jules who kicked her. "Ow. Oh." She realised he was finding an excuse to speak with them. Since girls didn’t play cricket at Fairmount there was no real reason for him to have anything to speak with them about.

The other teacher drifted off and Mr Walker came over.

"I don’t want you both getting into trouble. I’m happy to tell the head I drove you there."

"Jesus Christ no!" Jules said. "That would escalate it from a rap on the knuckles to a disaster. We’ll be fine. They’ll just drone on about how disappointed they are in us and how we’ve set a poor example to other pupils."

"Sounds like you’ve been there before."

"Once or twice. It’s all bark, no real bite," Jules told him.

He looked directly at Alice and she flushed, thinking of what they had spent the last couple of days doing. Back at school he seemed more remote from her, an authority figure once again. It almost seemed like a dream that this man standing in front of her had been running his hands over her naked body just 24 hours ago.

He’s mine, she thought. No one knows it but he’s finally mine. For now anyway.

They were interrupted by Mrs Paddington, the senior mistress, who approached them with a grim expression. "Julia, Alice, you will both report to Mr Francis at morning break. For now I suggest you stop lingering and get to your classes immediately." She nodded at Mr Walker before leaving.

Word had got around that Jules and Alice were the two illegal ravers. It was not surprising given half the school had seen the news. To Alice’s amazement it had elevated their street cred. While Maddy Pullen and a few others pretended to be disgusted, there were plenty of people who were dying to know what the festival had been like.

Jules was happy to tell a few tales. She didn’t really need to exaggerate the scale of things because it had truthfully been massive. Most people wanted to know about the music and the drugs and the confrontations with police.

"They did arrest one guy that I saw. But he was off his face and sitting on the bonnet of a police car trying to sell acid," Jules told them.

Morning break came all too soon and they left the Economics classroom for the headmaster’s office. Alice was glad they had been summoned together. Jules didn’t seem to care what happened but Alice felt apprehensive.

"How I hate this corridor. I will be glad to finally see the back of it for ever more," Jules said. During her years at Fairmount she had been summoned there for numerous misdemeanours.
 

Waiting outside the door was always more of an ordeal than the actual lecture. There was something about the dim light, the dark parquet and musty wood that smelled of doom.

"There’s only two weeks left," Alice said. "Really, what can they do? It seems pretty pointless even calling us out."

They had already knocked and after a minor eternity the command to enter was issued from behind the door. Both girls stood in front of Mr Francis’s desk awaiting the axe to fall.

"Julia and Alice, I must say that I am bitterly disappointed in you both. With mere weeks to go before you complete your time at Fairmount, you choose to disgrace yourselves and the school on national television."

"We weren’t in school uniform," Jules mumbled.

"I beg your pardon, Julia?"

"No one would have known we were from Fairmount."

"That is quite beside the point. You were seen and would have been recognised by many of the pupils here and their parents, from whom I expect to receive concerned phone calls questioning the discipline and conduct of young people at Fairmount," Mr Francis said.

He hadn’t actually received any complaints yet then, Alice thought. Nor would he. People had better things to do. She couldn’t imagine her own mother ringing up just because she had seen someone else’s child getting up to mischief in the news. Not in a million years. Mr Francis was deluded.