sUnwanted Truthst (16 page)

They travelled by train to Carlisle and spent an uncomfortable night in the valley of a mattress that had seen better days. The next day they bought two return tickets to Settle.

On her return Jenny called on her parents. It had been four months since Alice's operation. She had spent three weeks in hospital, and a further two in a convalescent home that was known locally as the French Home, due to the grey turrets at each end of the building, giving it the appearance of a chateau in the Loire Valley. The nurses wore grey uniforms, and the building had the air of a hospital during the First World War. When Jenny had visited, she half expected to see bandaged soldiers being wheeled in bath chairs.

‘You're looking a lot better now Mum.'

‘Yes, I'm feeling stronger. It's probably something to do with the bottle of Guinness I've been told to drink each day,' Alice smiled at her daughter, but Jenny thought that she was still painfully thin. She also knew that she had to rush into the bathroom after eating the smallest amount of food.

‘So how was your trip?'

‘Well it improved as the days went on. The hotel opposite the station was pretty dingy. Robert didn't care though. I've never seen him so excited.' Jenny pictured him as a small boy train-spotting in his cap and gabardine raincoat. ‘I enjoyed the train ride. There were some spectacular views from the viaduct, I even saw a merlin.'

‘A merlin – isn't that a magician?'

‘No,' Jenny laughed. ‘It's a bird, they're moorland birds mostly. We don't see them down here.'

‘Well I'm glad you had a good time. Make sure you take care tomorrow. They drive on the wrong side of the road over there,' said Alice.

‘No the right side,' laughed Jenny.

*

‘These autobahns are amazing,' said Robert.

‘Yes, but the other cars go so fast.'

‘Well that's what autobahns are for. I wish this car would go faster. Everyone's overtaking us.'

That's true
, Jenny thought, but she didn't care, she was thrilled to be anywhere other than England, but could sense Robert's impatience. ‘The countryside's so different, isn't it? Those hills are completely covered with forest apart from a few squares of lighter green. The trees are a different shape too, and we've even seen vineyards.'

‘Well, it would be different wouldn't it? It's abroad,' said Robert.

‘That's why it's so exciting. It was good to visit Bonn though, wasn't it?'

‘You and your capital cities, Jen. There wasn't much there, just a load of government buildings.'

‘There was the old town. I loved all the architecture, and it was Beethoven's birthplace.' Jenny had to admit that Bonn wasn't the most exciting place on the tourist trail, but how could she have been so near the West German capital and pass it by? She picked up the road map that lay at her feet. ‘It's not far to Wiesbaden now, and I can drive again when you've had enough,' she said, offering Robert encouragement. He had been reluctant to come, saying it was too far away, and that he would have preferred to spend longer in the north of England. But, they had agreed to split their holiday, and he didn't break an agreement. He did admit though, that he was impressed by the size of the Rhine, and the amount of river traffic.

Jenny fingered Dido's postcard, re-reading her confirmation that they could stay with her for two nights. She wondered why she now dotted her letter ‘i's with circles instead of dots, and decided that it must be because she was mixing with Americans.

*

‘Wow, look at you both, aren't you just the happy couple! I can't believe you've driven all this way in that cute car.'

‘It only seems small over here. There are lots of these in England,' Robert retorted.

Jenny hugged her friend noticing that Dido's blonde hair now fell in a smooth bob that turned under at her jaw-line. She thought that she looked even more like a model than before.

‘You found me easily then?'

‘Well, only because you're just off the main street –
Rheinstrasse
,' Jenny corrected herself.

‘Yes, I was so lucky to get this flat. It's easy to get to the base and Marlene's great company. She's from South Carolina, I can't get enough of her accent, and she can't get enough of mine – she says I speak like royalty. She's gone to stay with another friend, so you can have her room.'

‘That's really kind of her,' said Jenny.

‘Yes, Americans are really friendly, I stayed in accommodation at the base when I first came here and I never once felt homesick. Then last year I heard about this flat, sharing with Marlene. I'd only spoken a few words when she said she'd just gotta have me so she can hear my accent every single day, isn't that a scream?'

‘Yes, it is.' Jenny smiled thinking that this could only have happened to Dido. ‘Are you still seeing Jed?'

‘You bet, he's joining us for a meal later. His leave finishes today so he's got to be back at the base by ten. We know this marvellous beer cellar round the corner. Come on, I'll show you to your room, you must be exhausted, all that way in that tiny car.'

‘If she mentions the size of our car any more, I'm going to say something I'll regret,' Robert muttered under his breath as he closed the bedroom door behind them. ‘I bet her Ed won't be able to resist a dig either.'

‘Jed,' said Jenny.

*

The four of them sat awkwardly behind overflowing steins of local beer, and on Dido's recommendation ordered pork and sauerkraut.

‘So how do you like working in the Brighton office?' asked Dido.

‘Well its early days yet, the people aren't nearly as much fun as Hove. But the extra money's useful.'

‘Of course you're a clerical officer now, aren't you?'

‘Yes, I can actually make decisions of my own, and not keep referring to a higher grade all the time. Mr Winstanley's still at Hove. He'll be there ‘til he's pensioned off,' Jenny laughed.

‘Until he dies, more like it,' Dido giggled. ‘I often think about him. Do you remember how he used to waddle across the road?'

‘How could I forget, he still does, I'm sure.'

‘Are Peter and Reza still in Hove?'

‘No, they both went back to Iran about nine months after you left. They'd finished their courses. I saw Peter once in the Gondola, he told me they were going back. I expect they're both married by now to some second cousin.'

Dido leant towards Jenny and whispered in her ear, ‘I really loved Reza, but I knew he wouldn't marry me. That's why I left.'

‘Yes, I think I knew.'

‘What are you whispering about honey?' Jed licked his lips as he placed his glass on the wooden table.

‘Just telling Jenny that I'm crazy about you.'

Jed turned to Robert and grinned, ‘That's my girl.'

‘So what part of the States do you hail from Ed?'

‘My folks live in Kansas, on the edge of a small town, near Wicheta. Have you heard of it?' Jed ran a large hand over his close-cropped fair hair.

‘I know where Kansas is. It's the mid-west?' Robert said.

‘Yep, corn for miles around. I really miss my folks. I'm hoping to take Dido back with me when I've done my duty.'

Jenny glanced at her friend. She couldn't imagine Dido in Kansas. Jed started talking about Vietnam. Jenny realised that for him and his friends it was much more than a background news item to be heard and then forgotten.

‘Some families in Kansas have started tying yellow ribbons around the trees outside their houses while their boys are away. Everyone at the base is saying that more men might be drafted because of the progress of the Viet Cong, and there's going to be a big demonstration against the war back home.'

When he politely excused himself halfway through their meal, Dido told Jenny that he was really worried that he might be sent to Vietnam; only the day before, he had heard that a school friend had been killed.

They stayed in the beer cellar until nine-thirty. As they were leaving Jed walked over to three off-duty soldiers who were shouting and swearing at the bar, ‘Buddies from the base,' he said, as he joined them outside, ‘the younger brother of one has been blown up; left both legs in a paddy field.'

*

‘Ed seemed different this evening,' Robert said later as they were getting undressed, ‘not at all brash like he was at our wedding. It was a bit of an eye-opener hearing about Vietnam, wasn't it?'

Jenny had given up correcting Robert. ‘Yes, it was. I must admit I've never taken much interest before. I'll think about Jed now, whenever I hear it on the news.'

The next day they drove into the countryside. Dido took them on a route along the River Lahn, where they sipped mineral water from a metal cup. Jenny spat hers out, and Robert said it tasted so bitter that if you were ill, the thought of having to drink some would soon make you well again. They stared at the turrets of Marksburg Castle, perched on precipitous slopes above the Rhine, and then drove back to Dido's flat where they feasted on enormous slices of
apfelkuchen.

*

‘It's been great hasn't it? Just like old times, well almost,' Dido said looking at Robert. She hugged Jenny. ‘So you beat me to the altar after all, didn't you?'

‘He's right for me – just what I need.'

‘I heard that Mike's working in London now. At Lloyd's I think Nick said.'

‘So much for Che Guevara, then,' said Jenny.

‘What?'

‘Oh it doesn't matter.' It was Jenny's turn to hug her friend.

‘Drive carefully. I want to see you both again, before I go to Kansas.'

‘Not much chance to drive any other way in this car,' Robert muttered as Jenny climbed in beside him.

Jenny continued waving until Dido was a matchstick figure in the distance. She felt sad, and wondered if she would ever see Dido again. She picked the road map off the floor and unfolding it, searched for Berne. She had hoped they might have had time to drive there, but it was too far. They had to be back in Ostend for the ferry the following day. Jenny traced their return route with her finger.
We could stop in Brussels though
. She opened the glove compartment, pulling out a guidebook…
Brussels – the capital of Belgium and the largest urban area. It was founded in the tenth century by a descendant of Charlemagne. Although originally Dutch speaking, the main language is now French…

*

Three days later after Alan and his bride had made the first cut into the top tier of their wedding cake, Jenny felt a tap on her shoulder.

‘I'm pleased you and Robert could come.' Alan looked genuinely pleased to see her. She thought how much he had changed in the last six years. He was quite fanciable; perhaps it was the well-cut suit and carnation. Alan and Jackie had been at her wedding, but she had been in such a daze, she had no recollection of them ever being there.

‘Congratulations, everyone seems to be getting married,' said Jenny, thinking of all the girls she knew who had either been married or engaged in the past year.

‘Well, we're all in our early twenties aren't we? Girls are on the shelf if they're not married by twenty-four.'

Jenny thought his words made her sex seem like rows of baked bean cans in the cupboard, patiently waiting to be opened, but all the same, was glad that she was safely married.

‘Then there's the tax advantage,' Alan added.

‘There speaks a true accountant.'

‘How's married life treating you anyway? You look very good on it. It must suit you.'

‘Yes it does. We're very happy,' said Jenny, but she wasn't thinking about Robert. She was thinking, as she always did whenever she saw Alan; of being seven years old and in his bedroom at her aunt's house. She wondered if he thought it too. It seemed impossible to see him and not to remember. There had been nothing overtly sexual about their curiosity, but the memory surfaced every time they met, like a cork floating on water that refused to be submerged. Then another thought – they weren't even related, not genetically. They could marry. But Alan, like her other relatives, didn't know that. Only she and her parents knew – secrets that only they shared – like spies. There was a certain thrill at knowing something that other people didn't, and never would, unless she decided to tell them, it made her feel powerful. ‘In fact, we've just got back from visiting my friend in Germany.'

‘Germany – you always were keen on travelling, weren't you? Remind me, what does Robert do?'

‘He's a draughtsman in the county transport office.'

‘Look Jenny, I better go. I think the band's about to strike up. I'll catch up with you both later.'

Aunt Doris was enjoying her elevated status as the groom's mother. Uncle Jim had died two years before. Alice said that he had died of nagging. She also said it wasn't decent when Doris re-married a year later; adding that this proved what she had suspected all along. Alan's stepfather was Greek, with a name that ended in opoulos. He had been staying in Doris's house – it was always known as Doris's house even when Jim was alive – as a mature student, staying on long after his course had finished. Watching her new husband twirling her around the dancefloor, Jenny thought that her aunt certainly looked happy.

‘You look lovely in that green dress.' Robert put his arm around Jenny's waist as she emerged through the fog of cigarette smoke.

‘This outfit's come in really useful with all these weddings.'

‘Very attractive, Mrs Maynard,' he stroked her thigh. ‘How long do we have to stay here?'

‘We can make a move at nine. It will take a couple of hours to get back and drop Mum and Dad off.'

‘I don't know if I can wait that long.' His hand disappeared under the hem of Jenny's dress.