Chapter 2
Play On!
The boy held a gun; but he was still a boy.
Bloody hell, he’s younger than me.
The young soldier stiffened his posture and narrowed his eyes as Ed passed in front of the sentry box.
Poor bastard. Four years’ military service! Could that be right? If Lourdes was telling the truth, he’ll be thanking his lucky stars he’s on sentry duty in the middle of Lisbon, rather than in a tropical hell-hole where everyone hates him.
The gate swung inwards to let a military vehicle pass out. Behind it, Ed glimpsed tropical vegetation and the façade of an ornate old building. He carried on and turned into the side street that housed the Sussex School in a modern block with a fine view of the city’s Army Headquarters but no distinguishing features of its own. Ed thanked his lucky stars that he was young enough not to have been called up for even one year of “national service”. He had been able to finish his studies at Stevenage Tech in peace.
Ed followed a trio of pretty teenage girls into the building. On the stairs, they glanced back at him and giggled, resting their hands on each other’s arms and whispering words he caught but failed to understand. They stopped in front of a notice board at the top of the stairs. It was adorned with portrait photos of people who did not look local, with the exception of one whom Ed recognised as Carlos, his teacher of Portuguese for Foreigners. He assumed the people portrayed must be members of the School’s teaching staff. One of the girls backed into Ed as he passed. He felt her firm bottom against his thigh. Ed raised his hands, palms outward. “I’m so sorry,” he said, smiling. He brushed past and into the reception area, looking for Ção. The sound of giggling followed him.
The reception area held dozens of students milling around between classes. Ção was not among them. He saw Anne, her head bobbing above the students surrounding her, and hailed her. She excused herself and came over to him.
“Recovered from the party, Mr B?”
“B?”
“Mr Businessman! Good business, man!”
“Fully recovered, thanks. You?”
Anne nodded.
“Jorge?”
Anne’s face clouded.
“I haven’t seen him and I haven’t heard from him, either. Have you?”
“No news.”
“I’m quite worried, actually.”
Ed caught an aroma he remembered from his party. Hands covered his eyes.
“Guess who!”
He turned around. The hands fell away, leaving him gazing into the seductive eyes of Maria da Conceição.
“Olá, querido!” she whispered, then kissed him full on the mouth.
A bell rang. Everyone started moving towards classroom doors. Ção skipped past him and caught the arm of a dark, stocky young man wearing thick spectacles. Ed recognised their mutual greeting as German. The door closed behind them. Even though the man looked more Latin than Teutonic, Ed assumed that he had just caught his first sight of the redoubtable Calvin. And his first, sweet, lingering taste of Calvin’s delectable apparent admirer.
Ed turned to face the long reception desk, behind which three young secretaries sat. Laura and Assunção were engrossed in their work, but Célia smiled and winked at him.
“They’ll be out in fifty minutes.”
As though he did not know. Ed sighed, and sat on one of the functional chairs lining the walls.
Laura put down her phone.
“The boss would like to have a word with you. He’s in his office. Just down that corridor, on the left.”
“With me?”
“Yeah. Get to know the students. Reminisce about Blighty. You know.” She sounded as though she’d just stepped off the plane from London herself.
Ed found it strange to be considered a student again, but he was taking Portuguese lessons there, a couple of times a week if he could make it.
He got up.
“Hello, Mr. Scripps. May I call you Ed?”
The speaker was a man of medium height with blond hair curlier than Ed’s. There was a canny glint in his green eyes. He looked old to Ed – well over thirty. His handshake was firm; his smile was relaxed.
“Sure.”
“I’m Keith. Would you come down to my office?”
Ed followed the Director of the Sussex School down the corridor. Keith ushered him into a medium-sized office, gestured to a chair and sat himself behind a broad workaday desk.
“How are you getting on with Carlos? Learning?”
“Carlos is fine. Has a good classroom manner. I’m a bit slow, but I think I’m getting the hang of the lingo.”
“You’ll learn a lot more outside the classroom than in it, Ed, if you put your mind to it. But you really should try to attend Carlos’s lessons regularly, especially in these early stages.”
“Yeah, I know, Keith, but it’s not so easy.”
“Busy man, eh?”
“That’s right. Luckily for me.”
“Businessman, Carlos tells me.”
“Right. Sort of. I’m not independent yet. Still working for Retail Support Services. But no-one from England keeps tabs on me. I’m practically my own boss.”
“Nice feeling, isn’t it?”
“Not half!”
“Can you tell me about your business?”
“Sure. I’m a man with a mission. I’m here in Portugal to bring loyalty cards to stores and supermarkets.”
“Loyalty cards? That’s a new one on me.”
“It’s simple really. The idea is that you, the customer, take out a special card with your name and the supermarket’s name on it. The card entitles you to special discounts at that supermarket. This gives you an incentive to become a loyal customer of the supermarket, though, of course, there is no compulsion.”
“Like the trading stamps we already have in Britain?”
“No. I think it’s much better. Trading stamps only give you things you might not want, whereas my scheme gives you a discount on stuff you do want, otherwise you wouldn’t be buying it. If it takes off – and I’m sure it will – I plan to expand it, so that your loyalty card to a certain supermarket will give you discounts at, say, ‘partner’ clothes shops. That kind of thing.”
“Are you sure Portugal is ready for all this?”
“I reckon Portugal is the ideal place. It is just right for business. Full of untapped potential and so, so stable.”
“Yet, you know, Ed, everyone in the cafes moans about the government, the war, and so on.”
“And what do they do about it? Nothing. They’re too damned scared.”
“With good reason, too.”
“Come on, Keith, a regime that has lasted forty-eight years isn’t going to crumble any time soon. And what would you do if it did?”
“Oh, I’m well placed. Education. Everyone needs education. And if Portugal comes in from the cold, it’s going to need English even more than it does now. A need which the regime has kindly neglected to fill.”
Ed was relishing this chance to talk up his business with a compatriot who understood these things.
“There’s other things I can do for this place, too, as well as loyalty cards. Like plastic. You hardly ever see it, and when you do it’s expensive and low-quality. They still hand-make everything. Of course, there’s stuff I’m going to send the other way. Some of the hand-made and hand-grown things. The fruit and veg here doesn’t always look too good, but the taste is fantastic! You know that better than I do. Most farmers can’t afford pesticides. And they let the chickens run around their smallholdings before they kill them! There's going to be a market for that kind of thing in the West again, Keith, just you wait and see.”
“Yes, well, Portugal is actually part of the West.”
“On the map. And I’m going to help turn the map into reality. I can just see this country in twenty years’ time: rolling in oil wealth from the colonies, building a second bridge across the Tagus, a Caetano bridge even longer and more impressive than the Salazar Bridge, holding a World Fair, the World Cup, you name it.”
“Best not get carried away, Ed.”
“You’re right, Keith. I’ll concentrate on my own little mission. Tell you what. What is it now? November. Give me six months. May the First, 1974. If they don’t have loyalty cards by then, I’m a Dutchman. And if they do, you can buy me lunch at that posh place in the main square. Deal?”
“If that’s a lunch-buying Dutchman, it’s a deal. I’ll be happy if it works out for you. If it doesn’t, Ed, have you got a Plan B?”
“Go somewhere else. Home even. Wherever the company sends me.”
“You know, teaching English isn’t a bad option. Gets you around the world.”
“So I see. But I’m not a man of letters, Keith. And I don’t have the training.”
“A lot of people don’t. Though you’re right that they need it.”
The phone rang, but Keith ignored it.
“I put people – whatever their background,” he continued, “through a month’s intensive training, and they’re ready to start teaching. You’ve got drive and enthusiasm, and that’s contagious. I can see a future for you in this business. You do that course and you can have a job here next autumn, maybe sooner.”
“Thanks, Keith. I guess I’ve just got a new Plan B. Next autumn? By then I’ll be thinking about buying a stake in your business.”
Both men laughed and studied each other.
“Well, thanks for dropping in, Ed. I was sorry to hear your party got raided.”
“Me, too. Do you know that man they took away? Jorge? Hangs around with several of your teachers.”
“Not personally. But don’t worry about him. He’ll show up.”
“The guys in the raiding party seemed to know a lot about me.”
“They do. They will. That’s something you need to remember.”
Ed left the Director’s office and went up to the School’s small coffee lounge on the floor above. He hadn’t finished his insipid milky coffee when the bell rang. He abandoned his drink and took the stairs two at a time to get back down to the reception area. There was the inevitable crush as students and teachers left, arrived or changed classes. Thanks to his height, Ed could see over the sea of heads. When Ção emerged, she was with Calvin, again leaning on his arm, engaged in animated conversation. Ed waved at her. She looked at him, through him. She walked straight past him and down the stairs with Calvin. Ed felt as though he had been punched in the solar plexus.
Never one to waste time, nor to dwell on slights, he swallowed the bile his mouth and spent the next ten minutes asking the teachers he knew if they had news of Jorge. None of them had heard a thing.
Once the next set of lessons was under way, Ed changed his focus to the secretaries, and to charming them into divulging the phone number of one of the School’s students.
Ed was pleased, and relieved, when Ção answered the phone herself.
“Oh, Ed, I’m so glad you called. I’ve been thinking about you. Constantly.”
“I saw you at the School yesterday. I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh, Ed, there was no time for that. I mean, I can’t just talk to you, like you’re some teacher or student.”
“Well, I am a student of Portuguese, you know.”
“I can teach you Portuguese. Then you’ll never forget.”
“You’re on! When can I see you?”
“I don’t know. I just seem to be so busy these days. ”
“Look, you know Milton Nascimento himself is in town next weekend? I’ve got tickets.”
“Hmm, yes, I had heard. Which day?”
“Saturday of next week.”
“Oh no! I’m so sorry. You see I’m busy on Saturday. I’ve got a big family dinner. I’m sure you know the kind of thing. He’s playing on Friday, too, right?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Change the tickets and I’ll come with you.”
“OK, I will!”
“Now give me your number.”
Ed did. Ção read it back to him.
“I’ll confirm.”
She made a strange, liquid sound and rang off.
Damn! I forgot to ask about Jorge.
On a balmy autumn evening, Ed waited for Ção among the many people outside the São Luiz theatre. The crowd buzzed with expectation and good cheer. Ed expected Ção to arrive by taxi, but caught sight of her getting out of an unmarked car, a large black Opel. She blew a kiss at the couple in the front, and the car drove off. Ed waved at her and caught her attention. She rushed over to him, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips; then a second, lingering one.
“I’m here!”
“Wow! I noticed.”
Ed was wearing his usual sharp jacket with a white shirt, thin striped tie, narrow dark trousers and black leather shoes. It was chic in Stevenage, but the people here seemed to dress more formally when they went out for an evening. Ção had feminised her hair style, and the heavy kohl around her eyes made her look Persian to Ed. He liked that look, and the cinnamon aroma that wafted over him when she came close. In the vestibule, she took off her smart ankle-length overcoat to reveal a high-cut dark red velvet dress that just covered her knees. Ed caught his breath.
He had forgotten how little he liked the music of Milton Nascimento. Joséphine had subjected him to long bouts of it when she was at the flat, and to Ed it was just background, not something he would choose to sit and listen to. He spent the first half of the concert looking at Ção and fantasising.
He took her to the bar during the intermission.
“I guess you’ve heard about the police raid on my birthday party. After you’d left.”
“Oh, sure. I heard all about it. It must have been exciting.”
She seemed distracted, more interested in surveying the other concert-goers than in talking to Ed.
“It happens all the time. It’s really nothing to worry about.”
“They seemed to know a lot about me.”
“Why shouldn’t they? It’s their job, you know.”
“And Jorge? They took him away. Nobody has seen him or heard from him since.”
“It happens. Don’t worry about it.”
“Do you know him?”
“Oh, yes. Everyone knows Jorge.”
“When did you last hear from him?”
“At the party. I remember every minute of the party. He wouldn’t talk to me, and I met you.” She was giving Ed all her attention now.
“But aren’t you worried about him?”
“No. He’ll turn up. It was probably all a big act. A warning. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s laughing about it with those policemen right now.”
“It didn’t look like a laughing matter.”
“Laugh it and leave it, right? Anyway, I’ll ask Daddy. He often knows about such things.” The bell called the audience back to their seats.
Summoned by bells, thought Ed.
Their gin-and-tonics did not make the slow music appeal to Ed any more after the break.
Ção seemed restless, too. Without looking at Ed, she placed her hand on his knee and ran it slowly up and down his thigh. He stiffened. Ed knew where this might end, and though he wanted that ending, he didn’t want it in the midst of a theatre audience. He put a hand over Ção’s and held it at mid-thigh level. Breathing deeply, he thought of the Queen.
During the next song, Ção caught Ed’s eye and gave him a mischievous grin. She intertwined their fingers and moved them from his thigh to hers.
On the stage, the star of the show and his band began a long instrumental number. Three minutes into it, Ção adjusted her dress, and Ed found his hand under it, and free. Ção moved her bulky handbag from beside her to cover her lap. For the next half hour, Ed became acquainted with the silky texture of her inner thighs and, as her contractions and relaxings alternately halted and allowed, the contours of her shaved vulva.
As the audience clapped stolidly and shouted for an encore, Ção drew a handkerchief from her handbag, dabbed dry eyes with it and pressed it to her lips with her right hand, removed Ed’s hand with her left hand and placed the handkerchief over his fingers. Ed closed his fist over the handkerchief, wiped his fingers with it the better to capture and preserve her aroma, then placed it into his own jacket pocket.
Ed jumped the queue to retrieve Ção’s coat. As he helped her on with it, he whispered into her ear.
“Do you fancy a drink? Or a dance....?”
“No. I have better things in mind.”
That sounded promising to Ed. As they came out of the foyer into the now damp air, he asked:
“My place or yours?”
“Mine.”
She skipped towards a large black Opel parked right in front of the theatre. A middle-aged man got out from the driver’s side and opened a rear door for Ção. She kissed him on the cheek and got in. The man nodded curtly at Ed, got in himself, and drove off. From the passenger side, an over-dressed grey-haired woman stared at Ed as though auditioning for the part of Medusa.