Tales of Every Day by Don Roxburgh - HTML preview

Brett seemed a bit overwhelmed, and he just answered, “I s’ppose so.”

“We’ve been working on some body exercises this last week,“ said Bob, “and I can definitely say there’s been some improvement. I’ve also had a chance to chat with Brett, and he’s told me a lot about the kind of things that go on in the school at break times. I promised I wouldn’t tell his teacher, and Ms. Evans knows that I have to keep some things confidential. This week, we’re going to start some co-ordination exercises, with running, throwing and catching.”

“That sounds good,” Annie replied. How often d’you want me to come to tell me how Brett’s getting on?”

“I’m not sure. What I’d really like to do is to see Brett on Saturdays and take him to a gym run by a friend of mine - actually, my ex-C.O. Then you could have weekly reports and maybe even come over and see what’s going on. How about it?”

“It seems a bit too early for that to me. Brett, what d’you think?”

Brett thought a bit before replying, “I’d kind of like to try. It’s diff’rent and kind of fun and scary at the same time.”

“O.K., then. We’ll try it next Saturday. How do we get there?” Annie said.

“Well, I thought I’d come and pick Brett up from home, if you don’t mind,“ Bob replied.

“Mm. I’d like to come with Brett, some time, but maybe not for the first week or two. Come and have a cup of tea when you drop him off.”

Having sorted out the arrangements, Bob offered to take Annie and her children home. “That way, I’ll learn how to get there,” he said.

Alicia demanded to sit in the front, and be the one to give directions, and Annie gave in to her. As they parted at Annie’s front door, she suddenly remembered that they hadn’t set a time. “When are you coming on Saturday?” she called.

“Ten o’clock!” was the reply.

 

-9-

 

On Wednesday, after a morning spent changing the beds and washing sheets, Annie felt the need of a change of air, so she went into town. After wandering round the shops for a while, and picking up a couple of things at the Pound Shop, she found her legs taking her, automatically it seemed, to the square and Mick’s caravan. When she got there, Mick was busy serving customers, so she bought a coffee and drank it slowly while she waited for Mick to have a few moments for a chat. She’d just about finished it when the stream of customers dried up, and Mick asked her, “Would you like a refill - on the house?”

Annie agreed to that. As Mick handed her the refill, he asked, “What gives? You look like you want to talk.”

Mick was a good listener, and Annie found herself telling him about the recent events, apart from Steve spending the night. “It looks like you’re making progress with one kid and going backwards with the other one,” he commented.

“Yeah, I know - and I wish me mum was more helpful. She seems to want payback for having done things for me when I was a kid, and now I owe her something, “ Annie replied.

“What do you think will help Alicia?” Mick asked.

“I think she wants a dad around. She’s very friendly with Steve - sometimes. And she talks about how the dads of other children in her class take them out to places. Of course, she’s not the only single-parent kid, but she’s jealous of those with both a mum and dad.”

“Well, there’s not too much you can do about that problem at the moment. I don’t think anyone can properly be both mum and dad to their children, but you don’t want the wrong person coming and making things worse.”

“Don’t I know that! I’ve made too many bad choices - an’ I blame myself for messing up me kids. But I just can’t find the right man. I know Steve’s not the right person, but he’s the only choice at the moment.”

“Well, keep on looking and doing your best for your children. And I’ll pray for you, that you find the right man.”

Annie was a bit surprised by the last statement, and she didn’t know how to respond to it. So she just said, “Thanks. I’ll see you again soon. Tara!”

As she walked across the square, she looked back and thought to herself, “Now why didn’t I find a nice understanding man like that before?”

On Saturday morning, Brett was up early - unusually for him. He got his own breakfast - a bowl of cereal, and then waited for his mother and sister to stir. When the doorbell rang, neither of them had yet appeared, so Brett answered it. As he opened the door to let Bob Wharton in, his mother came to the top of the stairs in her nightie. When Annie saw Bob, she immediately retreated back to her bedroom, calling, “Give me a minute to get some clothes on.”

Brett offered Bob a chair, and asked him, “Would you like a cup of tea?”

“No, thanks,” was the reply. I haven’t got time. We need to be on our way very soon.”

Annie came down the stairs, this time properly dressed, although she hadn’t put a comb through her hair. “Excuse me not being up - but we’re used to a lie-in on Saturdays, and I didn’t set the alarm clock,” she said.

“No problem,” Bob replied. “Brett’s up and ready to go out, so if you’re happy, we’ll get going.”

Annie had no objections, so Brett and Bob went out. Just as they were about to drive off, Annie ran up to the car. “When will you be back?” she asked.

“Oh, about half past twelve,” came the reply, as Bob put the car into gear. “Bye!”

Annie spent the morning doing housework, while her daughter watched cartoons by herself. She couldn’t help her thoughts from drifting on to how Brett was getting on. She dreaded the thought that some of the other children would laugh at or tease him. So, when it was time for her son to arrive home, she got everything ready for a cup of tea, and made sure she hid the ironing out of sight.

The front doorbell rang, and she was about to go and answer it when she heard her mother calling, “It’s only me. Thought I’d pop round and see how things are. Is the kettle on?”

Annie frowned to herself, then called back, “It’s already on, Mum, but you’ll have to wait a tick.  Brett’s coming back soon, and I want  to talk to Mr. Wharton, to find out how things went.”

“Who’s Mr. Wharton? ... Oh, I get it. He’s the ex-army bloke who thinks he can make an athlete out of Brett. Well, good luck to him, but our family have always been cack-handed.”

“Mum, he’s only trying to help Brett to feel more confident and to be less awkward. I think it’s worth a try.”

Just at that moment, the door bell rang again. Annie’s mother was nearest, so she opened it, said hello to Brett, and invited Mr. Wharton in.”

“Come in and sit on the settee, Mr. Wharton, please,” added Annie.

“Call me Bob, would you. I find using my surname too formal. It reminds me too much of my army days, when first I was 89356 Private Wharton, then Corporal, and so on. So I got rather fed up of being referred to by my surname. Now, everyone calls me Bob, except for my Uncle Len who calls me ‘Tanner’. He says I’m getting old so now I’m only worth half as much as I was when I was younger.”

“Bob, what’s a tanner?” Brett asked.

“It’s old money. We used to have twenty shillings, or twenty bob to the pound, and sixpence, or a ‘tanner’ was worth half a shilling. It’s much simpler now with decimal money.”

“Who’d like some tea?” broke in Annie. “Brett, go get the biscuits and pass them round, will you.” She just stopped herself from saying, “And try not to drop any.”

Both Bob and Annie’s mother spoke at the same time. “Yes, please.”

Annie put the kettle back on to make sure the tea would be piping hot, and Brett took the plate of biscuits round.

“Alicia, please put the T.V. off, now, will you. We’ve got visitors, said Annie.

“But mum...” began Alicia, then she thought better of ‘making a scene’ as she knew her mother would call it. She switched the set off then asked, C’n I have some tea as well?”

As everyone drank their tea, Annie asked Bob how things had gone that morning.”

Bob outlined the exercises they had done, and said that they would gradually get harder, and that soon they would add in work with a tennis ball and a football.

“Did you enjoy it?” Annie asked Brett.

“Yeah. I liked the stretching exercises best, and I really want to have a go on the bike, Brett answered.

“But you can’t ride,” said his mum.

“This is an exercise bike,” Bob explained. “It’s good for building muscles, and will help him when he does learn to ride one properly.”

A few minutes later, Bob said that he had to go, and left.

The rest of the day went much as usual, with the children sometimes happily occupied, sometimes squabbling, usually over what to watch on the television.

At about half past nine in the evening, the doorbell rang. “Who can it be at this time of night?” Annie  asked herself. “Maybe something’s happened to Mum!”

When she opened the front door, she found Steve standing there. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“It’s Saturday night, and I’m coming to carry on what we started last Saturday,” Steve said.

Annie was so astonished that she let Steve come in, and shut the door behind him. Then Steve gave her a box of chocolates he’d been hiding behind his back, and she felt somewhat better, but still confused. Did she really want to sleep with Steve again that night, and was she ready for what it might lead to?

They snuggled together on the couch, and watched a film on the television. By then, Annie was feeling relaxed, having had a couple of cans of beer, and eaten a number of the chocolates, so when Steve suggested they go to bed, she didn’t demur.

 

-10-

 

The next week was half-term. Annie didn’t like half-term holidays, because they disrupted routine and meant she had the kids around her all the time; more chances of arguments and complaints and getting on each others’ nerves - especially in the autumn, when the weather was getting colder and they didn’t want to be outside as much.

Unfortunately, the weather seemed to be conspiring against her, as on  the first Saturday and Sunday it rained hard, and doing anything outdoors was impossible. Steve didn’t even turn up on Saturday evening, but her mother did arrive on Sunday morning, in a rather grumpy mood. Nothing Ann did was right, and the children were squabbling over which cartoons to watch, when Ann just lost it. She marched over to the television, switched it of and for good measure unplugged it, ordered Brett and Alicia upstairs, and finally turned to her mother and said, “If you can’t do anything helpful, then it would be best if you were grumpy in your own house!”

Her mother looked astonished, then, unexpectedly, she started crying. Annie was at a loss as to how to deal with this situation. She didn’t remember ever seeing her mother cry before. She went to the kitchen, filled the kettle and put it on. “Let’s have a comforting cup of tea,“ she said, but her mother made no response.

“Come on, Mum, there’s no need to be upset. I didn’t mean you should go home. I know you like coming round here, and the kids like you here.”

On hearing that, her mother stopped crying and replied, “I know that, but do you want me around? I feel like you hate the fact that I’m always here. That you’d rather I was dead.”

“No, Mum, you know that’s not true. It’s just that I wish you’d be a bit less wrapped up in yourself and help me a bit with the kids.”

“But that’s just the problem. I feel such a failure with you and your brothers. I never hear from them. One’s in jail and the other’s in Canada, and they both hate me. I’ve got no-one but you and Alicia and Brett.“

Annie went over to her mother and, somewhat awkwardly, put her arms round her, something she had rarely done before. Her mother put her head on Annie’s shoulder and started crying again. When she calmed down, she said, “I haven’t tried to do much to help you cos’ you didn’t seem to want it, but I can’t keep away from you and my grandkids. If you want, I’ll start doing more to help.”

“Thanks, Mum, I appreciate that - but try not to be bossy, because I can’t stand that.”

After that, Annie and her mother prepared dinner together. When Alicia and Brett were allowed downstairs again, they both said sorry without being told. The rest of the day passed much more pleasantly.

However, the weather stayed cold and wet for the rest of the half-term, and the Halloween celebrations in the neighbourhood were muted for that reason. Brett didn’t like going out ‘trick or treat’ing anyway, but Alicia, who usually enjoyed the fun, went out with one of her friends, accompanied by her friend’s dad, but only stayed out for about an hour, and came back cold and wet through. By the end of the week everyone was rather fractious, so Annie welcomed a phone call from Bob on Friday evening, to tell her that he’d be round in the morning to take Brett to the gym.

When Annie told her son that he was going to the gym in the morning, he reacted enthusiastically, “Great, I need something else to do.”

Bob came as promised, and afterwards Annie invited him in. While the gym session had been going on, she had been to the shops and bought some chocolate biscuits, as a treat. Over drinks, she learned that Brett was gaining in confidence on the apparatus, and he was improving his co-ordination. “Still, there’s a long way to go,” warned Bob. “Will you be ready to come and watch soon? It’ll give Brett a chance to show you how he’s doing.”

Annie gave a non-committal reply to this, but later, as she was saying goodbye to Bob, she said, “If you think it’s all right, I’d like to come over to the gym for a few minutes next Saturday.”

Annie was feeling more cheerful about things the rest of the day, not least because the half-term break was nearly over. She had put the children to bed and settled down in front of the television, watching a Bruce Willis film, when the doorbell rang. She groaned inwardly, but put a smile on her face to welcome Steve. He breezed past her and said, “Put the kettle on, will you. I’m parched.”

Annie bristled at this attitude, but went into the kitchen and did as she had been asked. When she came back into the lounge, she saw that Steve had changed the channel, and now there was a game show on. “Hey, I was watching that film,” she protested.

“It was an old one. It’ll be on again,” Steve replied. “Anyway, I want to watch this show.”

Annie resigned herself to fitting in with Steve’s choice, and cuddled up next to him. He started fondling her, but she told him she wasn’t really in the mood. “I don’t like being felt up when half your mind is on the half-naked bimbo helping the contestants,” she told him. “Wait until we’re in bed.”

Steve grumbled at that, but he had no choice but to wait, since Annie got up and went into the kitchen. “I may as well wash the pots,” she said to herself. “It’ll save me time in the morning.” Once the washing-up was done, she pottered around doing some tidying up.

After the game show, Steve came out into the kitchen. “Put the kettle on, luv, and lets have a cup of tea. There’s a late-night vampire film on next, so we can watch it together.”

Annie wasn’t especially fond of vampire films, but she made some tea and they watched the film together. By half-way through, she was asleep with Steve’s arm around her. When the film finished, Steve carried her to the bedroom, but she woke up enough to take herself to the bathroom.

Some time later, when they were getting intimate with each other, the bedroom door opened, and in walked Alicia. Neither Steve nor Annie noticed her until she jumped on the bed and tried to force them apart. “Get out of my Mum’s bed,” she screamed at Steve, trying to push him out. Now Steve was annoyed. He raised his hand and was about to hit Alicia when Annie grabbed it and said, “You won’t hit my daughter.... and I think for everyone’s sake that you should leave - now!”

“I’m not going anywhere. You just calm your brat down and we can carry on,” was Steve’s reply. Then he looked at Annie and saw just how annoyed she was with the situation, so he added, “All right, I’ll take myself off, but don’t expect me back round here in a hurry.”

With that, he grabbed his clothes, remembered to pick up his shoes at the last moment, and clattered downstairs. A short time later, Annie heard him slam the front door as he left. She didn’t have any spare energy to think about Steve, as she was fully occupied with trying to calm Alicia down. “I don’t want him in your bedroom. He’s not my dad,” said the distraught girl.

Annie held her daughter in her arms and stroked her hair. “I’m sorry, my pet,” she said, soothingly. “I promise you it won’t happen again.” Inwardly, she was full of mixed emotions; love and concern for her daughter, contempt for Steve, who, she felt, had shown himself on his true colours that night, and sadness and despair for herself, as she now felt more alone again, and wondered if Alicia would ever accept another man in place of the father who had abandoned her.

Alicia spent the rest of the night in Annie’s bed, and by the morning she was back to her normal self, but Annie didn’t sleep well and throughout Sunday she had difficulty in concentrating on anything.

When it came to Monday morning, Annie wondered how her children would feel about going back to school, but she needn’t have worried. Both of them seemed happy to go. Alicia said she was looking forward to seeing her classmates again, and Brett even said that he was looking forward to school.

The next two weeks went relatively well for Annie. Brett seemed to be really gaining in self-confidence, and he went to school willingly every day. There were no more incidents at school with Alicia, but she did seem to be less co-operative at home.

Bonfire night was a treat for everyone. Unlike the previous week, the weather for the November 5^th celebrations was mild and dry. Annie took the children to the council fireworks display in the local park, and they ate hot dogs from the stand while watching the display. They went home happily, with linked arms

That week, Annie’s mum found a new boyfriend, so she didn’t come round to the house as often, which suited Annie. She chatted a couple of times with Mick at his caravan in the square, and he mentioned that she seemed more settled. Steve didn’t come over, and Annie told herself that she was glad he’d gone. However, in spite of the positive developments, Annie found herself dreaming of better things to come.  “I want something more in my life than kids and school and casual sex,” she thought.

Annie had become quite friendly with Bob, and she now trusted him completely. The change in her son was remarkable, and she loved how thoughtful Bob was. She wondered if she was falling for him. She decided to invite Bob to stay over for the rest of the day on the following Saturday, telling him she wanted to cook dinner for him since he was doing so much for her family, so, on Friday evening, she telephoned him.

Annie was rather nervous as to what Bob’s reaction would be, but she needn’t have been. Bob cordially accepted her invitation, saying he’d love to come, but adding that he wouldn’t be able to stay too long as he had some business later in the day.

On Saturday morning, Annie went through the house, madly cleaning everything and trying to make sure it looked as good as possible for her visitor, notwithstanding the fact that he’d already seen the house in it’s usual state of untidiness. She also took special care with the dinner - not that she was a cordon bleu chef, or anywhere near it. She made toad-in-the-hole, which she knew both children always enjoyed, and for a change, she also cooked some fresh vegetables to go with it. For pudding, she bought a ready-made trifle from the Co-op.

When Bob brought Brett home, Annie was in the middle of getting changed, so Alicia opened the door. She said to Bob, “Mum says she’ll be down in a minute. She’s just tarting herself up for you.”

Bob didn’t know what to reply to Alicia, but he thought that her remark was in bad taste. However, he refrained from comment, and waited for an opportunity to say something quietly to Annie.

Dinner went well, and the children were on their best behaviour. Annie knew that the situation wouldn’t last, so, as soon as the trifle had been eaten, she told Alicia and Brett that they could get down and not bother with the dishes - she’d take care of them.

The children scooted off upstairs, leaving Annie and Bob to clear the table and do the washing up. Bob used this opportunity to talk about Alicia’s use of vocabulary, to which Annie replied that she knew Alicia’s language was sometimes inappropriate, but that what she really needed was better role-models. “I’ll have a word with her later,” she said.

Annie and Bob then talked about the progress Brett was making. “He’s a lot more confident,” Annie said, “but I’m just afraid that any little thing could set him back.”

“I understand - this self-confidence is still rather fragile,” Bob replied, “so we’ll just have to pray it doesn’t get a big knock before he’s ready to cope.”

“Why are you talking about praying?”

“Well, I believe in God and that He answers our prayers.”

“What, even someone like me, who’s slept around and done everything wrong?”

“Yes - and maybe if you start praying you’ll get a nice surprise when God answers!”

“Nah! I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Bob had to go soon after that, but the conversation kept on playing in Annie’s mind for the rest of the afternoon.

 

-11-

 

The following day, Annie’s mum came round at breakfast time, which was, to say the least, unusual for her. Annie was already up, and so were the children, but they hadn’t yet breakfasted. Brett and Alicia were watching cartoons on the television.

Annie was grateful for that when she saw her mother. Her face was tear-stained, with her make-up smudged, and she was dressed like she had gone out for the evening. She hadn’t even taken her coat off.

She threw herself into her daughter’s arms and started sobbing.

When she had calmed down somewhat, Annie asked her what was wrong. With a lot of interruptions for sobs and reaching for a tissue, the explanation came out.

Annie’s mum and her boyfriend, Sean, had been out clubbing on Saturday evening, and they’d both had a lot to drink. Then Sean disappeared to the toilet and came back looking really full of himself. He grabbed Annie’s mum by the arm and told her they were off now, and no arguing. He called a cab, and they went to his house. Once they got there, Sean started slapping Annie’s mum around, calling her a bitch and a slapper. She tried to escape, but he caught her and started to tear her top off her. He manhandled her and dragged her to bed, where he battered her around some more and then raped her, all the time calling her names like ‘bitch’ and ‘whore.’ Once he had finished, he pushed her off the bed and went to sleep. Annie’s mum waited a long while to make sure he was deeply asleep, then she went and got her coat, put it on and left the house. She was still disorientated from the drink and the violence, and she just stopped, sat on the ground and cried for a time, then she started walking. She wandered aimlessly for a time, but eventually sobered up enough to decide to go to Annie’s house. She had waited outside until she was certain somebody was up, then she had come in.

Annie enfolded her mother in her arms, and helped her up the stairs. She ran a bath and helped her mum get in. She also made her a cup of tea with some brandy in. “I’m going to call the police, Mum,” she said. “That man deserves locking up.”

“No... no police,” Mum said. “They’ll only say it was consensual sex, won’t the