Chapter 3

Later she mentioned that the door lock needed fixing. I hadn’t brought it up, I thought it would be obvious it had been me if I mentioned it. I offered to take a look; though I rather liked the idea of the bathroom having no lock.

“I bet you rather like the idea of there being no lock” said Toni.

“Not at all ... well, maybe a little. Still ... it could be me on the toilet, so I’ll see if I can fix it”

“Gross!” said Erica.

Fixing the bathroom lock was easy enough. Terri watched as I lit a match and then snubbed it out and broke pieces off. “Why did you light the match? Does that make it stronger?”

“No, but I don’t want it to light in the hole do?”

“Would it do that?”

“I don’t know”

“Then why light it if you don’t know? And you’ve not even used that part!” I did try to explain that it was just a safety precaution, but she really didn’t get it, I could tell. The small pieces of wood compressed as I screwed the screws back in; they jammed hard into the holes and held securely. Four girls looked on with, I swear, something like amazed respect at how I had fixed the wobbly lock. Apparently Gramps had been ‘going to get round to it’ since they arrived. Dave the super-handy-man. I wondered if I should put on a cape and put my underpants on outside my trousers; but thought that might be over the top.

“Gramps nearly walked in on me a few days ago, the lock only just held. Can you imagine?” said Fiona. Well, yes, yes I could imagine, I said. She looked at me and realised what she had invited me to imagine, and blushed a little. I smiled and changed the subject. I was still thinking of walking in on Fiona in the bathroom – the possibilities were quite varied.

“No idea what’s up with the washing machine. Probably have to pull it out to check the pipe” I said, hopefully. I didn’t want to lose my reputation as ‘Mr Fixit’.

“Well, now it’s safe, I’m going for a bath” said Toni.

I nearly offered to scrub her back, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to annoy or offend. Fiona was bending over, looking in the freezer for something, Her jeans stretched tight over her bottom. That was precisely the kind of view I didn’t I didn’t want to offend people with. The views along this stretch of coastline were amazing (a line I’d used to my mother too). I wasn’t only meaning the sea views.

The remainder of the day was spent walking the dog, sitting in the garden, walking the dog, and walking to the village Llangruntyg again to check on progress, and walking the dog. The dog was delighted with all this activity. There was no real news, they were keeping him in and not even trying to wake him at present to see if there was any swelling on the brain. Granny insisted she was staying, and insisted that there was no point in visiting yet, and asked if we could get her some more clothes. It was a lovely evening, we opted to phone (no change) and then go into the pub garden for an early drink. Leaving Erica out of the view of the barmen meant that we could buy her a drink too with no objections. Actually only Toni (and me) was over age as it turned out; but it wasn’t like I was seeking to get them all drunk and incapable. We watched the evening gather, enjoyed a pint, a glass of wine, or an Aperol (depending on the individual) and six packets of crisps – dogs probably aren’t meant to eat Roast Beef flavour crisps, but Johnny seemed to enjoy them (and they are vegetarian for some reason) - and then made our way back to the house.