Chapter 15: Brick

JJ Morris couldn’t wait for school to end. All afternoon her target of just before four o’clock seemed so far away. The day had dragged since lunch and she was anxious to get home and see her Dad again, hoping that this time he would recognise her.

OK, she accepted that her father wouldn’t actually have known who she was last night without an introduction by her mother the previous night. He couldn’t remember her and had none of the memories they used to share, but he was still her Dad. That salient fact had not changed. Even if he never got his memory back, all that meant was that they would have to build new memories together. They would soon become just as close as they always had been. If she had anything to do with it, it would happen. It was of maximum importance to her, she always was “Daddie’s girl” and she never wanted to lose that special relationship.

“Hey, Jennifer,” came a deep voice from behind her, “Wait up, will you?”

JJ turned, oh no, that was all she needed right at this very minute, she thought.

JJ had been imagining this boy talking to her for ... well, for ever. She even opened up about her feelings to Aunt Emma the other night, the wish that she could actually get Brick Alexander interested in her. As a result, for the last couple of days at any rate, she had worn her hair differently, put on minimal make-up and dressed a lot less frumpy than she ever had before. All it had taken, thanks to her Aunt Emma, was someone she could talk to who would boost her self-esteem. It was crazy, the number of boys in her own class that had come up to talk to her since Tuesday morning. That had been a complete surprise to her.

Now, though, just as she desperately wanted to rush home especially to see her Dad, bloody Brick Alexander decided to pick that moment to speak to her for the first time ever. She simply didn’t want to stop and allow him to talk to her. That would inevitably mean he would never speak to her again. This was so frustrating!

“What d’yer want, Brick? I’m busy!” she snapped as she continued to walk quickly towards the school gates, “I’m really in a hurry to get home.”

“I know. Paula Jones, your friend Laura’s sister, was telling my sister Lucy about your old man coming home today and we both wondered whether I can ... well, help you?”

“In what way could you help?” JJ asked, still walking away fast towards the school gates, “Cos at the moment all you are doing is getting in my way.”

He almost had to break into a run to keep up with her, “Paula says it takes you about twenty minutes to walk home, is that about right?”

“Right.” They were almost to the gates, a long way ahead of everyone else in the school.

“Well, I could always give you a lift, and therefore get you home in at least half the time.”

“A lift?”

“Yeah, I passed my driving test last week and my Dad’s got me a car.”

“Students are not allowed to drive to school, Brick,” JJ pointed out.

“I know,” Brick grinned, “That’s why I park in the housing estate over there. Plenty of places to park, especially during the day when everyone’s gone off to work.”

“That’s in the opposite direction to my way home, Brick.”

“True, but a two-minute walk that way followed by a five or six-minute drive to your place and you will be home in less than half the time it will take you to walk the whole way. Look, Jennifer, I know you don’t know me very well, but I am simply trying to help you out here, OK?”

“OK, but you try any funny stuff...”

“If I try any funny stuff, you know and I know I am going to be in serious trouble,” Brick grinned, “And we both know I can’t afford any kind of trouble, serious or otherwise.”

God, JJ thought, Brick is so handsome when he smiles. JJ found herself smiling back at him, in spite of her valiant efforts to remain aloof and critical.

“Then don’t you ever forget it!” she smiled, turning left at the gates in the direction that Brick had pointed, rather than her usual right.

“I won’t,” he laughed, pleased at her easy acquiescence.

“You want to jog?” she asked.

“I will if you will,” he answered, grinning broadly. They both picked up the pace and were soon tearing down the road, trying to outrace each other. After a couple of turns of the pavement Brick, who was only fractionally ahead, stopped next to a blue Mini, about four or five years old. “This is me,” he announced.

He opened the driver’s door and leaned across and opened the passenger door from the inside. JJ stepped in and sat down, putting her school bag on her lap, grabbing the safety belt and stretching it across her chest to secure.

The car started in a roar and they moved off down the residential crescent the car had been parked in all day and out through the end of the estate onto the school road. They were past the school about two minutes after they had emerged from the gates and heading well ahead of the traffic towards her residential estate.

“JJ,” she said, “You can call me JJ, if you like.”

“Instead of Jennifer?”

“Yeah, nobody’s called me Jennifer for a coupla years, it’s also my Mum’s name.”

“Yeah, I can see why you’d want that.”

“So you know?”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know much about it JJ, but I heard. Look, I’m sorry, but,” Brick said, “You can’t pick either of your parents, you just have to live with them and live with whatever stupid things they embarrass you with.”

“Yeah, so’m I sorry, but I can’t do nothing about it.”

“I like your old man, JJ, he was always the coolest guy around on those school trips. Put me on the straight and narrow a couple of times. I used to be a bit bolshi when I was younger,” he grinned, “I can’t pick my Dad, like you can’t choose your Mum, but I’d swap my Dad for yours any day.”

“Yeah, he’s cool, you know ... for a Dad, everyone says so.”

Brick grinned and nodded.

They were silent for the rest of the way. Brick didn’t ask for any directions, signalling and slowing for all the turns before she could say anything, so it looked like Laura had passed on her address.

“Thank you, Brick,” JJ smiled, when they pulled up outside her house, “Despite my attitude towards you earlier, I really do appreciate this.”

“You’re welcome, Princess,” Brick smiled back, “Same time tomorrow, then?”

“Yeah, great. I’ll meet you at the gate?”

“Sounds good,” he said, “Hey, and good luck with your Dad today, JJ, see you tomorrow.”

“You’re home early, JJ,” Jennifer said, as JJ came through the kitchen door.

“Yeah, got a lift,” she said quietly, unsure how to cope with her mother while her mind was full of thoughts of Dad and, for first time with a sense of purpose. She was also finding room for Brick in her thoughts, too, adding to her confusion. “Where’s Dad?”

“In the conservatory, with your new grandmother.”

“What?! Dad’s Mum?”

“The very same,” smiled Jennifer, “I’m just making a pot of tea, do you want to take the tray through?”

“OK,” she agreed quietly.

Bob got up off the settee as JJ came through the open French doors from the kitchen, flashing his daughter a brilliant smile.

“Mum,” he said, “This is my daughter, JJ, which is short for Jennifer Josephine. JJ, I would like you to meet your grandmother.”

“Oh, you are so pretty, dear, how old are you?” Ann Barlow said, “You look so much like my Aunt Nellie, she was my Mum’s youngest sister and my favourite aunt of all.”

“Hi, I’m 16,” JJ smiled, as she put down the tray on the coffee table, “My other grandmother is called ‘Granny’. How would you prefer to be called?”

They embraced warmly and Ann said, “Please call me ‘Nan’, JJ, I always called my grandmother Nan. My grandson in Australia always calls me Gran, though.”

“Hi, Nan,” JJ laughed, hugging her back. “Who is your grandson, Nan?”

“Ah,” Bob said, “That will be Brett, he is your half-brother, he’s 30, married and you have a niece and nephew. They are in Australia.”

“So I’m an aunt, then?” JJ asked.

“Yes,” her Dad replied, “I guess you are.”

“Cool!”

Bob then drew JJ’s attention to the tall, grey-haired old man who was now standing on the other side of the coffee table. “This is Ralph Haroldson, a family friend of ours. He was kind enough to drive your Nan over here and also a couple of trips while I was still in the hospital.”

Without releasing her grip on her new Nan, JJ shyly reached out a hand to Ralph’s own outstretched hand, “Pleased to meet you, Mr Haroldson,” she smiled.

“Please call me Ralph, JJ,” smiled the ex-policeman in his deep voice.

Her Nan sat down on the settee.

“Now, JJ, come sit next to me,” her new Nan said, patting the settee seat next to her. JJ sat next to her, in the place where her Dad had been sitting.

Bob moved back around to the other side of the coffee table and sat next to the now-seated Ralph. By this time, Jennifer had come through from the kitchen carrying plates of sandwiches and biscuits. She put these on the coffee table with a smile at JJ and her Nan and went out to fetch more.

“Do you want a hand?” offered Bob, as he got up.

“No, it’s alright, love, there’s only one more stack of plates and some knives,” she smiled, “There’s some cake, too but we’ll bring those through once we’ve cleared some of this and made room for it.”

Bob sat down again. Within a few seconds, Jen waltzed back through the door again, laden with plates and knives and a jar of sweet pickle, which she put on the table and sat in one of the armchairs at the narrow end of the coffee table, between Bob and JJ.

“Help yourself to plates and the sandwiches, please,” Jennifer invited, “The boys’ll be home in a few minutes and very soon this spread will look like a bomb has hit it!”

Ralph didn’t stand on ceremony, with a smile he picked up a side plate and grabbed a couple of sandwiches, nodding his thanks to the hostess. Bob followed likewise and Nan also took a sandwich on a plate. JJ was too excited to eat.

They were on their second round of sandwiches while JJ was pouring the tea for all five of them before her two brothers showed up and, after dumping their school bags noisily on the kitchen floor, followed the sound of conversation and laughter through the open doors into the conservatory.

There they found their father regaling the group with the story of his being found in a beaten and distressed state in this far-off wood they had never heard of around lunchtime on the Sunday before last. He had begun his run from home at maybe five in the morning, according to Jennifer, and surprised the two attackers (who had dragged this young girl Hannah off the main track) about six and a half or even seven hours later.