Chapter 16: First Nights

Tommy/Bob and Jennifer’s first night together wasn’t as awkward as perhaps either of them thought it might be. Jennifer had her bath shortly after her evening meal, before curling up on one end of the sofa in the family room, watching a succession of soaps on the large wall-mounted flat screen TV, the largest one Tommy remembered seeing up to this point.

“In the flat we had a tiny black and white portable TV that Sally brought with her,” Bob commented. “Her father used it in the kitchen; said we could have it as they were upgrading to colour. I think a colour licence was more expensive.”

“What did you watch back then, hon?” Jennifer asked.

“Just the news and the football programme “Match of the Day” on Saturday night,” he grinned, “There was never anything else of any interest to me on. In fact, my eyes are so tired I think I’ll have a bath and go to bed.”

JJ was curled up on the other end of the sofa, with Tommy in the middle. Tom was around Suzannah’s house, as usual, and Tig was doing his homework on the kitchen table.

By the time Jennifer retired, Bob was fast asleep on the wrong side of the bed. As she crept into bed, Jennifer reflected how things were now so much the same and yet so different. She wondered, with a sinking feeling I her heart, whether anything in their life could ever be the same again.

On Friday night JJ skipped down the stairs wearing the first dress Jennifer had seen her wear in years.

“Where are you off to?” asked her surprised mother.

“Out,” she called over her shoulder.

“Where?”

“The Cinemac in Macclesfield,” as JJ opened the door,

“What? How?”

“My lift has just pulled up outside, Mum, can’t hang about.”

JJ disappeared out of the door and ran down the path and got into the waiting yellow mini, which drove off after she had fastened her seat belt.

“Hi, Brick,” she said brightly, “You were spot on time.”

“That’s my new motto, ‘Never keep a lady waiting’, JJ.”

“Does that mean that up to now you were never punctual?”

“What it may mean is that up to now I didn’t care about how punctual or not I was.”

“So, ... does that mean that you are only on time for certain ladies?...” JJ smiled, “Or do you mean that you want to make sure you don’t miss the start of this particular movie?”

“Do I get thumped if I get the answer wrong?”

“Depends on whether you believe violence is the answer, Brick.”

“Well, we have got plenty of time to get where we are going. Enough spare for a coffee or stroll around even before the film starts, JJ. So that may go some way to answering your question.”

“Very cryptic, Brick,” she laughed, “Your choice of film is the latest action blockbuster, not a romantic comedy or chick lit, I notice. Should I read anything into that?”

“Absolutely, JJ. I invited you out. I am providing the transport and tickets, splashing out for drinks and snacks, too. So, therefore, my choice of film. Next time, JJ, you can choose. I can definitely live with chick lit if there’s something you want to see.”

“So there’s going to be a next time, then?”

“Completely up to you, JJ,” Brick grinned as he negotiated around a roundabout, checking his mirror for vehicles around him. “I just ask the once, and leave myself open to be asked in return, that’s as far as I go.”

JJ nodded. “So, what is this thing we are doing, Brick, is this a date?”

“When I asked this afternoon if you wanted to go out to see a film for a couple or three hours tonight and you agreed, we did the set the time, so I guess this is more of a ‘time’ than a ‘date’,” Brick grinned.

JJ laughed. “The date wasn’t mentioned as it was the same day, so I suppose this could be regarded as an arrangement determined by ‘date & time’, so I could abbreviated it to a date.”

Brick nodded this time, “Fair enough.”

“So,” JJ continued, “Are all your dates expected to put out after your outlay?”

Brick spluttered, “JJ!”

“Well?” JJ persisted.

“Absolutely not! I’ll have you know I am a complete gentlemen ... and I assume that you are a lady.”

“I’m a girl, not a lady, Brick, a girl who’s not ready to be a lady yet.”

“Yes, I know, JJ, and I am glad we are getting this ... touchy subject, discussed and out of the way up front on our first date,” Brick smiled.

“This isn’t just our first date, Brick, it’s my first ever date, and I don’t want to spoil it or have any bad memories of it.”

“You won’t be any bad, I promise, JJ. Although you may hate my choice of films.”

“I’ll take my chances with the film!” JJ laughed, then more quietly, “So, no snogging in the back row, then.”

“What? And miss this film? I might need to submit a review to the school magazine. How can I possibly rate the film if some slip of a girl is sucking the lips off my face, huh?”

“I can see your predicament, Brick, and why you chose me-”

“Oh, I didn’t chose you for your non-participatory qualities, JJ, but because you’d be a great comfort to me during the frightening bits. I might have to ask you to hold my hand.”

“I can see my presence might have some utility, then, Brick,” JJ said, her eyes sparkling in the oncoming headlights, “But, what do I get out of this date then?”

“All the popcorn you can eat, JJ,” Brick offered, “And a better chance to get to know me over a longer period than the few minutes we spend in the car each day.”

“Mmm, if you want me to hold your hand during the scary bits, you might have to do something for me as well, okay?”

“Sure, what’s that?”

“Never been to Macclesfield on my own before, Brick. It sounds ... scary.”

“Never fear, JJ, I’ll hold your hand there and back ... except, of course, when I have to change gear.”

Saturday morning was a cold and blustery November morning. An earlier frost had virtually severed the dry crinkly leaves from the beech, maples and birch trees surrounding the Morris’s back garden, which the brisk wind whipped off the branches and chased across the lawn to collect in rattling crowds around the bases of shrubs and fences.

Tommy/Bob gazed out of the window from the main bedroom as he surveyed the area around the back of the house, the alley beyond, the row of large houses and the road parallel to their own beyond that. He had walked with Jennifer around the estate for a large part of yesterday, trying to see if any of it looked even vaguely familiar. Other than the fact that road after road looked very much the same to him, he could honestly say that he recognised absolutely nothing.

They had walked down to the park, where Jennifer informed him that he had started out doing a lot of solid running in his early jogging days, about ten years earlier, when he had decided he had become fed up with the middle-age spread which was rapidly making his wardrobe redundant and reducing his fitness levels to a worrying low.

Jennifer told him that she had been delighted that he had taken up the jogging at the time. She recalled that the exercise had toned him up and, dropping her voice and nudging him forgetfully in his damaged rib area, telling him that his increasing fitness had improved his bedroom performance no end at the time. They had both laughed out loud at that.

To be frank, Bob had started looking at Jennifer somewhat differently to how he had regarded her on Monday, the day when they first met, as far as his damaged memories were concerned. Before then, he had naturally been wary of her, he could admit that to himself now. Jennifer was an attractive woman, certainly, but his first impressions on meeting had been of a haughty, rather spoiled much younger woman. She was so unlike the warm, friendly childhood sweetheart, Sally, the woman he married some thirty-three years ago, which seemed to his crystal clear memories to be only a matter of a few weeks earlier.

He couldn’t help himself, he had to admit at least to himself that he was still very much in love with Sally. It was an unshakeable love, one that had grown slowly, naturally, over some twelve years together. The couple developed individually as growing kids, at the same time as their relationship blossomed, turning into a love that he thought would endure for ever. He knew, of course, through the medium of his mother Ann, though he had never had the opportunity to speak to Sally since his awakening, that Sally had eventually given up on his ever returning. Once that initial acceptance had been taken, Sally had remarried twice, and moved to the opposite end of the earth, along with his first-born son, Brett, who he had never even heard of until these last few days.