Chapter 17: Barbecue

The plan was to thank as many people as possible who had helped Tommy/Bob in the last three weeks. Despite the short notice, most of his new friends responded positively to the invitation with their intention to attend a barbecue at the Morris residence on Saturday evening.

New friends. Everyone who was coming was a new friend to Tommy, except, of course, his Mum. Everyone else knew him as Bob! a person he still did not recognise.

The only thing worrying Tommy more than the very idea of having a barbecue at this late time of the year was that the old Bob was apparently an acknowledged expert at outdoor cooking. He had catered for large numbers on countless camping expeditions, using all kinds of equipment from highly sophisticated to simple open fires and a few sticks for utensils. At home, he had built a barbecue grill in the garden to a high specification. There were several gas patio heaters which also served to supplement the lighting, and an awning attached to the conservatory which could be easily erected to keep out rain and wind.

Jennifer had shown him where everything was kept, in the commodious shed, where he noticed that Bob had kept all the equipment and utensils meticulously spotless. Tommy was able to see where everything fitted, but as far as he could remember, the 23-year-old Tommy never even boiled an egg. His mother had always cooked at home and Sally had prepared very basic meals in the tiny galley kitchen at the flat they briefly stayed in early in his marriage. Tommy had never even toasted bread by an open fire before. Phoebe had said that with familiar surroundings his memories should come flooding back but so far nothing had risen to the surface after three weeks of living Bob’s life.

Tommy finished dressing and joined Jennifer in the kitchen. With Tommy still not confident in his abilities to drive, Jennifer was taking him to the supermarket to select and purchase the food that was going to be required. JJ had helped her Dad with the cooking in the past so she was going along too, to help with the provisions.

They had a light lunch after completing the provisions shopping, before Tommy and the boys erected the awning and got the folding chairs and tables out of storage.

“I take it your Dad did a lot of this cooking and entertaining?” Tommy asked the boys, who were clearly proficient at the task.

“Yeah, you did this a lot, Pops,” Tig grinned. He thought it was amusing that his Dad spoke of himself as if he was a different person. Tig had accepted early on that his Dad was different to what he used to be, a lot different. In fact he preferred the cool new dude Pops to the old one.

Tom was less accepting however, it disturbed him that his Dad, who had been so serious, steady and reliable before, was now jokey, inconsistent and casual about everything. It was disconcerting for him at a time when there was so much insecurity in his life. Tom was worried about his impending marriage, setting up house with his girlfriend, the baby and his relationships with his in-laws. Faced with all that, in the ideal world he wanted his stable old home life unchanged. He couldn’t help wondering how long his parents would stay together, once Dad got his memory back. At the moment it all seemed to fragile to be real. Tom envied Tig, who accepted whatever happened with the innocence of a child. Even JJ cheerfully clung to her father assuming that once the shit hit the fan she would simply leave with her Dad if or when he decided to up sticks.

Once the tables and chairs were set out, wiped down, and covered with the gingham tablecloths they had removed from where they were stored, Tommy dismissed the boys. He got on with assembling the grills and mixing up a couple of barbecue sauces recipes that JJ had sourced for him from the Internet.

Like Tig, JJ also seemed to accept the new Dad, loving him just as much as she ever did, even though she now had another male figure in her life. That was the reason why JJ wasn’t helping Tommy in the afternoon, instead she attended a football match that Brick was playing in. She promised her father to be back as soon as dusk fell to dress the tables and assist with the cooking.

Tommy’s mother Ann was the first of the guests to arrive, brought as usual by Ralph, an hour or so earlier than expected. She was keen to help with whatever preparation was needed for the party. Jennifer was able to find her something to keep her occupied in the kitchen, while Ralph watched Tommy as he tried to get the charcoal to light.

“Sorry, I’m not au fait with this malarky either,” Ralph apologised, sucking another mouthful from his bottle of cold beer. “I could only heat up ready meals in the oven or microwave, or fell back to ordering takeaways. I’m surprised Mike got any nutrition at all while he was growing up.”

“Hopefully JJ’ll be along soon to help me out. She should be back any time now.”

Tommy had one more go at lighting the charcoal and managed to get it to light in one corner. Well, it was a start. Clearly there was a knack which he had yet to acquire.

Ralph was getting to the end of his first bottle of beer, so Tommy pulled a fresh one out of one ice bucket and popped the lid, handing it to the retired policeman. Then he pulled a bottle out of a different bin and took off the lid.

“What are you drinking?” Ralph asked.

“Ginger beer, Ralph,” he laughed, “I seem to have lost the taste for beer over the years. I did drink a couple after getting home, once I was off the meds for a few days, but didn’t enjoy how they made me feel.”

“Started running again, yet?”

“Yeah,” Tommy grinned, “Not long distances yet, and only in daylight. My night vision is still shot, and the doctors say it may never fully recover to the extent it was. So I just jog around the park during the day. I enjoy it, you know. Gives me plenty of time to think.”

“Any memories come back, yet?”

“Nothing I can put my finger on, Ralph, really. I get flashes of images, snippets of conversations, sometimes both things together. But I can’t figure out whether they are real scenes from my life or are they scenes from movies that I’ve seen? For example I keep getting sea-borne images with sunsets reflecting off the water and stuff like sailing into port. Jen tells me we have been on three cruises in twenty years, all of them in the Med. I hear people speaking German! which I cannot understand; again Jen says we met lots of Germans on package holidays. Those are insignificant snippets, nothing important. I haven’t had one single image of the children being born, for example, and I attended all three of them according to Jen. The brain works in really mysterious ways, Ralph. Or more like, doesn’t work!”

“You can say that again, Tommy!” Ralph grinned, “Your Mum, though, remembers everything and you coming back from the dead, so to speak, has really given her a boost. You know, Tommy, back when I first knew her,” he dropped the sound level of his voice, “All the life had gone out of her and she seemed to live only through Brett. And then even Brett was taken away too, when Sally left these shores for Down Under. Your parents were brought closer together by your loss but I think when Alan died she was starting to give up on life.”

Just then, Ann, Jennifer and a couple of near neighbours stepped onto the patio, all carrying their drinks from the kitchen. The neighbours waved in greeting to Tommy and settled at one of the tables, close to a patio heater. His Mum walked over to the cooking area and kissed him on the cheek, complimenting him on the house.

“Jen given you the five bob tour already, Mum?” Tommy grinned.

“She did, Tommy, or Bob is it?” Ann replied, “It’s a lovely house, you should be proud of what you’ve done here.”

“I would be, Mum, if I could remember doing any of it!”

“It looks pretty impressive out here, too, Tommy,” Ralph added.

“Bob was really keen on cooking outdoors, everyone tells me. I really don’t know what I’m doing. At least the barbecue is hotting up at last, I should be able to start cooking soon. What do you fancy, Ralph, chicken, gammon steaks, beef steaks or burgers?”

“Steak, through and through, for me, Tommy, very well done if possible.”

“Chicken for me sweetheart, not too crisp, though. Your Dad was always overcooking everything when he ever tried cooking outdoors. But then we never had a set-up as grand as this.”

Ralph and Ann moved away chatting away to each other. Moments later JJ bounced up to the barbecue.

“Sorry I’m late, Dad, I had to wait for Brick to get showered. Boys, they take so long to get ready, what with getting their hair waxed and clothes changed after the match. Honestly, most of my girlfriends get ready quicker than he does!”

“Where is Brick? I er haven’t really had a chance to talk to him, yet.”

“He’s parking the car, having dropped me off first. He wanted to park it under a lamppost. He’s very protective of that car.” JJ laughed. “He’ll be here in a minute.” She looked behind him at the grill. “Looks like you’re almost ready to start cooking.”

“What do I start with, JJ?”

“Not many people here yet, so we’ll bung on a few sausages and burgers. They cook pretty quickly and when they are done you can put them up on that higher rack out of the way to keep warm. The other stuff gets hard if you do that, so best cook the steaks and chicken to order. Less waste that way.”

“Well, your Nan and Ralph have already put in their orders, for chicken and steak.”

“Better pop them on now then and the smell of cooking will guarantee bringing the others over,” JJ smiled as she looked up, “Ah. Here comes Brick, now.”

“Hi Mr M,” Brick greeted him cheerfully, “This looks a brilliant set-up you’ve got here. Where do you want me to help?”

Tommy could see behind Brick that another group of neighbours had come in, along with their friends Emma and Richard. Jennifer got up from the couple she had been speaking to and welcomed them in. Tommy knew that Tig was looking after answering the door and taking coats, while Tom and his scatty girlfriend Suzannah were in the kitchen dispensing drinks.

“Hello, Brick, how did you get on in the game?” Tommy asked.

“Not bad, we held our own against a much better side in the cup. We went down 2-1 in the end but could even have sneaked it with a little bit more luck.”

“Not too disappointed with the result then?”

“No, it was the third round of a cup that we didn’t expect to get that far in anyway. We’re second in the league with a game in hand, so we may be top by Christmas.”

“Well, help pile these sausages and burgers on the grill at that end, Brick.” Tommy turned to his daughter, “JJ, can you take this notepad round and get a rough idea of what people want and I can start off a batch of everything?”

“Sure thing, Dad, what you got to offer?”

“The usual, beef steaks, gammon steaks with pineapple, lamb kebabs, ribs, king prawns, as well as the burgers and sausages. I’ve also got some salmon steaks if anyone fancies fish.”

“Sure,” JJ flashed them both a grin and ran off.

“I wanted a word with you on your own, Brick,” Tommy said as the youth piled some sausages on the grill. “JJ said that you originally approached her with an offer to give her a lift home after you heard I had some problems with my memory. That right?”

“That’s right, Mr M, my sister found out about ... your situation from one of JJ’s friends and I knew that she would want to get home from school as soon as possible, especially the first few days that you were home.”

“And why would you want to help her?” Tommy asked, “Her Mum tells me JJ never even mentioned you before recently. Why the sudden interest on your part?”