Chapter 20

The Royal Arms was crowded with people when we arrived just after 11 o’clock, George had closed off the carpark and hired a few small fairground rides and a bouncy castle, there was music, banners and bunting, all the hanging baskets and window boxes were awash with brightly coloured flowers, there was a proper festive atmosphere.

Kelly was judging, so she joined Clive and the two other judges and together they set off for their tour of the village gardens, they’d be back in an hour or so, in the meantime I went to the bar, with a pint of best in hand I toured the pub grounds with the girls. The farm behind the pub had cleared the cattle from his nearest field for the weekend and it was full of stalls selling home-made produce and handicrafts, there were a few fairground stalls with things like a shooting gallery, hook-a-duck and darts games.

At the bottom of the field was a stage, Naomi ran down to see the running order pinned to the fence, then she came running back.

“Nick Palmer is playing later, he was at the Library on Monday, I thought he was great.”

“Oh I missed him because I helped Tom carry his shopping home, then I was cooking. What’s he like?”

“I was surprised I liked him, because it’s not a style of music I’ve listened to much before. Acoustic guitar, really earnest and honest songs about love, failed romance, regretful decisions.”

“Sounds like Frank Turner,” I offered.

“I’ve heard of him!” Pixie said, “a girl I liked used to listen to him, so I started to listen, to see if we had any connections. I tried to talk to her about his music, but she wasn’t interested.”

Naomi hugged Pixie and kissed her forehead, “oh sweetie, who’s this girl and we’ll go and throw food at her.”

“Hahaha, she was in year 13 last year, she’s so out of my league, I imagine she’s gone now, probably at university somewhere.”

“Do you like Frank Turner’s music though? Because I’m always looking for new people to stan on Instagram.”

“He’s great, I want to listen to this Nick Palmer guy later, see if he’s similar.”

Pixie changed one of the £10 notes I’d given her and they spent the next hour playing the games on the stalls, Pixie won a big teddy on the shooting gallery, Naomi won a bag of cheap costume jewellery on the hook-a-duck which she gifted to a little girl who had tried and failed 3 times while Naomi cheered her on.

“That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever seen,” Pixie said as she thrust the teddy into my hands so she could hug her girlfriend.

We wandered over to the bottle tombola, a long table stacked with wine, spirits, beer, shampoo and shower gel, homemade jams and pickles.

“I’ve got 50p left, I guess I’ll buy a ticket,” Pixie said, handing the coin over and pulling a ticket from the proffered bucket.

“A ticket ending 0 or 5 wins a prize,” the stallholder announced.

“I can’t do it, I’m too nervous, you open it and tell me I’ve wasted 50p” Pixie said as she thrust the ticket at Naomi.

Naomi opened the ticket and cheered, “yayyy, 705, you’re a winner girl!”

“Really, oh wow! I’ve never won anything before.”

“Liar, you won that huge teddy!”

“Well, yeah, but nothing before today.”

“You won my heart on Monday.”

“OK, well nothing before this week. Tom! Help us find my prize, nothing on this table is in order.”

I joined in the search as Pixie said, “ahhh, it’s shampoo...”

“No, that’s 785, we’re looking for 705, oh I think it’s that bottle of wine.”

“Oh wow, yes it is,” She waved the ticket at the stallholder whilst pointing at the bottles at the back of the stall.

The stallholder smiled as she handed Pixie a bottle, “Congratulations honey, I think your dad will like this.”

“He’s not my dad...” Pixie started, then she stopped, “yes, he kind of is my dad now I think, who knows, definitely not me, thank you so much.”

Pixie took the bottle and handed it to me, retrieving the teddy.

I looked at the bottle, a rather good looking 2015 Barolo, one of my favourite wines, “Thank you Pixie, we’ll all enjoy this later I think.”

It was about time for Kelly to return with the other judges, so we walked back to the pub garden.

George was walking through with a cardboard box holding the cups and rosettes to be awarded to the winners, along with a cheque for £500 to be given to a charity nominated by the winner, “Afternoon Tom, afternoon girls, having a good time.”

“I’m having the best time ever,” Pixie said with a smile, “look at the teddy I won, isn’t his great?”

“He is Jean, arghhh, sorry, Pixie, I really must try to forget your old name.”

“It’s ok George, I guess you’re the only person around who still remembers me from the old days, you can call me Jean if you like.”

“Thank you, but Pixie suits you better. Next time you see Jenna, say hello from me, I know she won’t remember, but all the same, I always thought deep down she was a good kid, you know. You have all her best features, she was a real stunner, and so are you.”

“Thanks George, I’m going to take Naomi to see her next week, so we’ll say hello from you,” she kissed him on his cheek and George blushed and dashed off with his head down.

“Err, I meant to mention, I was planning on getting the bus to see mum on Wednesday, I usually go the second Wednesday of the month, they let me have the afternoon off school as it’s only Sports.”

“Can we all go, or is there a limit to visitors.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I usually go on my own, Nan used to go with me, but now it’s just me. I’ll ask how many visitors can come when I phone them on Monday to tell them I’m coming. It’s a secure hospital, so you need to book, it’s a nice place, she has her own room and everything, but it’s depressing at the same time, you know.”

“I can’t imagine what it must be like, but I want to go with you, to support you, and your mum should know you’ve got a girlfriend.”

“Yes, she should, I always like to go with good news, even if I have to make up good news sometimes.”

“Where is she?”

“At a secure hospital in North Manchester, it’s two buses, takes about an hour each way. It’s better than where she was originally. They put her in Ashworth Hospital at first, we only went once when she was there, and I don’t remember a lot about it, but they had the Moors Murder Ian Brady there, I remember being terrified for mum when I found out about that.”

“Oh sweetheart, you have had such a tough time, I’m so glad we’re all here to help you now.”

“Thank you Naomi.”

“And it doesn’t matter if it’s two buses or ten, I will come with you to see your mum.”

“It will involve no buses, I’ll take you Pixie, Jenna needs to meet Kelly and I as well.”

“Are you sure, a secure hospital is not really the best place for a family outing.”

“We need to do some school shopping, we can go to the Trafford Centre on the way back.”

“Yayyy, shopping.” Naomi said with a cheer.

We found a table in the beer garden.

“What’s your favourite boy’s name?” Pixie asked Naomi.

“Oooh, I don’t know, Alfie, Alfie is a good name, and Oscar, and Tyler, I like Tyler. Why?”

“Because my teddy is now called Alfie, that’s why.”

“Ahhh, sneaky, making me pick a name because you can’t decide yourself.”

“I’m rubbish at making decisions.”

“I’m going to make you choose something.”

“Please, don’t, I can’t decide things, it makes my head hurt.”

“You have to learn, because you can’t live your life waiting for me to choose everything, so I’m going to make you choose my food from the buffet.”

“Aww, that’s not fair.”

“Go on, what’s the worst that could happen, I’ll just not like it and have to send you back for more. Put Alfie down to save your space on the bench and go fetch me food.”

Five minutes later Pixie returned with 3 plates, she placed one in front of me, “I remembered how you said on Tuesday you liked the roast beef and onion sandwiches, so I got you one, and a cheese and pickle, and a pork pie, some chicken drumsticks and coleslaw.”

“Thank you, that’s perfect.”

Then she nervously put a plate in front of Naomi, “I hope this is ok, I know you’re eating chicken and fish, but not red meat, so I’ve got you chicken dippers, fish goujons, some dips and tortilla chips.”

“Why are you looking all nervous, that’s an amazing selection.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure what you wanted.”

“You could have brought me anything and I’d have eaten it, because you chose it for me, and that’s the most important thing.”

Naomi hugged Pixie and kissed her cheek, then she looked over at her plate, “What did you get?”

“Mmm, it’s mostly food for carnivores, so I got a selection of cheeses, some bread and pickle. The lady felt sorry for me so she’s sent someone to bring me some quiche as well.”

“Look at you getting special favours.”

“You can have some of the quiche as well if you like.”

“No sweetie, it’s your quiche, I’ve got plenty of food here. And thank you, you chose well.”

“I was so nervous I’d pick the wrong things.”

“And you proved yourself wrong, because you chose everything just right.”

We watched the children playing around us while we ate, the girl Naomi had gifted the costume jewellery ran up to us to show Naomi her rings and necklace.

“I love them, thank you so much,” she said, Naomi hugged her and gave her a kiss on the forehead before she ran off back to her mum.

“What a sweet little girl, she looked so cute in the jewellery,” Pixie said.

“It was at this event when we first met,” I said, “we were over in the field.”

“Oh wow, I remember it being dark, was it night time?”

“Yes, the event used to be in mid-September and the judging in the early evening, then the fairground and music started afterwards. It wasn’t full dark, probably about 8 o’clock.”

“Have we told you about my first meeting with Tom?”

“No, tell me more.”

Naomi told Pixie about how she’d walked up to me when she was 5 years old, and I held her hand to keep her safe in the queue and bought her a burger.

“Oh my, that’s so sweet, and 10 years later, you eventually got your mum and Tom together.”

“Haha, yes, at long last my work here is done.”

“Before Tom,” Pixie said, suddenly serious,”when the lady gave me the wine, she said ‘your dad will like it’ and I immediately said you’re not my dad, I hope I didn’t upset you by saying that.”

“Oh Pixie, of course not, because I’m not your dad, and I’m not Naomi’s dad.”

“But it sounded like I was disowning you, like I didn’t want to be associated with you, and that was rude of me, I’m sorry about that.”

“You didn’t mean it to sound that way though, did you.”

“Oh no, of course not, but I realise it didn’t sound nice. I’ve called Kelly mum a few times, but I always call you Tom. Maybe it’s because I fancy you a bit, I can’t think of you as a dad.”

Naomi spat a bit of her sandwich out as Pixie said that, “sorry, that was rude of me reacting like that, but did you just say you fancy Tom a bit?”

“I did, I hope you’re not upset.”

“Me, upset about that? God girl, I’ve fancied Tom for years, you’re definitely allowed to fancy him.”

“I’m right here you know,” I laughed

“We know, but now I’ve got to get to the bottom of Pixie’s sexuality. I’m pretty sure I’m mostly gay, because I really am not interested in any of the boys at school, but I’m very much interested in Pixie. I did however enjoy our time together Tom. So, Pixie, what about you.”

“Mmm, well, I’ve only ever been interested in girls, boys have always made me squirm thinking about them and their bits, and I don’t think it’s just down to early experiences you know. So it was a huge surprise that I enjoyed this morning so much, but I still enjoy cuddling you, Naomi, more than I’d ever enjoy cuddling a boy, so what does that make me?”

“It makes you as confused as I am, so I guess we stick together and whenever we’re home, and mum’s ok with it, we have a bit of fun with Tom.”

“Yayy us!”

“Errr, don’t I get a say in this?”

I felt Kelly slide onto the bench next to me, “whatever it is you’re talking about, I’m going to suggest that no, you don’t have a say. Oooh I’m starving, where’s the food?”

“Pixie will choose your food, it’s her job today, I’m training her to be more assertive,” Naomi answered, so Pixie jumped up and disappeared in the crowd by the food tables.

Kelly hugged me one handed whilst picking a leftover chicken dipper off Naomi’s plate, “Mmm, I really am starving. So, what don’t you get a say in?”

“Whether I’m the girls’ sex doll.”

“Fair enough, I’m with them there, mmm, that’s a nice bit of chicken, if you don’t want to have sex with my daughters just say so...” she said, licking sauce from her fingers.

“I wasn’t saying that...”

“You were just pretending to complain so you don’t look too keen, I know how your mind works mister.”

“I’m not going to win am I?”

“Nope, now make yourself useful and get us some drinks.”

“Mum, you’re on fire today,” Naomi laughed as I headed for the bar.

As the standard drinks are free today, I wasn’t about to gift everyone a round of expensive wines or spirits, so they were off limits, the bar was crammed and it took a while to get my order of 3 white wine spritzers and a pint of IPA. When I returned Pixie had just arrived with more food.

“Look, I got my quiche at last,” she said as she put her tray down.

Placing a plate in front of Kelly, she pointed out her choices, “I wasn’t sure what you’d like because I’ve not spent so much time with you. But you’re all sophisticated so I thought about posh things like prawn cocktail, but there isn’t any prawn cocktail on the buffet, but they do have king prawns, so I got you some, and calamari, or they might be onion rings, some deep fried mushrooms, and some dips, oh, and some potato salad.”

“That’s amazing Pixie, I love prawns, thank you, come here and kiss me before I eat stinky food.”

A quick kiss later, and Pixie put more food on our plates, “I got you both some mini pork pies, and Scotch Eggs, I’m a little worried pork may be too much for you Naomi, so I hope I don’t kill you or anything.”

“Mmm, so do I. It’ll be fine I’m sure. I used to love pork pies. What did you get for yourself, apart from quiche?”

“Look at these, aren’t they cute, picnic eggs, egg mayonnaise in breadcrumbs, the lady swears they’re not like scotch eggs, there’s no sausage in them. I’m going to be brave and bite one instead of checking first ... mmm, so nice, and no nasty sausage.”

We chatted and ate for a while until Clive arrived, “I’m so very sorry to interrupt your family meal, oh, who do we have here?” he added after seeing Pixie.

“Ahh, this is my girlfriend Pixie,” Naomi answered.

Clive took Pixie’s hand, “I’m absolutely delighted to meet you dear, my name is Clive, are you just visiting?”

“Oh no,” Pixie answered, “I live in the flats, well, I used to, I kind of live with Naomi now.”

“Do you, and what a lucky girl Naomi is. Which flat were you in, we’re judging a couple of window boxes from that block.”

“4C, but it won’t be my nan’s, she doesn’t do plants.”

“Shame, plants do so much to brighten the environment. I am terribly glad to have made your acquaintance Pixie, now I’m afraid I have to take Kelly away for the judging panel.”

As Clive led Kelly away to the judges’ tent Pixie turned to Naomi, struggling not to laugh she managed, “oh my, how camp is he?”

“Clive is amazing, I love him a lot. His wife is a cow...”

“Wife? He has a wife?”

“A long story, but his wife, Josie, is the village cougar, and I hate her, she lives over the road, I’ll point her out if I see her. She’ll be here trawling for unsuspecting victims.”

We heard music and Naomi’s ears pricked up, “oh wow, that’s Nick Palmer I bet, he was first on the running order.”

Naomi stood and grabbed Pixie’s hand, “Come on, I know we’re gay and all, but he’s really good looking, so we can pretend to be fangirls.”

“We’re still allowed to fancy some boys then...” Pixie asked as they ran towards the stage.

“Of course, you can look, but you can’t touch, because you don’t know where they’ve been.”

I shook my head, Kelly was right, not only had Naomi changed Pixie, Pixie had clearly changed Naomi. She’d always been a bright and happy girl, but this week she was so much happier than I’d ever seen her before.

I finished my pint, then I piled the paper plates and the few bits of leftover food put them in the bin and I took the glasses back to the bar, collected another pint and two bottles of water for the girls and headed over to the stage.

It wasn’t exactly Glastonbury, but we don’t get a lot of entertainment here, so half the village was in front of the stage, even so it wasn’t hard to find the girls, I saw a group of boys and amazingly they were all crowding around Naomi and Pixie.

“Hey dad!” Pixie called over the music, “great, you brought us water.”

As I walked towards them the boys started to back away, I passed the girls a bottle each and Pixie stood on her tiptoes to speak in my ear, “now do you understand why I don’t wear clothes like these normally.”

“Yes, and I apologise on behalf of my gender.”

“I loved how quickly they disappeared when I called you dad, maybe you are dad material after all.”

“I’m whatever you want me to be Pixie, just so long as you feel comfortable.”

“Ignore everything I said earlier, my emotions are all fucked up right now, well not everything, I really do fancy you quite a lot, no, the bit about me not being sure about calling you dad. I’d like you to be my dad, you and Kelly are going to be awesome parents.”

The music was pretty good, just the singer, an acoustic guitar and a looper pedal for the beats. The songs were as Naomi described, love, loss, huge mistakes, reconciliation, not hugely different from Frank Turner in fact. He had stories to tell between songs as he tuned up, and he even recognised Naomi from Monday and said hello, she blushed so much and Pixie teased her.

There was one more singer, this one a girl singing over a backing track, she wasn’t as good and a few people drifted away. Naomi made us stay, because the judges were up next announcing the prizes, then we could go back to the tables for more drinks.

Practically the whole village was in the field when Kelly took to the stage with Clive, George and Mary, one of my other neighbours, like I said, there’s not a whole lot to do in the village, so this event is pretty popular.

I won’t bother you with the whole list, but one of Pixie’s old neighbours won the small garden category with her window box, and a new feature this year, someone had hooked up a projector so we got pictures of the gardens on a screen at the back of the stage, the window box was pretty special.

The winner saw Pixie as she was on the stage collecting her prize, so she came down and chatted with her for a while.

“You look so nice Pixie.”

“Thank you Becky, your window box is lovely, I’m glad you won.”

“Is it true you’ve moved out, nobody has seen you around for a couple of days.”

“Mmm, yes, it’s kind of complicated. I’ve moved in with Naomi and her parents, they’re being so kind.”

“I can tell, you look really happy, and so, err, well developed. I’d never have guessed under those baggy t-shirts you normally wear.”

“Hahaha, thank you. So yeah, this is Naomi, my girlfriend. And this is Tom, Naomi’s mum’s boyfriend.”

We shook hands, then Becky said, “ahh, Naomi, that’s your mum on stage isn’t it.”

“Yes, that’s Kelly, my mum.”

“I can tell, you have her looks.”

Just then Helen arrived, “I’m so, so sorry, I meant to be here before everything started, but I completely overslept...”

“That’s ok Helen,” Naomi said with a grin, “I hear you’ve had a few late nights this week.”

“Err, well...”

“Hey Helen, meet my friend Becky, she’s just won a prize for her window box, she lives alone in the flats.”

“Oh, hi Becky, pleased to meet you.”

“Hi Helen, I think I’ve seen you somewhere before, I know, do you work in the library?”

“Yes I do, I think I’ve seen you a few times,” Helen replied.

“Do you want to get a drink?” Becky asked.

“Yes, I would, that would be really nice.”

“What did I just witness?” I asked as Helen and Becky left for the bar.

“Dad, don’t you watch body language at all,” Naomi said, an exasperated note in her voice, “no, you obviously don’t or you’d have realised how I felt about you a lot earlier.”

“I dropped a big clue Tom,” Pixie added.

“Did you see Becky looking at Pixie’s chest?”

“Ahh, Becky’s gay.”

“Yessss, the penny drops.” Pixie said sarcastically.

“She’s quite pretty, has she ever hit on you?” Naomi asked.

“Well, I’ve always known she’s gay, and I think she knows I am, but no, she’s never come on to me. She’s always been super nice with me though, she sometimes bought me coffee when I’ve been hanging around the park. I really like her, and I suspect she likes Helen, look how close they are whilst they’re chatting.”

“Awww, young love...” Naomi added, laughing.

After the prizes were given out and the grand prize winner chose a charity for their prize donation Kelly hopped off the stage and joined us as we walked back to the bar.

“Did I just see Helen picking up a stranger?”

“Not a complete stranger, they’ve met fleetingly in the library. She’s Pixie’s old neighbour and a very nice lady.”

“Yes, she’s lovely, and Helen seems to like her.”

“That’s nice,” Kelly said, “I hate to interrupt them, but there’s no other tables free.”

Naomi and Pixie slid in next to Helen, “we’re so sorry, there’s no free tables,” Pixie said.

Helen hugged Pixie and gave her a quick kiss, “that’s ok Pixie, there’s not a person on the planet who would begrudge you space on their table.”

Kelly slid in next to Becky, “Sorry, I wasn’t going to disturb you, but my children have no such inhibitions.”

“Children? I’m officially confused now,” Becky laughed.

“Mmm, where to begin, ahh I think we need drinks, Tom, do your job please.”

So I took drinks orders and did my job, relieved it wasn’t me explaining stuff to strangers.

“Thank you” Becky said as I put a bottle of white wine and 5 glasses on the table before sliding in next to Kelly with my pint, “so, you’re a new dad of two 15 year old girls, I imagine that’s quite a culture shock.”

“It kind of is, but in a good way. I’ve known Naomi for years though, she’s been a regular visitor when she’s home from school.”

“He has a pool!” Naomi cried, “how cool is that?”

“Wow, that is cool.”

“And she likes to play my records.”

“Oh wow, it’s not often girl’s like their dad’s music, I am impressed.”

“Err, it’s more that I like Naomi’s music, she sends me recommendations all the time.”

“Hahaha, I love that.”

“Listen, I’ve only had one drink so far, a couple of hours ago, so I’m fine to drive, how about I take us all out for dinner,” Kelly offered.

“Ahh, there’s no way 6 of us will fit in Tom’s car,” Pixie said, “I’ll tell you what though, I have no problem cooking for everyone if Naomi helps me with the prep.”

“No really, I can’t put you to that kind of trouble,” Becky said.

“It’s no trouble, I like cooking.”

“And she’s a great cook,” Helen added.

“But rubbish at making decisions, so please, someone tell me what to cook,” Pixie laughed.

“That jackfruit curry you made the other day was lovely, did you say you could adapt it to make a Jamaican Curry Goat?” Kelly asked.

“Oh yes, I could, but goat takes like 3 hours to cook, what time is it?”

Naomi looked at her phone, it’s only 2:30.”

“Ooh, the butcher here didn’t have any goat when I checked, which to be honest, isn’t surprising. We could use mutton, but it would be best to use goat. Oh, I know, could you drive me to Didsbury, there’s a great butcher there, and a Caribbean grocers over the road, I could make myself a little jackfruit curry at the same time.”