Chapter 50

Malcolm nipped back to his house on Saturday morning, and returned with a couple of letters for himself, and one in a typewritten and franked white envelope for me. Vee was out shopping for the weekend meals, and the rest of us were in the kitchen.

The letter was postmarked from my home-town. I quickly opened it; as I expected, it was the anticipated note from Mr Johnston at the vegetable factory.

"Dear Jon and Jen,

I'm writing to both of you care of your parents; my apologies to the one who gets the second carbon-copy, but it should still be just about legible.

I confirm that I have reserved a ten-berth static caravan for you and your friends to live in this summer while you are working here. It has arrived and been set up.

I happened to bump into your parents in town, and I invited them to come and have a look around, so that we could think about how you could make it work for you all. I hadn't realised that you would both be at home at Whitsun, or I would have contacted you then.

I'm very happy for you to all eat breakfast and lunch at the factory canteen; we'll have to charge you the usual subsidised rates for those meals, but I think you'll be content with that. The canteen closes after the afternoon tea-break, so you will need to cook your evening meal yourselves; as we discussed, I'm more than willing to sell you supplies at wholesale cost. I'm sure that we can cover milk, tea and sugar from the canteen - we do it already for the night watchman and any late workers.

The living accommodation in the caravan could probably best be described as 'cosy'. There are two double and two twin bedrooms, and the couch in the living room makes up into a good-sized double bed once the dining table has been folded down. I hope that you are all indeed good friends, as you will be living in very close proximity!

There is a small kitchen, a shower room with sink and toilet, and another toilet with handbasin. I can cover the bottled gas for the cooker, and I have had the caravans plumbed into the factory water and sewerage systems.

The main problem for you will, we think, be your laundry. Your mother has very kindly agreed to do all your washing, and I am happy to drop it in to her and collect it, as I pass your house on the way to work. The factory overalls are laundered anyway, so you'll only need underwear and casual clothes for when you're not working.

Would you please let me have the names and National Insurance numbers of your eight friends in due course, so that I can get the pay sheets set up?

I don't need a final answer until mid-June, but an idea of numbers at your earliest convenience would be appreciated.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

I look forward to seeing you all on Monday 1st July.

Yours very sincerely,

Ian Johnston"

Well, that meant we had to start getting properly organised.

Jen and I were certainties, but the others still had to check with their parents that they weren't expected elsewhere over the summer holidays.

I still had no idea what to do about Vee, so I decided to put the letter on to one side to give myself a bit more time before replying. Julie offered to phone Sheila sometime during the week and get their details.

Sian and Malcolm were also pretty sure that they were okay to come for the whole summer, and said that they would check with their parents over the weekend.

"Mum and Dad went off without me last summer, so as long as someone looks after the dogs for them, there shouldn't be any problem. And Malcolm spent the whole of last summer working for his uncle."

Malcolm's letter, on the other hand, contained a real surprise.

It was an invitation for himself and Sian to attend the wedding of his cousin Daisy, in one week's time, on Saturday 8th June!

He immediately nipped back out to the phone box, to get hold of his parents, and find out what on earth was happening.

Julie too telephoned her parents, expecting some resistance after their refusal to let her get a full time job the previous summer. To her surprise, they actually seemed highly relieved that she wouldn't be living at home over the holidays!

Their first reaction was that they would be able to book a smaller chalet for their summer holiday with their son and grandchildren; they had decided this year to try Butlins, at either Minehead in Somerset, or the brand new holiday village at St. Austell in Cornwall.

She wasn't sure whether to be upset that they thought so little of her that they didn't mind her not coming home, or delighted that they hadn't roped her in for (unpaid and unthanked) 'entertaining' her niece and nephew for the school holidays.

I just gritted my teeth and said nothing. I really didn't take to the way Julie's parents treated their daughter as opposed to their son (and presumably heir), but I didn't want to upset her any more by interfering. I took her for a quiet walk in Cathays Park instead.

"Are you sure you don't mind sleeping with Adrian all summer?"

She gave me a mischievous grin.

"I could ask that of you about Sheila!"

I almost blushed.

"Yeah, well, I'd much rather be with you, darling, but then they'd be stuck."

She laughed, her amusement palpable.

"Jon, dearest, you are SO easy to wind up. I know that you're fond of Sheila, and I really like Adrian. It's not a problem, as long as we get some time together as well."

"Oh, that's easy enough. You know that field that Jen took us to?"

"Yes, where you first made love to her?"

"Well, I hope we can sneak off together and catch up there when the weather's good enough."

"Sounds good to me! Anyway, seriously, I can keep up the pretence if you can."

We grinned at each other. She knew that I liked making love to Sheila just as much as she enjoyed Adrian's attentions - and of course Hamish had taken her to the same heights as I had pushed my sister Jen. Sharing was much more fun than plain monogamy, even if we were engaged to be engaged to each other!

That was settled then; it was just a matter of Vee or not Vee, which sounded too good a pun to keep to myself. I repeated it out loud.

"To Vee or not to Vee, that is the question, whether 'tis better to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..."

She punched me gently on the shoulder.

"You brute! How could you mangle Shakespeare so badly?"

"Oh anytime! With my memory, I can foul up most of his soliloquies. Have you heard my 'Julie, Julie, wherefore art thou Julie'?"

"Don't you dare! That's almost blasphemy!"

"But I love you more than Romeo ever loved Juliet!"

Her eyes softened. I felt that I couldn't tell her enough how much I loved her, nor could I hear it too many times from her.

"Seriously, my one and only love, are we going to invite Vee or not?"

"That's still a tricky one. I'll talk to Sian. If Malcolm was okay about it, then it might work, but I'm not sure that he'd understand, and it might expose the twins."

"Okay, please do that."

Malcolm told us the tale about his cousin's rather sudden marriage over supper.