John and Jo
Chapter 10

Copyright© 2014 by The Heartbreak Kid

Her sister Julie was a great mum! When Jo watched her it all seemed so natural to her. The two-hour feeds must have been tiring for Julie, but she always seemed cheerful. It helped, Jo supposed, that some of her normal domestic duties had been taken over, but Jo was sure that even if she and John weren't there to help, Julie would still have coped. This was quite unlike her memories of her sister as a child.

Maybe because Jo was that year older, she adopted the role of 'Big Sister' quite readily. To the outside observer, Jo was the tough one, who stood up to the bullies who mocked and teased them because of the way that they had to dress. Julie was the sensitive one who hated to see anyone cry. Any other child she saw in this condition would get an arm around their shoulder and a comforting word. Jo also had that streak of defiance towards authority that sometimes got her into trouble with her teachers: it wasn't wilful disobedience, Jo only wanted rational reasons why she was asked to do something. The phrase that perhaps she hated most in all the world was: 'because I said so', when no other explanation was forthcoming. Even at an early age, she could see the absurdity of attending school when you couldn't ask questions, and you were expected to accept everything that you were told without question.

Julie was probably as innately intelligent as her older sister, but she did tend to accept everything she was told without question, then: and as a consequence, never quite developed the same inquisitive nature and critical faculty. You could say that Julie learnt by rote; whereas Jo learnt by reason. It could also be said to be the reason why Julie accepted what she had, but Jo never really did.

But they had grown up learning how to share. As they got older they shared clothes, they shared make-up, they sometimes even shared boyfriends! And now Julie was even prepared to share one of the most precious things in her life: her baby. Along with Pete, the sisters shared the baby's cuddles, the baby's baths, and even the baby's dirty nappies: and Jo learned more about looking after babies in those few days, than she learned from years of having younger brothers and sisters. Had things been different than they were, she would quite happily have given up college and moved in with her little sister, to help her with her nephew. But she now had a happy life of her own ... and once again she had to say goodbye.

She thought that she had known unhappiness in her life, but those first minutes as she and John drove away from Stockport were real misery for her. John knew that he could do nothing for her while she felt this way: he had to let her work through it herself. After ten or so miles, however, she had shuffled across in her seat and put her hand on his leg, and then John knew that she was over the worst.

"Can we stop at the next service station," she had said, and when they had got out of the car she had put her arms around him and kissed him. "Thank you!" she said ... nothing else, just "Thank you!"

When Jo returned to college after the birth of Julie's baby, she had only four weeks until her exams. She knew that she had three exams to look forward to: English 150 minutes; History 2 x 90 minutes. Jo tried to put this into perspective: she had always done very well in exams; she had been getting consistently high marks for her coursework; she knew her teachers were very good and would prepare her properly.

As much as she had loved being with Julie, Pete, and little Daniel, she must now put everything behind her and concentrate on her exams. There was no more to learn from the syllabus, every lesson now was just exam practice: timed questions, then analysis of answers. For English the exam represented a possible 60% of her overall grade; for History it was 50%. She took her practice questions to John to look at: she knew that he would be objective and totally honest; he also had more time than her teachers, who had every student to consider, and not just her.

It was like watching a surgeon skilfully dissecting a part of their patient. Line by line, paragraph by paragraph, he asked her why she had interpreted something a certain way, why she had chosen to support her arguments with this textual evidence instead of another, why she had chosen to use a particular word or phrase. It was never a case of this is right or this is wrong: if your argument is considered and well-supported then it can't be right or wrong; only different. He fully endorsed one of her teachers' assertions: that once you have conditioned your mind to think in a certain way in exams, time is no longer an overriding consideration.

And when at last the days for her exams came around, she was nervous of course, but as she and her classmates stood around waiting to enter the examination halls, she offered what encouragement and support that she could, then she wished then luck and it was in their own hands!

In Jo's mind the exams couldn't have gone better: she read all the questions several times and was clear on what she wanted to say. She was relaxed and worked strictly to time: spending only the allocated amount of time per question, then moving on to the next. There was always a little time at the end to go back over everything, and she felt the sense of satisfaction that she had done everything that she could, and to the best of her abilities. Her History classmates just said their goodbyes at the end and hoped to see her again next term; but she went with her English class friends to the pub, where they all got a little giggly.

"How did it go?" Jon asked her, when they were in the car after he picked her up.

"Pretty good, I think," she replied. As she walked into the hallway at home she kicked off her shoes, as her feet were aching. Jon went into his office and Jo walked behind his chair and put her arms around his neck.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" he said.

"No," she replied, "You know what I want..."

"I don't even want to think about college for weeks and weeks!" Jo said to him later.

"Do you still want to go to Wales this summer?"

"Of course! Do you have to book the cottage, isn't a bit late in the season, now?"

"No, I don't have to book it ... I own it; I can go whenever I want."

"You never told me you owned it!" Jo exclaimed, "Isn't that a waste, just going for two weeks every year?"

"It was only two weeks last year. I usually go more often than that, but if you remember rightly, we were otherwise engaged at Easter, and we couldn't go during term time."

"So we could go for the whole summer, if we wanted to!"

"Well, we could," John said to her, "But would you honestly want to!"

"I don't know ... but it sounds like you wouldn't!"

"All right ... you give me as many reasons as you can for wanting to go all summer, and I'll give you my reasons for not, and after hearing them all, you can decide! How's that?"

"Fair enough! Who starts?"

"You can..."

"Right, number one ... it's lovely and peaceful!"

"True ... but I don't think I can work without the internet for that long."

" ... You really don't need to work every day," Jo said.

" ... You won't see your family all summer."

" ... Oh, Bum! You win!"

" ... However..." John continued, "I feel it only fair to point out that the cottage is only a hundred miles from Salford, which is reachable in under two hours, so you could stay at the cottage and still see your family!"

"Thank you for trying, Love, but that still doesn't get over the problem that you need the Internet to make your writing research easier!"

"Why don't we look for a compromise," John said, "Even though the cottage is in the mountains, we know that mobile phones work: so I can open a mobile Internet account that I can use with a laptop computer. It may not be as fast as the landline one here, but I could still work and you could stay in touch with Julie, instead of just using your phone!"

"Have you got a laptop?"

"No, but we could soon get one!"

"All right," Jo said, "When shall we go, then?"

"Well, if you don't mind, there's a few things that I need to do here first, so maybe not for a couple of weeks."

"Fair enough! But now college is over, I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself..."

"I've been thinking about that," John said, "Have you ever thought about writing down your experiences of living on the streets? I know a little from what you've told me, but I'd be really interested in knowing more ... and I'm sure that your family would, too!"

"Do you think I could, Love?"

"Yes, I do! You're smart and good with words. Why don't you just try and get something down in black and white. And if you get stuck or bored, I'm sure that you have things to read for next year!"

"All right!" she said, "Why not ... I'll have a go!"

John could have gone to Cambridge to buy a laptop, but he was in no hurry. He already thought he knew what he wanted, so he went online and ordered one. Another reason why he didn't want to go to Wales sooner, was that he was trying to organise another surprise for Jo.

Jo found that her mini-memoir was harder to write than she thought. When she did her college assignments there was a definite structure that she could work to, but that method didn't really apply here. John suggested a simple chronological approach, starting with before she left home and her reasons for wanting to go. She could construct a simple timeline of significant events: going backwards and forwards filling in details as she remembered them. This helped a lot, and Jo found that her thoughts were more coherent, and less chaotic!

Working this way, one week, then two weeks passed quickly. Jo woke up on the 13th July: John was not there, but sometimes he let her sleep in and she would find him downstairs reading the paper. She got out of bed, went to the bathroom, then went downstairs ... he wasn't there. He must be out getting a newspaper, she thought. After a few minutes, she recognised the sound of his car pulling up outside the house. John came into the kitchen and took off his coat. He was carrying a large, brown paper bag, which he put down on the table.

"Morning, Love!" he said, then kissed her.

"What have you bought?"

John smiled. He reached into the bag and took out a hot drink in a disposable cup with a plastic lid, then something wrapped in metal foil. He handed both to Jo. It didn't take her long to catch on.

 
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