Jack and Diane Ch. 19-21

Next morning I awoke, a little disorientated, unable to move my arms. It took me a moment to figure out what had happened the previous night. The girls started to stir and I thought, "chicks for free."

I had breakfast with the girls, and Karyn offered to run me home. As we drove she offered to drop Abbi off, but she said she would go with us "to keep Karyn company on the trip back."

When we pulled up Peter's car was at the front of the house. Diane was coming out the front door with Harry. As I got out, Abbi got out of the back and slid into the seat I had just vacated. Diane's face was an absolute picture.

"Hiya, Harry, going fishing?"

"Yeah, Peter is taking me while Mum takes Georgie shopping. We just called in to pick up my new rod. Did you have a good night Dad?" with a grin I'm glad his mother couldn't see. There is little hidden from a fifteen year old boy.

"Not bad. Your aunt Milla and uncle David and Simon were there."

"Oh. Were they?"

I turned to wave to the girls as they drove off. Karyn leant out the drivers window to blow a kiss. I didn't know whether to cringe or crow. Diane gave me the foulest look as she said sweetly, "Come on Harry, we need to get going."

I had a fucking excellent rest of the day.

Jack and Diane Chapter 21.

The rest of that weekend I was on a high. On Monday I phoned Zoe, Sandra, and Jenny, arranging to meet them all on Wednesday evening at the gym. We thrashed through various matters. Zoe needed to give a months notice before she could start, but Jenny and Sandra were available more or less immediately to work part-time while their children were at school. They agreed to get the advertising and membership up and running before Christmas. Sandra had a contact at the local radio station and organised an interview and radio ad campaign. Since I didn't have the time to do the interview, and since it was a women only gym, Sandra and Jenny agreed to do the interview. That kept me out of the limelight and wouldn't alert Peter or Diane to what I was doing.

"We don't have enough management and reception staff to cover our opening hours, working seven days a week, at the moment." Jenny offered. "Bryony is very interested but she only wants to work part-time."

"If we took her on, would the four of you be able to cover the tasks," I asked.

"Well Zoe and I can cover most of the daytime hours, Jenny prefers to fit her hours round Jimmy's shifts. Bryony would probably prefer that too. It would ease the child care." Sandra put in.

"Now that's an idea" I suggested, "how about a creche?"

"Let's walk before we run. No point in increasing costs before we know it is giving us a return." That from Jenny.

Zoe was concentrating on the total staffing. "Look, I know there is a lot to cover, but actual management is not going to demand a lot of time so we can double up as reception staff. There are enough trainers to give us one person throughout the day. If membership increases we can recruit more but I think we have enough. I'll draw up a rota, while Jenny and Sandra get the publicity under way. We need maintenance and cleaning but I think we can use contractors for that. As Jenny says, we go with what we've got, until we see we need more. Oh, and we need an emergency evacuation plan."

From Sandra "When does the equipment arrive?"

"Next week. The franchisers have that all organised and once it is in they will give everyone the necessary coaching."

"Well I think we need to be there for that too. Best to know in case someone is misusing it"

I became fairly redundant in the conversation. The trio had a fairly good handle on what needed done.

"OK from Monday we kick of the recruiting, and we open on the first of January, with taster sessions for the first week."

"Yes, but on production of the flyer. Otherwise we have no control of it. Have you thought of a website, Jack?" asked Jenny.

"No, I hadn't to be honest."

"I can set up a basic presence fairly quickly. We can develop it later."

I gave the girls keys for the building, and we wound up the meeting. From the buzz they were generating, I was very confident that they would make the project a success.

As we were leaving, Zoe stopped me. "Thank you for not holding the child protection case against me, Jack. I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity."

"Zoe, you were caught in the middle of something not of your making. You did your job and used your common sense. There's nothing more to be said. But I have to ask, why are you leaving social services?"

"I've been doing that for fifteen years. Quite honestly, I'm burned out. It isn't the job I went in to do. It is bound down with politically correct bureaucracy, arse covering and box ticking. In other hands, your case could so easily have become a witch-hunt."

"So I'm lucky it fell in your lap?"

"Partly, but Sam Willis warned me there was more to it. Somehow I don't think he'll go too far in the police. He thinks for himself."

"I know what you mean. He doesn't toe the party line."

"Exactly."

***** The house purchase went through without any hiccups. Diane now had the money to buy the share in the boutique. Peter was pushed into the background, and his concerns about his gym were starting to fray his nerves. Naturally, Diane was caught up in her own little world and had no time for him. Additionally, having the children around him so often didn't help. Things came to a head just before Christmas, and he told Diane to get out. She had nowhere to go except the flat above the shop. It had been used for storing stock. Now she had to get it habitable. There was only one bedroom so she couldn't take the children at weekends. They didn't seem to mind.

The weather was still fairly mild, so I got hold of an old caravan and parked it in the garden of the house in Plymouth. The kids and I took a couple of weekends down there so I could get the inside cleared out. I didn't want the house to get any worse. Once we got the rubbish out I restored the electricity and hired a couple of dehumidifiers to dry it out a bit before the bad weather set in. Harry and Georgie really enjoyed the adventure of staying in the van, but we needed extra thick quilts at night. ***** December ran through into January. Bryony had come on board and between the four of them, the gym opened on January the first with a queue outside the door. Membership applications were steady. We also had a pay per use system in operation. I didn't appear at the opening, leaving it to Bryony, Jenny, Sandra and Zoe. As expected the first month was hectic. What surprised me was that the usage figures remained high. We actually broke even in the first quarter.

I was still going to Peter's gym and noted the change in clientele. There were fewer women about. Also the gym itself was starting to look a little "tired". It was definitely in need of refurbishment.

"You could do with a bit of a makeover Peter."

"Yeah. We've lost a bit of business to that new women only place, and my partners aren't to keen on spending the money to bring us up to the same standard. To be honest they aren't actually interested in the gym as such. They are more interested in it as a business. They won't try to develop it, they just want the income stream. If I could buy them out I would."

"Surely if the business is sound, you could get a bank loan."

"It is sound enough, but they are stripping the profits out for other projects."

"Even so, they should show it is viable."

"Yes, but I would have to buy them out, have the money to refurbish the place and buy new equipment. That is one of the reasons that new place has attracted so many of the female customers away. And since it is a franchise they'll replace it as soon as it looks tired. The franchisers buy equipment in bulk and get it at a fraction of what we would have to pay."

It wasn't just the gym that looked "tired". The pressure was taking its toll on Peter as well.

It wasn't just the exercise that left me with a spring in my step that day.

*****

My plans for my social life had taken a bit of a hit since the Harry and Georgie were at home a bit more. But I had been thinking about the night in the White Hart. I had checked out the Yellow Pages and DD Music Promotions was a bona fide company. So to fill the dark evenings, I had started practicing again on the piano and guitar. Harry and Georgie joined me. I had taught them a bit when they were younger.

I phoned Doug more out of curiosity than anything else, and he agreed to get me a couple of gigs at local folk clubs, just to see how things went. So I became the guy that sings to an empty room on a Tuesday night. First on the bill, filling, while the room does the same. There was no money in it, usually just enough for petrol, but I was developing a bit of stagecraft.

However! I would hang around the bar after a gig and there were always some ladies who wanted to talk to one of the acts; especially one who had all his own teeth. I wasn't actually to bad looking. Granted my self confidence had dipped when Diane left me, but I wasn't to bad looking for my age. Maybe not at my fighting weight but trim enough, and fairly well turned out. Being approached by the occasional woman though was helping.

I had done about four gigs when, "Jack, it's Doug. I'll make this quick. How do you think it's going?"

"I really wouldn't know. I'm really only a warm up act."

"Well, the places I've sent you are pretty discerning. If you are crap, they'll be down on me asking why I sent you. As it is all four have asked for you back and offered Fridays and Saturdays. That's big brownie points. Its time you decided whether you want to give it a serious crack. I know you have kids, a job and all that, but I can work round all that. If you are interested I think you should consider getting an agent. Think about it and let me know."

The past year had been one of the most emotionally demanding of my life. During it all, I had barely had any time to think about what I wanted my future to be. Everything I had done was reactive. Even setting up the gym and buying the house were reactions to what Diane had done, particularly to me, and to a lesser extent, the children. Suddenly I had been presented with an opportunity that was for me alone. I was in my mid forties, being given an opportunity that any twenty year old would grab with both hands.

I needed to think this through. I still had Harry and Georgie to consider, but I could see no reason why I couldn't fit gigging around the weekends that they were with their mother. First I needed to talk to them.

Sitting around the table at supper I opened, "You know I've done a couple of gigs at some folk clubs."

"Yeah Dad, maybe you should try some real music. You might get somewhere." Harry had a very broad musical taste.

"There is a market out there for it. In fact the guy that booked me has suggested I get an agent, because he thinks I can get better gigs."

"That's fantastic Daddy. You've got to go for it," Georgie enthused.

"Hold your horses, young lady, there's something more important I have to consider. You pair. I'm not about to do something that means I have less time to spend with you."

"Dad, first off it isn't as if you are going professional. You don't have to gig every weekend, you can pick and choose which ones you do, can't you?"

"I don't know son. I haven't checked it out. You are the first to know about it. I wanted to talk to you both first."

"Couldn't you do it on the weekends when we are with Mummy?" asked Georgie.

"There's a lot of things to think about. There's you, but there's also the horses. Your Granny and Granda can't do it all for us all the time."

"OK, Dad but it all depends on when the gigs are, and all that. I can stay with Granny for one night and Mum can pick me up from there. Anyway, there isn't much space in her new flat. And I'm sure Auntie Milla would help."

"We can't ask your aunt Milla to do that. She has her own life to live."

The conversation went on for a while. Basically the children wanted me to go for it.

"Anyway Dad, the other thing I was going to say is, maybe I can play with you someday."

"And me." said Georgie.

That clinched it. If they wanted to be round me playing music, it might just be the example that would give Harry an alternative to the services; which, at the moment seemed to be his aim. My next port of call was David. This was right up his street.

*****

So it was that I started a second career as a folk singer. Monday to Friday, I was an engineer. The girls ran the gym, I signed the cheques. At weekends I was trailing around folk clubs, meeting other musicians, and a lot of ladies. I was surprised just how many women were turned on by musicians. I could pick and choose how much horizontal exercise I got most weekends. It was rather like my time in the Navy.

Whilst music now took up many weekends, I also found time to start refurbishing the house. I would take Harry and Georgie with me most times. Milla joined us occasionally too, now her divorce had come through. I had replaced all the timber, and took the opportunity to rewire and re-plumb the whole house. I also redesigned the interior, installing en-suite shower rooms to the bedrooms. I employed a plasterer. I know my limitations. And eventually we painted inside and out.

The children were seeing less of Diane. She and Aisha, were determined to expand the boutique, and had started visiting trade shows; often overseas. Diane, in particular, made a point of attending functions to be seen with the right people. She also used those people as advertisements for the boutique. She became consumed by that above all else, getting caught up in the whole glamour lifestyle. She also seemed to get bitten by the size zero bug and started to lose too much weight; to the extent that she was becoming ill tempered with the children. Unfortunately that was the least of my concerns. Her weight fixation was starting to affect Georgie. I mentioned this in passing to Milla.

"I think you should have a word with Diane about that, Jack."

"I've tried, Milla. It's like talking to a brick wall. She seems completely unreasonable. It's like she doesn't want to hear a word I'm saying."

"You have to get through to her somehow. Georgie is at a very impressionable age."

"I know. She's the age you were when the other girls started bullying you."

"Yes and if it hadn't been for you being my "boyfriend" I don't think I would ever have made it through to Uni."

"Let's not go there, again, Milla. You are who you are. Anyway, I thought you had taken up with Zoe?"

"You heard about that?"

"I see Zoe all the time. She works for me, after all. Is it meant to be a secret or something?"

"No. Anyway, back to Georgie, if you can't get through to Diane, you might have to deny her access."

"Wouldn't that negate the arbitration?"

"No. She is becoming a risk to Georgie's wellbeing. If needs be, we can get a court order. I'll talk it over with Zoe if you don't mind?"

"No, I don't. The last thing I want is her becoming anorexic or bulimic."

*****

And talking of anorexics, Peter was starting to look as if he was on the way to becoming one. The gym continued to deteriorate. His principals just were not prepared to plough any money into what they saw as a failing business, thereby accelerating the decline. He lost almost all his female clientele and only kept the rest of his customers because of his proximity to the town centre.

*****

Over winter and spring, I did as many clubs as I could. I had no intention of spending an entire weekend travelling to and from performances, but I found I was gradually moving up the pecking order. The other factor was that the children were not staying over with Diane at all. She would see them the odd Saturday, but more likely, on Sunday. Having them for the whole weekend was interfering with her image. Auntie Milla stepped into the breach. She would act as a stay over babysitter on the nights that my parents couldn't take Harry and Georgie.

Then I got invitations to perform at a couple of minor festivals. I grabbed those. They were not as big as Cambridge, but they were the places to be seen if you hoped to get an invite. Naturally Harry and Georgie came along, as did my fan club from the gym and the legal and law enforcing communities. Folk festivals are family affairs. We had a great time together, and the youngsters got to play in master classes.

Everything seemed to come to a head the weekend of the Plymouth Folk Festival. We had all gone down to stay in what had become known as Georgie's house. There weren't enough bedrooms so every room in the house became a bedroom, and the caravan was pressed into use as well. We had a great time, me playing, and everyone else soaking up the atmosphere. We rounded it of with a massive barbeque in the garden on Sunday afternoon and we headed home about four, arriving by half-nine. There was a police diversion in force in the town centre, we were redirected past Peter's gym, and there it was. "FOR SALE. As a going concern." Clearly, Lover Boy had not been able to raise the funding. I tried not to gloat.

It got better when I finally got home and checked the post. I had made it. I had an invitation to perform at next years Cambridge Folk Festival

Then, next morning, at work, Jimmy Henshaw phoned me.

"Jack, how's it going?"

"Not too bad at all. You saw the "For Sale" sign on the gym?"

"Yeah. I thought that might have brightened your evening. I've something else for you, but I don't know whether it is good or bad news. The accident that caused the diversion was caused by your ex wife."

"Shit! Is she OK?"

"Yes, she's fine. Seatbelt and airbag bruises. But she hit two other cars. A bus swerved to avoid them, mounted the pavement, and ran into a shopfront."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"The bus driver was concussed. Luckily, it was out of service and there were no passengers onboard. The drivers of the other vehicles had similar injuries to Diane."

"Was she drunk?"

"No, she was on her mobile. She's looking at jail time."

"Oh shit. How the hell am I going to tell the kids?"

"It'll be a while before it comes to court. You'll be able to prepare them. And by the way, you didn't hear that from me."

"No problems. Doubtless it'll be on the local news anyway. Thanks Jimmy. I'll see you later. Will you and Jenny be at the Four-in-Hand tomorrow?"

"No, I start nights tonight. I had called in to leave in a file and checked the occurrence book, like I always do. I thought you might want to know."

*****

Diane's case took three months to come to court, and when it did, I got a shock. Diane just did not learn. She hadn't informed her insurers of the three points on her licence. When they got the bill for a BMW, a Merc, her Range Rover, a bus, a building, damaged stock, and loss of trade, they squirmed until they found a get-out clause. The failure to declare was just what they were looking for. It meant that all claims were forwarded to the Motor Insurers Bureau, who pay out to victims of untraced hit-and-runs, under-insured or uninsured drivers. They also try to recover those payments. Not only did Diane get twelve months, but she was forced to put her share of the boutique up for sale. I told Milla.

*****

So! That was it. The sound of a cell door closing behind my ex-wife was the sound of the door closing on the story of Jack and Diane. I wondered what lay behind the opening door. One thing I do know.

Women like musicians ... a lot.