For Old Time's Sake

"I should imagine that I could talk Angela and Jimmy round without too many problems. You said yourself that they miss having a woman around the house," Goldie said. "And Toby seems to be quite taken with you; he seems to see you as one of his father's best friends."

"Yes, but it's Claire that I'm worried about. She's definitely showing hostility towards me!"

"Oh, I'm sure she'll come around in the end. We just have to work on her a bit," Goldie said. "Right now if we've got all that lot out of the way, let's drink those coffees, then get up to your room and pretend that we're teenagers again."

The coffees went un-drunk!

+++++++++++++++

"Yes, Angela he's right here! Wake up, Scratch, your daughter's on the phone!"

Something had managed to drag me slowly from my exhausted slumber, I suddenly realised that it must have been the telephone ringing. Oh, shit! I was suddenly wide-awake when I realised that a very naked Goldie, her hair all a-which-ways, was apparently talking to my daughter on my hotel room telephone.

I took the handset from Goldie knowing that I was going to be in for a hard time. I was forever going on at my children about sex out of wedlock.

"Hi, Angela," I said sheepishly.

"Hi, dad. I gather everything went to plan!" she replied, sounding extremely upbeat.

"What plan are you talking about?" I asked.

I could feel my face as it coloured up with embarrassment; it was obvious that my daughter was fully aware that Goldie and I had just spent the night in bed together. And she was old enough to fully understand exactly what we'd been doing in there.

"Oh, come on, dad, I'm not a kid anymore. Two old flames, both widowed, get together after god knows how many years. What else was going to happen? I didn't expect you two to play monopoly all night!"

Goldie was sitting on the bed grinning at my obvious embarrassment.

"You don't mind?" I asked Angela.

"Don't be silly, dad. Jimmy and I can't wait to meet her; when are you bringing her down to see if she approves of us?" Angela replied sounding very exited. "Now let me talk to Goldie again please, father?"

"She wants to talk to you," I said, handing Goldie the phone. I think I was in shock at Angela's reaction to events.

"Put the kettle on, Scratch. Let's have a cup of tea," Goldie said taking the handset from me.

Then the two of them dropped into girl talk, most of which seemed to come from Angela because Goldie was answering her in single syllables and euphemisms that I couldn't quite catch. After putting the kettle on and preparing the cups, I went into the en-suite for my usual morning ablutions.

I could hear giggling coming through the door, so it appeared the two of them were getting along fine, over the telephone at least.

When I came out of the bathroom, I heard Goldie saying, "Yeah, that's a great idea. I'll suggest it to him and see what he thinks. Okay, Angel, I'll speak to you again soon." Goldie handed the phone back to me.

"Hi, dad, she sounds wonderful. I really can't wait to meet her."

"What suggestion did you make?" I asked.

"Goldie will tell you all about it. Now Jimmy and I have got some things to get started on. I'll see you later. Bye, dad."

"What things?" I asked, but it was too late, Angela was gone.

"What was that all about?" I asked Goldie, as I put the receiver back into its cradle.

"I'll tell you later. That sounds like one hell of a daughter you've got there!" Goldie said as she was pouring out the tea I'd set up before I'd gone into the bathroom. I watched as Goldie took a small pill from her handbag.

There was something that was bugging me but I couldn't put my finger on it at first. Then I realised Goldie had called Angela 'Angel' - that was my pet name for Angela. But had she said it with the meaning that Angela was being an Angel, or had she just used that name to her. But then I realised that I often called Angela 'My Angel' in conversation so perhaps Goldie had just picked the name up from when I spoke to her.

"What's that? Are you ill?" I asked. Watching as Goldie took the little pill.

"No, I'm fine," Goldie replied. "I just don't want to hear the patter off tiny feet until we are ready."

"Oh, shit, I never thought of that. We didn't take any precautions, did we?"

"I went to my doctor the week after you came the last time," Goldie replied.

"Sure of yourself, weren't you? I still don't understand how you could be so sure I was coming back again?"

"No, I wasn't sure of myself at all, but I was pretty sure of Scratch Caisey. Let's just put it down to women's intuition and a little help from my friends."

"What friends are those?"

"Three very good friends actually, I'll tell you about them one day. Now let's get back to some serious business whilst we have the opportunity," Goldie said as she climbed back onto the bed.

+++++++++++

Surprisingly it was still reasonably early when we pulled out of the hotel car park. Angela must have called us when she got up to care for the horses.

"So what was this suggestion that Angela made to you?" I asked Goldie.

To be honest I wasn't looking forward to the reception that I expected we'd receive from Claire when we got back to Goldie's house and I needed something to take my mind off of it.

"Well, Angela suggests that you invite me and the children down for the week. She said that you've got a little holiday cottage that you don't use and we could stay in there. Then we'd see what she and I can do about Claire's attitude towards you. Claire could get to know you better as well. A kind of kill or cure week," Goldie said.

When I'd bought the house, an old barn had come with it. Over the years, as and when the money became available, Elaine and I had converted it into two smallish holiday cottages, a common thing to do with the odd old building down our way. The idea was for it to be Elaine's little business on the side; she'd hire them out to holidaymakers in the summer.

We'd only gotten around to finishing one of them before Elaine became I'll. Since her demise I'd lost interest in them. The children had used the completed one as a kind of giant playhouse. Angela, as she got older, often had her friends stay over in it so they could play loud music until all times at night.

"I suppose it's worth a try," I replied. "The kids are off school and college for the summer, so they can entertain your two. But what about your job though?"

"Oh, bugger Sam! He'll have to find someone else to perv over," Goldie said laughing. "It'll be good to get away for a while. I haven't had a holiday since my honeymoon."

"Didn't Toby ever take you and the children away anywhere?"

"Oh, yeah, to Brands Hatch and Donington. Oh, and we went abroad every year, to the Isle of Man for the TT races. Yeah, we had a few holidays with Toby, all right! Don't get me wrong though, Scratch, we all enjoyed it at the time. But we never had a real holiday away from motorcycling whilst Toby was alive and I couldn't afford it since."

Claire was really on the warpath with me and her mother when we got to the house. She didn't actually say anything. She didn't have to; her attitude said it all.

Toby took the news of the holiday with enthusiasm. But Claire, whilst not actually refusing to come, made it plain that she was going under sufferance.

Then the three of them went upstairs to pack whilst I went into the kitchen to make every one some tea, only Claire wanted coffee. It was while I was making the coffee that I began to realise that things didn't really add up. Both the children had to take some time calling friends to cancel dates and the like, but Goldie didn't. Goldie was apparently packed in a matter of minutes where it seemed to take Toby and Claire forever.

Then a more obvious sign caught my eye, more obvious to me anyway. It was my home phone number written on a piece of paper clipped to the kitchen notice board. Yes, I'd exchanged telephone numbers with Goldie when I visited her the first time. But this number had my daughter Angela's name written beside it, not mine! As I was pouring the tea and coffee out, Goldie came into the kitchen but when she left again the piece of paper had disappeared.

Now here's a point for you to remember. There ain't no such thing as smoke without fire, but when you're being manipulated by a good woman, or rather "two" good women, you ain't going to see no smoke. Until it is too late!

I'd smelt the smoke all right, but I hadn't recognised it for what it was. Goldie taking the day off so that we could go out together. Sounded plausible enough, but for one thing: Goldie pointed out that I'd told her I'd be coming up to town every six weeks the last time I'd seen her, but I hadn't taken over as the manager until the following Monday. That meant it was seven weeks since my first visit.

And then Goldie knew that I was working on the Triumph, she didn't think I might be; she knew I was getting it back on the road. The only way she could have known that for sure was if my loving daughter had told her.

"Got you!" I thought to myself; now I know what the hell has been going on. My loving daughter had been playing matchmaker. Now I had a problem. I was angry that I'd been manipulated, but I was extremely happy about the proposed outcome. So what do I do - Get out of my pram or carry on and pretend that I don't know? I chose the later option; I'd break the news that I knew their little secret at my own convenience.

There was one further question that I didn't know the answer to. Goldie had mentioned three friends who'd helped her. One was Angela, another most likely was my dearest son James. But who was the third? I was pretty sure it wasn't young Toby and there was no way that it was Claire. So who was the fourth conspirator. I needed to know the answer to that question before I got around to the confrontation. "Should be some fun when it happens," I thought to myself.

The journey down West was fairly uneventful. Except for the constant tsh tsh tsh coming from Claire's walkman, until her batteries went flat. I drove down the 303 and put a stop in at Stonehenge, which I think surprised Claire; she actually appeared to start to enjoy herself.

I slipped in another brief stop at a public house that I knew near Honiton for a bite to eat. Toby was beside himself with excitement; I got the feeling that he enjoyed the eating in a public house. It was pretty obvious to me that his mother hadn't taken him to one to eat before. Claire treated the experience with a certain disdain; it was clear that she was not unused to being in a pub.

"Are we there?" Toby asked when I finally turned into the lane that led up to my house.

"Yeah, this is it, Toby. It was an old farmhouse until we bought it, pretty run down as well," I replied.

"Whose are those horses?" Toby asked.

"They're ours. We ride up on the moor; that's about the only advantage of living out here."

I caught sight of Claire in the rear view mirror, suddenly awake from her apparent slumber; she was staring at the horses.

"Do you ride, Claire?" I asked.

"She wanted to, but we could never afford the lessons," Goldie said. "My, aren't they beautiful?"

"Well, Angela can teach you Claire. She's studying for her instructor's exam, so it will be good practice for her," I suggested.

"Whatever," Claire replied, trying to sound disinterested. But her eyes as she watched the horses said something completely different.

As I swung in front of the house Angela and James came running out of the holiday cottage, followed by Martha, one of our nearer neighbours. They'd obviously had to call in reinforcements on the spring-cleaning front.

Angela came up to the car and hugged me, then she went over and hugged Goldie. I nearly gave the game away, when I burst out laughing as they pretended not to really know each other.

We did the introduction bit then all of us carried the visitors' luggage into the holiday home. Then after dumping the luggage in the bedrooms every one went over to the big house where Martha had put the kettle on. Only we'd lost Jimmy and Toby on the way; we heard one of the quad bikes start up so I figured it would be a while before we saw the boys again.

Angela must have spotted Claire looking at the pictures of the horses that adorn almost every wall of the house.

"I've got to put them to bed shortly. Do you want to give me a hand?" she asked Claire.

"Um, sure, if you like," Claire said rising from the seat she'd just sat on.

"We'd better find you some jeans and wellies for you then; it's a bit muddy up by the stables," Angela suggested.

"I've got jeans in my bag," Claire replied and was gone from the room in an instant.

"Someone's looking a little happier," Goldie pointed out, after Angela had followed her. "I think she'll soon come around once she gets to know everyone. Mind, having those horses out there is going to be the breaker for Claire; she's crazy about horses."

"I'll leave you two love birds to it then, shall I?" Martha said after drinking her tea surprisingly quickly.

"Thanks, Martha," I replied as she made her hasty retreat.

"Does she think I'm going to jump your bones in front of her?" Goldie asked, after Martha had left.

"Martha's a country woman, Goldie; I doubt there is much that you could do that would shock her. Look, there's four youngsters here now. Martha was not very subtly giving us a little time alone before they return and demand to be fed."

"Oh, bugger, I'd better get started they'll all be starving when they get back," Goldie said jumping out of her seat.

"Take it easy girl, it's all taken care of; I hope your kids like Chinese." I pointed to the Chinese restaurant's home delivery brochure lying on the worktop beside the phone. "I think Angela's planning on us going oriental tonight. She'll call them when she comes back in and they'll deliver in about half an hour. See, we aren't all that uncivilised out here in the sticks."

"So what do we do now? Oh, that's a silly question!" Goldie replied with a cheeky grin on her face.

"I don't think so; the girls could be back any minute. I think a quick tour of the estate before it gets dark would be best, and we can see what mischief the boys are getting up to," I suggested, ignoring the disappointed face that Goldie pulled.

She took my arm as I walked her around my domain. The boys we found plastered in mud washing off the quad bike. I told them to get themselves inside and cleaned up smart-ish. The two girls were finishing off putting the horses to bed; Angela commenting that Claire had caught on to what was required very quickly. Claire didn't say anything to me but did have a sheepish look on her face when our eyes met for a second.

I think Goldie was quite taken by the horses as well, if not a little put off by the size of a couple of them.

"How many have you got?" she asked incredulously.

"Seven here now," Angela replied, "But only three of them are ours. The others are liveries; we can stable about fifteen altogether, but we had to slim down, after mother got ill. I can't look after that many and go to college as well. Mind, if I had another pair of hands available we could get the numbers back quite quickly and they would be able to ride everyday as well."

"All right, Angela," I thought to myself, "You don't have to lay it on that thick for Claire's benefit. She's surely not so thick that she can't understand what you are playing at."

The girls went back down to the house before Goldie and I did. All right, yeah, we did a little necking once they were out of sight. We arrived at the house to find Claire and Angela getting into Angela's Nissan.

"Change of plan,, dad. We're having fish and chips. Claire and I are just going down to the village to get it," Angela said as she pulled away.

"She's showing off to Claire that she's got her own car," Jimmy said when we got into the house.

The rest of the evening went off pretty smoothly. We all ate together, then Goldie and her two went over to the holiday home although it was pretty late.

In the morning I just caught sight of Claire and Toby walking up towards the stables with Angela and James. I saw no sign of Goldie before I went off to the office.

++++++++++++++

"Did you have a good weekend?" Geena asked following me into my office.

She dropped my post on the desk then went over and poured our first two cups of coffee of the working day. Between us we'd go through several pots in the average day.

"I had a wonderful weekend, Geena. I stayed over until Sunday morning and brought a friend and her children down for the week."

"Ah, so you did go to see Goldie again?" Geena said with a grin on her face.

"And just what do you know about Goldie? Where you in on Angela's little scheme?" I demanded.

'So that's it!' I thought. 'Geena was the fourth conspirator.' I know I must have sounded angry because Geena went straight on the defensive.

"Wow, hold on there, Gary? It's obvious that you know what Angela did, but I had nothing to do with her plans. I even refused to go through your address book to find Goldie's telephone number. So please don't get angry with me. She got no help from me other than to let her know the date of your meeting as soon as I got it. I did warn her that she was playing with fire, but she was adamant that it was something she had to do!"

"So you weren't in on the conspiracy then?"

"Other than knowing what Angela was hoping was going to happen and not telling you about it, no. I gave her no assistance at all. I warned her against it actually."

"Well, in a way, I'm pleased that she didn't take your warning to heart. There's something about Goldie that really gets under my skin. If things had been different, I'm pretty sure I'd have married her years ago."

"Are you going to ask her to marry you now?"

"I don't know for sure. My heart's telling me to. But one of her kids - her daughter - has taken a disliking to me. You know that in a situation like that, it can all go pear shaped so easily; the kids can usually find some way of driving a wedge between the mother and stepfather. It might be best if Goldie and I were to just stay as friends."

"Yes, I can understand your worries. I've seen situations like that before, all you can do is hope that the girl comes around in the end. Look, Gary, try not to be angry with Angela, she loves you and she thought that you needed a woman in your life. She said to me that you were on top of the world when you came back from that trip when you met up with Goldie again."

"Damn it, Geena, I'd just been offered the managers job here. Of course I was on top of the world."

"That's what I said to Angela, but she said something about a picture her mother had given her of you and Goldie together. Angela said there was something in your eyes when you looked at that picture. She said it was the same look you always had when you were with Elaine."

"Gary, maybe I shouldn't say this, but did you know that you cried when Angela showed you that picture? She told me she saw tears running down your face. She was only trying to do what she thought was for the best. I tried to warn her that playing with other people's emotions can be dangerous."

Damn, that was true! I hadn't realised that Angela had seen those tears. Seeing that picture and knowing that Elaine had given it to Angela had touched a heartstring somewhere.

"What's done is done, Geena. It's all turned out for the best anyway, I think. We'll just have to see what tomorrow brings. Now we'd better get down to these bleeding targets!"

"So you're not going to punish Angela then?"

"Oh, yeah, she and Goldie haven't heard the end of this. But I'm intending to play with their emotions just a little. A little embarrassment and confusion, I think, will serve my purposes best. And don't you dare let on to Angela that I know what she did."