Throwing Snowballs at the Moon

I have no idea what expression that news brought to my face, but Vernia rushed on to explain that Ingrid needed to clarify arrangements for Agda and her date that night.

I belatedly learnt that when my two nannies went out without their "surrogate father", usually either Vernia or Tony -- most often both together -- had been playing distant chaperone. I.e. the girls arranged to be taken to the same place as Vernia and Tony were going that evening. They'd follow the suitors' cars back to the house as well, just in case.

I also learnt that most -- if not all -- the females that my two nannies had tried to line-up for me, had been thoroughly vetted by Vernia on the quiet.

"I am being bloody railroaded!" I said when Vernia finished her disclosers.

"Nothing of the kind Graham! We are just trying to get you some kind of a social life back. Christ, the only time you go out of the house is to work or take the girls or children out."

"And, when I go out with you and Tony!"

"Precisely! When you play gooseberry. You need to get out and get a life of your own Graham, and Canella is perfect for you. You're both in the same situation. No one's saying or even expects you to fall head over heals in love with each other. I think we all believe that... well under the circumstances you can both understand each others situation better than most people can."

----------TWT----------

There was no doubt about it. I knew that I was being manipulated by all the females around me. Well nearly all! There was Gloria of course, and I was damned sure she wasn't in on anything they had planned.

Our evening at Ellie's house was very pleasant, and it was definitely different to any I'd had in the recent past. For the most part it wasn't about Ellie and me, as I suspect most people would assume. It was about us, and the children, although the two little ones went down quite early, Ellie and I played games with the elder two until it was well past their usual bedtime.

Later, after all the children were in bed. (Simone and Pamela had settled remarkably quickly under the circumstances and I had had some difficulty in believing that they'd only just met each other for the first time the day before. After all these years I'm still not convinced on that fact; but that might be paranoia creeping in.) Anyway Ellie and I sat in her lounge and discussed old times.

Eventually we came to the point in our relationship where we'd broken up; or in actual fact, we'd stopped writing to each other. It came to light that several of Ellie's friends had been writing to her regularly and they had fed her the line that I was running around on her. Once specific names were mentioned, I realised that those particular friends were the ones who had -- to put it bluntly -- made a play for me around that time. It had been the same pair, who had put the idea in my head that Ellie had been slumming it with me for a bit of fun, before she went off to college in Switzerland.

The "You always were a mug for a pretty face!" thought crept back into my mind, when I realised that fact. Well, maybe it had something to do with those same two girls' relaxed moral attitudes as well. But at that age, does it make much difference? During your teenage years it's usually hormones that control logic, especially in young men. Come on, you know what I'm referring too.

Remarkably -- probably because of all the time that had passed -- Ellie and I found that we could laugh about things, when we finally got down to naming names. She didn't seem at all surprised that any of them had -- in effect -- stabbed her (or us) in the back.

It was a pleasant evening that I could see right away that it was one we would repeat. Oh and I'd suppose I should add, just in case someone gets the wrong idea, that Ellie and I didn't get all soppy with each other. While we played board games with the children; later after they gone to bed, Ellie and I sat facing each other on separate sofas, on opposite sides of her large coffee table.

I suppose that that coffee table acted something like a Berlin wall or even a peace line. We'd both kinda gone-on at (great) length talking about my presence in her house that evening, was about renewing an old friendship, not our romance. I'm not sure who started that part of the conversation by the way.

----------TWT----------

I'm also not sure what time I climbed into my bed (alone) that night; but it must have been around two or even three AM. I know that I was dead to the world until Pamela came in and demanded I joined everybody at breakfast at around nine o'clock on the Saturday morning.

Flabbergasted that the children had not woken me earlier -- as was their usual want -- especially considering that Ingrid and Agda weren't around to keep them under control. I took a hurried shower, dressed and then dashed down expecting to have to apologise to Ellie for leaving getting all the children up and dressed to her.

However I as I dashed into the kitchen I found Ellie had not been coping on her own. She, Ingrid and Agda were all sat around Ellie's kitchen table together drinking coffee. It was sort of not very subtly explained, that my two nannies didn't trust me to be able to handle getting my own children up without them. They'd conned Tony and Vernia into bringing them over first thing.

I kinda gathered from the conversation that Vernia and Tony had stayed over at my place for the night. Something they'd done on numerous occasions in the past, by the way; when babysitting Pamela and Debra. It appeared they took attractive young nanny sitting, just as seriously an occupation as they did babysitting, if you understand where I'm coming from?

It appeared that while I'd been sleeping my -- or rather our -- day had been planned out for us. Although I vetoed the trip to London zoo and suggested that we went to the Zoo's much larger site at Whipsnade, near Dunstable. I have no idea why; maybe because I hadn't been there since I'd taken Ellie there many years precious on the back of Bonnie.

With eight of us, it required the use of two cars. Ingrid, Pamela, Simone and me in mine and the younger two children and Agda travelled with Ellie. Although Ingrid and Agda kind switched between vehicles several times during the day as requested by the children.

A trip to Whipsnade is no mean feat. It's an extremely large establishment (600 odd acres that's getting on for 2.5 square kilometres) when the children -- well Pamela and Simone anyway, the little ones really had little idea of what was going on -- wanted to see every animal in the place, twice! There was no missing out on anything with Pamela and Simone around.

It was gone seven that evening when -- after a quick visit to Ellie's house to collect the children's gear -- we arrived back at my own house. Pamela and Debra went down almost immediately, they must have been as tired out as I felt.

Ingrid and Agda, appeared as fresh as daisies, as they settled themselves in front of the TV. I kinda stuck around for a while, trying to pretend that I wasn't dead on my feet, and then snuck away to bed myself.

----------TWT----------

It was almost lunchtime on the Tuesday morning when a sudden and unexpected raising of voices out in the general office distracted Vernia and myself from our computer screens. No sooner had Vernia opened the door to discover what was going on than she turned back to me with a smile on her face.

"Its Canella!" she grinned, and then vanished, closing the door behind her, calling out "Hi stranger!" as she did so.

Vernia closing the door left me in a quandary. Should I follow her or should I await Ellie's arrival in my office, I didn't want to look... well too... er, give-over you know what I mean! Anyway after pondering the question for a few moments, I thought I'd better go out there. Canella was the boss's daughter after all. And I figured that I'd better address her as Canella in front of the staff.

Going out there proved to be a bit of a mistake. Ellie was making slow progress through to office because it appeared that everyone wanted to say, "Hello" to her personally. I found myself almost queuing until some of them spotted me and figured that they'd better get back to work.

Vernia poured the three of us coffee as Ellie explained that she was just dropping off a handbag. That -- somehow -- Agda had managed to leave in her car on the Saturday.

I kinda wondered how Agda had managed to overlook such an important accessory, considering that I knew it contained all of her make-up. Both Ingrid and Agda were very fastidious about looking fabulous whenever they walked out of the door. I found it odd that Agda hadn't mentioned the fact that it was missing either. But then I was pretty sure that I knew Ingrid and Agda's master plan, so it wasn't such a surprise to me as it might have been.

Ellie turning up at the office with it, was though. Later Vernia suggested that it could have been the excuse Ellie had needed to show her face around the office again.

Ellie had spent most of her time that morning in my office telling Vernia about the children's trip to Whipsnade, I think. I kinda left them to it, and got on with some work while they nattered away. Anyway because Vernia and I nearly always ate lunch together, when she invited Ellie to eat with her, it became a done deal that we'd lunch together. Well, I believe that when we left the office; that had been the master plan.

However, just about nothing happens inside Goldberg and Son's without Jack hearing about it eventually; especially where Ellie is concerned. As we made our way out of the main entrance, Jack and his little entourage appeared as if from nowhere, and the three of us were somehow co-opted into his lunch party.

We enjoyed a very long and expensive lunch at Jack's usual upmarket restaurant, which I'm pleased to say Jack -- or the company -- must have paid for. Vernia, Ellie and I had little chance of talking in private.

Jerry Hartwell collared me on the walk back to the office, and told me how pleased everyone was that Ellie had shown her face at the office again. Apparently I was getting the credit for that happening. He continued waffling on some, but to be honest I was taking very little notice, because I had just heard Vernia saying to Ellie.

"Oh of course he won't mind. He told me yesterday how much the girls enjoyed playing with your two over the weekend. Just take them round whenever they get too much. Ingrid and Agda won't mind either, I can assure you of that."

Ellie left the group in the company car park, saying something about collecting her children. I didn't quite catch where from, a childminder I supposed.

"Prey tell me, Vernia. Whom won't mind if Ellie takes her girls around to his house to play with his children?" I asked her, once we were alone in our office.

"You won't of course!"

"I won't; why not?"

"Oh don't be stupid Graham. Anyway it's your fault that Simone can't play with her bestest friend anymore."

"My fault, how do you work that one out?"

"Well, let's see, as Canella tells it..."

"Ellie you mean, why do you insist on calling her Canella?"

"Sparkie, there's only one person in this whole world who gets away with, or dares to call Canella, Ellie. Haven't you noticed that?"

"Can't say I have, no."

"Take my word for it them. Anyway as she tells the story, you and she talked about old times on Friday night."

"Hey, what's she been telling you?"

Nothing more than you did a long time ago, my friend, so don't worry!"

"Oh Christ, I did didn't I?"

"Yeah, I think it's called talking too much. Not a usual failing of yours! Anyway Canella implied that certain friends of hers, feed you the line that she'd been stringing you along back then."

"Yeah, we kinda worked that one out the other night."

"And then they, or at least one of them, stepped into the vacancy that story created."

"Yeah well, I took out a couple of Ellie's mates after she'd gone."

"Well the stringing you along story was a complete lie. And transpires that one of those women who fed you that yarn is the mother of Simone's best friend. Incidentally she was also one Canella's closest friend's up until last Friday evening, or rather Sunday morning when Canella gave her a piece of her mind."

"Oops, or should I say? Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!"

"Oh my, quoting Sir Walter Scott. Into the classics on the quiet, are we?"

"No not really. Mary Williams an old school teacher of mine gave me a book of useful quotations when I left school. I studied the thing for weeks, Mary told me it would make me sound intelligent, even if I refused to look it. I was all leather jackets and longhair back in those days. Anyway, I think that's the first time I've ever found the opportunity to use one."

"Mary Williams, I remember her. Nice old lady, used to come to daddies cocktail parties with Bill Gillard."

"She did?"

"Yeah, all the time. I think she and Bill were lovers on the quiet. Or at least, they had been at one time! I wonder why they never got married?"

"I don't know, but it explains a lot about how-come I got a job in an accounts office. I weren't what you might call natural office type material back then. More the like the building site fodder. Mary Williams pushed me into applying for a job working for Bill, and he steered me in the right direction for further education."

"And you didn't know that they were bonking each other?"

"Vernia, there weren't a kid in that school who'd have believed that anyone had ever had the audacity, let alone the nerve, to bonk Mary Williams. She was really nice to me, but boy, could she be a dragon when she chose to be?"

"And what about Canella, do you still have the nerve to bonk her?"

"Pardon?"

"Well, I'm sure she wants you too, Graham."

"Vernia, Ellie and I had a good thing going once. But that was a very long time ago. Now I'm working for her father and the last thing in the world in need to do is quire the bleeding wicket by... Well you know what I mean. If Ellie wants to be friends then I'm more than pleased to be friends with her, but I really can't see it going any further."

"Oh alright, have it your way. But take my word for it, Canella is going to get you into bed eventually!"

----------TWT----------

Over the following months, Ellie did take her children to my house so that they all could play with mine, but mostly while I was at work, although very often they'd still be at the house when I returned. Sometimes during school holidays and the like, she'd go over during the day to pick-up Ingrid, Agda and my girls and take them all out or back to her house so that the children could be together there. Eventually even acquiring a people carrier so that she could get them all in safely.

Ellie never mentioned Tanya to me or why she'd fallen-out with her and was discouraging Simone from being friends with her daughter. Although on occasions I heard Simone mention the child to Pamela. Eventually one day, I figured that I needed to say something about it to Ellie, so I collared her alone in the kitchen the first opportunity I got.

"Here Ellie, what do you reckon of parents that keep their children apart, you know discourage friendships like yours and mine did."

"I know where you're coming from Graham, but that was slightly different. Both of our parents didn't approve of us keeping company..."

"Is that what we did?"

"And the rest!" Ellie grinned. "But what Tanya did to me... to us, was completely different. Whether you realise it or not, she broke us up. And for what? So that she could find-out how good you were in the back of seat of a car."

"Shit, you told her about..?"

"You're not kidding I did! Christ Graham, I've honestly I never enjoyed myself so much in my whole life as I did out by the reservoir, in the back of that Viva, with you. Bugger, I've never had any experiences to match it since, either. And that includes my wedding night!

"Tanya stole all that from me, and by the looks of it, I'll never get it back again. Do you blame me for not wanting the woman around me? I'm sorry that Simone gets some of the fallout, but I can see myself doing that, oh so smug, Tanya, a real mischief one of these days."

"Oh so smug?"

"Yeah you should have seen the expression she got on her face when I told her you were working for daddy. Two faced bitch! And then when you told me that she'd fed you all that crap while she was telling me that you were running around behind my back, and that you'd shagged her..."

"I never said I'd..."

"You didn't have to Graham. It was implied by the very fact that you dated Tanya for a while. Christ, I was so naive to have told the girls how good you were when it came to... well you know!"

"I am? How come no one's ever mentioned it to me before? Well... they have, but I thought they were flattering me. You know, all the bullshit that goes on during a roll in the hay."

"Is that all it meant to you, a quick roll in the hay?" Ellie sounded upset.

"Hey hold up girl, don't go getting me wrong? I was in love with you and we never had a roll in the hay together. I'll give you that sex in the back of that little Viva of yours, and it wasn't the most comfortable in the world. But I was making love to you because... Well, I was in love with you at the time!

"Now, when it came to Tanya and that crowd... well, with them yeah you could describe that was a roll in the hay, if you understand me. God you've got to remember, I was a young man and I'd been going without for nearly eight months."

"Eight months! You waited for me, for eight months?"

"Well, to be honest, it was only four months after your last letter before I finally got the message."

"Shit I'll kill that Tanya, and the rest of them. They had me convinced you were bedding some little bitch less than two weeks I was sent out there."

"I kinda gathered that from your letters. And if you remember, I did deny it!"

"Yes you did, and I was a fool to believe my so-called friends and not you. Or the two-faced little bitches, who I thought were my friends anyway. Still there's no point in crying over spilt milk after all this time."

"Sorry, what's that supposed to mean?"

"That you stopped loving me a long time ago, didn't you? There's little sense in me pining after you now, so I won't. I'm happy that you're gracious enough to be my friend."

"Ellie, you've manipulated this conversation, haven't you?"

"I don't know what you mean, Graham."

"Yes you do. I very much suspect that at this point, I was supposed to say that I'd love to be much more than a friend to you!"

"You were?"

"Well, wasn't I?"

That depends on whether you were actually thinking it or not."

"What?"

"That you'd like to spend a couple of hours parked out by the reservoir with me again."

"I'm lost Ellie. Where is this conversation going?"

"To the bedroom I hope. Now, which shall it be, yours or mine?"

"Neither. I work for your father now remember."

"And do you really think he'd dare to poke his nose into my love life again, Graham. After what happened with Ronald?"

"Why not?"

"Ronald was daddy's idea of the perfect husband for me, Graham. Back in the old days Sparkie was my parent's worst nightmare. They've both admitted to me that they've seen the error of their ways. I don't think he'll interfere in anything that happens between us in the future.

"Now we can keep things casual, or we can do things all formal like. But whatever happens, how about you and I try out the back seat of one of our cars in the near future? I get all hot and bothered every time I see you."

----------TWT----------

No we didn't that night. But Ellie's children stayed over at my house that weekend with Ingrid and Agda looking after them. Whilst Ellie and I went out for a romantic dinner at a restaurant, after which we adjourned to one of the better hotels locally.