Chapter 27
Don and Belinda came into dinner a few minutes later, Don throwing a hard look at Jack as he passed him, although as usual he made some comment about how lovely we all looked that evening.
‘A thorn between all the roses, Jack,’ he said. ‘You want to be careful. Deadlier than the male, some of these beautiful ladies.’
‘Oh, I think I will survive,’ Jack said good naturedly. ‘I hope you’ve all had a great day.’
‘Apart from all that wedding rumpus earlier on,’ Don replied.
‘You would think the police would have stopped them,’ Belinda added.
‘I thought it was rather lovely,’ Evelyn said, ‘to see the young couple so happy with all their friends, start off married life with a bang.’
‘Things that start with a bang usually end with a whimper,’ Don muttered, ‘in my experience anyway.’
‘What exactly do you mean by that?’ Belinda asked, tugging at her husband’s sleeve.
They went off, still bickering, to join Craig and Dawn at their usual table next to ours, and we could hear the four of them agreeing that the whole thing had been noisy, unnecessary and a threat to the ozone layer.
Bernardo came out from the kitchens and clapped his hands.
‘Dinner will be served momentarily,’ he said. ‘You might wish to know that the procession is returning.’
Even before he had finished talking we could hear the low rumble of dozens of cars outside, and we went to the side to look out of the windows.
The cars and the wedding party were back and this time they were weaving across the road, back and forth in a slow line, still waving flags out of the windows and sounding their horns.
‘They are coming back from the reception,’ Jack said.
‘This is ludicrous,’ Don yelled over the noise. ‘Where are the police? The traffic wardens? Why isn’t someone doing something about this?’
Craig lifted his full wine glass and took a hefty slurp.
‘There’s going to be an accident, you mark my words. And I’ll bet a pound to a pinch of snuff they are all drunk this time.’
‘They are going very slowly,’ Marjorie said, ‘and they are just excited.’
Of course, we knew now that they would have to turn around at the end of the road and the wedding parade would undoubtedly be returning.
Which they did. Lights flashing, horns blaring, and the same bridesmaids hanging even further out of the car windows.
They were waving bouquets of pink roses and rosemary.
‘Ridiculous,’ Dawn said, ‘and so polluting too. So bad for people with allergies and sensitivity to airborne particles. I shall write to someone to complain. When Craig and I got married we had a small reception in the church hall and we left at five thirty and went straight to Minehead. None of this antisocial behaviour.’
Bernardo was watching too and he turned as the last car weaved away, tears in his eyes.
‘So happy,’ he said, blowing his nose, ‘such a happy day. A good start to a marriage when it is filled with laughter.’
‘And I’m sure your wedding day was filled with laughter too, Dawn,’ Anna said.
‘No, actually. The cake was late arriving and it was lopsided. It nearly fell off the table when we went to cut it. And my mother had hurt her back lifting some flowers, and she was in such pain she could hardly move.’
Craig chuckled. ‘That’s what she claimed. She was just trying to make the day all about her, if you ask me. And then there was that row about paying the caterers, and your uncle Ken had a stand-up row in the car park with Jeff. I thought they were going to come to blows.’
‘Uncle Ken had sneaked in a bottle of vodka and he spiked the fruit punch, so no wonder. It was a lovely day though,’ she said through stiff lips.
‘Oh yes, absolutely,’ Craig said, back-pedalling furiously. He looked at his empty wine glass in astonishment as though he had no idea why it was empty. ‘Well, that won’t do. Come on, Dawnie, I need a refill.’
‘When don’t you,’ she muttered, going back to her seat.
With all the talk of wedding celebrations I thought back once more to my own. There hadn’t been any of that sort of joyfulness; it had been a sedate occasion when most of my preferences had been ignored.
I’d wanted Harriet and Anna as bridesmaids, but that was vetoed by Fred’s mother who had insisted his twin nieces Amy and Laura should be asked instead.
And that meant I also ended up with their ghastly younger brother Mark as a pageboy otherwise he would apparently have been upset to be left out.
Mark’s contribution to the event mainly consisted of whining through the ceremony that he was hungry and then picking his nose in all the official photographs.
Fred’s mother had practically trampled my parents on her way into the reception, and his father had given a speech about himself and how clever he was.
We had organised a sedate disco afterwards, when Fred’s mother had complained of a migraine and gone home early.
So no, it hadn’t been an event filled with spontaneous joy.
* * *
We had a pleasant evening after that with yet more delicious food, and a lot of laughter.
And I thought again how different this was from my usual life, where I got up early and went to bed early too.
When some days I hardly saw or spoke to anyone except shop assistants or the occasional phone call to friends.
Just as the meal was ending and people were talking about going off to bed, or perhaps the bar for a nightcap, I laughed so much at one of Marjorie’s stories that one of my spaghetti straps on my new dress broke.
To my utter horror the fabric started falling down my body and I had to grab at it before I exposed my boobs to a surprised audience.
‘Good heavens,’ Evelyn said, ‘steady on there, you’ll send Don into a catatonic state.’
She kindly grabbed a napkin and held it up to shield me while I clutched at my wrap to cover up. And suddenly I started laughing again until the tears came to my eyes and my stomach ached. Well, I had thought I wanted more experiences and excitement in my life, but possibly this was a step too far.
Then I made a dash to my cabin, briefly seeing Craig’s eyes popping while behind him Dawn had an expression of shock and outrage as I passed her.
She reacted by putting one hand over Craig’s eyes.
I couldn’t help it; I was giggling all the way at the ridiculous situation in which I found myself, and then I realised that I wasn’t nearly as shocked as I once might have been.
* * *
That evening the air was warm and still, and instead of just going to bed I changed into my swimming costume.
I would go into the pool on the top deck.
Perhaps people would look at me but I didn’t much care.
The sky was dark, the town softly illuminated with glowing lights.
All the noise and excitement of the wedding procession had died down.
Perhaps all those young people were having a party somewhere, laughing and dancing the Kolo in a circle around the newly married couple.
I took off my new turquoise caftan with the tassels and lowered myself into the water, enjoying the coolness after the heat of the day.
In the distance I could see fireworks bursting into the dark sky. Perhaps this was for the same wedding celebration. How lovely.
Further along the deck people were sitting with drinks. Some were leaning over the balustrade to see the lights from the fishing boats and little cruisers coming into harbour.
‘Is it nice in there?’ someone said, and I looked up to see Don grinning down at me.
I hoped he hadn’t seen my earlier flashing attempts.
I sank lower into the water. ‘Lovely.’
‘I might come and join you later—’ he said.
Please don’t, I thought.
‘—but we are playing bridge first. We’re looking for another couple who are keen to learn.’
‘Hope it goes well,’ I said cheerfully. ‘Better than last time.’
‘Yes,’ he said, rather sourly, ‘so do I.’
Realising I probably knew of their crushing defeat at the hands of Evelyn and Jack, he drifted off to badger an inoffensive couple who had been sitting enjoying their coffee at the other end of the deck.
‘I’m glad to see you more covered up. Is the water warm?’ said a new voice, and I looked up to see Dawn anxiously watching me.
‘Lovely,’ I said.
‘I wish I could join you, but the chemicals, you know. I’d be out in a rash in no time. Did you see the fireworks over there earlier on? Dreadful pollutants. And the noise! It shouldn’t be allowed…’
I sighed and dunked my head under the water, and then I did a few lengths of the pool which didn’t take long because it was so small.
When I got back, Dawn was still there. Still talking.
‘…and Craig said I was too invested, and I should stop worrying about such things. And I said it’s all very well for you; you don’t care if the people next door have just bought a petrol car and have had barbeques nearly every week and I do.
And then he said there’s nothing wrong with a burger occasionally. And then I said…’
I did another couple of lengths and then I floated on my back and looked up at the sky, still able to see Dawn out of the corner of my eye, still silently mouthing away about the ills of the world.
I swam over to the side.
‘I’m sure you’re right, Dawn.’
She smiled. ‘Yes, well, I wish other people thought like us. The world would be a much happier place. And don’t worry, I won’t tell a living soul what happened to your dress earlier.’
If I believed that I would believe anything.
‘And I’m looking forward to seeing Krk tomorrow,’ I said, ‘and the wine tasting.’
Dawn laughed. ‘That’s a funny sort of name, isn’t it? Krk. I thought it was a misprint when I first saw it. But then they don’t seem to go in for many vowels over here, do they?’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘I wonder why. Have you seen my husband, by the way? Craig said he was coming up here for yet another nightcap. I told him not to talk to you in case you were embarrassed.’
She peered behind me into the pool as though Craig might be hiding in there.
‘I wasn’t embarrassed at all,’ I said. ‘Accidents happen, and no, I haven’t seen him, for a while.’
Dawn gave a disbelieving snort. ‘I would have been! I would have died if that had happened to me. Fine then, I’ll go and look for him, I can’t stay here chatting all evening.
I wouldn’t stay in there too long; public pools are little more than petri dishes for germs. And you’re looking a bit wrinkly already. ’
Dawn wandered off towards the staircase which led down to the lower decks, and I breathed a sigh of relief.