Sisters 5

Printer-friendly version

CHAPTER 5
That was the start of a new life indeed. Each time I had visited her at university, she had been clearer and sharper in the focus of her femininity, truer to herself. Up until the funeral, it had all had to be folded away and kept in storage whenever she came home. Now, the bird was free, and I had to keep a careful watch on where and how high it flew. I had Kevin to watch, for starters. Then again, her tastes seemed to be heading more in the direction of the shortest skirts she could get away with. The genie was well and truly out of the bottle, and that container was in the local recycling bin and headed for a crusher

I ended up nagging Sar, much to my surprise. After all the drama of coming out to Mam and Dad, of beginning a new role at Aberystwyth under a new name, she was drifting. Always like that, my sister: no backbone.

“So when?”

“When I get round to it, Lainey. Got exams and that, studies, aye?”

"And time passes and you get more and more butch, isn't it? Look at our family, look at the men: you want to look like Dad in that denim mini you wear? Get it done now, get it underway, get the best you can. Sar, chwaer, cariad, I just want you happy, that's all. Well, happy and safe”

She had sighed, looking out of her window for a few seconds.

“Aye. Look, I just have the finals, then that's it. This is a long process, we both know that. Perhaps, as well, you can understand it's a bit hard talking to people about it, even doctors, aye? I have a sort of plan, Lainey. I get my result, and I have confidence in that one, OK? I get my ticket, I find a job, I talk to a local doc, one who'll be there for the thing, I only have to do it the once, aye?”

She looked back at me, eyes moist. “I don't go back to Samuel, ever. I have two friends to carry with me”

Backbone enough, it seemed. I was home the next weekend, and caught Dad before he could avoid me.

“Who, where and why?”

Mam scowled. “Not at work now, are we, Elaine?”

Dad grinned around his fat lip. “Traditional thing, aye, is to ask what the other bloke looked like. Cuppa?”

“Gwrs. Talk to me, Dad”

We took our seats in the front room, for once, and he smiled once again.

“Not past it yet, aye? Had to have a few words with some idiots, isn't it?”

I caught on. “About Sar, Dad? They saying things?”

He grinned, even though it clearly hurt his mouth. “Usually things like 'Please stop hitting me', girl!”

Mam turned her scowl on me again. “Two pretty daughters, he said, two we have, and that is our business, and that of nobody else”

Dad's smile faded. “Aye, your Mam is right. But, well, it's not just your sister, is it?”

Mam's expression grew even darker. “Won't say it to your face, to your uniform, is it? But they think they can say those things to my Twm, and keep their teeth, and wrong they are!”

I gave her my best plismon look. “And you, Mam, you are OK with fighting now?”

A flat stare, not a fluster of justification. “There is fighting for fighting, aye? That is wrong, sinful the Parch would say, but that is not what this is. This is fighting for protection, for honour, aye? This is for family!”

I sighed. “Mam, if you only knew how much rubbish I hear spoken about honour”

Dad sat up straighter, his voice almost hushed. “Aye, Elaine. I've read about that, about women murdered for looking at a man the wrong way, but that isn't what your Mam means. Call it dignity, if you want, but what it is, what it means, is a start, a beginning. Let one of them think he can get away with the words, then the actions follow. It stops. I stop it, aye?”

I took his meaning, and from then on made sure I was well away from any pub he frequented. I was always a loser in fighting temptation.

A few days later, I was out at a pub with Kev, as one simple way of keeping said temptation at bay. I'd left the bike and car behind, as for once I felt like getting a little tipsy. Life was not being kind to me, and Dad's fighting had struck home. What was I up there in Abergwaun but a figure to be pointed at, the local dyke on a bike. The family that got everything wrong, whose son minced around in a skirt, and the odd thing was that as that thought bit home, I loved Mam and Dad deeply. They hadn't taken easily to either of us, but they stayed true and firm and strong.

“What's up, Lainey?”

“Ah, butt, just life, aye?”

“Your Dad? I've heard, some of the boys, eh? Been a few in casualty, innit? How's the sister, anyway?”

I gave him my best stoneface. “And you ask why? You know what she is, nothing there for you, is it?”

He almost blushed. “Not like that, Lainey. I know, well, aye, but when I saw her that first time, it was like seeing you, just, well, a bit less butch, and that threw me, that I fancied the boy in the dress more than the woman in the uniform. She's very like you, mate, as you were when you had just started in The Job. Confusing, it was”

He looked down, and this time there was a blush showing. “Anyway, you know how I feel about you. No, listen, I'm a realist, I know what you are as well as you do. Just take this as I mean it. I will never, ever abandon you. I will do my best never to let you down. And I think I can take it as read that you are the same, that you would do that for me, isn't it?”

“What aren't you telling me, Kev?”

Definitely a blush. “I'm on a blind date tonight. You're the moral support”

“Fuck me backwards! Er, well, you know what I mean. Some warning, aye? Tell me, while we have time”

“Newspaper thing, Guardian, telephone number. Got talking, she sounded nice, sounds nice, and, well, I sort of arranged, sort of have a workmate along, sort of thing, public place, safety---”

“You are rambling, butt. What's she look like?”

“Dunno, do I? Says she has short brown hair, wearing a blue dress, carrying a Guardian, all clichés, I know---”

“Shush, Kev. Clock the bar, aye? Short dark hair, blue dress, newspaper in her hand, and the way she's looking round, she's trying to spot someone. What did you say about yourself?”

“I'd be with a mate, copy of the paper...”

“Well, where is it?”

“Under my coat. Wanted to get a look at her first, see if, you know”

“See if she was worth talking to or not, and if not, sneak out and leave her standing? What's her name?”

“Vicky. No, Lainey, don't!”

Ignoring him, I got up and walked over to the woman at the bar.

“Hello, are you looking for Kevin?”

She slumped. “You the workmate, or the wife?”

English. “You had that before, have you? Nope, the workmate, and on the wrong bus for him, isn't it?”

Suddenly, she started to laugh, and I liked her immediately.

“The joke is? And I'm Elaine, by the way”

“Let's go and meet Romeo, then. He hiding the paper in case he wants to do a runner? I'll explain the joke when we get sat down. Drinks first, though. Yours?”

I looked over to the table. “Pint of the Brain's for me and him, if you're offering”

She caught the eye of the barman. “Two pints of Brain's and two dry whites, please”

I led the way over to the table, suspicions raised by the extra drink.

“Kev, Vicky, Vicky, Kev. You can get the paper out now, butt, she's only got the one head. Men, who'd have 'em?”

Vicky took the offered seat. “Not you, at least”

Kev started. “Bit quick with the personal info, Lainey”

“Na, she thought I was your wife, out to scupper your search for a bit on the side. Vicky, he's single. Want me to sod off for a bit?”

“No ta. Nice to see a bloke with a bit of reality in tow”

She looked slightly hurt with that one. “What it is all about is a number of meetings where the solo bloke is a bit expansive with his background, a bit sort of expanded out of reality.. Wives, jobs, waist size, they all get adjusted to fit. So, I asked if he had a mate to bring along”

I laughed. “Let me guess. You did the same, a mate to distract the mate. And then his mate's a woman, so your mate will be a bit cheesed off”

Vicky laughed, and I liked her a lot for that sound. “No, that's what's creasing me up! I brought her because she's safe from all that. She's on the same bus you are! Ah, here she is. Kevin, Elaine, this is my cousin Sián”

up
141 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

And I laughed too :)

Podracer's picture

I can SEE Kev hunched and furtive at the table..

"Reach for the sun."

Ah, Sian!

joannebarbarella's picture

If my memory serves me correctly, Lainie has just met her soulmate. Cue thunder and lightning....and kisses and cuddles,

Joanne