On the Cut
A story about life on the Canals in England.
There are some days in the middle of winter that are perfectly described using a single word. That word is ‘Dreich’. It is a Scottish word that means one or more of the following, ‘Bleak, miserable, dismal, cheerless and dreary.' If you add a biting wind that comes from straight from the Arctic ocean and you get the idea about just how it was that day.
If I’d have had any say in the matter, I’d have been in a pub with a big log fire, some good food and more than a few pints of good beer. But I didn’t have any say in what I had to do that day.
I was at the helm of my narrowboat 'Roxy' and heading west out of London. I'd been moored at various places in the City since the previous October. You can legally moor up for up to two weeks at a time without paying mooring fees. A good number of people live all year round like that. I'd hoped to have stayed until the warmer weather but as they say, the best-laid plans and all that.
Roxy had sprung a leak over the time I’d been in London and needed to receive some TLC plus a few upgrades. Roxy is also my home for most of the year. While it wasn’t serious it could get that way if left unattended so, I’d booked her into the boatyard in Oxford for a refit starting in three weeks. London to Oxford is not that far as the crow flies but by water, it is getting on for double the distance. A lot of the trip is also against the flow of the River Thames which cuts your speed down quite a bit. The day was set to be cold but sunny so I’d made an early start on my journey.
I turned around to see five young men all wearing black hoodies and bandana's and riding BMX bikes chasing a single man along the towpath. It looked like that they were going to win the race when I saw one of them pull a large knife from his belt. I guessed that they were out for blood. I could not let that happen.
I quickly assessed the situation and realised that if I could get the man being pursued onto my boat, I could take us over to the far side of the can and hopefully out of their reach.
I throttled back and took Roxy close to the bank as I dared. The man looked terrified.
“Jump on board,” I shouted.
The man didn’t need a second invite. He leapt aboard and in doing so, almost knocked me off the other side. I quickly regained my composure and got Roxy going again. I put the tiller hard over and slowly she came close to the far bank of the canal.
Those in pursuit were not happy. They started mouthing off at both of us. They threatened to kill both of us ‘Paedo’s and make an example of us in the process. What they had in mind for us was not very nice at all. As a follow-up to the verbals, they started lobbing whatever came to hand at Roxy and the two of us.
A narrowboat is not a swift vessel at the best of times and there are speed limits on the canal but for once, I opened her right up in the vain hope that we could escape. The gang were easily able to outpace us but I carried on nevertheless with Roxy hugging the far side of the canal as much as possible.
We approached a rail bridge. A sign on the side of it said ‘Mitre Road Junction’. One of the gang went up onto the railway bridge and started to relieve himself right onto Roxy as we passed underneath.
“Duck into the cabin,” I said ushering the young man down the steps and into my living quarters.
I had waterproofs on but even so, I really didn’t want to get his urine on me even if I was wearing fully waterproof clothes. Thankfully, he’d shot his load just before I passed under him.
Once we were out the other side of the bridge, I fully expected to see them chasing us but they stopped at the bridge and continued to hurl insults at us until we could hear them no more.
I breathed a sigh of relief and throttled back until we were travelling with legal limits once again.
Five minutes later, I slowed right down and came into the bank. There was no sign of the hoodie-wearing thugs and I decided that it was time for a temporary halt whereas the song goes, 'I could review the situation'.
“Why? Why have you stopped?” asked my guest with a lot of urgency in their voice.
“Those thugs didn’t follow us beyond the railway bridge and I need a brew it is pretty cold standing up there for hour after hour.”
“Brew?”
“Tea. Far too early for booze but it is never too early for some tea.”
He relaxed as I leapt off ‘Roxy’ and tied her up to a gatepost on the other side of the towpath. Then after going back on board my boat, I went down into the cabin.
My guest was very nervous. He backed away from me.
“There is no need to be afraid of me. If you want to get off there is the door.”
I moved away from the steps that led out of the cabin. He didn’t move.
“I’m Ray. Ray Curtis and this is my home, the narrowboat Roxy,” I said as a way of welcoming him. I filled the kettle and put it on to boil. I use a small gas stove for all my cooking.
My guest said nothing but carried on watching me prepare the cups for two teas.
“Milk? Sugar?”
“Just milk please.”
From the few words he’d said, I guessed that he was from Suffolk. He sounded just like my second cousin Frank who came from Stowmarket.
The kettle came to the boil and I poured us large mugs of tea. He just wrapped his hands around the mug. He was not dressed for this weather and his hands were quite grimy. I wondered when was the last time he’d had a decent wash let alone a shower or a bath.
I considered inviting him to take a shower but I didn't have enough water on board at the moment. Water, water everywhere and nary a drop to drink. All of us who lived on the canals had said that to ourselves many times.
“What do I call you?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
“It does not have to be your real name. Many of us on the water use assumed names for a variety of reasons. Ray Curtis is not my real name but it is the name that others who live on the canal know me by.”
He looked at me suspiciously. I guessed that he was around sixteen or seventeen. Most of the young people living on the streets seem to be that sort of age.
“Melody. I’m Melody.”
The fact that he was using a female name didn’t shock me. I could see the remains of some red and black nail varnish on his left hand.
“Welcome aboard Roxy, Melody.”
She looked at me as if to say… ‘didn’t you hear what I just said?’
"Melody is such a nice name. I don't think that I have ever met another Melody before."
"Don't it matter that I'm a man and… Well… Like… Melody is a female name?"
“It does not matter at all Melody.”
“Bollocks! I’m a tranny. Most people throw a mega wobbly when they hear that.”
I smiled back at her.
“Have I thrown a wobbly as you put it? No, I haven’t. I learned a long time ago to take people as I see them.”
“Yeah right!”
“I’m being serious. As I said, a lot of people who live on the canals of Britain use fake names. Bargees have done that since the start of the canal age in the late eighteenth century. I know of two people who call themselves Dawn and George. Dawn is like you a male to female transsexual. George is female to male. They are now in their fifties and have been together for around thirty years. No one really knows and what is more important, no one really cares. They travel around the canals doing odd jobs for the other canal folk. George is a wizard at fixing things like toasters and the like. Dawn makes furniture and other stuff. They rock up at a mooring for a week to ten days at a time and then move on. There are many others like them living on the ‘cut’.”
Melody didn’t say much so I changed the subject.
“I’m heading for a mooring just to the east of Hayes tonight. There is a huge Tesco’s right alongside the canal. If you want, we can get you some clothes.”
“I don’t have any money and I’m not taking any from you!” replied Melody very forcibly.
I tried hard but failed to suppress a small laugh.
“Everyone thinks that just because I’m on the streets I’m fair game. You buy me a meal and expect me you suck your dick in return,” countered Melody.
“The last thing I was thinking about was having you suck my dick as you so eloquently put it. How about you work for your keep. Do some housework, help with the locks and such like. In return, I’ll provide you with a place to sleep, food and some decent clothing. If we buy you some clothes today and then you decide to leg it with them, then that’s my loss. What do you say?”
Melody didn’t answer me so I tried another tack.
"Why not buy something sensible but nice then wear it tonight and we can go out for an Indian tonight. There is a great place near the canal in the middle of Hayes. I don't mean look like a tart or a prossie. Just a slightly dowdy young woman. That is just the sort of person that people don't notice."
I paused for a few seconds.
“How about it eh?”
There was still no reaction.
“I’ll even spring for a hotel room for tonight. There will be plenty of hot water.”
“One room?”
“Each.”
Slowly she began to smile.
"Perhaps you aren't like all the rest. People promise the earth but there is only want one thing that they want at the end. of the day"
“I’m not like that at all.”
“That’s what they all say.”
I sighed.
“Then let me prove it to you tonight?”
“I don’t do blow jobs!”
“So, you have said and the last thing I am looking for is any form of sexual contact.”
Her look said to me ‘prove it’.
I stood up.
“This sitting around talking won’t get us to Tesco’s let alone to the Hotel at a decent time.”
I left her sitting in the small cabin and went up on deck. After releasing the mooring, I climbed back on board and started the engine. We were underway again.
“Where are we?”
“Look to your left and up.”
“That’s the North Circular Road. We are just over an hour from Hayes at this rate.”
“We were going faster before?”
“We were but that was strictly for emergencies. We are limited to four miles an hour on the canal. A bit faster on some rivers like parts of the Thames.”
Melody sighed. Her stomach rumbled.
“When was the last time you had a decent meal?”
“Two or three days ago. Sausage and Chips from a mobile van.”
“Why don’t you go below and fix us both a cheese sandwich. There is bread in the cupboard next to the kettle and cheese in the fridge. There is some pickle there as well. That should tide us over until later.”
Melody didn’t move.
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
I smiled.
“What? Being nice to someone in need?”
“Yeah. Why?”
I resisted shrugging my shoulders.
“I guess that it is because I could have done with someone helping me when I was your age. I didn’t and I left home much like you. Ten years later, here I am, a wanderer with no fixed abode but in general I’m pretty happy. Happy to be alive.”
I let out a small laugh.
"Now it is my chance to help someone in need. I shudder to think what that gang would have done to you had the gotten hold of you. They didn't and it is time for you to get your life together if you want to that is? If you don't and want to head off on your own again, just say the word and I'll stop. Or you can wait until you have some clothes and a full stomach and then disappear or, you can come with me until you finally decide what it is that you want to do with your life. If that is going back on the streets then fine.”
Melody just shrugged her shoulders.
“Give it a try. There will be some hard work. Locks are a fact of life to us when we are on the move. The advantage is that every few weeks, I move on apart from Easter.”
“What happens at Easter?”
I sighed.
“Easter is when I’m summoned to my Father’s home. He’ll rant and rave at me and how I’ve wasted my life when I could be more like my brother David who is running the family firm. To be honest, the prospect of being tied to a desk is one of the main reasons why I left home a week after my eighteenth birthday."
“If it is that bad why do you go?”
“A bit of masochism I suppose. I love seeing him rant and try to get me to stop being a wastrel. Besides, the whole thing just makes me appreciate my life such as it is, is even more worth living. Call it a reality check if you like. Maybe one day, I'll just say yes and give up this life but at the moment I'm pretty happy with my lot and see no reason to change one little bit.”
Melody disappeared below and soon returned with a cheese sandwich for each of us. The bread was doorstep sized but it didn’t matter very much. I’d get some more bread very soon. She’d just cut the bread and put large bits of cheese between them.
“Oh well…” I thought.
“She has a lot to learn but we all had to start somewhere.”
Melody wolfed the sandwich down. On the other hand, I nibbled at mine. She'd finished hers before I had got even halfway through mine. I handed what was left to her.
She smiled, nodded her head and took it.
“Another brew I think?” I suggested when she’d finished eating.
This time she responded with a bigger smile before disappearing below. Perhaps she was starting to trust me just a little.
‘Memo to self. Don’t mention the bruises!’. There were fresh ones on both her arms. I’d seen them despite her attempts to conceal them.
“Take a trolley for yourself,” I suggested as we walked towards the building.
“I don’t have any money?”
I smiled.
“I’ll pay for whatever you get. Don’t forget to include a bag of some sort to put your things in.”
“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll do a runner the first chance I get?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take. Someone very much like me showed faith in me when I wasn’t much older than you. He took a chance just like I’m doing right now and it worked out ok. If you quit then that’s a risk I’m willing to take. It is all down to what you feel is best for you.”
Melody didn’t say anything but I saw a slight nod of the head.
“Shall we go in?”
“Ok,” replied Melody quietly.
As we pushed our trolley’s into the store, I said,
“Get yourself a coat. What you have on is nowhere near good enough for this sort of weather. If it is waterproof then that’s even better.”
“Are you sure? It will not be cheap?”
“Plastic pays the bills on days like today so don’t worry about the cost. Get what you need.”
As Melody headed towards the clothing section of the store, I wondered if I should have added, ‘but don’t go overboard’ but it was too late for that. Instead, I concentrated on not forgetting what groceries I needed and remembering that I was not shopping for one for the time being.
I’d found everything I needed after a little under half an hour so I went in search of Melody.
I found her in the lingerie section. She was holding a nightdress as if it was the last one on the planet. I saw that her eyes were red. The redness around her eyes told me that she'd been crying. I could not decide if they were tears of joy or sadness.
“That will look good on you,” I said quietly.
Melody almost jumped out of her skin.
“Sorry,” I said.
"That's all right. It is a bit overwhelming… All this choice. I wondered what this day would feel like and nothing could have prepared me for what it really is like to live as a woman."
I was about to say something but stopped myself just in time.
"It looks like you are going to be for some time. I'll go and pay for these groceries and then I'll be back to help… if you want me to that is. I have some frozen items that need to be put away sooner rather than later."
Melody didn’t answer but I saw the signs of concern on her face.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do a runner. I can’t go very fast in Roxy now can I eh?”
It took her a second or so to realise what I’d said. Then she smiled.
[to be continued]
[Authors Note]
The term 'Cut' is the name for a canal. It was coined by the navvies who literally 'cut' their way through the countryside to build the canals across the UK in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
I returned to the store as quickly as I could but I couldn’t find Melody anywhere in the clothes department. There was no evidence of an abandoned trolley full of clothes so I was left a bit perplexed. Where was she?
I began to walk through the main section of the store. As I did so, I scanned the aisles. There was no sign of Melody anywhere until I caught sight of a trolley half full of clothes in the aisle that had the racks of makeup.
I managed a smile as I saw Melody looking at shampoo.
“Your hair is fairly greasy,” I said calmly.
Melody almost jumped out of her skin.
“Sorry,” I said.
She managed a smile.
“Is this ok? I sort of used what was there before,” she said holding up a bottle.
“That’s good. You can take a long shower at the Hotel tonight.”
“You have a shower. I saw it from the cabin.”
"I do but the water I have onboard is limited. I’ll need to fill the tanks when we reach the Marina in Brentford tomorrow. Then you can shower on board. It takes a while but after a bit, you get used to not wasting water”.
That seemed to satisfy her for the time being.
“As you are in this section, perhaps you should choose some makeup?”
Melody didn’t answer.
“We are supposed to be going to the Indian tonight, aren’t we?” I said by way of reminder.
“Oh! I’d forgotten.”
She led the way towards the huge selection of makeup that was on display. I stepped back and let her make some choices. It wasn’t too far out as far as I was concerned apart from the nail varnish.
“That colour of red really isn’t what young women are wearing these days. Those pale colours are what is in fashion if I am any judge.”
Melody went slightly red in the face.
“It is a nice happy colour,” she said as she returned it to the display.
She selected a pale green colour.
“That’s more like it,” I said although I’d never be seen dead wearing that sort of colour. For me, it was either a nice bright red or black.
Thankfully, the assistant at the checkout was wearing almost the same shade of green. I was sure that Melody had noticed this but she didn’t say anything. Her voice would need some work before it would pass but that was for another day.
Melody’s shopping expedition cost me £273.60. There were a few things missing but they could wait for another day. As the items were passed through the checkout, I noticed that she’d been quite sensible with her choices. There was nothing too flamboyant which pleased me no end.
“I didn’t realise that I’d selected so much,” said Melody softly as we crossed the car park on our way back to ‘Roxy’.
“I didn’t put a limit on your spending and you did pretty well with your choices. We can get you some wellies at the Marina tomorrow.”
“Wellies?”
“Yes, Wellies. Some of the canal paths can be pretty boggy and it pays dividends in the long run to have sensible footwear.”
“What’s wrong with these?”
Melody was wearing an old and very down at heel pair of Dr Martins.
“Those have seen better days but they can probably be repaired. We can try to get them done when we get to Oxford or maybe in Reading but the forecast for the week ahead is for quite a bit of rain so having a pair of wellies is pretty well essential.”
Melody didn’t say anything. I wondered if she was thinking of doing a runner.
“If you want to leave then go. I won’t try to hold you back. I do know what it is like to be alone in a strange place at your age but for me, the strange place was one where most of the wildlife would sooner kill you than let you kill them.”
“But you have Roxy and everything?” replied Melody totally ignoring my comment.
“That’s through a lot of luck and finding that I had a talent. Perhaps one day, I’ll tell you all about it. Suffice to say that I was cast adrift by my family when I dropped out of Uni halfway through the first term. My life had been planned by my family and being away from home for the first time, allowed me to see that. They sent me away to ‘make a man of me’. That failed but events allowed me to build my own life.”
“But… didn’t you say that you are going to see your family at Easter?”
“Yes, I am and it only serves one purpose. As I said before, that is to tell me that I’m doing the right thing. If I can rub my Father’s nose in it a bit then all well and good.”
We reached ‘Roxy’ and after unloading the trolley, I got Melody to return it to the car park.
When she returned, it was already close to sunset.
“We need to get going. There is a mooring in Hayes that from the waterways web site is free but I don't like traveling in the dark."
Melody took the hint and cast off the bow line. As I let go, the aft line, she clambered on board.
“Well done. It is a lot easier if there are two people on the boat.”
She managed a smile.
“Why don’t you go below and sort out what you want to wear tonight. The rest can be put in the cabin just past the shower. I’ll clear out the bits of my stuff that are in there tomorrow.”
"Grab your things for tonight. The hotel where we are staying is just by that last bridge we went under,” I said as she made the bow line tight.
I went into my cabin and closed the door. I stood still for a few seconds and wondered if I was doing the right thing.
After a few seconds, I decided that I was so I packed a bag with everything that I needed for the evening and the night and joined Melody on the towpath.
After locking the door to the cabin, I said,
“I’m looking forward to a nice shower and then something to eat.”
Melody smiled at me in the almost total darkness. A few lights twinkled from the nearby streets but otherwise, the canal was a ribbon of blackness that into stretched into the distance.
I used a torch to help guide us to the set of steps that allowed us to reach the road that went up and over the railway line. The sound of trains passing just a few yards away was very evident. I hoped that our rooms would be well soundproofed.
The check-in at the hotel was very easy. I'd paid for the rooms when I'd booked them on my phone. I just showed my driving license and credit card and it was done. The address on the license was well out of date but living onboard a home that moved meant that keeping it updated was a hopeless task.
Our rooms on the third floor were next door to each other.
“Lets’ meet at seven and then we can go out for dinner. The Restaurant is less than a hundred yards away,” I suggested to Melody as she stood at the door to her room.
“I hope that I don’t fall asleep before then,” she said trying to stifle a yawn.
I grinned.
“Please try to stay awake until after we have eaten.”
Melody grinned back at me.
When I was safely behind the door to my room, I wondered once again if I was doing the right thing. Part of me wanted to run for the hills and part of me wanted to help Melody. The other part of me had decided to stick its head in the sand and have nothing more to say on the matter.
Once again, I decided to go with the flow and help Melody. It would also be nice to have some company on board Roxy. I’d never had to share her with anyone else so I’d have to make some changes to the way I lived in order to accommodate her but I was sure that I’d manage given time.
After sorting out everything for the evening, I went into the shower. I could hear Melody making full use of the clean water through the fairly thin walls. I decided to wait until she had finished before I had my shower so I prepared my clothes for the evening.
At dead-on seven, opened the door to my room. The corridor outside was empty. I couldn't hear anything coming from her room so I tapped lightly on the door. I heard her say, 'coming' from inside. I took a deep breath.
The door opened and as soon as Melody saw me, she shrieked and retreated into her room.
I walked in and closed the door behind me.
“But…” she pointed at me.
“But…”
“Yes Melody, I’m like you.”
I looked down at my small breasts. They were clearly visible through the pale yellow top that I was wearing along with a black maxi skirt.
“These are real. I’ve been on hormones for nearly a year.”
Melody sank down onto her bed and the tears started to flow. I sat next to her and gave her a handkerchief from my coat pocket.
“But you said that your name was Ray!”
I smiled.
“I said that ‘Ray Curtis’ was the name that I used. It is my name until we get to Reading and I can meet with my Solicitor. Then, I’m going to change it to Lauren Hall. Actually, Lauren Savannah Hall.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I thought that you would do a runner if I told you that I was like you. Now you can see it for yourself.”
I decided to change the subject.
“You look very nice. That top suits you.”
"Really? Isn't it a bit dressy?"
I chuckled.
“Going out for dinner is a time to get a little bit dressy don’t you think?”
Then I added.
“Your makeup is a bit heavy but I’m sure that it will improve in time.”
Melody managed a smile.
“But… you said that you had quit university almost at the start?”
“You are wondering how I got here?”
“Yes. It makes no sense.”
“Then it is a perfect thing to discuss over dinner don’t you think?”
Melody sighed.
“I suppose so.”
I stood up and helped her into her coat. Then we left the hotel and headed for the restaurant.
Once I’d ordered for both of us and our drinks had been delivered, I began my tale.
“My father was not amused when he found out that I’d quit Uni after less than a month. The atmosphere of the place just made me want to throw up. It wasn’t for me at all. After a huge row at home, he sent me off like some 18th Century convict to my Uncle Fraser’s farm in Australia. His parting words were, ‘don’t come back until you have seen sense and become a man’. You are going to run the business as I planned all along'. I didn't have anything else to do so I went. It was more a case of getting away from him and the smirking of my younger brother David. He’s a real slimy person. I would not trust him as far as I’d throw him. He dobbed me into dad more than once when we were growing up. He also had this knack of making it appear that I was the one doing wrong when it was always him. The only time he ever got into trouble was after he’d accused me of taking three hundred quid from my Aunt Caroline when she’d given me the money to pay for a new set of tyres for her car. Caroline came over and tore dad off a strip. I was still the criminal in his eyes. I was really glad to get away for a while at least.”
“Uncle Fraser is Dad’s younger brother. He was just like my dad in that he had the careers of his three sons all mapped out. Their farm is over two hundred square kilometres in size. He was going to split it up between the three of them. It soon became evident that all of them disliked me and the fact that I'd been imposed on his family meant that I was given all the really nasty, smelly, and horrible jobs to do. I managed to last until a week before Christmas. Then a bull decided that I was fair game as I was apparently getting in between him and the cows. I ended up in the hospital, with three broken ribs and a concussion."
“You poor thing.”
I smiled.
"When no one from the farm came to see me until the day I was due to be discharged it was clear that they wanted me gone. Stew, one of the three sons came to pick me up for which I was grateful until just after we'd left the hospital, we were stopped at some traffic lights when Stew said, ‘You got lucky. We don’t want you here so why not piss off home?”
He even reached over and opened the passenger door of his pickup. I pulled it closed but I got the message loud and clear.”
I swallowed hard.
“I found out from talking to one of the hands that Stew had moved the bull into the paddock where I’d be working. They wanted me gone in any way possible.”
Melody was all ears.
"I knew then that I had to get out of there ASAP. I said nothing to anyone at the farm but that night, I packed my things and in the early hours, I crept out of the house and borrowed Stew's pickup. I drove into town and parked it right outside the Police Station. I stopped an Officer as he was entering the Station and gave him the keys."
“Didn’t they arrest you?”
“I’d only borrowed it and I was family and the officer had seen me driving it the day before my accident with the bull. After I’d explained to the officer what I was doing, he accepted my explanation and let me go. I walked across the street to the bus station where there was a bus going to Sydney a few hours later. That was Christmas eve.”
“What did you do then?”
“I managed to find a hotel room in a not very desirable part of Sydney for Christmas and New Year but I knew that I had to do something before my money ran out. A couple of days later, I found myself at the main railway station and saw that there was a train going right across the continent. That seemed to be about as far away as I could get so I booked my tickets. The first leg was to Adelaide and after a week or so of doing odd jobs, I continued towards Perth. Something made me get off in Kalgoorlie which is the centre of the Australian Gold Fields. It was hot. No, make that really hot. Forty Degrees was a cool day but I just felt this attraction to the place, I signed on with a three-man team and went prospecting as soon as the season opened at the end of January.”
“Did you find Gold?”
“We did. My share was just about enough to get me home but I learned enough from the others plus my ‘A’ level geology that there was a lot more gold close to this lease but the others were not interested in going looking for at that time so I returned to town with them and spent some of the gold on a small car, a metal detector and a tent and stuff plus a few weeks supply of food and water. Then I went back into the bush specifically, a hundred and ten miles from Kalgoorlie where I started looking on the next-door lease to the very one we’d been on. This lease was not owned by anyone which meant that it is called ‘Government Land’. As long as you paid your fee and were registered as a gold miner, you could prospect it freely. After three days of almost nothing, I hit pay-dirt. I was right on the border with the lease that my former partners owned. I found six nuggets that were worth over thirty thousand Aussie Dollars. I nearly quit right then but as I had supplies for a few more days, I carried on. By the time the week was up, I’d found a lot more gold. I almost fainted when the Assay Office told me that I had over three hundred and sixty thousand Aussie Dollars in gold sitting on the counter in front of me. Talk about beginner's luck! I put most of it in the bank and went on a bender. I woke up three days later broke and also no longer a virgin. I sold the car and my kit and headed for Perth. I made a deal with another prospector to sell him the location of my strike. That paid for my flight home."
“What about your Uncle?”
I laughed.
“He’d not said anything to my father. I found out a few years ago that he’d torn a strip of Stew for letting the cat out of the bag about what they were doing to me. Anyway, I returned back to the UK.”
“What happened then? Did you go home?”
I shook my head.
“I was done with them. Due to a piece of luck, I had a window seat on the flight and when came into land at Heathrow, I saw all these boats on the canal and realised that was where I could look for somewhere to live that was pretty anonymous. Sort of there but not there if you get my drift. I took the bus from the airport to Woking and after checking into a Hotel. I bought myself a tent, a rucksack, and a folding bicycle I was ready to go. I started riding along the canals and rivers. At night, I'd usually find somewhere to pitch the tent or about once a week in a hotel much like we are doing tonight. I'd enjoy a bit of luxury, get my laundry done, and the like. After nearly two years riding and walking the canals, I ended up at a boatyard near Coventry where I saw Roxy for sale. That was nearly five years ago. I’ve been going up and down the canals ever since.”
Melody went silent as our food arrived.
Her eyes bulged from her head as she saw the quantity but almost all of it was consumed before the end of the evening. I let Melody take the lions share.
As we walked the short distance back to the Hotel she asked.
“What do you live off? That money from the gold can’t have lasted until now? Roxy must have cost a packet.”
“That’s a very astute observation Melody. The answer can wait for another day. I think it is time for both of us to get some sleep. We are only going as far as Brentford tomorrow. However, there are from memory twelve locks to go through before we hit the River Thames. We’ll stay until the next morning when the tide will be coming in and will make our passage through the tidal section of the river a lot easier. Going with the tidal flow is a lot easier than going against it.”
Melody looked disappointed but accepted my decision.
When we reached our rooms, I said,
"Sleep well. I won't mind it at all if you decide not to come with me tomorrow. I'm aiming to cast off at first light which is around half-past seven. Breakfast at the Tesco’s where we went shopping earlier before we start hitting the locks. The Café opens at eight.”
She didn’t commit one way or the other but simply said with a smile on her face,
“Goodnight and thanks for everything.”
[to be continued]
I really didn’t want to get out of bed the following morning. The hotel bed was so comfortable when compared to its counterpart on Roxy. I rolled over and switched on the radio. The 06:00 news was just finishing. That meant that I had plenty of time to get up in a controlled fashion rather than my normal wake up and get out of bed. I normally reserved my few ‘lounging in bed’ times to when I was in a Hotel but I had to be out of the Hotel and back onboard Roxy before sunrise if we were going to get to Brentford by sunset.
The weather that had been forecast came on a little later. Squally rain was predicted with the same North Easterly as the previous day. The only plus point for the day ahead was that most of the relatively short trip down to Brentford was well sheltered from the wind.
My thoughts turned to Melody. In many ways, she was me but 'the me' of almost ten years ago. I wondered if she’d be with me today. I’d accepted that letting her take the clothes that I’d paid for and exiting stage left was a real possibility. If it happened, then it happened but it would be nice to have some company for a while even if it meant clearing out the spare cabin so that she would have somewhere to sleep.
I guess I must have dozed off because before I knew it, it was 07:00. Somewhat reluctantly, I got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. It had been nice to actually feel like a woman for once the previous evening but today it was back to my male clothes again. I knew that if Melody decided to come with me, she’d ask me why. I had my reasons but telling her in a way that would seem reasonable was not going to be easy.
I put all those what if’s and maybe’s out of my mind and concentrated on getting ready to leave.
It was just before 07:30 when I reached Roxy. There was no sign of Melody. Her room had been silent when I walked past. The signs were that she was going to sleep in and go her own way. I shrugged my shoulder and opened up the cabin.
After some checks, I was ready to go. The water leak from the prop shaft seal was controllable. The bilge pump was able to keep the water to a decent level but for how long? I made a swift prayer to the patron saint of canal boaters and hoped that it would last until I was able to get Roxy to the boatyard for the repairs and the upgrades that I'd planned last autumn but things had conspired against me and they had to be delayed until now. I’d be really glad to get rid of that infernal, sorry Internal Combustion Engine that powered Roxy. It was working well now but for how long? After the seemingly endless set of troubles that I’d had with it last year, I couldn’t wait to see it consigned to the scrapheap in a few weeks.
With a prayer to the god of engines, I started the engine and while it was warming up, I cast off the bow-line. With a final look towards the steps that led towards the hotel, I cast off the stern line and climbed on board.
I slowly edged Roxy away from the mooring and headed for breakfast.
I’d gone around 100 yards when something made me look behind me. There was Melody hurrying as fast as she could along the towpath. I waved to her, slowed Roxy down and steered her into the bank.
A rather breathless Roxy reached me a minute or so later.
“Sorry. I forgot how much stuff we bought yesterday. It took me ages to pack it all.”
“That’s all right. Stow your bags below and I'll get us underway."
Melody went down into the cabin with her ‘stuff’ and I got Roxy in motion again.
“I really didn’t want to get out of bed,” she admitted when she joined me in the cockpit.
I smiled.
“Same here but the hours of daylight so few at this time of year that we have to make the best of them if we want to get anywhere before nightfall.”
Melody was quiet for a few minutes. Then she said,
“You didn’t ask me about me? Where I come from and the like?”
I chuckled.
“By your accent, I'd say that you come from Suffolk. Stowmarket or Bury (St Edmonds) or thereabouts.”
“What? Are you Dr Doolittle or something?”
I laughed properly this time. Melody looked hurt.
“More like Sherlock Holmes or Professor Higgins than Dr Doolittle. He spoke to the animals.”
Thankfully, Melody saw the funny side of things.
“How… how did you know that I came from Suffolk?”
“I went to school in Suffolk. St Felix’s. I was a boarder. That’s the big school that you pass on your way into Southwold.”
“Oh yes. I know. Mum… she liked Southwold. Too gentile for Dad.”
“What did your parents do? Before you and they parted company that is?”
“Mum was a carer at a local Hospice. Dad ran a small car repair shop. He was always at work so I hardly got to see him. Mum came home one day and found me… being me, Melody. She marched me around to Dad’s place still wearing her clothes. Things went rapidly downhill at home from then on. I was hardly ever at home alone after that. Neither of them would even talk about how I felt.”
“That must have been hard?”
“Yeah. I had to account for every penny of my pocket money that I spent. Thankfully, I had a good friend who understood what I was going through. She was a lesbian. We studied together as our parents were good friends. Josie let me be myself when I was in her room. The oldies thought that nothing would go on between us.”
“But it did?”
“Yeah. We lost our virginities one Saturday morning. She needed to know what it was like… with a man inside her. She didn’t really like it at all but we’d agreed that it was something we had to do for both of us. Everything was fine until just before our GCSE exams. Her dad caught us in the middle of a big kiss and threw me out. They moved her away a week or so later. Josie came back for her exams but was always chaperoned by one or the other of her parents. When I ran away, I sneaked into her room just to say goodbye. She almost came with me but her father had made it clear that if he caught us together again, he would not be responsible for his actions. Josie was the only person I said goodbye to.”
“Do you know if you were reported missing? What I mean is… are the Police and Social Services after you?”
Melody shook her head. Her freshly washed and conditioned hair was shining in the sun that had just appeared over the old coffee factory building.
“I’ve been picked up a few times by the Police since I came to London. My guess is that if they had been looking for me then I’d have been sent back to Suffolk. They didn’t so I have to assume that I’m not on any list of missing people.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“No chance. If they take me back then I’ll leave again. I’m Melody now and for the foreseeable future.”
I thought for a moment but decided to hold off saying what I was about to say until later.
“We are just about back at Tesco’s.”
I looked at my watch.
“They’ll be opening the Café in a few minutes. Is there anything that you missed getting yesterday?”
“Some eye makeup remover perhaps?”
There were still traces of mascara and eyeliner around her eyes.
“Good. I’ll get some fresh milk and bread. I didn’t get any yesterday knowing that I’d be back this way today.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Melody as her stomach rumbled.
“Sorry!” she said smiling.
“That’s all right.”
I’d cleared a good amount of space in the spare bedroom when I heard Melody calling out.
“There is a lock ahead.”
I put down what I’d been moving and joined her on deck where I saw that the first pair of lock gates were open.
“We are lucky that the gates are open. Slow her right down and go into the lock.”
“How do I do that?”
I realised that I had not really shown her the controls other than how to use the tiller to change direction.
“Ok, watch me. I’ll be looking for you to handle a lock yourself before the day is out.
She briefly went white in the face. Then she realised that I was giving her some responsibility and smiled back at me.
I throttled back and let Roxy coast into the lock. The locks on this part of the canal network are big enough for two narrowboats to use at the same time. There was nothing else moving on the canal so we had it to ourselves.
As her bow passed the first lock gates, I applied some reverse throttle to slow her even more. Roxy came to a halt inside the lock.
“Take the stern line and go up onto the lock edge. Use it to keep her from drifting back while I close the lock gates. Don’t tie it up as the water level will drop quite rapidly once I open the sluices.”
Melody took the stern mooring line and leapt onto the edge of the canal lock. I made a mental note to caution her about that. I cut the engine and joined her on the side of the lock.
“Watch how I close the gates. Don’t try to rush this or you will strain something,” I said warning her. Lock gates can weigh over a tonne each. Slow and steady is the order of the day.
I closed the first of the pair and then went to the other side of the lock and did the same. When they met in the middle, they were shut. The pressure of the water behind them would hold them closed while the water level dropped inside the lock itself.
“Now I’m going to open the sluice. The water level will drop and as it does, let the line slowly out,” I called over to Melody. She nodded her head.
I found the handle to the lock sluice and began to turn it. The sound of water gushing out of the lock drowned out the noise of the traffic in the nearby M4 Motorway. Slowly, the water level in the lock began to go down taking Roxy with it.
It didn’t take very long for the level inside the lock and the water in the direction we travelling to equalise.
I opened the lock gates and joined Melody on the side of the Lock.
“We can pull Roxy out of the lock or one of us can climb down and get on board, start the engine and pick the other one downstream of the lock. Which is it to be?”
“Climb down. If we were going to pull Roxy out then I should have been holding the line at the front of the boat!”
“Correct. Our you could have got on board before the water level went down.” I said.
“I’ll climb down. When I’m on board, throw the line down to me and then you can meet me on the other side of the lock.”
“It is a bit of a palaver isn’t it?” said Melody as she climbed aboard once again.
“It is and after a while, you get a method of navigating a lock that works for those involved. I wanted you to see all the operations involved. It has been a while since I had anyone on board when going through a lock so it will take a bit of time for us to get used to working together.”
“How many locks are we going through today?”
I chuckled.
“Enough. Enough for you to get used to what needs to be done and in what order.”
Melody groaned.
“It isn’t that bad,” I said.
“The process of going through locks is a whole lot easier when there are two of us. It is a bit of a palaver when you are on your own. These locks don’t have a big height difference. Some locks in Yorkshire have more than three metres difference between the sides of the lock.”
“What about the locks on the River Thames?”
“Many of them are automated. Much easier and a whole lot bigger. The lockkeeper may well ask us to wait for one or more other small craft to arrive before letting us into the lock but for today, they are all like this one.”
I distinctly heard Melody groan once more.
"It is a good exercise. Pushing those lock gates works up an appetite."
I could tell that she wasn’t impressed.
The sun was almost setting when we reached the Brentford Basin. Melody had learned how to work the locks very well. She’d even managed to close the last two pairs of lock gates on her own. I viewed that as something of a triumph.
The last lesson of the day was to show Melody how to use the facilities at the basin. She watched as I filled Roxy’s water tank, emptied her waste tank as well as topping up the fuel tank for the journey towards Reading and Oxford on the River Thames.
She had this look of ‘I’ll never be able to do that’ on her face by the time I’d finished.
“Don’t worry Melody, it soon becomes second nature.”
I got a shake of the head in return. If she was going to stay with me for any length of time, she’d learn. I didn’t have anyone to teach me and I shuddered as I remembered the first time, I’d tried to use a winding hole to turn Roxy. It was not a pretty sight so I hurriedly put it to the back of my mind.
With Roxy’s service done, we tied up Roxy at a vacant berth for the night. As I switched off her engine for the last time that day I felt that it had been a good day. Melody had done very well and would be a great help in the future. She’d even been bossing me around when we navigated the last couple of locks.
“Let’s go below and I’ll show you where you can sleep tonight.”
“No hotel then?”
I chuckled.
“No land-based hotel but the five-star floating hotel Roxy awaits!”
We both had a good laugh at my feeble joke.
We went down into the cabin. Her bag that contained her clothes was sitting where she’d left it earlier on the one couch in the sitting area.
“I’ve cleared out the spare room for you. Grab your bag from the saloon and follow me.”
I let the way forward. Her room was just past the small but functional bathroom.
“Here you go. This is all yours. My bedroom is next door. I’ll get the rest of these moved out of the way,” I said pointing at three canvasses.
“May I?” she asked pointing that the paintings.
“Sure.”
Melody picked up one of the A3 sized canvasses.
“Did you paint this?”
“Yep. I have fifteen more in my room.”
“This is good. Where is this place?” asked Melody.
“It is a place called Horton Wharf. It is on the Grand Union Canal near Tring.”
“Are they all places on the Canal?”
“No. Well, not quite. All within a couple of miles of the canals I’ve been travelling along for the past few years.”
“Do you sell them?”
I grinned.
“I do just that. I nearly have enough for a show. The gallery I use is putting on a show in late April.”
“And I buggered up your plans?”
I laughed.
“No, you didn’t. As I said before, Roxy has a leak on the prop shaft seal and needs to come out of the water to be fixed. That’s why I’m heading over to Oxford. There is a boatyard there who can fit me in in two weeks.”
“Surely it won’t take that long to get to Oxford?”
“The river Thames is not to be trifled with. If we get a lot of rain, we might well have to anchor up for up to a week. You can’t fight the Thames in flood. The low power of Roxy’s engine would mean that we’d probably go backwards.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“You don’t argue with mother nature especially in a craft like a narrowboat. They aren’t designed to go anywhere fast. Canals really don’t have much current to speak of. Rivers like the Thames, Severn and Trent are the opposite. Then there is the fact that we will be going against the flow all the way to Oxford where we join the canal network again.”
“I have a lot to learn,” commented Melody with a distinct sigh in her voice.
“I had to start somewhere. My mistakes were… shall we say a tad embarrassing.”
“I’m going to call the owner of the gallery. If he can collect what I have ready then we can have a lot more space. It will be nice if he can get here first thing in the morning.”
“Until you paint some more?”
“Indeed, but I only need to do four or five before the show. I have all the preliminary sketches done. After that it is just a question of filling in the blanks.”
Melody was quiet for a bit.
“You don’t mind me being here then?”
I smiled.
“Not at all. It will be nice to have some company until you decide to move on with your life.”
“When will that be? I… I had no real idea about what to do with my life.”
I smiled again.
“Then consider this an opportunity to try to decide what to do with your life. After all, you get a room over your head and food in return for helping run the Roxy and making sure that we get to Oxford in time for her to be lifted out of the water. I plan on spending four to five weeks near Oxford finishing the paintings for the show. I also have to go over to a place just south of Stratford on Easter Sunday.”
“What happens there?”
“I have a showdown with my Father. By then I won’t be able to hide these any longer,” I replied looking down at my small breasts.
“Why aren’t you already living as a woman? You looked pretty good last night. That was a real shock you know.”
“I want my father to be shocked enough to want nothing more to do with me. As far as I know, he still thinks that I’m going to come to my senses and take over the family business. That is the last thing I want from my life. Ever since I started drawing landscapes when I was in Australia, I knew that if I could sell my work then that would be my life. Having Roxy as my base makes it a great way to travel slowly around the country finding great scenes to paint.”
“You seem very happy?”
“Most of the time I am. One day, I’ll find someone who will share it with me. One day I’ll probably settle down and do something different.”
“Did you ever want a family? You know, to be a father?”
I shuddered.
"No way. I'm not really a children sort of person, especially very young ones. I know that it sounds a bit selfish but my view is that far too many people have children who are totally unsuited for it. Then there are others who fit right into the role of being a parent. If you go to just about any large shopping centre on a Saturday and just observe the different families who go there. You can see for yourself those who shouldn’t be within a mile of their kids.”
“I didn’t know.”
I chuckled.
“Neither did I until I came back from Australia. I found myself sitting next to a child psychologist for the entire flight so you sort of get talking. Well, he really didn’t want to shut up but I listened to most of what he said. Some of it was actually quite informative. Anyway, not long after I returned to the country, I went to the Westfield Shopping Centre over in Shepherds Bush. That’s not very far from where we first met. During my visit, I spent a considerable time just watching people. After an hour or so, I started to see the patterns of behaviour. Children running riot and parents unable to control them then there are the insatiable demands for this and that and the kids never being satisfied with what they got.”
“That seems very down almost, anti-parent.”
“Not at all. There were others where the whole family is happy to be together and enjoying life. There was no way that I could imagine myself in the latter group. I guess having a younger brother who is a complete and utter bastard has a lot to do with it.”
Melody didn’t say anything so I asked,
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No. I’m an only child.”
“And did you play up all the time when you were out with your parents?”
“Not really. I just wanted to be somewhere else and be myself.”
Then she smiled.
“I sorta see what you mean. I was much like that. My father thought this rather odd so he sent me off to boarding school. That was his first attempt to make a man of me.”
I smiled.
“Good. Fancy getting us something to eat tonight?”
The colour drained from her face.
“How about you go and get something out of the freezer and nuke it in the microwave.”
Melody smiled. I could tell that she was relieved.
“What are you going to do?”
“Firstly, I’m going to call the owner of the gallery about collecting my pictures. Hopefully, he can be here first thing in the morning. Low tide is just before nine. It will be slack for half an hour or so and then we’ll get the benefit of the tide to take us upriver to Teddington Lock."
“Don’t you have to book the lock from here that takes us into the river? I saw the signs while you were emptying the toilet.”
I smiled. Melody was quite observant.
“Good point, but I booked it before I left the mooring near London Zoo yesterday. As it happens, there is another boat going out tomorrow morning and there is space in the lock for us as well. I’ve also spoken to the lock keepers at Richmond and Teddington. There is some rain forecast for tonight but not enough to affect our journey to at least Windsor which won’t be until the day after tomorrow.”
“Ok.”
“It is good that you are keeping your eyes open.”
“It is all a bit strange to me. There is a lot to learn.”
I smiled.
“It was strange to me at first but I got there in the end.”
I decided to change the subject.
“How about I help you try some different styles of makeup after dinner?”
Melody looked a bit puzzled.
“From what I saw last night, you are much better looking than I’ll ever be if you get your makeup right. You know emphasise your strong points like your cheekbones.”
Melody’s broad smile told me that I’d said the right thing.
[to be continued]
Cut-04
I left Melody to sort out our food for the evening and went up on deck to phone my friend and business associate, Jonathan Fields. He ran the gallery where I was due to be having my show at the end of April/early May.
The cold wind of earlier in the day had died down and the sky was clear. It was going to be a cold and decidedly frosty night.
"Hello, Jonathan," I said when he answered my call.
“Yeah. I’m good.”
“I need to make some space in Roxy. I have twenty-six finished canvasses ready for collection.”
“Yeah, I know that it is a good while before my next show. I’ve got someone living on board with me for a while so I need the room.”
“I was sort of hoping for first thing tomorrow. I’m moored at Brentford Basin waiting for the tide in the morning. With you living in Richmond, it isn’t that far out of your way when you go into the office.”
“How does eight sound? Low tide is just after nine and I’d like to use the incoming tide to help me get to Teddington before high water.”
“I did say early. We have a lock slot booked for five to nine. If you get here for eight then we’ll be ready to hit the river on time.”
"Thanks, Jonathan. See you tomorrow."
I hung up the phone with a small smile on my face.
I looked up at yet another plane heading into Heathrow. I could see the lights of six more queued up behind this one. We might not get a lot of quality sleep tonight. I longed for the quiet of the country. I’d spent three and a bit months in London. That was more than enough for the time being. I could stay away until it was time for my fourth show at the gallery.
All that dreaming had to be put to the back of my mind when I smelt something cooking in the cabin below.
With Melody watching the pot of Pasta as if it was the last food on the planet, I slipped into my bedroom and fished out a bottle of wine from the locker underneath my bed.
As I stood up, I paused for a second. Melody was under legal drinking age. Then I relaxed. A glass or two of wine was ok in my book.
Over dinner, we chatted about a lot of things but nothing really about our own life stories. Melody was still very reticent to reveal much. At the end of dinner, I said,
“How about you talk things through with my lawyer when we meet him in Reading? He can go over all the options you have for not only sorting out your life but your transition.”
“But, he’s your lawyer.”
I smiled and reached over to a dresser that was on the side of the boat. I opened a small drawer and pulled out a two-pound coin.
“Here take this. Give it to Evan and then he’s your lawyer.”
“I can’t pay his bills.”
“True but I can. He’ll tell you how it works. You can give him instructions and he won’t tell me unless you want him to. Evan is a good guy. We were at school together. We won the school sailing regatta two years running. I trust him. He isn’t some money-grabbing shyster of a scumbag lawyer. Plus, he handles a lot of LGBT clients. He can take his fee for any work he does for you from my account. You need some help to get on your feet and I’m willing to help you get it. Is that so wrong?”
Melody didn’t reply for a bit so I gathered up the dirty plates and started to wash them up.
She took the hint and found a tea towel began wiping the newly cleaned dishes. As we came to the end, she said quietly.
“How can I ever repay you?”
I turned to her and smiled.
“You don’t. If I can’t help someone in need especially if that someone is Trans like me then the world is a really, really bad place. I’m doing it because I see a lot of me in you. I was like a little boy lost when I first went prospecting. I grew up very quickly when I nearly stood on a ‘King Brown’ snake. They are possibly the most venomous snake in the world. It was only a shout from one of my partners that stopped me from taking that fatal step.”
“Did you kill it?”
“Nah. Stan, one of my partners captured it and gave it its’ freedom just outside our lease. It was then that I saw the possibility of gold in the next-door lease. Thanks to that near encounter with a snake, I’m here today with money in the bank and able to help you sort your life out.”
“What happens after Reading?”
I chuckled.
“If I was in your shoes, I’d get Evan to engage a Private Eye to do some enquiries in your home town. You need to know if the Police are indeed looking for you and if not, why not. Once you know that, Evan will know what steps are open to you until you are eighteen.”
“That might mean going back home?”
“I doubt that very much. Because you have come out as Trans and your family are not supportive the last thing the courts would want to do is send you back to a place of danger. Far too many LGBT people of your age take their life because their families can’t or won’t help them for that to happen to you.”
Melody didn’t look happy.
"Heck, I'd even volunteer to be your ward of the court until you are eighteen."
“You would do that for me?”
"Yes, I would. My father shipped me off to Australia like some eighteenth-century convict in the hope of making a man of me. I nearly didn't come back but I did and I'm a lot stronger for it. Perhaps this trip with me will allow you to decide what you want to do with your life."
“But why are you doing this? What do you want in return? I can’t pay anything you know that.”
"I'm not asking for anything in return other than your company while we travel north and then for my visit to my Father at Easter. After that? Who knows. If you are still with me at the beginning of May then we can come down to London for my show. That will be an education for you in its own right."
“But I don’t have anything to offer?”
I chuckled. Melody looked a bit concerned.
“Think of being here as a safe place to learn to be the woman you want to. Experiment with clothes, makeup, hair and even your voice.”
“My voice? What’s wrong with it?”
I mentally switched to my softer and more gentle voice.
“Softer and more gently and if you can manage it a little higher in pitch and tone.”
“Oh! I see.”
“All part of leaving your male self behind.”
“What about you?”
I laughed.
“As I said before, I won’t be able to hide these little beauties much longer,” I said looking down at my chest.
"I'm going to use the showdown with my father to end my male existence. After that, it is Lauren Savannah Hall all the way."
“It is a lot to think about.”
“Let’s see what happens after you have seen Evan. A second opinion and all that. Don’t make any decisions until then. Just enjoy the ride and the locks.”
That night, I wondered if I’d done the right thing in laying things out like that. I fell asleep wondering if Melody would still be aboard in the morning. That was a pattern that would be uppermost in my mind almost every night from then on.
Jonathan turned up with his van just before eight the next morning. After a warming cuppa, the three of us loaded my finished canvasses into the van. Thankfully, it was fitted out for carrying paintings. Each canvas was wrapped in some old sheeting and slotted into a rack in the van.
“They look pretty good,” commented Jonathan as the last one was loaded.
“I’m quite pleased with them myself. The Kennet and Avon Canal is a very lovely waterway and the landscape close by is truly magnificent especially between Hungerford and Devizes. I intend to go back again but in early spring rather than high summer.”
“How many have you left to complete? You know, for the show?"
“I think I said four canvasses. I’ll have them done a week before Easter at the earliest.”
“That’s good. I’ve already sent out the first feelers to prospective buyers. One called me back the next day to say that he’d like a private preview. You know what that means?”
“He’s interested in buying at least one canvas?”
“That’s the impression I got from his call.”
"Do you know him from a previous business?"
“No. He’s a new buyer.”
“How did you get his contact details?”
“He’d already signed up after your last show for notification of any other of your works that come up for sale.”
“Ok. We can talk about this closer to the date. I have more important things to worry about at the moment. Roxy has a water leak and I need to get her to the boatyard near Oxford for repairs.”
“That’s a long way to go?”
“And every boat owner and their dogs want their craft all shipshape and on the water before Easter. I have a slot and if I don’t make it, I go to the bottom of the queue.”
“Ah! Gotcha. Good luck. I’ll put these into our secure storage until the second week of April. The new can go into detail about what goes where in the gallery.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
Jonathan left us alone just before 08:30. That gave us plenty of time to get Roxy ready to go through the lock and onto the river.
“Ready?”
Melody was fiddling with her hair. She'd come a long way in the past week. Her makeup was far less OTT and she looked pretty good. Her hair was as good as it gets until she had it professionally cut. The hours we'd spent in the evenings experimenting with her makeup was starting to bear fruit.
“Just about.”
“Better put your coat on. It has just started to rain.”
"Again? Does it ever stop? Every day since we came onto the river it has rained."
I laughed.
“It does stop sometimes.”
Melody appeared in the cockpit. She’d put on her coat as well as the woolly hat that she’d bought in a few days earlier in Maidenhead.
“Lets’ go then. We are due at the Solicitors in twenty-five minutes and their offices are on the other side of the town centre. Do you have that money I gave you?”
She smiled.
“In my pocket.”
I locked the doors to the cabin and followed her onto the towpath.
After our introductions, I left Melody with Evan and went into the nearby shopping centre. I didn’t want very much other than some paints from an Art Suppliers that was almost next to the shops.
I emerged half an hour later with all the paint and other things I needed. I now had more than enough to complete the remaining canvasses for my spring exhibition in London. I headed for a shop that makes really good pies and bought a couple. They would be good to eat later. With all my errands done, I headed back to the Solicitors Office to see how Melody and Evan had gotten on.
They were waiting for me.
“We have just about concluded our business for today,” said Evan.
“That’s good to know. Any glitches?”
Evan shook his head.
"As Melody will be eighteen in a couple of months there is little chance of her being made to return home but it would be nice to know what efforts her parents made in finding her. My guess, is that they made very little effort but it is always good to know,” said Evan.
“Evan said that other people like me were much more able to get on with their lives once they knew what their family were or were not doing to find them. Once I turn eighteen, I can with Evan’s help write them a formal letter of… of disassociation. That cuts the cord,” said Melody.
I smiled. Evan had done a good job.
“That is a big step forward but rather final isn’t it?”
“They didn’t like me wanting to be Melody. It is as Evan explained more about doing something to assert who I am.”
I could see a change in her whole posture already. She was beginning to throw off the many months of being downtrodden and abused on the streets.
“Melody, can you head off to the market and get some fresh veggies while I do a bit of business with Evan?”
I opened my wallet and gave Melody two £5 notes.
“Sure thing. I’ll see you back at Roxy later.”
“I should be done here in about half an hour.”
Once Melody had left, I sat down with Evan.
“I have your deed poll already filled out,” he said.
“That’s good.”
He smiled at me.
“I can see that you are changing. Those hormones have certainly kicked in haven’t they?”
I grinned back.
“They have. My Father is going to have a hissy fit in a couple of months. But that is how it has to be. This is when I get to tell him that there is no way in hell that I’m ever going to become like him, a complete and utter bastard who does not know the meaning of ‘sorry’. Then I can walk away with my head held high. I don’t need him to succeed.”\
Evan didn’t say anything for a bit.
“Do you want me there to back you up? Moral support and all that?”
“If you don’t mind? It would be great if you be there. That might just make him think for a second before acting.”
“Just let me know where and when and I’ll be there.”
“Thanks. Now lets’ get on with step one, change my name.”
Evan pushed over the document. I read it and felt my pulse increasing.
Everything seemed in order so I signed it. Now my name was formally, Lauren Savannah Hall.
Evan smiled as he stood up.
“I just need to get this witnessed and you are all set. I have all your other documents ready to sign once this is all good and legal.”
Evan disappeared into the main part of the office to get two signatures. He soon returned with the signed document.
I signed the forms changing the ownership of Roxy to the new me. Then my application for a new passport, driving license and letters to the Inland Revenue, my banks and insurance companies and a few other forms and I was done.
Evan gave me a few copies of my ‘deed poll’ as I stood up to leave.
He came around his desk and gave me a big hug. This was a hug between lifelong friends. Evan was the first person in the world I’d ever confided in about my desire to become a woman.
“Lauren, It is about time too if you want my opinion…”
"Thanks, Evan. Take my bill and that of Melody’s from my client account. Do whatever it takes to find out about her family but quietly. The last thing she needs is for them to come looking for her.”
"Message clear and understood. Take care, Lauren. I'll get an update to you by the time you get to the boatyard."
“I hope to be staying at the house in Islip. Dr Fredericks is away in the US on a Sabbatical until Easter. I’ll contact his assistant when we get closer to Oxford.”
Evan smiled.
“I know it well. I had many tutorials there in my time at Oxford.”
Evan thought for a moment.
“But how do you know the good Doctor?”
It was my time to smile.
“His grandson was one of my partners when I was prospecting in Australia. He asked me to look up his Grandfather when I returned home. I did just that but it turned out that we’d already met. He bought a Savannah Hall’ original when I had my first show in Oxford. I painted a picture of a Thameside scene from Pangbourne. It turned out that it was the house where he was born.”
“Sometimes Lauren, you have all the luck.”
“Bollocks and you know it. You seem to have forgotten doing a jibe without warning and it was either be hit by the boom or go overboard. The water in the North Sea is frigging cold in January in case you have forgotten after all these years.”
Evan went a bit red in the face.
“Ok, ok.”
I laughed.
“See you soon. Easter should be quite fiery.”
“Roxy looks very different from here,” said Melody.
Roxy had just been lifted from the water and was on a mobile frame by the side of the dock.
"She does look like a duck out of the water but looking at the algal growth on the hull, it isn’t a moment too soon.”
“How long before she’s back in the water?”
“The manager said two weeks minimum but my guestimate for the work is closer to five. Look at all the other work that they have on at the moment.”
“That’s a lot of time for a small water leak?”
“It is a lot but I’m having a huge amount of other work done. The work wasn’t confirmed until I spoke with the Manager before the lift. They have almost everything I need ready to go. The one missing part I can do without for the time being.”
“What sort of thing?”
I smiled.
“We can speak about that later. Evan will be here soon. He’s got an update to your case and he’ll give us a lift to where we are staying.”
“How long have you known about him coming?”
“We arranged that when we were in Reading. He texted me about the update to your case earlier. You were packing your things while I was talking to the hoist operator.”
I could tell that Melody didn’t believe me.
“Here, look at the text yourself,” I said as I opened my phone and gave it to her.
Melody saw the text from Evan.
"Ok, but why didn't he tell me himself?"
I chuckled.
"Who was it who refused to let me get her a cheap second-hand phone when we were in Reading?"
“Ok, ok. It was me.”
“Then we’ll get you one while we are here.”
"Who am I going to call? You? Evan? There isn't anyone else."
“At the moment, at the moment.”
I could tell that Melody wasn’t convinced so I let it ride for now.
Evan turned up a little while later.
"I'm glad that I came in my Wife’s car. We'd have never got this lot into my little car," he said surveying the pile of bags, easel, canvasses and other arty stuff that we'd removed from Roxy.
“I did warn you,” I said smiling.
“You did but you aren’t going on a long trip you know?”
“The work on Roxy is probably going to take a lot longer than I’d planned so we came prepared.”
Then I added,
“Did you get the shopping I asked for?”
Evan laughed.
“I didn’t but Marguerite did. She did it in under twenty minutes whereas, first thing this morning, I'd probably be there now if she left me alone to do it. I push the trolley and nod my head when needed."
“Typical men,” I remarked.
“Now, now, ladies, there is no need to get catty about it!” Said Evan with a huge grin on his face.
“Lets’ get this lot loaded before it comes onto rain.”
Once we’d unloaded the car at our temporary home and put things away, we sat down with a cup of tea and some lunch.
“Melody, I expect that you are chomping at the bit to know what my investigations have revealed?”
“I am but it sounds like bad news?”
“Yes and no. Your parents told everyone that they were moving to Portugal and that you’d gone there in August to be ready for the start of the school year.”
“That’s news to me,” said Melody.
“They sold up and moved away in late October, early November. The new owners of your childhood home don’t have a forwarding address for them neither do their solicitor who handled the sale of the house. The bank account that received the money from the sale is no longer in use."
“Sounds like it was them that legged it?” said Melody.
“That’s pretty close to the truth. However, my investigator went to where your father used to work and tracked him down via his pension.”
Melody laughed.
“Dad was always going on about saving as much as possible into your pension…”
Evan smiled.
"Your father turned fifty-five in June if I am correct?"
“Yeah. We went to Cromer for the day. Frigging cold.”
“He withdrew all the money from his pension in early December. It was transferred to a bank in South Africa.”
"South Africa eh? That sounds about right. His brother went out there long before he and mum were married. That was also before Mandela came to be President. You’ll probably find them in Durban,” said Melody.
“The good news is that they aren’t looking for you and didn’t look for you so you are free and clear. As of 2nd May, you will be legally an adult and can steer your own course in life.”
“I can’t wait. Thanks for doing that investigation,” said Melody.
Then she turned to me.
“Thanks, Lauren for doing this and paying for it. Somehow and someday, I’ll repay you.”
“No, you won’t Melody. You needed to know.”
Melody turned to Evan.
"You said 'Yes and no'. What is the bad news?"
Evan put on his bad news face.
“You were left some money by your grandmother Claire. Do you remember this?”
Melody shook her head.
“Money was something that wasn’t ever discussed in front of me.”
“As I said, she left you some money. It was at the time of her death some five thousand pounds.”
“Wow! I hardly remember her. She was Dad’s mum.”
“The bad news is that the money is gone. Your parents emptied the account which after interest was worth almost seven thousand a week after you supposedly left for Portugal.”
“Bastards,” exclaimed Melody.
“What I can’t understand was is there some connection to Portugal that I don’t know about?”
Melody laughed.
“We had a timeshare in the Algarve. We went every year for at least a month. I can speak pretty fluent Portuguese.”
Evan smiled.
"That explains a lot and why there was nothing suspicious about them claiming that you'd gone to Portugal for school."
“That seems like it to me.”
“Melody, it strikes me that they knew about your desire to be Melody and that the whole thing was planned well in advance,” I said.
Melody thought for a good ten seconds.
“I think you are right. Looking back there were some signs but I never picked up on them.”
I took her hand.
“Don’t worry about that. You are here now and amongst friends.”
Melody looked at me and began to cry.
I wrapped an arm around her. It was clear that she was going to need some comforting at least in the short term.
[to be continued]
With Roxy undergoing some expensive repairs and updates, I took the opportunity to complete the remaining five canvasses for my forthcoming show. For the first few days, Melody seemed at a loss for something to do. Her fidgeting began to get under my skin so I suggested that she went into Oxford on the bus and did some people watching.
Once I'd explained to her what I meant she began to understand how just looking at other women, how they walked, how they moved and the rest could help her adapt to life as a woman.
I knew from my own experiences that while you can look like a woman in the way you dress, do your hair and make-up, moving like a woman is not natural to most men. It is very easy to overdo it and end up mincing your way down the street which won't fool anyone.
I make sure that I got her to talk about her day and what she'd observed each evening. It was a lot more interesting than my day. Completing five quite different canvasses to the standard I wanted was not proving to be easy so the distraction from my problems was more than welcome.
What I had to do was pretty easy but it was boring. The last 10% of the work on a piece is always the hardest because you have to know when to stop.
I gave Melody a good allowance so that she could afford coffee, lunch and to be able to buy some clothes of her own on her own. To her credit, she itemised everything she had spent. I praised her attempt at budgeting.
I made a few visits to the Boatyard to review progress and to approve some minor changes to the work. It made for a good break from the fine detail of my work.
Our brief sojourn in Oxfordshire coincided with some pretty wet weather. Melody was glad that the coat that we'd bought for her that first day was not only warm but waterproof. She managed to get her old DM's repaired as well as buying some new shoes. Thankfully, she ran out of money otherwise I'm sure that she would have spent it all or most of it on shoes.
I admired her in some respects. I only possessed five pairs of shoes. That didn't include the four pairs of wellies and deck shoes that remained on Roxy. Living on a narrow boat limited your opportunities for wearing dressy shoes. Yes, you can wear good clothes but having to walk home along a towpath quickly ruins good shoes and is positively dangerous in heels.
One day, Melody came back from Oxford looking as if the cat had got all of the milk and the cream as well.
"Ok Melody, who is he then?" I asked trying to tease her a little bit.
"No one. Besides, I'm not into men."
That was good to know but I'd guessed that.
"Ok, who is she then?"
Melody looked at me and shook her head.
"You aren't my Mum you know?"
"I'm the next best thing. More like an older sister."
"Pah."
She hung up her coat in the boot room to dry and ignored me. I wasn't going anywhere so I knew that I'd get it out of her sooner or later.
Melody disappeared upstairs gripping her new phone as if it was the crown jewels. We'd only bought it a few days before. I say new but it wasn't. It was last year's model and not a top spec one at that but she appeared to be slightly indifferent towards it at first. Now? It was more like, 'you are not getting this from me ever!'. That told me that she'd met someone in Oxford. That made me happy. It also made me realise that I didn't have anyone special in my life other than being a big sister or mentor to Melody.
I carried on making our evening meal knowing that I'd have to deal with that at some point but not until I'd dealt with my Father and Brother. Only a week until the 'gunfight at the family corral' as I was calling it.
My thoughts went back to the report I'd had from my Accountant, Matt Morris. I was due to visit him and get my accounts signed off. I'd also had him watching the dealings of my dear younger brother David. He was one of those infuriating people who could shift the blame for their wrong doing onto someone else even if that person was not present at the time of the disaster. He'd done that to me many times. The last time was when he'd crashed Dad's brand new BMW 5 Series only two days after it was delivered. I was away doing my 'A' Level exams yet it still became my fault for his wrongdoing.
I knew that David was robbing the family business blind and had been doing so for years but could never prove it. That was part of my reason for declaring on umpteen occasions that I wanted nothing to do with the business. If I had no access to the accounts or anything it would be hard to make me the evil one when it all came to light.
The email I'd received from Matt earlier that day was quite troubling. It seemed that I was now Managing Director of three of the family businesses. I'd spent a good part of the afternoon on a call with Matt and Evan discussing what should happen.
We'd agreed on a plan where I'd make what lawyers call a deposition rebutting the declaration that I'd allegedly made when putting my signature to the directorship documents. They were complete fabrication but somehow I had to prove that I didn't really sign the documents.
The one fact that would save me was that all of the documents were signed in my old name and dated after I'd changed my name. My dear brother may well be unaware that I'd done that and that I was now living as a woman full time. On the other hand, I wouldn't put it past him to have been spying on me. He'd done it before. Somehow, he tracked me down about six months after I'd returned from Australia and demanded half the proceeds from my prospecting. I responded by pushing him into the Leeds and Liverpool Canal near Bingley. He wanted the money or he'd report me into the Inland Revenue. I'd already paid the taxes on the gold in Australia and due to the reciprocal arrangement between our two countries, I was good to go. Matt had sorted that out with the HMRC before David came looking for a handout.
Once again, it became my fault for not sharing my new found wealth with the family. I told him and my father what they could do with that idea. It had never come up again.
My daydreaming was ended when Melody came bounding down the stairs looking for something to eat.
As we are the meal, I said.
"I have to go away for two days. I need to visit my accountant in Derbyshire. Something has come up that needs my immediate attention."
"Can I help?"
I chuckled.
"Not unless you have a time machine that can take me back to when I was five so that I can strangle my brother then you can't."
Melody knew something of the issues I'd had with my brother over the years.
"That bad eh?"
"Yeah. I need to get it sorted before next weekend and the family gathering."
Melody didn't reply so I added,
"That means you will be here alone. You don't need me to tell you that we are guests in this house and … well no rowdy parties."
Melody laughed.
"Don't worry. That just isn't my scene."
"Good. That does not stop you from inviting your new girlfriend over."
Melody was about to put some food into her mouth.
"Who says that I have a girlfriend?"
I sighed.
"Melody… Everything about your whole body tells me that you do. Don't try to hide it. I'm pleased for you."
She didn't respond right away. I just carried on eating.
"Her name is Heidi. She's an American of Austrian descent. She'd studying International Law and works part-time at the coffee shop that I go to."
"Good. How did you get talking?"
"They get a lot of students in their as you can imagine. They are from all over the world. One day last week, I was in there and the person who was sitting at the table before me left a newspaper. It was a Portuguese language paper from Lisbon. I started reading it just for something to do to keep me out of the rain."
I almost interrupted but thought better of it.
"She came over to clear the table. She asked if I could let her have the paper when I was done with it. I asked her if she could speak Portuguese. She told me that she was going to Brazil as part of her work experience year in June and that she'd been trying to learn some of the language from reading the paper."
"And you volunteered to teach her I suppose?"
Melody shook her head.
"Not at first. She asked me what I was reading and where. She assumed that I was a student. When I told her that I wasn't she got a lot more interested. I guess doing that job, she gets hit upon a lot by other students. Anyway, I returned later that day in her lunch hour and we chatted and before we knew it, she had to go to a late class. We have been talking and… and everything ever since."
Melody read my mind.
"And before you ask, yes, she knows about me. I told her the next day. I fully expected her to tell me to fuck off but she didn't."
"Then invite her for Sunday Lunch."
"Sort of meet the parents thing?"
"No such sort of thing. I want you to be happy. If you decide to stay here and… well, you know what then great but I'd like to meet this wonderful girl who has swept you off your feet."
I decided to change the subject so that Melody could think about my offer.
"As I said, I have to go away tomorrow. I'm meeting Evan at Oxford Station early. I've booked a taxi to take me there for seven-fifteen. If you want a lift into the city then, you are more than welcome to come along."
"Sounds serious if you are meeting you accountant with your lawyer?"
"It has the potential to become that so we need to act sooner rather than later. We'll meet my Accountant in Derby and Evan will take some documents to London tomorrow afternoon."
"But… that means that you will be back tomorrow night?"
I shook my head.
"I have to work on my annual accounts and then make some payments to the HMRC. With those all sent for the audit, I can relax. I'm taking that canvas I've been working on with me."
"That's a different landscape to what you normally paint. Where is it?"
"It is where Matt grew up. It is a place called 'Millers Dale' and is between Matlock and Buxton in the Peak District."
"But that is a historical landscape? We don't have steam trains any more do we?"
I chuckled.
"More than you might realise. No, the picture is for his Grandfather who worked on the railway at Millers Dale until the line closed. It is his Grandfather's 80th birthday in a few weeks."
"Ah, I get you."
"And it saves me paying my Accountant this year."
Melody laughed.
"Time for me to do the washing up I suppose?"
This time, I laughed.
"You'll make a wonderful wife to a good woman someday."
Melody just smiled and began to clear the dishes.
I really didn't want to get out of bed the following morning. I'd gone to bed with the best intentions of getting a good night's sleep when I realised that I'd messed up a bit of the picture. It took me four hours to correct the problem so it was close to 02:00 when I finally climbed into bed.
Before, I could just get washed, throw on some clothes and be ready to go out. Not any more. Thankfully, I'd had my beard as it was lasered off over the winter but I still had to do my hair and makeup. I debated putting on some eye-liner but decided that a heavier than normal application of mascara would have to do. Even with that, I was only just ready when the taxi arrived. There was no sound of Melody getting up so I left her to sleep and headed off into the dawn. The approach of spring and the lengthening days made me feel a bit guilty for not being out with my sketchpad in the early mornings. The soft light of dawn was ideal for capturing the feel of a place but that would have to wait for a few weeks.
Evan's train was on time. He'd texted me what seats we had for the journey to Birmingham where we'd change for Derby. I had just enough time to get a coffee from the vendor at the station before it was time for the train.
Most of the people who were waiting for trains seemed to be heading for London so our train wasn't all that busy. I found Evan and plonked myself down in the seat opposite him.
"You look awful," were his opening words.
"Gee thanks, Evan. You try working until nearly two and being at your best at this time the next day?"
Before he had a chance to answer,
"Let me have some caffeine and then I'll go and see about my face."
Evan just raised his eyebrow. He was cool.
Matt was waiting for us outside the Station in Derby.
"I have booked an office for the day. It is only half a mile away and has parking," he said as Even and I piled into his car.
Twenty minutes later, we got down to business. Matt showed me the records from Companies House.
They were perfectly clear in that my full name was listed as the new MD of the companies. My address that of my old home so there was no possibility of someone else with my name. It was clear to me that I was being set up.
"What game is he playing at?" I asked.
"Preparing you for a fall is my guess," said Matt.
"A source of mine inside the HMRC tell me that David is under investigation. VAT fraud, tax evasion and the like. As you requested, I hired a P.I. to investigate him last year. You had his report last easter. The same P.I. did a follow up last week. David it seems has acquired a mistress. He keeps her in an apartment in Manchester. The rent alone is close on two grand a week. Then there is a new business unit near Rochdale. The P.I. is still looking into what he's doing there but it does not seem related to any of his current business operations."
I took a minute or so to let that sink in before replying.
"From what you have said, my father is totally out of the loop on what David is doing?"
"As far as we can ascertain, that is correct."
"Then we need to as they say in so many westerns, 'cut him off at the pass'. Do you have the documents I need to sign?"
Evan took some sheets of paper out of his briefcase.
"These are the formal notices to Companies House that you are not the person named on their records. I have also attached copies of your change of name plus copies of your new passport and driving license."
I read the notices and signed the bottom. Matt and Evan signed them as well. Even was a Notary so he added his seal to the bottom.
"What's next?" I asked as Evan collected them up and put them in his briefcase.
"I'd love to be a fly on the wall when you expose David to your father on Easter Sunday," said Matt.
I chuckled.
"David will have his excuses ready. Of that I am sure and they will be believable which makes them worse and even more dangerous."
Both of them looked rather anxious.
I smiled and said,
"Don't worry. I'm used to their behaviour. They will be wrongfooted when they see me in a dress and wearing makeup. I'll let them slightly recover from that when I drop this report in Daddy's lap."
Then I added,
"Then I'll walk out with my head held high. Then they can go fuck themselves for all I'm concerned."
Evan smiled.
"That's pretty final isn't it?"
"It has to be. I'm going to live my life as I see fit. Both of you know that it has been my aim for how long now?"
I didn't let them answer.
"Don't answer that but both of you have known since we were at school what I wanted in life."
Matt laughed.
"All that is missing is a good woman."
"Ok, ok, don't rub it in."
Even collected up his things and headed for the door. Then he stopped and turned around.
"Could I take a peek at this new masterpiece from our Savannah?"
The painting for Matt's grandfather was still wrapped up.
"I'm dying to see what you have done," said Matt.
"Oh, very well. I was up until nearly two this morning working on it," I said as I started to unwrap it.
"That's beautiful," said Evan.
Matt's face told me that he was impressed.
"You did that from some old photos?" asked Matt.
"Not quite. I did some research and found a couple of books that detailed how Miller's Dale looked in 1952. There is a fantastic bookshop in Alnwick that has thousands of railway books for sale. I ordered them and with the photos, I took last Autumn, I was able to create this."
"Grandad will love it," exclaimed Matt.
"It is brilliant. You have excelled yourself here. If you get tired of landscapes then perhaps this is the next genre to concentrate on?"
I laughed.
"I'd better get going. I have a train to catch if I am to deliver these to Companies House today," said Evan.
Once Evan had left, I asked Matt,
"Do you really like my picture?"
"Savannah, it is perfect for Granddad. Are you having doubts?"
"No… Well, yes. It is a big departure for me from my normal work."
Matt took my hand. I almost withdrew it but I stopped myself just in time.
"You are good at this and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
"You keep saying that."
"It is perfectly true and I think that deep down you know it."
"Thanks, Matt. You don't know how good it is to hear those words."
[to be continued]
I stayed with Matt that night. His home is less than one mile from the world-famous 'Richard Arkwright’s Mills' at Cromford. I wished that I had more time so that I could visit the place where mechanised cotton spinning was invented but I wanted to get back to Oxford before nightfall.
Matt and I spent the morning working on my accounts for the year. Things were slightly complicated because Roxy was my place of work and a good proportion of her running costs could be written off against tax. Thankfully, Matt had drilled into me the need to keep records of my expenses. I had them all but they were not really what you’d call organised.
Matt tolerated my disorganisation because we were friends as well me being a client of his. At least all my receipts were separated by month.
After being gently scolded a few times for missing some vital expenses, we concluded our business just after lunch. Matt would produce the formal records in a few days and he’d submit them to Companies House by the end of the month. That ordeal was over for another year.
“One last thing,” he said as we wrapped things up.
“I know that your name is Lauren Savannah but you seem to be going by Savannah yet, you signed all the official documents as Lauren Savannah? Why?”
I smiled back at my long-time friend.
“Savannah sounds a lot better for an Artist. I’ve been signing all my painting as Savannah Hall since day one. So, I’m going by that name apart from on official documents.”
Matt shook his head and smiled. He’d always been the very serious one of our little trio. He liked things just so. That’s perfect for an Accountant but I’m a little more mixed-up sort of person.
Matt took me to the local Station in plenty of time for the stopping train to Derby. If the gods were with me and all the connections worked, I’d be back in Oxford by six in the evening. That would give me plenty of time to prepare for the weekend.
Once I was back in Oxford, I logged on to check my email while Melody was doing the washing up. She’d been rather reticent to talk about Heidi. I didn’t press her but the spring in her step from a few days before was noticeably absent. I knew from past experience not to press her about it. I was in no doubt that she’d tell me in good time so I let it ride.
The only email was from Evan letting me know that my declarations had been delivered by courier directly to the investigations department at Companies House. The matter of the directorships was now in their hands. That was another thing on my 'ToDo’ list ticked off. That left my confrontation with my family at the top of the list.
I had to find something special to wear for the confrontation with my father so, I decided to enlist the help of Melody in the hope that it would get her out of her mood.
“Fancy a trip to London tomorrow?”
“London? What for?”
“I have five paintings that need to be delivered to the Gallery and then I need something to wear when I meet my father and brother. I would love to have another opinion as I don’t want to look like a total dork now do I?”
Melody chuckled.
“You can never look like a dork.”
“Bollocks. You are far better at passing than me.”
Melody didn’t answer right away.
“Well? Are you up for it? It will make a change from Oxford. We’ll take the train tomorrow morning, drop the paintings off at the gallery and go shopping. Then we can have an early meal in a restaurant before coming back here?”
She nodded her head.
“Ok, I’ll go.”
"Good. I'll book a taxi for eight-thirty."
Our train to Marylebone was pretty busy but we managed to find a couple of adjacent seats. I propped up the paintings on our laps and closed my eyes. I’d had a restless night due to my brain refusing to switch off. The things that Matt had told me just made me angry and when I’m angry, I can’t sleep.
The motion of the train helped me relax and I did drop off. It was only the nudging of Melody that woke me from my slumbers. I was having a very pleasant dream about the future and that I’d found a lovely woman to share it with me. Fat chance of that at the moment.
“We are going to be arriving in Marylebone in a few minutes,” said Melody as I opened my eyes.
“You were sound asleep,” she added.
“Sorry. I couldn’t sleep last night.”
"That's ok. Train rides can be boring and are as good a time as any to catch up."
I smiled and thought about how much she’d matured in less than two months. That’s what living in a relatively stable environment with someone who cared about her could do. I could only hope that her obvious disappointment over her relationship with Heidi could be put behind her sooner rather than later.
We walked the relatively short distance from Marylebone Station to the Gallery which is located on Marylebone High Street. I felt a lot better after my sleep on the train and hoped that we’d have a good day.
My hopes were totally dashed when I saw my brother David emerge from the Gallery looking very pleased with himself. We’d been about to cross over the road to the gallery when he came out onto the street.
“Quick, we need to duck into this shop,” I said to Melody as I literally dragged her off the pavement.
Thankfully, the shop was a seller of coffee and tea.
“Buy us some Green Tea and some Guatemalan Coffee,” I said to Melody as I thought of something on the fly.
Melody, to her credit, didn't quibble. She engaged with the shop staff while I watched the street. I saw my brother get into a Taxi that did a 'U' turn and headed north up the road towards Marylebone Road. I knew that the taxi would have to turn left onto that road. I wondered if David was heading for the Station and the train to Stratford upon Avon. That was the nearest station to our family home.
My deliberations were interrupted by Melody.
“Can I have some money? The cost of the tea and coffee came to more than I have in my purse."
“Oh… sure.”
I switched back from thinking about David and paid for the items. Melody put them in her bag and we left the shop. We walked a few yards down the street and I led her into a side street.
“That man coming out of the Gallery on the other side of the road was my Brother. Sorry for the panic back there. He was just about the last ”
Melody smiled.
“That’s understandable. What do we do now?”
“As we are here, we should go into the gallery and find out what my brother David was doing there. If his visit has anything to do with my show then I’m going to blow my top.”
Melody laughed.
“You are always telling me not to over-react and here you are doing just that…?”
I thought for a moment. She was perfectly correct.
“It must be those hormones. It is sometimes hard to keep my emotions in check.”
“Then use them positively. Don’t react, get even. Find out what he was doing and plan to get ahead of him. You know how he operates. Can’t you guess what his next move is? Base your next move on the facts.”
“Don’t go repeating my advice like that. It hurts,” I said defensively.
“But deep down, you know that it is true.”
She was right.
I closed my eyes and counted to ten.
“Time to get moving I think.”
Melody grinned as we walked back towards the High St.
Jonathan Fields, the owner of the Gallery was surprised to see me. He recognised Melody straight away and then realised that it was the new and hopefully improved me that was with her.
“Savannah! This is a surprise. Melody, nice to see you again,” said Jonathan.
"Hi, Jonathan. We are here to deliver the final canvasses for my show."
“Oh good. Well, that’s good. I was actually looking forward to a trip to some canal bank in the middle of nowhere to collect them in the next week or so. It is nice to get out of London from time to time.”
"Sorry to disappoint you, Jonathan. I need a decent outfit for an event so we decided to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Next time I’ll drag you to some out of the way canal bank and show you the real country…"
Jonathan was a city person but could manage short visits outside London if his arm was twisted hard enough.
“Well, you are here now so shall we get down to business?” he said changing the subject.
I turned to Melody and said,
“Why don’t you take a look around at what Jonathan has on display while we go over the paintings?”
Melody just nodded her head and after putting down the two paintings that she was carrying, she left Jonathan and me alone.
Jonathan as usual ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhed' as he looked at the five pictures. In the end, he smiled.
“These will sell well. We have had a lot of interest in your work. Once we put your show up on our Website, we have had a good few responses for opening night.”
“That’s nice to know.”
“What’s even better,” said Jonathan smiling.
“I pre-sold six paintings only today. You missed the buyer by just a few minutes.”
My heart sank to the floor. Jonathan noticed my reaction.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you like selling your work?”
"Sorry, Jonathan. I do like selling my work but if the man that was just here before us is the buyer then I want nothing to do with him or his filthy money."
“Why? Why is his money filthy?”
“Because he’s my brother.”
Jonathan knew a little of my family history, especially why I wasn't using my family name.
“How did he pay for the paintings?”
"He gave me a cheque. It is post-dated for the day of the show. I told him that if someone else wanted to pay more than what he had offered, I was duty-bound to sell them to the other person. He didn't like that one little bit so he upped his offer to a grand over the price we agreed just to make sure that he obtained them."
“Can I see the cheque?”
“Sure,” said Jonathan.
Jonathan soon found the cheque and gave it to me. If I wasn’t angry before I was angry now.
“He’s using the company account. Bastard.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Far too much to explain. It involves possible fraud.”
Jonathan looked worried.
“I’ll keep this cheque and any related documentation like a bill of sale or receipt copy if you don’t mind. Those paintings are unsold and will remain unsold until the opening night.”
“Are you sure about this? It is money in the bank?”
“Is it? What if there is no money in the bank and it bounces?”
“Ok, I get you,” said Jonathan.
“I’ll sign a receipt saying what I have taken today. Take copies of it all just to keep some records on your end. Then you can’t be accused of complicity.”
"That's a good idea. What will you do with this evidence? I assume that it is the evidence?"
“I’m going to show it to my Father. He is chairman of the company whose name is on the cheque. I thought that seeing the new me would get them out of my life once and for all but this scam… yes, it is just the latest in a long line of scams and grift by my brother to get me to take the fall for his shady business dealings but this tops any of them by a huge margin.”
Jonathan made copies of all his documentation. He made a copy for me and gave me that and the originals.
“Did my brother give any indication that he would be attending the opening?”
“No. Quite the opposite. He said that he’d be away on business.”
“That’s good to know.”
Then I hesitated a moment.
“Jonathan, I’d like your opinion on something.”
“Sure. That’s what I’m here for if it is an item of artwork that is. Anything else comes under the maybe category,” he replied trying to lighten the atmosphere a bit.
I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture of the piece I’d painted for Matt’s Grandfather.
“I did this as a commission for an old friend.”
Jonathan took a good look at the scene.
“That is certainly different. Very different from your normal fare. Are you thinking of doing more like this?”
"I don't know. I enjoyed painting it especially the research that went into it. There are a lot of photographs of old railways but they are mostly record shots. I tried to put some life into this scene."
Jonathan ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhed’ once more. It was more like a cat purring than anything.
“It might be outside what I’d sell but I am sure that there is a market for pictures like this and even more so for a limited run of prints. Prints of Steam Locos by David Shepherd sell very well for several hundred quid a go. At fifty quid a pop, you don’t need to print more than a hundred and you have a decent income. Plus…” he said grinning.
“I know I shouldn’t be saying this but you could save on my commission at the same time.”
I smiled back at him.
"Thanks, Jonathan. I’m no David Shepherd but thanks for being honest with me. I’ll have to do some thinking about this sort of thing.”
“Are you getting bored with your landscapes?”
“Not exactly but I need some new challenges.”
Jonathan chuckled.
“As if becoming the new you isn’t enough of a challenge. Speaking of which, I take it that this will be the first show where the artist will be actually here?”
I'd been at the openings of my previous shows but as pretending to be a prospective buyer and not as 'Savannah Hall, Artist' and would be the centre of attention.
“Yes, I’ll be here provided that I can find something to wear that is.”
He just smiled and shook his head. He knew the foibles of us arty types only too well.
After seeing my brother up to no good, I nearly didn’t go through with the rest of our plan for the day but a bit of gentle arm twisting from Melody over a pub lunch convinced me to carry on.
Her final words as we left the pub were… were prophetic.
“If you think I’m going to miss the showdown with your family then you had better think again. After all, what are sisters for but to look out for each other?”
“Ok, ok. You win.”
We left the pub and walked the short distance to Oxford St, the home of more shops that cater to the whims of women per square foot than just about anywhere I knew. Our problem was sorting the good from the bad, the brilliant for the rubbish and the gold from the crap or words like that.
We’d walked all the way from Marble Arch to Oxford Circus and back before either of us found something that tickled our respective fancies.
Melody found her perfect outfit well before I found mine. We seemed to have very similar tastes and they complimented each other.
“Now for shoes!” demanded Melody.
I sighed and prepared myself for another large debt on my credit card but it was all in a good cause.
Melody once again found her knock’em dead shoes before me. As much as I'd love to wear heels that high, I couldn't. I have long toes and my foot proportion is all wrong for pretty well anything over 3inch in height.
“You had better wear them a lot before Easter Sunday. I don’t want any complaints while we are at my father’s home.”
Melody just grinned back at me. Oh, what it is to be a teenager!
Time was passing and I began to feel that I’d never find the right pair when I decided on a different tack. At the very next shop, I found what I wanted, a pair of knee-high boots with a 2in block heel.
Melody laughed at my choice.
“These will be perfect when we have to leg it from my old home.”
We both had a good laugh at that.
“That was an interesting day,” said Melody when we arrived home.
“Started out bloody awful but got better after lunch.”
“What are we going to do about your Brother?”
“What’s this ‘we’ thing?”
“You need moral support when you lay it onto them. You gave me that support now it is time to pay you back at least some of what I owe you for getting me out of London and letting me start to live a life. My life and not the one that someone wanted for me. You and I are alike in that aren't we?"
Who was the adult here? Melody was talking a lot of sense.
“Besides, I can give all the wrong messages to David. That will confuse him.”
"That is the one thing that you won't do. David will reel you in and spit you out in a million pieces. If you are going to give any signals, it has to be that you bat for the other side."
Melody laughed.
“I get you. Cock a snoot at him.”
“Something like that but we need to be ready to leave at a moments notice. They won’t like what I’m going to say.”
“Lauren, do you have any falsies I can borrow? Now that you have your own…”
I smiled back at her.
“I do but they are back on Roxy. We can take a trip to the boatyard tomorrow. I need to see when she’s going to be ready.”
“Thanks.”
“They are yours. As you say, I don’t need them any longer. I have some adhesive and remover as well.”
“You are a lifesaver; you know that don’t you?”
“Was there any post on the mat?” I asked changing the subject.
"I just put them on the kitchen table. I needed the loo if you remember."
“Oh yes,” I said as I remembered the dash to the toilet.
There were two letters on the table. One was for me and one for Melody. I wondered who knew her address. The one for me was easy to identify. It had come by airmail and was from Professor Fergusson.
His letter told me that he was taking a few weeks off to visit Washington DC and was going to try to attend a hearing of the US Supreme Court before returning home at the beginning of May.
His words reminded me that I owed him a painting in return for letting us stay in his home rent-free. I knew the scene I wanted to paint as we'd stopped in Pangbourne specifically to allow me to take a few photographs of the building he'd talked about when we'd last met. The book he'd shown me about the life of the Miller of Pangbourne in the late 19th Century was on his bookshelf. That was going to be the subject of the painting. Thankfully, he’d made a copy of the book for me as it went out of print in the 1980’s.
Melody appeared from the kitchen with our last cups of tea of the day.
“This letter is for you,” I said grinning.
“Me?”
“Yes Melody, for you. That’s what it says on the envelope.”
She literally tore the envelope open.
“It’s from Heidi,” she said smiling.
I wondered it if was the final nail in the coffin of their fledgeling relationship.
“She says sorry for letting me down the other day. They had a fire where she lives. Some other students let a prank get out of hand.”
“Couldn’t she just have phoned you?” I asked slightly puzzled why she’d written in this day and age?
“This was inside,” said Melody handing me a printed card.
It was an invite to the May Ball as Heidi’s ‘plus one’.
"Wow. That is a turnaround."
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Say nothing until you have slept on the matter. Then go and see her and tell her to her face that you are going to accept.”
“But…?”
“You have nothing to wear…? I know and there is plenty of time to sort that out. You need to know what she is going to wear first. You don’t want the outfits to clash now do you?”
Melody just grinned at me. The Cheshire Cat had got its cheese.
Just then my phone rang. From the caller ID, I could see that it was Matt.
"Hi, Matt. This is an unexpected call. What can I do for you?"
“Oh. He did eh? That changes things. David forged my signature on a cheque at the gallery to buy some of my paintings from the next show. The thing is that as far as I know, I’ve never ever been a signatory on that account.”
“Yes, it is silly. Why should I buy my own paintings?”
“Oh! That could be a reason. I think we need to visit my father sooner rather than later. Can you email me the documents and the links to the Stock Exchange release? I can show them to my Father and let him make up his mind.”
“No. I think we’ll go tomorrow. Shame really. We’d both bought something nice for Easter Sunday.”
"Thanks, Matt. I'll let you know how it goes. Bye."
I hung up the phone and closed my eyes. This was how I could tell Melody that I was thinking. I needed to try to rough out a plan for the following day.
Melody was sitting patiently for me to stop thinking.
“I guess that was bad news?”
“Bad? No not bad but terrible. My dear brother has sold almost all the shares he owned in the family holding company. The notification to the Stock Exchange was posted after the market closed today. That is not good. My Grandfather gave each of us 15% of the equity in the company. Mine is in a trust. Dad at least had the foresight to do that when he sent me off to Australia. I’ve not touched them since I returned. I have no idea of the value. David as Managing Director of the company is required to notify the Stock Exchange of in advance of any sales because he is an Officer of the Company. Thirty days from now, the sale will go through. That will leave the company vulnerable to takeover. My guess is that our Father won’t know about this. He holds 30% of the equity and from what Matt has said, David’s sale notification was the only one announced today.”
“Then we go visit him tomorrow then?”
“Yes, we do but we don’t dress up. Just look smart. We go in, tell him the details and get the hell out of town ASAP. If he truly does not know what David is doing then there will be hell to pay and I don’t want to be around when David tries to blame all this on me.”
“Won’t David try to sell your shares?”
“He can try but won’t get very far. When I returned from down under, I changed the trustees from the ones that Dad appointed to Evan and Matt. They run the trust and I specifically told them not to update me on the financials. There are signed documents to that effect. That means he can’t accuse me of insider dealing or try to sell my stock out from under me. Furthermore, I can’t sell my shares without both Evan and Matt agreeing and they aren’t going to do that without some heavy artillery pointed at their heads.”
A little later, we went to bed. I had a foreboding about the day ahead. Life was so much simpler when all I needed to do was pilot Roxy along the canals and paint a few pictures. I fell asleep wondering if I’d ever get back to that simple life.
[to be continued]
“’I was thinking last night,” said Melody as we ate an early Breakfast.
“You seem to know an awful lot about business for someone who says that they don’t want to be involved in it?”
She’d got me bang to rights there. Melody was proving to be a very astute person indeed.
"I do. More by necessity than anything. When I came back from Australia, I started to travel along the canals. Living in a tent apart from the odd night in a hotel, I spent a lot of time in Libraries especially when the weather was crap. As I’m sure that you are aware, many Public Libraries have daily newspapers available for visitors to read. I started to read them just to keep up to date with things. I soon found that Papers like the Mail, Express and the like contained very little real news that wasn’t related to sensationalism, conspiracy theory or the cult of celebrity. As a result, I moved onto the Times, Telegraph and Financial Times. Because I’d inherited a share in the company, as I told you about last night, I started delving a bit deeper into the roles of Directors, Shareholders and accountants.”
“Don’t you have Evan and Matt for that?”
I shook my head.
“At the time I wasn't in contact with them. I ran into Evan in Reading as I came out of the Library one wet Wednesday in June. After a weekend bender, he put me up for a week and with his help, I got myself a bank account. That’s after I made my first name change.”
“Hey! How many times have you done that?”
“Just the two. As I was saying, I didn’t want my Father or worse, my Brother to find me. I hoped that they’d think that I was still in Australia. I was wrong but anyway, thanks to Evan I became a legal person once again. I settled up my tax liabilities in Australia and here thanks to Matt and by August, I was back in my semi-nomadic life. I started sketching again and then I found Roxy and started selling pictures. My interest in financial matters continued. Matt was very helpful. He kept an eye on my families company once I found out that David was becoming the boss. I knew that he’d soon be up to no good. David was always like that as a child which almost always ended up with me taking the blame. I had to become as well briefed if not better briefed as he was. Fight fire with fire and all that.”
Melody was shaking her head in disbelief.
“Today, and with a lot of luck, I’m going to not only come out as a woman, but I’m also going to blow at least part of the lid off what David is doing to Dad’s company right behind his back.”
“From what you have said, I guess we get in, rat your brother out and head for the exit?”
“That’s the plan but plans can go wrong as I am sure that you are well aware.”
“What if your Father isn’t there? What if he’s… on the Golf Course?”
“Dad on the Golf Course? Now that would be a sight for sore eyes. It would be a little difficult as he’s been in a wheelchair for the last ten years.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. He was lucky to survive. He took a chunk out of his leg with a chainsaw because he was too much of a skinflint to pay for a tree surgeon. After the incident, he refused to go to the hospital because of his stubbornness. If he did then he’d have to admit that he had actually failed in something which would be disastrous for his ego. After three days, he passed out from the infection so I called the ambulance. The end result was that he lost his leg to Gangrene and nearly his life to Sepsis. Since then, he’s been holed up at home because he’s too proud or stubborn to be seen in a wheelchair. So, no, he won’t be on the Golf Course.”
Our conversation sort of petered out about then. I was glad, otherwise, I would have ranted on about exactly how he and I had argued and I ended up being sent to live with my Uncle in Oz in order to ‘make me a man!’.
Before we left Roxy, I checked my email. There was one from Matt telling me that David was supposed to be working at home today. He’d made some enquiries through a third party about his whereabouts.
The thought of David being there made me even more determined to get my points over and make a hasty exit before things got physical. I’d seen David hit a woman before. It wasn’t a pretty sight as he didn’t hold back. That’s the sort of psychopath he had become.
“It looks pretty grand,” commented Melody.
“It is in danger of becoming a big pile of dry rot unless something major has been done about it since I was last here,” I said as I got out of the car.
“And from what I’ve seen so far, that hasn’t happened.”
I waited for Melody to get out and get herself straight. She was learning fast about moving like a woman. Soon, it would become second nature for her. Being that bit older… ok, almost ten years, it was more difficult for me. I pinched myself for being a bit jealous of her. She didn’t deserve that one little bit.
Together, we walked up the five steps to the front door. The house was an Edwardian monstrosity. Part late Victorian, part Arts and Crafts and part Art Nouveau. A total mismatch of styles. Some people loved it. I hated the place from an early age. It was always a ‘cold’ place. Not just the temperature but the atmosphere. Firstly, my grandfather and then my father ruled over the place like it was their own little kingdom. I shuddered as the sound of the bell echoed around the empty hallway.
I soon heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
The door opened and an unfamiliar female face appeared.
“I’m here to see the master of the house.”
“Do you have an appointment?” asked the owner of the face. The person who answered the door was a housekeeper. Late to mid-thirties and very plain. Perfect for my father. Nothing to pick holes in.
“My father is always in. When was the last time he went out?”
I didn’t wait for an answer but I walked right past her. Melody followed me.
“Is he in the conservatory?”
The housekeeper didn’t answer so I took this as a yes.
I walked as confidently as I could through the hall, into the dining room and out into the conservatory. It was reasonably warm thereafter the coldness of the house. My father could never bear having the heating on in the hall or landing.
I saw him in his chair working at a desk.
“Hello Dad,” I said quietly.
He looked up and after a slight doubletake, he said,
“Have you really gone that far down in the world that you have to dress like a tramp? You can never be a woman and you bloody well know it.”
I just smiled and ignored his taunt.
“This is my friend Melody. She’s been travelling with me for a few months.”
Dad ignored her. His eyes were fixated on my breasts.
“What do I own the displeasure of this visit? You were not supposed to be here until Easter Sunday.”
“I have come into some information that can’t wait that long. It concerns David.”
“Still trying to lay the blame for your failures on him then?” he replied sarcastically.
“You know that it was always the other way around but I didn’t come here to be insulted. Did you know that David sold over half of his shares in the company the other day?”
Then I added,
“Where is he by the way? His secretary thinks he is working here today?”
True to form, my father, ignored anything to do with my Brother.
After a brief expression of surprise, he said,
“I suppose you can prove this?”
“I can.”
I opened the folder that I’d been carrying and handed him a sheet of paper.
“That is a copy of the notification to the LSE[1] of the sale as he is required to do by law. If you doubt me, the reference at the bottom of the page would allow you to search for it yourself.”
I gave him a little bit of credit for actually reading the document rather than just throwing it back at me.
After an awkward minute or so, he put it down on the desk.
“Is this all?”
"Far from it. David has tried to make me MD of three of the satellite companies. Here are copies of the change of directorship records that he sent to Companies House."
I handed them over.
He read the first one and merely glanced at the others.
“He used my old name which was his first mistake. I legally changed it in February. The signature is a bad forgery of my old name and he gave my address as here. As you well know, I have not lived here since you sent me to exile in Australia.”
I handed over a copy of my deed poll that recorded my change of name. Attached to it was a copy of my driving license showing my now legal female name.
“Why would he do something like that?” asked my father.
“Probably because he is up to no good. Like this.”
I handed over a copy of the cheque and bill of sale that David had written to the gallery.
"As you can see David is trying to buy six paintings using my name and the family business account. That is very much an act of fraud. I am not and have not ever been a signatory on the company account. If such a signature has been added then it is not mine. You made it clear that when I rejected having anything to do with the business that I could never return unless it was to start right at the bottom. There is no reason for me to want to be a signatory on the account as you well know. For your information, I am still in the 'never want anything to do with the business' camp so why would I want to buy my own pictures from the gallery that I'm using to sell them? The only reason I could think of is that he’s using it as a tax fiddle. Melody and I saw him leaving the gallery on Marylebone High St after writing out the cheque."
I gave my Father some more credit because he took the time to look at the cheque and bill of sale.
“Are you trying to tell me that your childish dabbling's with a paintbrush is worth thousands?"
“Yes. I am. Why are you surprised? I subsequently discovered that David bought four paintings from my previous show, some eighteen months
ago. I’m surprised that they aren’t on show here?”
“He did nothing of the sort!” retorted my Father.
“He did and here is the invoice and the shipping details. The address where they were shipped to is here.”
Once again, I gave him the evidence.
“What else do you have?”
I have lots. It is all documented here in this folder. You might like to look at the last page.
I put the folder onto the desk in front of him.
“That is a copy of a lease of a warehouse just off the M66 near Bury. From my knowledge of the various businesses that come under the family business, there is no need for any new warehousing and especially that far away. There is plenty of spare capacity at the Hinckley site as you are well aware especially since the company has been trying to sublet half of it for over a year. David is up to no good. You must get a proper audit of the company done. I mean proper and with the real set of books. Not the ones that David shows you.”
“Why? You don’t have any interest in the company…”
“As you know only too well, I do have an interest thanks to the shared that Grandfather left me but only indirectly. If you recall, I promised you years ago that I would put the shares I inherited into a trust. That trust is administered by my lawyer and accountant. That means that they are duty-bound to keep tabs on the company as trustees. It was they who alerted me to the issues outlined in that document. I could just get them to sell the shares which would make the company open to a takeover. I don't want you to do that but I will if only to get David out of being chairman. To me, he is up to no good as he has been all his life and as he has been all his life, he is trying to drop me in it big time which is what would have happened if this stuff had not come to light."
I didn’t let him respond. I carried on with what I’d spent half the night going through in my mind.
“I am very happy in my life. I make money from my painting. That is more than enough to live on and put some away for my retirement. |I am living full time as a woman and will continue my transition. Why on earth would I do these things with a business that I have expressed many times both verbally and in writing that I want nothing to do with ever! I only came… We only came here today to give you a heads up. If you choose to ignore it then fine but you have been warned.”
That was it. I was done.
“Come on Melody. I can see that we have outstayed our welcome.”
As we left the conservatory, I glanced back. My father was glaring at me but he had his hands on the file I’d left him. That told me that when he had cooled down, he’d start to sift through the evidence. In my mind, it was clear that David was up to no good but would what I’d given him be enough to not only get his attention but make him take action against David. That was now beyond my control.
“That factual demolition of his arguments is the sort of thing that lawyers live for…”
“No chance of that Melody. I tell the truth. I can’t lie. I have too many tells as my father knows only too well and has chosen to ignore far too often. Even today, while he was doubting my word he would have been reading those tells. I have to hope that upon reflection, he will come to the conclusion that I was telling the truth.”
“Don’t be so sure about him not believing you today. He nodded his head a good number of times when he read those documents. I’m sure that deep down he knows that you are right.”
“But is too proud to admit it as it will show weakness?”
“He is a proud man. That is clear. Perhaps the incident with his leg has taken some of the aurorae of invincibility away from him?” countered Melody.
I looked across at her.
"It sounds like you had an experience of something like that yourself?"
“I did. Dad was made redundant back in 2008. It hit him hard. The worst part was no longer being the main breadwinner. He found a new job but it paid a lot less than Mums. He was never really happy until 2010 when he got a job building the Olympic Stadium. That brought the old more dominant man back. I preferred the more submissive version. Once he was king of the castle again, he made sure that I knew that he was not going to let me fail my exams. It was failing my GCSE exams that tipped him over the edge. Even though I passed the resits with flying colours, he never made me forget it. Then he caught me wearing Mum’s wedding dress and that was it. I was out the door.”
“At least you had a clean break.”
I added,
"And yes, keeping some form of contact with my family is my own fault but spending three months camping out in the Western Australian bush made me realise that I needed to keep some form of contact even if it is very small, with my family until I found my own family. I've burned those bridges today. I’m on my own apart from my little sister.”
Melody went red in the face.
“What if I and Heidi get it together? You won’t have me around? I’m not saying that it is going to happen but it might.”
“Where has that innocent and petulant teenager that I rescued from the towpath gone?”
“You made me the person I have become. I had to grow up and you gave me space and guidance to do at least part of it. Isn’t, that what big sisters are for?”
I grinned. We were good.
“How about we go and see Roxy? According to the manager of the boatyard, she should be back in the water and there are some breast forms with your name on them waiting for you? After that perhaps you can go and see Heidi? I know from the long phone call that you had with her last night that you are missing her…”
Melody smiled and relaxed back in the seat.
“I thought that you would never ask.”
[to be continued]
"It is nice to be back home," I said as I sank into a chair on board the newly refitted Roxy.
Melody didn’t answer right away so I tried again.
"This is your home too you know. Get yourself sorted out about what you want to do with your life. I guess that everything you ever thought about was being Melody. Now you are. You are legally Melody and have the documentation to prove it. Now you have the chance to think long and hard about what you want from your life as Melody."
“I know and it is hard.”
I chuckled.
“I know that only too well. Those nights I spent camping in the Australian Outback when I was looking for gold gave me a chance to reflect. As soon as I had a decent stash of the yellow stuff, I relaxed and began to think about the future. On my next trip into Kalgoorlie for supplies, I bought a sketchbook and some pencils. I began to draw. As I did so, my mind went to a different place. A happier place. What convinced me that being an artist was the way to go was how easy it was to sell those sketches when I went back to town.”
“I can’t draw,” said Melody in a virtual whisper.
“That’s not the point. Being free of worries allowed me to think. The same applies here, I hope. In return for being my companion and working the locks, you get room and board and someone to bounce ideas off of.”
“What if I make a mistake?”
“Then you learn from that and begin again. That’s like learning to ride a bike. You fall off a few times then you learn that staying upright is a whole lot nicer than the alternative. We learn from our mistakes, don’t we?”
“I suppose so.”
I stood up walked towards the steps that lead up onto the stern of Roxy.
“We both have a lot to learn now that Roxy is fully electric. It might not work. I simply don’t know but it is worth trying isn’t it. No more smelly exhaust to breathe in.”
“But you still have a generator? I saw it when I stowed away our bags.”
“I do and that is for emergencies. If the battery is totally flat then that will charge it enough to allow us to get moving.”
“It is a risk.”
“Life is a risk as you well know don’t you Melody? What would have happened if I hadn’t let you jump on board?”
“I would have been beaten up after being made to suck their dicks at the very least.”
“There you go. You took a risk and jumped on board Roxy and… here we are.”
I left Melody to think things over while I headed for the Boatyard Office so that I could settle my bill.
An hour later, we left the boatyard in blissful silence. I headed north along the Oxford Canal and moored up for the night just where the canal and the river Cherwell almost meet near the hamlet of Thrupp.
As I was preparing something to eat, I asked Melody,
“It is Good Friday tomorrow. Are you and Heidi going to do anything?”
“I was thinking of going into Oxford. She’s not working until Tuesday.”
“Why don’t you invite her to come over tomorrow? We don’t have many locks to traverse on our way to Heyford. There is a station there where she can get a train back to the city.”
Melody smiled.
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’m sure. If I wasn’t sure then I would never have suggested it.”
She didn’t move right away.
“What are you waiting for?”
“You will wear that deck out with all that pacing,” I commented.
Melody was waiting for Heidi to arrive. She'd texted a little over an hour ago to say that she was on her way. Melody had started clock watching less than five minutes later.
I left her to it and headed down into the cabin to prepare lunch. I’d be testing out the new electric oven for the first time and I was praying that it would work properly.
Our short trip yesterday had been very educational. Roxy now had a lot more acceleration than before and it was very, very easy to exceed the speed limit. I’d looked at the battery gauge and was pleased when the level hadn’t dropped by as much as I had expected. My new estimates meant that we’d easily reach Banbury and could even make Cropredy where I knew that there was a place to plug Roxy in for a recharge.
Melody and I had planned on taking Roxy a few miles north and tying up while we had lunch. Then we’d head to Heyford, where Heidi could take the train back to Oxford. That was the plan and if I didn’t manage to get the oven working, we’d be eating cheese sandwiches for lunch instead of a roast.
I suddenly heard Melody’s footsteps run along the deck at the side of the cabin and then stop. I guessed that she’d gone ashore. Heidi must have arrived so I stopped preparing the veg and after wiping my hands, I went up on deck.
Melody and Heidi were embracing as if they’d not seen each other for years. I hadn’t realised that things had gotten so serious between them.
I then noticed someone else standing on the quayside.
“Hello?” I said slightly nervously.
“Did you come with Heidi?”
“Yes. I’m her flatmate. I’m Jenna Carlsson.”
"Hello, Jenna. I'm Savannah. This is Roxy, my narrowboat. Please come aboard? If you are staying that is?”
Jenna smiled back at me.
“I only came with Heidi to see one of these boats. I’ve seen them on the canal but I’ve never seen inside and all that.”
I smiled.
“Then please come aboard. It appears that Melody and Heidi are away on their own planet for the immediate future.”
We both looked at the others. They were walking together along the canal. Thankfully, they were heading in the direction we were going to travel.
I helped Jenna climb on board.
“Welcome to Roxy. Capt’n Savannah at your service.”
“Pleased to be here Savannah,” said Jenna.
She was effing gorgeous. How she wasn’t married or at least engaged was a mystery to me. Oh well! Someone is going to be lucky barstweard.
“Come on down below, I’ll give you the guided tour. There isn’t a lot but it is my home.”
“I admire you. Being able to up sticks and move to a new place whenever you want.”
“It isn’t as easy as that. Besides, she’s limited to 4mph on canals. You can walk faster than that.”
“Isn’t that part of the attraction. Slowing down, destressing?”
“It is much, much more than that. I use this as my base for my work.”
“Oh? What do you do?” asked Jenna.
I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was genuine in her interest.
“I’m an artist. I paint Landscapes. There are a couple of examples of my work on the wall behind you.”
She turned around and did an ‘ahhh’.
“That’s the wharf at Bedwyn,” she said excitedly.
I grinned back at her.
“That is perfectly correct. Not many people would have known that
It was her turn to grin back at me.
“I grew up in Hungerford. I’ve walked and canoed down the canal many times.”
“Then you know how peaceful it can be.”
“Until some motorised craft comes chugging by.”
I laughed.
“Not Roxy. She’s now fully electric.”
“Good for you.”
“Come this way, I’ll show you the rest of her. There isn’t much. Roxy isn’t that big.”
Two fairly small cabins and my junk room, sorry studio and we were back in the sitting/dining area. The small table was set for three.
“Can I tempt you with lunch? There is plenty.”
Jenna shook her head.
“I have to get back. I have to work.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m a pharmacist at the John Radcliffe. We have to be there 24/7. Patients are always needing new medication.”
“Well, you are more than welcome to visit any time,” I said more out of hope than anything.
She grinned back at me.
“I may well take you up on that.”
Then I had an idea.
“What are you doing we week tomorrow in the evening?”
“Why? Are you asking me out on a date?”
I laughed.
“Not really. I have an exhibition of my work at a gallery in London opening that night. I wondered if you would like to come along as my guest?”
“And get me to buy one of your paintings?”
“That is not the reason I would like you to come. As you seem to know the Kennet and Avon Canal then there may well be some other places you know in the paintings. I’d never pressure anyone to buy a painting.”
Jenna didn’t really react so I tried another tack.
“Let me give you the address of the gallery. Then you can make up your own mind. No pressure from me at all.”
I found my shoulder bag and searched for one of the galleries cards. I found one and gave it to her.
“Thanks. I’ll give it some thought.”
“Please do. I hope you can make it.”
“Thanks once again for the tour. Roxy is a nice boat.”
“Thanks. I like her.”
After a chuckle, I added,
“She is my home after all.”
Jenna smiled as she climbed up the steps and onto the read deck. I followed.
I looked along the canal for Melody and Heidi. They were almost out of sight.
“Thanks again,” said Jenna as she climbed back onto dry land.
“How are you getting back to Oxford?”
She grinned.
“My car is parked just up the road. Heidi was very late getting up this morning and missed the bus so she roped me into giving her a lift.”
“I’m glad that you did.”
“Me too,” she said as she turned away.
I felt myself go very red in the face so I ducked down into the galley to avoid my embarrassment being seen.
When I emerged again, Jenna was nowhere to be seen. I felt a mixture and sadness and joy. Sadness that she’d not been able to spend the rest of the day with us and joy because I felt that she seemed to like me.
Then I came down to earth. I’d been wrong about women so many times in the past that it was embarrassing to even think about it for very long.
Then I saw the joint that we were having for lunch sitting on the countertop. That reminded me that Lunch needed to be cooked. I switched on the oven and put the dish inside. Then I went up on deck and began to cast off.
After edging Roxy away from the quay, I engaged forward gear and she surged away. I quickly throttled back to a more sedate 3mph. The new Roxy was very sensitive to the slightest movement of the throttle lever. Thankfully, the boatyard had provided instructions on how to adjust the sensitivity. I mentally added that to my ‘ToDo’ list for another day.
“Do you want me to pick you up?” I called as I came level with Heidi and Melody.
“No, we will carry on walking,” said Heidi with a smile on her face.
“Ok. I’ll tie up about a mile and a half ahead. Lunch will be ready at one. Don’t be late.”
“We won’t,” said Melody with a sheepish grin on her face.
I was very happy for her. She’d blossomed into a lovely young lady these past two and a half months. That had been especially evident since she’d met Heidi. Her confidence had grown enormously.
The canal between here and Banbury meanders along the Cherwell Valley. Nowhere it is straight for very long. That is part of the beauty of canals. Sometimes you are on top of the world such as when traversing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct [1], going deep underground as when going through the Standedge Tunnel [2] or like today, on a canal that takes ages to get virtually nowhere (as the crow flies). The weather was bright and sunny. There were swans nesting and many little ducklings following their mother around in the hope of getting some food.
I kept thinking of Jenna. I would like to get to know her a lot better but she seemed to be happy in her job in Oxford. I was nowhere ready to settle down. There is a lot more that I want to do with my life before I put down fixed roots.
I moored Roxy about two miles along the canal from where I’d left Melody and Heidi. I attended to the lunch and also set up a table on a flat area next to the towpath. Luckily, I had seating for three. One folding chair, one portable chair and one stool. I even found a tablecloth.
I sat on the stern of Roxy enjoying the warm spring sun. The lunch was coming along nicely, the weather was nice and the glass of wine that I cradled in my hand was rich and smooth. All seemed well in the world. All I needed was a good woman to share it with. Fat chance of that at the moment.
I'd realised a long time ago that buying Roxy was a risk. A risk that I had to take but one that would make it hard to find the right person who was willing to spend the rest of their life with me. Sometimes, life sucks but today it wasn't that bad.
I was beginning to get a bit anxious when Lunch was just about ready and there was no sign of the missing couple. The towpath was empty as far as the eye could see in both directions.
With a sigh, I turned off the oven and the veggies that were in the steamer hoping that they would not be ruined by the delay when I heard voices.
I poked my head up out of the galley only to see Melody and Heidi squeezing through a gap in the hedge a few metres down the towpath.
“Sorry, we are late,” said Heidi.
“Melody here suggested that we took a shortcut where the canal almost doubles back on itself. That ended up in a quagmire where a load of cows had been sheltering from the rain during the winter.
Their footwear was muddy. No, make that very muddy.
“A shortcut that ended up not being very short or a cut. Yep. Been there done that,” I joked.
"There are some flip-flops in the locker at the stern. Take off your shoes and give them a clean in the canal. From the smell, it seems that you picked up more than just mud. The shoes can dry in the sun while we eat."
"Thanks, Savannah. It will be a long time before I trust Melody’s navigation,” she joked.
It was then that I knew that they were together for the long term. The incident with the mud would have ended many relationships on the spot.
After a very nice lunch, Melody volunteered to do the washing up leaving Heidi and me to clear away the table and chairs.
“I was lucky that Jenna was around this morning,” she said as she folded the tablecloth.
“I was late getting up. If she hadn’t given me a lift, I would have been very late.”
“That’s what friends are for aren’t they?” I replied.
“They are.”
“Too bad that she had to go to work,” I remarked.
“There was more than enough food for a 4th although I don’t know what they would have sat on.”
Heidi laughed.
“She didn’t have to go to work. She’s on the same course as me.”
“But… Jenna told me that she was a Pharmacist at the John Radcliffe?”
Heidi shook her head.
“That’s her stock line to put people off.”
My shoulders visibly sank.
“Oh well. She seemed like an interesting person.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll see you at the opening of your show.”
“Eh? I don’t follow? First, she gives me the thumbs down and then you are saying that she’s coming to the opening of my exhibition?”
“Jenna texted me about an hour after she left you. Let me show you.”
She fished out her phone and showed me the text.
“Heds, tell Savannah sorry. Period pains again. Tell her that I’ll see her next weekend for her grand opening, Jens.”
“Jenna has terrible period pains. I’ve told her to see the doc but she won’t.”
“So, she wasn’t having me on then?”
“No, she wasn’t. Her last boyfriend dumped her because of them. He couldn’t understand the sort of thing that we go through every month.”
“I hope she does make an effort to sort it out. It could lead to more severe problems later in life,” I replied.
“I know but she won’t listen. I had them too but the doc put me on the pill and everything has been great ever since.”
“Thanks for telling me but I can’t understand why she had to lie to me?”
Heidi smiled.
“That’s because she does not know you. Yet!”
Her last words filled me with hope and dread at the same time.
[to be continued]
[1] https://www.pontcysyllte-aqueduct.co.uk/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standedge_Tunnels
[Saturday Evening at the Gallery in London]
“Things are going well,” commented the owner of the Gallery, Jonathan Fields.
“About half of your paintings are already sold or reserved and we are only an hour into the event.”
“I saw you busy with the blue stickers,” I replied with a small smile on my face.
“There is a good crowd in tonight. You are getting a good reputation, my friend.”
“The promise of free food and booze gets a lot of people interested,” I said slightly sarcastically.
“You keep looking at the door. Are you expecting someone else to come?”
Melody and Heidi had arrived almost an hour ago.
“I was hoping that another guest was going to come along tonight but it seems that I’ve been stood up.”
“Girlfriend?”
I shook my head.
“Not really. I had sort of hoped that it might turn out that way. We got on very well in our one meeting so I invited her here tonight. So far, she is a no show.”
Just then some more prospective buyers arrived. I let Jonathan welcome them as I looked for Melody and Heidi.
I found them deep in conversation with a much older man. I knew his face from the paper. He was the fine art critic of one of the main daily newspapers, a man named Julian Friend.
“How do you like the show then Mr Friend?” I asked quietly.
“Some interesting work. Savannah Hall has some talent but I feel that it wasted on Landscapes.”
I smiled.
“I’ll be sure to tell her.”
Melody was trying hard to keep a straight face. Julian noticed this.
“Don’t tell me… I’ve put my foot in it?”
"Not quite Mr Friend. Yes, I'm the artist and you might be right in that there is something else for me to paint. But, as you well know and have said in your column, many artists produce work just to keep food on the table and that it is only when you get a reputation that you can afford to experiment like David Hockney, Tracey Emin and not forgetting the very unique, Grayson Perry. I don't put myself in their class, not by any means but you have to aim for something don't you?"
He smiled back at me.
“That sounds like a prepared quote?”
I grinned.
“Partially. When I heard that you were coming tonight, I had to think of something to say that would try to convey the impression that I was serious about art but not overblow my own trumpet so to speak.”
Mr Friend smiled.
“Some of the pieces are good but some are in the needs improvement category,” he said with a straight face.
“As is the case with everything. Just because you have made a successful souffle two hundred times, it does not mean that it won’t go flat on you the next time,” I replied.
He smiled.
“Touché.”
Just then Jonathan came to my rescue.
“Savannah, there are some people I want you to meet.”
I turned to Mr Friend.
"I look forward to reading your demolition of my work in your column next week,"
He was known for demolishing the careers of many young and upcoming artists.
“I would not call what I’m going to write about your work a demolition. More like delivering some constructive criticism.”
“Thank you.”
I turned away before I said something that could turn his review into a hatchet job and followed Jonathan to meet these prospective customers.
“That went well,” said Jonathan almost three hours later.
He'd just shown the last of the visitors the door. Heidi and Melody had disappeared around 9 pm but at least they came and mingled with a lot of people. No one had raised a stink at being in the presence of two transexuals which pleased me no end.
“All but two of the show pictures have sold. A very profitable evening.”
I smiled.
"For you or me?"
He grinned.
“If all the sales go through then I should think that both of us will be well pleased by the results.”
“That’s good. The work I had done on Roxy made a really big dent in my finances.”
Jonathan smiled.
“Then you had better start planning what you are going to include in your next show…”
“That’s the problem at the moment. I don’t have much enthusiasm for doing any work for a while. I’ve painted nearly forty canvasses in the past year. I think I need a holiday.”
“Take a break then. That will make many of your regular customers will be even more eager to buy another Savannah original.”
"I don't need buttering up Jonathan. I'm not stopping sketching but nothing is truly inspiring at the moment."
“Woman trouble hits most people at some point in their lives. I can see it in your eyes. Whoever she is, you have it bad.”
I sighed.
“That’s just it. We haven’t even dated but for the first time in over a decade I am interested in having a relationship with someone.”
“What did I just say? Woman trouble. My mother always wondered why I never took an interest in girls. While Dad was alive, I dared not come out. Since I did just that, Mum and I have been closer than ever. The problem is that she’s gone from trying to pair me off with every girl in town, to trying to pair me off with every male in town. Still, it is progress.”
“How is Ian? Is he recovering?”
Jonathan smiled.
“Getting better but being a bit of a whining ninny. He would go off-piste and get two broken legs and a broken pelvis for your troubles. That is the price you pay, part of being married. I suppose but he’ll get over it but as far as I’m concerned, winter sports other than going ice skating are not on the menu from now on.”
“Give him my regards when you get home.”
“I will.”
It was very late when I returned to Roxy. I’d managed to get the last train but one from Marylebone to Banbury where she was moored close to the town centre and the famous Banbury Cross.
As I opened the door from the cockpit that led into the cabin, I noticed an envelope. It had been pushed under the door while I was away. Those of us who lived on the canals were often bombarded with flyers for fast food and the like when we arrived in a town. I just thought that this was something like that or an appeal for money from a charity. The sort of thing that most people put straight into recycling. I put it on the galley and locked the door behind me.
I kicked off my heels and headed for the bathroom and then to bed. It had been a long day but overall, it had been a success even if Jenna hadn’t appeared at the gallery.
I fell asleep thinking about what I’d be cooking for lunch. Melody and Heidi were coming up from Oxford. I had this feeling that they had something to tell me. It is was what I thought it might be then I’d better be prepared. I mentally added another item to my shopping list for the morning.
The taxi dropped me off near the wharf where Roxy was moored just before eleven the next morning. I’d done my food shopping for not only the day but the week ahead at a supermarket that was on the edge of town not far from the junction with the M40 Motorway.
Despite me getting there for dead on 10:00 am when they opened, the place was busy with families, friends chatting whilst their trolley's blocked the aisles and all manner of other hazards that conspired to extend my visit from the normal twenty to twenty-five minutes to almost forty-five. Thankfully, a taxi was just dropping off a fare outside when I emerged laden with shopping.
With everything stowed away, I started preparing Lunch. Roast Lamb with a herb crust and all the trimmings. Roxy was fully charged thanks to the power points that the Canal and River Trust had installed at the wharf.
While I waited for the Lamb to cook, I went over the figures for Roxy’s energy consumption. I was pleasantly surprised at how efficient Roxy was since her conversion to electric power. The six solar panels that now adorned her roof generated almost as much power as it took to get Roxy to the maximum allowed 4mph when the sun was shining. I’d estimated that if that were the case, I could go for nearly 100 miles before needing to stop for several days or find a power source to give her a charge.
The absence of noise from her engine was very relaxing although I did have a portable generator stored in the motor/battery compartment just for emergencies. So far it had remained unused and I hoped that it would stay that way for a long time.
My suspicions about Heidi and Melody having an announcement proved to be correct. Once we’d finished lunch, Melody said,
“We have an announcement.”
“Good I hope?”
They looked at each other like two lovebirds.
“We want to get married,” said Heidi.
“Congratulations,” I said happily.
“What do your parents say?”
“They don’t know yet and I’m not going to tell them until we are married. Their church would not approve of Melody.”
This was what I’d feared might be the case.
“Wouldn’t that mean pretty well… well, giving your family the finger?”
“Yes, it would. We have talked about this a lot and if that is what it takes then I’ll do it. Melody makes me so happy and alive.”
“What about you Melody?”
“It is the same. You have seen how grumpy I get when I’m away from Heidi.”
That was very true.
I reached over the table and took one of their hands in mine.
“As the substitute parent and possibly the only sensible adult here, I want to congratulate you both but there is a lot of things that need to be resolved.”
“I’m going to finish my degree but transfer to UK business law,” said Heidi as she pre-emptied one of my questions.
“And I’m going to move in with her and look after her while she prepares for her exams,” said Melody.
Drat… That was another question of mine that they’d resolved. They seemed to be behaving like sensible adults.
“What about sex? If you want a career in Law, the last thing you want to happen is for you to get pregnant until well after you are qualified?”
The two of them looked at each other with those doey eyes again.
“We aren’t virgins but we have agreed not to have sex, sex if you know what I mean until after Heidi has finished her studies,” said Melody.
I guessed that what she meant was having unprotected intercourse.
“What about your transition and what are you going to do for a career?” I asked Melody.
“Heidi is going to help me study for my A-levels. I’m going to take English, Maths and Law. I can enrol at the college in Oxford in September.”
“What are you going to do for money? Isn’t Heidi going to be away for most of the next year? I remember you saying that it was all arranged?”
“I’ll try to sort something out with the College. If I have to go abroad as planned and then change to UK Law for my final year then we’ll work on that when the time comes.
“I’m going to take over Heidi’s job at the coffee shop,” said Melody beaming.
“If I work all summer ` and be careful with what I spend, I’ll have enough to pay for the course.”
“What about long-distance relationships? They are hard to keep going?”
“We are going to give it a try. There is something that Melody does to me that makes me want to make it work,” said Heidi.
It seemed that they had an answer for everything. That was both good and bad. Good in that they’d thought things through. Bad because this was their first really serious relationship and the percentage of relationships of this type that last is very, very small.
“You didn’t ask about my transition?” said Melody.
"That is very much none of my business. How far you go is down to the two of you, isn't it? I can only give a limited amount of guidance because at the moment, I'm not going the whole way. Perhaps in time, I will but I'm not one of those who hate everything to do with their male parts."
“Thanks, Savannah for not trying to talk us out of it?”
“I would dream of trying. I went through a lot of this with my father when I was your age. When I dropped out of Uni halfway through the first term, he had me up before him as if I was a naughty schoolboy. In retrospect, letting him dominate me as he did at the time and letting him send me halfway around the world to 'teach me a lesson and to make me man', was possibly the best thing that could have happened to me. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way but they are my mistakes. You are both adults and it is time for you to start making your own decisions and your own mistakes. The only difference is that if either of you needs me then I'm here."
Before they could answer, I added,
“Here endeth, the lesson. Now, Melody, there is a bottle of Bubbly in the fridge behind you. Will you do the honours?”
It wasn’t until the next morning that I discovered the envelope that had been pushed under my door sometime on Saturday. Somehow, it had ended up on the small cupboard that held my galley waste. I was in the process of emptying it when it came to the surface.
I stopped that job and opened it. I saw that it was from Jenna.
‘This can only be bad news’, I thought to myself.
I sat down and began to read it.
“Savannah,
Yes, this is a ‘dear john’ letter. If you want to, you can stop reading now and throw this away in disgust.
Ok, so you are still here.
Firstly, let me say that everything that Melody told me about you was good and from our brief meeting, I found that I liked you. Thank you for inviting me to your grand exhibition. I am sure that it will be a success but I chickened out. There, I said it. I’m a coward.
I spent a lot of time considering… no make that wondering what a relationship with you would be like. That was when I started to think about others especially my family, and how they’d see us. That’s when I got cold feet.
Yes, I know I’m weak, a coward and all that but sorry I just could not see us as a couple.
I’m sure that there is someone out there that can love you but it is not me at least not while I am buried really deep in the closet. One day perhaps I’ll come out and things will be different but I’m… I’m afraid of what will happen with my family.
Jenna”
I read it twice and sighed. At least I now knew what had happened. I wondered why Heidi hadn’t said anything on Sunday but, that question was for another day.
I put the letter in the recycling and took the rubbish out. Once that was done, I started cleaning Roxy’s Windows and the paintwork on the superstructure. I found a few chips that needed repair and made a mental note to get the paint out later.
Once Roxy was clean again, I stood on the wharf admiring her. I never thought about her before but I loved living aboard her but Jenna’s letter had got me thinking. I wondered if being me and living one the ‘cut’ was becoming an impediment to me in finding someone to share my life with and to love. While life on the ‘cut’ suited me very well but it wasn’t for everyone. That was yet another question for another day.
I made myself a sandwich and ate it sitting on one of the aft lockers. A few other boats were moving up and down the canal. Now that Easter had come and gone, the part-timers would be out in ever-increasing numbers until the start of September when they'd die off dramatically leaving the waterways clear again until the cycle begins again next spring.
After clearing away my things from lunch, I got my paints out and began to touch up the chips and scrapes on Roxy. I called it ‘repairing her makeup’.
It was only when I'd finished repairing the last of the chips when I realised that I had an audience. I was up on the bow so the easiest way to the aft cockpit was to step into the wharf. This would take me close to the person who had been watching me.
“Do you like narrowboats?” I asked as I stood alongside my audience.
One glance told me that the woman wasn't a boat owner or user. She was dressed as if she worked in a profession such as accountancy or the law. Her business suit and coat plus briefcase gave me that impression.
“I’m not sure. I’ve never really noticed them before.”
“This is Roxy. She’s my home. As you can see, I was doing a few repairs. Tomorrow, I’m off to Cropredy.”
“Oh… Where is that?”
“A few miles to the north of here.”
“Where are you going to end up?”
I chuckled.
“That is a good question. I had thought about heading for Llangollen for the Eisteddfod but I go where my nose takes me. That is part of the attraction of living on a narrowboat.”
She didn’t respond right away. After a few seconds, she asked,
“Are you Lauren Hall?”
“That’s me. Who wants to know?” I said hoping that whatever news she was about to deliver was not too bad. It had to be bad news if she was using Lauren as my name rather than Savannah.
“My name is Carla Kulinski. I’m a lawyer from Butler, Henderson and Swan. We are based in St Albans. We were engaged by your father to investigate your brother and his various business dealings.”
I sighed.
“Perhaps you had better come aboard if you are going to give me some bad news? I'd prefer to be sitting down for things like that.”
[to be continued]
[on board Roxy]
“Can I get you something to drink?” I said as showed Ms Kulinski into my home.
"I was going to have some tea so it won’t be any trouble to make you some.”
“Tea, please. No sugar and just a dash of milk,” she replied as she sat down and started to extract some papers from her briefcase.
“Is that enough milk?” I asked a couple of minutes later.
“That’s perfect,” she said smiling.
The more I looked at her, the more I came to the conclusion that there was a woman in there somewhere that would like to be free. I’d always been sad at how much women had to conform to the predominantly male view on society and even more about their battles with the glass ceiling.
I put our cups of tea down on my small dining table and sat opposite her.
“Please, go ahead and give me the bad news. What has my brother tried to blame me for this time?”
She responded with a small smile.
“It isn’t all bad news but yes, he has tried to get you to take all the blame for everything.”
“That is my brother through and through. Every disaster that he suffered was never his fault and I usually ended up getting blamed for it even though in one case, I wasn’t even in the country.”
I paused.
“Sorry, I was starting to rant. Why don’t you start from the beginning with how you came to be involved with all this family stuff and I’ll try to stop myself from sounding off.”
“Thank you, Lauren. I have a younger sister who used to drop me in it all the time. That was why I became a lawyer. Once you threaten a bully with the law, it is amazing how quickly, they back down.”
“That is at least one thing that we can agree on. Please continue.”
For the next thirty minutes, she detailed everything that she and her associates had discovered. A lot of it was building on the work that my lawyer and accountant had done for me. She expressed her gratitude for the thoroughness of their groundwork but there was now an awful lot more meat on the bone.
“What does my father think of all this? I take it that he has seen all this already?”
“Yes, he has and he is not, to paraphrase, a happy bunny. It really galls him that his son has skimmed, robbed, defrauded, call it what you will, more than half a million pounds from the family business. It hurts him even more to see the lengths that David has gone to try to blame it all on you. The sad fact is that it goes back years.”
She reached into her briefcase for one more document.
“I say years. This document was apparently signed by you when you were prospecting got gold in Australia. Look at the date.”
I read the document. It was a copy of the tax return for one of the family companies. I had never been a director of the company yet it was my signature or rather a reasonable forgery that was right there on the bottom of the document.
“What does the HMRC think of this?”
“They are not happy but are continuing their investigations. The fact that you declared your earnings in Australia so soon after your return really sends a clear message that you could not have been in two places at once. If they do agree that this return is illegal then there will be a full HMRC audit of all the group companies that could go back six years before the date on this document.”
“I was still at school then. I was studying hard for my A-Levels. A fat lot of good they did me but that is another topic.”
“What was David doing at that time?”
“He’d basically dropped out of school after his GCSE’s at sixteen and was working in one or more of the family businesses. That was when one of his scams blew up and I ended up taking the blame even though I was away in France on a school trip at the time. David can be very persuasive when he puts his mind to it.”
Carla smiled.
“As I found out last Friday. I was at the company accountants going through the books with one of my colleagues who is a qualified accountant when he turned up demanding that we stop.”
“Did you? Stop that is?”
She shook her head.
“We had been given permission by your father to look at everything and anything. David tried to explain away all the things that we’d discovered but with most of them, we already more than enough corroborating evidence to prove otherwise. Then he tried to blame you for the failure of two companies and as you were the MD, it was all your fault.”
It was my turn to smile.
“I take it that those two companies are the ones where the fake change of director forms were filed at companies house a while back?”
“They were and David had no idea that you had discovered that. He made up all sorts of things about how you were conspiring with others to ruin him and much more.”
I could see from her body language that she didn’t believe a word of it.
“What happens next?”
“Your father has instructed us to bring civil cases against David for embezzlement, false accounting and a few more things that are in the process of being finalised.”
I smiled.
“He’ll just laugh in your face if I know my brother.”
Carla laughed.
“You really do know how your brother will behave, as that is exactly what he did late on Friday afternoon.”
I could see that there was something that she wasn’t telling me.
“I get the feeling that there is something else? The coup de resistance perhaps?”
“You are a good judge of people. Yes, there is something else.”
Carla swallowed hard.
“In the early hours of this very morning, the Police raided the warehouse near Bury, Greater Manchester. I was with them as a courtesy to your father.”
“We, or rather they discovered a large-scale facility for growing Skunk, a form of very strong cannabis. They also discovered an illegal cold store that was filled with frozen lamb that originated in Australia. From your uncle’s farm to be exact. What was more interesting was that those carcasses had been used to smuggle large quantities of Meth Amphetamine into the country. It was all documented. As I understand it, the New South Wales Police will be taking a deep look at your uncle’s farm very, very soon.”
“What about David?”
“He was arrested at Manchester Airport at lunchtime today. He was on his way to Amsterdam and then to Bangkok and finally Myanmar. We don’t have an extradition treaty with them so he’d be fairly safe there.”
I was quite stunned by this news.
“See, it wasn’t all bad news now was it?” said Carla as she threw my own words back at me.
I was beginning to like her.
“Well Carla, that is really good news. You must let me take you out to dinner as my way of saying thank you. How about it?”
Immediately a look of disappointment came over her face.
“I’d love to take you up on your offer but I’m afraid…”
“Your boyfriend wouldn’t like it?”
I had noticed the lack of any rings or the marks of rings on her ring finger.
She smiled.
“No. It is just that I promised to babysit my neighbour's children tonight. She is being presented with her Masters from Birkbeck College in London.”
“Another time perhaps?”
“You can count on that. I want to get to know more about narrowboats.”
She packed up her things and we went up on deck. As I prepared to say goodbye, I had a sudden thought.
“When did my father engage your services? I only presented him with a lot of the information that you have told me a week ago.”
“He engaged us along with our sister company of accountants three months ago.”
I suddenly felt very small. All that effort I’d put into going to see him was more or less wasted.
Carla saw my shoulders slump.
“Don’t worry about your father. Your visit just confirmed what we’d been saying. If anything, it has moved things along a bit quicker. We… I say we as in the Police and ourselves may not have been able to apprehend your brother if we had waited much longer. As soon as the Police saw the contents of the warehouse, they put out what the US Cops call and APB, All Points Bulletin. All Airports and ports were on the lookout for him within an hour of the raid.”
Her words did little to comfort me. At least the rat that was my Brother was in custody. I wondered if he’d weasel bail and skip the country? That was for others to worry about.
Once I’d helped to get off of Roxy and had watched her walk towards the nearest car park, I wondered if I’d ever see her again. With my luck, the answer would be a big no.
The next morning, I left Banbury behind and carried on north. I was already feeling lonely. Melody had only been with me for a relatively short period but I’d gotten used to having someone else on board. Every time I passed by her now empty bedroom; I felt a tinge of sadness.
It had been a lot of fun to be with someone despite her initial reticence but once she’d realised that I was like her things changed and I began to be more like a big sister. While that was good, It became clear to me while we were in Oxford that I wanted a bit more from life other than my work and my boat.
The downside was that since Oxford, I’d had zero inspiration to paint. Something inside me was telling me that there was another topic that was crying out for my art. Sitting at the controls of Roxy as we headed north, I had no idea what that would be.
The result was that despite my brother David hopefully looking at a long stretch in jail, I was more alone than ever.
Turning left would take me towards Birmingham and even Stratford upon Avon which was always one of my favourite towns or carry on for a few miles and take the Coventry Canal which would allow me to bypass Birmingham entirely.
I moored up and looked at my waterways map. The Birmingham option was a lot harder due to the sheer number of locks that I’d need to traverse. Going south to Stratford was even worse. I’d done this route last year in the middle of summer going south and it was no fun. The last time I went to Stratford, I joined a queue of over twenty other boats all trying to go through one set of locks. That was not for me.
Those thoughts made me decide that this year, I would avoid Birmingham. The more I looked at the map, the more the Lancaster Canal looked tempting. Getting there would not be easy but I needed a target to aim for.
Then there were the various galleries and museums in Manchester that I’d been promising myself to visit. I could do that this year. I had a plan.
There is a saying ‘the best-laid plans of mice and men’. I’d only been following my plan for a couple of days when I had some visitors.
I’d been into the city of Tamworth to buy some food and when I returned to where Roxy was moored, I saw two men standing on the towpath right where next to her. Their aurora said ‘Police’ loud and clear.
I made a point of deliberately ignoring them and climbed onboard Roxy. They started to walk towards me so I quickly unlocked the cabin door and disappeared. I had some food to put away.
“Hello Roxy,” came a call from outside.
I called back,
“Just a minute, I have some frozen food that needs to be put away.”
I finished putting things away before poking returning to the cockpit.
“Can I help you, gentlemen?”
“Are you Raymond Lewis Curtis?”
I chuckled.
“Once upon a time I was called that. Honestly, gentlemen, do I look like a Raymond Lewis?”
I looked down at my breasts.
“My legal name is Lauren Savannah Hall. Now that you know who I am, who are you?”
They flashed warrant cards at me.
“DCI Griffiths,” said one of them.
“DS Robertson,” said the other.
“We are from Greater Manchester Police.”
I smiled.
“What lies has my brother been telling you. You really need to know that he has a history of making people believe that the chaos he caused wasn’t him but someone else. As children, that someone else was usually me. Now… what kind of mess has he been saying that I masterminded?”
“Can we come aboard?” asked the DCI.
“Please come and sit in the cockpit.”
When they were seated, I asked once again,”
“So, what is it?”
The DCI opened his notebook and found a page.
“David is saying that you were part and parcel of the whole operation. He claims that you are the managing director of two of the companies that were involved with the illegal import of drugs.”
“Gentlemen, let me give you the contact details of my lawyer. My dear brother made a rather clumsy attempt at making me MD of those companies. He used my old male name and forged my signature badly. My lawyer can supply you with copies of the documents we submitted to Companies House. I am not and have never been a director of either of those companies.”
I stood up and reached down into the cabin and found my purse. After opening it, I found one of Evan’s business cards.
“Please feel free to contact Evan. He handles all my legal problems.”
The DCI took the card and filed it away.
Neither of them moved.
“Is there something else?”
“Your brother has made a number of allegations relating to money laundering. These relate to your return from Australia and the repatriation of a large amount of money that you acquired as part of your illegal activities in Australia.”
I sighed and shook my head.
“He really has excelled himself this time. If you contact my lawyer, he can put you in contact with my accountant. Yes, I really did come back from Australia with a large sum of money in the bank. That money allowed me to buy Roxy but that money was obtained from gold prospecting. I declared the money as income to both the UK HMRC and the Australian equivalent and they have both given me a clean bill of health. My lawyer has written evidence of that. The settling up with the HMRC was something I never shared with my family so there is really no way David could have found that out unless he actually had travelled to Kalgoorlie or engaged a P.I. to investigate for him but that would be unlikely.”
“You seem to have an answer for everything?” said the DC.
“I have answers to questions that actually involve me. If you had some questions for me about other things then I might have struggled with the answers.”
The two officers looked a bit uneasy. As I watched them, I had an idea.
“Perhaps you could answer a couple of my questions… as it seems that I have at least given you some answers to your questions?”
Neither of them objected.
“What has my brother been charged with and is he out on bail?”
The DCI answered.
“He’s not out on bail and so far, he has been charged with offences relating to the drugs operation. We are still investigating a number of other offences relating to the disappearance of money from other companies he was involved with.”
“And you can’t quite see the whole story because he has been pointing the finger in my direction?”
“Something like that.”
I had an idea that might deflect their attention.
“Please stay here. I need to get something from down below.”
I didn’t wait for them to reply as I headed down into the cabin. I grabbed a copy of the brochure from my exhibition in London. As I turned to go back up into the cockpit, I remembered one of the paintings that I’d completed but I didn’t show because it wasn’t that good.
I rummaged in my storage area for the painting. It was of St Katherine’s Dock in London.
“This is what I do for a living,” I said as I showed them the painting.
“A short while ago I held an exhibition of my work at this gallery in London. As you can see, the sale of my paintings gives me an adequate but perfectly legal income that is commensurate with my lifestyle. Anyone who thinks differently should consult my accountant. My painting is my business all legal and above board. With this and what is left from my time in Australia means that I really have little need for… for going over to the dark side, unlike my brother who has hardly ever done a proper days work in his life.”
The two police officers looked a little uneasy.
“You can take the brochure with you if you like but please don’t show it to David. He’ll go berserk. As you will probably have discovered, he really does not like me. He never has. All through our childhood, he did bad stuff and always denied any responsibility for his actions. It was always someone else’s fault and that other person was usually me. Nothing like pointing the finger at your brother to gain sympathy.”
There was a natural silence between us. I decided to act.
“If there nothing else?”
They took the hint and stood up.
Once they were on dry land I said,
“I will be passing through Manchester in a couple of weeks. If you need to formally interview me then I’ll be happy to attend then. Obviously, that will be with my lawyer in attendance. You have his contact details. He can contact me. Some of the places on the canal network are mobile phone ‘not spots’.”
They said their goodbyes and beat a retreat.
I afforded myself a smile. All those years of practice dealing with David’s accusations had begun to pay off.
Back down in the cabin, I finished putting the dry goods I’d bought away. Finally, I put the two shopping bags away in the cupboard next to the sink. That left my phone sitting on the table face down. Out of curiosity, I picked it up.
To my surprise, there were ten missed calls, four voicemails and seven text messages. I hadn’t heard it ring. Then I realised that somehow, the phone had switched itself into silent mode. That explained the lack of audible alarms.
The calls were from my lawyer, Evan and surprisingly also from Carla Kilinski. I could guess what Evan was calling about but at that moment, I could not find a reason for Carla to call.
The voicemails and texts were all from Evan so I decided to give him a call.
“Hi Evan.”
“Yeah, sorry. My phone must have accidentally gone onto silent mode while I was out shopping.”
“Yep, they found me. They’ve just left. I don’t think that they were very happy with my answers. I sort of referred them to you and Matt. You have all the evidence to back what I said especially about those fake MD positions but it is disturbing that David is still trying to blame me for just about everything despite him being nabbed trying to flee the country.”
“True but the Police have to do their due diligence don’t they? Follow up what he is saying and if it leads nowhere, that will go against him in the long run. I would not like being sent off on wild goose chases.”
“I did tell them that I will be passing through Manchester in a few weeks and that I will be happy to be formally interviewed with you at my side. Was that the right thing to do?”
“Thanks. See, some of the things that you have tried to drill into my thick skull over the years have actually sunk in.”
“Yes, there was one more thing. I should have asked you this last week. Do you know of a lawyer named Carla Kulinski?”
“Yes, that’s her.”
“So, she is genuine then?”
“She gave me the heads up about David. I guess I owe my father a thank you?”
“We’ll have to see about that. I’m not sure if I want to see him again until the case against David is done and dusted. Counting chickens and all that sort of thing.”
“Yeah. I’ll give it some thought. Thanks, Evan, let me know if there are any issues with the Police.”
“Bye.”
I sat back and thought about what to do next. I couldn’t decide if I should call Carla or not.
The clock on the wall said 13:00. That made up my mind for me. I could make the mooring at Huddlesford before five. The canal guidebook said that there was a good pub near the mooring. That was a good enough recommendation for me. Calling Carla would have to wait until later as I’d had just about as much excitement as I could handle for one day.
[to be continued]
DC = Detective Constable. The lowest rank plainclothes officer in UK Police.
DCI = Detective Chief Inspector. One of the higher-ranking plainclothes officers.
Roxy and I reached the end of the ‘Coventry Canal’ just before midday. Sadly, the meal I’d eaten at the pub the previous night had run right through me. The result was that my toilet needed pumping out. It was either that or declare my cabin a no-go area for another few days. Luckily for me, there was a set of discharge facilities close to the end of the canal.
With Roxy’s waste emptied, her fresh water tank full and the cabin now well ventilated, I moored up near the ‘Shaderhouse’ lock and ate some Cheese and Pickle for lunch. I dare not have anything more substantial than that just in case...
Afterwards, I sat in the sun trying to summon up the courage to call ‘her’. Her being Carla Kulinski. My body felt like shit and I was just not interested in doing much more that day other than relaxing and contemplating my navel.
I wasn't in any hurry to go anywhere or to start a relationship or even an LDR (long-distance relationship) but OTOH, having someone in my life would be nice.
Or, perhaps I had very much gotten hold of the wrong end of a very hot stick. Could it be that she was calling with an update about my ‘dear’ brother David?
The only way to resolve this once and for all was to call her.
“Hello Carla, it’s Lauren. You called me yesterday.”
“Sorry about that. My phone has a mind of its own sometimes. I found that it had gone on silent mode when I was out shopping.”
“What was it what you wanted to speak about?” I said almost hoping that she wanted to talk business.
“Oh. You are? For how long?”
I listened to her explanation with feelings of dread and of hope.
“Are you sure that ‘telling them to stuff’ their job was a wise decision?”
“Why did you do that?”
“Oh. You have. That’s not good. In that case, you very much had no other choice did you?"
“What… Why did you… Why did you call me?”
That was it. I had left myself very open unlike what they teach lawyers at law school.
“I’m quite away from where we last met."
“Roxy is currently taking the rays at a mooring on the Trent and Mersey Canal. Stoke upon Trent is about a day away. No, make that two days given the number of locks awaiting my attention in the next few days.”
“Taking the rays? I mean charging both Roxy’s and my batteries from the sun. The weather forecast for the next few days is overcast with a good chance of rain.”
“Yes, I still have to go through locks even if it is raining cats and dogs.”
I listened to Carla for well over a minute.
“Of course, I’d love to see you again. It is just that life on the cut is not all sun water and sangria.”
“Ok, get yourself sorted and I’ll see you in Stoke-upon-Trent at the weekend.”
I frantically pulled out the canal map and homed in on the Stoke area.
“Yes, you can get a train there. Looking at the map, there is a mooring about half a mile south of the station.”
“Just let me know when you are due to arrive. and I'll meet you at the station.”
“Safe journey, bye.”
I hung up the phone and immediately wondered what the hell I'd done. Having Carla stay for a week or so while her case for sexual harassment was sorted by her lawyer. I had a distinct feeling that this was going to end badly or in a total disaster but I felt that I had to at least try to have a relationship with someone rather than running for the hills at the merest sign of a person having an interest in me.
I shuddered as I remembered the cases where I’d done just that and had usually lived to regret it.
Roxy had a lot of miles and a heck of a lot of locks to traverse before I could get her to Stoke and I spent almost half an hour trying to plan the stops on my journey north.
Once again, my plans were thrown into disarray when I received a phone call.
“Hello?” I said, not recognising the caller ID.
“Oh, hello Doctor Travis. What can I do for you?”
“Oh. Sorry about that. I clean forgot. Can you fit me in before the weekend?”
“Friday? Yes. I can manage that. What time?”
“Midday is fine by me. That will allow me time to get down to London.”
“At the moment, I am either in Staffordshire or Derbyshire. I’m not exactly sure all I do know is that I’m somewhere northeast of Birmingham and well away from a town let alone a railway station but I’m heading towards Stoke upon Trent.”
“No, I’ll come down by train on Friday morning. I’m not sure where I’ll travel from but I’ll get there one way or another.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you then and yes, I will bring a urine sample. You gave me a spare container the last time I visited.”
“Thanks for calling and sorry that I forgot my appointment. I’ll see you Friday.”
After ending the call, I kicked myself for forgetting that I had an appointment with my consultant that morning. Thankfully, she was aware of my semi-nomadic lifestyle and had even visited Roxy earlier in the year when I was down in London for the winter.
I hurriedly replanned my journey to Stoke after consulting the weather forecast. Friday looked like being a sunny day. That would give Roxy a chance to recharge about 70% of her battery. All I had to do was to get to Stoke for Thursday evening.
I cut the power to Roxy's motor and breathed a sigh of relief. The battery level indicator was well into the red zone meaning that I had less than 10% of power remaining. At one point earlier that day, I had almost given up hope of reaching my destination in time.
As I finished tying up Roxy at her mooring, I felt relieved to be here and with an hour or so to spare. I had to admit to myself that there were times earlier in the day when wondered if I’d make it or not especially when I joined a queue of six boats trying to go through ‘Star Lock’ near the town of Stone. One of the sluice gates was stuck in the open position.
None of the other boat owners or operators had a clue about how to fix it. I had a good look at it and had an idea. I went back to Roxy and had a rummage in her toolkit. I didn’t find the exact tool that I was looking for but a 2kg club hammer would do nicely. I picked up a tub of marine grease and headed back to the lock.
I smeared the rack with the grease and then hit the pinion with the hammer. Three bangs later, it shifted and bingo the sluice was back in use.
Not one of the others in the queue said a word of thanks for resolving the problem. What is it with people today? Some of the looks I received was as if I had suddenly landed on an alien planet. Have none of them ever seen a woman wielding a hammer before?
I left all the other boats to pass through the lock before I took my turn. While the lock was emptying, I greased the rack and pinions of the other sluices. I’d been shown how to do it by one of the people who maintained the Basingstoke Canal almost two years before. I’d encountered him while he worked on a lock at Pirbright near Woking.
Once I cleared the lock and the following three, I had a clear canal. All the boats that had been in the queue had moored in Stone. So much for the impatience that some of them had shown while waiting to clear the lock was typical of summer users of the canals.
I cursed myself for being so thin-skinned. Those people had paid their fees to the Canal operators and had just as much right to be on the ‘cut’ as I did.
Once I’d tied up Roxy, I made myself some dinner and started to sort my things out for my trip to London. As I did so, I had an idea. I called Carla.
"Hi, Carla. Are you busy?"
“Good. I was wondering about you coming up on Saturday. I have to be down your way tomorrow and I was wondering if we could meet up and travel up together?”
"Nothing bad. I have an appointment with my Doctors. I clean forgot about the one that I was supposed to have on Monday and thankfully, she could fit me in tomorrow."
“I’m coming down on the train. I’ve booked a seat on the 14:35 out of Euston. It only stops at Milton Keynes and Stoke.”
“Yes. Can you do it?”
“Great. I’ll see you on the train tomorrow.”
I ended the call feeling relieved. At least we could talk a bit on the train. If she turned around and went home then it would be over but I felt that I had to at least make an effort.
I opened the door as soon as the locks were released and waved at Carla. She spotted me and hurried along the platform lugging two large cases. I wondered if she was only packing for a week or a lot longer. That was something to be discussed at an appropriate time.
“Let me take that,” I said as I grabbed one of her cases.
“Thanks. My train from Watford was late and I had to run to this platform,” said a breathless Carla.
“Well, you can relax now.”
I looked around the carriage and saw that we were no longer alone. I’d had the place to myself when we’d departed Euston.
“You can tell me all about what happened at your law firm when we get back to Roxy.”
Carla nodded.
“In the meantime, I want to know what is in those bags. They seem to weigh a ton?”
Carla had recovered from lugging the cases between trains.
“Well, it is like this…” she began.
Roxy was moored about a ten-minute walk from Stoke railway station. Carla would have had fun with her cases navigating the steps of a bridge that crossed the railway so it was just as well that I was with her.
She'd told me what made the case I was carrying so heavy. I found out later that it was all my fault for telling her that I'd spent some time cycling along the canals before finding Roxy. I hadn't told her that some scumbag had nicked my bike from outside a chippy in Devizes the previous summer and that I hadn't gotten around to replacing it.
She had a folding bike in her case. It was one of those that fold up very small and that was what made it so heavy. I couldn't fault her logic for putting it in the case alongside her outdoor clothing.
Once all her things were stowed away, I made something for us to eat. Carla tried to help but there isn't much room in the galley for two people.
“Why don’t you open the wine? There is a bottle in the cupboard by the steps,” I suggested.
She opened the cupboard.
“There are three bottles here.”
“You choose one.”
I got back to making a Pasta Sauce. Friday’s was normally the day of the week that I used up all the leftovers from the week. Fling it all in a pot, add tomatoes, onion, pepper, herbs, garlic and lots of fresh ‘Roxy’ grown basil and you are good to go.
Fifteen minutes later it was ready.
“This looks good,” said Carla.
“I hope so. It is all the leftovers from the week. We need to go shopping tomorrow morning. I generally make an early start to avoid the families with kids that block the aisles.”
Carla chuckled.
"Are you sure that you are not a sixty-something in disguise?"
I laughed at her caricature of me.
“Not in the slightest. Just being practical. Go early, get in, get out and then you have the whole day to do other things.”
She smiled.
“I’m only pulling your leg. I do… or rather did the same.”
After we’d eaten the meal, Carla did the washing up.
“I guess that you want to know how I came to quit my job and file a sexual harassment case against my boss?”
“Only if you want to talk about it.”
“It is ok. The whole thing is now in the hands of your friend Evan or rather his firm. My old boss was a creep by the name of Paul Stafford. When I was hired, there was a clear path to me becoming a partner but he blocked it every time I mentioned it. He put hurdle after hurdle in my way. All the barristers I prepared briefs for were amazed that I wasn’t a partner already but there was no way he was going to make it easy for me.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t. It all came to a head at the end of March. The company has its year's end in mid-February and there is a dinner held for all the lawyers at the end of march where the results are announced and promotions and all that stuff. I'd just finished a tough case at the Old Bailey where thanks to my digging, we proved that the CPS was pissing in the wind with their charges and the judge directed the jury to find our client not guilty. I know that the client sent a letter of praise to my boss. He gave me a copy of it. He also sent a sizeable bonus on top of his fees that was specifically for me."
“That is good right?”
"It should have been. At the dinner, no mention of this was made at all. I almost reacted there and then but I held my tongue. Several of the other lawyers I worked with knew about the letter of praise and were astonished that I was not as they say, 'mentioned in dispatches '. To cap it all, later that evening, as I was leaving the swanky hotel in London my boss collared me in the lift where he made advances towards me. His words were, 'come to my room and I'll give you your bonus '. I'd been waiting for him to mention it. He's not the sort of person to keep things quiet. He's always going on about his yacht and how fast it is. The yacht bragging about was not his but one he chartered for Cowes Week a few years before. In other words, he was a blowhard. As I said, I’d been waiting for him to strike and had rigged up a Siri shortcut on my phone to record his calls and conversations. I saw him approaching the lift after me so I activated the recording. I got him propositioning me in the lift. I also have the CCTV from the hotel that shows him grabbing me.”
“What did you do then?”
“I took the evidence to the senior partner who dismissed it outright. The next thing I knew was that I was taken off a case and given things like wills and probate to deal with. I’d effectively been demoted. One of the fairly low jobs I was given was the case from your father.”
Carla saw the look of concern on my face.
"Don't get me wrong, every case is important but coming from being the second chair on a case at the Old Bailey to checking references in the information that you provided to your father is a big step down."
“I guess it is. At least that allowed us to meet.”
Carla smiled.
“It did and this is a very different life to the one that I was leading.”
“How did you come to give them the finger and decide to take things farther?”
“I’d had met you and had wrapped up the work on your brother’s case so I handed it to my boss.”
Carla paused.
"He didn't even look at it before he said, 'this is a pile of crap and you know it!'. I told him that is not what the client, your father, had told me on the phone less than an hour earlier. He carried on and said, 'Consider yourself on a final warning. You had better get your act together or you will be out on the street. There are plenty more fillies like you just chomping at the bit to come and work here '. He was almost salivating. I failed to control my temper and just told him to stuff his job and that I would see him in court."
“I’ll bet he didn’t like that?”
“Nah. He was not amused. He followed me back to my desk and watched as I packed up my things. He was determined not to let me walk out with any case notes and the like. I took my time packing and then wrote a summary of the cases I had been working on and left it on my desk. Then I walked out with my head held high. He followed me to the door and laughed as I walked out of the building. When I got home, I called one of the other lawyers and got him to forward the email that your father had sent to my home account. I had all the information I needed. Then I remembered the several phone conversations I'd had with Evan and decided to give him a call. His firm took the case and filed sexual harassment and constructive dismissal cases with the employment tribunal. That's where we are now. We are waiting for a date of a hearing."
“It sounds like your boss is a complete bastard. Is he married?”
Carla smiled.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that. He is. Before I engaged Evan's firm, I sent her a copy of the recordings. It didn't do any good. My lawyer at Evan's firm, Michelle Thomas told me last week that this is not the first case to be lodged against my old boss. She found evidence of three other cases that have been settled out of court.”
“Sounds like you are better off out of that place?”
“It seems so but before all this, I really enjoyed preparing those cases for trial.”
“I could tell that from the look in your eyes. Have you thought about going over to the other side?”
“What? Working for the CPS?”
“Yep!”
Carla shook her head.
“No way. I almost did when I graduated but their caseload is stupidly high. There is no way that I could do the sort of work that I like doing for them."
“What is that work exactly?”
“Digging up facts and the real story.”
I smiled and poured us the last of the wine.
“Why not make a career of that?”
“Are you saying that I should become a Private Dick?”
I shook my head.
“What then?”
“Become a mystery writer?”
Carla would have fallen on the floor laughing if she hadn’t been sitting down.
“I’m serious. Isn’t digging up facts to make a story seem real a big part of what a good writer is all about.”
“You are serious, aren’t you?”
“Very. Why not take the time you are on Roxy to think about it and even give it a try?”
Then I added,
“Back to reality. We need to go shopping in the morning. I’d like to leave here around seven. Walk over to the Supermarket and come back by taxi.”
“Spoilsport!”
[to be continued]
CPS = Crown Prosecution Service. They are the people who take over from the police and bring the cases to trial. Much like the District Attorney in the USA.
Old Bailey = The central criminal court in England. This is where the very high-profile cases are heard.
[Late Saturday]
“Which way are we going?” asked Carla.
I’d brought Roxy to a standstill where the Macclesfield Canal leaves the Trent and Mersey Canal near Kidsgrove.
“It depends on you.”
“Me? Why?”
“How many locks do you want to go through between here and Manchester?”
Carla didn’t answer so I shoved the canal map over to where she was sitting.
“You were very quiet when we came through the tunnel just now?”
Carla looked up at me.
“It was quite eerie. No sound but ourselves. That echo was spooky.”
“That’s the beauty of the new Roxy.”
“Less smelly as well.”
"Yes, that."
Carla smiled back at me.
“It was kinda cool.”
“What about the number of locks?”
“There seems to be a lot more if we go via Macclesfield.”
“Over fifty that way and around thirty the other way which is a lot longer in terms of distance.”
“And in time?”
“Could be shorter but a lot less picturesque.”
“Are we in any rush to get to Manchester?”
“Well… I was going to get a new bike and there is something that I need to collect from a transport company on our way out of the city. Otherwise, there are a few galleries that I’d like to visit especially the Lowry but as you are aware by now, Roxy goes nowhere fast.”
“In that case, I vote for the pretty route.”
“So be it.”
Then I added,
“Good choice by the way.”
We cleared the last of the twelve Bosley Locks just before midday on Sunday whereupon, I gave Roxy and its operators a pitstop. We emptied the rubbish and toilet, filled the water tanks and both took a shower. Showering on board was ok but we limited the time under it to conserve water. Bankside showers could not always be relied upon to be hot but you were never constrained by the amount of water that you could use.
Carla had pitched in and was making going through a lock far, far easier than it would have been on my own. I could tell by the way she was pitching in, that she was very troubled by what had gone on with her job. Anything to get those problems out of her mind. I knew the look on her face. I’d been there, done that.
I smiled as I remembered the time, I did something rather than letting the thoughts of what might have been get to me. That was on the train across the Nullarbor Plain in Australia. I found myself sharing a table in the dining car with a woman who was old enough to be my mother. On a long train journey on your own, you start talking just for something to do so I told her about my experience with my Uncle in NSW. She told me not to waste my time feeling sorry for myself or what I was going to tell my father and do something for myself. She even quoted me back at me. Oh, the irony but her words struck home and that was why I got off the train at Kalgoorlie and it worked.
“Penny for them!”, said Carla.
“Oh sorry, I was miles away.”
“I could see that.”
“I was just thinking back to my time in the Australian Outback. It wasn’t like this.”
It had come onto rain and looked like it was set in for the day.
“How about we moor up and sit this out?”
“Good idea.”
Carla grinned back at me.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Then she added,
“I’m going to get changed. These jeans are a bit wet. The inside of the shower block was running with water.”
“Ok, take your time. Roxy isn’t going, anywhere is she?”
“Not today at least,” said Carla as she disappeared into her bedroom with a grin on her face.
It seemed that she’d sorted out what had been on her mind most of the day. I’d had to nudge her a few times during our journey through the locks to get going. It was as if her mind was somewhere else entirely. I hoped that whatever it was that she’d decided, that she would let me know if it involved her leaving Roxy and me in the next few days.
As I busied myself preparing the very late lunch/early dinner my thoughts turned to what lay ahead of us the next day. I was dithering about trying to get through the twelve locks on the Marple flight or if we should wait for the next day.
When I’d finished preparing the Onions and Mushrooms, I checked Roxy’s state of charge. We would not have enough charge to do both the run north through Macclesfield to Marple and the flight. That swayed it for me. It would be three days before we reached the centre of Manchester. If we could find a mooring in the city centre, then we could check into a hotel for the weekend and enjoy a bit of luxury, get the laundry done before leaving on the following Monday. I had a place to call at in the west of the city that would probably not be open before Monday so it seemed to fit well.
I finished preparing the ingredients for the meal but there was no sign of Carla.
“Carla, how long will you be? I want to know so that I will know when to start cooking.”
“I’ll be a while,” came her slightly breathless answer.
“We aren’t in any hurry to eat, are we?”
“No, we aren’t. I’ll wait for you to get ready before starting to cook.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she replied from inside her bedroom.
Almost an hour had gone by since Carla had said ‘sounds like a plan’ and I was starting to wonder what she was doing when she called out,
“I’m ready. I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes.”
While I like surprises, I did not have a clue as to what Carla had in store for me so I went along with her request.
“I’m ready. My eyes are closed.”
I heard her door open and the sound of soft footsteps approaching. It seemed that she wasn’t wearing any shoes.
I smelled her perfume come close to me.
“Open your eyes.”
I opened my eyes to find Carla completely covered in shiny black latex or something like that.
“Well? How do I look?”
I was stunned. The only bits of her body that were not covered in the shiny black material was her mouth, nostrils and eyes.
“Wow! That’s different and not what I expected.”
“Do you like it?”
“It will take some getting used to but there is one thing that is apparent and that is that you are not wearing anything underneath it are you?”
Carla giggled.
Then she came and straddled me effectively pinning me to the chair. Before I could react, she kissed me. Not a gentle first kiss but a passionate one. At first, I wasn’t sure if I should respond but I did and found that I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it far more than I’d thought I would.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” she said when we broke apart.
“I enjoyed that.”
“But you are not sure about this?”
“It will take some getting used to that’s for sure.”
Carla grinned.
“Good. I love wearing this gear. It takes me to another world. At least you didn't freak out when you saw me like this.”
I could see that. This was a bubbly, effervescent Carla that was a world away from the one I’d met at Milton Keynes just a few days before.
The new Carla took my hand and led it towards her crotch. There was a zip in her suit that covered her vagina. It was wide open. I guessed what she wanted me to do.
“Are you sure about this?” I whispered.
“Go right ahead,” she replied nibbling my ear lobe.
I gently started to massage the lips of her vagina. It didn’t take long before they became very wet and she started to groan. I kissed her just to shut her up and carried on with the massage.
It didn't take long for her to climax. The smell of her sex was all-pervasive. It was a nice sweet smell.
“Thank you. That was so much nicer than doing it all myself,” she whispered in my ear as she nibbled it.
“I was glad to be of service.”
Carla leaned back and looked me in the eye.
“This is all a bit much isn’t it?”
“It is a surprise. No, make that a big surprise. I never dreamed that you were like this…”
“Like what?”
“You are effing beautiful. You have a great figure. Then I wonder what you are doing here with someone like me? There must be hoards of men just chomping at the bit to go to bed with someone like you.”
"Someone like you is why I'm here. You are not a man. I'm done with men and all the rough sex that they seem to love. You are kind and considerate and someone with who I'd very much like to have a relationship. That good enough for you?"
“But this getup?”
“Different eh?”
“Very and also a mystery. It leaves nothing to the imagination.”
“Yeah. Cool eh. But there is no way that I’m going up on deck like this so don’t even think about asking.”
Carla looked at me smiling.
“I guess that there are so many questions that you want to ask but can’t quite get your mind around yet?”
“Something like that.”
“Then why don’t you open the wine and start cooking, and I’ll tell you a story.”
I opened the wine and handed Carla a glass.
Carla drank some and began her tale.
“Once upon a time, there was a virtually penniless LSE Law Student who went looking for a job…”
I began to cook our meal as Carla related how she came to work at a fetish club while still a first-year student and how she'd graduated from working behind the bar to performing on stage while dressed in latex.
"I started to enjoy wearing this stuff. As soon as I put it on it was as if I was a different person. As well as performing, I also helped the club with their legal work. All in all, it paid pretty well so well that when I graduated, I had no student debt and there was almost enough money in my bank account to use as a deposit on my flat in Watford.”
“Well done you. Did anyone at your Uni suspect what you were doing?”
Carla laughed.
“None or at least no one came to me and said ‘I know where you are working’ or words to that effect.”
I looked over at Carla. It was clear that she really loved this outfit. I was beginning to warm to it but I could never see myself in that sort of getup. For one thing, I didn't have the figure for it.
It was then I realised that even in her business suit, she was hiding her real beauty. Her loose-fitting clothes reminded me of the ones I wore before I came out and became Lauren full time.
“This is the real you, isn’t it?”
Carla smiled and nodded her head.
“Is working as a lawyer is just a means to fund this sort of thing?”
“At first, I thought that being a lawyer would be a career but when I started working as a junior, I started to have my doubts but I persevered and when I was qualified as a solicitor, I found my old job. It seemed to be a great opportunity and at first, it was. I began doing the sort of work that I really loved. Then my boss started getting other ideas.”
“And ultimately led you here today?”
She grinned back at me.
“Is that so bad?”
“Oh, and that smells nice.”
I was busy with the Pepper and Cream sauce. It was all smelling rather good which made a change as more often than not, I would burn the sauce.
“It does, doesn’t it. It will be ready in a couple of minutes. If you need to powder your nose so to speak then this is the time to do it.”
Carla stood up and after leaning over and kissing me, she headed for the bathroom.
I was still puzzling over the ‘why me’ question when she returned carrying a pair of shoes.
“It will be ready in a minute.”
Carla sat down and put on the shoes. Then she stood up and laughed as her head touched the ceiling.
“Roxy wasn’t built for people to wear heels,” I said jokingly.
"That's a shame. I love wearing very high heels with this outfit."
“They do finish it off nicely.”
“Thanks. Are you warming to the idea of me wearing this again?”
I sighed.
“There is more to it than that.”
Then I added,
“We can talk about it after we have eaten.”
“This is very good,” said Carla after she’d eaten some of the grilled steak.
“Thanks.”
“You are a very good cook.”
“Needs must. There aren’t any takeaway’s in the Outback so I made sure that I ate well. My old prospecting colleagues were dinosaurs when it came to food. They could have happily survived on Bacon, Onion and Tomato Sandwiches with a mega steak on the barbie at weekends.”
“Heathens!”
“Yeah. I soon put a stop to that even if I ended up doing all the cooking. They did appreciate it in the end.”
“You are a woman of hidden talents,” said Carla as she finished eating.
Seeing her glossy black body was starting to become a real turn on. Her shiny black fingers reflected the light with every movement.
“Hardly. I love a bacon sarnie but for every meal? Judd, the leader had a freezer in his camper that was full of frozen bread, bacon and all the rest. There was even frozen milk for the tea and coffee. No thanks. After giving them a bit of an ultimatum, I drove down to Kalgoorlie and did some shopping. For the next two and a half months we lived very well and made a load of money. So much so that the others decided to head on home with more than a month of the season still left to run.”
“What did you do then?”
“I worked in a Hotel in Kalgoorlie for a few weeks while I got my things together. It was getting close to the end of the season so there were lots of prospectors coming into town to change their gold into cash and rooms were at a premium. When I had a pickup or as they call them a ‘Ute’ ready, I headed off into the bush. People said that I was crazy to go out at the end of the mining season when the temperatures were over 40C all day. I found the place I was looking for and set up camp. As the sun went down, I started prospecting. Two nights later I found the gold seam that I was looking for. I went back into Kalgoorlie and bought what is in effect a road drill but electric powered and a more powerful generator. Then I headed back into the bush making sure that I wasn’t followed. Claim robbers are a thing out there especially at the end of the season when lone prospectors have lots of gold ready to be melted down. The rest is history and here we are today.”
I picked up my glass. Carla did the same. We chinked them together.
“Carla, excuse my language but you are one hot chick in that outfit. If you want to wear it again, then you are more than welcome.”
Carla came around the table and sat on my lap.
“You are really cute when you say that but this isn't everything."
“Well then keep it until we get to Manchester. I’ll book us a couple of rooms in a hotel for the weekend.”
“A couple of rooms?”
I smiled back at her.
“Ok, just the one.”
"Make sure that it has a king-size bed."
I kissed her to seal the deal.
We’d just gone through the seventh of the twelve locks on the Marple flight when Carla’s phone rang.
“I’ll put the kettle on,” I said smiling as Roxy coasted to a stop close to the bank.
“Thanks.”
Carla leapt off of Roxy and onto the towpath to answer the phone. This was the first time her phone had rung since we’d met on the train.
While the kettle was boiling, I used the temporary mooring to stop Roxy from drifting into the middle of the canal. Carla was still on the phone so I went back on board and got the tea things ready.
With the tea brewed and poured I took the mugs up to the cockpit and sat down. The low cloud and rain of the previous two days had gone and the sun was pleasantly warm. There were a few other craft moving about on the canal but the early start we’d made had meant that we were the first boat of the day heading down the flight.
Carla ended her phone call and came back on board. The smile that was on her face was long gone. I sensed trouble.
She climbed back on board and sat down next to me.
“Thanks for that,” she said as she picked up the mug of tea.
“We’ve done well so far. Only five more locks to go.”
“Then another eighteen before we get into central Manchester.”
Carla nearly choked into her tea.
“But I can see the city from here?”
"That's life on the cut, my dear. Things are farther away than they might seem to be. The canal builders followed the contours of the land wherever possible.”
She smiled back at me.
“I’m getting used to that.”
“There is a decent flat bit once we are through this lot. Right to the end of the canal where we turn left onto Ashton Canal. There is a mooring in the Portland Basin that I reserved the other day. There is another one with Roxy’s name on it in Manchester.”
“No rest for the wicked,” she replied.
“That was Evan’s associate, Nadia on the phone. My old company are talking about a settlement. She’d like me to be there for the conference.”
“Do you want to go? Won’t you have to face your old boss?”
“I hope not. I made it clear that I don’t want to be in the same room with that sex pervert.”
“Did you use those words?”
“I did. She got the message.”
“When does she want you down south?”
“Next Thursday. They are coming to Reading.”
I smiled.
“Then we’ll go down together. We can travel by train. There are direct trains to Reading from here.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“I’m not letting you do this on your own.”
Carla leaned over and gave me a long passionate kiss. Ever since the episode of the black latex, we'd become pretty close but deep down, I felt that it would only be temporary. If Carla got a decent settlement, then there really was no reason for her to stay with me. This was one time that I hoped that I was 100% wrong with that prediction.
Melody had left me just as we were very much getting to know each other now, I was faced with the prospect of Carla following Melody out the exit door of my life.
[to be continued]
Carla was very good at helping with the locks but it was clear to me from her continued absent-mindedness, that her thoughts were very much on other things namely, the meeting to discuss a settlement with her case. Her promised surprise for the weekend never materialised but I didn't push it. I was there for her whenever she might need me.
Even arriving in Manchester and checking into a hotel for a few nights failed to lift her spirits.
She tried her best to show some interest in the places we went but I could tell that it was a strain so we ended up back at our hotel in the middle of the afternoon. Carla just headed for the bed and fell asleep. I didn’t disturb her because I knew that she’d spent a lot of the previous night wide awake.
Since the phone call from her lawyer, it was very clear that she was not enjoying life very much at the moment.
As a result, it fell to me to organise things and to keep her occupied if I could. It wasn’t easy and I just wished that we were back on Roxy and had a huge flight of locks to traverse. We weren’t and that was that.
Monday came around and I felt a lot happier when we got Roxy underway again. Her batteries were fully charged and even Carla had managed a few smiles that morning.
I navigated Roxy out of Manchester and stopped at a mooring on the edge of the city.
“I won’t be very long. I have a package to collect at a place two streets away.”
She just nodded her head.
I disappeared on my little errand. I was collecting another Battery Management System. This was for the forward battery set. Until now, Roxy had been working on one set of Batteries. Because of their weight, I’d had half on them installed in the bow to even up the loading but the Boatyard had only received one unit in working order. The replacement had been shipped to Manchester for me to collect and connect up. Once the forward batteries were charged, Roxy’s range would double.
I returned to Roxy and headed west along the Bridgewater Canal. Even explaining to Carla that this was one of the first canals that were built to carry goods, in this case, coal into Manchester failed to get much response from her. It seemed that the closer we got to the meeting on Thursday the more anxious she became.
I really wanted to tie up Roxy and get us down to Maidenhead but there were no mooring close to a major railway station until we reached Wigan.
Our journey that day was relatively easy and that allowed me to replan what we would do in the next few days. I gave the helm to Carla and went below where I got my maps and phone out.
While I was in the cabin, I booked a mooring for Roxy on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal close to the centre of Wigan. I booked it for a week starting that night. An online timetable showed that we could travel down south by train from Wigan just as easily as we could from Preston.
After working on a few alternatives I settled on a plan for the rest of the week. Then I went up into the cockpit where Carla was staring into the distance.
“Hello again, fancy some tea?”
Those few words seemed to bring her back into the real world.
“Sorry, I was miles away.”
“That’s ok. Why don’t you go and make the tea then we can talk.”
“That sounds ominous?”
“Not at all but I’m trying to help you get through this.”
“And I’m being a selfish bitch.”
I went to speak but she stopped me.
“I get like this when my back is against the wall.”
"Your back is not against the wall. They are talking about a settlement, not us. They need to cough up for what he did to you. You did nothing wrong and deep down I know that you know it."
Carla managed a small smile as she disappeared below to make the tea.
She returned with the mugs of tea and some chocolate biscuits. At least she was trying.
“Ok, what is your cunning plan?”
“My cunning plan is that we both travel down to Watford from Wigan tomorrow morning. The mooring I’ve booked is only a few minutes walk from the railway station. Then I rent myself a car and I take you to your home. You can stay there until Thursday morning when I'll collect you and we go over to Maidenhead. The meeting isn't scheduled upstart until eleven so that gives us plenty of time. We go to the meeting and get a deal. Then you can decide what you to do next.”
“Are you saying that you don’t want me here? I wouldn’t blame you after the way I’ve been behaving these past few days.”
“Not at all,” I said smiling.
"I have Roxy and have a narrowboat, will travel but once this case is over there are some decisions that you have to make. I can help but I can't make them for you. You have to do what is right for you. If that means you not returning here and continuing the journey with Roxy and me then that is what will happen. I'd love to have you by my side but only if you want it from the bottom of your heart."
“You are so sweet to me.”
I smiled.
“I try to be of service M’Lady.”
That got a decent reaction from Carla. We hugged each other for several minutes. Thankfully, I’d throttled Roxy right back and we gently coasted into the bank.
“What are you going to do? On Wednesday?”
“I’ll probably go into London and see Jonathan at the gallery and give him the bad news.”
“What bad news?”
“Only the fact that I’ve not lifted a paintbrush since completing the last of the pictures for the show and that was ages ago.”
“Didn’t you do that painting for your accountant?” asked Carla.
“I did. Sorry. I’ve just not found the inspiration to paint in recent months. As the saying goes, nothing rocks my boat very much.”
“And that’s down to me isn’t it?”
“No, it isn't."
I took hold of her hands.
“To be perfectly honest, I was struggling for inspiration with my landscapes long before I met you so, you don’t have to worry about me. The one with the more immediate concerns is you and that meeting in a few days.”
Carla didn’t reply so I tried another tack.
“I’m going to be there with you every step of the way. The last thing we want is some men taking advantage of us poor women now do we?”
Carla took a second to process what I’d said. Then she laughed.
“You are good. Really good. Thank you for that.”
After a brief kiss, Carla said,
“I have been a bit of a sourpuss haven’t I?”
I smiled,
“Only if you say so!”
That earned me another kiss.
“Now… what’s this about travelling tomorrow?”
"We can get a train from Wigan to Birmingham and change for a service that takes us to Watford Junction. You can sleep in your very own bed for a couple of nights while you prepare for the meeting. Knowing… or rather experiencing a few lawyers over the last few years… you will want to go into that meeting fully prepared for the thing. You don't want those bastards to get one over on you after what they did to you.”
Carla smiled back at me.
“Ok. Pep talk over. Don’t we need to get a move on if we are going to get to Wigan?”
Our journey down to Watford the following day was fairly uneventful. Carla sat with her eyes closed for most of the trip. Every so often, she would open them and refer to a folder that was open in front of her. I admired her way of working but was fearful of the stress it caused her. The Carla that had briefly appeared to me the previous week was a totally different and thoroughly more likeable person than what was sitting next to me.
Carla’s flat was very comfortable and had all the hallmarks of a career woman. Some soft feminine touches. There was very little sign of the real Carla or rather the one that had exposed itself to me onboard Roxy. I knew the one that I preferred.
“Are you sure that you won’t stay here?” asked Carla as I prepared to leave.
“I’m sure. Your single bed and a two-seater sofa is hardly adequate for two people. I have a hotel already booked and I’m going to Bletchley Park tomorrow. You are welcome to come along?”
“Ok, I get you about the bed and no, I won’t come with you tomorrow but thanks for the offer.”
I gave her a loving kiss before saying,
“I’ll pick you up at seven on Thursday morning. Then we can be sure of getting to Maidenhead in good time and even get some breakfast and catch up with your lawyer before the settlement meeting.”
“Thank you. For everything.”
“I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”
Then Carla gave me a good kiss.
“Time to go in,” said Carla’s Solicitor, Chantal Morgan.
"The opposition is due in a few minutes."
Carla looked at me.
“I’m afraid you can’t come in with me. They have requested it be just four people in the room. Two of us and two of them.”
“That’s fine, I’ll wait here. There are a few million law magazines that I need to catch up on,” I said jokingly.
“Don’t let them bore you to sleep,” said Chantal.
“I’ll try not to let that happen.”
I gave Carla a brief kiss.
“Good luck darling.”
“Thanks.”
Carla and Chantal went into the room assigned for the meeting and closed the door behind them.
I sat down feeling distinctly uncomfortable in my new clothes. Chantal had called me the previous afternoon and persuaded me to buy some ‘respectable’ business clothes if I was going to blend in at her offices. So, here I was in a business suit and everything. This wasn’t me at all. It felt so… so restricted. My feet were already hurting due to the new shoes that came with the outfit but I had a job to do at least that was the plan.
The ‘opposition’ arrived right on time. Six, not two people marched into the meeting room and closed the door behind them.
To me, that didn’t look good for our side. I heard raised voices coming from inside the room. Then the door opened and four of the other side emerged not looking very happy with themselves. I fully expected that they’d leave but they didn’t. Instead, they plonked themselves down on the chairs near me.
Then they started talking about the case. So much for confidentiality. I tried to listen in but without appearing to be doing just that but could not hear them very clearly.
I relaxed and concentrated on the magazine. One article dealt with a case of contract law that had gone all the way to the Supreme Court. They had decided that a 100-page contract for an item costing under £100 was extreme and that many of the clauses regarding warranty were impossible even for experienced lawyers could understand. The contract was declared null and void and that the makers of the device were liable for the repairs to the device. The language used was as dry as the Sahara Desert and the whole thing could have been dealt with in about 500 words fewer than it was.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened and one of the two men inside came out. From Carla’s description, this was the man who had assaulted her in the lift. He was not happy.
“That woman is telling so many lies. I’ll make her life impossible. She’ll never get a penny from me. I'll make sure that she'll never work in the law again or my name is not Leyland Miles III. I only squeezed her ass once for Christ's sake."
His accent was very American.
His colleagues acted like sycophants and agreed with everything he said.
I pulled out my phone and sent Carla a text quoting him directly. The man was a pig through and through. Chantal was a very experienced lawyer in this area and it appeared that Carla’s former employers were amateurs by comparison.
Mr Leyland Miles the 3rd was called back into the room. He was not happy.
Even though the door was closed, I could hear raised voices. At least one of them belonged to Leyland Miles. By the tone of his voice, he was not taking defeat lying down.
The noise subsided and Leyland Miles III came out looking very red in the face.
“Come on,” he commanded to his colleagues.
"This is a farce, a stitch-up. I did nothing wrong."
He glared at me as he stormed past me.
“What’s your problem bitch?”
He didn’t wait for a reply and disappeared down the stairs. Four of his colleagues slowly followed him out of the building. Their faces were expressionless.
The meeting inside the room concluded a few minutes later. The remaining representative of the ‘opposition’ clearly didn’t look satisfied with the result when he passed me.
I waited until he was well out of sight before getting up and entering the office where Carla and Chantal were seated.
“Hello?”
Chantal smiled at me.
“Come and sit down.”
“Leyland Miles the Third called me a bitch on the way out of the door. He wasn’t very happy.”
“He should be very concerned. The so-called settlement conference was anything but that,” said Chantal.
“They came armed with all sorts of accusations including these.”
She pushed two photos across the table to me.
They clearly showed Carla and me kissing while we were onboard Roxy.
“They must be worried if they have stooped to this level. Being a lesbian is not illegal is it?”
"He… Leyland Miles threatened to go public with the fact that you are actually a man. They did their research very well. Very well indeed," said Chantal.
I looked at Carla.
“I’m sorry for getting you into this mess.”
Carla shook her head.
"It isn't your fault. If you remember, it was me that kissed you first. It is their problem, not ours as Chantal reminded them."
“What happened at the end? Something happened to make Leyland Miles storm out like that?” I asked.
“I reminded him of his duty of care to all employees and that the evidence clearly shows sexual assault and that there was more than enough to convict him of that crime in a court, including your testimony to what he said when he came out of this room.” said Chantal.
“Then he said, then I’m on the first flight out of here. This would have never happened back home in Texas. There men and men and women know their place.”
“Ouch,” I said.
“Exactly,” said Carla.
"With Mr Miles out of the way, his partner caved in and agreed to a settlement that Carla is happy with and thanks to your text, any chance of an NDA being part of the settlement went right out the window. Mr Miles will be asked to leave the partnership without a settlement and the remaining partners will not oppose our report going being sent to the Law Society who may well ban Mr Miles from practising law in this country," said Chantal.
"Won't he just hop on a plane back to Texas and start-up there?"
“We will send a copy of the case records to the Texas Bar Association. If they do nothing then at least they have been warned. Leyland Miles comes from a long family of Lawyers and Politicians in Texas so, my guess is that they will just ignore it but he will be fully aware that we do not have a statute of limitations on crimes in this country and he may risk being arrested should he return," said Chantal summing up.
Then Carla said,
“If he says another word about this then all the gory details will go to every TV station in Texas. Several of them will only be too willing to broadcast it.”
“Nasty,” I said.
“From my brief encounter with him, he deserves to be disbarred both here and in Texas.”
I looked at Carla.
“Are you happy how it went?”
"For a while, I almost wanted to call the whole thing off but now, I'm starting to realise that we got what we wanted… actually more because of the lack of an NDA."
“What happens next? What if they don’t pay up?”
“What happens next is that we go back to our lives and try to put this behind us,” said Carla.
“If they don’t pay, then I’ll see them in court. I have an agreement signed by the senior partner in the practice which will make him personally liable for the money. They’ll pay up even if it really hurts them to do so. He knows that I will not take them skipping out on this agreement lightly. He is well aware of my reputation in this field,” said Chantal.
“Thanks for your help Chantal,” I said standing up.
“Where are you going?” asked a slightly panicky Carla.
“I’m going to get the car and I’ll be out front in about ten minutes. Then I’m taking you home because you look drained.”
Chantal smiled and nodded her head at me.
“Thank you.”
Some two and a half hours later, I made sure that Carla was home safely and had plenty of food in her home.
“Where are you going?” she asked as I put my coat on.
“I’m going home to Roxy. You know where I am but you need time to get your head straight. I’ll be in Preston on Monday and then going north. I might even go all the way to the end of the canal but that remains to be decided. I’d love for you to be with me but I think that you need to go and see your family. Be with them and get your head straight about what you want to do with your life.”
“But…” said Carla.
“I love you Carla but I don’t want to be there for you on the rebound from this only to have you leave me a month or two months down the line. I’ve seen how doing your Lawyering excites you. Being with me on Roxy makes that impossible and at the moment, the idea of me not being on her and moving around scares me witless.”
I gave her a long kiss. I hoped that this wasn’t a goodbye kiss but only time would tell on that one.
My journey back to Wigan was hard. Hard in that, I wanted to cry and crying in public was not something that I ever wanted to do.
Much of my being was telling me that I’d done the right thing when I left Carla like I did but a large part of me was saying just the opposite. I managed to keep the tears and emotions at bay until I was back onboard Roxy. Then it all just seemed to come out. I didn’t poke my head outside Roxy’s cabin until the following Monday morning. I knew that the hormones I was taking had made me more emotional but I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would be that bad.
Roxy and I left Wigan on Tuesday morning hoping to reach the junction with the Lancaster Canal or more accurately, the Rufford Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal which leads to the Lancaster Canal but my heart wasn’t really in it. Going through only a few locks became a chore. I tied up Roxy at a mooring in Parbold feeling that life was such a chore.
I know that I shouldn’t but I drank a whole bottle of wine that night. It didn’t help. Neither did the fact that Roxy’s waste system was full and needed emptying.
The only thing I could think of as the cause of my malady was that I was in love with Carla.
[to be continued]
The fug or malaise or whatever it was that was afflicting me hadn’t disappeared the next morning. I’d lost count of the number of times I picked up my phone to call Carla and had chickened out each and every time.
My impression of being a wimp only added to my growing depression.
I managed to get Roxy going north once again and for a while, things seemed better.
When I reached the start of the Ribble Link waterway the few rays of sunshine that had managed to break through the grey clouds were extinguished in a flash. The rain came down in sheets. Wave after wave came in from the Irish Sea. The temperature dropped by at least 5C in a few minutes. Luckily, my waterproofs were on a hook just inside the cabin.
At the lock that marks the end of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the start of the Ribble Link, there was a Canal Inspector. I knew that my waterways permit was in order so I was slightly mystified when he stopped me from proceeding along with the 'Link'. Luckily, the rain had moved off to the east and while still damp at least it wasn’t chucking it down.
“What seems to be the problem?”
“We don’t appear to have a booking for your passage.”
“Oh! I’m sure that I made the booking over a week ago. Let me get my laptop to check.”
I dashed down into the cabin banging my head on the door for my troubles.
I shrugged off the ache and grabbed my laptop.
“Let me see. I’m sure that I filled it all out,” I said to the inspector.
Then I saw the problem. I saw the problem.
“It looks like I forgot to submit it.”
I turned the screen so that he could see it.
"That's all right. Why not submit it now and I'll record your passage as starting in… say twenty minutes.”
A few minutes later, I was on my way again. I'd thanked the inspector for his courtesy and for giving me a copy of the tide-tables for the next week. I’d have to navigate the tidal part of River Ribble, in order to reach Preston and the rest of the Lancaster Canal.
I cursed that malaise for making me do something so stupid.
I managed to put my distractions to one side and navigate the river successfully. I was surprised at how well Roxy responded to my commands on the throttle. The old Roxy would have taken a lot longer before anything started to happen. Now, it was almost instantaneous thanks to the extra power that was now available.
Now that I was back in the calm of the canal, I tied up Roxy and had something to eat. I double-checked that I booked my passage onto the Lancaster Canal and a mooring for the night. I was determined not to get caught out again as I had been earlier. That was an unforgivable rookie mistake. What rankled, even more, was that I'd never missed sending a booking off before.
That evening, my malaise had caught up with me again when my phone rang. It wasn’t a number I recognised so I almost didn’t answer it but I did.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hello Heidi. I hope you are fine?”
“Good. What can I do for you?”
“You are? Well, congratulations. When and where? Don’t tell me, just email or text them to me then I won’t get them wrong.”
“Yes, but forgive me for asking, is there anything wrong? Why didn’t Melody call me?”
“Ah yes PAYG credits. I remember them well.”
“No, I won’t be coming with anyone. Clara and I are no longer together. It is a long story and not for telling over the phone.”
"No, tell me what you'd want as a present. I mean really, really want and I'll get it for you both. A big sister has to look after her family you know.”
“I mean it. I am so happy for you both.”
“Thanks, and I’ll look forward to getting the details.”
“Bye and give my best to little sister.”
I hung up the call and actually smiled. That had been the first bit of good news I’d received in a while. Then I realised that I’d been an idiot.
I picked up the phone and called Heidi.
“It is me. I forgot to ask, who is giving you away and who is Melody’s best person?”
“I’d love to do that for Melody. Her side of the party will be a little thin on the ground.”
“Who will be wearing white and what colour do you want me to wear.”
“Yes, things like that do matter. You can’t have the best lady showing up the two brides now can you eh?”
“Yes, there is a lot to do and not much time to do it in. I’m around 160 miles away from you but I’ll come south well before the big day.”
"Thanks again, Heidi."
This time I felt a lot happier with myself. I'd begun to start thinking about things other than my sorry self for the first time in days.
My endorphin induced euphoria didn’t last long. Being the de-facto Best Man meant that I needed something to wear and my hair was a total mess.
Then I burst out laughing. I was certainly being a silly woman over this. At least it got my mind working on things other than the disaster that was my love life.
My hair was an immediate problem. Being a stranger in the area, I had no idea about which Hairdressers were good, which were bad and which were indifferent. At the moment, Roxy was near Preston but not in the centre. Getting into the City-Centre would have to be my top priority. The chances of finding an appointment at very short notice in many places are next to impossible. All I could do would be to try a few and see what transpires.
I spent some time the next morning with my maps, laptop and phone working out what to do next.
As Melody and Heidi’s wedding was due to take place in ten days, I needed to get something to wear, get my hair done and travel south. At the moment, every mile I travelled in Roxy was taking me farther and farther away from Oxford which is where I needed to be in nine days.
Reluctantly, I decided that Roxy was going to stay put until I'd solved the problem of what to wear on the day of their marriage. Being the de-facto 'best woman' was perplexing. I'd never been to a wedding where there was a 'best woman'. In my former life, I would have simply rented a suit of the required type for the day. That was not possible now.
Then there was the issue of should I dress as 'Mother of the Bride' or just as if I was attending the wedding as a guest. Having to make decisions like this was a very alien experience to me. I feared that it would be so very easy to mess things up. It was then that I recalled that the last wedding I'd been to had been in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. There, the heat demanded casual clothes and pretty well anything was acceptable. I was sure that this would not be the case here.
I tried to as they say, ‘sleep on it’ but I was no closer to a decision by the next morning. More out of desperation than anything, I decided to take the train into Manchester and do a spot of people watching at the Registry Office. I hoped that doing that might inspire me.
Although there was a railway station less than a ten-minute walk from where Roxy was moored it seemed from the timetable that about one train a day that stopped there going towards Preston. I could return to Preston which meant turning Roxy around. A narrowboat is not like a car where you can simply do a 'U' turn. The canal isn't wide enough for one thing. There are places called 'winding holes' that allow this to happen.
There was one a few hundred yards back the way I'd come but I'd have to reverse Roxy along the canal which is very much frowned upon. The next one ahead of her was halfway to Lancaster. In the end, I decided to book a mooring in Lancaster and take the train to Manchester from there. There was a good service from there to Manchester with many trains going directly to Oxford Road or Piccadilly.
With something of a plan in the bag, I left the mooring and steered Roxy north along the Lancaster Canal. There were no locks to go through so the day was very much one of the easier ones from a work point of view.
The mooring that I’d booked was around 1km from the station. I decided to make a day of it and go reasonably early. The 08:29 train was pretty busy but it would take me to Manchester with only three stops along the way.
As we came into the city, we were held at some signals just before Oxford Road. I could see glimpses of the canal where Roxy and I had been the previous week. Then I saw a sign for an Art Gallery on a side street. From the sign on the front, it also had a restaurant. That might be a nice place to check out for lunch. I checked the place using the maps app on my phone. I saw that there was a Tram stop just on the other side of the canal from the gallery. Even better.
My people watching as wedding parties arrived and departed from the Registry Office proved fairly fruitful. I was warming to the opinion that I should just play the role of the slightly bohemian artist. That wasn’t far from the truth at all and I could wear the clothes again rather than languish in my wardrobe waiting for another wedding or a funeral.
I was feeling a lot better with myself as I took the tram towards the gallery and lunch.
The lunch was enjoyable even if it was rabbit food. Salads are ok but some effort has to be put into making them. Still, it allowed me to sit down for half an hour before I took a wander around the gallery.
Most of the work was dull and uninteresting. Modern abstract art had never been my thing and their main exhibition was devoted to that. Warhol has a lot to answer for in my opinion but that is not shared by many. Don’t get me wrong, some of his early work including his Marylin Munroe pictures were innovative but far too many people had tried to copy his style and had not got even close.
I soon passed through the modern stuff in search of something different. It was then that I saw it. I knew what it was in an instant. I should have because I’d painted it.
I was torn between pleasure and sadness as I stood looking at the picture. It was of the Grand Union Canal at the point where the West Coast Railway line and the M1 run alongside each other. I'd painted it more as a protest piece. I'd even put some jet contrails in the shape of a cross in the sky to emphasise my point. I was protesting about how fast life was today. The inspiration for the jet contrails was a photo that had been taken by O. Winston Link. I had a print of the one that had inspired me on the wall onboard Roxy.[1]
The label said that it was on a permanent loan from a company. When I saw the name, my heart sank to the floor and beyond. The company was one of my Fathers. All I could think about was wanting to take the picture and destroy it there and then.
One of the security guards noticed my anger.
“I hope you aren’t thinking of doing anything silly miss?” he said quietly from behind me.
His words startled me for a second or so.
“No. I’m not. I’m just surprised and angry as seeing this here. Is there someone in charge that I can speak to about the display of this picture?”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“Because I’m the artist. I painted that almost three years ago.”
He got on his radio and a few minutes later, a woman appeared. She had an air of authority about her.
“Hello,” she said.
“I’m Joyce Young, I’m an assistant curator here. What can I do to help you?”
“My name is Lauren Savannah Hall. I’m the artist of that picture. I’d like it removed from display right away.”
"I'm sorry? We normally get artists asking for us to display their work. Why would you want us to remove it? The feedback we have had since it went on display has been excellent."
“Why? Because the label shows that it is owned by my father’s company. He and I are estranged. He has never once shown any interest in supporting my work. Far from it. He has always told me to get a real job.”
“I’m not sure we can do that. How do I know who you are who you say you are?”
I rummaged in my bag and pulled out my purse.
“Here is my driving license.”
She only glanced at it so I had to do something else. Then I had an idea.
I opened my phone and pulled up a series of emails that Jonathan and I had exchanged relating to my last show in London.
“Here are some emails that I had with the owner of the gallery in London where I had a show not that long ago. If you go on their website, I’m sure that you will find a picture of me with some of my more recent work that was sold at the show.”
Ms Young still didn’t take my word for it. She opened her mega-sized phone and checked for herself.
"I see that you are indeed the artist. I can't remove the picture today. I'd have to consider what we'd replace it with. As you can see, this section of the gallery is devoted to how we moved from rural life to a mostly urban one. Your work shows how life has speeded up since the Eighteenth Century perfectly."
“Please try to replace it. I will have to try to reason with my father about removing it from the gallery. I’d rather destroy it than have him get the pleasure from owning something of mine. He tried almost all my life until I left home to get me to be just like him. I’m not and was never a son of his.”
I’d outed myself and only realised it after I’d said it.
"Sorry? Did you say, son?"
“I did. I’m sorry for that outburst. I was born his son but I knew that I should have been his daughter. I am that now and he has not shown any signs of accepting the fact.”
Then I added,
"If you could, please forget what I've just said. I am quite a private person and I hope that you can understand why this is.”
Slowly a smile appeared on the previously stony face of Ms Young.
“I think that there is someone you should meet. They work in our conservation department.”
I was a bit surprised by her reaction.
“If you don’t have a train to catch that is?” she added.
I smiled.
“Actually, I do but there are plenty so I can catch another one.”
“You aren’t from up here, are you?”
“No. I’m travelling around looking for inspiration for my next work. I spent last winter in London and I’ve been on the move since late February.”
“Have you found any? Inspiration, that is?”
I sighed before replying.
“So far nothing has said ‘paint me’.”
“Perhaps you should think about a slightly different subject.”
Her words made me laugh.
“Someone else said that to me only a week or so ago.”
She smiled.
“I think I’ll pass on meeting this person you mentioned. I need to get back to Lancaster before the shops close,” I replied.
I’d met a few other trans people in one-on-one situations before and had found then decidedly uncomfortable if there was any sort of pressure on the meeting. This other person was doing her job so would only be able to spend a short while with me.
“Ok but if you are ever back in the city then please come to the gallery.”
“What about my picture?”
"Do you still want me to consider removing it from the display?"
I thought for a second. It was an honour to have one of my pieces on display even if it was owned by my father.
"I think I might have overreacted before. It was a total surprise to see one of my dabbles on show like this."
“It is hardly a dabble. It makes a bold statement.”
“Which was not on my mind at all when I painted it.”
Ms Young smiled.
“That’s what makes it so good.”
I tried to put it out of my mind and think about what I should do next. The day hadn’t been totally wasted but not as productive as it might have been.
One thing that stood out from my trip was the colourful clothes of a Sikh couple who were at the registry office to perform the civil part of their wedding. They then headed off for a big celebration in traditional Sikh style. The bride wore vibrant red and gold clothes. That would do perfectly or at least something similar and possibly a little toned down but the more I thought about it, the more I warmed to that would be the right outfit for the wedding. My problem was where to get such an outfit from.
I was looking out of the train window as it slowed to a stop at Bolton. I saw a street market just packing up for the day. What caught my eye was a clothes stall and some brightly coloured garments. I had no idea if they were what I wanted and the stall would be long gone by the time I got there even if I got off the train right then.
A couple of minutes of searching on the phone told me that the covered market in Preston might well be the place to go. That sorted out what I’d be doing the next day.
It seemed that all roads led to Preston. As I waited for the train south the next morning, I regretted not turning Roxy around when I had the opportunity. Then again, I would not have discovered that one of my pictures was on display at a gallery in Manchester. That both pleased and worried me. Pleased that as an artist, I was deemed good enough to feature my work but worried that my father owned one of my pieces. The upside of that was that at least it wasn’t owned by my brother. You win some and you lose some.
A brief tour of the market gave me a lot of hope for finding an outfit for the wedding. There were plenty of tops but very little in the way of skirts. None of the stallholders had anything that as they say, ‘tickled my fancy’. One of them did suggest a shop a few streets away so I left the market and went in search of the shop.
I found not only a skirt but a top to go with it. My bohemian look was nearly complete. All I needed were some appropriate shoes. A pair of sandals would do fine and I knew exactly where to get them from. I returned to the market and found exactly what I was looking for.
This time, when I took the train back to Lancaster, I was in a much happier mood than that of the previous day.
I still had to decide what to do next. Should I carry on north to the end of the canal or should I stay put and head south to Oxford sooner rather than later. I couldn’t make up my mind so I headed for the shower only to find that I was out of water. I cursed myself for not stopping on the way up to give Roxy a pit-stop. That and the fact that the toilet was starting to smell, forced my hand.
It was too late to get Roxy turned and back down the canal so I left it until tomorrow. The absence of even enough water for my morning coffee forced my hand even further. I got dressed and headed for the nearest convenience store and bought an expensive bottle of water. It galled me to have to pay nearly £1.00 for a litre of water but there was little I could do at that moment.
It was almost lunchtime before I cast off and headed south. As I did so, I wondered if I’d ever get to the far end of the canal of would this be it?
Only time would tell on that one.
I called it a day when I reached Salwick. I tied up Roxy in the same spot as she’d been in just a few days before. This time she was staying until after the wedding. Trains or rather the lack of them would not stop me this time.
That evening my mind returned to thinking about Carla. The issue of what to wear for the wedding had temporarily pushed the not so little matter of my faltering relationship with her to the back of my mind.
There was no doubt that I missed her dearly. Was I in love with her? I didn’t know but I did know that I had experienced feelings for her that I’d never felt for anyone before. But the wimp that I am could not bring myself to pick up the phone and call her.
Slowly, a plan began to form in my mind. Once the wedding was over, I’d take the opportunity to go and see her and talk about it face to face. Phones and especially texts are so impersonal that if we were going to carry or end it, I would rather it was resolved once and for all.
[to be continued]
[1] The photo in question is Hotshot Eastbound (1956) and is shown on the Wikipedia page for the Photographer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Winston_Link
Two days after arriving back on the outskirts of Preston, I began my journey south to Oxford and the wedding. It all began with a taxi ride from where Roxy was moored, into Preston and then two trains. The first took me to Wolverhampton and the second to Oxford. The ticket inspector on the train from Preston kindly suggested that I change trains either at Wolverhampton or Birmingham International rather than at Birmingham New St. Little tips like this make travelling a whole lot easier and for that, I was very thankful.
According to the timetable, the interval between the two trains was just three minutes. She said that it could take longer than that to switch between platforms at New St whereas, the connecting service would arrive on the same platform at the other two stations. That sort of tip saved me a lot of angst which made the journey a lot less stressful.
I spent a lot of the trip watching the landscape from the comfort of my seat. We’d just crossed over the Manchester Ship Canal near Warrington when I began to get an idea. The industrial landscape of the area got me thinking about the painting I’d done of Millers Dale [1] for my accountant, Matt.
I remembered enjoying creating a period picture. In this case, it was circa 1910. I began to realise that there just might be a lot of scope for similar pictures of places and people in the past. I could show small scale scenes of people doing their job both in the county and in industry.
Once I’d changed trains, I composed an email to the owner of the gallery that had put on my last three shows. I asked him if he thought that there would be a market for this sort of picture. I attached a photo of the Millers Dale picture to back up my idea before sending it using the free Wi-Fi service that the train offered once we’d left Coventry Station.
Just coming up with an idea made me a lot happier. The lack of subject ideas for my painting was beginning to nag me. At least now, I could rest easy for a few days.
I still had to decide on what I should give Melody and Heidi as a wedding present. I had an idea but I needed to discuss it with them first.
I checked into my room and after sending Melody a text to let her know that I had arrived, I took a long hot shower. There is something about a decent shower that makes the poor apology for one onboard Roxy that makes me feel ashamed. Putting in a new one is on my wish list for the winter now that I have a lot of battery power to spare. In the meantime, I luxuriated in the wet steam for almost ten minutes.
After drying my hair with the supplied dryer, I got ready to go out into the city. The earlier rain had blown away and the sun was out. There were students and tourists by the thousand in the city. Most of the former were starting to head out of the city as their classes and lectures came to an end. In a few weeks, their exams would be over, the summer balls a memory and Oxford would become relatively quiet for a few months. Come September, it will start all over again.
As I headed for the coffee shop where I was due to meet Melody and Heidi, I did feel a few pangs of regret for not seeing out my days as a student. There is no use crying over spilt milk, those days have passed and my life had taken a very different course.
I’d hardly got through the door to the shop when Heidi started waving her hands at me. I waved back and made my way to the table where she was sitting.
"Hello, Heidi. It is nice to see you again. Where's Melody?"
The smile that was on her face disappeared in a flash.
“We have a problem. Melody is trying to sort it out right now.”
“That sounds serious. Let me get a drink and we can talk. What about you? Do you want a refill?”
“I’m fine. I’ve probably drunk far too much coffee today as it is.”
“Ok, I’ll be back in a minute.”
As I stood at the counter waiting for my order to be fulfilled, I looked at Heidi. She did look troubled. I hoped that whatever it was, it was not going to stop the wedding that is due to take place in less than 24 hours.
With a mug of Latte in hand, I returned to the table where Heidi was sitting.
“Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
She nodded her head.
“Everything was going along just fine. We had all the paperwork done, the ceremony booked, reception sorted and even a place for us to go away for a couple of nights. Then in the early hours of yesterday morning, I got a phone call from home.”
“Home being the one in the USA?”
“Yeah. It was from my Pop in Georgia. Somehow, he’d heard that I was getting married and what was worse, getting married to someone named Melody. He demanded that I cancel it immediately and also that I was supposed to be marrying Josh Cooper.”
“Who is this Josh Cooper?”
“He is the son of my Father’s business partner, Joe Cooper. Both of them grew up together and have been in business since… well forever. Josh and I also grew up together even if he is almost three years older than me. He’s just finished his Harvard MBA and is going to work at a big investment firm on Wall St. That’s a big feather in the Cooper family’s hat. Because we’d dated a few times, it was generally assumed around town, that we’d get married when I have finished my studies. Once we were married, I’d do like my Mom and Josh’s Mom did, give up a career and devote my time to supporting the career of my husband and raising the Family. Josh’s Uncle is in the Georgia State Legislature and Josh says that he is going to become a politician after a few years of wheeling and dealing in NYC. According to my family, my future had been all mapped out from the day I started kindergarten. That plan did not include me winning the scholarship to Oxford. They didn’t want me to come but eventually, I convinced them that having a lawyer with an international background would be good for Josh’s career. It sounded convincing enough for them to give me their blessing and off to Oxford I went. I was already having my doubts about Josh for the simple reason is that he's a Republican and I'm not. All my family are deeply red but none of their crap… sorry beliefs made me even think about registering as a republican.”
“Which you knew as soon as you set foot in Oxford was total bollocks?”
Heidi smiled.
“Almost. A month into my first semester here, I knew that I was not going back to Georgia for anything but the odd visit. That state is riddled from top to bottom with corruption and nepotism and that’s before you get into Politics. That is not for me besides, I’d probably end up killing Josh if I was confined to being his arm candy for the foreseeable future. My ‘duty’ was to look good, say nothing and support my husband as he climbs the greasy pole towards Congress. The political views here are what they'd call communist but they are not but that does not matter to them. I just felt at home here whereas, back in good old Georgia, I was feeling very much a fish out of water.”
“I take it that you didn’t tell your family all this?”
“No. I had to lie and lie and keep lying about my intentions. I kept telling them that my top priority was concentrating on getting my degree. I was doing that nicely until Melody came into my life and hit me out of the ground."
“In these parts, I think it is called ‘hitting you for six’.”
“She did and I knew even before I met you that I was going to marry her.”
“I saw that determination in your eyes.”
Heidi managed a brief smile so I continued.
“After your father’s initial rant what did he say?”
"He kept trying to stop me from making a huge mistake, one that will ruin my life."
“If you love Melody, how can it be a mistake?”
“It isn’t. The thing is that he’ll lose face in the Church. Both him and Josh’s Father are elders in the Southern Baptist Church. Marrying a woman is bad but once he finds out that Melody is trans, he’ll explode. At this particular church, Trans people are in their eyes, the devil incarnate. They are even below progressives on the social ladder in their little bit of the world.”
“Ah… The fire, brimstone, hell and damnation brand of Church then?”
“Yeah. The thing is… I grew up with that being rammed down my throat. Oxford was a total culture shock. We are told by our Politicians that all Socialists are Communists and are just plain evil. Then there is universal healthcare. I never really knew what Obama was trying to do but whatever it was, was thoroughly evil. Having lived here for nearly two years now, I’ve seen how it works and it is great. It is a shame that Trump and his ilk hate it with a vengeance. He keeps promising an alternative but… words are cheap to Trump but the truth is really hard.”
“Sounds like your family is GOP and you have become a ‘progressive’?”
"How do you know about the 'progressive' movement?"
I smiled.
“There is this thing called the Internet and YouTube. But what is your father going to do?”
Heidi was silent for a moment.
"My dear father is on his way here to stop me from marrying Melody. He said that he was going to meet with Josh and come here and drive some sense into me."
I did some quick mental calculations.
“That means they’ll be on a flight from the USA tonight which will land at Heathrow in the morning. If he comes from JFK, the flight could be here at six or seven in the morning.”
“That’s what I thought. Add an hour for immigration and then an hour and a half to rent a car and get here, they could be here in time to disrupt the ceremony.”
“Bummer. What is Melody doing?”
“She says sorry.”
“What has she done to me to make her say sorry?”
“She’s in Reading with your Lawyer. She’s sorry for costing you money with Evan fees.”
I laughed.
“That is not a problem. I remember telling them that Melody’s legal costs were to come from my account when I introduced them.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Evan won’t screw me over the fees and if he can help you two avoid the wrath of your father then it will be worth every penny.”
Heidi breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Melody told me that you wouldn’t mind but I know lawyers.”
“You know Lawyers in the USA. Evan is a friend of mine. We go back a long way. I trust him not to screw me over. He gets well paid for his job so there is no reason for him to ruin a friendship that spans more than a decade.”
She smiled at me.
“Thank you. You don’t know what that means to me.”
“That’s fine. I’m just annoyed that no one called me to give me a heads up about all this.”
“I wanted Melody to call you but she said that it would be better for me to explain it directly.”
“She’s got a good head on her shoulders. I think she did right.”
Heidi didn’t seem all that convinced.
“It will be fine. Once you have said ‘I do’ there is naff all that your father can do about it.”
I gave her a big hug and hoped to hell that it would be fine.
It was time for the 'Best Woman' to say a few words. I chinked a spoon against the side of an empty glass to get the attention of the twenty-odd people who were celebrating the marriage of Heidi and Melody.
There hadn’t been any sign of her father but as every minute went by, the danger of him appearing and making a scene increased. Heidi had received a text from an old school friend back in Georgia confirming that he was coming to, 'save his daughter from an eternity in hell'. Heidi had sent back a picture of her and Melody in their wedding finery. The friend had responded with a ‘go for it girl’ message. That did wonders to her morale.
The room fell silent as I stood up.
“On behalf of both Heidi and Melody, I want to thank you all for coming here this afternoon.”
I looked at the happy couple.
“We are here to celebrate the wedding of these two wonderful people. Normally, this would be the time when I would say something very embarrassing about one of them for your amusement. Sadly, there is nothing really embarrassing to tell so I’m just going to tell you all what I think of the happy couple.”
“When Melody told me about helping someone learn Portuguese, I remember smiling. For the first time since I’d rescued her from some thugs, her eyes were alive. Every time she met Heidi after that, she had changed. Not a lot but it all added up. She has changed into a lovely young woman. It is clear to everyone who knows them that Heidi is responsible for a lot of that. Heidi changed as well and we can all see how devoted they are to each other.”
“What I see is a couple that is far stronger than the sum of the two parts. There will problems for them to solve in their life ahead together. All I hope is that they remember that their true friends will be there to help them in times of need. All they need to do is ask.”
“I once told Melody that I was more like an elder sister than a friend. I hope that Heidi considers me to be the same.”
I looked at the happy couple once again.
“I want everyone to raise their glasses and toast Heidi and Melody.”
Everyone stood up and raised their glasses.
“To Heidi and Melody!”
I sat down relieved that it was over. Heidi leaned over and gave me a brief hug.
“Thank you, Savannah. Those were nice words.”
I’d tried to get her to call me Lauren but she flat out refused to call me anything but Savannah because of the city in her home state of Georgia. I just hoped that something else from Georgia was not about to arrive and spoil the proceedings.
I leaned over to the couple and said,
“Time for me to go and stand guard outside.”
I didn’t wait for a response. None was needed. They both knew about the plan.
I went outside the room where the reception was being held carrying a glass of bubbly for Evan, my lawyer friend. He’d played a blinder these past few days and deserved a glass or two as thanks for all his work.
“Here you go, some refreshment,” I said as I walked up to Evan.
He smiled and took the glass.
“So far it has been all quiet on the landing front.”
“If I was in his shoes, I’d be here. From what Heidi described to me, he is not used to losing at anything.”
“Sounds like someone else we know?”
Even smiled.
“You mean your father?”
“Yeah. That’s who I mean.”
"You have to go and see him and clear the air about that picture in the gallery. Who knows… he might have changed his mind about you given all the deep shit that David is in at the moment?”
I chuckled.
"Didn't you once spend an hour debating the point of view that 'Parents are incapable of changing their mind on anything important once they become a parent'?"
Evan laughed.
“Trust you to remember that. That debate wasn’t my finest hour. I was shot down in flames. It took me weeks to regain my street cred at school.”
"The upside was that you learned a valuable lesson that makes you a great lawyer. After that debacle, you were never even 1% unprepared for anything. That is a sign of a great lawyer."
“Yeah, it was wasn’t it.”
We were starting to think that the happy couple would get away on their weekend away without Heidi’s Father making an appearance when we heard voices at the bottom of the stairs.
I looked at Evan who nodded and took a deep breath.
Two people appeared at the top of the steps.
“This must be the place,” said the younger of the two.
The older one just grunted.
“Can we help you?” asked Evan.
“Is this where my daughter is supposed to be getting married?” asked the older one.
“Are you Mr Mueller?”
“Yessir, and you are?”
"I'm Evan ?????, your daughter's lawyer."
“Lawyer? Don’t make me laugh. She can’t afford no lawyer.”
“She can if a good friend is paying the bills,” I said.
"And who might you be?" said Mr Mueller.
"I'm the very good friend who is paying her legal bills. Lauren Hall at your service.”
“Where is my Daughter? I want to put a stop to this madness. She was promised to Josh here.”
Evan picked up a few sheets of paper from one of the chairs that were in the hallway.
“This is for you Mr Mueller.”
He turned to Josh.
“This is for you Mr Cooper.”
Evan stepped back saying,
“You have been served.”
“Served? Served with what?”
“This looks like a restraining order,” said Josh.
“Go to the top of the class. All that very expensive Harvard Law training was worth something. Yes, those are restraining orders banning you from coming within one hundred metres of Heidi or her wife, Melody. They were married nearly four hours ago so you can’t stop it. It is done and dusted.”
Josh was reading the terms of the order.
“Is there a problem Josh?” asked Mr Mueller.
“Whoever wrote this knows their stuff. We can’t see Heidi without risking going to jail for contempt of court. If she wants to see us then that is fine. The order only lasts for two weeks.”
“That’s when her exams are finished,” said Evan.
“She does not want any interruptions.”
"So… getting married and going away on the honeymoon is not an interruption?" said Mr Mueller.
“She and Melody are going away for two nights. Then it is back to revising for the exams,” I said in their defence.
“Melody will make sure that she eats properly and gets a decent amount of sleep.”
Mr Mueller looked me up and down. This wasn’t the first time he’d done that. I hated it when men did that.
“What job does this Melody do?”
His question surprised me for a second.
“Melody works in a Coffee shop but her prime job at the moment is to support her wife in her career.”
Just then Josh tried to walk towards the door to the reception room.
Evan interrupted him.
“You can’t go in there or don’t you think that order applies to you?”
“I want to see her tell me to my face that she’s a lesbian.”
“Josh? Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked.
“Damm hell I am.”
“Then perhaps your father should be told about Brianna Harrington?”
Josh’s face went white.
“How…?”
"The wonders of social media. Do you think that using your middle name as an alias would stop Heidi from finding all about your affairs and there have been many haven't there even though, you were supposed to be going to marry Heidi?”
Josh looked angry.
Heidi’s father looked astonished.
“Why don’t you tell Mr Mueller about Brianna and her son. Your son Josh. He’s going to be one in September. When you posted pictures of you and Brianna with your son on Facebook the day after he was born, she took it as a sign that you had someone in your life.”
“Is this true Josh?”
“Yes, it is. And, no, my father does not know. Brianna was at Harvard with me. We live together in Queens.”
“Why you! And to think you stood there in front of your father confessing your love for Heidi over Facetime less than 48hours ago. Then I find out this?”
“It isn’t true. I promise,” pleased Josh.
“Oh yes?” said Evan.
“See this.”
Evan handed Mr Mueller a printout of a screenshot. If showed the Facebook post where Josh was celebrating the birth of his son.
“Pop will kill me when he finds out. How many sermons has he delivered about sex out of wedlock!”
“Mr Mueller, I think that you need to think carefully about what you do next,” said Evan.
“I know one thing and that is, Josh, you are done here. I think you should get the hell out of town. Rest assured, I will be speaking to your father before you get back home. If I were you, I’d get back to your love nest in Queens and make an honest woman of the mother of your child sooner rather than later. Do you understand this?”
Josh looked terrified.
“What’s the matter Mr Harvard Lawyer?” asked Evan.
“Oh yes. The mother of your child is already married.”
Josh looked at Evan.
“You must have had help in preparing all these lies?”
“I had some help from Melody and one other person. That person delights in getting the facts right. You didn’t help much with posting your face all over Facebook. Google is a powerful friend in times like this. Three hours. That was all it took to get the facts, the real facts, not fake news but the truth.”
Josh went very red in the face. He looked at Mr Mueller who just shook his head.
Josh knew that the game was up. He just turned and legged it down the stairs.
After a few seconds, Evan said,
“Now that he’s gone, have you changed your mind about Heidi and Josh?”
“If I ever see that SOB back in Georgia then I’ll not be responsible for my actions.”
“Mr Mueller, I will ask Lauren here to see if Heidi and Melody want to speak to you. If the answer is no then I suggest that you follow Josh back to the USA. There is a bus that runs from just down the street right to Heathrow Airport. You might even get on a late flight home today if you are lucky.”
He just glared at both of us. I took the hint and headed into the reception room.
“Heidi, your father is here. If you want to speak to him, now is the chance. Josh has been told to get lost by your father. He blew his top when we told him about the other side of Josh’s life.”
Heidi looked at Melody who nodded her head.
"You go, darling. Get him off your back until after your exams. Then you can rest easy."
Heidi grinned and kissed Melody.
“Let’s get this over with,” she said trying to sound confident.
I went with her out into the hallway.
“Hello Pop,” she said quietly.
"Hello, sweetness. You look happy."
“I am. Melody is so good for me. I knew right from the first time we met that she was the one for me.”
Her father didn’t look very happy.
“I know that we won’t be welcome back home but my life is here now. I’m going to qualify here with Evan’s firm.”
“But… your Mom?”
“I know that it will be hard on her but I have made real friends here for the first time in my life. Back home, my friends were all children of your friends from the Church or your business. Coming to Oxford was the best thing that could have happened to me. I was suffocating in Georgia. This place is so cosmopolitan. There are people from twenty different countries on my course. That mix of cultures has made me realise how insular we are back home.”
“But… it is your home?”
“Sorry Pop, it was my home. If you and Mom want to visit then you will be welcome but you will be better off disowning me as your daughter. Lesbians are not exactly popular with the people you go to church with every week.”
Her father didn't know what to do with himself. Heidi decided for him.
She went up to her father and gave him a big hug.
I could see a small tear form in his eyes.
This was clearly very embarrassing for him. He left without saying another word.
Heidi looked a bit sad.
"You left the door open for him should he come to visit. The ball is in his court but if I was you, I'd give your Mom a call soon just to test the water."
She nodded her head.
“It is getting close to the time that you should be leaving for your weekend away,” said Evan.
Most of those who attended the reception watched Evan drive off with the happy couple in the back of his car a few minutes later. Almost all of them went back inside as there was still some money left behind the bar and the lure of free drinks was just too tempting.
I thought about going back to my hotel but there was nothing there for me apart from a bed and some TV. Not having one onboard Roxy had very much weaned me off the habit. My radio and laptop kept me abreast of what was going on in the world.
I wandered towards the canal and walked down to where it meets the River Thames. Being beside or travelling along a canal or a navigable river was my life now. I hadn't been aware of it before today at just how attached I was to my life on the cut.
I remembered Melody falling flat on her face after tripping over a mooring rope at almost this very spot just a few weeks… no make that months before. The irony was that she’d put the rope in place less than a minute earlier. We’d both had a good laugh that evening.
It was then that I realised that she'd grown up a huge amount in those few short weeks since I'd rescued her from that gang in West London. She wasn't the petulant teenager anymore. This time, she laughed at herself. I didn’t know if that change was down to me or what but the confident woman that I’d seen get married just a few hours earlier had made me smile just a bit. I guess that all she needed was the opportunity to grow and by heck, she had grown as a woman.
The way that she’d taken it upon herself to deal with Evan and sort of the legal stuff was a sign of both how mature she’d become and how much she loved Heidi. The way that Heidi had talked about Melody told me that she loved her just as much.
Feeling a bit sad that one episode in my life was over, I walked back into the city and started to think about getting something to eat. The afternoon was almost over and the buffet at the reception seemed a long time ago. As I passed by the front of my Hotel, I sensed someone close behind me. Then I smelt ‘her’.
I turned around and there was Carla.
“I wondered when you would show up,” she said smiling.
“Carla? Wha… What are you doing here?”
[to be continued]
“Clara? What… What are you doing here?”
“Doh! Looking, for you silly.”
I was suddenly lost for words. All the things I’d planned to say when we met again went down the drain in a flash.
“Cat got your tongue?”
I was surprised to see Carla and yes, I was utterly stumped for words. I tried to say something but although my mouth moved, no sound came out.
She grinned back at me. Oh, the irony.
“You were right in what you said when we were last together even though I didn’t think that it was right at the time. However, upon reflection, I concluded that I needed to get my head straight after all that kerfuffle with my job and then you go and tell me that you love me. Boy, was I in a mess! At the time, I hated you giving me the elbow but after a few days, it became pretty clear that we both needed some space or... at least from where I sat.”
“I… I’m so sorry. I know that I put you on the spot when you needed more of an arm around your shoulders.”
“Sorry? You don’t have to be sorry for anything.”
“But…? How did you find me here today?”
Carla smiled back at me.
“Evan told me. I spent a lot of time speaking to him about a lot of things that always ended up coming back to you. Being a somewhat poor image of what a lawyer should be, I wanted to know what my chances were about getting another job with a law firm. What he told me was not good. Those bastards had made a formal complaint about my conduct with the Law Society. Thanks to Evan, we soon put that straight but it is there for everyone to see. Thankfully, their NDA was worth less than the paper it was written on thanks to you so we were able to add an outline of what happened to my record. But the net result of talking with Evan was that outside of working for a Charity, my career such as it was in the law is over unless I go it alone or with a small local practice and have to be satisfied with doing boring stuff such as conveyancing and the odd divorce. That is not my thing and never has been so here I am, an out of work lawyer hoping that there is still a place for me in your life.”
“I’m sorry to hear that you had to pretty well throw away all that training. You were a good lawyer.”
"Thanks, but at the moment, it appears that the law and I have gone in separate directions.”
“Why are you here today? The real reason please?”
"Because of what you said to me. I never thought that I'd be attracted to someone like you but I am. If anyone had ever said to me that I had feelings, no, make that, very deep feelings for another woman before we got together, I would have laughed at them."
I began to understand what Carla was getting at. She’d never been far from my thoughts since we broke up.
“I could not stop thinking about you so I wheedled it out of Evan when and where Melody and Heidi were getting married and here I am. To be honest, I don’t think he tried all that hard to not tell me. I watched the happy couple leave for their weekend away. They do look the real deal by the way. The way that you and Evan handled her father and that toerag Josh was a thing of beauty.”
“You were there?”
“I was listening from the bottom of the stairs. I was ready to come to your rescue with a camera if needed. I wasn’t so I left you all too it. When you left, I thought that you were going to come back to your hotel so I waited here but you didn’t show up until now.”
“I went for a walk down the canal to the river. I was just starting to think about getting something to eat.”
“What do you suggest?” asked Clara.
“I was thinking of getting some Fish and Chips and going back to the Canal. Did you have something else in mind?”
“Nah. Fish and Chips are fine by me.”
“As I said, I’m done with the law, at least for the time being,” began Clara.
"While I was thinking, I started writing. I told you that I had some ideas. As I wrote, I began to think about what I could do or rather what I should do. I concluded that I needed to break with conformity and that living on a narrowboat with you was well outside the box."
I stuffed another chip into my mouth and grinned.
“Yep. That is very much the same decision I came to and what led to me buying Roxy.”
“Roxy is a bit of a problem though,” said Clara.
“What do you mean?”
“It isn’t big enough for both of us to live and work.”
She had a point. It had been just about ok with Melody but nowhere near big enough for me to do my painting and for Clara to have an office or any decent space to work.
“Are you saying that we need another Roxy?”
She nodded her head as she chewed on some chips.
“One to live on, and one to work on. I saw a Dutch barge like that down on the Medway.”
“Those barges are a heck of a lot bigger than Roxy. Remember that there is a length as well as a width limit to narrowboats otherwise, they won’t fit into some locks.”
"I know that. There was something that I saw when I was out on the Medway with my Dad stuck in my mind. There was an industrial unit in Chatham that had a Dutch barge inside. It was being refurbished. I remember one canal-side boatyard we passed and everything was being done outside. Doing it inside a building meant that rain does not stop work."
“Hole on a moment. Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves a bit? You know how I feel about you. What about you?”
Carla went rather red in the face.
“I’m sorry. That is a bit of a habit of mine, trying to run before I can even crawl. My tutor at University called it ‘Thinking about your closing argument before you have delivered the opening statement’.
I smiled back at her. I understood what she meant.
Carla stopped eating and screwed up the tray and wrapping paper that our meal had come in.
"I'd very much like to try being a couple if you are still willing that is. I'm sorry for rushing ahead with things when I was here before. At least you have a good idea of my other side but I think we can make a good couple."
Then she reached over and took my hand.
“Once I’d gotten over dealing with my former bosses and I’d begun to think about what I wanted to do next. Everything I could think of involved you and Roxy. Am I hoping for too much? Talking with Evan only reinforced that point.”
She chuckled for a moment.
“Do you know what his parting words were?”
I shook my head.
“Evan said, ‘go an tell her what you think and what you want. Savannah does not like secrets. Lay it all out and work on the issues. Those were good words. You are lucky to have such a good friend.”
“I missed you. I missed you a lot. There I’ve said it.”
“But you are afraid that I’ll leg it again? Like those people who took the barges through the canal tunnels when they were hauled by horses?”
Carla had at least remembered some of the histories of the canals that we'd been along together.
"Then we can try it out but there isn't much room for your legal books and all that," I said remembering the inside of Evan's office.
Carla laughed.
“That can wait….”
I could tell that there was something else that she wanted to say.
“Remember that I said that I wanted to write?”
“I do. That was among several other things that you suggested.”
"In my final year at school, I started to write a novel. I thought that what I'd written was long gone. It was all stored on a floppy disk for one thing but the day after I told my Mum that I was trying to think of something else to do, a USB stick appeared on top of my laptop. Everything I'd ever written including my novel was on it."
“And you are going to pick it up and finish it?”
Carla shook her head.
“I read it and laughed. It was so… full of teenage angst. But… I started thinking and I had this idea and… well… I’ve written the first four chapters of a murder mystery that is set in Edwardian times on a canal in the North of England.”
I laughed.
"It is all thanks to you. I did take in most of what you told me about the history of the canals. That's why you would be the ideal person to paint the picture for the front cover.”
I was growing into the idea.
“And all my other novels. I have ideas for at least six. In the short term, I can work using the table in the saloon. Doing anything related to the Law will have to wait until I’ve written my first book and published it. Dad has this friend. As in that he has the next allotment to his. Anyway, this friend writes books about walking old railway lines and Roman roads. He publishes them himself. He took me all through how he did it."
I smiled back at her.
“So, all I’m needed for is to drive Roxy and paint the front covers of your masterpieces then?”
“Well, a lot more besides. You have not mentioned my passion for dressing up?”
I’d sort of pushed that to the back of my mind in recent weeks.
“You do seem to like it don’t you?”
“But you don’t?”
“It isn’t that. It is just going to take some getting used to. You are going to have to give me some time to get used to the other you. I’m sure that in time it will grow on me so keep on surprising me and who knows what will happen eh?”
“That will have to wait until we are married won’t it?”
I was about to say something witty but her words made me speechless. My mouth and brain became totally disconnected.
“Say something before you drown,” suggested Carla.
“Yes.”
"Yes, what?"
“Yes Carla, I will try to be the best wife you could ever want.”
“Life together on the cut will be so much fun!”
Then we kissed. For a long time.
“What do we do now?” asked Clara when we broke apart.
“I don’t know,” I responded.
“What were you going to do next… Before I came back into your life?”
I smiled.
“That’s easy. I was going to go back to Preston and take Roxy to the top of the Lancaster Canal then I was going to travel along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to Leeds. From what I've read, I should get there in time for my Brother's Trial. After that? Back south I suppose."
Carla thought for a moment. Then she asked,
“Do you think that you will have to give evidence?”
“As far as I know I won’t but if I am wanted then I’ll be close by. I’ll check with the Police about a week or so before the trial is scheduled to begin.”
“We can do it together if you would like me too?”
“Are you sure about this?”
“I am. Once that is over, I can come south and put my home on the market. We…”
“Hold it right there. Do you have to sell up right away? What if we don’t work out?”
Carla grinned back at me.
“Then I’ll go home to my parents with my tail between my legs a bit older, a bit wiser and with some money in the bank.”
“You sound very confident that we can make a go of it?”
Carla laughed.
“We won’t know until we try, will we?”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Cat got your tongue?”
“To be honest, I’m stunned.”
"Good. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to tell you what I just did. In the end, being direct and to the point, and certainly, no waffle was the best approach just as Evan had predicted. It was clear from our previous time together; you don't like bullshitters. Evan was also very clear on that but I’d already worked that out for myself. The problems you have had with your brother is probably the main reason for that. So here I am. Do you want to try or not?”
“I do. I do very much.”
Carla smiled.
“I sense a ‘but’ coming?”
I nodded my head.
“There is the little matter of Parents. I’ll have to face my father once the trial is over. Clear the air and if possible, get him to sell his businesses. He has more than enough money to live a decent life. At least with him pretty well confined to his home, I’ll have plenty of time to work out what to say to him when we meet.”
I managed a small smile before continuing.
“Then there are your parents. I’ve seen enough families go through the wringer when one of their children does something totally off the wall. Many simply fall apart. If they imaging their children growing up and having a family and living a conventional life and they do just the opposite, come out as gay or lesbian and start living off the grid, it can come as a total culture shock to a family. Do you get what I’m trying to say?”
Carla nodded her head.
“I guess that you want to meet my folks sooner rather than later?”
“If you are comfortable with it then yes. If there is going to be a problem then I’d rather it was out in the open early on.”
Carla smiled at me. Then she gave me a big kiss.
“They already know about you. Dad has this sixth sense and he persisted until I told him about you. I said that you lived on a narrowboat. He replied ‘so what’. Then I said that you were transgender and were now living as a woman. That rattled him for a bit but after a bit, he said, 'you had better let me tell your mother'."
“He’s ok, with me then?”
“Yes, he is. Mum is reserving judgement until we meet.”
“It sounds like you had everything sorted before you came here?”
“If Mum says no then Dad won’t argue with her. Fact of life in our family I’m afraid. The women rule the roost.”
“Apart from you then?”
Carla grinned.
“My legal training made me look at both sides of the argument. I knew that there was unfinished business with your father and… well, I knew that my parents would worry so it was also best to come clean while I was with them.”
“What about your sister Kassie?”
The smile that was on Carla’s face disappeared.
“I’m afraid, she is a lost cause. Four years ago, she moved to Texas to get her Masters and has since married an oilman. If that wasn’t bad enough, she's become a big Trump supporter which is surprising as she was quite left-wing when she was at university here. To her mind now, people like you are beyond redemption. Mum and Dad are saddened at how right-wing she's become. I guess that her husband Pete is to blame. The oil industry is in a bind. They are under attack from all sides. Much like coal mining here was until it all closed down. We are all commie socialists according to her. As Dad is a Tory Councillor, he’s a bit miffed so they've stopped speaking to her these days.”
“It sounds like Kassie has divorced herself from your family in favour of her new one?”
“That’s what Mum has reluctantly come to accept.”
“Where are you staying tonight or do you have to go home?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject.
Carla looked at me with sad eyes.
“You can stay the night with me if you like but I’m going to be leaving early tomorrow.”
“How early is early?”
“My train to Manchester leaves just after eight. I’ll change at Wolverhampton and get a service that stops at only Crewe, Wigan and Preston.”
“That’s fine. I’ll go the home other way and travel via Euston.”
I stood up holding her hand. She followed with a smile.
There was so much that I wanted to talk to her about but it could wait.
[Two months Later, Leeds]
“The jury is coming back,” announced the Clerk to the throng of people waiting outside the courtroom.
The judge had sent them out to consider their verdict just after ten that morning. It was now almost three in the afternoon. The waiting was almost over. I felt a few butterflies start to rampage in my stomach.
Carla squeezed my hand as we walked into the court. We had grown a lot closer since we’d met up again in Oxford. Thankfully, neither of us were called upon to give evidence. I’d been very relieved to hear that we were not on the list of potential witnesses. That allowed us to sit in the public gallery every day. At the weekends, we took the train up to places like Ribblehead and Appleby and explored the magnificent countryside. I’d even done some sketching while Clara wrote more of her masterpiece. It was like one big honeymoon that was enhanced by the beautiful weather.
It was a total contrast to the dark deeds that were being brought to light in the Crown Court. The labyrinthine network of criminality that my brother was involved in made me feel ashamed that he was flesh and blood to me. It was as if we were from two different families.
Roxy had been moored at Skipton at the start of the trial and we’d gradually moved her closer to Leeds every few days. Clara had become very good at piloting her through the locks even the mega locks in the Bingley Flight.
Back in court, I could see reporters from the various TV and Media companies eagerly waiting for the conclusion of the trial. It would take a while just for it the verdict to be read out because there were thirty-seven different charges against my Brother and more than twenty against his main accomplice.
After the first six guilty verdicts, I sort of tuned out of the rest until the last but one. That was the only not-guilty verdict of the whole lot. That charge interested me as it was related to the directorships of my families companies.
Carla saw the look of concern on my face just as the Judge adjourned the proceedings until the following day when he’d announce the sentence he’d receive.
“Don’t worry my darling, he’s going down for a long time.”
“I know but…”
“You’d have preferred for him to be guilty of all charges and…”
“He gets off on the one that affects me?”
Carla smiled.
“Yes, but it was clear that the Police knew that they had enough evidence to convict him that I think that they decided to not do a full investigation into that charge. Does it matter? Didn’t the D.I say that the City of London Police will be charging him with several breaches of the Companies Act and that they’ll push for any sentence to be added on to the one he will receive tomorrow?”
“He did but I would have loved for our sakes, to have it all wrapped up in one go.”
“Well, it wasn’t and there is nothing we can do with it so there is no use worrying about it.”
The delivery of the sentence to my dear brother David was something of an anti-climax after all the tension of the court case. The judge called the court to order and began to deliver the sentence.
“David John Middleton, you have been found guilty of many different crimes in this court. Some are serious, some not and some are very serious. Using the latest Home Office sentencing guidelines, I sentence you to a total of sixteen years in custody. I’m also adding a recommendation that you spend at least twelve years before becoming eligible for parole. Normally, you would be eligible for parole after eight years but the heinous nature of those crimes for which you have been found guilty adds an extra four years to your recommended sentence.”
He paused for a second.
“Take him down!”
“Court adjourned.”
He banged his gavel and that was it.
David was led away by two burly officers.
Carla gripped my hand tight ad David was led away. Her presence stopped me from reacting and giving him some well-chosen verbal abuse.
“It is over now. He’s not going to like where he is going. He is only interested in himself and as his sidekick testified, he uses people and then discards them when they are no longer useful.”
I squeezed her hand. It was over… for now.
As we walked through the Reception, the clerk at the desk called out,
“Ms Hall, a message was left for you earlier.”
A sense of foreboding swept through my whole body. We’d told no one other than the Police where we were staying. We must have been followed from court these past few days.
I took the note from the clerk.
“Thanks. How long ago was this left for me?”
The clerk looked at the clock on the wall.
“Less than twenty minutes ago.”
That told me exactly what I wanted to know.
“Who is the note from?” asked Clara as we stood waiting for a lift.
“It can only be from my Father. My first guess is that we or rather I have been summoned."
“Summoned? What for and where?”
I opened the envelope. My suspicions were correct in that the note was from my father.
"I have no idea what he wants but I'd like to think that it is time for him to say sorry to me but knowing him, and David is just like him in that respect he will never ever admit that he was wrong with anything. As you discovered, David could never do anything wrong in his eyes. As to where he wants to meet in Harrogate."
“Why Harrogate?”
“I can only thing that it is because we once stayed in the town for a weekend when I was a child. Mum took advantage of the spa at the Hotel while Dad took David and me to the Railway Museum in York. I remember it because, for once, David didn't try to wreak havoc and blame me for it. I found out later that Dad proposed to Mum in Harrogate.”
“So, a bit of a sentimental reason for him then?”
“Yeah.”
“When is our presence requested?”
“Tomorrow for afternoon tea.”
“How will we get there?”
“We can take the slow train from here in Leeds.”
Clara thought for a few moments. Then she smiled.
“If it is for afternoon tea then I think we should dress accordingly.”
I grinned back at Clara.
“Want to make a good impression on my father then?”
“Partially. Don’t you want the chance to show off the new you to your father?”
“If you think that I’m going to shake my titties at him then you have another thing coming.”
Clara almost doubled up in laughter.
“I… I wasn’t suggesting that. Smart but not provocative.”
I thought for a moment before replying.
“I think getting our hair, lashes and nails done would be sufficient.”
Clara shook her head.
“If you think I’m not going to be shaking my titties at your father then you have to think again,” she said echoing my own words.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it but let’s face it my darling, we could both do with a trip to the hairdressers and while we were there, why not treat ourselves a little bit?”
Carla thought for a few seconds before answering.
"Ok, but please get this straight from the outset… The only person I would really dress up for is you. Go it?”
I smiled back at her.
“Perfectly my dear perfectly.”
[To be continued]
Some people say, 'the best-laid plans etc' often come to nothing. That was what happened to our intention to get our hair and nails done before our date with my father. Instead of a new hairstyle, we had to settle for a new outfit apiece.
The next morning and all dressed up in our new glad rags, we took an earlyish morning train from Leeds to Harrogate. This was well before the allotted time for my encounter and gave us a chance to wander around the town. I’d never appreciated the architecture of the town before but it was quite impressive. Most of the town had escaped the ravages of the 1960’s concrete brutalism that passed for good design at the time. This was a marked contrast to many of our towns and cities.
Luck seemed to have come our way when we spotted a new hairdresser's salon. From the notice in the window, it had only opened for the first time, the previous day. It didn’t look all that busy so we took a chance and after a little bit of negotiation, both of us were able to get our hair and lashes done in time to meet my father for afternoon tea.
Carla was very happy just to get her split ends seen too. She’d been complaining about them for over a week but what with the trial and everything, we didn’t have time or the inclination to get them done at the time.
“Come on and take a seat,” he said to us.
His tone threw me quite a bit. It was as if he was trying to be friendly for once.
We sat down and after I introduced Carla, a waitress came over and took our order. I ordered green tea while Carla chose Darjeeling. With that done, we both looked at my father.
“Thanks for coming today. This is Janet. She’s been my eyes and ears at the trial.”
That’s where I’d seen her before.
“Pleased to meet you,” said Carla just before me.
“Same here. I thought I recognised you from the courtroom,” I added.
“Pleased to finally meet you both. I wasn’t sure if you were who you are until I saw you take the invitation to come here today at your hotel yesterday.”
“Well, we are here now,” I said.
“Good,” said my father.
“I have to make a huge apology to you both and especially to you Lauren. All those times I sided with David…”
His eyes sank to the table. I’d never seen him admit any weakness before. This must have been hard for him.
"I was wrong to do that and for that, I am eternally sorry but I know that no matter what I say, I can't even begin to make amends for all the hurt that you have gone through over the years.”
His words were getting to me. I pinched myself hard. I must not show any weakness in front of him. After years of suffering at his hands, I knew that he’d enjoy just getting one over on me. Since I had returned from Australia, I had begun to stand up to him and not let him walk all over me. I must not let him walk all over me again especially with Carla at my side.
I let him carry on.
“Even when you laid it all out before me, I didn’t believe you. It was only after you’d gone and I’d taken a very detailed look at the information that doubts started to creep in. Then Carla’s report arrived and just confirmed everything you had told me. Every which way I turned all the evidence pointed at David but even then, I still thought that there was some good in David. Yes, I’m an old fool and yes, it hurt a lot to admit to myself that all the faith that I’d put in your brother was for nothing. He led me up the garden path and back down again with his lies and promises.”
Our tea orders arrived, he stopped and waited until the waiter had left before carrying on.
“I employed Janet here, to at look all the facts and figures that you’d both laid out for me and confirm what was right there before my very eyes. Janet is a former Chief Inspector of the Devon and Cornwall Police. I dated her for a while before I met your mother. I got back in touch with her through a mutual friend of ours.”
I took a sip of the tea. It was very good. My eyes kept wandering towards the sandwiches but I refrained from interrupting his flow.
“Janet confirmed that pretty well everything you had said was perfectly correct. I am so sorry for doubting you. To make matters worse, she discovered a lot of new information was even worse but her investigations were curtailed by the arrest and charging of David. We turned all that new evidence over to the police. According to Janet, some of those facts were used as evidence in the trial.”
The sheer volume of new facts that had been presented by the prosecution at the trial has surprised me. Now I knew where at least some of it had come from.
“He’s going down for a long time mostly for a being a complete fool. If he’d just managed the business as I wanted him to, he could have lived very comfortably but no… He wanted more, much more. Then the stupidity of trying to blame you for everything when time and time again, you had clearly demonstrated that you wanted nothing to do with the family business was not only idiotic but downright wrong and as was shown in the court, his lies finally caught up with him.”
Once again, his voice faltered a bit.
“I had hoped that sending you to Australia would make you see sense and join the business but the fact that you had made a lot of money on your own just didn’t register with me at the time. At first, I took it as a personal slight but when you had your first exhibition, it became very clear to me that you were starting to make something of your life on your own. I am ashamed to admit that, that simple fact made me even madder for a while. I kept wondering why you had eschewed the family business entirely but seeing you looking so happy in your new life as Lauren made me finally understand that you were you being you. David once said to me that you striking it rich in Australia for doing next to nothing was just like slapping me right in the face. At the time, I believed him but as the evidence presented to the jury shows that was when he started to go very bad. He hated that you’d made a decent wad on your own and totally legally. To involve my family there in his crime network was like a gut punch but it explains their reaction to your arrival. All I can think is that David had been cultivating his connections there well before your trip. He tried to make me change my mind even while you were on your way down there. Now, we all know why that was. I was so blind to what he was doing to you, me and the businesses.”
He looked at Janet who smiled.
“Janet used some old contacts in the Australian Federal Police and made a few discrete enquiries about David and my family there. One of those confirmed that David was a person of interest to them. That, without being specific told us all we needed to know.”
“David had tried many times to make out that you were some criminal mastermind but the evidence to the contrary was all right there in front of me but I was too blind to see it. He clearly stated that you had used your trip down under to create a criminal network. I was just too blind to see that you were right and David was being the consummate con artist that he’d become over the years.”
Then he looked me right in the eye. His steel-grey eyes as they'd done a million times before went right through me. Then I saw that he was close to tears as he said,
“Can you ever forgive me?”
That put me right on the spot.
“I don’t know,” I replied trying to buy some time.
Then Clara said,
“What Lauren is trying to say is that if she is to forgive you then it will take some time and will not be done over afternoon tea.”
I looked at Clara and squeezed her hand.
“Yes, Dad. It will take a lot of time and a lot of small steps but remember, I’m not going to have anything to do with the family business. Not now and most certainly not in the future.”
"I know that and that's why I'm selling them. I have had one offer for three of the five companies. If I can get it increased a bit then I'll sell it.”
“You can keep the money. I don’t want any of it.”
For once my normal poker face father smiled. He looked at Janet.
“That’s exactly what Janet said that you would say. I’m going to put some money in trust for your children. To put them through University or start a business. Will your pride allow you to accept that?”
Carla and I had not discussed having children. I'd been putting it off mostly out of the fear of her doing a runner. Besides, a narrowboat is not the best place to bring up children.
I looked over at Carla before saying,
“We have not discussed that sort of thing.”
He smiled at me. For a brief moment, I was a young child and about to get punished for something that David had done. It didn't last long.
“Don’t wait forever. I’m sure that you will make great parents.”
That last sentence got me pretty angry. What the hell does he know about being a good parent?
Clara squeezed my thigh.
"We will make our own decisions in our own time so thanks for thinking about us but we do not want any financial help from you," I said trying to sound confident.
I smiled at her. She was perfectly in tune with my thoughts.
“I agree with that. We do not need any help from you or my parents thank you very much,” said Carla.
I nodded my agreement.
“I think we are done here?” I suggested.
There was silence around the table.
I stood up and said,
"Nice to meet you, Janet. I hope that we will meet again sometime.”
Carla wiped her lips and stood beside me.
“We have our own life to live and that’s what we are going to do thank you.”
Hand in hand, we walked out of the hotel. Neither of us looked back.
I didn’t dare breathe until we were safely on the train back to Leeds. I sank back into the seat and Carla held both my hand tightly.
“I thought that you were going to give him one back there.”
I chuckled.
“The thought did cross my mind. More than once if truth be told.”
“It is all over and done now isn’t it?”
I shook my head.
"It can never be truly over for me until he is pushing up the daisies. From the look of him, Janet had breathed a lot of new life into the old dog. He could be around for a whole lot of years I’m sad to say.”
“Then we’ll have to just ignore him and get on with our lives, won’t we?”
“Are you sure that you want to hang around with someone as flawed as me?”
“I’m still, here aren’t I? Besides, I may have sold my flat. While you were having your hair washed, I received a text from my Dad. There is an offer on the table for just under the asking price. I’m tempted to accept it which means my dear that in a few months, I’ll be homeless.”
The doe-faced look in her eyes was impossible to resist.
“Then that’s one more thing to add to the list of things that we need to talk about tonight and in the days ahead.”
“Eh? What else is there?”
“The little matter of a family. Children and all that.”
“Is that all?”
“Then the little matter of Roxy being rather cramped for the two of us as it is.”
“Then I’ll buy a boat of my own.”
Once again, she got me and there was no escape. I had to admit to myself that the solution was quite good but one that I had no idea about how we would achieve it at least in the short term.
The silence at the end of the meal was awkward for both of us.
I reached over and took her hand and looked her right in the eye.
“Do you want to have children?”
Her eyes wandered about the room for several seconds. Then they came back to look at mine.
“It isn’t as simple as that. I want some time to live my life without any pressure. I went through school aiming to get into Uni. I went through Uni aiming to get an internship with a good law firm. I went through that hoping to get a job that would lead to a partnership. You know how that turned out. Being on Roxy for the first time made me begin to understand that there is a whole different life outside of the law cocoon that I have wrapped myself in for far too long. With the law being a virtual no-go area for me now, my old plan for the future has gone up in flames. Roxy is where I want to be right now and for the foreseeable future.”
She paused for a moment.
“Am I making sense or am I talking total gobshite?”
“No, you aren’t so please, carry on.”
That was a bit of a lie but I had understood most of what she was saying.
“Thanks for listening.”
After a brief pause, she continued,
“I love being with you on Roxy. Sitting in the courtroom and watching the defence barrister telling the most outrageous lies I've ever heard in a courtroom made me feel ashamed to be a lawyer. That was when I finally decided that I am not going back to being a lawyer even if I could do so. I’m done with that. I used to love the law and justice but that whole thing was just shameful. Yes, everyone should be defended in court but there comes a time when you are flogging a dead horse and continuing to plead their clients' total innocence when the CCTV evidence shows that he is as guilty as sin is just wrong."
"I'd like to live a guilt-free life for a while. If I can find another viable source of income then the 'for a while' it could well become forever."
Carla looked me right in the eye.
“Is that so wrong?”
I knew exactly what she was feeling. Being my own boss was highly addictive.
“It is not wrong. Am I right in thinking that you’d like to have children but not yet?”
“Yes, but I know that the clock is ticking with my biological clock. I’ll turn thirty next month. Then there is the question as to how I’d get pregnant. I know that it is going to be next to impossible for you to father my children given the drugs that you are taking. I saw your prescription and looked it up on the internet.”
I squeezed her hand.
“I love sharing Roxy with you but she isn't set up for two people on a long-term basis let alone more than two.”
“I know that only too well and I have been doing some thinking about it.”
My heart sank at the prospect of Roxy being torn apart… again.
I guess my disappointment showed because Carla smiled at me.
“It won’t be that bad. What I’m proposing is that I buy a narrowboat of my own. We can make Roxy a real home and the other one could be a place for both of us to work. A decent space for you to paint and a desk for me. A small galley and a toilet. That’s all that is needed.”
“What about Roxy?”
Carla smiled at me.
“Don’t worry, I’m only interested in making her more comfortable for two people. I’d make the main bedroom a bit bigger as well as the bathroom. A shower capable of holding two would be nice. Showering together would save water would it not?”
Her plan was pretty logical but it raised a good number of questions.
“Buying a boat is not something you do on a whim. I spent months looking for the right boat before I found Roxy. Not every narrowboat is the same.”
Carla smiled back at me.
"Then you will have to help me, won't you? Then she'll need to be converted to run on electricity. Experiencing the new Roxy has converted me. Dad's friends on the Medway with their noisy diesel engines are living in the past."
The cost of her seemingly simple project was from large and heading towards huge, by the second.
“That does not come cheap my dear.”
“I know so we will have to work on that. I’ll have a good amount to put into the kitty when the sale from my flat goes through.”
The look that Carla gave me told me loud and clear that ‘the lady was not going to be budged’.
I could tell that Carla was serious about buying a narrowboat of her own when I caught her browsing a number of the online sites that dealt with narrowboats and all sorts of related equipment that would be useful for someone starting with life on the 'Cut'. At first, I hoped that the sheer cost of buying even a fairly decrepit craft would put her off. No such luck. That made me wonder exactly how much money would she have to put into a new boat. The last thing I wanted was for her to go all-in on a boat only for us to fall apart and break up.
We had a lot to occupy us as we travelled from Leeds in the general direction of Manchester and the route south.
To get from Leeds to the Manchester area is not exactly direct. First, you have to head southeast from Leeds to Castleford before you can turn west and the Pennines. Whichever way you go, there are a lot of locks to traverse. One way is the more direct route for us as we wanted to head south but that involved going through Standedge Tunnel [1]. This is the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in Britain. There is more than one tunnel. There are four to be exact. Three are railway tunnels but the oldest one is used by the canal.
Traversing the 'Huddersfield Narrow Canal' had been on my bucket list for a couple of years. At nineteen and a bit miles, it isn't the longest canal in the country but has 74 locks and over three miles of Standedge Tunnel.
Carla was puzzled when I showed her our booking to go through the tunnel. It was for five days ahead. I explained that traffic through the tunnel is quite limited. It is open each day for a few hours to allow East-West traffic to pass through and a few hours for boats going in the other direction. The rules state that we also had to have a pilot on board.
We had plenty of time in hand to get to the tunnel entrance and as the weather was good, we made the most of it and spent a good part of each day moored. I got a lot of sketching done and Carla had her head down on her laptop writing away as if there was no tomorrow.
Most evenings, we ate at a Pub on or near the canal so it was very relaxing despite traversing a good number of locks each day.
Carla breathed a huge sigh of relief as we emerged from the tunnel into daylight. It was a very different experience from the other tunnels I'd been through with Roxy. I didn’t tell her that going through the tunnel was one more item ticked off on my bucket list.
I tied up Roxy to let the ‘pilot’ off. He was impressed with Roxy. He’d been on a few electric boats but his compliments on how Roxy’s conversion had been done made me very happy.
Carla decided to walk a bit of the towpath on the western side of the tunnel for a breath of air. The air in the Tunnel had become very claustrophobic after a while. It was just as well as there are twelve locks within a mile or so of the tunnel. There was a lot of traffic going the other way. As it was a Sunday some delays were to be expected but it looked like it was going to take us hours and hours to get through those locks.
To my amazement, there was a free mooring between locks 23 and 24. I took the opportunity to give Roxy a service while Carla took a shower in the adjacent block. With all the smellies dealt with, I followed Carla into the shower.
Over dinner that night, Carla surprised me by saying,
“I think I was wrong about buying a boat of my own. There does not seem anything suitable on the market at the moment.”
I took her hand in mine and looked her in the eyes.
“Don’t give up so easily darling. It is the wrong time of the year. Late summer, early autumn is a better time. I have been thinking of my own about the months ahead. When Roxy was in the boatyard near Oxford, Melody and I borrowed a house. It gave us a base for that time. I got quite a bit of work done so based on that, I think that we should find somewhere to moor Roxy for the winter and rent a house until March. That way you can get your novel finished and I can do some painting and at the same time we can look for Roxy-2 without any pressure.”
“Where? Where do you suggest we stop?”
“I think somewhere near Stoke upon Trent or a bit further west. I’d also like to meet your parents and… possibly get married if we have their blessing.”
Carla was a little shocked by my proposal.
“Aren’t we good as we are?” asked Carla.
“We are and since we left Leeds, I’ve been happier than I think I have ever been. But I’d like you to make an honest woman of me especially if we do decide to have children. I guess I’m a bit old fashioned like that. Am I so wrong in wanting to make what we have a little more permanent?”
Carla didn’t answer me for quite a while.
What I did notice was that her eyes moistened and eventually a tear rolled down both cheeks.
"I… I wasn't sure if you wanted to marry me. After what we said about having children and all that."
“Spending time with you without the pressure of David’s trial hanging over us has been good and I want that to continue… forever. Am I being silly?”
Carla leaned over and kissed me. Long and slow.
When we broke apart, she was crying.
"No, my darling, you are not being silly. I would love to be your wife. I've grown to love this slightly nomadic life. I'd like it to continue so, yes, I will marry you."
[The End]
[Postscript]
We were married in Chatham six weeks later. Her parents while they had verbally accepted me, took a while to come around to me being who I was and all that but once they’d seen us together for a few days, they accepted Carla’s decision that I was the one for better or worse.
The sale of her home in Watford had gone through but we didn’t find a suitable narrowboat for her to buy. That would have to wait a while.
We rented a house near Ellesmere for the winter. Roxy was moored nearby on the Llangollen Canal for the duration. I started painting industrial scenes of the North of England while Carla beat the hell out of her laptop with her writing.
She had ample opportunity to dress up for me. I came to like seeing her encased from head to foot in silver or black. She bought a suit for me for Christmas. I was right about not having the right figure for it but we had a lot of fun together so who really cares eh?
By the end of winter, Carla had two novels self-published on a couple of online bookshops. Naturally, I did all the artwork. It was the least I could do.
The picture of her face when she received her first royalties is one that I’ll treasure for a long time to come.
Carla hasn't given up on the law. She's been giving informal advice to other inhabitants of 'The Cut'. She charges a little for the legal work that she does but that isn't the point. The point is that she's very much enjoying our life and if she is happy then so am I.
My next collection of pictures is nearly complete and a gallery in Manchester had signed me up to put on a show next May. This particular gallery is a mere stone’s throw from the Canal. That made it just about perfect for us to continue our slow-paced but nomadic life on the ‘Cut’.