PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Or something. Those who have followed this will know that I stuffed up a bit of chronology, in that Gemma's arrival happens here after the mass arrest, whereas it was the other way round. I will be amending the manuscript for publication, but not just now, as it will be a heavy job. What I am going to do is to write the rest of this in the right time sequence, so the next few chapters may be a little off compared to the earlier ones. To quote Hawkwind, 'Do Not Panic'

CHAPTER 51
That was really just like my god box in the flat: ‘pause’ had been pressed, on my life, but was it time to press ‘play’ once again? We stood shoulder to shoulder as the wind pushed the reeds this way and that, and Amina muttered something about work.

“Sorry?”

“This is sort of going to be my workplace, if I get the job I’m after”

“Which is?”

“For the first time, something actually related to my studies. I’m through to second interview, anyway. On Monday. That’s the one where I’ll get a final yes/no”

“What is it?”

“Scientific Officer with the Welsh Environment Agency. Looking at pollution, water quality, with a bit of stats work along epidemiology lines”

“Epidemics? That’s a bit worrying”

“Ah, a general term for prevalence checking, finding origins. The first proper use of it, I learned, was a cholera outbreak in London. It got traced down to one public water tap. Pollution’s the same. Get something in the water, trace it back to the polluter”

“You never did say what you’d studied”

“Chemistry. Organic for my BSc, then inorganic for my Master’s”

“What’s the difference?”

“First one’s all about carbon, in short, but that’s a really complex field, just on its own. Food, petrochemical, you name it. It’s nine to five office hours, though, so no more weekday trysts for me”

“I’ve been working shifts for a few years now, so a bit out of step with that. Don’t know if I could stand it”

“Yeah, well I’ve been doing all sorts up to now. Lots of temping, ‘File this, Miss Khan’ and shit like that. Actually looking forward to a bit of a challenge. Just hope I haven’t forgotten it all”

“You’ll be fine. I’m on days Monday, though, so can’t do the support bit”

“What are you doing the day after? Tuesday?”

“Off”

“Well, in that case, you can meet me at the usual pub on Monday, either to celebrate or commiserate”

“Sounds like a plan”

“Or a slight tweak? Meet me at the… Tell you what, if I get the job, Viva Brazil for all those skewered meat things”

“And if you don’t?”

“Cross the road to Chippy Lane, I suppose. Then get pissed. Sort of reverse the usual sequence”

We ate her mother’s food back at the flat, together with some samosas and pakoras picked up from the Mallu on Penarth Road, but Amina went home at eight o’clock. In a way, I was grateful, for it took so much of the pressure off me. When she stayed, we slept together, as sure as night followed day. I needed some time alone to digest everything, to be sure that whatever way I jumped would be the right one. I tried doing the old pros/cons sheet, but each time I tried to find something for the plus side, all my mind came up with were variations on ‘lovely’, ‘caring’, and so on. As for the cons, there was only one, and it was called Angela Hinemoa Meads. I put the paper in a drawer and went to bed early.

More NHS taxi work, one elderly woman fallen at home, thankfully without breaking anything, one more elderly man that was under Hira’s care but didn’t need to chat, ever again, as old age simply swept him up with the end of the year. I realised that I was becoming numb to that sort of death: people went, when their body got too tired, and it was our job to take the remains away. The dead street people, or the violent deaths, they never lost their sting. I knew one thing about that old man at least, and that was that he had been blessed with Hira as his visiting nurse, so I hoped that he hadn’t felt the loneliness of our rough sleepers.

Another couple of stops at Frank’s, of course, for naughty treats, each time seeing more of a girl, with more happiness evident, unfortunately with longer queues. They now seemed of a rather younger crowd, so Tom asked Gemma.

“Oh, that was Frank. He simply took some free samples down to the nearest hall of residence, with a load of business cards. Next thing we know, we’ve got half the college in here”

“Things going okay, with yourself?”

She nodded happily, waving around at her workplace.

“Yeah, great! Well, mostly”

“Why mostly?”

She looked at Frank, who was serving a pair of obvious students, before lowering her voice.

“Dad found out where I am. He’s been in a couple of times. Frank’s thrown him out”

“Have you spoken to anyone?”

“Debbie. She says she’s thinking of options”

“Well, if it gets really nasty, 999, okay? Promise?”

She nodded.

“Got to get back; stuff due to take out of the oven. So good to see you!”

One we got right, for once.

I was standing at the corner outside the Great Western, a little early, when I spotted her coming down St Mary’s Street, dressed a lot more neatly than was usual for her, in a skirt suit and heels. She spotted me and stopped at the other end of the pedestrian crossing, so I did a semaphore thing, pointing behind her to Chippy Lane with one hand and behind me to Viva Brazil with the other, while making my best attempt at a quizzical face she might be able to read across four lanes of traffic. She grinned, made a fit pump, and pointed energetically at Viva. The lights changed, and she strutted across the road laughing, straight into a hug and, before I realised, another full-on kiss, which I broke off. Eventually.

“You got it, then?”

“I did!”

“Told your Mam?”

“I did!”

“What did she say?”

“Get you home safely and not too drunk”

“Not going to ask for a definition, woman. Brazilian carnivory, then”

“Brazilian carnivory. As Soon as I had my answer, I rang them to book a table. Shall we?”

It was my first time there, but I’d read about that sort of place. Essentially, you bought a ticket, and then it was eat till you had had enough. The serving staff walked around with sword-like skewers loaded with different types of meat. One might be grilled lamb, another beef with a stilton sauce, a third with some sort of chicken meat. There was a salad bar so we could pretend it was healthy, and a wet bar so that we could forget about the pretence.

By the time we called it a victory for the menu, we were barely able to walk, the meal was that big. Amina settled the bill, and we started a slow waddle to the Smugglers, hand in hand yet again. I finally realised how many people were on my case as we entered the pub, as one of the usual crowd of leather bears squeezed my shoulder as we passed.

“I need the loo, Jen. Could we split a bottle of fizz, please?”

She dropped my hand and I headed for the bar, where Lil and Marlene were serving. Lil grinned and slipped me a wink as her boss took my order. As she handed over the bottle, she lowered her voice.

“Grapevine tells me you’ve been having a shit time, love, so usual arrangement. If I overstep, just tug your left ear and Ill skin someone else”

I smirked as a memory surfaced, reborn from its two AM origins.

“Oh, Amina’s Mam gave me a tongue-lashing the other day, sort of, and then I had one of those small hours thoughts that there are people who would pay for tongues and lashing”

“And Marlene will have to take that little nugget and polish it. I do polish nuggets well, of course, but I prefer the larger ingots, especially when I’ve got one in”

“You are perverse!”

“I get paid for it, darling. Now, sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yeah, suppose so. Here to celebrate, anyway: Amina’s got the job she was after”

“And you are celebrating as a couple—no, shush. She is a diamond, Jen, and she adores you. Lil is not stupid, nor is she a cow about things. If you don’t take what’s there for you, both of you, you will hate yourself forever. Get that bottle over to the table; wave when you want the next”

She was away, and it turned out to be one of her versions of a stand-up night. She did tell some jokes, including an utterly disgusting one about Cinderella, a tampon and a pumpkin that brought a whole range of equally obscene suggestions from the audience, but most of her session was simply her being inventively and filthily rude to selected clients.

Business as normal in the Smugglers.

We ended up in Caroline Street anyway, Chippy Lane exerting its usual magnetism post-pub, and then we ended up in my bed, yet again.

I lay there later, Amina’s head on my shoulder as our sweat cooled, thinking of Tom’s word, or his wife’s. The whole thing finally felt right, not a betrayal. Rae and the others had said it, that Ange would always be with me, always be in my life.

Time to stop shuddering