"Carrying On"/New, no naughty bits.

[swiftest]

Re: "Carrying On"/New, no naughty bits.

Carrying on 7
Charlie went out his back door, surprised to see Jean at her garden. Jean was more of a gardener than Charlie in that she had flowers, front and back of her cottage and, like Charlie, grew various vegetables. Charlie waved, said, “surprised to see you, thought you were with Annie” Jean said, “no, we did talk on the phone, mostly about you, you made up your mind yet” ? Charlie said, “pretty much, think I’ll stay home, thinking to go to Ridgetown right now, coffee, wanna come”.?
Jean shook her head, said, “no thanks Charlie, you make no sense to me, you buy Folgers, claim it’s the best, have it with no milk but one sugar, at least three times a week you drive, what(?) five, maybe six miles to Tim Horton’s for a small double double in a china cup, no, no, you go, do your thinking and I will bring out the roto-tiller.
Charlie said, “need me to pick-up oil or gas”? Jean said, “already done, you go to England and they tell me they say petrol…..by the way, when you talked to Annie, did she mention Abby(?) what I’m thinking is that she might have called her”.
Charlie thought, said, “yeah, she ah, mentioned Abby but Abby’s last name was never mentioned”. Jean said, “not sure that will stop her, she knows people at Bell….did you have a crush on Annie” ? Charlie said, “no, God no, we played good bridge together and when I talked to her today she gives the impression that I, I, what, I struggled to not make a pass at her, her thinking, no doubt I liked, still do, her, she is very good at bridge, quite attractive and a really nice woman, you know”
Jean said, “go for your coffee Charlie, I will roto-till, might do mine first, you can get rid of the stones before you do yours”.
Charlie nodded, turned to leave, heard Jean say, “your phone, Charlie, England five hours ahead, are they” ? Charlie said, “I’ll get that when I return” and Jean said, “why not now Charlie, get it over with” ?
Charlie re-entered his cottage.
Carrying On 8:-
Charlie answered his phone with a hello heard Abby, “me again, Abby, a couple of things but first have you booked a flight” ? Charlie said that he hadn’t added he was thinking of not attending the service. Abby, said, “ah, I see, yes well, actually I thought you would but not my business; we, meaning Des and I along with a few mutual friends were thinking of postponing the service for a few days, you know, give you time to be here, but we can go ahead; you have a friend Annie and ehm, she ah, she thought, well I’m not really sure what she thought, she called and at first said that it would do you good just to carry on with your life, seems you have a lady and I’m not sure if she meant herself or someone else….as I say, not my business, I thought it would be something you wished to do; should we just go ahead with the service then(?), Charlie I do wish you would say something, the thing is I do have a key for your cottage, I suppose that is trivial, I can mail it BUT, would have been nice to see you again but if your mind is made up”.
Charlie said, “mind not really made up but I don’t want to, you know, ehm impose, waste your time and I am sorry about Annie phoning, no idea how she got your number I, look this call is costing you, would it be okay if I called you in, say, 20 minutes, around noon here should be five with you at that time.
Abby smiled and nodded, said, “lovely, what say we do that thing with IPads, a couple of hours from now, oh, wait a minute, look, hate to do this but Des has a friend with an in at British Airways and there is a charter or something out of Toronto at midnight your time, Heathrow at noon our time and if you take the shuttle to Guilford I can have you at the Methodist Church when the service starts; I will arrange that to start at two our time…..or should I just forget that, are you close to Toronto” ?
Charlie said, “close enough, I will need the particulars and it will be close because they expect passengers travelling internationally to be three hours before take off”. Abby sounding quite jovial said, “Des will look after the times, talk to, and of course see you, at two PM your time”.
The call ended and Charlie picked up his car keys, stepped out the back door and Jean saw him, turned off the roto-tiller, said, “WELL” ? Charlie said, “I will tell all on the way to timmies”.

[swiftest]

Re: "Carrying On"/New, no naughty bits.

Carrying on 5.
Charlie made up his mind to absent himself from the memorial service. He knew that he had a phone number for Abby, found his address book in the English style wallet which also held his passport and some Brit money. He checked the time, a little before lunchtime and called Abby. Abby answered on the second double ring, recognized his voice, said, “I was planning on calling you, I have keys for your house at Fleet, could go tomorrow and air it out, tell me where and when you will arrive here, or have you not yet booked” ?
Charlie laughed, said, “Abby, full of energy, full steam ahead whatever the occasion, I was actually thinking of not attending”. Abby said,”re-think, please, I accept that you were hurt but of all the affairs Claire had she was really fond of you, you know I had known her for some time and shortly after you and she parted she talked, just a co-incidence but she talked of her death, said she wanted to be cremated and her ashes sprinkled over Chesil Beach, she loved your house at Fleet; tell you what, you give it a think and if you fly into London Heathrow, there’s a commuter train which would bring you to Guildford and I can pick you up there, Des would like to meet you again and we could lunch here in Horsham”.
Abby continued, “Do you have an iPad or do you use Skype(?), do look for a flight and let my know, IPad is easiest for me and if the time is late for me, not to worry, Des is away until tomorrow, he is collecting material for a seminar, University of Surrey…and I must tell you, no not now, will tell when you call but it has to do with Jean your ex-wife and Jean your neighbour….until later, obviously I am trying to not hear you deciding not to come”.
Carrying On 6
Abby broke the connection, Charlie hadn’t realized until he heard the dial tone and as soon as he hung up he had another call: Annie, a sometime bridge partner for the middle of the week and perhaps the Canadian version of Abby; before he said hello, Annie said, “hear your going to England” and Charlie, sounding absolutely positive said, “I am NOT going to England, your info is all wrong” and Annie responded with a laugh, “c’mon, I talked to Jean and you received a letter from someone you, ah, let’s say, “admire, admired, took a fancy to”. Charlie sputtered, said, “that is ridiculous, you know damned well I would NOT hit on a married woman. Especially one who was a friend to someone I was seeing”: Annie said, “Charlie, you never made overtures to me but the nuances, the subtleness, Charlie you may be right but there were times I thought you were going to take my hand when we are walking to the car AND yes you would want someone like me not to stray; but my feeling is that you, without being fully aware, have a bit of a crush on the English woman.
Charlie wanted the call to end and AG knew that….a minute of silence preceeded Annie, who said, “Charlie I do not want to see you with a broken heart and if this lady is all you think she is, and is very secure and happy with what she has, then maybe it will do you good to get over the other, I cannot remember her name but she had all that any man would want; my guy, in a joking way, said, “a lot of husband would leave home for her”.
Charlie thought of a coffee Royale, said aloud, “no way” before checking out AirTransat, BE and IcelandAir.

[swiftest]

Re: "Carrying On"/New, no naughty bits.

part 2 had been attached to part 1, part 3 and 4 might be a tiny bit disjointed. I was afraid to try and clarify, thought it best to leave as is:-
Carrying on 3
Charlie had some thinking to do, mind drifted back to his divorce, 2006. The request for a divorce came as a surprise and he said as much, he remembered his wife saying, “Charlie don’t do that, this should be no surprise, Charlie we’re not really the couple we once were” and Charlie had interrupted with, “we are older and not that long ago the love seat on the back porch was”. His wife said, “STOP, for goodness sake I had to make all of the advances and I had chosen the day, I had chosen April fools day and that was three months ago”. Charlie nodded, said, “Jean, tell me the truth, are you seeing someone” and Jean said, “for more than a year, Charlie”. Charlie asked, “Tuesdays when I’m playing bridge” ? Jean nodded, added, “sometimes, other times when you were with the toy train club”.
And now Charlie, looking amazed said, “Belanger, Pierre bloody Belanger, my clerk for two years when we were at Valcartier”. Jean neither denied or confirmed, said, “we can do this anyway you wish, veterans affairs can let us know the cheapest way to do this”. Charlie said, “up to you, are you moving or should I” ? Jean Continued, I know of a cottage for sale, one we can afford, you move, we sell this place and I am moving to the Eastern Townships, Mount Orford; I am leaving now, have packed some clothes, will leave a list of what I would like to take and will have a truck here next week; phone, let me know what you decide, the cottage I mentioned is one you have admired, owner says you can move in anytime”.
Carrying on 4:-
Charlie’s residence in Canada was located in Morpeth, a tiny community within a couple of miles of the Rose Beach area of Lake Erie; also almost side by side with Jean’s cottage and she he needed to see. No fences between the cottages. Charlie saw that she wasn’t tending her garden, was surprised when he found her back door locked. He rang the bell, not a usual bell but the sort of bell we think of as being a much smaller version of a ship’s bell, Charlie had mounted the bell on one of the posts holding her tiny back porch. He heard, “who is it”(?) replied, ”your next door neighbour”. Jean said, “okay Charlie, coffee or lemonade and I will bring it outside”, both chose coffee and Charlie sat at the picnic table.
Jean set a travel mug in front of Charlie, her mug, her favourite was one of those with a message, Jean’s message read, “my kid goes to U.W.O., so does my money”. Jean opened the conversation, said, “Charlie, it is clear that what you do is not my business, when you broke with Claire you hit the bottle, someone, would that have been Abby(?), called me from Heathrow, gave me your flight number and eta, said that you had been drinking; that would have been two years ago”. Charlie said, “a little less, and yes Abby would have called, she ah, and he let out a breath of air before continuing; Abby knew that Claire was married , why she never told me I don’t know; I was angry and felt like an idiot……sorry for, you know”.
Jean shrugged, remained silent and Charlie said, “her death”. No talking until a few minutes had passed, Jean gave an opinion, “she died almost a year ago, I was your comforter, your baby blanket, funny but thinking back to that time I must admit that what took place would have happened anyway and you will surely be going to the memorial service”. Charlie said he wasn’t sure before adding, “if I decide to go would you go with me” ? Jean said, “don’t be ridiculous Charlie, you have no idea how I felt”.
As Charlie was walking away, Jean said, "Charlie, why a memorial service now"? and Charlie turned, said, "Claire was killed by her husband, he was tried, confessed and is now in jail". Jean asked why he had not been called and Charlie said, "I was, did an affidavit with the husband's lawyer, barrister/lawyer said he would be in touch if needed, guess I wasn't".

[swiftest]

This began with the heading, "Maybe Story", part way through it became "Carrying On". Will post first part now, the remainder, with permission, in groups of three or four; story not too, too long.

Carrying On

Charlie awakened early and without looking at the alarm clock decided it was too early to rise. Bed lamp turned on before he reached for the book, opened same at the book mark, did not read, placed the open book on his chest and ran thoughts of the previous six months through his mind; concluded with, “should do something, anything would be better than what I am now doing”. He left his bed, prepared his percolator and couldn’t think of a single reason why anything could or should change.
Coffee, black with one sugar, the kitchen window, thought, “my view of the world”, fields not turned, a clear blue sky and, and, a half moon, daylight but still the moon lingered.
He turned, coffee in hand, walked through his small living room and looked directly into the sun, a sun so bright that it took his sight away for fully five minutes. Spring, “when a young”, smiled for the first time in days and told himself how ridiculous that was.
The year is now 2012 and for the preceding six months Charlie has been living in southern Ontario, a small bungalow he bought when his wife divorced him. Eight months before this time he had finished an affair with an English lady; an English married lady whom he thought was divorced; his affair had lasted four months before Claire announced that her husband had been finishing a contract position in Saudi Arabia: Charlie dived into the “bottle” something he hadn’t used for a number of years.
Charlie dressed, readied a second coffee, took that into his back yard; springtime, farmers had turned their fields, robins (American), nests built and more than likely the eggs were laid. Charlie had one of those round tables with the umbrella, furled at this time. He sat, thoughts drifted to Claire, the booze, sobering for the second time, hoping this would last.
He heard his back door open, knew without looking that it was Jean, his next door neighbour, said, “still some coffee” and Jean told him she already had some, added, “picked up your mail, letter from England, Abby someone”. He turned his head and Jean laughed, said, “someone special(?), I always knew there was something wrong with the other one”. Charlie answered, “so you said when she was here”…he held out a hand and took the letter. Jean raised an eyebrow and he said, “later”. They looked at each other, five, ten seconds before Jean said, “Charlie you are dying to know what is in that letter, say the word and I will leave you to it”. Charlie opened the letter saying, “there is nothing between Abby and me, she is a married woman who was a friend of Claire’s.
Charlie read the letter, stared into space until Jean asked if everything was alright. Charlie said, “a memorial service for Claire”, Jean was quite surprised said, “Claire died”(?) and Charlie said, “a while ago”.
No talking, both deep in thought, Jean stood, very quietly said, “I think I know when” and Charlie nodded. Jean placed a hand on his cheek, looked at him, added, “I feel a little used Charlie but I do understand, I’ll do lunch”.