This story is for persons of eighteen years or over. All comments, good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.
Part Three
It was by chance that I saw Miss Johnson pass by our office window a couple of weeks later, but by the time I got outside to try and speak to her, she had been swallowed up in amongst the many people walking up and down the street. This prompted me to go and give Mother Phelps a call and see if she was well and in need of anything. Lucy understood my wanting to pay this visit and said that she would see to our dinner, but to be sure to be back home before dark.
Mother Phelps hadn't changed a bit and seemed genuinely pleased to see me and made me sit in the parlour while she made a fresh pot of tea. I was left in that parlour with a small woman who evidently had been beaten up quite severely for half of her face was just one big black bruise and the eye puffed up and closed. The one open eye looked so full of weariness and pain that it hurt me inside my chest to see so much anguish come out from that unseeing eye. A small child was hanging onto her dress who also showed signs of having been hit.
But it was the state of the woman that got me to rise up and go and sit down next to her and put my arm around her, words not being needed. The open eye turned to me and focused and I saw one tear form in the corner if it and slowly begin to roll down her cheek.
You poor thing,' I whispered as I fumbled for a handkerchief and wiped that tear from the corner of her mouth where it had stopped. What's your name?'
`Alberta. Alberta Parsley,' she mumbled through her split lip.
`That's a strange name,' I said.
`It's a herb from the ground where I come from.'
`I mean your Christian name,' I said softly.
`My father was a Canadian. That's where he came from.'
`And was it Mr Parsley who did this to you?' I asked gently.
`Herbert Parsley. I think his father had a sense of humour which didn't come out in his son.' Her mouth twisted in what I took to be an attempt at a smile
`The bastard,' I said with some venom.
`The very words I said,' as she made a chuckling noise and gave another attempt at a smile.
`And what's this sweet little things name?' I asked, giving the child a smile as she looked at me with wide frightened eyes.
`Odette. I loved that film and so that's what I called her.' At this point, Mother Phelps came in with the tea and that was the end of my conversation with Alberta Parsley, but I never forgot her.
Three weeks later I sold a house and found out that I not only got a weekly wage but commission on the sale having seen it through from the beginning to the sale. Mind you, the man who bought this house also wanted me to move in with him, but I said that the house was enough and he took the rejection okay. By the time that summer came round, I had sold three and Lucy one, so we had quite a bit of money saved up and I thought it was time we spoke to Mr Trentham about our holidays. This was readily agreed and also that we could take it off together as high summer wasn't really a good house selling time.
On our day off, which was now a Monday, we went to a travel agent and booked a fortnight's holiday in Benidorm before realising that we didn't have passports, so on the following Monday we queued all day at Petty France, but got them just in time before we were due to go away.
Though we gave some of our wages to Doris, who had since taken in a lodger, we still had enough for us to have a good time in the sun. We were like two schoolgirls again because this was our first ever holiday for the both of us, though Lucy did say she had been taken to the seaside once, but she couldn't remember a thing about it. It was a package holiday, but having no experience of any other, couldn't fault it. Once we got to the airport we found others going on the same package and so we just followed them.
The flight was exciting and even the Spanish airport crowd didn't faze me to be in this foreign country and to hear the people speak their own language that I couldn't understand. Even the signs were unintelligible to us, but the sun was shining and everybody had big smiles on their faces as we got on the bus that took us to our hotel.
We squealed with delight at seeing the sparkling water of the Mediterranean, the golden colour of the sand that was fringed with tall palm trees. The hotel seemed to be made of marble and we had a lovely room near the top floor that overlooked the pool and the people lying there to soak up the sun. The room itself wasn't big, but it did have its own bathroom and big fluffy towels that Lucy wanted to pack up in our suitcase when we left.
As the flight hadn't been very long, we still had some time to go down to the pool, so we quickly changed and were soon splashing about in the cool water and feeling the hot sun on our backs. I'd bought the biggest swimsuit that I could and yet it still seemed too small for me and what I had showing was like a honey pot for the bees.
It wasn't long before we had boys and men of all ages stopping by as we lay on our covered loungers, chatting us up and buying us drinks. To be on the safe side, we kept our drinks down to the soft ones knowing that though the cocktails looked nice, guessed that they could be lethal to those who didn't really drink.
As I said, we got chatted up by quite a few fellows and we joked with them, but that was as far as it went. That was until we sat at the poolside bar one afternoon when I heard one man say to another with a laugh. How about having a Mint Julep Parsley?' and he laughed. The man who he had addressed replied, If my first name had been Basil I might. I'll stick to my own brand of Parsley wine thank you,' and they went off laughing.
It was the name Parsley that made me study the man. Reasonably good looking being about the late twenties in age and looked as though he been there for about a week judging by the sun tan that was still a bit red in parts. Him and his friend tried chatting us up the next day and I only talked to them because I needed to know just that bit more and it wasn't long in coming.
Come on Bert, get a round of drinks in,' said the other man and Lucy and I accepted a coke each as I casually asked what was Bert short for. Herbert,' the other man answered, `but he doesn't like being called that.'
`You're not Canadian by any chance?' I asked him.
`No, but I do know someone who came from Alberta,' and he laughed as did his friend at their little joke that they were obviously not going to share with us. When married men flirt, they do not advertise that they are already married, but he didn't have to with me, because he'd now confirmed exactly who he was and I could see in my mind's eye that battered face of his wife and child.
We left them after that drink and I made a point of ignoring him and his friend for the next couple of days. Up till then, Lucy and I loved the sun and made love in the bed and I think she was hankering to try another man, one not being enough to be able to judge the others by and when she told me of this problem she was having with herself, told her to go ahead and enjoy herself, but to be careful and see that a rubber thing was used. She kissed me and said that she'd take care and would still love me even if I didn't go with any of the other men, and the only thing I asked of her was not to use our bed.
I wanted our bedroom for my own purpose.
That night after dinner, I saw that Lucy was being chatted to and it looked as though she had chosen that particular man for whatever they would do. I hung around and saw this Herbert come out to the pool bar and before he got together with his friends got alongside him to talk.
Ive been watching you,' I said as an opener. `I haven't seen you go with any of the other girls here, are you queer?'
Good Lord no,' he replied somewhat startled. Why?'
`Well I wouldn't like to ask a man up to my room if I knew that what he's got has been somewhere where it shouldn't, now would I?' I smiled sweetly at him. He looked again where his eyes had already been many times, roving over my breasts.
Would you like to see them in the flesh, so to speak,' I asked softly. All he could do was nod. Well go and wait by the lifts. I don't want my friend to see us go into the hotel together.' He said that he understood and went off towards the hotel and went inside, and only when he was out of sight did I slip off my stool and casually stroll off in the same direction
He was waiting by the lifts and when he saw me approaching, he pressed the call button and the lift door opened as I got there and we both entered and I pressed the button for my floor. We didn't speak while it took us up and neither did we say anything till I'd opened the door of my room and we were both inside.
`God I wanted you from the moment I first set my eyes on you,' he said, trying to take me in his arms. I managed to evade them and went and opened the windows to our miniscule balcony before turning back to the room and framed in the window with the muslin curtain swishing about me, took off my top to expose my breasts to him. I could see that he already had a hard on as he moved forward to me and I stepped backward out onto this small space and opened my arms to him. He came straight into them and kissed me as I moved round with him in my arms so that he had his back to the rail.
`I remember Alberta and Odette,' I said softly after the kiss and I saw his eyes go wide in shock. They couldn't go any wider as I violently pushed at his chest with both hands and with the strength of his wife and child to help, sent him over the rail to fall down to the pool area.
I heard him scream as I closed the window and put on my top and quickly made my way down to the lobby. Nobody saw me leave the lift for they were all outside and I was soon amongst the crowd that was being held back from the now covered body of what once had been Herbert Parsley.
I never saw Alberta or Odette again, but I hoped that they made a better life for themselves now that they were free of the fiend. Of course the accident at the hotel was the talk of the place for the rest of our stay but it didn't spoil my enjoyment as Lucy and I soaked up our last drop of sun before it was time to head back to England and work.
My seventeenth birthday came and went without much fanfare as I didn't want to draw attention to myself as Lucy and I now used to go to the pub for the occasional drink. There I would wear a big baggy sweater but we still got chatted up all the same. I also now went and got a provisional driving licence and began to take driving lessons though this had its problems at the beginning. I went on my day off from work and over the first four weeks had four different instructors and I think they had been drawing straws to each get their turn. So I had it out with the four of them in their office on the fifth week.
`Now I've had enough of this! You've all been out on the road with me and had a good eyeful but it's got to stop. I can't concentrate on the gear stick with you all fiddling with yours under your clipboards. I either have one regular instructor or I'm going to go to another driving school.' At least two of them had the decency to blush at my remarks and so I settled down with just the one teacher. I was doing very well but then had to stop for quite a few weeks because I broke my arm.
Winter had gone but it was still dark in the early evening when we made our way home from work. Lucy had gone on ahead to start preparing dinner while I stopped off at the library to change a book. I was only about fifteen minutes behind her, but she still missed what I didn't.
I was several blocks away from our street when just as I reached a corner, this figure came hurtling round and knocked into me, sending my book flying. I recognised Billy Kramner straight away as the big bully from the time I was at school with Lucy. His face was flushed and there was sweat on his forehead, but what I noticed more was that he was clutching a handbag as he pushed me away and went off running down the street. I picked up my book and turned the corner to see two people, halfway down the street bending over something on the pavement. One person had dashed away and had just got back when I got closer to see that it was Mrs Heathers, the old lady who lived at the end of our street.
`I've phoned the police and asked for an ambulance,' one man gasped as the other man supported her head with his jacket. I immediately put two and two together and knew who had done this. He'd been reported before for doing this, but it had never been proved and as I was seething mad at this being done to old Mrs Heathers, vowed that I would handle it. The police would only put him up in court where he would either get a fine or a short prison sentence. It wasn't enough!
As she was being looked after, I hurried on home but didn't say anything to Lucy about it.
After dinner, I told her I was going out and got dressed in my black calf length boots, black tights, black skirt and a black coat that looks like what we call a bomber jacket.
`Where are you going dressed like that?' Lucy queried.
`I'll tell you later,' I said, giving her a kiss and let myself out. For three nights I went out like this and it was on the third night that I crashed back into our small hallway with a broken arm.
`Lucy!' I cried out as I fell in a heap at the foot of the stairs, nursing my left arm that was hurting real bad.
`What happened,' she cried out as she saw me lying there, her actions frantic as she shut the front door and knelt down beside me, her face having gone all white.
I'll tell you later,' I said between gritted teeth, but first you got to do this for me. Get my boots off and this jacket and put them in a cupboard. Got that?'
`Yes, but why?'
Then go to Fred's, two doors down and tell him to phone for an ambulance, telling him that I've fallen down these stairs and broken my arm and is unconscious. Got that?' I could feel the sweat running down my face and I'm sure that the pain was showing in my face. Do you understand what I want Lucy?'
`Yes, yes,' and she quickly unzipped my boots and pulled them off easily enough, it was the coat that was the problem. We got my right arm out of the sleeve and it off my back but it was the left arm that was causing some concern.
`Pull it off and put it away,' I pleaded, tears running down my face with the pain, so she pulled the sleeve down my bent arm and I screamed and passed out.
She related later to me that she put the coat and boots away in a cupboard, covered me with a blanket and ran round to Fred's. Fortunately he was in and did as she asked and phoned for the ambulance, which to everyone's surprise, turned up within fifteen minutes. I was still unconscious for which I was grateful as were the two ambulance men, for me because I didn't feel any pain when they moved me onto a stretcher and for them that they didn't have to hear me scream. Lucy travelled in the ambulance with me and the attendant as I was taken to the emergency unit. She sat there while I was examined by a doctor, but not allowed into where they took x-rays of my arm and head. But she did get to see the pictures of my bones as the doctor put them up on the screen for him to see properly the extent of my broken arm. He told her that it appeared that my head was okay but that my arm was fractured in a bad way.
She watched as they set my arm and then plastered it from the wrist right up to the shoulder and then I was carted off to a ward where I was put to bed. I was to be kept there for a few days for observation in case I had damaged my head, but they would wait till I came round. She was there when I did come round and it was her that was the first thing I saw, the pleased happy smile on her face, glad that I had woken up at last. My head felt a bit woozy and I could feel a heavy throbbing in my left plastered arm that was lying out on top of the bed covers. They had given me some kind of pain killing injection and whatnot so I did feel a bit light headed as I smiled up at my love looking at me.
`Did you do as I asked?' remembering what I had done and what I'd asked of Lucy. I held up my right hand and she took it and held me tight.
`Yes. Yes I did, but why?' she asked.
`I'll tell you tomorrow darling when I'm not...not so tired,' and I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
It was next morning when I woke up and could hear and see the bustling activity that was going on around me in the ward.
How are you feeling this morning?' a nurse asked, who seeing that I was awake had came over to me. How's the head?'
Fine,' I replied, it's my arm that hurts.'
`Your arm will be okay, it's your head that we were worried about. Now put this under your tongue,' and a thermometer was put in my mouth while she held my wrist as she looked at her watch that was fixed upside down on her uniform. She then let go of my wrist and took the thing from my mouth and looked at it before shaking it and putting it into a plastic beaker by the bedside.
Slightly up, but that would be normal in this case,' she said as she made a note on a chart that was on a clipboard at the foot of the bed. How about a cup of tea?' Now that was a lovely thought as I could feel the dryness of my throat. But that was all they gave me for breakfast as they wanted to do a few more tests before letting me eat, but all seemed well, apart from the arm that is, so I was allowed to sit up and have some lunch.
With that cleared away, I then lay back and thought about what had brought me here. It was on that third night that I found Billy Kramner as I searched the neighbourhood, him just coming out of one of the council blocks of flats. This particular block was on two levels, not much, but it meant that it had to have some steps between them because one was about four foot lower than the other. Now why they didn't have railings or a wall there, I don't know, but it was there that I came up to him.
Billy you bastard,' I said to him in a low voice. That was poor Mrs Heather you mugged the other night.'
`Oh, you recognised me did you? What you going to do? Tell the police?' he sneered.
`No. I'm going to deal with you myself,' I sneered back at him as I drew my knife from my boot and lunged at him. He was quick and had already half turned as he saw what I had in my hand. The knife went into his side and he gave out a gasp and grabbed and held me as our bodies came together. With his turning movement, my forward momentum and the fact he was holding me, we went over and fell to the ground of the other half of the council block. As I said, it was only about four feet but it was enough to do the damage to me. With our turning movement, it was me that landed first, on my left arm with all his body weight on it. I think I screamed out as the pain tore right through my body as we struggled to separate and get up. Him with my knife in his side and me with an obviously broken arm. As we parted, the knife twisted in his side and he gave out a cry and clutched at the wound as I pulled it free and half up on my knees fell forward onto him and drove the knife up under his ribs this time. He gave out another gasp, louder this time and then I felt him shudder and I knew then that I had killed him.
I got up, pulling my knife free again from his body and pushed it back down into the sheath in my boot. Then the pain of my arm hit me and I staggered back to lean against that low wall. I could feel the sweat running down my face as I whimpered and held my arm close to my body and looked down at the body of Billy Kramner.
`No more mugging of old ladies for you,' I spat at him before I stumbled over his body to get up those few steps to get out of the council block. Though I was only two streets away from home, it seemed a thousand miles away. At every step I took I felt as though I was treading on glass as the pain shot straight up my leg to my arm. I tried long strides, I tried short steps and even tried limping, but the pain still came every time I moved. I nearly howled out there and then in the middle of the swings and roundabout that the children play on. But I didn't dare. I had to get home. Had to get to Lucy and it was that thought of Lucy that kept me going. Lucy, Lucy, Lucy was all I could keep saying at every step of the way to try for her name to take the pain away from my arm. Then I was home and fell through the door to shout for Lucy herself.
She came that afternoon to visit me and had a small bunch of flowers for me and a packet of sweets and a newspaper.
`How are you feeling today,' she asked, giving me a kiss on the cheek before pulling the chair close to the bed and sitting down.
Fine, except for this,' I said, indicating my left arm. I can't even lift it.'
`How's the head?'
`Nothing wrong with that as they'll soon find out. Thanks for coming,' I said as I held out my hand. She took it and gave it a squeeze as she smiled at me and my heart melted at the sight.
`I told them at work that you were here and they all said how sorry they are and to give you their love and hope that you'll soon be out. In fact, the sister told me that if all is well, you'll be let out tomorrow.'
`Shouldn't you be at work now?'
`I went in this morning but told them that I had to have the afternoon off to come and see you which was no problem.'
`What day is it?'
`Saturday, so I'll be here all day tomorrow if they don't let you out, but I hope they do. It was so lonely there in our bed on my own,' and I saw some tears spring to her eyes.
`Oh darling,' I said, gripping her hand tight as tears came to mine too. We talked for a little while about the office and the house before she picked up the newspaper she had brought in with the flowers and sweets.
`The local rag reported another mugging that happened on Monday. An old woman of seventy two.'
`How is Mrs Heathers?' I asked.
`It doesn't say, just that she was mugged and taken to hospital. There's another item here. Do you remember Billy Kramner, you know, the bully we had at school?
`Vaguely,' I said cautiously.
`Well he was found dead. Stabbed twice.'
`Muggings and killings, this place is going to the dogs,' I said.
`Sally. I took your boots off and there was a knife in a sheath inside. It had blood on it. So did the jacket that I put in the cupboard. Sally,...' There were tears in her eyes.
Not here,' I said, squeezing her hand, tears coming out and starting to roll down my cheeks. Not here. Don't say anymore. Wait till I get home.' Tears were now running down her face too as she got up and leaned over and hugged me.
I love you Sally,' she sobbed into my hair. I don't want anything to happen to you.' I was really crying now as I stroked her hair and in some ways suddenly felt much older than her and now I had to protect her again as I had done once before.
`I love you too Lucy and I can't wait to get home to show you.'
`It'll be awkward with only one hand,' she said with a shaky laugh as she got up and released me, wiping her cheeks with the palm of her hand.
I've still got a mouth and tongue,' I replied, wiping away my own tears. We'll talk about this when I get home.'
So with more kisses than was really necessary even though it was a women's ward, we said goodbye and she left me to cry alone, knowing that she would soon be learning about the real me and I fervently hoped and prayed that it wouldn't turn her away from me.