Where Memories Are Made (20 page)

Gina jumped up and pleaded with her, ‘Jackie, please don't throw me out! I know I deserve it but please listen to what I have to say. Please, love, please?'

She vehemently shook her head and harshly cried, ‘You surely can't expect me just to accept that you and Keith are now together, and play a daughterly part in your happy little family? I love you, Mum, I miss you so much and want to forgive you, believe me I do, but you have to understand how hurt and betrayed I feel. I'll need time to get over this. At this moment I can't promise you I ever will. Now please just go and get on with your life with Keith, and leave me to try and get on with mine.'

‘But that's what I've come to tell you, love. Keith and I are not together. It's over between us.'

Fury filled Jackie. ‘It's over? You mean, this was all just a fling and you broke my heart for nothing!'

‘Oh, Jackie, you're my daughter and the thought of losing you … well, I can't bear it. If it's you or Keith, for me there is no contest. I've come to tell you that I've sent him away. If you could just visit me, or maybe even one day come home … Your brother misses you too. If you can't bear to see me just yet, please consider coming to see him. I told him the truth about why you've gone away and understandably he hates me at the moment, won't even talk to me. It's all so awful and I've only myself to blame. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say.'

In the midst of her own heartache, it was causing Jackie intolerable distress to witness her mother in so much pain, having to choose between two people she obviously cared for deeply. She asked, ‘Do you and Keith really love each other, Mum, enough to tolerate the gossip and backlash about how you got together and the age difference between you both?'

Gina responded with conviction, ‘That doesn't matter, love. All that matters is trying to repair the damage my stupidity has caused.'

‘It does matter to me, Mum. Please answer my question?'

Gina hung her head, gave a deep sigh and said softly, ‘Yes. You know how much I loved your father. I never believed I could meet another man who made me feel like he did, but Keith does. I'm not a stupid woman, blinded by a man's attention after not having any for so long. Keith has left me in no doubt that he loves me. He did care for you very deeply and was devastated …' She paused as tears filled her eyes. ‘Please don't make me go on, love. Hearing this is only adding salt to your wounds.'

Jackie told her with conviction then, ‘I want you to go on, Mum.'

She looked at her daughter for a moment, fiddling with the button on her crumpled cardigan, before she gave a resigned sigh and continued, ‘Well, as I was saying, Keith was devastated by the way you found out about us. I don't suppose any way would have been less painful for you, but at least if we'd sat you down and explained properly, it might have prevented you from judging us so harshly. Anyway, when I ended it between us, he … well, I can't explain it any better than to say he was a broken man. He said he can't bear staying around here, possibly seeing you and knowing how much hurt he's caused you, and possibly seeing me and knowing what he's lost, so he's going away. He might have already gone for all I know.'

Silently Jackie turned and stepped over to the window, pulling aside the floral curtains to look outside at the comings and goings of the staff. A few minutes went by before she turned back to face her mother, saying, ‘Hopefully Keith hasn't gone yet and you can stop him. If he has, find out where he's gone and get him back.'

Gina's face was screwed up in bewilderment. ‘Pardon?'

‘If you love each other that much, Mum, then I'm not going to stand in your way.'

Astonished at this unexpected development, Gina sank back down on the bed. ‘You're giving our relationship your blessing?'

Jackie went over and sat down beside her. ‘I suppose I am. There are three desperately unhappy people at the moment, when two needn't be. Despite what's happened, I do love you, Mum, and just want you to be happy. That's all I've ever wanted for you. If that can only be with Keith, then so be it.'

Gina stared at her, stunned, for several long moments before she uttered, ‘You really mean that?'

She nodded.

‘But what about me and you?'

Jackie sighed. ‘You'll have to give me time, Mum. I can't see you and Keith together, not right now, not for a long time, I just can't. You'll understand that I won't ever come back home to live in these circumstances, but maybe in the future I'll be able to come and visit. I'm thinking of getting a flat with Ginger so I'll be fine. I'm nearly twenty-two, it's about time I learned to stand on my own two feet. I need to get over this and start to rebuild my life.'

Gina's eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh, love, I …'

‘Don't say any more, Mum. Just go and get Keith back and be happy together. I'll meet Robby out of work one night and talk to him, tell him I'm okay with all this, and hopefully things will get better between you.'

This was far more than Gina had hoped for. Mother and daughter had always been very demonstrative towards each other. She desperately wanted to hug Jackie now in an effort to take some of her pain away, but knew that wouldn't be the right thing to do at this moment. Instead she patted her daughter's hand, fully expecting it to be pulled away and mortally grateful when it wasn't.

Before she departed, Gina asked, ‘Can I at least write to you, love? And if you feel like it you could write to me … just a few lines, to let me know how you are.'

Jackie nodded.

Ginger arrived back at the chalet a while later, carrying a covered plate of food, to find Jackie sitting on her bed looking very pensive. She had obviously been crying.

Ginger jumped to the conclusion that the meeting between mother and daughter had not gone well. Putting the food down on the small chest by the door, she dashed over to the bed and sat down by her friend. ‘Oh, Jackie, I'm so sorry I agreed to let your mum wait for you in the chalet. I thought I was doing the right thing as she was desperate to talk to you and …'

Jackie quickly assured her, ‘It's fine, Ginger, really. It was just very emotional.' She then told her friend what had transpired.

When she had finished Ginger was staring at her in amazement. ‘All I can say is that you must love your mum very much to do what you have. I suppose I'm envious as I've not got such a close relationship with mine. Now …'

Jackie cut in, ‘I hope you're not going to suggest us going out on the razz tonight?'

‘Well, actually, I was going to say you need to get some food down you as you weren't in the restaurant at dinner-time, and you only picked at your food at breakfast so I know you've not eaten anything substantial today. I got one of the waitresses to make you up a plate.'

Despite her low spirits Jackie smiled. Though she had no appetite she said to appease Ginger, ‘Give me the plate and I'll eat what I can. Thank you for getting it for me.'

The piece of battered fish, chips and peas was by now only lukewarm and didn't look very inviting when Jackie took the cover off and saw it, but the smell wafting up seemed to trigger hunger pangs and before she knew it she had cleared the plate.

Having succeeded in her mission to get her friend to eat, Ginger decided she'd nothing to lose by having another try at getting Jackie to go out. As she took the empty plate from Jackie she said casually, ‘I was thinking of going to Groovy's for an hour. It's one of the chalet maids' birthday and I said I might pop in for a drink. It's only the DJ on tonight but it'll still be good down there. I suppose the last thing you feel like is a night out, but I'm sure it would do you more good than moping around here, so give it some thought.'

Jackie did. It
was
the last thing she felt like doing, but Ginger had made a good point. When this had first happened to her, she had vowed she wouldn't mope – and that's exactly what she had done. She surprised her friend by telling her, ‘Well, if you're just going for an hour, I think I could manage that.'

Ginger grinned. ‘Well, we'd best get ready then.'

As it was, Jackie's intended hour out turned into four. At first it seemed strange to her, going out socially without Keith by her side, but she soon became caught up in the company of her friends and the music the chatty, long-haired, flamboyantly dressed DJ was choosing. He played the latest hits by the Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, Cream, and plenty of Tamla Motown, which was her favourite sort of music at the moment, in particular the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and the Temptations. To her own surprise she even agreed to join the girls dancing on the packed floor, although she did decline several offers of dances from male holidaymakers she'd caught the eye of, far from ready to take that leap yet.

Her determination to enjoy herself faded only once when she had to slip off to the cloakroom to shed a quiet tear while the DJ played Elton John's ‘Your Song', which had been the last record she had danced to with Keith, on their last evening out together, before she had found out it wasn't actually her he wanted to hold in his arms. To her credit, she then quickly managed to control herself and rejoin her friends before anyone noticed her absence.

Jackie snuggled down into bed that night feeling proud of herself for making a start on rebuilding her future.

M
id-afternoon, two days later, beads of nervous sweat were forming on Harold Rose's brow as he stuttered, ‘Er … well, er … can't it wait until Miss Sims returns? I'm very busy.'

Al responded, ‘Chef Brown was very insistent he needed Jackie … er, Miss Sims …' he quickly corrected himself, feeling that he ought to refer to staff by their titles when in Mr Rose's company, the same as he was in the habit of doing ‘… to go across immediately, so I assume whatever he needs her for is urgent. I'd put the telephone down before I remembered that Miss Sims had only just left on the tour of the camp and won't be back for at least an hour.'

‘And you can't oblige Chef Brown?' Harold hopefully asked.

‘I can't leave the switchboard or the office unattended, Mr Rose.'

‘Er … no, no, of course not.' It seemed to Harold he had no choice but to put himself into a situation that was repellent to him. Hopefully the matter was something trivial and he could manage to solve it without making an idiot of himself in front of Chef. Reluctantly he told Al, ‘I'd best go and see what he wants that is so urgent.'

As Al returned to the general office, the beads of anxious sweat on Harold's brow turned into a stream. Taking a handkerchief out of his pocket he wiped them away, only for them to be replaced by a fresh stream. He took several deep breaths to quell a fit of shaking that had engulfed him at the prospect of what he was about to face.

How Harold loathed the way he was. Being painfully shy and so easily intimidated had robbed him of having any proper life for himself, doing everyday things that the majority of other people took for granted; in particular marriage and having a family of his own, something he would give his eye teeth for, though as matters stood it seemed as unobtainable to him as walking on the moon. He despaired of ever having the confidence to say hello to a woman he liked the look of, let alone ask her out. How he wished he could find a way to overcome this disability, but as there was no magic pill to cure him it seemed he was destined to spend the rest of his life living as a virtual hermit.

As he always did when he was out and about in public, Harold hurried along with his head bent so he didn't catch the eye of anyone and risk them stopping him for any reason and drawing him into conversation. It wasn't likely as the campers wouldn't have a clue who he was. Most of the staff didn't either.

Thankfully the kitchen staff and waitresses were all on their rest period before the evening session began so Harold had no one to contend with as he made his way into the kitchen in search of Chef Brown. He found the huge man, dressed in stained whites, taking a tray of cooked items out of a huge oven and putting it on a spotlessly clean metal table.

Spotting Harold's arrival Eric Brown boomed out, ‘Ah, there you are, Mr Rose. You couldn't have timed it better.'

On learning of Harold Rose's situation when Jackie had approached him to help her execute the plan she had formed, Eric Brown had been very willing. His brother had suffered from shyness as a child until Eric and his other siblings had encouraged him out of it, so Chef knew at first hand what a terrible effect it could have on people's lives.

Harold was taken aback for a moment as Chef seemed to be expecting him not Jackie, then reasoned that Al must have telephoned to explain that he was coming.

As he busied himself taking dishes off the tray, Eric Brown was saying, ‘I can't believe we've both worked here for years and never crossed paths before. Well, I suppose that's because we're both busy men. Now we have met, if you ever find yourself at a loose end, I'm here most afternoons taking advantage of an empty kitchen to try out new recipes or listing orders I need the office to put in for me, but I'll always find time for a cuppa and a natter.' With a cloth he picked up two of the dishes from the tray and placed them before Harold, who had now joined him by the work surface. Chef handed him a spoon telling him, ‘Tuck in, and tell me which out of these two cottage pies you prefer?'

Harold fixed his gaze on the dishes Eric had put before him, hoping he was hiding the redness he knew was creeping up his neck and the anxiety that was gnawing away in his stomach. Nervously he blabbered, ‘Well, Chef Brown …'

‘Oh, Eric, please, we're not on duty now.'

‘Well … er … Eric, I'm not really qualified, I'm no expert on food at all. You'd be better getting someone else.'