Where Memories Are Made (22 page)

He eyed her knowingly. ‘Oh, just been dumped, eh? The best cure for that is to find yourself someone else and stick two fingers up at the jerk who did it to you. I've got to get back as we're due on again in five minutes but we finish our stint at eleven when the DJ takes back over, so meet me then for a drink at the bar?'

She shook her head. ‘I don't think so, but thanks all the same.'

He pleaded, ‘Ah, come on. I fancy you, Jax. I'm not asking you to marry me, just have a bit of fun that's all. Come on, wadda you say?'

After her rejection by Keith it was doing her deflated ego good to know that a man wanted her company when there were a few hundred other girls back inside the night club who would have been flattered by the offer. She relented. ‘Okay, just one drink.'

He jumped up. ‘Fab! See you at eleven then.'

She watched him dash off through the throng of holidaymakers and disappear inside the foyer of the Paradise building.

Back inside Groovy's herself a few minutes later, she bumped into a fed up-looking Ginger as she was making her way back to the spot on the dance floor where she had left the other girls a while earlier.

‘You haven't found Al then, I take it?' Jackie asked her.

Ginger shook her head. ‘He must have changed his mind about coming.' She heaved a forlorn sigh. ‘I really thought my luck might be in tonight. I've had enough now. Shall we go and get a bag of chips and go home?'

Jackie shuffled her feet awkwardly. She felt guilty for having made herself a date when they'd come here with the sole purpose of getting Ginger one. ‘Er … well, why don't we stay a bit longer? I mean, there are plenty more lads here who might take your fancy, only you haven't given them a look in because you've only had Al on your mind.'

A look of suspicion flashed into Ginger's eyes. ‘Considering you really didn't want to come out tonight until I gave you no choice, it seems odd you want to stay. Oh, I get it, you've met someone, haven't you? Well, good for you. Best cure for getting over Keith. Who is he? What's his name? Hang on, I never saw you dancing with anyone at all. The ones who asked you, you turned down. So how did you meet him?'

‘Just now when I went out for some fresh air. I've agreed to meet him for a drink at eleven, that's all.'

‘Why eleven?'

‘Because that's when he finishes his stint on-stage.'

Ginger gawped. ‘You've got a date with one of the band! You jammy bugger. Which one?'

‘The bass guitarist. Hats.'

‘Hats! Well, don't tell Mina. She's been after him since they first started here and he hasn't so much as batted an eyelid at her.' Ginger wagged a warning finger at Jackie. ‘Now you listen here, I want a blow-by-blow account when you get back to the chalet.'

Jackie laughed. ‘There'll be nothing to tell. I've agreed to have one drink with him, that's all. I can tell you now that I'm not going to prolong the agony. When I met him just now he was certainly full of himself … expected me to be grateful he'd singled me out to chat up. I bet he spends all the time we're together telling me how great he is and how the group are going to be the “next big sensation”.'

Ginger chuckled. ‘The Upbeats are good but definitely not in the same league as the Bee Gees or the Beach Boys. Knowing you as I do, if he goes on too much you'll put him straight. I'll stay with you until eleven then I'll leave you to it.'

By the time eleven came and Ginger had taken her leave with a warning to Jackie not to do anything she wouldn't, Jackie herself was regretting agreeing to meet Hats because, as stupid as she knew it was, she felt she was being disloyal to Keith. It wouldn't be fair of her to stand him up, though. She would have the promised drink with him, then take her leave.

She was waiting by the bar for him when the group took their final bow on the stage over at the other end of the big room to loud cheers and clapping from the audience, they left the stage as the DJ immediately took over, keeping the atmosphere lively by playing Steppenwolf's ‘Born to be Wild'.

As Hats made a beeline for Jackie and made it apparent she was with him by draping one arm around her shoulders and pulling her close into his side, she could not help but notice other girls giving her jealous glares.

Jackie told him she would like a cider and they had only just got their drinks when two of the other band members joined them, both accompanied by girls clinging to them and hanging on their every word. Then, to Jackie's embarrassment, all three band members started larking about, pushing and shoving each other, which the other girls thought hysterical. Considering they'd all been prancing about energetically onstage for the last four hours, with only a couple of short breaks in between, they seemed to be full of life still. But then, Jackie supposed they'd have been either sleeping or lounging around all day, unlike her who'd done nine hours' work before she'd come out tonight. When she was younger she would have been just like these other girls, lapping up the juvenile antics of the young men, but now she was just extremely uncomfortable and did not want to be associated with their puerile behaviour.

She decided to find somewhere to put down her drink and slip away while Hats' attention was elsewhere. But then, to her surprise, a hand grabbed her arm and the next thing she knew she was being pulled through the crowds towards the exit.

It wasn't until she was seated in a comfortable chair in the quiet lounge upstairs that she was able to assess just who her abductor was. Sitting in the chair next to her, drinking from a mug of beer, was a man of twenty-five or so, about five foot ten, slim-built, with a mop of long dark wavy hair framing a face that some would deem as unattractive. It was long and thin with a prominent chin, large hooked nose and narrow hazel eyes set close together. He was dressed in flared blue jeans and a shirt and tie under a navy blue crew-necked jumper. The man was looking back at Jackie with amusement in his bright eyes.

He said to her, ‘I could see you needed rescuing. They're a good bunch of lads but they do all act like silly schoolboys.' He extended a hand towards her. ‘I'm Vic … or Sticks as the rest called me.'

‘Oh, you're the group's drummer. I'm sorry I didn't recognise you,' she told him apologetically.

He chuckled. ‘Hardly anyone does, I'm stuck right at the back behind the other three. It suits me. I'm not one for the limelight. Anyway, I'm not a pretty boy like the other three so the girls don't chase after me like they do them.' He took a packet of Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes out of the pocket of his waistcoat and lit one with a match from a box of Bluebells. Then he offered the packet to Jackie but she waved it away, telling him she didn't smoke. ‘I'm the quiet one,' said Vic. ‘They'll all be partying for the rest of the night, come back to their chalets at the crack of dawn, fall on their beds still fully dressed and spend the day sleeping it off. I don't mind going to a party and letting my hair down now and again, but after a gig I prefer to wind down with a drink somewhere quiet.' He looked at her for a moment before adding, ‘I'll understand if you've better things to do and need to get off.'

After he'd rescued her from what threatened to be a boring interlude Jackie thought it would be extremely rude of her to slide off. ‘I'll finish my drink, if that's all right with you?'

He smiled at her, showing his uneven teeth. ‘So how long are you here for on holiday?'

She told him she worked here, and before she knew it was also telling him about her happy childhood in Mablethorpe, how she'd joined Jolly's on leaving school, and briefly mentioned her recent breakup with her boyfriend without going into details on how it had come about as she was still far from ready to open up to anyone else about that.

In his turn Vic then told her about his own background. He too had had a happy childhood, growing up in a close family, the youngest of two brothers and a sister. His father worked as a machine operator in a local factory, his mother was a housewife. Money was tight but there was always food on the table and shoes on their feet. As a young child he'd driven his mother mad with his favourite game of bashing her saucepans with a wooden spoon. When his father had noticed that he was actually making rhythmical sounds, he had scraped together the money to buy an old drum kit from the local pawn shop, cleared a space in the outhouse, and set the kit up in there.

On leaving school, he'd joined his father in the local factory as an apprentice tool-maker and in the evenings formed a skiffle group with his friends. They spent every night after work practising and became good enough to get some gigs in local pubs and working men's clubs. Saving up his share of the small amount of money they were paid, along with any spare from his wages, Vic made a down payment on his first proper drum kit and paid the rest off weekly.

Then two of the members of the group started courting strongly and wanted to be with their girlfriends, not practising or spending their nights playing for peanuts, so the group broke up. But news that Vic was free got around those in the business and he was asked to join another group who played regularly in night clubs in the town. The money was a lot better than he had been getting. Eventually the group started to get gigs further afield, which meant not getting back home until it was virtually time for him to get up again. His work started to suffer, thus giving him a difficult choice to make. Did he leave the group for the sake of his job, or give up his job to stay with the group? His family were against him giving up a good job to pursue such a precarious living, but they also appreciated it was his decision to make. Since he had his training to fall back on if it all fell foul, they gave him their blessing.

He'd been in several groups since, each with better musicians and singers than the last. He'd been with the Upbeats for five months. The others were fully convinced that it was only a matter of time before they were spotted by a talent scout, got a record deal and were heralded as the next pop sensation, but Vic was far from being so optimistic. The Upbeats were good enough to play at the likes of Jolly's but their guitar player was no Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck, and the singer no Mick Jagger. Vic was realistic enough to know that as a drummer he did not possess the magic of Keith Moon. He doubted the Upbeats would ever achieve the success the other three were adamant was just around the corner. Unlike the other three, who spent every penny they earned on enjoying themselves, Vic saved his up, determined that he wasn't going to live the same hand-to-mouth existence his parents did. When his drumming days were over, he'd have his own business selling records and musical instruments, living in his own decently furnished house and taking a proper holiday once a year.

From what he had told her, Jackie thought him very wise to have the attitude he did. The conversation then turned to music they liked and disliked, until it came as a shock to her to realise that the staff were starting to close the bar. It was almost one o'clock and she really needed to get to bed or her work would be suffering tomorrow.

She needn't have crept back into the chalet because as soon as she inched open the door and stepped inside, Ginger switched on the shared bedside light and sat bolt upright. ‘That was a long drink,' she said.

Shutting the door behind her, Jackie replied, ‘Actually, I had three.'

‘Well, you've been with him for hours so you obviously had a better time than you thought you were going to. So what did you get up to? Where did he take you? What's Hats' kissing like?'

Jackie did not respond until she had stripped off her clothes, put on her pink baby dolls and clambered into bed. With her legs drawn up and the bedclothes under her chin, she told Ginger, ‘Well, actually I have no idea what Hats' kisses are like as I didn't spend the evening with him! I was with the group's drummer, Vic.' Jackie laughed at the expression on Ginger's face and proceeded to tell her how Vic had come to rescue her and they'd spent the rest of the evening chatting in the quiet lounge.

Ginger wasn't looking at all impressed. ‘I was imagining you being whisked off by Hats to a wild party or something equally as exciting. Sounds as though after I left you your evening was no more exciting than mine, sitting in here reading my magazines. This Vic sounds a bit boring to me. I have to say, I've never really taken much notice of him myself. He's not very good-looking, is he?'

Jackie admitted, ‘No, he's not a handsome man, I admit, but he's got a lovely personality. He made me feel perfectly at ease with him. And what was great for me was that, for all the time I was talking to him, I wasn't thinking about Keith and my mother together.'

Ginger leaned across the divide and patted her friend's knee. ‘Anyone who takes your mind off those two is okay in my book, boring or not. Are you seeing him again?'

‘No, of course not. I'm nowhere near ready to start dating again. We just said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.' The truth was he hadn't asked her. It came as a shock to Jackie to realise how disappointed she now felt. She really had liked him. Maybe it was because she wasn't his type. She preferred to believe that it was because he knew she had only just ended a long-term relationship and didn't want to be the rebound date on her part.

She told Ginger that they'd both better get to sleep or they'd be struggling to get through the day tomorrow when, as always at Jolly's, you never knew what was going to be thrown at you.

T
he next morning Jackie was bemused as to why Al was looking back at her like she'd just caught him red-handed stealing money out of the till, when all she'd done was mention the fact that she didn't see him at Groovy's last night. ‘Al, what you do with your free time is your business, this isn't the Spanish Inquisition.'

‘Oh, I know, I know,' he blustered. ‘The chap I was going with changed his mind and I didn't want to go on my own, so I went home after all.'