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Returning Home- begun again.
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=197
Author:  Mary [ Tue May 02, 2006 12:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Returning Home- begun again.
I think that these are the bits I posted before. I'll post some more soon.

“I’m pregnant.”
He was not quite there for a second.
“Pregnant? But we said…”
“I know love, but it’s just how it is.”
A smile dawned on his face, the momentary concern washed by the realisation that he was to become a father, for the third time.
“Pregnant?” he said again, settling more comfortably on the sofa, his arm around his wife.
“Yes love. Pregnant.”
He smiled, his chin resting on the top of head, as they watched the lowering flames flicker in the hearth.
***

“Dr Bettany- can you come to ward 7?”
Rix looked up from his paper work and sighed, capping his fountain pen.
“Is it Miss Williams again?”
“Sorry Doctor. She simply won’t see another doctor, Doctor”
Rix smiled, slipping his suit jacket on and ordering his papers.
“It’s quite alright Nurse Fawkes. That is just what happens with some patients.”
Firmly closing the door behind him, he strode down the corridor, entering ward 7 and smiling broadly.
“Now Miss Williams. What can I do today?”


There was already frost on the grass as Rix arrived home that night. He shuffled through the pile of post on the table by the door, picking out an early Christmas card, and a letter from his mother.
“Lou? Are you in?”
“No Rix, but we’re in here”
He pushed open the door to the Salon, finding his aunt in the big chair by the fire, a small child sleeping soundly in her lap. He stole across the room, squatting down next to his aunt.
“How has she been today? Not too much trouble?”
Jo smiled into her nephew’s concerned face: “No love. It’s a joy to look after my first grandchild, even if she is honorary.”
“You are her great-aunt”
Jo grimaced at her nephew.
“Don’t call me a great-aunt. I’m not old enough to be a great anything!”

The winter sun dawned late over the frost encrusted grass. It sailed into the Maynard’s airy dining room, where Mary-Lou was seated, buttering small-fist sized pieces of bread for her wiggling daughter.
“Beattie petal- sit still or you’ll get your food all over your face”
She wiped off the dribble of jam from Beattie’s chin and handed her another piece of bread, giving her a brief respite from the terrors of breakfast to have a drink from her coffee cup. Her peace was short-lived, as her daughter threw her last piece of bread on the floor.
“Oh Beatrice Elizabeth Bettany. What have you done?”
“Nothing of much consequence. Anna can do wonders with cleaning this house.”
Mary-Lou turned despairingly to her aunt.
“Oh Jo- it was all jammy as well.”
Jo laughed, picked up the piece of bread and sat down at the table.
“Believe me: much worse things have been thrown onto that floor. Really, just sit down and I’ll see to it in a minute.”
Mary-Lou, finally resigned to being forced to finish her breakfast, sighed and smiled.
“Thank-you Jo. We really won’t be here too much longer. It’s just until the first painting is done in the house.”
“Oh don’t be silly. You are more than welcome to stay here as long as you need. And anyway, I love having you here. All the children seem to be away at the moment, and it’s a relief to have you, Rix and Beattie here. It really is!”
Mary-Lou gulped a lump down and took a sip of coffee.
“They’ll come back soon. You know that they can’t resist home at Christmas.”
“Oh I know that, but they’ll only be here for a few weeks and then it’ll be silent again. I’m very grateful that you and Rix decided to come out a help with the new goings-on at the San. Jack is so relieved for your being here.”
The women sat in companionable silence, drinking their coffee, with the temporary peace only disturbed by Beattie noisily slurping from her cup of milk.
“Where are Rix and Jack anyway?”
Jo’s calm face clouded suddenly.
“Jack was called early this morning: Miss Williams at the San is getting much worse. It turns out that she was sicker than anyone ever thought” said Jo, “although why she needed both men is a mystery to me.”
“Well you’ve both started, and solved a mystery”. Mary-Lou continued, aware of Jo’s puzzled face: “I had no idea what Rix said as he left the room in the early hours, although being a doctors wife, I should have learned that by now.”
The sun was at last totally up, contrasting with the bleak landscape. The glowering clouds were moving ominously toward the sun, moving Jo to remark that they had probably already seen the best of the day’s sunlight, and worse to come on the appalling weather front.
***
Author:  KathrynW [ Tue May 02, 2006 4:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks for this Mary, it's nice to see a, so far, pleasant Joey!

Kathryn
Author:  Lizzie [ Tue May 02, 2006 7:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
I don't know who first came up with the idea that Rix married Mary-Lou, but I like it.

Thanks Mary, more soon please...
Author:  Mary [ Wed May 03, 2006 4:44 pm ]
Post subject: 
NEW BIT! Woo! This story is going to skip around alot. Sorry. Well no I'm not, but don't try too hard to fit it all together yet. Always depending that it will. Hmmm.

As predicted, the sun was soon smothered by a fleece of dull clouds, settling over the Platz. Rix arrived home, tired and unshaven, and headed straight upstairs. Opening the door to the bedroom, rather than finding a warm, made bed, waiting for him, he found it crumpled and very much occupied.
“Lou?” he whispered, unsure what his wife was doing, sleeping at lunch.
Mary-Lou turned over, fully dressed and opened one eye to her husband, sitting now on the edge of the bed.
“Are you Ok love?”
She grasped his hand and kissed it.
“Rix I’m sorry- I meant for it all to be lovely for you when you got back, but I just got a bout of morning sickness again when I came up to make the bed, and then I just needed to sleep, and well…”
Rix pushed off his shoes, and climbed onto the bed, his wife’s hand still in his.

Half an hour later, as Jo realised that no one had arrived for lunch, she discovered them, sleeping deeply and entirely peaceful. She chuckled, and went to check on her husband, discovering him with his head pillowed on his arms, collapsed over his paper strewn desk.

Several hundred miles away Madge was faced with the same situation.
“Jem darling?”
He grunted and turned over.
Madge smiled at the sleeping form of her husband, and slipped downstairs, only to return five minutes later with a steaming cup of tea.
“Jem?”
He opened an eye and groaned.
“It’s not 15 yet is it?”
“I’m afraid so, so you’ll…”
“…so I need to get up now if I’m going to get back to the San to see Henley Lewisham” he interrupted. He swung himself out of bed and round to Madge. “And you certainly know how to wake up a grumpy doctor.” He took his tea in one hand, and drew Madge closer with the other, kissing her tenderly on the forehead. “Thank-you sweetheart.”

Madge could still hear him whistling in the shower as she went downstairs, his empty tea cup in her hand. Settling it on the draining board in the big kitchen, she sat down at the large table, drawing towards her the old family cookery book, opened on a very sticky page, detailing the get-ahead Christmas cooking of cake and pudding. In the book she had also left the second page of Jo’s most recent letter, which she perused now whilst drinking a large cup of coffee.
“Come on the 20th for a family Christmas…Dick and Mollie said they would come on the same flight if you can arrange it…fine, that’ll be fine”, said Madge as she noted in her diary to ‘phone the Quadrant and took another sip of her coffee. “Can you bring a Christmas pudding as I really cannot ask Anna to prepare food ahead for such crowds without a bit of help! Oh poor Anna. Right, pudding it is…” she murmured, noting it again in her diary. “Of course all of your crowd, and Mollie and Dick’s lot are all welcome, but could you find out for me exactly who is coming, just so we know from the point of beds. We can fit in crowds, as Len and Reg will stay in their house and can fit in more, as will Rix and Mary-Lou, and they will all just drive up each day.” Madge made another note in her diary, glanced over the rest of the letter page and then shut her diary decisively.

Jem walked in, looking much more awake and alert than the last time she had seen him.
“Organising?”
Madge nodded, draining her coffee cup and setting it down. “Just for Christmas. I need to ‘phone Dick, and then the children and see what they plan to do at Christmas. You’ve sorted out being covered at the San haven’t you?”
Jem nodded as he disappeared into the pantry. “Yes”, his disembodied voice floated back. “I’ve managed to get the new doctor I told you about- Werner his name is, Joseph Werner. You met his wife didn’t you? Leida or Leila?”
Madge smiled to herself before answering.
“Liesel Werner? Is that who you mean?”
Jem swung out of the pantry brandishing an apple and a large piece of cake.
“Liesel- yes that was it. Well him, or rather him and her. I think we can trust Werner. He’s a good chap.”
He disappeared for a second out of the kitchen. Madge looked after him, shaking her head as she silently laughed. He reappeared in the door with his briefcase, coat and keys.
“I need to be going Madge. We can finish sorting this out tonight? Good.” He leaned down to kiss her, then straightened up, pulling his coat around him and picking up his briefcase again.

Madge sat at the table for a few minutes longer. The sun had struggled to break through the clouds all morning, and now, as it was lowering in the sky, it burst into glorious orange light, bathing the kitchen in bright warm light. Madge was reminded of the holiday she and Jem had taken less than a year ago. He had finally found that he could be easy letting someone other than Jack Maynard look after the San, and in relaxing had lost years. Madge smiled, her eyes closed, remembering not only the warm summer streets of Rome, but the faces of her friends when they first saw Jem again. The term “different man” could never cover the transformation. He was still the same Jem, but his old boyishness had returned. He was more like the Jem of the earlier days in Switzerland, even before Josette was born, and she was now married. Madge smiled again, got up and went into pantry, finding the ingredients for the Christmas pudding.
***
Author:  ibarhis [ Wed May 03, 2006 5:30 pm ]
Post subject: 
Nice scene setting... Look forward to seeing where this is going.
Author:  francesn [ Wed May 03, 2006 7:15 pm ]
Post subject: 
Everyone's so lovely!

Where's the catch? :lol:

Thanks Mary
Author:  Carys [ Wed May 03, 2006 7:53 pm ]
Post subject: 
Awww a lovely Madge and Jem, and a nice Joey! You are spoiling us! Hehe!
Author:  Lizzie [ Wed May 03, 2006 8:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Mary, good to see more of this. More soon, please...

L x
Author:  MaryR [ Wed May 03, 2006 9:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
Looking good so far, Mary. Thank you. :wink:
Author:  Chair [ Wed May 03, 2006 9:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks, Mary. It's nice to see Madge getting everything ready.
Author:  Cath V-P [ Thu May 04, 2006 1:10 am ]
Post subject: 
This is most intriguing!
Thank you.
Author:  Jennie [ Thu May 04, 2006 12:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanbk, Mary, this looks good.
Author:  Dawn [ Fri May 05, 2006 10:31 pm ]
Post subject: 
Was worried about the clouds on the Platz, so very relieved to find Rix and Jem got home safely
Author:  KathrynW [ Sat May 06, 2006 1:33 am ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Mary, you've set the scene really nicely although, like Fran, I am waiting for the catch!

Kathryn
Author:  Mary [ Sat May 06, 2006 11:53 am ]
Post subject: 
I've only just realised, having being working to this for a month or so, that there is no structure to this story. Darn it. I may have to stop for a bit and reorder and sort it out. Also, having let my sister read *everything* that I've written, I've realised that there are several things, including bits in posts that are already on here which need to be changed etc.

Darn my film teacher reminding me of narrative structure
Darn my sister making sensible suggestions
Darn the fact that I stayed up until half 6 this morning.

Will repost as soon as possible. Sorry to deprive you of such sparkling literary genius. Hmm.

Mx
Author:  Mary [ Wed May 24, 2006 9:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Confusingly- I'm starting again
As promised, I have been re-jigging this story, so hopefully there is a bit more life to the characters, and a bit more, happening faster. This will all depend on whether I remember to carry on writing! There will be bits repeated from earlier but with my great-and-glorious-over-arching-narrative-plan now it will make sense, eventually!


Returning Home- Prologue

He opened the garden gate. He paused. Not quite being able to enter the house yet, he shouldered his bag, tramping round the side of the house through the wet grass to the back garden. He dropped his bag onto the damp bench, and likewise dropped onto the bench, gasping in relief. How was he to endure these next few days? Surely the question would arise, and then where would he be? She would be very upset, and not just her. The whole family would be devastated. But why? Why should they care? It was alright for the others. They could do whatever they were expected. But he- he could not. What was he to do? How could he convince them that whilst he still loved them, he was not the same as his siblings or his cousins. He had to be his own man. His own man- yes- that’s what he’d say, but only if the question came up. Otherwise, he would not speak a word of it.
***
Lights of villages flashed past the train windows, bouncing along, away from view. The sliding window shot open, billowing cold air straight into the compartment. The young woman leaped up and slammed it shut again, stopping a minute to watch out of the window and follow the view of the blinking lights, well away in the distance now. She was distracted, twisting the gold band on her finger. In sudden realisation, she took it off, slipping it into her purse. Sitting down, she let herself lean against the velour of the seats, inhaling the heady scent of ash and wool. Out of habit, she rubbed her finger, looking down surprised for a minute to not find the ring there. She starred at her hand, her head on one side.
“Pull yourself together. It’s just for a week!”
She smoothed her skirts and checked her hair as the train pulled up to the platform. Gathering herself together, she left the train, breathing deeply to calm her jangled nerves.
***
As the emotion overwhelmed him, he turned to the hedgerow, choking and coughing. On his hands an knees, retching, he let himself freely weep, for the first time. He fell onto his back, lying in the freezing grass, starring up at the cold winter sky. Reaching out, he found his small leather case, carrying all he needed, both for the next few days, and forever. His hand closed over a small vase in the case. The cold porcelain of it chilled his frozen fingers, but he couldn’t bring himself to release it. Could he ever? With his other hand, he gingerly felt the stiff paper in his breast pocket. His tickets. Could he go home? Was it even home now? Certainly it had been her home. He was taking her home. After that, he’d have to see.
***
She sat in the airport terminal, drinking a milky cup of tea from a soggy disposable cup. Whilst not dressed expensively, there was something speaking of class and taste about her. Her looks were all the more improved by the beatific expression that she wore, gazing down into the sleeping face of her daughter, so much like her mother. As her flight was called, her gaze was at last taken from the child, looking up to see her partner, his light luggage in his hand, and hers under his arm.
“Are you ready to go darling?”
Squeezing his hand, she grinned, a little warily.
“As ready as I’ll ever be!”
Author:  KathrynW [ Wed May 24, 2006 11:19 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Mary, it's really good to see this back!

Kathryn
Author:  Cath V-P [ Thu May 25, 2006 1:02 am ]
Post subject: 
This is very intriguing. Thank you Mary.
Author:  francesn [ Thu May 25, 2006 4:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Mary

Excellent (re)beginning.
Author:  Lizzie [ Thu May 25, 2006 10:17 pm ]
Post subject: 
Ooh, cool, thanks Mary!!
Author:  Liz K [ Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:15 pm ]
Post subject: 
Isn't there going to be anymore to this?
Author:  Mary [ Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:54 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'm afraid not. There was all too much drama going on for it actually to work. Sorry!
M xx
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