Despite the Angels - By Madeline A Stringer Page 0,38
Kathleen I’m trying, he thought. She can’t hold this all against me forever.
“Yes she can. Sometimes they do. Don’t spend all the money you haven’t got on a trip like that. It’s over too soon and she’ll want another. Come on David, just go to somewhere in Ireland. You can afford it, if you’re careful. Then you can go again when she has another fuss.”
“She does fuss so well. I’ll go and ask about flights. Then she can decide, that should make her feel better”
“Bad move David, bad move.”
But David had settled in his mind and now he settled back on the seat, as best he could without being injured, and allowed his mind to wander back to his little nursery. He smiled.
David straightened up from peering under the grill at the sausages and turned the heat down under the potatoes. He put his head out of the little kitchen.
“Do you want anything else done, or is it just sausage and mash?” he said.
“That’s all there is,” said Kathleen. She was feeding Caroline, whose little fists moved in the air and then stilled as she gave her attention to the serious business of sucking. Clare was lying in the pram, full of milk but not ready yet to sleep. “I’ve been so busy feeding these two and cleaning them, to think of anything else. You’re lucky to get anything, stop complaining.”
“I wasn’t complaining, Kay. I was just asking was that it?”
“There you go again, criticising me when I’ve been slaving all day. I’m fed up of it.”
“Kay, love, I know you’ve been busy. I know you’re in bad form these days. I don’t mean to criticise and I love sausage and mash. You’re doing fine, look how well the girls are doing. And I’ve something interesting to show you, make you feel better.”
“Please David, don’t show her the Rome brochure. Please don’t. Tell her you’re enquiring about Wexford. Rome is too expensive. No, David, no no no.”
David hesitated, but went over to the door to where he had dropped his briefcase when he had come in and smelt burning. He took out the brochure he had got earlier from the travel agent about short breaks on the continent. He looked at it and thought maybe this is overkill, maybe we can get through this some other way. This is silly. Then he heard Kathleen behind him as she laid Caroline down in the pram, saying now go to sleep the pair of you and leave me alone, and he clicked his case shut decisively and turned around with the brochure.
“I went into a travel agent today and got this. We could stretch to three days in Rome, I could miss a Friday maybe, if you think it would help? It should be warmer than here, anyway.”
“Oh, David, what a great idea! Show me.” Kathleen snatched the brochure out of David’s hand and sat back down at the table. “Oh, this looks lovely. Look, Dave, a buffet breakfast with everything on it!”
David looked over her shoulder.
“That’s a four star hotel. We can’t afford that. I was looking at one on the next page,” he turned the page over, “look, bed and breakfast, convenient to the station. Looks nice.”
“Looks ordinary,” said Kathleen, turning the page back and studying the photos of the big hotels. She started to daydream, room service, huge fluffy towels, endless hot water, wonderful meals, deferential waiters, sunshine, the Colosseum, the Vatican .…
“Meet him half way,” said Haliken “any trip to Rome is more than you should afford just now. Don’t push it for luxury too. Bed and breakfast is good, you’re not tied to one hotel for dinner, you can shop around.”
….shopping, drinks at pavement cafés, walks under the stars…
“this isn’t a fortnight on the Riviera. This is three days in March, in a city. Come on Kath, I know you’re not meant to be here and I’m sorry, but don’t make it harder on yourself. Do something realistic. The Sunny South East would be better.”
Kathleen turned the page and looked at the entry about the small hotel near the station.
“At least this would be better than this ghastly Irish weather. I can’t stay here.”
“We do have to come back, you know,” said David.
“But not for a while. It’ll keep me sane, looking forward to it, so I’ll get weeks of value. Well, not too many weeks, I hope, I want to go quite soon. How soon can we go?”