Vivi Misti - Book 5, The Porth Kerensa Series

Flat One, Vivi Misti

But then what did he know? He was an old fuddy-duddy stuck in the past. There were equality acts now and society had come along in leaps and bounds since he had been a young father.  Faith might well end up living a relatively normal life for all he knew. Besides, what was normal anyway? It was all perspective. Attitudes changed, life moved on and people progressed. Tolerance and equality might well be prevalent by the time Faith was an adult. Life seemed to move in the blink of an eye these days, Harry thought wearily.

“Mr Harry, do you miss Mrs Sparkes?” Faith asked after a few minutes of silent digging. “Mam said she’s gone to Heaven.” Harry glanced at Sadie, who was sitting on a bench a few metres away reading through Faith’s school letters.

Harry stood up and straightened his back with a groan. “That will have been the last place she went,” he muttered with a grimace. He thought of Joy Sparkes and felt himself tense as an image of her frowning bitter face flashed across his mind. He hated that look on her face and he hated that he couldn’t remember the beautiful girl he had loved, the girl he had married. Oh, how she had suited her married name back in those first few joyful years of their relationship. She had been a sparky joyous vibrant young woman, always smiling and happy.

Nothing at all like the bitter old woman she had become as the years had passed.

“I don’t miss her,” Faith said, truthfully. “She didn’t like me.”

“She didn’t like me much either, in the end.” Harry chuckled, softly. “It doesn’t matter though, it was mutual.”

Faith looked at him inquisitively. “What’s mutual?”

Harry smiled. “It means we felt the same way about it. I don’t miss her either, Faith.”

She gestured to him and herself, “So we’re mutual?”

“Yes, Faith, we are.” He glanced over at Sadie and held his hand out to the little girl. “That’s enough weeding today, your mam looks tired and I bet you have homework to do.”

“A reading book and a number game,” she announced, proudly.

“You can’t read yet, can you?” Harry threw a questioning look at Sadie who was walking towards them.

“You can read the pink books, can’t you, Fai?” She smiled lovingly at her daughter, then at Harry. “She’s doing really well there. It’s a good school.”

“Well I never,” Harry murmured, wonderingly. “I must go in and get my supper on. I’ll see you two ladies tomorrow.”

“Call me if you need anything,” Sadie said, quietly, touching his arm fleetingly.

“I will,” he promised.

He shuffled into his flat, sighing. He hated his slow stumbling pace, now the years had shrunk him from the big strong man he had once been to the bent over old codger he had become. He resented not being able to stride around the place anymore. He detested his failing eyesight and the aches that plagued him. Sometimes he felt as if he was aware of every single organ in his body as they aged.

When he was a young man he had hoped for a long life. He had been youthful, vital and virile with the belief that the years ahead of him would be kind and he would never feel like an old man. Now he considered that young man a foolish idiot. What good was a long life if everything ached and every day was a massive pain in the back, hips and knees? What were long hours spent doing simple tasks, if not a huge waste of the little time he had left?  What was the point in the golden years of old age if you and your wife ended up detesting each other?

He should have hoped for a glorious heroic death as an officer in the armed forces, serving Queen and country. He should have gone out with a bang when he was a man in his prime, instead of wasting away for the last forty years. He had spent over half his life feeling his body wind down and wear out whilst he and Joy looked at each other with hatred in their fading eyes.