FOUR
Angie was doing my hair. It was Saturday and she was brushing my hair over and over, she was zoned out, gazing wide eyed into the mirror. I don’t know, I think it was an effect of her acid use. Sometimes she spaced so much out that you had to basically hit her to bring her back to the real world. I moved away from the brush and she was left combing the air while I headed over to her record collection. “Gunna put your Joplin on.” I sung quietly as I thumbed through the sleeves.
Pulling it out and carefully putting her Beatles one away I put Janis Joplin on. I went back over to Angie and waved my hand in front of her face, “wakey wakey girl.” I hated doing it but I had to or I was scared that she’d get lost inside the haze inside her head forever. I smacked Angie around the face and she gasped, staring at me hurt. “You spaced out again.”
“I was thinking!” She protested.
“You’d spaced out again.” I repeated adamantly. “You were combing the air, you weren’t in the room at all.” She rolled her eyes rubbing her tender red cheek.
“Oh God Rubes! Please not her again.” She begged as the music settled in. “Please fall in love with another rock star so we don’t have to listen to Janis Joplin twenty four seven!”
“I like her.” I insisted and pulled my hair over my shoulder. “Can we go now?”
“Yes.” We stopped the record player and then headed down to the bus stop to catch the bus to town. At least Angie was on her best behaviour at the disco because she wasn’t trying to take any drugs or drink too much, she was more interested in flinging herself about on the dance floor with me. It was a brilliant night.
******
I was smoking outside the parlour, lent back against the wall as usual when Angie screamed from the bottom of the road making me flinch. “Oh my God! Oh my God!” She was going.
“What?” I called as she ran towards me in her great clomping heels.
“Look! Look! Oh my God!” She was holding a letter in her hand and when she approached she was out of breath and stole the rest of my fag to puff on while she thrust the letter in my face. I scanned through it.
“You won?” She nodded enthusiastically. “Won…Two tickets to that concert! Oh my God Angie!” We both jumped up and down and squealed our excited heads off.
“This weekend. Holy-oh my God. We need to book our train tickets to London now. Do you have money?”
“In the bank.” I frowned. “I’ll get it for you tomorrow.”
“Oh ok! Ah! Oh my God!” She shook me violently and snatched the letter back. “I’ll go and phone up for-oh it doesn’t matter! We’ll just get them at the train station! We’re gunna have to get money so we can buy clothes for the concert and then-then there’s makeup…And a place to stay because we’re going Friday coming back Monday.”
“You’re really excited aren’t you?”
“Yes! Why aren’t you as happy as me? This is the biggest thing that’ll ever happen to you if you’re so insistent on staying in this suck hole.”
“Hey,” I pouted, “can you not have a dig at me every five seconds? I’ll have to go and ask Mr Clarkson for the Friday and Monday off.”
“Just quit.” She muttered and then kissed me on the cheek before literally skipping down the pavement away from me. Angie was a serious force of nature.
“What’s wrong with you and me boy?” Mr Clarkson replied when I’d asked for the two days off.
“I wouldn’t know. You’d better ask him, sir.” I smiled politely.
His eyebrows flickered, like two fury caterpillars arching their backs. “I did but he just walked out of the room. Anyway, yes, yes, I think we’ll manage. You can have the two days.” I thanked him with an enthusiastic grin and went back to work.
******
I got home and it wasn’t until I had served the cauliflower cheese and dad and I were sat together eating quite content that I decided to tell him. For some reason I’d been nervous, as if he’d disapprove. “Angie won two tickets to go see a concert in London.”
“Oh yeah?” He glanced up.
I nodded, “yup, she’s going to take me with her. We’ll be leaving on the train this Friday and be back on Monday.”
My stomach was knotting itself up so much that even a sailor wouldn’t be much use at unknotting it. “Oh…That’ll be fun for you then. Make sure you don’t forget your ticket.” And that was it. I was going on my first proper adventure and even better it was with my best friend.
On Wednesday and Thursday Angie came to work and sat there chattering away, incubating the seat opposite me. Toby came past during Thursday and sneered at her, telling her he could smell her stench before he’d even walked in the door and told her to leave. She got to her feet and faced him like a Western showdown. “Funny you should talk about smell, my dear Toby.”
“Why’s that, hippy?” He spat.
“Because I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your odour. Something like, filthy scum? That’s what it smells like to me. Could be wrong. One hundred percent sure I’m not.” He spluttered and turning red faced marched into his father’s office. Angie sniggered as she faced me. “That was pretty good I thought.”
“Yeah,” I smirked back, “it was. Thank you.”
“So make sure you pack everything you could possibly need tonight so that we can be off at ten thirty tomorrow morning. Don’t think that I’ll be ten minutes late because I’ll be there dragging you by your beautiful hair three minutes before.” She winked, sliding her bag over her shoulder. “See you tomorrow my baby.”
“Bye.” I smiled and returned to my paperwork.
******
It was an intensely pleasant feeling waking up to the house all alone, I’d had a really decorous sleep that had left me feeling well rested. I got dressed in red shorts and a pretty top. I brushed my hair, did a small beehive and then tied it into a ponytail, pulling my loosely curled hair over one shoulder.
I’d had breakfast, pulled my luggage to the front door and was pacing around waiting when there was a knock. “Voila!” Angie sung, she had her huge pink sunglasses on and her hair was wild, blonde sunrays around her face. “Ready to go? Dad said he’ll drop us off at the train station.”
“That was kind of him.” I scowled.
“Well,” Angie was shrugging as she lifted up my holdall. “I had to bribe him with money but that’s neither here nor there.” Her dad sat solemnly in the front and put dank, repressed forties music on which tried to pull our spirits down. Several times Angie and I exchanged bizarrely perplexed expressions. “Yeah, thanks dad.” She said as she lit a cigarette up and went to open the boot.
“You’re welcome Angela…Do you mind not smoking around me, it’s disgusting.”
“No, I think you’ll find you’re like the only person in the world that don’t smoke, dad.” He twitched, staying firm in the car as we hauled our stuff out of the boot. I thanked him but he was too moody to acknowledge me. “Ignore him.” After buying the tickets we waited around, Angie got checked out by every man that walked on by although she chattered to me oblivious to the attention. “This is going to be so fantastic it’s unbelievable.”
“I can’t wait!” I enthused, rocking on the balls of my feet. “What else was included in that contest?”
“Nothing, just we get to go there. I wish it was a meet and greet with the rock stars.”
“Only because you want to be a groupie.”
She pulled a face, allowing it, “Well, whatever it takes to meet them.”
The train came and we crammed into a compartment, nattering about irrelevant rubbish. “I have a friend and they work as a bell boy at some hotel and he’s meeting us at the station, we’re gunna go stay there.”
“How much will it cost?”
“We’ll never know!” She laughed. “He knows me under the name as Jennifer so you make up a name.” We both laughed, trust Angie to be a trouble maker like that. “Just hope he don’t follow us.” Outside it began to rain, droplets pummelling against the glass and trickling down in a defeatist manner. On the inside the glass was getting steamy, Angie traced hearts into it. “You look like an excited little girl…Like, oh, do you remember when we were younger and when we got our Tuesday money to go and buy sweets? You look exactly as you did back then, so excited and grinning like there’s no such thing as sadness.”
I flushed, “oh. I didn’t even notice.”
“I did,” Angie smiled all knowingly, “you look a million times prettier when you smile.”
I snorted, “Well, I don’t know about that but thanks.” There was no need to compliment Angie; she received about a thousand of them by total strangers everyday. I pulled out sandwiches –cheese our favourite- and handed Angie hers. Devouring them we both stared absently out of the window. “This weekend is going to be fantastic.” I enthused.
“Mmhmm,” she agreed, “it’s going to be so groovy it’s unreal.” It really was hammering it down with rain outside, the sky was gloomy as if it was forecasting doom for the weekend. Why did I see a bad omen in rain clouds? It was bound to rain, I lived in England, and the weather was predictably unpredictable with a strong hint of rain.
It took an hour to get to London, not that I minded in the slightest, I was already having the time of my life and I was determined to put a big memory between what happened with Toby. As long as I didn’t think about it then I didn’t have to deal with it, it didn’t scare me or make me think about what could have happened. I was alright then.
When we got off of the train Angie was fumbling around trying to light up her cigarette and nearly fell over. I steadied her and she looked up and grinned. There, stood in front of us was a smart lanky boy who seemed to just go on forever. He had blonde hair and dimples when he smiled. “Afternoon ladies.” He smiled directly and solely at Angie.
“Richie, this is my best friend and half sister Marilyn.” I smiled politely trying not to snort at the name she’d chosen.
“Like the actress,” his eyes flickered towards me.
“Indeed.”
“Well, take us to the car then.” Angie clapped her hands making both Richie and me flinch. Following Richie we were led through the station, London was already notably a lot louder and busier than our poor little village. It really was a suck hole. People strutted around in either the latest fashion or slightly outdated clothes, it didn’t matter. Angie’s beauty stood out but her clothes certainly didn’t like they had back home. Against all the old fashioned lot she’d stuck out like a rainbow thumb. Richie had a small rectangular car, I didn’t know the model because cars weren’t really my thing. I knew it was green and that was about it. “We have a room together don’t we?” Angie asked from her position in the front while I stared with my cheek basically pressed against the back window as I tried to let my eyes absorb everything. I absolutely did not want to miss a thing.
I didn’t listen to them chatting, I watched people streaming along in waves all over the pavement, watched them inside all the café’s eating food and conversing amongst themselves. I’d never been to a place that was just so thriving with people. The buildings too, they were tall and big and brass looking. Still, we drove past some areas that were still bomb sites from the second world war, no one had gotten round to clearing it all up yet.
We indicated left and parked in a small sectioned off car park just for hotel staff. The hotel itself was moderate in size and humble looking with small balconies each giving a view of the great London city. Richie laughed at my awestruck face when he opened the boot and began pulling our luggage out. “Now usually we ask customers to pay before they stay but because it’s you my sweet Jenny I’ll let you pay on the Sunday.”
Angie ran her finger along his jaw line and winked, “that’s my boy Richie.” The hotel foyer was red, red carpets, red walls, red waistcoats on the staff but it all had that buff polish of gold too. It was a hidden beauty that was for sure, probably an expensive one too. “Look Ru-Marilyn,” Angie nudged me as we waited at the reception desk. “There’s a bar through there. Bar and restaurant. Oh this is going to be so fun!” She squealed hushed in my ear.
After getting checked in we were handed our key to the third floor room we’d be staying in and then escorted to the lift. I’d never even been in one of those before. Soft classical music played and I felt uneasy as the lift groaned and began moving. Angie patted a tune on her thigh, she looked slightly apprehensive about being in this suspended rectangle as well.
Our room was beautiful, I couldn’t have faulted it at all. There was a heavily cushioned double bed that we were to share, the view of scurrying people below and many buildings across was new and exciting and everything had a selected touch about it. “I think the bed alone is worth more than me house.” I noted as I ran my hand over the carved oak bedstead.
Angie dumped her stuff where she stood, kicked her shoes off then took a running leap onto the bed. She sunk into the fluffy white covers and giggle sighed in bliss. “You have to come on here, Rubes, it’s like lying on the clouds of heaven.” Laughing I shuffled my own shoes off and then we spent about five minutes holding hands and jumping in giggling circles on the super soft bed. “Ignore the plan to squat in Manchester we’re coming to live here instead.”
“You really made it good when you met that Richie bloke.” I said as we collapsed on the bed and lay there grinning at the swirled ceiling. They even had a chandelier. “I bet they have room service as well… And the bathroom.” I pushed myself up into a sitting position. “We have to go check the bathroom out.” Laughing hard Angie and I sprinted towards the bathroom which did not fail to disappoint.