The Glass Cage

Story contd.

There wasn’t time to mope; lots of laundry to do and all the household tasks that had been left for a week. It was lovely to see the boys and hug them. A week apart made us so much more appreciative of each other and they were quite angelic for about 24 hours.

Mary, my partner, rang – very excited; this was the first summer the shop had been open and we were very busy – we needed more part-time staff so that there would be at least two of us on duty. She had been so busy with sales that she hadn’t had time to enter them up on the client’s cards. I said I would go in to do it once the boys were in bed. We were both excited and pleased with the way the shop’s fame was spreading.

There was a letter for me the next day, but I was rushing to drive the boys to school, and then to open the shop before half past nine, so put it in my bag for later. As soon as we opened there was a stream of customers. When we first started Mary’s father had rigged a buzzer on one of the stairs to warn us when any one was coming. Now there was a constant buzz, buzz, buzz, and what with that and the old fashioned till -bell it was like an inspiration for Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.

Mary came in briefly and I was glad of the help but soon she had to go to the bank and I was alone again. Just before lunch a Persian man (he told me he was from Persia) arrived with his two daughters who were going to be boarders at one of the local prep schools. He handed me a long list of uniform which he wanted for both girls. We always closed for lunch but I decided that, although I would lock the shop as usual, I would devote my lunch hour to trying to find everything they needed.

It wasn’t easy; he was very demanding and the girls were very shy hiding behind; the changing room curtain we had fixed in the corner – even to try on hockey boots. By the time I had found everything they needed, including lacrosse sticks, I was panting with exhaustion

I sank into the office chair to remove all the price tickets and add up the amounts. When I told him the price he made me an offer. I couldn’t believe it. I felt smoke must be coming out of my ears. I had worked my butt off during my lunch hour, persuading the girls to try everything on, grovelling on my knees amongst the hockey boots, and he had the effrontery to make me an offer…

I drew myself up to my full five feet four and a half inches and said.

‘I’m sorry sir but we do NOT barter. That is the price you must pay if you wish to take the goods.’

The thought of having to try to match the garments with the tickets if he decided to leave, gave me palpitations. Selling was only part of the job - everything sold had to be entered on the customers file so she could collect her money the next time she was in. All the articles would have come from maybe twenty different customers so you can see the problem.

Both he and the girls looked rather startled at my obvious outrage and he slowly brought out a roll of notes and paid me in full. That taught me never to remove the tickets until I was certain the customer was serious.

Whilst waiting for the boys to come out of school I remembered the letter. It was from Gary- a poem and a note with a telephone number and the message ‘Please phone.’

When I read the poem I was moved and felt my resolve weakening. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to phone – it was only polite.

His voice sounded just like him – relaxed and friendly.

‘Gary it’s Pat. Thank you for the poem – it’s lovely. How long did it take to write it?’

There was a pause and I thought we had been cut off.

‘Well it more or less wrote itself. It’s great to hear your voice Pat.’

He said he had found one of the books he had told me about – a play he thought I should do as my first; he had even designed a set for me.

When I met him it was different. He seemed to have lost the golden glow he had in the college and I felt awkward and uncomfortable. A woman I knew – she was northern like me and was used to saying what she thought – had told me I seemed to have a glass cage around me. Somehow I knew what she meant and thought that one day I should break out of it. But I knew this was not the time. I had been swept off my feet once before and it was not going to happen again. When I told Gary it couldn’t go any further he said everyone would assume it had anyway. This riled me and I said the important thing was that I knew it hadn’t.

It must have been almost a year later when I was browsing through one of my quotation books looking for something apt for a friend’s birthday and a familiar line caught my eye. It was the poem Gary had written for me but my book said it was by William Blake.

The Garden of love

I went to the Garden of Love,

And saw what I never had seen;

A Chapel was built in the midst,

Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut

And "Thou shalt not," writ over the door;

So I turned to the Garden of Love

That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tombstones where flowers should be;

And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,

And binding with briars my joys and desires.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry – so I did both. What an ignorant fool he must have thought me. I blessed the guardian angel that had stopped me from straying. This time anyway.

"

Teacher’s Pet – part 2

Story contd.

The day of the show - our final day – was a mad flurry of dress rehearsals, lighting plotting and last minute costume adjustments. Everyone had worked hard and although the dress rehearsal didn’t go without a hitch - that probably boded well for the actual performance Charles, my black American friend gave a natural dignity to his part of Lord Windermere and fortunately the director saw the folly of giving him white gloves to wear, which was too close to Al Johnson for comfort,

Being in the lighting box with Gary was a piece of cake as he was very hands on and did most of it himself, but I had studied the lighting plots and felt I knew a little more about the subject now, other than the useful snippet that Strand pink was the most flattering light for ladies. It was fascinating how one could lift or darken the mood with light and music. All in all the week had taught me a lot about stage craft and I couldn’t wait to get back to the theatre club and do my own production. I knew from the people I had worked with on ‘The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’ that I could get together that all important back- stage team - so vital before you even think of the actors.

There was one part of the play where Gary wanted a black-out and it was dependant on the timing of what was happening on stage; he said he would keep an eye on the action with his arm raised and at the right moment would drop his arm and I would pull the lever that would plunge the stage into darkness. Meanwhile we had a couple of hours before the show and I planned to crash and try to catch up with all the late nights I had been having. However Gary said he wanted to speak to me alone, and as we were all leaving tomorrow this was the last chance we would get, so I agreed to meet him in the pub as soon as I had changed.

The pub was empty when I got there, apart from Gary sitting by the window looking concerned – very unusual for him. We had soft drinks because of the show and I asked Gary what he wanted to talk to me about. The evening sun shining through the window gave him a golden glow and although he wasn’t conventionally handsome I found his titian hair and freckles and above all his happy nature immensely appealing. I was aware of the woman behind the bar who seemed very interested in our conversation. I realised there had been a mutual attraction between us but was also conscious that Gary was a very popular guy and had young women coming up to him constantly asking for his help, advice or opinion on all sorts of things. I had had a fantastic week with a great bunch of people from all over the world and Gary had made me feel a desirable young woman, for the first time in years. But this was time out from my real life; I would keep in touch with some of the students but I knew the friendship with Gary had to end here.

Gary said he had had a chequered career and although married had been a bit of a philanderer, but this was the first time he had felt really serious. Neither of us was free but he knew I wasn’t happy and that probably nothing could come of it for years. Even though we lived far apart he wanted to keep in touch. I was in turmoil. It sounded so reasonable but I had never imagined anything continuing after the end of the course and I tried to explain why I couldn’t keep in touch with him.

We were going round in circles and it was time to get back to the college. In the lighting box I tried to concentrate on the play which seemed to be going well. It went so much better with an audience and you could see the actors rising to the occasion as each bit of laughter and applause gave them fresh impetus. My mind was still whirling and Gary’s words were ringing in my ears.

‘We must see each other again Pat.’

I vaguely saw him lift his arm in the air and when he dropped it I froze. Whether it was a combination of exhaustion and stress I don’t know but I was paralysed. Gary hurtled towards me, grabbed the lever and saved the day.

After the show it was party time and everybody was on a high. I apologised to Gary for letting him down but he said it was his fault for bringing up such a difficult topic at the wrong time. Knowing that most of us would never meet again we partied for the last time, till the early hours.

The next morning with the car packed with all those books that had never been opened, Gary looked on as I hugged and said goodbye to my new friends. Just as I was about to drive off he came over, hugged me and said.

‘See you next week!’

I felt sad in the car. It reminded me of school at the end of the year when I always used to cry at ‘Lord dismiss us with thy blessings.’ I told myself Gary probably just wanted another scalp to add to his collection and I had been right to be firm.

When I reached home William and the boys were out so I collapsed into bed and slept for hours.