Where to start, well what you have to understand about my husband Harold is, he lives one step removed from normal life, oh yes , he sees it going on watches it with interest but doesn’t really participate.
Anyway, we were on a dull, uninteresting stretch of the A46 towards Grimsby when I told him, I said, ‘Harold, this is just not working.’
Harold, simple soul that he is, looks down at the dash board thinking it’s something to do with the vehicle. He hasn’t noticed I haven’t spoken to him for the last two days or the suitcase on the back seat, I give up!
When we pull up at me mam’s house she comes bustling down the path to greet us, Harold winds the window down they kiss and he says, ‘Betty’s chucked me again.’
Making tea me mam asks Harold, as if I wasn’t there, ‘You don’t smoke, drink or gamble why does she want to leave, is it to do with sex Harold, have you been too demanding on our Betty?’ This, from my quiet reserved mam!
Harold thinks for a moment then says. ‘No, no I don’t think so in fact it’s the other way round if anything.’They both look at me, I sniff and look away.
‘It’ll be that cross eyed Butcher from Hope Street in Grimsby again,’ me mam says nodding knowingly at me. They continue to talk together as if I’m not there. Harold is helping me mam sort her pills out they’re both lost in their own world eating liquorice allsorts and talking about the Shipping Forecast. That’s it you see, they’re both interested in the most mundane things. I interrupt their pointless chatter.
‘Look mam, Eric’s wife is being awkward again so I need to spend a few days in my old bedroom, not a problem is it?’
Ignoring this me mam says to Harold, she says, ‘I told you it would be that butcher, she never learns.’ Turning to me she lets me have it. ‘You, our Betty, should count your blessings you don’t appreciate Harold,’ she reaches for Harold’s hand, ‘he’s the kindest man I know.’
And that’s it, I’ve had enough, I take my suitcase up to my old room lock the door and burst into tears; while the two people I hate and love most in the world look up the stairs and wonder.
Later when Harold’s gone home I put lipstick on and under me mam’s disapproving gaze catch the bus into Grimsby.