Sleepwalk (3 page)

Felicity played the recording over and over.
Had to rush off to a meeting……………. Unable to meet you in town……………
I bet you were b
lue eyes
…. Some meeting; a
date more like.
She pressed
3 and deleted the message. She would call and cancel.
Actually no; s
he would be at the Bad
Rock and to hell with his date
.
Wanting to meet her
didn’t
necessarily mean he fancied
her. He was probably just a really nic
e guy who wanted to return her f
ilo fax and lunch would be nice, wouldn’t it?
She ambled
down the path to her car and threw her bag in the back
then made her way to
Compton
.
As soon as she pulled into her parents drive she could see
that something was wrong. Her m
other was rushing
toward her
down the garden path
wearing slippers and h
ouse coat.

‘What is it Mum? What’s wrong?’

‘It’s your f
ather dear. He’s gone missing again. I’ve searched the house and the garden.’

‘Have you checked the summer house and the sheds?’ asked Felicity.

‘They’re all locked up and the key is on the hook so he can’t be inside. Oh why does he do this to me darling? He knows how worried I get.’

‘He can’t help himself Mum. You know he doesn’t do it purposely to hurt you. I don’t think those tablets are any help. How long has he been gone?’

‘Um
,
about twenty minutes.’

‘Ok. Look you stay here in case he comes back and I’ll take a drive around; see if I can find him. He’ll be fine. Don’t worry, he can’t be far.’

She
drove along the tree lined avenue and turned left toward the village. She drove slowly taking in eve
ry gate
and driveway
then
turned into
Compton
square,
parked
the car
and walked the length of Parsonage lane past
it
s few shops and the pub and
on
into the c
hurch
scanning
the gardens and c
emetery
as she went,
then she was greeted by the Reverend White himself.
Unruly pale grey hair fell in thick curls across his eyes hiding dark eyebrows which reached a peak in the centre of his forehead. He reminded Felicity of a frightened angora rabbit she had rescued when she was nine. He always had that
caught in the spotlight
look about him; as though he was up to something he shouldn’t be which of course would be quite unusual and probably almost unheard of for a man of God to be doing anything he shouldn’t.

‘Ah Felicity. And how are you? How are your parents dear?’

‘Well actually………Dad’s missing again
’ s
he began. Within a short while half the population of the village were looking for Joseph Breen. It was now common knowledge that he wasn’t quite himself anymore as there had been similar disappearances on previous occasions and Joseph was usually found safe and well after creating some kind of havoc in the green grocers or the post office stores but
the panic and fear of uncertainty would not subside
until he was found. Felicity knew that the doctor was carrying out tests at present and that he suspected Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s or some other terrible deteriorating dis
ease which meant life with her mum and d
ad would never quite be the same again. She had to spend as much of her free time with them as she could purely to prolong the normality of this very close and precious relationship she held so dear.
She stopped at the phone box and called
her m
other, ‘Any news Mum?’

‘He’s at the f
arm dear; u
p at Green Acres. I’ve just had a call from Agnes Cross. Can you go and pick him up and I’ll phone around and thank the neigh
bours and then get back to the
Sunday
r
oast. What a worry he is. I shall have to start locking him in if he keeps this up.’

Felicity called at the vicarage to let the Reverend White’s wife know that her father had been found and then drove up to Green Acres where
Agnes Cross was waiting in the y
ard.

‘He’s getting worse Felicity. D
oesn’t recognise me any more.’ complained Agnes who was frantically
drying her hands with a cotton tea towel.

‘Where is he Agnes?’

The woman beckoned to the paddock at the side of the farmyard where Joseph Breen was sit
ting astride an old John Deere t
ractor, his hands clutching the steering wheel as if his life depended on it.

‘Dad?’ called Felicity. ‘Dad? What are you doing up there?’

‘I tried that already and he told me to bugger off’ said Mrs Cross. ‘Said if I didn’t
h
e’d
open fire; q
uite funny really. Thinks he’s back in the war I reckon. Thinks I’m old Jerry I dare say.’

Felicity went to her Father and stepped up on to the side of the tractor, then seeing a look of sheer terror in his eyes she placed her hand on her fathers hand and he slowly released his grip.

‘Come o
n Dad. I’ve come to pick you up;
Its time for lunch.’

Like a small child he scrambled down from the John Deere and obediently fell into step beside her.

‘I must buy you a new car Felicity. This one’s so old now. We could probably pick one up for about twenty five pounds. Would you like that?’

‘Yes Dad that’d be lovely. Come on, we’ll be late for lunch.’

She smiled at Mrs Cross as she fas
tened the seat belt around her f
ather and went to the driver’s side of her t
hree
year old
two
thousand pound
mini
on which her loan payment was now due. Yes he was quite funny. So funny she could cry. Although later that day after they had finished lunch and Joseph went to sit in the conservatory and have a little snooze Felicity told her mother what Mrs Cross had said and they both had a good laugh at the thought of Joseph Breen opening fire on Agnes Cross and then the conversation took on a more serious tone.

‘How are you going to manage Mum If he gets worse?’

‘I’ll manage somehow darling. I always do and
it
hasn’t been easy you know.’ Margaret Breen looked out at her beloved husband resting in his favourite wicker chair, his mop of grey hair swept sideways across his head trying hard not to reveal the shiny bald patch that grew slightly bigger each year. He was almost ten years her senior although until recently no one would have known because Joseph always looked so young. It was as though he had drunk from the fountain of youth. Even his hair had only just begun to turn grey in his late sixties. Although now it seemed that age was catching up with
him fast. Felicity helped her m
other to load the dishwas
her and ran some water for the p
ans and meat dish. They cleaned up and chatted about Joseph
; about Felicity and her work;
her recent meeting and she told he
r Mum about
the
collision with b
lue eyes and their lunch date the following day.

‘You need to be more careful darling. I mean, you don’t know anything about this man
and the fact that he has your f
ilo fax…….. I mean……… he must have read it from cover to cover. Do you have anything personal in it? I mean he obviously has your phone number for a start. You don’t have your address written in it do you?’

‘Of course I do Mum; a
nd a lot of personal nonsense which really doesn’t matter. And anyway, he seems like a nice chap. I mean he could have just deposited it in the nearest bin couldn’t he? He didn’t have to go to all this trouble to meet me and hand it back personally and anyway, he is kind of sexy.’

‘Oh Felicity do be careful.’

‘I will. I promise.’

He was waiting for her at a little table
in the window of the Bad Rock c
afé the following lunch time. She could see him from across the street, the menu in his right hand, his left hand resting on her
book
which was on the table beside him. He was wearing the same long black raincoat he’d been wearing when she
’d fallen
into him at the station. As she started across the street she
could feel him
watching her but
she kept her eyes focused on the
door tr
ying desperately
to think of their meeting as a business task and nothing more
,
yet with every step she became more and more nervous so by the time she reached it had to take a d
eep breath to regain her
composure.

‘Hi.’ Fel
icity approached the table and b
lue eyes stood up to greet her.

‘Hi….. Felicity.’

‘Call me Flick’.

‘Flick.’ He took her hand and just for a moment her knees began to feel weak as she took
in those deep blue eyes once more.

‘David.
David Wilson. We meet at last.
Now then, before we order you don’t have any last minute trains to catch, or buses or such like?’ He gave her a wide smile and she noticed his teeth were as perfect as the rest of him.

‘No.’ she smiled back and the two relaxed a little. ‘Can I start by saying Thank You?’

‘There’s no need, really.’

‘But there i
s………’ Felicity reached for the filo f
ax. ‘……. for this, and for your help at the station. I would have missed my train that day if it hadn’t been for you and your help and then I would have jeopardised my job.’

‘Oh well in that case……….. The way I see it
,
how are you ever going to repay me?’

‘What?’ gasped Felicity.
Cheeky. Blue eyes was cheeky. She liked that.

‘Let’s order shall we?’

They ordered jacket potatoes with salad and soft drinks and chatted away as if they had been friends fore
ver. He worked at the Nat West bank and was the front desk supervisor
responsible for five others. He ha
d been there for nine years. He’d had a few
steady relationships which never seemed to have what it takes to survive long term. He wasn’t looking for a relationship at the moment he said.
And he didn’t flinch as he said it.

Felicity found him very easy to get on with and before she knew it her lunch hour was over and she felt like she hadn’t had any where ne
ar long enough in his company; b
ut his words
I’m not looking for a relationship at the moment
stung like a knife. He must have been terribly hurt by his last girlfriend to make him feel like that. She knew how he felt. She too had been hurt. She hadn’t had many steady relationships. She had almost married when she was twenty three. Steve had been the love of her life. They ha
d gone through college together; shared a flat together;
had two holidays abroa
d together and she assumed…….. e
veryone assumed they would end up together but it wasn’t to be. After a two year engagement he suddenly broke it off and went travelling with a mate. He had never returned. The last she’d heard he was in
Australia
and was not coming home.

‘I……… I’d better go. I have to open the shop.’ She stood up to leave.

‘Yes. I have to get back to work too. It’s been lovely to meet you properly Flick.

It was good to have lunch… to talk to you. I’d like to see you again, if that’s ok?
As friends, of course. We haven’t really talked about you. I’m sorry’

‘No. Well, you know my number. Thank you for lunch. It was good. I enjoyed our little talk.’

He watched as she climbed into her little
Mini
and drove off.
She was such a sweet intelligent girl with a genuine kind personality and very pretty. R
are
qualities.

He had felt quite at ease with her.
But h
e had made his feelings quite plain
that he didn’t want a relationship
and was regretting that statement already
.

They had told him to go home and get some sleep but the dark haired man would not budge from her bedside. Ellie had watched the two of them all morning. The girl had scarcely moved a muscle. Occasionally she had opened her eyes and moved her fingers and the dark haired man would instantly move closer to her, whispering to her all the while in a soft soothing voice. Ellie had heard him whispering those three special words,
I love you
......... but the girl lay silent. She had thought of talking to him; asking him if his
wife or
girlfriend, whichever she was, was feeling any better. She had imagined saying to him,
‘At least that awful coughing has stopped’
, but the dark haired man hadn’t acknowledged her presence............. or anyone else’s. To him there was only one patient on the ward; or only one he had eyes for.