Sometimes When We Touch

Katrina would pick me up from work and there'd be anything from, a new lamp - or some other unnecessary home appliance - to a new outfit for her, lying on the back seat of the car. And what's more, she never did seem to be able to find a job of any kind. I'm afraid that after a few months I began to lose my patience a little.

Possibly what made things worse was the fact that whenever I did try to discuss our finances quietly with Katrina, she'd point out that once she had our first child, she wouldn't be able to work anyway. Katrina couldn't seem to grasp the fact that we needed a little more time to clear our "setting up house" debts and get a little nest egg behind us, in case of an emergency.

Oh I suppose I'd better point out at this time that both Katrina and I were both of the opinion that the latch-key kid lifestyle, was not the one our children were going to be raised in. We both believed that a mothers place was in the home until the children were old enough to branch-out on their own.

Less than a year after we moved into our nice house the crunch came. By then Katrina - when she picked me up from work at nearly midnight - was regularly stinking of booze. Where she was going in the evening before she arrived at the works I had no idea. She always insisted that she'd called in on one of her girlfriends and shared a bottle of wine with them. I'm afraid that it got to the point that I stopped believing that story.

From there, things went downhill very quickly, with Katrina and I regularly going at it hammer and tongs. And then one evening, she didn't show to collect me after work one night. After I'd been waiting for nearly an hour for her, a work colleague was kind enough to offer me a lift home. Then by chance during the journey, I spotted my car parked in a pub car park.

The place was closed by that time of night -- gone one in the morning - and my work colleague and I, could find no sign of Katrina anywhere. After calling home to ensure Katrina hadn't drunk to much, and been given a lift there by a "friend." Not really knowing what to do, we decided we disable the car -- the pub was not in an area that sensible people leave nice cars parked in all night, to many little-shit Twockers' about around there -- then my colleague and I set out to search for Katrina.

I'm not at all sure if you could call it "by lucky chance" or not? But we didn't have to drive all that far before we found her. Two miles along the road we came across a couple of police officers who were in the process of breathalysing a car driver. Net result = the guy was arrested for driving with excess alcohol in his blood and I was arrested for assault.

A very drunk Katrina had been sitting in the front passenger seat of the guy's car - her clothes in somewhat disarray -- when we'd pulled up.

At the nick, I was given a police caution and promptly released by a very sympathetic desk sergeant. He did further caution me not to do anything stupid when I got home and saw my wife again. I pointed out to him that, had I been that sort of person... well, Katrina, on seeing me get out of my friends car had hastily got out of the guys passion wagon. I'd walked right passed her without raising a hand to her to tackle a guy, hiding by that point, behind two rather large police officers. Drunk he might have been, but he wasn't so drunk that he couldn't recognise me and work out what was coming his way.

There's one question that has never been answered about that evening though. Why those two officers stepped aside and let me land a few on the bugger, before they restrained me, and then claimed that they hadn't actually seen who had landed the first blow? Come to think of it, as my memory of the incident goes, I'm pretty sure that the guy didn't retaliate at all. Well he didn't land anything that I actually felt anyway. Perhaps the bugger had laid the wife of someone those officers knew in the past?

Anyway my work colleague had followed the police van to the station and when I was released a short time later, he drove me back to my car. Which, after reconnecting the electrics I unplugged to disable it, I drove home. Oh, with the local beat officers car not far behind me. It appeared that the desk sergeant wasn't taking the chance that I might go back on my word.

Katrina was not home when I got there; I never saw her at the house again. I assume someone -- maybe even the police, they couldn't very well leave an intoxicated woman on the streets at that time of night -- had given her a lift to her parents house; where it eventually came to my knowledge she lived for the following few weeks.

When I arrived home from work the following evening, Katrina had quite definitely made at least one visit to the house. Just about anything of real value was missing, TV set... Ah shit, you can guess for yourself. You say it, and if it wasn't bolted down, then it was gone.

Of course both Katrina and my parents gave me the old, "Katrina made a silly mistake!" "She's devastated and extremely sorry for her foolish actions." "You really should give her another chance!" Speeches.

But from where I was standing, Katrina had made no mistake when she arranged for someone to strip the house of anything of value within hours of my getting proof that she'd been getting up to things that any wife shouldn't have been doing. There was no chance that I could see of a reconciliation working.

To get it over quickly, we did go for irreconcilable differences as grounds for our divorce. But only after my solicitor somehow forced Katrina to return most of the stuff she'd taken from the house. Not that it made much difference, because everything had to be sold-off to pay our debts anyway.

The bit that really bugged me, and I'll admit that maybe I brought it upon myself, by not being as vocal as I could have with everyone, about the reason for our divorce. But what guy wants to admit to the world that he'd suspected that his wife might have been hanging horns on him for months? Anyway, word on the street had it, that I was the villain of the piece. Somehow the story went around that I'd turned into a domineering husband, who wouldn't let her go out to work and treated Katrina like a chattel.

Unfortunately there ain't much that you can do about rumours. Of course you can tell your side of the tale, but by that time, the first rumour circulated has become fact.

-----

So that was the state of play that day a few years later when Katrina's old mate "Sadie the sadist" appeared in the "Pig and Whistle."

"Sadie who?" Ralf asked

"The Devil incarnate Ralf. A close friend of that bitch of an ex-wife of mine, and if she spots me, then she's sure to make a bleeding scene."

I had it figured that if the bitch spotted me, innocent or not, I was in for a real public ear bashing. Sadie did have a voice on her when she wanted to be heard.

"Oh shit!" Ralf replied.

"Why d'ya say that; what's she doing?" I asked.

I didn't look her way again; all I wanted was to be out of that damn pub; anywhere in the world providing Sadie wasn't around.

"Bad news mate, I get the feeling she's spotted you and she's heading this way. Mind it might be that she's fallen for my charms; she was giving me the eye the other night. I'll try to head her off at the pass!" Ralf said and then stepped around me.

I figured that Ralf's interpretation of "giving him the eye," was most likely that Sadie had looked in his general direction. From what I knew of Sadie, I figured she'd be able to spot a letch like Ralf, miles away, and... well, whether I liked the woman or not, she was a step above Ralf's sort.

"Hi beautiful. I was wondering when you'd come in again. Can I buy you a drink?" Ralf began ask.

But as I suspected, Ralf was throwing snowballs at the moon.

"Oh, give it a rest Ralf Parker; you always did think you were bloody Casanova, even when we were at school. Personally I always thought you were a bleeding creep. I'm here to see to Daryl." I heard Sadie's voice say from behind me.

"Mercedes Bishop, bloody hell! I knew your face was familiar from somewhere!" Ralf blurted out as I turned to find a smiling Sadie looking me right in the eye.

"Hi Daryl, long time no see; how're you been keeping?" Sadie asked.

"Fine, until a few seconds ago, when I heard your voice!" I replied.

"Oh my, that's not a nice way to greet an old friend." She said, disconcertingly still smiling.

"What do you want Sadie? In the circumstances, I can't think of anything we need to talk about?"

"Oh I can; but not here. Have you eaten tonight Daryl?" Sadie asked as casually as you like, and still bleeding-well smiling at me.

"No, not..." was as far as I got, before Sadie grabbed hold of my arm and said "Good! Romano's is just over the road, lets go eat?" and then she began dragging me towards the door.

"Romano's!" I repeated.

"Oh don't crap yourself, I'm paying!" Sadie grinned at me again.

"Okay Sadie, what's this all about? I asked once we'd got out into the street and could actually hear each other properly.

"Not yet Daryl, I need your stomach full. You always did get a little cranky when you were hungry!"

"How would you know that?" I asked

"Oh Christ Daryl, I knew everything about you back when... Well, I made it my business to know as much as I could about you."

"Why?" I asked, actually stopping in the middle of the road so that Sadie swung around and faced me.

"Christ. Do I really have to tell you?"

"Yeah you do! Just what the hell are you playing at Sadie?" I demanded.

She didn't reply in words, Sadie released her iron like grip on my arm and then took me completely by surprise by putting her arms around my neck, dragging our faces close and kissing me.

"Does that give you any clue?" She asked grinning at me after she broke the kiss.

"Kind of confuses me more than anything else, Sadie. I'm wondering what you and Katrina are cooking up and why?"

"Katrina!" Sadie repeated venomously and then laughing out loud. "What the hell has she got to do with anything anymore? The bitch has been out of my life since before you two were married and the cow has been out of your life long enough now for you to have got over her."

I can't say what expression I had on my face as I stared back at the still smiling Sadie. I didn't have chance to say anything either, because at that moment a bus driver honked his horn at us and suggested that we vacate the centre of the road in the most delightful colloquial English, usually only heard in the capital city.

Before I had recovered my composure Sadie had dragged me into Romano's and we were shown to a table.

"Sadie..."I began to say after the waiter - having seated us and handed us menu's - left

"Later, after we've eaten!" Sadie said holding her finger up to her lips, with another smile.

To be honest I had no idea what Sadie was playing at. But I'll admit that from the start I did have it figured that whatever she was up to, there had to be a devious plan behind it. As eventually was to prove correct; but it was not the sort of plan I was expecting.

Whatever, I figured that the best plan of action that I could use against her, was to play along, but be on my guard. I'd pretend that Sadie had me roped in, but I'd be ready to turn the tables on her when I had worked out what the two women's plan was.

The meal was great. Expensive, but then Romano's is one of the best restaurants around that area, and Sadie had said that she was paying! Over coffee she finally let me ask her what she wanted with me?

"In a word, you!" She replied with that stupid grin on her face again.

I was beginning to get tired of that grin, and the whole game actually.

"Sadie, you're up to something, I just know it. You always were hostile towards me, and I know you and Katrina have cooked up something nasty for me between you."

"Daryl, I was never hostile towards you. I disapproved of your relationship with the Kat! Yes, I'll admit that straight away. But I never had anything against you, quite the opposite actually. And Katrina... God, I haven't said two words to the bitch since... well, before you two got married!"

"I can't believe that!"

"Why not, I refused to attend the wedding didn't I?"

"But you were there, I saw you!"

"Yeah, I know I was. But I didn't have the nerve to do what I went there for!"

"Oh yeah, and what was that?" I asked, a little angrily I think.

"Well you know that point where the vicar asked, "Does anyone know any reason that these two people should not be joined in holy matrimony?" Or something like that anyway."

I didn't reply, I just sat there and stared back at Sadie.

"Well... Well what I wanted to do... say... Oh shit, look Katrina saw you as her meal ticket. She didn't love you. I don't think the bitch is capable of loving anyone. All she wanted was a guy with a lot of money in his pocket who she could wrap around her little finger!"

"I don't believe you!"

"About what? That I intended interrupting your wedding or that Katrina is a bitch?"

"I don't know... both I think!"

Oh Jesus, I always knew this was going to be difficult. Look before she went out with you, do you know who Kat was engaged to?"

"Yeah of course I do. You damn well made sure that I knew, John Fillmore!"

"But you don't know who John Fillmore is do you? You never recognised the name." Sadie asked

"No can't say that I did. Look, I don't come from the same neck of the woods as you and Katrina." I explained.

"His father owns Fillmore Industries. They got that big factory complex out near the bypass."

"Oh yeah, I never made the connection."

"So I gathered! Well Katrina did alright, way back when we were in school. She never did like the idea of going out to work, so she grabbed hold of poor John the first chance she got and held on tight."

"What happened?"

"Well Katrina was pushing John to marry her the moment they left school but John's father had other ideas and sent him off to university and... Well Kat had it figured that some other scheming bitch might latch onto John up there, Christ, he was a naïve dumbo. So she hedged her bets and went looking for another..."

Sadie suddenly stopped speaking, and her complexion turned a little pink.

"Don't say it, I will. Katrina went looking for another mug and turned up trumps when she found me!"

"Sorry Daryl, the truth hurts sometimes!"

"You can say that again Sadie. But if you thought she was conning me, and you disapproved so much. Why the hell didn't you say something to me at the time?"

"I wanted to, but I couldn't!"

"Why ever not?"

"Because to start with you'd never have believed me and... Well whatever happened you'd have held it against me."

"So, we hardly knew each other what difference would that have made."

"Maybe none to you, but I would have meant a lot to me."

"I can't understand why." I replied.

Sadie sat there and stared at me for a long time without saying anything and then after taking a sip of her coffee she smiled.

"Daryl, can you recall a skiing trip you went on with your school?"

"Yeah, I went on several."

"Well the one I'm talking about was to Montigenevre, in the French alps.

"Christ that was the only place they ever took us. We went there year after year, because it was cheap I think."

"Well anyway, one year St Catherine's school was there at the same time."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. There were a good few ding-dongs amongst the girls on that trip."

"Yeah well St Catherine's is a girls only school and your school party had all the decent looking boys in it. Well the English one anyway. A recipe for confrontation if ever I saw one!"

"That trip was fun though. Until I got grounded, and confined to the hostel in the evenings." I commented.

Although remembering privately that there had been a couple of the girls from my own school, who were sweet on me, and they had stayed in the hostel most evenings to keep me company. It really just meant that we couldn't drink alcohol, well not openly anyway. And well, the teachers were all supposedly prowling around the town during the evenings, keeping their eyes on what the rest of the group was getting up to. Kind-a left the three of us to... You can fill in the dots yourself.

"Well, do you remember one evening, when you stopped some of the girls from your school throwing snowballs at and taking the Mickey out of a St Catherine's girl one night. All her friends had run away and left her, after she'd slipped over trying to run with them and twisted her ankle. Anyway, after telling your school friends to back-off, you picked the girl up and carried her back to her hostel."

"Yeah well, kind-a. I'd been drinking a bit that night, but I can recall carrying some little girl over my shoulder, yeah. Mind you, it was a big mistake, I missed curfew that night by doing it and then I was caught climbing in through one the girls' dorm windows. Led to me getting confined to the hostel in the evenings because the teachers couldn't ignore the fact that I wasn't far off falling down drunk. Helping that little bird, dropped me right in the apple-cart."

"Well I'm not so little anymore Daryl. It wasn't a very lady-like way for me to get back to my school's hostel, but at least I got there safely; unfortunately I spent the rest of the trip laid up in my room with a swollen ankle, so I couldn't find you and thank you. But I've never forgotten what you did that night, or you either."

"I can't believe that it was you Sadie, that little girl was tiny and she had glasses on."

"Contact lenses, I was a late developer and I shot up like a rocket a year or so later. These things were still a pipe dream back in those days as well." Sadie said, with a wry smile, before glancing down at her more than ample breasts. "Anyway Daryl, what I'm trying to say is... And, I can understand that you might not believe me! But since that night, I've kind-a been infatuated with a guy who... pissed out of his brains or not, picked me and threw me over his shoulder like I was a sack of coal. Then carried me back to the hostel!"

Sadie went quiet for a few seconds then added. "I think that maybe I've been in love with him ever since; not that I really knew it!"

I sat there and stared back at Sadie, not really knowing what to make of her admission. Or, if I could believe it!

"Oh come on Sadie. Are you trying to kid me that you fell in love with a guy who you saw once way back when you were... what, fifteen?"

"I didn't see him once, Daryl. I'd watched him everyday, up on the ski slopes until that particular day, and I couldn't believe my luck when I realised that it was him, telling those girls to get lost. After that night, I spent the rest of the trip laid up in my bed daydreaming about him. I've dreamt about that trip, and you, ever since!"

"I'm having trouble believing that..." I began to say, but Sadie was still speaking.

"And what's more, lately I haven't been able to get you out of my mind at all!"

"Why lately?" I asked, "What's happened to make you suddenly come looking for me after all these years? I assume that's what you were doing in the Pig and Whistle this evening, looking for me."

"Yes I was, I've been looking for you all over the place for the last few weeks. No one seems to know where you're living nowadays."

"After... Well, I thought a change of scenery, would make a difference. Changed my job as well. Kinda thought I'd make a new start in life."

"Oh, seems you changed your circle of friends as well; unless they are trying to protect you from your past? They all told me that they had no idea where you were nowadays."

"They weren't lying Sadie, I moved right out of the district. But lately I've been thinking that was a mistake. You can't run away from your past, no matter how far you go."