"Time and Time Again" drabbles by Neville Hunt
Helen
Time and Time Again #46
“Your money? And what do you think Jenny’s going to think about that then? Giving away what’s now HER money to some woman you’ve been shagging behind her back, eh? I’ve already told you, Jenny and me are very close these days.... and I’m not about to help you rob her, mate! No bloody way!”
”You don’t have to... and nobody’s robbing anyone. Jenny should be fine... she must have a decent payout from my life insurance by now! I’ve got other money tucked away. I just need you to help me free it up, For Helen.”
“To Helen back!”
No!
Time and Time Again #45
”Well that’s a fair question, but one I thought you’d know the answer to, mate! You’re the most impractical person I know! And from your recent record I wouldn’t want you anywhere near her! It’s financial help she needs.”
“Now hang on a minute! If you think I’m about to cough up a stack of cash for some woman I’ve never met, who’s driven a wedge between you and Jenny, then you’re very much mistaken. The answer’s no!”
”Why don’t you put your brain in gear before you open your gob, mate! I want you to give her MY money!”
Help
Time and Time Again #44
I ignored his insult. I wondered what kind of logic allowed him to believe that me being a platonic support for his widow for two whole years after he was (supposedly) dead and buried, constituted anything like a similar betrayal to him screwing his client. So I simply asked, in measured tone.
“And does your former client know you’re still alive... apparently?”
”No... but I think she might need my help... which is why I’m telling you this, and how you can help me help her.”
“Are we talking practical or financial help?” I asked, unable to hide my suspicion.
Client Service
Time and Time Again #43
“Aaaah!” I got it.... or so I thought. “Go on... do I know her?”
”No, you don’t... and that’s the way it’s going to stay! But anyway, let’s say she is... was... a colleague... or in fact a client of mine.”
My mouth and ‘zip’ didn’t go well together, so yet again I couldn’t resist a sarky interruption.
“And you simply had to ‘service’ her?” Saying it made me wonder what it was I’d liked about Aidan. There was a side to him that wasn’t nice at all!
”And of course you really are one to talk, you bloody snake!”
‘Strains’
Time and Time Again #42
“A little secret! A bloody big secret!” I simply couldn’t stop myself interrupting. Little secret... who was he kidding?
”Have it your way, pillock, a secret beyond the secret! And if you zip your mouth for a moment I will tell you! You say you knew that Jenny and I were having some marriage... ‘strains’... let’s call them.”
I nodded... goodness’s knows why because he couldn’t see me, which gave me another idea, but I didn’t want to break his flow right then. So maybe I’d leave that for later.
”Well... whilst ashamed to admit it, I’d met someone else.”
Secret
Time and Time Again #41
”I was shocked and hurt by the fact and the speed with which you had moved in on my wife.”
Aidan had at last started to respond. Without intending to do so, I had allowed him thinking time. His response was rather formal, as he prefaced what I imagined would be his request. It was the first time since speaking to him that his words seemed stilted and almost rehearsed.
”Under the circumstances though, you might be able to help me. And it should even be easier if you’re spending time with Jenny. You see, I had a little secret...”
That favour?
Time and Time Again #40
“That favour, Aidan? Do you want to tell me what it might be?”
Silence from Aidan. It was as if he was busy computing his next move. The conversation hadn’t at all gone the way I’d hoped and expected. I thought I would be finding out exactly how he remained alive, dodging his own funeral, and, importantly, where he was now and how and why he’d got there. But I guess that a conversation under these most unusual circumstances was bound to be rather haphazard. I still wasn’t totally convinced that it was the real Aidan I was talking to.
Advantage
Time and Time Again #39
This was the first time I had got a meaningful reaction from Aidan. I’d got him really riled and that suddenly put me in the driving seat. I was no pushover after all. With my friend gone, or so I’d thought, I had played the advantage rule and it had paid off too!
But I’d not been taking advantage of Jenny. I had always had an eye for her and her grounded, sensible approach to life. And her approach to life after Aidan was sensible too. Life must go on. I had grown to love her... and it seemed mutual.
Intimation
Time and Time Again #38
“OK, Aidan... want more proof?”
No response.
“How about another of your little ideas to spice things up then? I could never really understand the practice of piercing at all, but certainly not in such an incredibly sensitive place as right there! She said it had hurt, but she’s too embarrassed to have it taken out.”
”You bastard Don! How could you? I’m dead five minutes and you’re at it with my wife! Some friend you were!”
“Well you just said you’d give me your blessing. Thanks, mate I feel blessed. Now what was that favour you wanted in return?”
Ping!
Time and Time Again #37
”Hardly convincing, Don. You’ll have to try better than that! Jenny might easily have let that slip; she was rather proud of those butterflies to tell the truth! Although she only had them done because I’d suggested it. She would never let anyone see them except me!”
“Really, mate? Are you so certain? Hang on while I ping something over to you.”
I quickly searched my picture library for a photo of Jenny lying on her chaise longue. It was a back view, with nothing particularly naughty visible except her bare buttocks, complete with butterflies. Very tasteful. ‘PING!’
”Proves nothing!”
Click-Click!
Time and Time Again #36
“I know you’re a jealous git, but you’re also far too trusting, mate! Jenny and I just clicked... about a year after you’d gone. I’m still working on the boys, they’re suspicious of me, but I’ll get there in time.”
”What utter crap, Don, utter crap! Catholic convent girls like Jenny wouldn’t do that, and neither did I think that you would! And what’s happened to your Chrissie, eh?”
“ Chrissie and me is history. These things happen.”
”Still don’t believe you, mate!”
“Jenny has a tattoo of a butterfly on each bum cheek! One red; one blue. Convince you?”
Toolbox
Time and Time Again #35
”What utter bollocks, Don! Jenny’s not like that... and neither are you!”
In both respects, Aidan, or whoever he was, was wrong. After a respectful and respectable year following Aidan’s funeral, with me behaving like a perfect gentleman and giving practical and emotional help to Jenny and her boys along the way, and given that my own relationship had reached its natural end, we’d started dating and Cupid did the rest. I wouldn’t have mentioned this to Aidan, if it was Aidan, knowing his jealousy, but now it became one of my tools to establish exactly who this person was!
Jenny
Time and Time Again #34
Jenny was very pretty, if a bit prissy. Aidan had been very possessive of her, showing his underlying jealous streak. I thought that if anything would provoke him, me suggesting making a move on Jenny might be it. I was surprised, therefore, when he replied to my taunt.
”She always was a bit tasty, wasn’t she? Well if you help me out, Don, you’ll have my blessing!”
Whaaat? There was no way this could be Aidan! Even if they’d been having difficulties. He would have exploded!
“Well thanks Aidan! That’s a relief! Particularly as we’ve been dating for two years!”
Making a move
Time and Time Again #33
My strategy had worked. Aidan reacted.
”Now that sounds like a terrific idea... if only...!”
“What do you mean ‘if only’? Jenny is lovely and your kids are a delight! How could you even think...?”
”You didn’t have to live with them, did you!” Aidan was in defensive mode! At last, a proper reaction!
I was being deliberately provocative. I knew that Jenny and Aidan had been going through a rough patch before he had ‘died’ and that their two boys were unruly little shits.
“Well if you’re not bothered... maybe I’ll give her a try. Always really fancied Jenny!”
Nothing but...
Time and Time Again #32
“Oh it wouldn’t help. How wouldn’t it help I wonder...” Aidan was letting me run on, without trying to put me straight on anything, so I guessed he was waiting to steer me... or let me guess something that might be convenient for him to agree to... without having to give me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
“I’m guessing that your affections are now elsewhere. And somehow you have engineered to fake your ‘death’ in order to start afresh with a younger model!” I was making it up as I went along. Would he react?
Trouble and strife
Time and Time Again #31
“OK... because so much of this conversation is my guesswork, let me guess! The favour you want of me is to let Jenny know, gently, that you’re still alive and kidnapped... and then to get her to call your mobile?”
”Well no... not exactly...”
“Not exactly?... or more like not at all! Getting information or any kind of explanation out of you seems pretty impossible. You don’t want to speak to your wife, or more accurately your widow... and presumably your kids either. So the really big question, among loads of others is why the hell not?”
”It wouldn’t help!”
Correct!
Time and Time Again #30
Strange captivity it might seem, but it did get me thinking... If all this absurdity had any connection with reality, then I could start to make some sense of the situation.
“So Aidan, mate,” I decided to test my thinking. “You said earlier that Jenny and the kids don’t know you’re alive?”
”Correct!”
“And I’m assuming your only means of contacting anyone is by them happening to ring your phone?”
”Correct!”
“And Jenny would have no reason, or inclination, to call you?”
”Correct!”
“So I’m the only one daft enough to call you?”
”Correct!”
“And you want my help?”
”Correct!”
Captive audience
Time and Time Again #29
Aidan’s phone rang again. No immediate reply, but after a few rings, a click and Aidan’s voice once more with a single question:
”Don?”
He didn’t get any further with his opening, because I immediately launched at him.
“Well thanks a bunch for ringing me back mate! Worried about your phone bill? You always were a tight-fisted bastard! Or don’t you want to speak to me? Is that it?”
”Really Sorry Don, truly I am, mate! The thing is, I can’t make outgoing calls... I can only receive them!”
“Sounds like a bloody strange kind of captivity to me!”
Redial
Time and Time Again #28
After 15 minutes of no return call from Aidan, I started to rethink this absurd situation and the absolute barminess of me even half-believing that Aidan was reincarnated and was locked away in a dingy prison somewhere, alive and with a live mobile phone. I shook my head, for the benefit of nobody but myself and decided I would get on with what I’d been doing... except that I wouldn’t, because it was what I’d been doing that had got me into this mess in the first place!
But first I would try his phone one more time!
Redial.
No return
Time and Time Again #27
I hadn’t noticed that my mobile’s battery was down to 1% and about to cut out. I needed it on charge quickly.
“Gotta go, battery’s almost dead. Call me back in 5 mi......”
It was dead. Just like that. I connected to charger and waited for it to indicate 1% again. Then I waited for Aidan’s return call. And I waited, and I waited, and I waited.
I used this time to run though in my head everything that had transpired... and particularly what his cryptic ‘getting much warmer’ in relation to his mobile might mean.
Still no return call.
