Is For Life: Chapter Fifteen: It's Over.

Chapter Fifteen

Sammy walked in and went straight into the lounge to see Carthenage. ‘Shelly May,’ he said over his shoulder without a word of greeting or so much as a look at his mother, ‘Carthenage needs his walk now.’

‘Hello darling, what are you doing home?’

‘Shelly May. Carthenage needs his walk now.’

‘He’s just been out Sammy, Joan and I took him a little while ago.’ She’d been in the kitchen peeling potatoes and had turned in alarm at the sound of the front door opening. She was already halfway through the kitchen when John came in. She turned to him, her voice rising in panic. ‘What’s wrong? Is he all right? Why is he home so early? You said you wouldn’t be back until later?’

‘Well if you’ll let me get a word in edgeways, yes, everything’s fine, we just had a bit of a problem that’s all. Sammy—’

‘Shelly May, Marian Anderson Home-wrecker hit me. Shelly May, Carthenage needs his walk now, Shelly May.’

‘She hit him?’ Shelly screamed this into John’s face. ‘She fucking hit him?’

‘Oops Shelly May, bad word Shelly May. Cathenage needs his walk now, Shelly May.’

‘Calm down. It was an accident. Let me tell you how it happened.’

‘Your bitch hit my son. Tell me John, how do you hit somebody by accident? I’ll be there in a minute sweetie.’

‘Carthenage needs his walk now, Shelly May.’

‘Just a minute Sammy,’ John’s voice was tense. ‘Take Carthenage into the garden, your mother and I need to talk.’ He turned back to Shelly but didn’t speak again until Sammy had taken the dog outside. ‘It wasn’t how you think. Sammy was agitated. He bit her.’

‘I don’t care if he took the end off her turned up fucking nose. How could you let her hit him?’

‘It all happened in a second. She didn’t mean it. She was really sorry. She was more upset by it than Sammy.’

‘I’ll be the judge of that. It’s me that’s going to have to deal with the fallout. I knew it was a bad idea letting you take him to meet your tart. I’m going to kill her, you do realise that, don’t you? I’m going to fucking kill her. Nobody touches my son.’ She had stormed into the hall, picked up her car keys, and was struggling into her coat. ‘What’s the address?’

John ran his hand through his hair. He looked tired. ‘What have we come to Shelly? How the hell did this happen? We’ve been together all these years and now, you don’t even know where I’m living. Isn’t that ironic? Sammy’s fine. Come and sit down and I’ll make you a cup of tea, we need to talk.’

‘What and let her get way with hitting him?’

‘Shelly, this isn’t about Marian. I’ve told you, she’s sorry. It won’t happen again.’

‘Damn right it wont, because Sammy’s not going anywhere near the bitch again. I’ll get a restraining order.’ She continued to rant but at the same time she took her coat off and hung it up. Preparing to go after Marian had only ever been a gesture.

They went into the kitchen; Shelly hadn’t stopped shouting and was still making threats. She looked out of the window to check on Sammy while John filled the kettle. He made tea and they sat together without any awkwardness between them, the way a couple who know everything there is to know about each other do. But there was a lot of animosity. After all, she hadn’t known everything, had she? She hadn’t known, for instance, that her husband was having an affair.

John talked Shelly through the events of the day.

‘And she let you get a train home? You know how Sammy hates crowds. How could she be so cruel?’

‘She had no option. I was still reeling from what she’d done. It was my choice. She tried to talk me out of it.’

‘And how did he cope?’

‘He was fine. There weren’t many people on the trains that we took to get home.’

‘How many trains?’

‘Three’

‘And you say he was fine?’

‘Mostly fine?’

‘Mostly fine? How did my fucking son react to being hit in the face by a mad woman and then getting dragged onto three trains?’

‘He was stressed, Shelly. There are you happy now? He was stressed and frightened and a fucking nightmare beginning to end. He nearly got us thrown off the last train with his screaming and carrying on, and basically, he didn’t have a good day. I fucked up big-time. But he’s home now, and you can wrap him up in cotton wool again so that he’ll never be able to cope with the outside world. He’s home, he’s safe and he is fine.’

‘You’re not taking him again.’

‘You can’t stop me seeing him.’

‘No, but I can make damned sure that he goes nowhere near that crazy bitch. I’ll get an injunction.’

‘A restraining order and an injunction, my we are down with the judicial system, aren’t we?’

‘Don’t mock me John. I’m calling the police. I’ll have her charged with G.B.H.’

‘I think you’ll find it’s the lesser charge of A.B.H, but who would that benefit, eh, certainly not Sammy? You’ve changed Shelly.’

‘And don’t you think that might have had something to do with my husband running off with a woman half his age. Excuse me for taking exception to that.’

‘We need to talk about Sammy. We have to find a way to make this work, for his sake, you, me and Marian.’

‘She is nothing to do with him.’

‘She’s involved Shelly, as much as you don’t want it that way, that’s how it is. She’s my partner, she’s having my—’

‘Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say it. I won’t have you rubbing my nose in it.’

John raised his hands in a placating gesture. ‘Okay, okay, but come and sit down. Let’s do this the right way. Whatever you might think, I love my son and I know you do too, so let’s sort this out properly. It’s not good for him to see us fighting all the time.’

‘No, it isn’t.’ She was quiet for a heartbeat. ‘You hurt me John.’

She’d changed the subject. She wasn’t talking about Sammy anymore. They’d never discussed his affair or the breakdown of their marriage since the night he had left. She’d never asked all of the questions that had been rolling round in her mind.

‘I know I did and I’m so sorry.’

‘Is she better than me?’

‘No, of course not. How could she be better than you?’ He tried for a joke carefully keeping his voice light and removing all traces of bitterness or recrimination. ‘You’re St Shelly, everybody knows that. I heard a rumour that they’re about to rename the town in your honour.’

‘In bed, John. Is she better than me in bed?’

He winced and didn’t immediately reply. She could imagine his brain scrambling, trying to structure the words that would cause the least fallout. Shelly could almost see the cogs turning and, in a different scenario, it would have been amusing.

‘She’s more…’

‘More?’ She slammed the single word at him like a slap, daring him to continue with that sentence.

‘Not, not more, definitely not more. Different. She’s like you were when you were young. She wants me, Shelly. She wants me the way you used to before Sammy…’

‘Before he what? Replaced you?’

‘Yes.’

Shelly was disgusted. She felt sick imagining Marian and John at it the way they used to be. They were good together. Sex was wild, life was adventurous, they lived it to the full and then, along came Sammy. She’d heard more than she wanted to hear but it had needed to be said.

John was right and she did need to put Sammy first, just as she always had and just as she had caused the breakdown of their marriage by doing. They calmed, they drank tea, they talked rationally and then John mentioned the baby and it all kicked off again. They argued some more and he left shortly afterwards. She listened to his car drive away and, with a sigh, she lifted Carthenage’s lead down from its peg. She’d already been for a long walk with Joan but the house felt stifling. It was too full of John—and Marian. She needed to get out. She needed to be with Sammy.

Back at his new home, John went into the bedroom where Marian was lying on the bed rubbing lotion into her stomach to prevent stretch marks. The massaging was good for the baby. The little one liked it and it was all part of the mother bonding experience. John wanted to bond with the baby, too. He didn’t want to have another child that he felt apart from. He’d always felt left out with Sammy. He was Shelly’s child and no matter how hard he’d tried, he felt that he was always on the outside looking in on their relationship. He felt as though he was the social retard. He had to learn from his mistakes and do better this time.

‘Here let me do that,’ he said, reaching for the bottle of oil.

Ignoring him, Marian covered her stomach and stood up. ‘How did it go? Did you tell her that I’m sorry?

He addressed the first question. ‘Bloody awful. She can be so unreasonable, sometimes. I need a drink, scotch?’

She shook her head. ‘John, we need to talk.’

Bloody hell, he thought, another hormonal woman wanting to take a bite out of me. He didn’t want to talk. He wanted to drink scotch over ice; he wanted to watch Formula One to wind down. He wanted to rub massage oil into his woman’s bloated belly and then he wanted to fuck her while his unborn child kicked through her onto his stomach. Then he wanted to sleep. What he didn’t want to do was listen to another temperamental woman screaming at him.

‘It’s been a long day, not now, eh?’

‘Yes, now.’

‘All right, but before you start having a go, you need to know that I went all out to defend you today and, after what you did, it wasn’t easy. Shelly was ready for coming here and ripping your head off. I had to stop her, so just think on that before you start whining. I’ve had a gutful of it today.’

‘This isn’t going to work, John. It’s over.’