Lonie47

Audrey’s feet found the slippers at the side of her bed easier than she found sleep. She went into check on her son a few times. He looked like a little cherub and was clutching his favourite teddy-weddy. She stroked his soft hair and climbed into bed beside him. His body found the curve of her breast and nestled into the pillow of her body. A fox barked like it had whooping cough in one of the back gardens close by. Audrey listened for the longest time before her eyes closed. It was still dark and cold when she got up and went through to her own room. She sat on the edge of the bed. The soft sounds of her mother moving about in her room along the hall told her it was time to get up. There would be a nappy to be changed and she’d need to have a quick bath before she left. There was a whole list of things to do, but she could only concentrate on one. She’d need to go and see Lonie.

Lonie was still lying in bed when he heard someone at the door. His head felt as if a jackhammer was working its way underneath his right eye and drilling through the mainline of his nerve endings. If he’d slept at all it must have been a dream. But he still wasn’t ready to give in and get up. He mummified his ears with his blanket. Whoever was at the front door –and he’d a fair idea it would be the old buddie from downstairs - could let him have the kind of long lie his body felt entitled to. No matter which way he turned in bed the rapping of the letterbox went on and on like toothache. He coughed as he pushed up from the womb of the mattress and blankets. Pain shot through his ribs and made him wince and shuffle, like a seventy-year-old, as he made his way to the front door.

‘I thought you’d never answer.’ Audrey stood with her back against the bannister waiting to be invited in, but he held the door shut with only his head visible as he peered at her.

Lonie hummed and hawed. He’d just got out of bed in his Y-fronts and socks and badly needed to pee so he’d a bit of a semi-hardon. She was all done up in an outfit that matched her black hair: coat, blouse, skirt and shoes as if she were a businesswoman, or dressed for someone’s funeral. Most likely his, but the whiff of exotic perfume and outline of a white bra didn’t make his hard-on wither at the vine as it should. ‘Whit you daeing here? Whit time’s it?’ He stood behind the door and opened it a crack more.

Audrey ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I need to talk to you.’ There was something in his voice that concerned her. She’d been so wrapped up in her own concerns that no thought had been given to his. Maybe he was hurt worse than she’d first thought. She sprung forward. The front door jerked open and he stood behind it, using it as a shield.

‘You go in there and Ah’ll be through in a minute.’ He nodded towards the living room.

Audrey tracked along the linoleum behind him. He winced as he walked, but his Y-fronts poked out at the front as if he’d been burgling bananas, and stuffed one into his knickers, which made her smile. She hung her coat on the kitchen door, her nipples nipping at her bra cup, so that she had to roll her shoulders to get a little relief. She sat on the unmade bed, with her bag on her lap. He went about the mundane tasks of filling the kettle at the sink, making tea and manoeuvring his body between sink and units to hide his hard-on.

Not looking at Audrey until the kettle had boiled and his hard-on had turned to mush in his pants was Lonie’s strategy, but he’d need to make a run for it at some point to go to the toilet on the landing. Both events occurred at the same time. ‘You make the tea.’ He plonked the tea caddy down on the work surface. The lid fell off. ‘And Ah’ll just nip up to the toilet.’ He tried to sound perfectly natural, but he winced with every step. She stood up quickly to help him and put her arm around his waist, pulling him in close to support him, but stopped his progress dead. The perfumed smell of her was enough to make his penis jump into life.

‘I’m sorry,’ Audrey’s hand squeezed the bare flesh of his hip. Then she let go of him, but standing close in case he fell.

‘Ah’m sorry too.’

She looked at the shadow of his unshaven face. He did look more downcast than usual, but that was understandable, with the pain he was in. ‘What are you sorry for?’

Lonie pressed his lips together. ‘For this.’ His eyes dropped towards his semi-hard-on, but even as he spoke it shrivelled in their eyes.

‘I never even noticed.’ Audrey smiled and skelped him playfully on the bum, making a joke out of it.

‘Ah well.’ Lonie winced as he shrugged. ‘There’s two things Ah shouldnae look at, cause both of them burn my eyes. You and the sun.’

‘You mushy liar.’ She shoved him, and made him wince, her eyes as bright as the moon.

Audrey’s kiss caught him off-guard. It was sore on his neck, but a nice sore on his lips. He leaned into her and her softness. They fell onto the bed. He groaned, but didn’t stop kissing her, his pants working themselves lose and his hands roaming up and over the nape of her neck. They made love slowly and gently, which was the only way Lonie could manage it. He left her napping in his bed as he made his way up the stairs to use the communal toilet. The front door was left on the latch. He sneaked back into the kitchen and let his coat drop to the floor. She opened her eyes like a startled deer and sat up in bed.

‘What time is it?’ Audrey looked around for a clock and then for her clothes, which were scattered around the bed.

‘Time enough.’ Lonie sat on the bed, her bare breasts enough to make his pecker rise.

Audrey hooked her bra, which was near the twin pillows that acted as a bolster, and holstered her breasts. She leaned down, her fingers feeling blind for her pants under the blankets. Her skirt and blouse were creased but still looked relatively clean when she put them on. There was a hairbrush in her bag, but she ran her fingers through her hair in lieu of its use. His hand drifted up stroking her waist as she dressed, but he made no move to stop her, just sat and watched and said ‘is that you then?’ when she was fully dressed. She leaned down and his lips puckered for a kiss, but she kissed his forehead.

Lonie’s hand flitted about under his bed looking for his fags and matches. Audrey’s startled squawk startled him and caught him bent over trying to see under the bed and mid-groan with the effort.

Audrey held her hand up to her mouth, like a ham actor. ‘I don’t believe it. I came all the way here to ask you for something and I nearly left without it.’

‘Ah didnae think Ah was that bad.’ Lonie found his cigarette packet and matches and brought them up into the light. ‘And Ah’m quite willin to give it another go if you will.’ He nodded down towards his Y-fronts and laughed through his nose. ‘Whit else were you wantin’, but a stud like myself?’

‘Oh, no, I wasn’t wanting that.’ Audrey tousled his hair. ‘But it was very nice.’ She favoured him with a smile. ‘I never had time to tell you before you jumped on me…’

Lonie cut in. ‘Hey. Hey. A bit of order, about who jumped who is due here.’

Audrey was nonplussed and continued, ‘you know those photos we took and you sent to get processed…’

‘…The photos Ah took and Ah took to get processed?’

‘…well I went with Russell to take some more of that creepy tree.’ Audrey shivered and flung her arms around herself as if she was cold.

Lonie scratched a match and lit a fag. ‘What creepy trees?’ He squinted up at her and his forehead bent his face into a frown.

‘The creepy tree.’ Audrey emphasised tree singular and not plural. ‘With all those black stones round it.’ Her hands rather than her voice were doing most of the explaining as she waved them about.

Lonie cupped his hand round his fag as if protecting it. ‘What black stones?’ His mouth hung open; a pall of smoke hung between them.

‘The black stones that you took photos of.’ Audrey’s voice rose. ‘And the tree with the belt.’ She hit a high note of palpable indignation. ‘The oak. The hanging tree.’

Lonie took a long draw on his Woodbine and let the smoke drift out slowly. He spoke carefully, watching her face. ‘Ah took some photos of a belt and then Ah fell out of a tree, but it was a silver birch.’

‘Not that one.’ Audrey’s hands were clasped together in front of her pleading for him to understand and stop messing about. ‘The other tree.’ He shifted slightly, but looked the same. ‘Remember I helped you along and we came to a big oak tree with a belt hanging down.’

‘Whit kinda belt?’

‘A leather belt!’ Audrey looked at him with disbelief. ‘You took so many photos that the film in the camera ran out.’

Lonie looked at his hands. He didn’t know what to say. ‘I don’t remember.’ He glanced at her and he could see his remark had destroyed her. ‘Maybe Ah was concussed?’ It was a throwaway remark, to help build a bridge between them.

Audrey kneeled down and took his hands in hers. She spoke gently to him as she would have to a child caught stealing sweets from the cupboard. ‘You really don’t remember?’

‘No.’ He admitted.

Audrey squeezed his hand to let him know it would be ok. She started pacing the few steps between bed, sink and window. ‘You must have been concussed then. That would explain it.’ She turned back towards him. ‘You really don’t remember? The big black tree. The uneasy silence. No birds and animals. Just those stones.’

‘No.’ Lonie stubbed out his fag in the ashtray at his feet.

Audrey took a deep breath. ‘Then you must have been concussed.’ She decided for both of them. In a more business like tone she asked. ‘Where’s the docket for the photos? We can get them processed today and that will show you what I’m talking about.’ He seemed unconvinced.

‘The ticket’s in there.’ Lonie pointed to the living room. ‘On the mantle-piece, under the wally-dog.’

‘Right.’ Audrey was all business now. ‘I’ll get that done today.’ But in a little girl’s voice she asked him for advice. ‘What will I say to Mr MacDonald about being late?’

Lonie raised an eyebrow. ‘Just tell the fatman you were fucking me. That’s the kind of things he likes to know.’