The Message

The sky to the north-east was purple. Brian peered through the
windscreen as he edged towards the roundabout. "Here comes the
snow."
He braked abruptly, not quite touching the bumper of the Audi in front
of him. He offered a swift, silent prayer that the van on his tail had
reactions and brakes to match his. It did.
Again he cocked his eye at the sky. Three o'clock Friday afternoon,
school run, the first of the flexi-time workers, the lowering purple
sky, "The weekend starts here."
The Audi edged forward. He followed. Only two cars more and he would
enter the roundabout.
He pulled on to his drive twenty-five minutes later. The first flurries
of snow were already spotting the windscreen. He picked up the three
files he had brought home. He intended to work on these in peace this
afternoon and evening to leave the rest of the weekend free. He and his
partner, Carol, had planned to spend Saturday walking on the nearby
moors. The forecast snow had seemed unlikely. He disconnected his
mobile phone and put it into his jacket pocket.
"Hi! Good day?" He called to Carol as he closed the front door.
"I should have gone to work after all," she replied. "Do you want a cup
of tea?" Without waiting for a reply she put the kettle on.
They waited in silence while the kettle came to the boil. Carol
prepared the tea, Brian carried the two mugs into the sitting
room.
Laura settled into an armchair. "I didn't get to the outdoor shop for
the new boots I wanted. Still, looking at the weather that's not going
to matter now. In fact I didn't get any shopping done. It took longer
than I expected to get to grips with that spare room and there's still
heaps to do. I just don't know what to do with half the stuff in there.
I have managed to sort out the bed and the dressing table. At least
Laura will have somewhere to sleep and to put on her make-up. She does
wear make-up I suppose."
Laura was Brian's daughter. Brian had left her mother to live with
Carol six weeks after Laura had gone up to university, the year before.
Laura was to visit them for the first time the following weekend. Carol
had never met Laura and she was anxious about everything to do with the
visit. Especially she was anxious that Laura should have a room in the
house that she could regard as her own.
"Never mind," Brian replied. "The snow is going to put paid to our
plans to get away tomorrow. Let's get the room sorted out tomorrow
morning. If we make an early start then surely we can be done by
lunchtime? Then after lunch we can go to the outdoors shop to get the
boots. If the weather is too bad to do that then you can continue to
educate me to the joys of the classic musical with one of your
videos."
At ten past eight the telephone rang. Carol answered. It was Laura.
Carol passed the handset to Brian. "Hello there! Taken your nose out of
the books to touch base with dear ol' dad then. How's it going?"
"Oh! Its OK. You know. Sometimes it's hard to see why you're here at
all and at others you can't see how anyone makes sense of this rubbish
and eventually gets a degree." They laughed together.
"Anyway," Laura continued, "I wondered if you'd heard from mum."
"Should I have?" Brian asked, guardedly. "Is something wrong?"
"I don't know", Laura paused. "She's coming to see me this weekend. I
don't know if you know that. She'll be driving down tomorrow but I
don't know if she plans to stay until Sunday. The thing is ... ." She
hesitated. "Well, the thing is this. I've got an offer of a trip with
some people on Sunday and I'd like to go but if mum's intending to stay
then I can't go. I don't want to disappoint her. I don't want to ring
her to ask because then she might change her plans to fit round me. I
wondered if you knew her plans."
"Well no I don't." Brian was irritated. Surely his daughter must see
that the old life in which her mother and father orbited around her
like planets around the sun was now over. "I had no idea your mother
was visiting you so I certainly don't know her plans for the visit.
Shouldn't you have sorted that out by now?"
"I thought we had and that I would confirm it last week when I called
her but I didn't call her because I was out with some people. Now that
I've got this other invitation I realise I don't know the final
arrangement with mum. I don't want to upset her."
Was he being too sensitive or was there an implied "Not like some
people." "No. I see that, love. I don't really know what you should do.
I think you will have to call to see what your mum's expecting. You're
right. She'll be very upset if her plan is to spend Sunday with you and
you tell her you have other plans."
"By the way, what are your plans for next week? You remember you're
supposed to be coming here."
"Best to change the subject," he thought. "And a good idea to nail her
down on the arrangements. She probably won't think twice about
upsetting Carol."
"We were expecting you would arrive Friday evening and stay until
Monday morning. I thought you would probably get in between five and
six and I could pick you up at the station from the office. Call the
office just before you get to the station and I'll be over to meet the
train. Then on Monday I can drop you off at the station on my way to
work. What do you think?"
She hesitated. "I'm not sure I can stay till Monday. I may need to be
back Monday morning so I'd need to leave at lunchtime Sunday. You know
what the trains are like on Sunday. I couldn't leave later and expect
to get back here at a reasonable time."
"Oh well," he thought, "Nail her down to that at least."
"That's a shame but it can't be helped, love. I'll get you to the train
at Sunday lunchtime then." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Carol
pout her disappointment with this disruption of her ideas for the
weekend. "Anyway, call me just before you arrive on Friday. Soon as you
can between five and six. No later though. I'll have to leave the
building at six and I don't want to be sitting about in the car park at
the station any longer than I have to."
"OK, daddy"
"Is that it then, Laura?"
"Yes, I'll see you Friday."
"Bye then, love. Call your mum, won't you."
"Bye dad. Love you."
He hung up the telephone. He passed on the gist of the conversation to
Carol. She was disappointed Laura would now stay only two nights. "I'm
looking forward to getting to know her. I need to. She is a big part of
your life. She's going to go on being a big part of your life. And I
know nothing about her really. I want her to feel that she has a family
here. It all takes time and I wish she would give it to us."
"Don't worry about it," he tried to reassure her. "She might well
change her mind again during the week, even during the weekend. She's
keeping her options open. Remember when she was home with her mum at
Christmas and I had to keep changing my arrangements to see her because
she must go off to see this cousin or that school friend who would only
be around at some particular time or day. She was the same to her
mother. It'll be fine."
Watching the evening news Brian wondered if he was imagining that the
weather forecaster was wearing a smug grin of triumph. The forecast
snow now covered everywhere but the extreme south-west. A glance
through the window confirmed that it was set in for some time. Severe
weather warnings had been issued for all regions.
When Brian and Carol rose the next day the snow was not falling. The
colour of the sky to the north-east showed that this was a temporary
state of affairs. Over breakfast they enjoyed the peace of the scene
from the dining room window. The garden lay under a blanket of snow. To
the south the distant hills on the edge of the moors stood out white
against a blue sky. Half an hour later it was hard to see across the
street for the grey light and the whirling snow flakes.
Breakfast over they went up to deal with the spare room. The phone
rang. Carol ran to their bedroom to answer it and put the handset down
again after announcing the number. "The line went dead," she told
Brian.
Carol had covered the floor of the spare room with neat piles of
papers, magazines and books. When they decided to live together they
bought this house and each moved from their previous home. Carol had
brought a lot of furniture from the bungalow in which she had lived
alone for six years. Brian had brought only a desk and an office chair,
both of which were in the spare room. The other furniture in the room
was Carol's old single bed and a dressing table. Since they moved in,
the room had been the dumping ground for papers waiting to be sorted
out. That particularly meant Brian's papers, carloads of documents and
correspondence, professional magazines, textbooks, that he had spent
weeks fetching as and when he was allowed access to collect them.
They set some rules about what to store, what could be put for
recycling, what must be shredded. They set to work. The phone rang.
Again Carol went to answer it . Again the connection was cut when she
announced the number. The fifth time Carol said, "Is this someone
trying to get you Brian and hanging up when I answer?"
"I'm sure I can't think who," he replied. She dialled 1571. "Number
withheld." They went back to their sorting, bagging, storing and
shredding.
At mid-morning, over a cup of coffee, they listened for weather updates
on local radio. "I don't think we'll be going out for those boots this
weekend. Afternoon with the video." Brian said, as the radio warned,
"Don't drive unless your journey is really necessary."
As the went back up to the spare room the the phone rang again. Brian
answered it. Carol waited expectantly at the door.
"Congratulations, your phone number has been selected ... ." He
replaced the handset. "I don't know what I won but I know I don't need
one," he grinned at Carol.
After lunch they sat to watch a musical from Carol's collection. At
two-thirty the phone rang. Brian answered.
"Dad, it's Laura. Do you know what mum is doing today?"
"We had this conversation last night, Laura. You told me that she was
coming to see you. I told you I didn't know that so I didn't know any
more about the arrangements. Remember?
"Sorry," she answered. "It's just that I couldn't get an answer when I
rang last night and I can't get an answer now. She hasn't arrived
here."
"I expect she's out at her friend Alice's. I shouldn't think either of
them wants to be by themselves in this weather."
"Oh, is the weather bad? Oh, yes, I see what you mean. I haven't been
up long and I hadn't really looked out until now. I see why she hasn't
arrived."
"Well try her again later. If that's all then I'll have to go." He
paused. She said nothing. "Bye then. Take care."
"Bye then dad. Love you."
They resumed watching the video. "Is that your mobile or is it the
film?" Carol asked at one point. "Probably the film," Brian replied.
"Not to worry. I'll check the mobile when the film ends."
At the end of the film he set the tape to rewind, turned on the
afternoon news and went to pick up the mobile phone from his
jacket.
As he returned to the room he heard the news-reader, "... and the body
of a woman was recovered from the car later this afternoon. It is
believed that the driver misjudged the bend and drove off the road and
into the woodland early this morning. Police were alerted at lunchtime
by a bus driver who was making a return journey when he noticed damage
to the trees that had not been there on his outward journey and saw the
car on its side several yards inside the forest. The woman has not yet
been named."
As he listened he thumbed through the menu. Two missed calls, both
before lunch, both from a mobile number that he did not recognise. One
voice message. He selected it. He heard a weak voice.
"Brian. This is Claire. I tried to call the house but ... but she
answered. I couldn't talk to her. I'm going to see Laura for the
weekend. I'm calling you on the emergency phone you got for the Micra.
I always said it was a waste of money. What did I know? I've come off
the road. Brian I'm no good at living without you. I don't think that
will matter now. I can't get out of the car. It's on its side. I think
I've been unconscious. I think my leg is broken. I don't think they can
see me from the road. It's very cold. I'm sorry Brian. I love you. I
love Laura ... ."
The message ended.