Clear Visions 1

Whitby Bay - Spring 2010

The tide was coming in. The wind was cool and soft. Like a summer breeze. The kids were just walking home from school. Jenny knew she was lucky. Sitting on that balcony, looking out over the beach. She was happy. What more could she have asked for. She had always wanted to be in England. She had known she would go there for a holiday. However, it could have been said her holiday had run over, now she had been there for three years. It seemed she wasn’t going back. She was cool with that. Florida had never really been her type of place. She had been born there. Had wanted to see the world. The closest to the world she had got was Tampa. Not even another god damn state.
Then she had met her husband. The perfect man in all ways. Okay. She hadn’t wanted to move here like she did. Him leaving and her following to save his life. But she had moved here. All the same. She was with the man she loved and in the country she had always dreamed of. Not only that but they lived in the finest house, had the best view and ate in the finest diners.
She looked out onto the beach to see the children walking passed dressed in their uniforms. She looked at her stomach, some day her child would be doing that.
She heard the door slide open behind her. She looked to see her husband Derrick walk out and sit on the chair next to hers. He looked at her and smiled. He put his drink on the table and kissed her lips then leant back, slid his shades over his eyes and closed them.
She looked at him. His dark hair shining in the sun, his shirt a third unbuttoned so she could see his chest. She stared. Couldn’t help looking at him. Why did he wear Shades all the time? She wanted to look into his eyes. Blue, like the see in Florida. They drew her in. She loved to look into them. His mother had always said you could see what he was thinking when you looked into his eyes. Jenny knew she could.
Every time she looked into the she could see he loved her, to her that’s all that counted. She loved him. She put her hand onto her stomach and rubbed. She was happy with only the thought that if she didn’t have him she had the closest thing to him just inside of her.
He moved his hand slowly to take hers. She jumped as his hand touched hers, still on her stomach she felt his fingers run over her hand. She looked over at him to see him smiling. She turned her hand and took his resting it on the arm rest between them. She thought. What had she actually done to get him? She could recall anything. Just followed him here when he ran.
She rolled and used her other hand to take off his shades. He looked up at her and she paused.
He looked into her eyes as she gazed into his. He didn’t understand why she was so fascinated by him. He was just a normal guy with a bit of money made from talent he chose not to use. So he had the brain to get the job he had always wanted. His father had helped him to get that. He supplied the money.
He remembered being a child so well. He could remember living in Georgia. A small house just outside of Atlanta. Small house that could hardly fit his mother and father, never mind his siblings too. They had managed though. Living off nothing. He also remembered the day his dad came home smiling. He hadn’t understood really. He was 8 years old at the time. All he knew was that his mom and dad didn’t work and they had no money.
His dad had walked through the door smiling and holding a bag. A bag which had dollars in it. Hundreds of them. His mom had been so happy. They sold the house which added some. He remembered them buying a cat and cramming all their possessions and him and his brothers in the car. Then he was in Florida.
His life had never been the same since then. He had money, a large house. Lived like a prince, almost like the president of the United States. His dad had promised to help him in whatever he chose. He hadn’t let him down either. It was amazing. Now he was working for a record company. Earning loads and making thousands.
Still staring at Jenny he asked himself, would he change this life for anything else? No, He had all he wanted. New he was lucky just to have jenny. He had loved her since freshman year in high school. She had walked into the class and said she was in there. His face had lit up. He stared at her the same way he was doing now. Only that time she didn’t look back. She hadn’t looked at him till he was in 10th grade in fact.
What did any of that matter now? He was with her, as a lover. He hoped that would be permanent. He needed to tell her something though, didn’t know how she would react. A promotion. All sounded good until he had heard the last part, he had to return home, to America.
Jenny held him softly. She looked at him as his mouth opened. She knew he wanted to speak. She wasn’t going to stop him either.
‘I’ve been given a promotion.’
She smiled and went to kiss him when he put his finger over her lips and spoke again.
‘But it involves going back to America. Permanently.’
She paused and looked at him. This was good yes, but surely he wouldn’t accept, after he had nearly been killed. She hoped he had more sense than that. She couldn’t tell. It seemed as though he wanted to go back.
‘We cant, you said the baby could be born here.’
‘It can Jen, it can. We don’t have to go back till later in the year, perhaps next year.’
She sighed, knew she couldn’t deny him this. It was the one thing which he wanted to do. A promotion which would make them thousands of Dollars a year, if they were getting paid pounds then even more. She looked over at him and nodded. He smiled and looked onto the beach to watch the tide coming in.

He looked at his watch, 6pm. Jenny was asleep. He got up and walked into the house taking the glasses in with him. He put them on the side and went through the cupboards. He couldn’t choose what to cook. There were so many things they both liked, yet so little that he fancied eating.
He closed the cupboard and took out some knives and forks and began to set the table. Maybe by the time he had done that he would have decided what he wanted to eat.
Taking out the wine glasses from the cupboard he looked at them. Angels in the side. She had chosen them. He hadn’t like them at the time. More than not liking the design though he hadn’t liked the price. She had insisted though. So, he had bought them for her. Bought them because he loved her. Bought them cause he wanted the love of his life to have something special that she would never forget.
He took only two of them and put them on the table leaving the other four in the cupboard. He closed the cupboard door and took out some pasta. He fancied that. She liked it. Surely that would be good enough?
She woke up just as dinner was ready. She looked to see the tide was in. Glanced into the kitchen to see Derrick putting the plates onto the table. She re-closed her eyes as he came out to get her.
He shook her shoulder lightly. ‘Wake up baby’ he whispered in her ear.
She jumped and opened her eyes. He was smiling looked happy. She stood up slowly and stretched then followed him into the house and looked at the table. The table was set and food was on it. He had done all this for her? She felt herself blush.
He was taking a seat when she next looked out at him. She sat in the other. She began eating, the food was warm soft and well cooked. Why hadn’t he cooked before? He had always said he couldn’t cook. By tasting this though it was clear he was lying.
Derrick coughed gently at the other side of the table. He wanted her attention. They needed to discuss this promotion properly. He knew she wouldn’t be happy about it either way but the more it was discussed the better it would be for all of them.
She looked up knowing what he wanted. ‘Baby, if you wanna take the promotion take it. I just, I don’t want to loose all this, go back and loose you. Its all happened once before.’
He sighed. So she hadn’t forgotten. He had hoped she had forgotten seemed as though she never would.
‘Baby, I think we should take it. We need the money.’
‘Derrick, we don’t need the money, we’re rich enough don’t you think?’
He sighed. Money wasn’t going to be enough to tilt her towards supporting this promotion. He ha to find something else.
‘I’ve worked towards this since we were in high school. You know that. How long would I spend after school in that damn class room studying to get this? Now I’ve got it you don’t want me to go back for it. You know what we get don’t you?’
She shook her head. She had no clue. It wasn’t like her to read his letter, so she was hardly going to know what he would get out of this promotion. She had her ideas.
‘We get a recording studio on top of a office block with our name on and a big assed share in a record label.’
He was surprised to see it still wasn’t tilting her. He wanted this job, but he didn’t want to leave her to get it. It seemed as though that was what he would have to do.
‘Jenny, I want this job. I don’t want to be like my father, rich through luck. I don’t mind working for it, I don’t mind working hard, but by luck, its not an option. I’ve worked hard for this job, I’m not going to turn it down.’
‘I never expected you to did I?’
He thought, She hadn’t said turn it down, only told him she didn’t approve. It seemed she would go home if he wanted her to. He didn’t even want his kid to be born there. But he had promised he would let it be.
‘You know when we go back, we’ll get to see Ben.’
She looked up at him smiling. They had both missed Ben. His jokes which weren’t funny but people would still manage to laugh at. The conversations which they had which seemed to go on forever without even making sense. Most of all the memories him and Derrick had made in Gym class both watching the girls doing gym and tripping the teachers and fat kids up in football. She remembered every day, last lesson they would be taken to the principals office and she would see them both sitting talking about it and then they would leave her to walk home from school whilst their parents were called.
Ben had always been the number one guy to be with. The best friend either of the had asked for and the support which Derrick had needed through everything.
‘We’ll go back, give it a try, guess we can come back here if we don’t like it.’
‘Of course we can. Nothing has to be permanent.’
She smiled and held his hand over the table looking into his eyes. HE hadn’t needed to say nothing was permanent. She knew that already. She knew his weakness was being away from her. All she had to do was suggest moving back with or without him and he would come. He always did.
They finished dinner and headed off upstairs. Jenny looked at Derrick as he reached the top of the stairs and held the bedroom door open for her kissing her before she went in.
By the time they were going the baby had been born. In fact not only born but 6 months old. Derrick paced the things practically by himself. He didn’t mind too much. It gave him the chance to sort through what they wanted and didn’t. He didn’t want to take too much. It was costing enough the move back home anyway.
Their original plan had been to rent out the house. Though that had gone wrong and resulted in them having to sell it. Still they got a cushy £560,000 for it. That would be enough to buy a house back home. A relatively nice one as well.
he packed the glasses from the kitchen individually wrapping them in news paper before putting them into a bubble wrap lined box. Jenny had made such a fuss about getting them. There wasn’t a chance he was leaving them here even if they were the only things he took.
Jenny worked on the packing of the clothes. Putting them all into the cases and carried them downstairs. After packing they put it all into the car. Jenny strapped the baby into the car seat and got into the passenger seat. Derrick got in, started the engine and began to drive. First to the estate agent to drop off the keys the headed south to Heathrow airport. He planned it all out in his head, 5 hours to the airport with good traffic, 8 hour flight then switch over and another three hour flight then meet Marty at the airport and allow him to drive them home.
‘We have a long day ahead. 16 hours of travelling.’
He looked over when he got no reply to see Jenny sleeping in the passenger seat next to him. Some drive this was going to be. He had himself for company.
‘Why did I tell her we were moving? Why didn’t I just, pack our things wait till she was asleep, put her in the car and drive her to the airport and she’d be home before she knew it. Hell, she might even wake up in Florida and not even know the difference. ‘
He drove the roads were still quiet but he knew that was the time of day. Give it an hour and they would hit rush hour and that’s when it would get bad. Whilst he was driving he thought. Maybe if he put his foot down he wouldn’t be effected by rush hour because if he travelled at 120mph the whole time he might reach Heathrow before rush hour, else they wouldn’t have to worry about getting there because they would be dead.
It seemed like it had been hours all the time he had been thinking to himself. However he realised it had only been minutes when he realised he hadn’t even reached the outskirts of Whitby. He sank lower into his chair and waited at the lights. Why did this country have so many lights? Why couldn’t you freely drive a car without worrying about whether or not you were going to be late because you had to wait at a red traffic light. Hopefully he looked over to Jenny, she was still asleep. He should have known. She could sleep for hours and to her? It wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference.
It was a short while before he reached the motorway. By the time he did though it was packed. People trying to go on holiday, work, school. Though. He couldn’t see why they all had to be on his motorway. It seemed like forever he was on there. It became boring and as a result, he grew tired. He needed someone to talk to. At least something to listen to other than the breathes of both Jenny and Shane and the humming of the engine. He pressed play on the CD player. Luck. They had a CD in and for once, one which he liked. Usually Jenny would play music which he disliked, but as he heard Marilyn Manson’s ‘Tainted love’ start up from the disk he felt lucky.
He still had no one to talk to but at least the drive wouldn’t seem, as long and boring as it would have been if he had nothing.
It took a while to reach Heathrow and even when he did Jenny was still asleep though. He pulled up and prodded her. Her eyes flew open and she jumped. Derrick tried not to laugh.
‘Babe, you need to wake up, we’re here.’
Jenny looked around for confirmation. She had slept the whole Journey? Wow, she found that hard to believe. Clearly though it was true. She got out of the car and went to the back, picked Shane up and got him out of the car.
Derrick went inside to get a trolley to put the bags onto.