THE SPANISH WAITER: FIFTEEN

Someone new recognised Ivan

“It looks as if the silly season is about to begin,” grinned Tomas, “there are two coach parties due in later, both from your homeland, one for just the one night as they rest up en route to Portugal and the other for three whole days as part of a tour of Spain. You never know, there might be some single ladies on the look out for an honest Englishman!”

“I’m a bit past that,” replied Ivan, “if you look at me carefully, you’ll see that it’s my age. I’ll be reaching fifty before you can say Jack Robinson, and o my mind that’s past it.”

“Your nice lady Geraldine doesn’t think so,” Tomas pointed out, “and look at me. Valentina and I are like you might say a hand in a glove, and we’re both fifty and more.”

“Geraldine is rather special,” Ivan accepted, “but she’s unlikely to think twice about me. Anyway, isn’t she married?”

“She’s always on her own when she calls here and I’ve never asked her and she never mentions a man in her life except when she talks about you, but you might find out when you see here. Or you could phone her. I believe she would like to hear from you.”

“Didn’t you say she was on her way here?” asked Ivan.

“True, she is. But there can be long delays the way officials like to hold travellers up these days, especially as the holiday season’s beginning. But she shouldn’t be long, and this time she’s staying for a week. Can you believe it? A whole week for you to slip into her boudoir during dark nights!”

“That would hardly be appropriate,” replied Ivan, a trifle stiffly.

“Life’s too short to be missing out on love and affection because you’re too proud,” Tomas told him, “and I believe one of the coaches is just about here.”

“I’ll get back to the bar then, and wait for the promised rush,” grinned Ivan, “though I bet they all go to their rooms for a wash and brush up.” and he sauntered back to the small bar with its gleaming beer tap and host of glistening bottles. As he got there he heard the sound of a coach actually arriving, and when he looked out of the window he saw it.

Fascinated, he watched as the door opened and the driver wearily climbed out and started pulling bags and small suitcases from the hold. Then the first passengers made their slow, painfully slow, way down the steps until their feet were on Spanish tarmac.

They won’t be spending too long in the bar even if they get into it, I shouldn’t wonder he thought as he noted that they all seemed to find the way down to the road rather difficult as a consequence of their age and clearly faili mobility. And, he noted there were more women than men, probably twice as many. Either there have been a few divorces and the menfolk are elsewhere or it illustrates the difference between the sexes when it comes to life expectancy … and I’m a man…” he thought, and once again he remembered that the man he’d seen depart earlier had been responsible or stealing twelve precious years of his life as well as a few more as he tried to slot back into normal life after prison.

The thought had come to him more than once since he had left England in search of a new life in the Hotel Pyramido as a barman come waiter. It had been Geraldine’s idea and he wondered if it was intended to put distace between the two of them because they’d verged on having an affair. But he’d never imagined that here, in another land, he’d see the man he held responsible for the loss of those years because that man was clearly not in any way dead.

Slowly the group made its way to the reception desk where the auburn haired Andrea was waiting to hand out their keys. Despite her poor understanding of any language other that her native Spanish she seemed to manage with the names of the guests, cheerfully and with the occasional little giggle as if everything in the world was one great adventure.

Then two of the new arrivals separated from the rest and, before going to their rooms with their small luggage cases, went into the bar, and stood there, wanting .to attract Ivan, who had been polishing glasses with a new cloth. He went to serve them even though he was a little surprised that they didn’t wand to freshen up in their rooms first first.

“What can I get you?” he asked, smiling.

“I knew you’d speak English!” claimed the younger of the women, “I’ll have a, let me see, nice drop of brandy, if that’s all right..” and she smiled at him as he reached for a bottle on the shelf behind him. To Ivan it seemed that there just might be something vaguely familiar about her as he carefully poured an unmeasured quantiy of brandy into a large bulbous glass. Looking at the two of them he decided they were possibly mother and daughter, and he looked enquiringly at the older woman

“Gin,” she demanded ignoring the “a nice big gin, please.” Unlike the young woman she spoke slowly as if she expected Ivan to struggle trying to understand her, and there was something distant about the way she looked at him, as if par of her mind was elsewhere.

“With tonic?” he asked.

The woman smiled at him, then turned to her friend, “Do I?” she asked her. “The nice man asked me...”

“Mum, you’ll give him ideas!” smiled her daughter.

“That’s why we’re on holiday, to give handsome men ideas!”

Then her daughter looked hard at Ivan, and smiled before she said “It’s Mr Maybe, is’t it?”

The question shocked him. It was bad enough to be seen by the wretched man he had suppodely murdered, but for a young woman, possibly in her thirties, to recognise him was impossible, but he found himself nodding anyway.

“It was because of you that I became the woman I am,” she said, smiling, “you taught me how to be a motor mechanic! At school, before that awful man told lies about you.”

“Awful man…?” he found himself asking.

“I saw it all,” she smiled, “I was attracted by that man shouting at you when you told him how much mending his rusty old car was going to cost him. And I saw you look angry and walk off, round the corner and out of sight while he was still saying dreadful things at the top of his voice.. Then I saw the man and the woman who was pretending to be a man get into another car and drive off with him. I lived just a few doors down, and mum still does. But before they went I heard what they said to each other. It was something like I’ll disappear and you report to the police that I was abducted by the man who was repairing my car. That’ll get the gang off my trail.

“I did tell the coppers but they dismissed me as no more than a silly schoolgirl and didn’t really take any notice. And when they got you I told them again but all they could do was say that silly schoolgirls should keep their noses out of things that don’t concern them and they knew what they were doing.”

He looked at her, open eyed. “And they ignored you?” he asked.

“They did. It was a bloke called something Hewitt. I know that because I enquired when I got the class to sign a letter saying you weren’t evil.”

“You did that? I didn’t know…” he said, choking, then he looked at the young woman’s mother “You’ve got a very special lass there,” he told her, “I think I can remember her, though it was a long time ago and she was only a teenager. But when I saw her as you came up to the bar I thought there was somethin famiar about her… let me see, your name… I seem to remember a Nancy something or other…”

The younger woman smiled at him. “Nancy Andrews,” she told him, “that was my maiden name, though I’m Nancy Singer now. My husband’s looking after himself at home while I look after mum here.”

I remember you,” Ivan nodded, because he did, “and I can remember quite clearly you were gifted when it came to understanding basic engineering ,and you had a head start over the boys when it came to the exams!”

She smiled again at him.

“I run the service department of Bullard’s Coaches,” she said, “thanks to the start you gave me. And I’ll always be grateful. The coach we arrived on… it’s one of ours, and I personally serviced it before we set off.”

“She’s done well for herself, has our Nancy,” contributed a puzzled looking mother.

“Come and sit down, mum,” suggested Nancy, “and I’ll get you another brandy, jiust for old times’ sake.”

She smiled again ad Ivan and then led her mother to a seat. Ivan shook his head sadly. He could see that something about the older woman was wrong. He wondered if she was possibly deaf.

© Peter Rogerson 10.11.22