Seven Years Ago-1
1998 Words
Seven Years Ago
“Here, Jenny, can you take this out to Old Jacob in the barn, please.” Mrs Collier passes her a dish of meat and veggies, mash and gravy, placing a lid over the top. “The plate’s hot, so use a tray, otherwise you’ll burn your fingers.”
“Isn’t he eating with us?”
Mrs Collier sniffs. “Feeding him while he’s working here is part of the deal. Having the smell of him at the table isn’t.” She gives Jenny a pointed look. “Unless you want to sit next to him?
“Um…”
“Yes. Um. Old Jacob's not too keen on spending his money on soap and water.” Mrs Collier’s lips settle into a flat line. “He always seems to have plenty for whiskey though. Anyway, he can eat out in the barn. Maybe Charlie and Maggie won’t mind too much.”
Jenny takes the meal across the yard to the barn, where she finds the tramp sitting on a bale of hay, a couple of bluebottles zipping around his head.
“Well if it isn’t young Jenny with vittles for a worker.” He pats the bale next to his. “Why don’t you come keep me company while I eat.”
Jenny eyes the zig-zagging flies with distaste. And….
…. there is something in Old Jacob’s eye that she doesn’t quite care for.
“I can’t stop right now. Mrs Collier’s just serving up dinner.”
He grunts, lifting the plate away, releasing a curl of savoury steam. It smells good, but he looks disgruntled. “Never any time for an old man. Maybe next time, eh?”
“Maybe.”
When she returns to the kitchen, everyone has gathered for dinner. Chatter and clatter and laughter echoes around as she takes her place.
“And how was your day at school, Jenny?” Mrs Collier passes her a dish loaded with beans and greens and carrots.
Even after all this time, Jenny feels guilty at having so much food to enjoy. But still, she is always encouraged to fill her plate. She scoops veggies up high, then passes the bowl to Brett as Nathaniel hands her a dish of succulent, sliced pork, the flesh glistening, the skin crisped and fragrant. Diane, Nathaniel’s hugely pregnant wife, slides a gravy boat across to her.
“My day? It was great,” she says, through a mouthful of mash. Mrs Collier casts her a look and Jenny works to swallow her food before she opens her mouth again to speak.
“What mark did you get for your essay?”
Jenny gulps a chunk of broccoli then, her voice a touch sulky, “I only got eight out of ten.”
“Only eight out of ten?” Tom parrots her words, his voice sarcastic, but he falls silent as Mrs Collier gives him a look too.
“Why only eight out of ten?” she asks calmly.
This time, Jenny remembers to chew her food and swallow it before replying. “Mr Kalkowski said that I have to remember not to split my infinitives, and to learn the correct application of the Oxford comma.” She crunches down on a piece of pork crackling. “He said that once I have demonstrated that I know how to apply the rules of grammar correctly, after that I can learn to break them.”
Blank stares come across the dinner table at her. Diane puts her hand on Nathaniel’s arm. “Do you think I should have done all that at school, Nat?”
The big man looks down at where Diane’s swollen belly brushes the table edge, resting his hand briefly on the bump. “I don't think you need the Oxford common for that, do you?”
Jenny flushes. “Comma,” she mutters.
“Sounds a bit high fallutin’ for we mere mortals,” says Tom with a sneer, punctuating his words by waving a bread roll at her.
“Seems like a whole lot more to learn than you need when you've got that shovel in your hand to muck out Charlie,” snorts Nathaniel.
Jenny doesn't reply. Instead, she turns her attention to her food, but somehow, it doesn't taste so good as it did.
*****
As ever, she is in the library.
What is she looking at?
As he watches, she slips a book from the shelves. ‘Just Six Numbers.’ Martin Rees.
Mr Kalkowski nods a small, satisfied nod. An interest in astronomy is almost bound to lead to an interest in cosmology.
Still unaware of his presence, Jenny sits at the table with her book, humming a soft tune.
“Good morning, Jenny. You’re sounding very cheerful this morning.”
She startles and twists, for one moment, the fear showing….
What happened to her?
Then, recovering herself, she blushes pink, the colour rising from the scooped neckline of her summer dress, up and over her pale skin. “Oh, hello, Mr Kalkowski.”
The teacher pauses, wondering if he has committed a faux pas. “Jenny, is something wrong?”
“Oh no, nothing wrong. It’s just….” She sucks at her lips, her book forgotten. She rises from her seat, then perches herself against the table to face him. “We were keeping it a secret, for now at least, but I want to tell you first. You won’t tell anyone else, will you?”
“Anything you told me in confidence, Jenny, would of course, stay between the two of us.”
She comes close, talking quietly. “It’s about me and Chad. He’s asked me to marry him.”
He rocks on his heels, considering his words. “Chad has asked you to marry him? And…. you have accepted?”
“Yes, I have.” She frowns at his expression. “What's wrong? You don't think I should get married?”
He chooses his words. “A good marriage, Jennifer, is one of the greatest gifts life can give us. Those of us lucky enough to have known such, are truly blessed. But…. Chad? Are you sure, Jennifer? That this is what you want to do?”
She picks at her fingernails, her voice subdued. This isn’t the reaction she expected. “I think so, yes. He's so nice and I really like him. And his parents think it's a good idea too.”
“Marrying for the approval of someone else does not a good marriage make, Jennifer. And also, you are very young to make such a decision, both of you.”
“Oh, yes,” she says airily. “We know we have to wait. But…. it’s so exciting.” She hovers. “You don’t look very pleased,” she says meekly.
“I just want you to be happy, Jenny. A mistake in something like this would be… very painful… for you.”
*****
Everyone is gathered around the table. A vast amount of food has been eaten and all that remains are the dregs of a custard jug and the last neglected crumbs from a vast blackberry tart.
Everyone is here. A special occasion made up not of a birthday, or an anniversary, or a festival, but simply of friends getting together to enjoy each other’s company.
All the farmhands, with the wives and girlfriends are here. Mrs Collier, of course, heads the table. But Mr Kalkowski sits to one side of her. Chad’s parents are here too.
And sitting together, under the tabletop, Chad squeezes Jenny’s hand.
He gives a nudge. “Now you think? They’ve all finished eating. I don’t think they’re going to move again for a while with that lot inside them.”
She bites down on her excitement. “Mmmm, yes.”
Chad rises from his seat. “Um, ‘S’cuse me, everyone.”
The chatter dies down, everyone turning curiously towards him.
“Sorry to interrupt you all….”
He is nervous, unused to speaking to so many at once. “…. Since everyone’s here together tonight, I wanted to make an announcement.”
He looks down at Jenny. Her eyes, the green of spring grass as it sways in the breeze, shine up at him, and of a sudden, his nerves evaporate.
“…. Or really, Jenny and I wanted to make an announcement.” Chad’s mother and father exchange a knowing glance. “I…. we wanted to tell you all that I have asked Jenny to marry me, and she has said, Yes.”
The room erupts into clapping and congratulations. Mrs Collier rises smoothly from her seat. “Brett, come down to the cellars with me. I think we’ll bring up some of that gooseberry champagne from last year.”
Mr Bennett gives her hug. Then Mrs Bennett. “Thank you, Jenny. I know you’ll make Chad very happy.”
Nathaniel, with a broad grin, kisses her soundly on the lips. “Congratulations, Jenny. Don’t mind if I kiss the bride-to-be, do you, Chad?”
Diane pats at the bump on her belly. “Won’t be long before you have one of these too then, eh, Jenny?”
Jenny blinks and doesn’t know what to say. But she is saved from embarrassment by the return of Mrs Collier and Brett, carrying arm-loads of thick-walled bottles, corked and wired. The first cork eases out, then pops. Pale yellow foam splashes out and the first flute is pressed into Chad’s hand, the second into Jenny’s.
Mr and Mrs Bennett are clinking their glasses. Everyone is laughing and joking and drinking.
Almost everyone.
Sitting in his chair, Mr Kalkowski sips at his wine, looking thoughtful. Then, seeing Jenny watching, he raises his glass, tugging his mouth into a smile. “Congratulations, Jenny.”
*****
The sound of chatter and giggling drifts across the yard.
Mr Kalkowski glances upwards, one eyebrow raising. “Don’t you normally get those two down from the haybarn?”
Mrs Collier sniffs. “It’s different now, isn’t it. Two young people, going to get married. They need to…. get to know each other properly.”
“Eleanor, what if…?” His voice trails away.
“Levi, she would hardly be the first girl to walk down the aisle, then achieve in seven months what takes cows and duchesses nine. If they’re getting married, what does it matter?”
He scrapes in the dust with the tip of his walking stick.
“Levi, what’s bothering you? The two of them have been good friends ever since she arrived here. What’s more natural than that they marry?”
“I’m not at all sure about this, Eleanor. I’m very fond of Jenny. Of both of them, of course, but particularly of Jenny. I don’t want to see her making a mistake.”
Hands on hips, she huffs. “What mistake? They obviously love each other. They’re never apart. How could it be a mistake?”
“It’s really not for me to speculate, Eleanor.”
“Then don’t,” she snaps. “Just be happy for them.”
*****
“Mr Kalkowski?”
“Yes, Jenny.”
“We’ve set a date now, for the wedding, in the Spring, in May. Mr and Mrs Bennett said that would be a good month because the weather’s so lovely.”
The old man keeps his voice neutral. “May is indeed a lovely month, Jenny.”
“The thing is, you’re invited of course, but….”
“But what Jenny?”
“Well, I don’t have anyone, a father or a brother or anything. Would you give me away?”
His eyes swim ,and he makes a pretence of cleaning his spectacles on a handkerchief. When he doesn’t answer, Jenny sags. “Don’t you want to give me away? I was hoping so much that you would.”
He recovers himself, then swallows hard. “Yes, of course, Jenny. It would be my honour.”
*****
“Ah, Jenny. You have seen our new equipment?”
“I have, Mr Kalkowski. It’s great. Thank you.”
“It is of course for general use by all pupils of the school, but I imagine that you will use it more than most.”
“I’m sure I will, sir.”
“Now, on a related matter, Jenny, Chad informs me that you would like to enter the Inter-Schools Boxing Championships?”
She flushes. “Um, I’m not sure I’m good enough. It was Chad’s idea.”
“The way to discover if you are good enough, is to try. And while the idea may come from Chad, the question is, do you want to do it? Yes? No?” He tilts up her chin with a finger, eyes twinkling behind his spectacles as he looks down at her.
“I don’t want to be any trouble.”
“You will not be any trouble, Jennifer. If this is something you would like to do, then I will make the arrangements for you.”
“I’d love to try.”
“That is settled then. I shall fill out the application form to enter you for the girls’ section and we shall see what we shall see. Yes, no?”
The tall, slender teenager, long hair swinging around her waist, exits the headmaster’s office with a beaming smile.
Chad is waiting outside for her. “We gonna have a go on that new punch-bag then?”
“You bet! But aren’t you going to enter the competition yourself?”
“Nah, not my thing. I just learned to box so I could handle dorks like Jack.”
“Will you come to watch?”
- Writer
