I know it was. But the point wasni to do with that it was to do with getting the bloody electricity cut off. Nicola gazed at John, and she said, We’re well past the final notice now and they’ve threatened us, and we canni take the risk by sending it by the post or even paying it in a post office. We’ve got to go right in and do it at one of their showrooms.
What if I paid it the morrow at dinnertime I mean if you give me the bill and the money and that, I could get away at dinnertime and pay it.
Thanks but …
Thanks but no thanks.
No, it’s just that Gavin’s going to do it. How’s school these days?
That’s usually what you say to a wean and I am not a wean, there again but, coelebs quid agam which is latin for something like here I am a single man, what else am I to do. Which isni really relevant at all. In answer to your question Nicola; school is lousy. They’re transferring me to a new yin without even so much as a by-your-leave — which isni quite true. But that’s the way of things, that’s how things are; things are like that these days, ever since they hanged James Wilson, Andrew Hardie and John Baird back in 1820; that’s when the Greatbritish Ruling Class perfected their policing system, the finest the world has ever known. They’ve been refining it ever since. I’m one of their less subtle weapons.
Heavy stuff.
Patrick smiled.
Are ye no waiting for a cup of tea?
Ah for god sake come on, a cup of tea wont kill me.
Nicola waved her hand at John: Give Uncle Pat your stool.
I’m just feeling a bit jittery just now … He lifted the stool and examined it before sitting down — in case there was spilled food.
Is it all big children in your school? asked John.
Aye. They’re actually all young adults in the school I go to. Their ages go from maybe eleven up to eighteen. They can legally get married and have weans of their own and still be there. One of the lassies in my class has got a wee baby; it’s a wee girl and it’s called Deborah. Are you listening Elizabeth?
Elizabeth was still footering with her liver and vegetables. Nicola was at the oven now and pouring tea. She was slightly smaller than Alison, around 5′4″ and it was maybe a cliché to talk about her strength but fuck it she had it, a strength. Patrick would love to have been married to her fucking beautiful besides anything else, fucking beautiful beautiful woman, her whole self.
Do the boys play football in your school as well?
Yeh they do, aye. The teacher that takes them used to be a football player and he played for Stirling Albion and also an English team called Carlisle. You heard of them?
John nodded. Nicola gave him a biscuit, offered Pat one which he accepted. John said, Sure daddy was a good football player?
Will you take him his tea ben and give Uncle Pat a bit of peace, said Nicola.
Aye but sure he was? John said.
I canni answer your question. It’s the kind of one I dont like ya wee pest ye; that’s because it doesni leave me anything to say! Pat winked at Elizabeth who was watching him instead of eating, or maybe using watching him as an excuse for not eating. He said to John: But these questions are the best questions; if ye keep asking them you’ll be fine.
When the boy left the kitchenette Patrick drank his tea swiftly. I better hit the road Nicola …
Are you sure?
Me and Gavin had a wee bit of a eh contretemps.
No again.
Uch it wasni bad I mean it was just … he shrugged.
So we wont see you on Saturday then?
Aw naw, not necessarily.
Nicola continued to look at him. Then she said, I found somebody to take that puppy. Mind me telling you about it?
Aye christ of course I do.
A woman at the nursery knows an old woman she thinks might want it; and if she doesni she’s just going to take it herself, to add to her collection! She’s already got three cats.
Good god.
She’s a real animal lover. She’s wanting a shift to a ground floor so’s she can get a garden. Nicola chuckled: She says she’s gonni start keeping hens.
Hens in Cadder; great. Amazing. You forget there’s folk like that, dont ye. The way some of them love animals, it’s really terrific, smashing, you feel like giving them a kiss.
The animals or the people?
Both.
Nicola laughed abruptly. Her head craned forwards, chin touching the top of her chest; she closed her eyes. Patrick was wanting to place his hand on the back of her neck because he looked upon her as a sister and not just a sister-in-law. He loved her and he wanted to comfort her because she didni look all that fine at the moment, now that he had come to actually look at her, she wasnt looking that fine.
It was a good meal, he said.
Gavin made it.
Aw. He says you did it, he just prepared the ingredients.
It’s no true.
It was some pot of soup he gave us earlier.
He’s a good cook, he’s better than me — when he can be bothered, but he canni always be bothered. Pat … Nicola sat upright; she had her hands now clasped in her lap … I know you’re sick of hearing this but you should keep in contact more with people. I wish you’d make a regular date to come here for your tea. Also your parents, your mum and dad — they worry about ye.
Och they’re parents. That’s what parents are by definition, those who worry. They’re never done going in to see the headmaster about the stupidest things. Draughty corridors. Somebody was up complaining about that recently!
Elizabeth was watching him. He had been looking in her direction while talking although he had not been aware of it until now. And she said to Nicola: Mummy, can I go and watch telly?
She nodded. She said to Pat: And if ye came here once a week for your tea? Why dont you do that? Just one night a week. Even once a fortnight.
Thanks, it’s appreciated.
But you’re not committing yourself.
Pardon?
Some commitments are good ye know. They can be good.
In what way?
Because they’re commitments. They can be good for folk.
I just dont understand how, I mean how they’re good.
Dont be silly Pat.
I’m no being silly. I have got commitments already: that’s the bloody problem. What do you think teaching is, it’s a commitment. Unless ye just think of it as a job, okay, fair enough. What about you, your own commitments, your family and all that, do you keep in touch with them all the time?
Pat, I’m a married woman, a mother; my life’s full of commitments — I dont have anything else but commitments.
That’s like routines the way you’re talking.
Of course.
Is that what you mean by commitments; routines?
Nicola didnt answer.
If that’s what ye mean by commitments … Pat shrugged.
It’s no what I mean at all. But routines do come into it. Although they’re no the same.
Glad to hear it! He smiled.
She looked at him.
There’s nothing worse than routines; commitments are something else.
I know what commitments are Pat.
He nodded. When Nicola looked away from him he said, Naw Nicola sorry, I was just meaning the way so many folk mix the two things up, they think they’re committed to something and they areni at all, it’s just a bloody routine. I know you know the difference Nicola, I’m sorry.
I’m no one of your pupils.
Patrick smiled. Are you and Gavin fighting the now as well?
How did ye guess. We’re just too much in each other’s company. It’s always better if one of us is away and then comes back. A month ago he got a couple of days work at his trade through a pal he used to work beside and it was good, it was nice when he came home. It’s just he can be a huffy so-and-so at times. He is. You dont get a word out him for days at a stretch.