The name may sound familiar to some people, indeed it was the place I grew up in and lived for forty years, a remarkable place with remarkable people,
The Underwood depicted in this story is not the underwood I grew up in, nor are the people, who are completely works of Fiction.
A place forever in my heart.
Written by Colin Griffiths 2015.
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Also by Colin Griffiths.
NEVER SAY GOODBYE
THERE WAS NO BODY.
Chapter 1
It looked like it was never going to stop, there was an eeriness about this particular storm, like the thunder gods were sending out a message to those that dare travel in it, the darkened summer skies were full of the wonders of nature, and the rain that kept thumping against the car had an spooky noise about it, so much so that it sounded like something demonic skittering against the roof, trying to get at the occupants of the car it preyed upon, the weather forecaster’s had reported heavy showers, nothing like the carnage that poured down from the skies, and the wind howled like an animal of the night as the storm brought chaos across the United Kingdom, most people never bothered to travel, those who did wished they stayed at home, some would take hours to reach their destination, well for some they would never reach it.
Not that anyone caught up in that storm were travelling very fast, for most of the time they were at a complete standstill as the cars jammed the motorway they were travelling on, bumper to bumper with nowhere to go as side roads were either blocked or flooded, it looked as if the road system in the UK had become a car park.
‘How could they have got it so wrong’ the driver thought as the heavens poured all that the storm gods could down onto them and the others that dare travel that fateful night.
It had taken them over four hours to get on the M5 motorway at Birmingham from their home in Sheffield, the unpredictability of the typical British summer seemed to be settling in well as the rain leashed down from the ever increasing clouds, the skies now just a sheet of darkness, as the clouds converged on each other and swirled as the thunder shook them, the wipers were on its highest speed, sweeping sheets of rain off at every pass, barely being able to provide the visibility they were designed for, such was the force of the rain that pounded the screen, they looked as if they would fly off the Avensis at any moment as they lashed to and fro over the windscreen, visibility was poor, the roads threatening, the skies eerily dark, all four occupants thought it was just as well they weren’t moving very fast as the fields and roads around them were taking on the look of a river.
Peter sucked on another Werthers original, rolling it around the inside of his mouth, making noises with the sweet against his teeth, he was wishing they had left earlier or even waited until the storm had past, the met office had forecast some rain, not the storm that powered itself above them, at one time he thought about stopping at the services, but there were so many queues along the slip roads leading into the services that he assumed that they would be bursting at the seams, it was a Hobsons choice, try to park up and see it through, or carry on hoping it would clear, he had decided he would rather plod along in the car than queue for hours at the services, although the KFC sign did have a certain allure to it, he imagined biting into a burger, something different from the sweet he was sucking on, he was thankful that Eileen had packed some food for the journey, she was the one with the common sense, but it was healthy food, he needed burgers and sausages, along with fries and lashings of tomato sauce, if it was left up to him all they would have had was his packet of Werthers, which were going down far too fast for his liking, he saw a sign that read ‘road works 3 miles’ it just fuelled more frustration inside of him, he crunched on his sweet and swallowed it, then put another in his mouth.
‘That’s all we bloody need’ he groaned almost choking on the sweet in his mouth, Eileen looked at him with a Smirk, she could see his patience wearing thin, not a particularly good trait of Peter’s, but for a lot of the time his impatience made her laugh through his witty sarcasm, one of the many things that drew her to him, she found his moaning funny, ‘never happy unless he’s moaning’ she knew he wouldn’t take much more of this before he went into a full blown tirade.
‘What does it matter, we’re hardly moving anyway’ she said as she stuck a Trebor in her mouth, relishing the hot minty taste on her tongue.
‘That’s not the point’ said Peter ‘even if we were moving we would be stuck in bloody road works, why can’t they leave the bloody roads alone’
Eileen didn’t answer, she could not see his logic and he was grumpy enough without her making it worse.
Eileen had only just turned forty, she had been in a relationship with her partner Peter for 18 Years, they only lived 2 miles apart at the time, they even went to the same school, though they both failed to recall one another, they met at a dance in Sheffield, where Peter had asked her for a dance, they both fell in love that night as they laughed and danced the night away, a 2nd date followed then a third and pretty soon they were inseparable, spending a lot of time camping in the Yorkshire Moors when the money was short, those were the days they both remembered most, but for one reason or another they had never married, not because they didn’t love each other for they did very much, they always said they would get round to it.
Very often they had sat in the evenings and planned it, looking on the internet for dresses and venues, discussing colour schemes and themes, picking best men and maids of honour promising to book it and make it happen, but they never did, not because they didn’t both want to, it just wasn’t all that important to them at the time, the discussing and planning was exciting, it was just the getting round to it and doing it that never seemed to happen, and then after Lily and Nathan was born, and that seemed to put any wedding plans further on the back burner.
The kids took Pete’s name, She remained a Ryall her kids and partner were Ford, she didn’t mind it that way, it was only a piece of paper she would say at the time, but deep down she still hoped for that glitzy wedding she had always dreamed about, maybe not the young beautiful bride that she always hoped, but a beautiful bride never the less, she would still plan it in her mind and secretly search for that special dress, but on occasions when Peter was working late and the kids tucked up in bed, she would stare at her daughter lying there asleep and sadly think that it would be her daughter’s wedding she would attend before she attended her own.
Today she wore her mousy hair short and it complimented her thin face and high cheekbones, that’s the way she mostly wore it, only letting her hair grow occasionally, but never too long, her father used to call her a tomboy, and she didn’t mind that tag at all, she thought it suited her, summed up her personality, but Eileen didn’t want her own daughter to be tagged the same, she wanted her to grow into a beautiful princess, and no matter how Eileen wore her hair she was always to be seen in Jeans and flat sandals, usually with a t-shirt, it was the only clothes she felt comfortable in, ‘Dresses are for special occasions’ she would tell herself, very often thinking of that wedding dress.
‘There’s got to be a better way than straight down the M5’ grumbled Pete, trying to get his words out around the sweet in his mouth, he shifted about in the driver’s seat, trying to get the circulation flowing in his legs as they had grown numb, he tapped the steering wheel with his fingers, Eileen hated it when he done that.
‘It’s the way you get to Cornwall’ Eileen answered mockingly, she grinned as it was the type of thing Peter would say. ‘Stop tapping’ she added,
Peter looked up at the skies that were just a mass of different shades of grey as the thunder roared once more,