Lettuces and Cream by John Evans Read Free Book Online

she gave Mike for not drinking was that it made her fat.
    The afternoon rolled on and suddenly and simultaneously they all realised the fact. ‘Aye, man, is that the time? We better be getting back home. Stock to feed, cow to milk…’
    Chris laughed at her husband’s rather mournful, downtrodden expression. ‘The way he goes on you’d think he does everything on his own wouldn’t you? Of course, what he doesn’t tell you is that I do most of the work.’
    At this, they all laughed, got up from the table, and trooped back out into the yard.
    ‘Well that’s the afternoon gone, still, I suppose it was good of them to call,’ Mike said as they walked back into the kitchen, still smiling from giving cheerful farewells to Chris and Keith.
    ‘Yeah, it was – they seemed nice people. Mind you, I had a job understanding Keith half the time. His Geordie accent was very strong at times wasn’t it? Nice though. She wasn’t so bad, very quiet spoken really,’ Jan said, and started clearing the table ready for the evening meal.
    ‘Yeah, he was a bit loud at times,’ Mike lit up a fag, he smoked a lot when he’d been drinking. ‘I thought they were a bit harsh on the locals-still, they’ve been here longer than us; they probably know them better than we do.’
    ‘And they might not smoke, but they certainly like their drink,’ Jan declared, ‘but I liked Chris. And she’s very forthright, well so is he, but I still like her. She’s invited me over at sometime to look at what they’ve done to their old place.’
    Mike gave a non-committal ‘um,’ and thought that he certainly wouldn’t kick her out of bed. Jan too had been stimulated, or was it reminded about sex-she didn’t actively think about it as much as Mike, certainly not in the same way, but nevertheless she had sexy thoughts about Keith. He was big, strong and maybe a little dangerous-she found that exciting - in a safe way – in her head. It’s strange how sex can work. Even if one doesn’t actually want to be with someone, the thought of doing so can be exciting. In Jan’s case, her sexuality responded to this sort of safe, distant, outside influence.
    The kids spilt back into the house on their usual quest for nourishment.
    ‘Is it food time yet mum?’ David moaned.
    ‘Yes, we’re starving mummy,’ whined Mandy.
    ‘Starving? That will be the day,’ Jan replied cheerfully, ‘do you want some cake or bread and jam, or something, until I get food ready?’
    ‘Oo, yes please mum’
    Since they had moved here the children had hardly been in the house. Building ‘dens’, tree climbing and wandering around the woods had kept them extremely busy. They were having a great end to their school holiday, but soon they would be starting a new adventure, in the village school.
    ‘Food ready in about an hour, Mike, is that okay?’
    ‘Yeah, I’ll go and do a bit more in the field for now. Pity, I couldn’t have finished the marking today, but such is Life.’
    ‘Don’t moan, we had an interesting afternoon didn’t we?’
    ‘I suppose,’ Mike said a little more happily at the memory of their visitors. ‘I’m off then,’ Mike gave a little wave of goodbye to the children, whose faces were already stuffed full of cake, and headed for the door, but as his hand reached for the handle, Jan called.
    ‘Mike.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘This old cooker isn’t getting hot.’
    ‘Is it switched on at the wall?’
    ‘Yes of course it is.’
    ‘Well I suppose it’s had it then. Huh, they must have known it was on the blink, that’s why they left it here,’ Mike lit yet another cigarette, frustrated at yet one more problem-and expense.
    ‘We’ll have to find our old camping cooker and hope we can find some gas for it as well. Could you be a love and look for it Mike, while I get things ready?’
    ‘Yeah, okay.’
    ‘And make that two hours, the camping cooker takes ages to cook anything.’
    Another unusual and busy day came to a close and bedtime