Walnuts

By Pat Garwood

Walnuts is a modern-day tale of love and families set on the outskirts of London. It follows the day-to-day lives of the people who live in Princeton Road. We enter the thoughts of Eileen and Keith, who have just moved in to no. 43 with their children; of old Mrs Anderson who lives in the upstairs flat at no. 34 above Ian, who lives alone after his painful divorce. Jane and Tom and family are at no. 51, and childless Penny and Michael complete the line up at no.40.

We are drawn in to their lives and dreams, as some are caught out by extra-marital temptation; others deal with the death of loved ones; and we share the tender moments of a first sexual encounter. All this alongside the run up to a production of Oh What a Lovely War.

We move from one character to another, learning their inner secrets as we see the world from their point of view, discovering their memories good and bad, and their current battles and triumphs. Within a few chapters it’s as if we live in Princeton Road ourselves!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781326413200

Book preview

Walnuts

WALNUTS

Pat Garwood

For Manny, Tara, Sasha and Sophie

Copyright © Pat Garwood 2015

The right of Pat Garwood as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

First published in France in 2015 by Amanda Atkins

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-326-41320-0

CHAPTER  ONE

Eileen Taylor was thirty-nine years old.  She had a husband, two children, a new house and a headache.  She made herself a cup of coffee and thought about the evening.

She and Keith had been asked over the road to have a few drinks with Michael and Penny, who lived opposite them.  ‘Come about eight-thirty’ Penny had said.  If there was one thing that threw Eileen into a state of instant depression it was the thought of a few drinks with Penny and Michael, or indeed anyone.  She had a strong anti-social streak and whenever she and Keith were asked out, or whenever they found themselves having someone to dinner, she always wished that something would happen to prevent it. Given that, she also knew that once any of these occasions were actually happening, she quite often really enjoyed them. So she sat with her coffee, trying to reason with herself - she didn’t want to be a drag for Keith and she needed to think positively about Penny and Michael.

Penny had come over to say hello on the day that she and Keith had moved in.  She was mid-thirties and attractive, in a rather bright, pushy sort of way.  Michael, she had only seen a couple of times. Once in his front garden and the second time, striding down the centre of the road, wearing a white shirt, open at the neck.  He’d made her think of summer and the countryside.  However, tonight, she wasn’t in the mood to meet him or anyone else.  She’d had an exhausting day.  After Keith had gone off to work, she’d made sure that Jack had got off in time to make the journey to his college, near their old house, driven Poppy to school and then had a blitz on the bedroom. Although they’d only moved in a few weeks ago, she had this urge to get everything looking normal, as soon as possible.  She’d worked solidly until it was time to go and collect Poppy, who was eleven, made  tea for her, had a toasted cheese sandwich herself and then had a long talk with Jack when he got in.  He’d had an argument with his course tutor because he wanted to give up film studies.  He thought the films that they were being asked to study were pathetic.  After half an hour discussing it, he’d stomped up to his room to go onto Facebook for a bit and take his mind off it.  Poppy was already upstairs doing her homework on the little table in her bedroom.

By the time Keith got home, all Eileen wanted was to have a hot bath and fall into bed.  She heard his key in the door and then the sound of his keys being flung on the hall table.  Familiar sounds from the old house, carried over into this one, as if the move had never happened.

‘Hello Darling, how are you doing?’ said Keith as he came into the kitchen and gave her a kiss.

‘Oh, ok,’ she said ‘how was your day?’

‘Not too bad.  Although I can’t get used to this bloody open plan set up.  By the time I’d made three phone calls I felt as if my head was going to explode.’

One of the reasons they’d moved to the new house had been because Keith had been promoted and transferred to a new branch of his advertising agency, which had meant a much longer journey into work for him.  The new house was much closer, he was getting more money and now had eight people working under him, but they were all working with him in the same large modern office.  In the old branch, he’d only had four people on his team but at least he’d had his own office - small and grotty though it was.  He wasn’t at all sure how much he liked the new setup.

Despite the strain of the day, he felt better now that he was home.  He loved the house and couldn’t really believe that they were finally in it after all the hassles of selling the old one and getting through the offer, survey and mortgage razamatazz for this one. He was looking forward to going over to Michael and Penny’s tonight.  The road they had lived in before hadn’t been particularly friendly.  Everyone kept to themselves. It had been alright because he and Eileen got on well and made each other laugh and the children’s lives always filled the house up with their various dramas.  But he had the feeling that everything here was going to be very different.

‘Well, I’m just going to have a quick shower before we go out,’ he said, and went upstairs. 

A few minutes later Poppy came into the kitchen wearing a red leotard and pink tights.  Her fair hair was tied up in a high bunch which she’d twiddled into a bun.  ‘Please can you come and see the gym display that I’ve worked out Mummy?’ she said, ‘it’s not very long and it’s really good.’

‘Well, if it’s quick,’ said Eileen, ‘I’ve got to get myself ready to go over the road for a drink with Penny and Michael in a minute.’

‘Can’t I come?’

‘No it’s too late and you haven’t been invited,’ Eileen said, giving her a kiss.

As she followed Poppy upstairs, Eileen was trying to decide what to wear.  She didn’t want to look all dressed up.  On the other hand, she was feeling such a mess anyway, that if she didn’t make any effort at all, she’d just sink into the background and be unable to make any contribution to the evening at all.  She decided during the gym display that she’d wear the blue dress that she’d got in a ‘Monsoon’ sale.  She’d had it for years but she felt comfortable in it.  She got Poppy into bed as quickly as she could.

‘Goodnight Darling,’ she said, ‘Jack will be here after we’ve gone out, if you want anything.'

‘If I’m really good Mummy, please, please, please can I have a mobile phone?  All my friends have got one’.

‘We’ll see,’ said Eileen, giving her a hug, ‘I’ll talk to Daddy – maybe we can get you one in the summer holidays before your new school.’

‘Oh, thank you Mummy.  I love you so much,’ she gave Eileen a big noisy kiss, which made them both laugh.

～

As he was having his shower, Keith was trying to work out what he should do about Rosie.  She had worked on his team in the last office but he hadn’t been able to organise her transferral with him.  She was twenty-three and he’d found himself increasingly attracted to her.  He could feel that she was interested in him and she was always prepared to work extra hard on any project that he was pushing to the fore. About two months after she had joined the Agency, he’d asked her if she’d like to go for a meal after work to talk about a particular promotion the team had been working on and the relationship took off from there.  Now, it was not going to be so easy.  He felt that it was time to let the whole thing ease off.  It was too complex to try and keep a relationship going with a girl who lived the other side of London.  But Rosie was unhappy.  She kept phoning the office and he was worried that she’d do something silly and mess everything up.  The moment that she’d started trying to strengthen the ties after his move, he found himself wanting more and more to end the whole thing.  Half of her attraction had been her encouragement and inspiration in the office.  It would be much better for her to get involved with someone nearer her own age - although he’d been very flattered that she should have found him attractive physically.  Forty had come as a bit of a shock to him.  Although he had kept his figure and his hair, he sometimes caught sight of himself in a badly lit mirror and thought he looked about fifty.  It was something to do with the lines on his face and the way his jaw line had lost its sharpness.  There was also a certain drawn look that hit his face after a particularly heavy day.  Rosie, though, had said he looked vulnerable when he was tired – he was going to miss her.

Next door, Eileen finished her make-up, got changed, and decided to have a drink to get into the right mood for the evening.  She went downstairs, poured herself a glass of Pinot, and went into the sitting room.  Jack was on the sofa with his laptop and various books and sheets of printed paper all over the floor.

‘I’m going to write my English essay down here Mum.  The light’s all wrong in my room.  If you could let me have a bit of extra money for the stuff I’ll need, I’ll try and fix it up over the weekend.  I need some more plugs and leads and I’d really like to fix up a spot in the corner.’

‘Yes, all right, if you think you can do it.’

‘Of course I can,’ he said and gave her a smile.

‘What’s your essay about?’

‘Oh, I can choose from this list of titles taken from past ‘A’ level papers.  Some of them don’t make any sense to me at all.  I think I’m going to do one on ‘Breaking the Shell.’

‘What does that mean?’ said Poppy, who had come downstairs in her nightie. ‘Do you mean like breaking a snail’s shell or something?  I think that’s disgusting and really mean.’

‘Look, I won’t be able to write it at all if you keep coming down,’ said Jack, ‘it doesn’t have to be the literal meaning.  It can be about people.  I mean sometimes people can feel that they have a sort of shell round them.’

‘You mean like walnuts?’ said Poppy.

They had a big walnut tree in the new garden and Poppy had been collecting a whole bowl of them.

‘What?’ said Jack.

‘You can sometimes see one that is so rotten that you don’t pick it up.  But most of them look the same until you break the shell, then some of them are really nice and some of them are all dried up and it’s really disappointing.’

Jack laughed, ‘I think you’d better write the essay for me,’ he said.

‘And I think you’d better get back to bed,’ said Eileen to Poppy, ‘what did you come down for anyway?’

‘I came down to see if you’d gone – you didn’t say goodbye to me.’

‘Well, we’ll say goodbye now,’ said Keith, who had just come downstairs, ‘it’s time we went anyway’

‘Shan’t be long I hope,’ said Eileen.  Keith shot her a glance.  He knew this mood of old and hoped it wasn’t going to spoil the evening.

‘Come on, you look lovely and it’ll be fun.’  He took her hand and led her through the hall and out of the front door.

～

After they’d gone, Jack made Poppy some hot orange and took her back up to bed.

‘Read for ten minutes and then put the light out,’ he said, ‘you’ll be really tired for school in the morning, otherwise.’

At least Poppy had only this term left at her old school, he thought, as he pulled her door to.  Next September she’d be starting at a grammar school quite near the new house, while he still had another whole eighteen months of travelling for over an hour to college every day.  Damn the move.  It had completely messed everything up as far as he was concerned.  He quite liked the new house but it didn’t matter much to him, really.  As soon as he finished college he was going to get a job and rent a flat with Mike.  Mind you, Mike sometimes got on his nerves, with his endless obsession with motor bikes.  Maybe he’d be better off on his own somewhere.  He felt the need to make the break from home some way or another but he couldn’t do anything until he’d finished college.  He really wanted to get his ‘A’ levels. He wanted to get them for himself and for Mum and Dad.  They cared about him and he got on ok with them.

Just as he was on his way down to the kitchen to make himself some coffee, his phone rang.  He went into the sitting-room and picked it up off the sofa.  It was Kate.

‘Hi, Kate,’

‘Um, I know we said we’d give ourselves a break from seeing each other but I’m feeling really miserable.  I hope you don’t mind me ringing but Mum and Dad are out and I’m on my own.’

‘Of course I don’t mind.’

‘Can you come over?  I’d really like to see you.’

Jack could hear that she’d been crying and that always upset him, even when it wasn’t his fault.  Kate was his first serious girlfriend.  He’d been out with a few girls over the last two years but none of them had meant much to him, not in the way that Kate did.  The trouble was that she was only fifteen and he felt a great sense of responsibility to her.  In lots of ways, the way she looked and the way she behaved most of the time, she was incredibly mature but then sometimes she’d react to a situation and he’d think, ‘God, she’s only four years older than Poppy’ and wonder what on earth he was doing getting so deeply involved with her.  He tried to think of the best way of handling tonight’s situation.

‘I can’t come over tonight, Kate.  I’m looking after Poppy while Mum and Dad are out.  But I tell you what, I’ll phone you every hour, on the hour, to see how you are,  how’s that?’

‘All right,’ said Kate, in a small voice.

‘And I love you.’

‘I love you too.’

‘Look I’ve got to go now because I’ve got to write a whole essay and it’s got to be in by tomorrow.’

‘Don’t go.’

‘I’ve got to.  I’ll phone you later, ok?  Bye.’

As he made some coffee, he tried to get his thoughts back together again.  It was almost impossible now that he’d started thinking about Kate again.  It hadn’t really worked not seeing her for a week.  They’d decided to try it because they kept having arguments about the fact that he had to leave her early to get back to the new house.  She wanted him to miss the last bus and stay the night in their spare room but he hadn’t wanted to.  He felt embarrassed by what her parents might think of him and also he needed to set off to college from home in the mornings, to get his books and his mind together.  It had all been fine when they had lived just round the corner from Kate – the bloody move again!  He decided to fix a definite day to see her in the week and to arrange to spend Sundays with her when he could.  Saturdays he usually did something with Mike.  This Saturday, Mike, who was the same age as him and really cool, wanted him to go to a motor bike auction.  He wanted to buy a cheap one, do it up and sell it at a profit.  Jack wasn’t that interested in bikes but he and Mike always had such a laugh together that it didn’t matter too much what they were doing.  They’d known each other since they were about eight and most of the really good times he’d enjoyed had Mike somewhere involved in them.  The last term at school they’d begun to get in each other’s way a bit but now that they were at different sixth form colleges, when they did see each other it was like the old times.

So far, he hadn’t really got to know anyone in Princeton Road.  He had noticed that there was an incredibly pretty girl who lived about four houses down and she’d smiled at him as she was coming out of her gate when he was passing her house.  But he’d also noticed her walking down the road holding hands with a dark haired boy … and anyway there was Kate.

CHAPTER  TWO

‘Michael, for goodness sake stop it,’ giggled Penny, ‘people are going to start arriving soon.’

‘So what,’ he said, ‘we’re ready for them.  All the nibbles are out, the drinks are looking welcoming on the table, the ice is in the bucket …’

‘Yes, but you haven’t got any clothes on.’

‘Nor have you, you gorgeous creature,’ he said.  He grabbed the duvet and pulled it right over their heads making a huge tent over them.

‘No,’ said Penny, ‘stop it.  I’m off.’  She slipped out of the side of the tent, grabbed her brown silky dress off the hanger and her pants from the chair and ran into the en-suite and locked the door.  Michael lay back on the bed and laughed to himself.  Then he leapt up, pulled the duvet straight over the bed, threw on his clothes, which he’d scattered all over the room, ran downstairs  and collapsed with exhaustion on the armchair in the sitting room.

‘Oh, my God,’ he said, ‘I’ve had it now.’

He looked round the room.  It looked pretty good.  There was a big comfy brown leather sofa and armchair, a multi coloured shaggy rug and silver lamp on a very long arm that could go almost anywhere.  He’d put up some bookshelves from Ikea and they had a 50" TV on the wall.  They hadn’t any children so they’d got a huge glass coffee table for the middle of the room, on which Penny had put an assortment of exquisite, beautifully chosen objects.

They had both wanted children when they got married but they’d not had any success.  At one time they’d decided to adopt or maybe try IVF but somehow the moment had passed and now they felt that they had adjusted and were quite happy with life the way it was.

Their great love was amateur dramatics and they belonged to a very strong group, called ‘Minus 4’.  Penny was really good at acting.  She was small, dark haired and pretty and was nearly always given a big part.  Michael sometimes acted but found that he preferred to direct.  He also always gave a hand with the set when he wasn’t directing and had been quite excited by some of the effects they’d managed to achieve.

They’d lived in Princeton Road for six years.  He worked for an Estate Agent called Hollander and Bynes.  He’d done well with them and was now an assistant director.  Penny had done well, too.  She’d started working for Samsons the big local store, as a salesgirl, just after they married, intending it to be a temporary job to make a bit of money to help with the furnishing and now she had risen to be the main buyer for their specialised gifts department.  Some of the gifts were worth hundreds of pounds. They could now consider moving to a slightly more expensive house but they both felt they wanted to stay in Princeton road. They’d made so many friends locally and they’d finally got the house the way they wanted it.

‘I wonder what Keith and Eileen will be like,’ said Penny as she came into the room, smelling of Dior Addict which was her favourite perfume and a present from Michael.  She’d asked several people in the road to come round tonight.  She remembered the first party that she and Michael had been asked to.  It was a barbecue in Jane and Tom’s garden and she had suddenly felt that she had an identity in the road and that these people actually wanted her and Michael to be part of their group of friends.  She really wanted to help Keith and Eileen to integrate in the same way.

‘She’s very attractive,’ said Michael.

‘Watch it, sweetie-pie, he’s pretty gorgeous too,’ said Penny lifting one of her beautifully threaded eyebrows a shade higher.

The doorbell rang.

It wasn’t Keith and Eileen.  It was Jane and Tom and their daughter, Sorcha.

‘Hello Penny,’ said Tom, giving her a strong bristly kiss on the cheek.  He was a small, pale, thin, muscular man with glasses.

‘Hope we’re not too early but we can’t stay long.  I’ve got to be up early and get off to Coventry in the morning.’  He was a successful hearing-aid salesman with a confidence in his manner that was surprising, considering his rather unprepossessing appearance.  Jane was a completely different kettle of fish.  She was American, breezy, down to earth, with brown eyes and a nice dry sense of humour.  She actually found Penny rather a strain but she liked Michael and welcomed the chance to get away from the children and enjoy a bit of adult conversation for a change.

‘Hi Michael, Hi Penny,’ she said, giving them both a kiss on the cheek.  ‘Hey, you smell gorgeous Penny, what have you got on?’

‘A pretty sensational dress, that’s what she’s got on,’ said Tom

‘This is all too much for me,’ said Penny, laughing and taking them through into the sitting room.

‘It’s too much for me, too,’ said Michael, ‘nobody’s mentioned my aftershave,’ they all laughed.  ‘What would you like to drink?’ he asked.

The doorbell rang and Penny left Michael fixing the drinks and went to answer it.  Keith and Eileen stood on the doorstep.

‘Oh, I’m so glad you could make it,’ said Penny, ‘come on in.’

～

The first thing Eileen noticed was how different the feeling of the house was to their own.  Although structurally the houses were more or less identical, red-brick Victorian, family homes, there was an arty elegance here, quite unlike the comfortable shambles she was creating in No. 43.

‘Come on in and meet Michael and Jane and Tom’ said Penny, taking them into the sitting room.  Michael came straight over and took Eileen by the hand.

‘It’s really good to meet you,’ he said, ‘I’ve seen you both a couple of times and thought to myself - they look good news for the road.’

As he held her hand Eileen felt her stomach turn over.  This is ridiculous, she thought.  She found herself unable to look him in the eye.  She hadn’t felt such an instant attraction to anybody since she met Keith.  For a moment she felt as if she was going to pass out.

‘Come in and sit down,’ said Michael.  She went and sat on the sofa next to a rather quirky looking girl, who was looking a bit abandoned and whose bright pink hair clashed with her orange top.

Penny was still in the hall with Keith.  ‘We know the inside of your house quite well,’ she was saying ‘we nearly bought it instead of this one but the Thompsons pipped us at the post.  We were furious at the time.  Have you still got that gorgeous bathroom with the glass tiles and the limestone basin and the roll-top bath?’

‘Er, yes, we have,’ said Keith.  He suddenly felt that his privacy was being invaded.  He didn’t want her to know the secrets of his bathroom.  Then he thought how absurd that was and gave a laugh, ‘I’m sorry you could never enjoy the pleasures of it.  Feel free to come over for a bath at any time.  What sort of a bathroom do you have here?’

‘Well actually,’ she laughed, ‘we have an identical one, with glass tiles, a limestone basin and a roll-top bath!  When we lost your house Michael said I wasn’t to be miserable about losing the luxury bathroom and that he’d set it all up here for me and he has!’

As she was talking, Keith was thinking that she reminded him a bit of Rosie, although Rosie was softer and prettier.  But Penny had that love of life about her and laughter in her eyes.  So many of the women that he met seemed to be harassed, either by a heavy work load in the office, or by the domestic routine of house and kids.  He loved to see a woman who was happy and interested in whatever it was she was doing and was able to look him fair and square in the eye, without hang-ups.

‘Well, we can’t spend the whole evening in the hall,’ she said, laughing, ‘come into the sitting room and Michael can get you a drink.’

Michael had given Eileen a white wine and came over to talk to Keith.  Eileen turned to the girl next to her and said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.’ 

‘It’s Sorcha,’ she said, smiling.

‘What a lovely name,’ said Eileen, ‘where does it come from?  I’ve never heard it before.’

‘You’ll have to ask Mum,’ said Sorcha, indicating Jane who was sitting in the big brown leather armchair, nibbling stuffed olives and wishing she could have a cigarette.  She’d finally given up two months ago but was still finding it really hard.

‘Mum,’ said Sorcha to Jane, ‘she wants to know about my name.’

‘Hi, my name’s Jane.’

‘No, she wants to know about my name.’

‘I know, honey but I was just introducing myself first.’

Jane smiled at Eileen, ‘Poor Sorcha hates her name but I think it’s really pretty.  We have a lot of Irish blood in my family and I had an aunt who was kind to me when I was a kid and she was called Sorcha.  So there you are, that’s it.’

‘Do you live in the road, too?’ asked Eileen.

‘Yeah, we’ve been here for about seven years,’ said Jane, ‘we lived near the park for a while but then the flat got too small for us with all the kids.’

‘How many have you got?’ asked Eileen.

‘Four,’ sighed Jane, ‘and it feels like eight.’

Eileen laughed, ‘I know the feeling,’ she said.  ‘How old are they?’

‘Two boys, aged eight and ten, a girl aged sixteen…’

‘And me,’ interrupted Sorcha.

‘How old are you?’ Eileen asked her.

‘Eighteen,’

‘I love the colour of your hair,’ said Eileen, ‘how long have you had it like that?’

Sorcha smiled.  She had so many people giving her snooty looks about her hair and her clothes, it was a relief to meet someone who wasn’t of her generation and yet was able to accept her as she was, without being critical.

‘Oh, only about three months,’ she said.

‘How are you settling in?’ Jane asked Eileen.

‘I’m slowly getting straight.’

‘Well, if there’s ever anything I can do to help just come over and ask.  We’re number 51. The house is usually in a mess but I can always provide coffee and cookies.’

‘Thanks very much,’ said