In The Beginning Was The Word

‘In the beginning was the word.’ Jack often thought about that statement. ‘Actually,’ he corrected himself, as usual, ‘there were lots of words – mostly Florence’s.’ However, if you really thought long and deep about it, there probably was just one word that started it all. “Oh, sod her,” he muttered aloud, not for the first time, but there was a new resolution in his voice that he had not noticed before.

With a spring in his step to which he was long unaccustomed, he turned and paced away up the pleasant suburban avenue with its lines of elms and horse chestnuts that alternated with such annoying regularity. He grinned and was surprised at the fact. “Yesss!” he called out, louder than he intended, and followed it by punching the air and giving a little skip. At once, he looked around self-consciously to check that no one he knew had seen this momentarily unabashed display of emotion.

He walked on further, turned the corner into the street lined solely with flowering cherries. He stopped, surveyed the road ahead and then marched over into the small, carefully tended patch of green that announced itself to be Brodbury Green Park. He sat on a bench that was dedicated to ‘The memory of John Crispin, beloved husband and lifelong friend of Edith.’

“Yeah, right!” Jack muttered, smirking disparagingly. “Ha!” he exclaimed. “The world is your oyster now, my son.” Once again he was grinning and, once again, he was surprised by it.

Musing in the afternoon sunshine, Jack dreamed idly of evenings to come in the pub with pals and even trips to Ibiza, perhaps. He’d seen it all on telly. Young women dancing in the clubs, almost naked some of them and boasting of how many men they had slept with that week. Even in his mid forties now, he reckoned he’d be able to… what was the expression? Pull a few chicks – that was it. The grin broadened. “Boy! Am I going to make up for lost time.” The grin threatened to split his face in two.

“What are you grinning at, Jack?” The female voice from his side startled him and the grin disappeared in an instant as he whipped round, fearful for just a split second that it might be Florence, his wife. But, at the same moment that he recognised the attractive features, he also identified the voice as that of Susan, one Florence’s friends that she usually spoke even more scathingly about than most. Florence never trusted any woman who had breasts that men tended to look at and particularly not one like Susan who always kept herself in good physical shape and dressed to show the fact. Added to this, Susan was divorced, quite wealthy by all accounts and, above all, three years her junior, although Jack always thought it looked more like ten.

“Hello, Sue. How are you? You look pretty good – as ever. Still sexy Sue I see.” Jack was shocked to realise that he was flirting with this paragon of unattainable beauty. ‘Good God!’ he thought.

He was about to become embarrassed and begin apologising for such an unseemly outburst when Susan too grinned. “I’m absolutely bloody marvellous,”

“Oh, good. Oh, I am glad.” Jack paused and was suddenly aware that he really was glad and also that, now seated next to him, right up close, touching him in fact, this delicately perfumed and exciting woman was stirring thoughts in him that he would not have dared to entertain only a few short hours before. Silly thoughts they were, of course, he realised that – just idle dreams – but very pleasant nevertheless.

“Are you, Jack? Yes, I expect you are. You’ve always been a sweetie. I could’ve fancied you, you know. If you weren’t married, of course.” Susan grinned again, wickedly this time. “I always reckoned you and me would’ve had a real ball – done things that’d make The Avenue’s hair curl. Eh?” She nudged him and winked broadly and Jack could feel himself going red. “Ah. That’s really sweet, Jackie. I haven’t been able to make a man blush for – oh, it must be nearly a week now.” Then she laughed – that deep, sensual, sexy laugh of hers and Jack could feel himself going weak all over.

Moments later, Susan sat forward a little and Jack could feel the warmth of her firm thigh pressing against his. She sighed and the visible cleavage of her generous bosom beckoned him to dive in and drown there in a feast of ecstasy. “Well, I’d better go. If Florence spots me here like this with you, you’ll be in for one hell of a time. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone – and especially not on you, my darling Jackie. You deserve better, my sweet.”

“I don’t care,” Jack blurted out, desperate that this vision should not leave him so soon.

“What?” Her voice held surprise, but there was, as ever, so much warmth in it that it made Jack shiver with desire.

“I’ve left her.” Jack explained and Susan looked stunned and disbelieving. “It’s true! I’ve just walked out – and I feel … wonderful!”

“You look terrified.”

“No, I’m not, whatever I look like. I’m … I’m … Happy!” This was said with such incredulity that Jack suddenly laughed, not something Susan could ever recall him doing. Not really. Not what you’d call a real laugh – out loud.

Susan stared at her friend. “Well, bugger me.” She continued to stare. “And this was today?”

“Yup. Just a couple of hours ago. Well, less than an hour ago really, when I finally decided.”

“So what happened then?”

“Well, I was made redundant. I’ve been looking for a job, of course, but it’s not easy. The minute you say you’re over forty these firms lose interest straight away – and I’m damned good at my job. It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong. The firm’s gone pretty well bust and that’s that. They might keep going, but it’s start again time for the bosses – they’ll just be doing it all themselves. They said they were sorry and, if I hadn’t got anything I liked in a year or so, maybe they’ll be able to start re-employing people and I’d be the first and all that stuff. But, well – you know… We all only found out a week ago – I think they kept hoping against hope that something would turn around for the firm. I got a few thousand in redundancy pay, though. They saw me as right as they could. Poor bastards. It’s them I feel sorry for.”

“You would. That’s just the nice way you are, Jackie. So, anyway, what’s that got to do with Florence?”

“She said, if I was so flaming good, why didn’t I save the firm. She said it was probably my inadequacy drove them to bankruptcy. That just about finished me. She always calls me inadequate. I hate it, but when she blamed me for that, it was like she stuck a great big knife into me.” Jack was close to tears. “My work’s the only thing I’ve ever had where I’ve really felt important – worthwhile – you know.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I just walked out. I couldn’t stay and listen to her any more.” At this point, one solitary tear escaped and trickled down Jack’s cheek, in spite of his best endeavours to hold it back.

“Oh, Jack baby.” Susan hugged him, kissed his forehead and wiped the tear away with soft, gentle fingers. “You poor darling. I’m sure she didn’t mean it though. You know how she is. It’s just her way.”

“That’s what I can’t take any more, though.” Jack sniffed. “I walked around in a daze for ages and then I went back and stood outside the house for ages too, just looking at it. I couldn’t go in somehow … and then something seemed to snap on inside me, like a light coming on. I just thought, what do I want to go back for? The answer just screaming back at me – NOTHING! So I walked away. And that’s when I met you here.”

Susan stared at him, a gentle kindness in her eyes. “Well, bugger me.”

Jack sniffed again and then grinned in a way he would never have dared to do before his momentous decision. “If you keep saying that, I’ll take you up on it,” he said, chuckling cheerfully.

Susan enfolded him in her arms and said, in a low, husky voice in his ear. “Oh, Jackie darling, you can do anything you darned well please to me. Come on, come home with me. I’ve sold up and I’m moving to Malaga next week. Why don’t you come with me? We can be off to the sun together and have the time of our lives. Why not, eh Jack? It’ll be a whole new beginning – just say the word.”