Jogging Memories Ch. 08

Brick lifted a couple of well-done burgers onto the warming rack, while Tommy nodded sagely. Brick continued.

"Now, I have to admit to you that I did go through a phase of seeing a lot of silly girls in a very short space of time a couple of years ago. That episode didn't last very long and I'm not all that proud of what I got up to and nor do I feel the need to go through that again. Now, I like JJ a lot, Mr M, and I like being with her. She's bright and funny and enjoyable to have around. And I think she's a very attractive girl, has a fantastic temperament and she is turning into a very beautiful woman."

Tommy nodded. To him JJ was already beautiful.

"I don't think her beauty is ever going to go to her head, either," Brick continued, "She's too well grounded for that. She is definitely not a pushover, Mr M, you probably know that from knowing her as long as I have. She may be only 16 years of age but she is a lot more mature than I was at that age. JJ is definitely not a silly little girl. Neither is she some poor girl that is starved of affection or direction and therefore looking for some boy who will take interest in her as a temporary substitute. No, I think JJ is going to turn into an amazing woman, able to hold her own in any kind of company. So, what it boils down to Mr M is, if she wants to call me her boyfriend, then I am happy to regard her as my girlfriend."

"Sounds fair enough to me," Tommy commented with a smile, "So, if you are not going into the family business to make your fortune, what are you aiming to do in the future after university?"

"I am really good at languages Mr M and am taking exams in French, German, Japanese and Mandarin, and, if I achieve the results I need, I will read for both my bachelor and masters in Oriental Studies at Cambridge. I have already been promised a scholarship provided I get the grades that I expect. If my results are not quite as good, for any reason, then I will go to London and attend my fall-back college, maybe just go for a bachelor's degree."

"What jobs will that masters degree lead to?" Tommy asked. Then he hissed, "Brick shhh! JJ's coming."

With a smile at them both, JJ handed over to her father a list of quantities required for chicken, prawns and steaks. Tommy asked Brick to put on the chicken breasts, which had been nicely marinating since lunchtime, while Tommy started plating up some of the cooked burgers and sausages in toasted buns ready for JJ to take.

"Right, JJ, take these to be getting on with, get out there and tell people we are dishing up burgers and sausages."

"Hey, Dad, these look just as good as ... well, as the ones you used to cook. I'm sure people'll be wanting seconds, you better put some more on the grill!" The girl grinned and ran off with four plates of food.

"OK, Brick, carry on with telling me your plans, before she gets back."

"First off, Mr M, JJ is a good friend of mine now and I wouldn't want to see her get hurt and I certainly don't want to be thought of as one who hurt her. Whether our friendship will turn into anything more, well, I'll make sure we are both certain about what we are doing and where we want to take our relationship when we get to that point."

"That also sounds more than fair enough, Brick." Tommy was definitely warming to this serious and assured young man.

"Anyway, as to my, and possibly our future JJ and mine, once I get my Oriental Studies masters degree and BAs in Mandarin and Japanese, if I can't get into the Diplomatic Corps immediately, then I'll sign up for an international bank with offices in the Far East."

"That sounds exciting, whatever you end up doing."

"Yes, it does, but it is liable to mean a lot of upheaval for the first few years, especially anyone with a wife and possibly a young family along for the ride. International Banking would be nomadic at best, moved on every two years or so, although it would only be to major cities in advanced countries. A career in Diplomacy would be far more irregular regarding timelines, while the posts would be much more far flung. Interesting for me, wherever I am sent certainly, but for a wife and kids? With my specialisation in the Far East, I would almost certainly be sent to Chile or Finland at the outset. Now that career path takes a very special kind of wife."

His eyes left Tommy and ran around the room until he found JJ. Both Tommy and Brick saw that shy little girl who hid her face behind her hair, that Tommy first saw in photos only a few weeks before, now had her hair pinned back and was dressed in a shapely (and short, Tommy noticed for the first time) black and sequinned cocktail dress. Just at that moment she was talking animatedly with gigantic nurse Ben from the Royal Hospital and, presumably, his tall and glamorous girlfriend, Veronica, who Tommy hadn't met yet. They were all smiling as JJ waved her arms about, describing the house, gardens or whatever, they were too far away to hear the dialogue. Tommy thought she glowed and looked beautiful. He turned back to Brick who smiled back at him, nodding.

"She's beautiful," Tommy said, choking.

"She is, Mr M, she certainly is."

Tommy thought about it for a few moments in silence as they both turned their attention to the grills, turning over steaks and burgers or rolling sausages around the grill.

"I think these ones are done now, Mr M," Brick said.

"Move them up to that higher rack, then Brick," Tommy agreed, "Hey, you seem like a good lad, Brick, JJ's lucky to know you, and so am I."

"I reckon I'm the lucky one, Mr M, sir, and if you asked JJ yourself now, with her new-found confidence, I reckon she would stick her chin out and agree with me that I am the lucky one!"

They both chuckled at that.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Memories

From where Jennifer was seating a group of newly arrived neighbours, on one of the tables, she glanced over to see Bob and that handsome boy Brick happily sharing a joke between them.

She couldn't help thinking that although it had only been a couple of weeks and a few days since Bob had come home, things had gone quite well so far. OK, Bob hadn't got any his memory back yet, which in many ways was a blessing. Certainly nothing that he had admitted to her anyway. Bob had even gradually become more affectionate as time passed, although they still hadn't made love yet. Jennifer was appreciative of the warm cuddling up they were enjoying during evenings on the settee and in bed at night. And they were holding hands during the day while they walked as Bob gradually built his strength up again. Surely it was only a matter of time before things got back to normal between the pair of them and they could resume lovemaking.

Jennifer was prepared to be patient but only up to a point. Before much longer, she thought, she would have to jump him!

They had even spent a couple of evenings as a foursome with Richard and Emma, without any adverse reactions, even though Richard had acted like a complete jerk each time they got together. What had she ever seen in that selfish idiot in the first place? The reason had completely escaped her. Anything that Richard did was annoying her and she could sense how annoyed Bob was with him, too. Emma looked ashamed and apologised for his behaviour to Jennifer when they were alone in the kitchen. Richard blithely carried on being Richard without noticing that he was rubbing everyone up the wrong way.

Bob was still signed off sick by their general practitioner for at least another week. After that his company had agreed to put him through a period of on-job training again for a week or two until he was able to do his job again. Things were really going well, Jennifer thought.

More guests came through the door, but they were more friends, not yet the ones Jennifer was expecting, dreading even.

She had received a phone call two days earlier while Bob was out lightly jogging down to the park and back. It was Brett Barlow who was calling, in his thick (well, to Jennifer's unaccustomed ears it sounded such) Australian accent to say he was shortly on his way to Melbourne airport and would be flying over to see his father for the first time. He had said that he should arrive from London by train in the late afternoon of today. He wasn't sure how long it would take to get through immigration, get into and across London before catching the train north. His intention was to check into a local hotel that had been pre-booked, freshen up and get to the house mid-evening tonight.

Jennifer had told Brett about the barbecue party tonight, which he laughed about. Brett said that over in Melbourne the barbecue season was in full swing and, checking the UK forecasts, he had packed plenty of warm clothing. He found it highly amusing that his Dad and Step-Mum were entertaining with an evening barbecue at the same time as frost was forecast for the early hours of the morning. Jennifer laughed back and told him what hardy souls folk were at this end of the planet. Brett admitted that Melbourne had very changeable weather too, with extremes of hot and cold. Jennifer agreed to Brett's off-the-cuff request that she keep his imminent arrival under wraps as a surprise for his Dad.

Jennifer was very much aware that Brett was Bob's son from his first marriage, a son that Bob had never met, even when he was known as Tommy. Incredibly, they had not even had the opportunity of speaking to each other on the phone.

Bob had discussed with the Jennifer the possibility of taking a winter holiday to Melbourne in a couple of years' time once the youngest, Tigger, had left to go to college. Jennifer was sanguine about the possibility; the holiday sounded fun, but she felt that this reconnection to his first family had the potential to be a threat to his present one. She felt ever since Bob had returned, she had been walking on eggshells. Brett represented that previous life, a life that Jennifer feared. It threatened to take away from her the perfect life she had built from the first time she had set her cap at securing Bob as a husband. A life that was now in jeopardy, solely through her own stupidity.

No, the next guests to arrive were a couple, which included that young woman detective that was involved in Bob's case, Rachel Webster, who had called on her here before. Her escort, clearly her boyfriend judging by how close they held each other, was a tall, handsome and distinguished-looking gentleman aged about 40. Very fit, confident, commanding, she thought, he was obviously another copper. It was Bob who insisted that they were invited tonight. The old boy Ralph, who brought Ann over regularly, had just walked up to them and kissed Rachel on the cheek, she wondered what that was all about, as it implied some family connection between the policeman and Bob's Mum's escort for this evening.

There was also just arriving, she could see, walking over to welcome them, that course, ghastly woman Alicia Knight and her statuesque daughter Hannah. Who would want to attack that, she thought, unless it was to strap her to a liposuction machine?

One of the early pairs of guests to arrive had been the Bisters, mother and daughter, Sharon and Helen. Jennifer had judged that Sharon, whilst quite attractive, was a little too old to be considered a rival for Bob's affections. However, fit and lovely Helen, despite her youth, seemed unattached and delighted in openly flirting with Bob, insisting on continuing to call him 'Tommy', which Jennifer had allowed to annoy her no end. Ever since she had got Bob back home, the Bisters seemed to call around every other day during the week, with Helen having the effrontery to come over without her mother both days last weekend.

The barbecue party was in full swing now and Tommy, Brick and JJ were cooking up a storm and delivering food to the guests' grateful approval. Tommy could hardly say he knew what he was doing though, it was as if he was on auto pilot.

It was getting quite late in the evening and they had piled on the rest of the chicken and sausages, keeping back a few steaks in reserve. If we don't use them tonight, he'd confided to Brick, we'll have with a couple of eggs for breakfast. "I'm invited to breakfast then, am I, Mr M?" Brick asked, and received the instantaneous reply "Of course!" with Tommy and JJ in harmony.

Once he had loaded up the grill, Tommy told Brick and JJ to get out of the barbecue area and do some mingling, dancing even. Someone, probably John's girlfriend Susannah, had put some dance music on the player that was more to the tastes of the younger guests. He assured JJ that he was confident enough to cope with the rest and the guests could come up for seconds or thirds if they were still hungry, rather than wait for food to be delivered to them.

Tommy popped the lid off another bottle of ginger beer, as Jennifer came over to join him, kissing him lightly on the lips.

"Well done, Bob," she said warmly, "You did a fantastic job with the cooking, I've heard nothing but compliments all evening. You getting tired now, love?"

"No, Jen, I'm fine. Just pleased that it has gone off so well. Hey, honey, look over there."

He pointed to where JJ and Brick were dancing together. The number playing had changed from a fast to a slow one and they had quite naturally put their arms around each other and danced close together.

"Ah, that's lovely," Jennifer said, tucking her arm in her husband's, "So romantic. I think Brick is a lovely boy, not that I know much about him. What do you think Hon?"

"I agree, Jen, they look a great couple. I've no worries about either of them, to be honest."

They looked into each other's eyes, before some spitting fat drew his attention and he had to grab his utensils and turn some of the food over to even out the cooking. Jennifer squeezed her husband's shoulder.

"I'll leave you to it, love," and she moved off to mingle with the guests.

It was at that point that the final guests of the night arrived, but Tommy wasn't immediately aware of that fact as he was concentrating on the grill.

He was turning over some chicken breasts when someone tapped him on the shoulder, he turned and set eyes on someone he had only previously seen in photographs, his son Brett Barlow. He was standing there, tall, broad and tanned, with thick sun-bleached hair, larger than life.

"Hi, Dad, I bet this is a surprise for you, Jennifer said she was going to keep it that way when I spoke to her a couple of days ago," he said, his voice full of emotion.

"This is a complete surprise, Brett. It is wonderful to see you, though," He put his tongs down, stepped forward and put his arms around his long-lost son. They gripped each other as if the world was about to end. Tommy closed his eyes as emotions overwhelmed him, all those lost years not knowing he had this strapping son existing far away on the other side of the world.

It was when Brett released his grip on his long-lost father and stepped aside that Tommy opened his tear-filled eyes and saw his childhood sweetheart in front of him. It was as if time stood still. His wet eyes made her look as though the ravages of time had passed her by, her image surrounded by a heavenly halo of light. His knees almost gave way but Brett, ever watchful, stuck out a strong arm under each of his father's armpits, tucking him into his body and holding him up.

"Sally?" Tommy croaked, "Sally, is that really you?"

"Yes, Tommy, it is," she said, her English voice heavily influenced by the Australian drawl she had become so accustomed to and assimilated into her own speech over the passage of time, "You've hardly changed at all, honey."

"And you are an absolute vision, Sal, I can hardly believe my eyes."

He held out both his hands, palms uppermost. Brett let him go. Tommy advanced a faltering step and his childhood sweetheart closed the gap swiftly, put her arms around his neck and melted into his arms. They held each other and cried. No words were necessary and none were forthcoming. It was like two star-crossed lovers were together again once more after half a lifetime apart.

They held their gently rocking embrace for several minutes, Sally's head buried into his shoulder under his cheek. He kissed the top of her head.

Tommy looked up over her shoulder and saw Jennifer standing between Emma and Richard. He started at Richard, who stood there smirking at him and then sideward glanced at Jennifer. Under Tommy's hardening gaze, Jennifer lifted her hands to her mouth, her eyes big and round.

Tommy gently pulled Sally away with a grip on each of her upper arms, so he could look on her face. He smiled at her loveliness and kissed her on the forehead.

"We will talk shortly, my love," he said quietly in her ear, "if we are allowed to". Then he kissed her gently on the lips, before turning and looking around the assembled guests, most of whom were now standing and gathered in a semi-circle around him and Sally. His eyes finally settled on Jennifer, who cringed weak-kneed under his stare.

"I have an announcement to make, my family, friends and neighbours." he paused before continuing, his head reeling with a cascade of sharply-focused images flooding into the empty spaces in his head. Sally lifted her head to look into his eyes, then turning to face the crowd, few of who she knew.

"I now remember everything. Just now, this very minute, everything just clicked and fell into place." Tommy announced, "I have all my memories back and things are going to change around here!"

Jennifer gasped and fainted, falling onto the decking. Richard was nearest to her but made no attempt to cushion her fall. His head too, was reeling with thoughts and concerns that all this was coming out now without a chance for him to stop Bob from revealing all.

Tom and Tig moved towards their mother but everyone else stood stock still and quiet for a number of moments, everyone silent, wondering what was going on.

As Tom tried to deal with his swooning mother, Tig on his knees next to him, uncertain of what to do, Mike Haroldson and Rachel Webster boldly stepped forward from the rest and approached Tommy.

Rachel slapped a pair of handcuffs on Tommy and Detective Chief Inspector Mike Haroldson announced to him in a firm, loud voice,

"Thomas Adam Barlow, also known as Robert Neil Morris, I am charging you with the crime of causing death by dangerous driving of Miriam Annabel Chesterton, age 18, who was killed at 21.18 hours on the night of 15th October 1981, by a hit and run driver who didn't stop and the suspect not apprehended at the time. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Please take him away Detective Webster."

Tommy nodded his acceptance of his fate and offered no resistance, as he was frogmarched by the two police officers through the garden gate, followed almost immediately, if much more slowly, by Ann and Ralph.

CHAPTER NINETEEN: Guilty

Tommy Barlow pleaded guilty to all the charges levelled against him. They were, manslaughter through dangerous driving, theft of a motor vehicle, failing to stop following a motor accident, failure to report a serious motor vehicle accident, driving without a driving licence, and driving without valid motor insurance.

He pleaded guilty to all charges, against his solicitor's advice, even though much of the evidence behind the charges was circumstantial. He was convicted to seven years' imprisonment, which exceeded the usual tariff. On Appeal, lodged by his combined families, the sentence was reduced to five years plus the usual condition to be banned from driving for two years following his release.

<<<>>>

It was during the questioning that first Saturday night in the Nottingham Police station that a tearful Rachel Webster explained to Tommy that she was in the process of transferring to the Nottingham unit from her previous station in Chesterfield. In the light of Tommy's full confession she admitted that they had no hard evidence of his guilt, and stated that if he had never regained his memory, they were doubtful that the Crown Prosecution Service would be able to convince a jury of his guilt beyond reasonable doubt and get a conviction. Mike and Ralph hadn't told her until two days before the barbecue that they had suspicions that Tommy had caused the accident since they were first involved in visiting Tommy in hospital. It was a suspicion that Ralph had formed back in 1981, but had no evidence to justify putting any note to that effect in the file. In the light of this fresh investigation into the tragic death of the young woman, they soon found the ivy-obscured gravestone of Bob Morris and, knowing the date of Tommy Barlow's disappearance, were able to put two and two together.