Chapter 6 Coasting to the coast
The final leg of the day's journey in the minibus took about 90 minutes, during which time the bus was pretty quiet, Monty thought, even quieter than Sofija had hinted it would be during their lunch break at the M5 service station near Worcester.
Sofija had told Monty that particularly the older ones often napped during the afternoon following lunch and they sometimes did the same when they went on short daily outings and this particular trip was even longer than normal trips.
Monty looks across at the nurse sitting in the front seat of the bus. The nurse's chin was resting on her chest, her body rolling within the constraints of the seat belt with the movement of the minibus.
'I think that she's asleep, too,' Monty thought, 'she's nowhere near as old as her patients, I guess mid-50s. She seems to be attentive to them but her use of their NHS numbers does seem odd, although she admits that she does know their names too. Odd person, but working in an environment where everyone was closer to the end of their lives than the average patient, must have some effect on your feelings. I think that from what I've observed, it means that deep down she really cares for them even if show won't admit it.'
xXx
George didn't sleep on that final leg of the outward journey, as he was completely occupied with his own thoughts and didn't want to be interrupted by Molly.
His late wife seemed to sense his wish to reflect and didn't continue their conversation at first.
Reflecting on their walk around the service station after sharing lunch together was revealing to George, inasmuch as he had never really felt lonely before. He wasn't lonely then, while walking comfortably with a woman he had only just met but he knew that something different was happening to him, even it it wasn't simply down to transferring some of his interest to the woman.
George didn't feel lonely at that moment, being in company with this younger woman, Sally. It made George realise that although he had never felt lonely before, it was because he had always denied himself the feeling of loneliness. He thought that the constant ghostly presence of his dead wife gave him the illusion of still being with somebody, only his late wife didn't have a body, not one that he could squeeze or who would tuck her arm in his like Sally had after only a dozen steps on their shared walk. That act made him realise that, for the first time since Molly died, a woman's soft breast was being squeezed against his arm. And he quite liked that feeling, it had put a spring in his step and a smile on his face.
And, still reflecting in his mini-bus seat, sitting next to this same woman who he has only just met, made him think more positively about a future for him, for her, and for them.
He smiled at the recent memory of their relaxed walk together. They actually walked around the food hall complex five times before time had passed sufficiently to force them to go back to where the mini-bus was parked.
By the third circuit both George and Sally had each exhausted their own subjects of conversation. They had each spoken a little about their families, Sally mostly spoke about her daughters and how they differed in personalities, how independent both were and how strong their relationships with their partners appeared to be at least from Sally's perception. She hoped that was a true reflection of their state of happiness. She herself, was married young, at 21 years of age and at the time she first fell pregnant, only months into her marriage, she had worked in a general office, filing and typing on typewriters with carbon papers in those pre-personal computer days. When the second of her two children started school and she felt that she wanted to contribute to the family finances by returning to work, she discovered to her regret that she was regarded as unskilled and could only get work in a local school kitchen, basically because the job allowed her to work school hours. That way she could be at home with the children by the time the school day ended and also be at home with them during the school holidays.
George told Sally about his truck and car service business, how he was the last intake of conscript soldiers in 1964 and after they left the Army once again became a professional army, some 25 years after the Second World War had started in 1939 and the Army had rapidly expanded in numbers to face the threat of invasion by Hitler's Germany. In the mid-1960s, as the military conscription of two years in the Army ended and George signed on for another four years, there was suddenly a sense of being part of a professional army again within the military machine. For one thing, the regular soldiers didn't have this previously continuous large wave of new, mostly uninterested and unmotivated recruits to bother with, the majority of recruits became men and women who wanted to be soldiers and were enthusiastic to learn and be part of a team.
As a consequence of this change, came a feeling of being part of a profession, and George was able to delve deeper into the maintenance of engines and the subtleties of engineering design and manufacture, learning how to get the best out of the vehicles presented to him. As he became more proficient in servicing vehicles, he could see that everyone around him was similarly increasing their levels of skills, that the enthusiasm was infectious and that there was a much improved atmosphere of mutual respect. Immediately, he noticed, that the NCOs didn't need to bellow orders at the men all the time because the men already knew what they were doing without being told and mistakes were less common and George really enjoyed the new atmosphere.
However much he enjoyed the Army life, Molly, the girl he left behind, still drew him back from signing on for any longer term of service. He missed her and after his six years in the military, he returned to her and started working as a mechanic in a local garage. The work was much less strenuous but also much less satisfying, far less professional and the atmosphere in that first commercial workplace and the two others he worked in afterwards, as he searched for a more enjoyable job, was an unhappy one.
