You know who you are. "What happened next?" "The story isn't finished." "Please write a sequel."
You have my sympathies. Go run a warm bath, and sharpen the razor blade. This was written especially for you!
The pink case
It was cool up in the attic and Ralph kept getting distracted. He'd already found the pink case that Karen had asked him to bring down, but it was full. They'd moved house twelve years ago but there's always one thing that never gets unpacked. Random stuff had just been dumped in the case and forgotten. They had bought much better luggage since, but for this nostalgic trip she wanted her old case. She said she'd be more comfortable carrying this smaller one; and it brought back fond memories. Also she was sick to death of tripping over other peoples' rollalongs in train stations. This was a proper case that you carried; it was bright pink and easy to spot. Now, in the dim light of the single dangling bulb, Ralph was engrossed in its contents - some of them ancient.
Most of the items he'd shoved to one side. They really needed throwing away. But here was Karen's very first nursing bra; with the little flap that had let Naomi feed. Today she could get both her breasts in one of these cups, but in pregnancy they'd been enormous. Naomi was in her second year at university now and might need something like this one day - if they still made such things.
And here, the pair of baby bootees Ralph had bought before she had even been born. They hadn't known what sex the baby would be and he'd chosen blue. Not that it mattered; he'd been delighted it was a girl.
He was currently browsing through some old photos in an envelope. Here was the first scan where they couldn't make out the baby's gender. Another showed Karen in a bikini on the beach at Bournemouth; that nust have been on their honeymoon; her baby bump was not yet discernible. Two others were old black and whites he'd didn't recall seeing before. On the back of one was 'Me and Andy, 1st year uni. He introduced me to the delights of apples and oranges!' The other was similar but with four of them. Written on the back was 'Me, A, M & P at Windermere'. Those were taken a year before he and Karen had met. And here was their official wedding photo, still in its original frame. It had hung over the mantlepiece in their old house. They were toasting each other with the first champagne they'd ever tasted. Ralph couldn't remember why it had never been hung up when they got to this house; probably because photos of Naomi filled most of their wall space.
"Did you find it?" shouted Karen.
"Yes, I'm coming down now."
He dragged the items with him to the trapdoor. But as he put his foot on the first rung of the loft ladder, he changed his mind. He hauled the pink case down of course, but left the other things within easy reach. He wanted to clean them up as some sort of surprise; though he wasn't sure of the details yet. He manoeuvred the door back into place and climbed back down.
"Ah, there it is!" said Karen. "I bought that for my first year at uni - I didn't have as much stuff then."
"I'll take it to the kitchen and give it a good wipe."
Ralph washed the outside, getting rid of the accumulated dust. Then he thoroughly cleaned the inside after tipping into the bin bits of paper, old pens and other accumulated debris. In a cupboard he found a box of pot pourri sachets. He popped one in each of the mesh pockets; now it smelled a lot less musty. One pocket had the suitcase keys in. All these years and they were still attached to each other on a large split ring. He imagined Karen might never even have locked this case. But it offended his sense of logic keeping two keys in the same place. It took the blade of the veg knife to force the ring open. Then, when they were separated, he wasn't really sure what to do with them. He dropped one in his pocket and put the other in its lock. Life seemed slow these days, so the trip to the loft was probably the highlight of Ralph's weekend.
This was going to be Karen's first trip away from her husband and she was excited. She had listed herself on Friends Reunited where she was only interested in her time at Lancaster University; she wasn't bothered about finding anyone from her school or work days. After a year of zero activity, out of the blue her old friend Marie had contacted her. She was also married and living abroad, but had recently booked a flight to return to England. She would be coming back for her parents' pearl wedding anniversary - thirty years. But Marie had booked flights for a week's stay, only to find her father had surprised her mother by booking them on a cruise on the Thursday after their big party. Left with four more nights before her return flight she had tracked down Karen, who was now going to meet her for a long weekend. They were due to hook up at the university on the Thursday, find a hotel, and revisit some of their old haunts. They would see some of the lakes again, and probably drink too much.
"Which hotel will you girls be staying at?" asked Ralph.
"We don't know yet. Marie is getting the train up from London. We'll meet up at the university and decide when we get together. I'll let you know when we've checked in. You don't mind if we go a bit upmarket do you?"
"I don't mind at all; you haven't seen each other for years. Go and have a ball; we can afford it."
"And don't expect too many phone calls after we settle in. We'll be indulging ourselves. We're planning on finding a hotel with lots of extras."
"What kind of extras?"
"You know - spa treatments, facials, and massages."
"I thought you were taking a trip down memory lane."
"Oh we are, but that will only be in the daytime; we'll pamper ourselves in the evenings. And we won't be able to take our phones to saunas and so on."
"Don't worry about that. Fill me in on all the details when you get back on Sunday night - just as long as you're both good girls."
He was only joking.
"Of course we'll be good."
She smiled.
When Ralph got in from work on Monday he almost started laughing. Karen had already begun packing. He couldn't resist having a quick peek in the pink case. She'd packed a couple of summer dresses and walking shoes as expected. There was also a little black dress and a pair of high heeled shoes. Obviously the girls planned an expensive evening out, or possibly there would be a dinner dance at the hotel. Before Thursday came around he expected to see jeans and boots too. He knew she and her mates had hiked all over the Lake District while they were at uni.
