It would be beneficial to read 1969 before Pauline’s diaries.
*
Sylvia.
2019
I go up to my bedroom taking a large glass of wine, and I sit and stare at the box on the floor. I peel back the brown tape, and slide my fingers under the flap and flip the top open. I pull off a top layer of crumpled newspapers that has been added to the box as packing. The first diary is sitting there face up. It’s a hardback with a red cover. I just stare at it for some moments, plucking up the courage, and for what reason I don’t know to be honest. With all the crap I’ve been through, a few books shouldn’t put me on edge.
I take a sip of wine, and then a deep breath. I pick up the first diary, reminding myself that I’ve been told I’m like my grandmother, according to Mr Spratt.
I suppose a lot of women keep diaries, mine are on my computer, but these seem more real than a computer screen, and once ink touches the pages, it can’t be deleted as easily. Reading someone else’s words on your computer screen is a little distant in some ways. But here are the very words, which Pauline Cox, my grandmother, wrote by hand, and on the very same pages she touched. I pick up the diary and run my fingers over the red leather. Feeling those little ridges just like my grandmother may have done, makes me a little sad.
I take another sip of the red wine, and another deep breath. Before I start I ask myself, did my grandmother ever want these diaries to be read? I open the cover, and flip the thick blank page over. I turn page after page thinking this is some sort of joke, all the pages are empty.
I gasp, out loud, because there it is, my grandmother’s hand writing from 1968, in that blue ink that comes in a bottle. I close my eyes before I start to read. Hoping my grandmother in her place up in heaven approves of the granddaughter she never met, reading all her dark secrets.
November 14th.
Dear diary I found you cheap in a book store. I have not kept a diary for some years, but now with my husband sick in hospital, I am hoping you will help fill the lonely nights here, whilst I wait for him to return home.
My husband is in hospital recovering from the truck which ran him over at work. He looks so helpless, and the pain he is in makes me cry. It has been nearly three weeks since his accident, and I cry for him constantly. The doctors say each day that passes is a step towards recovery, they may say that but I can’t see it.
I wonder should I go into what happened yesterday. Colin and Lee came round last night, on their way home from the pub. I was still up but about to go to bed. I told them as such, and both drunk, they asked if I needed cuddle. I slammed the door in their giggling faces. Colin opened the letter box and called through that I must be getting desperate by now, with their mate in hospital. They went on their way and I thought to myself, they would no longer be my husband’s friends, if I told him what they had suggested!
November 22nd.
Barry is coming home in a few days. I should feel elated, but I am anxious and worried that I will not be able to cope. We learned yesterday that the company he works for cannot give us any compensation, because they did not have accident insurance. Mr Barlow did give me £25, but that is all he said he can do for us. He has said he will try and keep Barry’s job open, for when he is able to work again.
I do have a job now myself. I started work at the Glory Care Home last week. It does take my mind off worrying about Barry, so I get a little respite from the gloom. My uniform is extremely short, not that I mind, in fact I took it up three inches, do not ask me why because it is a little scary to admit. It barely covers my panties, and to be honest it thrills me walking around knowing I am showing a lot of leg. The men at the home get a flash of my panties now and then. Maybe it is because my sex life has been nonexistent since Barry’s accident, but I have always had a tendency to show a little more off than I should.
November 25th.
This morning Mr Cox, who owns our house, came round with two other men to deliver a bed for my husband, which I had them set up in the small front room. I specifically told him I had to be at work at 10 am, and they turned up at quarter to. One of them kept calling me darling and love. I could see in his eyes he was thinking disgusting thoughts about me. They waited at the bottom of the stairs while I went up to get fresh sheets. I knew they could see up my short work dress, and I had to wait several moments to calm myself before going back down.
Mr Cox offered me a lift to work in their lorry. I climbed aboard with Mr Cox stood right behind me, there was no doubt he could see up my uniform. I sat between him and the driver, while the other man sat in the back. The driver grazed my leg when he changed gear. Once could have been accidental, but 6 times, I think not.
I felt sick with excitement, and the van seemed thick with sexual tension, as I sat there between the driver and Mr Cox. Mr Cox and my shoulder were in constant contact, and further down his hip and thigh rested against mine. I knew it would not take more than a glance to see my panties. I could feel a definite wetness between my legs, and I imagined right there and then that they would drag me over the seat, into the back of the lorry, and then they would find out just how wet I was for themselves!
Mr Cox helped me down from the lorry, he was more of a hindrance than a help, insisting I climbed down backwards. He put his hands on my hips with his fingers spread open, and as I climbed the two steps to the pavement, my uniform, with Mr Cox’s help, ended up round my waist, and exposing my panties to the full. The driver gave me a wolf whistle as I walked hurriedly in the care home, tugging my dress back down on the way.
I had my bottom pinched by one of the residents again today. According to Sandra Smith, it is just one of those things which happen a lot. Well it is no big deal I guess. I do not mind them looking, it excites me, and when the touching started I was surprised by how quickly I got used to it. Sarah says she does not mind either, and she is right, it does relieve the boredom.
December 9th.
Barry just lies in bed with his legs in plaster from his ankles to his hips. His right arm is in plaster too, which all serves to make him moody. It is understandable, and the pain killers although helping with the pain, also depress him. There is nothing for it but to wait for him to heal.
We have had a man come round to the care home with some new drug Ms Appleby has agreed to trial. It is that new, the drug has not been given a name yet. Ms Appleby calls it MB451. Sandra says she saw the man give Ms Appleby some cash. I guess that is how these things work. Sandra told me she thinks Ms Appleby is a lesbian, we giggled about that but I do not know, she is strict but she seems happy with my work.