I really didn’t want to get out of bed the following morning. The hotel bed was so comfortable when compared to its counterpart on Roxy. I rolled over and switched on the radio. The 06:00 news was just finishing. That meant that I had plenty of time to get up in a controlled fashion rather than my normal wake up and get out of bed. I normally reserved my few ‘lounging in bed’ times to when I was in a Hotel but I had to be out of the Hotel and back onboard Roxy before sunrise if we were going to get to Brentford by sunset.

The weather that had been forecast came on a little later. Squally rain was predicted with the same North Easterly as the previous day. The only plus point for the day ahead was that most of the relatively short trip down to Brentford was well sheltered from the wind.

My thoughts turned to Melody. In many ways, she was me but 'the me' of almost ten years ago. I wondered if she’d be with me today. I’d accepted that letting her take the clothes that I’d paid for and exiting stage left was a real possibility. If it happened, then it happened but it would be nice to have some company for a while even if it meant clearing out the spare cabin so that she would have somewhere to sleep.
I guess I must have dozed off because before I knew it, it was 07:00. Somewhat reluctantly, I got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. It had been nice to actually feel like a woman for once the previous evening but today it was back to my male clothes again. I knew that if Melody decided to come with me, she’d ask me why. I had my reasons but telling her in a way that would seem reasonable was not going to be easy.
I put all those what if’s and maybe’s out of my mind and concentrated on getting ready to leave.

---

It was just before 07:30 when I reached Roxy. There was no sign of Melody. Her room had been silent when I walked past. The signs were that she was going to sleep in and go her own way. I shrugged my shoulder and opened up the cabin.

After some checks, I was ready to go. The water leak from the prop shaft seal was controllable. The bilge pump was able to keep the water to a decent level but for how long? I made a swift prayer to the patron saint of canal boaters and hoped that it would last until I was able to get Roxy to the boatyard for the repairs and the upgrades that I'd planned last autumn but things had conspired against me and they had to be delayed until now. I’d be really glad to get rid of that infernal, sorry Internal Combustion Engine that powered Roxy. It was working well now but for how long? After the seemingly endless set of troubles that I’d had with it last year, I couldn’t wait to see it consigned to the scrapheap in a few weeks.

With a prayer to the god of engines, I started the engine and while it was warming up, I cast off the bow-line. With a final look towards the steps that led towards the hotel, I cast off the stern line and climbed on board.

I slowly edged Roxy away from the mooring and headed for breakfast.

I’d gone around 100 yards when something made me look behind me. There was Melody hurrying as fast as she could along the towpath. I waved to her, slowed Roxy down and steered her into the bank.

A rather breathless Roxy reached me a minute or so later.

“Sorry. I forgot how much stuff we bought yesterday. It took me ages to pack it all.”

“That’s all right. Stow your bags below and I'll get us underway."

Melody went down into the cabin with her ‘stuff’ and I got Roxy in motion again.

“I really didn’t want to get out of bed,” she admitted when she joined me in the cockpit.
I smiled.

“Same here but the hours of daylight so few at this time of year that we have to make the best of them if we want to get anywhere before nightfall.”

Melody was quiet for a few minutes. Then she said,
“You didn’t ask me about me? Where I come from and the like?”

I chuckled.
“By your accent, I'd say that you come from Suffolk. Stowmarket or Bury (St Edmonds) or thereabouts.”

“What? Are you Dr Doolittle or something?”

I laughed properly this time. Melody looked hurt.

“More like Sherlock Holmes or Professor Higgins than Dr Doolittle. He spoke to the animals.”

Thankfully, Melody saw the funny side of things.

“How… how did you know that I came from Suffolk?”

“I went to school in Suffolk. St Felix’s. I was a boarder. That’s the big school that you pass on your way into Southwold.”

“Oh yes. I know. Mum… she liked Southwold. Too gentile for Dad.”

“What did your parents do? Before you and they parted company that is?”

“Mum was a carer at a local Hospice. Dad ran a small car repair shop. He was always at work so I hardly got to see him. Mum came home one day and found me… being me, Melody. She marched me around to Dad’s place still wearing her clothes. Things went rapidly downhill at home from then on. I was hardly ever at home alone after that. Neither of them would even talk about how I felt.”

“That must have been hard?”

“Yeah. I had to account for every penny of my pocket money that I spent. Thankfully, I had a good friend who understood what I was going through. She was a lesbian. We studied together as our parents were good friends. Josie let me be myself when I was in her room. The oldies thought that nothing would go on between us.”

“But it did?”

“Yeah. We lost our virginities one Saturday morning. She needed to know what it was like… with a man inside her. She didn’t really like it at all but we’d agreed that it was something we had to do for both of us. Everything was fine until just before our GCSE exams. Her dad caught us in the middle of a big kiss and threw me out. They moved her away a week or so later. Josie came back for her exams but was always chaperoned by one or the other of her parents. When I ran away, I sneaked into her room just to say goodbye. She almost came with me but her father had made it clear that if he caught us together again, he would not be responsible for his actions. Josie was the only person I said goodbye to.”

“Do you know if you were reported missing? What I mean is… are the Police and Social Services after you?”

Melody shook her head. Her freshly washed and conditioned hair was shining in the sun that had just appeared over the old coffee factory building.

“I’ve been picked up a few times by the Police since I came to London. My guess is that if they had been looking for me then I’d have been sent back to Suffolk. They didn’t so I have to assume that I’m not on any list of missing people.”

“Do you want to go back?”

“No chance. If they take me back then I’ll leave again. I’m Melody now and for the foreseeable future.”

I thought for a moment but decided to hold off saying what I was about to say until later.

“We are just about back at Tesco’s.”

I looked at my watch.
“They’ll be opening the Café in a few minutes. Is there anything that you missed getting yesterday?”

“Some eye makeup remover perhaps?”

There were still traces of mascara and eyeliner around her eyes.

“Good. I’ll get some fresh milk and bread. I didn’t get any yesterday knowing that I’d be back this way today.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Melody as her stomach rumbled.

“Sorry!” she said smiling.

“That’s all right.”

---

Just before nine, we cast off and headed east towards the first lock on the Hanwell flight. I let Melody take the helm while I started clearing out my things from the spare cabin. I'd done a lot of work over the winter and there wasn't much spare space. Living on a narrowboat is a constant fight against clutter. It really is minimalist living. That means everything has its place and should be there unless it is being used. My work was another problem entirely. I needed to get as much as possible offloaded sooner rather than later. With Melody onboard, space would be even more of a premium than ever.

I’d cleared a good amount of space in the spare bedroom when I heard Melody calling out.

“There is a lock ahead.”

I put down what I’d been moving and joined her on deck where I saw that the first pair of lock gates were open.

“We are lucky that the gates are open. Slow her right down and go into the lock.”

“How do I do that?”

I realised that I had not really shown her the controls other than how to use the tiller to change direction.

“Ok, watch me. I’ll be looking for you to handle a lock yourself before the day is out.

She briefly went white in the face. Then she realised that I was giving her some responsibility and smiled back at me.

I throttled back and let Roxy coast into the lock. The locks on this part of the canal network are big enough for two narrowboats to use at the same time. There was nothing else moving on the canal so we had it to ourselves.

As her bow passed the first lock gates, I applied some reverse throttle to slow her even more. Roxy came to a halt inside the lock.

“Take the stern line and go up onto the lock edge. Use it to keep her from drifting back while I close the lock gates. Don’t tie it up as the water level will drop quite rapidly once I open the sluices.”

Melody took the stern mooring line and leapt onto the edge of the canal lock. I made a mental note to caution her about that. I cut the engine and joined her on the side of the lock.

“Watch how I close the gates. Don’t try to rush this or you will strain something,” I said warning her. Lock gates can weigh over a tonne each. Slow and steady is the order of the day.

I closed the first of the pair and then went to the other side of the lock and did the same. When they met in the middle, they were shut. The pressure of the water behind them would hold them closed while the water level dropped inside the lock itself.

“Now I’m going to open the sluice. The water level will drop and as it does, let the line slowly out,” I called over to Melody. She nodded her head.

I found the handle to the lock sluice and began to turn it. The sound of water gushing out of the lock drowned out the noise of the traffic in the nearby M4 Motorway. Slowly, the water level in the lock began to go down taking Roxy with it.

It didn’t take very long for the level inside the lock and the water in the direction we travelling to equalise.

I opened the lock gates and joined Melody on the side of the Lock.

“We can pull Roxy out of the lock or one of us can climb down and get on board, start the engine and pick the other one downstream of the lock. Which is it to be?”

“Climb down. If we were going to pull Roxy out then I should have been holding the line at the front of the boat!”

“Correct. Our you could have got on board before the water level went down.” I said.

“I’ll climb down. When I’m on board, throw the line down to me and then you can meet me on the other side of the lock.”

“It is a bit of a palaver isn’t it?” said Melody as she climbed aboard once again.

“It is and after a while, you get a method of navigating a lock that works for those involved. I wanted you to see all the operations involved. It has been a while since I had anyone on board when going through a lock so it will take a bit of time for us to get used to working together.”

“How many locks are we going through today?”

I chuckled.
“Enough. Enough for you to get used to what needs to be done and in what order.”

Melody groaned.

“It isn’t that bad,” I said.

“The process of going through locks is a whole lot easier when there are two of us. It is a bit of a palaver when you are on your own. These locks don’t have a big height difference. Some locks in Yorkshire have more than three metres difference between the sides of the lock.”

“What about the locks on the River Thames?”

“Many of them are automated. Much easier and a whole lot bigger. The lockkeeper may well ask us to wait for one or more other small craft to arrive before letting us into the lock but for today, they are all like this one.”

I distinctly heard Melody groan once more.

"It is a good exercise. Pushing those lock gates works up an appetite."

I could tell that she wasn’t impressed.

The sun was almost setting when we reached the Brentford Basin. Melody had learned how to work the locks very well. She’d even managed to close the last two pairs of lock gates on her own. I viewed that as something of a triumph.

The last lesson of the day was to show Melody how to use the facilities at the basin. She watched as I filled Roxy’s water tank, emptied her waste tank as well as topping up the fuel tank for the journey towards Reading and Oxford on the River Thames.

She had this look of ‘I’ll never be able to do that’ on her face by the time I’d finished.

“Don’t worry Melody, it soon becomes second nature.”

I got a shake of the head in return. If she was going to stay with me for any length of time, she’d learn. I didn’t have anyone to teach me and I shuddered as I remembered the first time, I’d tried to use a winding hole to turn Roxy. It was not a pretty sight so I hurriedly put it to the back of my mind.

With Roxy’s service done, we tied up Roxy at a vacant berth for the night. As I switched off her engine for the last time that day I felt that it had been a good day. Melody had done very well and would be a great help in the future. She’d even been bossing me around when we navigated the last couple of locks.

“Let’s go below and I’ll show you where you can sleep tonight.”

“No hotel then?”

I chuckled.

“No land-based hotel but the five-star floating hotel Roxy awaits!”

We both had a good laugh at my feeble joke.

We went down into the cabin. Her bag that contained her clothes was sitting where she’d left it earlier on the one couch in the sitting area.

“I’ve cleared out the spare room for you. Grab your bag from the saloon and follow me.”

I let the way forward. Her room was just past the small but functional bathroom.

“Here you go. This is all yours. My bedroom is next door. I’ll get the rest of these moved out of the way,” I said pointing at three canvasses.

“May I?” she asked pointing that the paintings.

“Sure.”

Melody picked up one of the A3 sized canvasses.

“Did you paint this?”

“Yep. I have fifteen more in my room.”

“This is good. Where is this place?” asked Melody.

“It is a place called Horton Wharf. It is on the Grand Union Canal near Tring.”

“Are they all places on the Canal?”

“No. Well, not quite. All within a couple of miles of the canals I’ve been travelling along for the past few years.”

“Do you sell them?”

I grinned.

“I do just that. I nearly have enough for a show. The gallery I use is putting on a show in late April.”

“And I buggered up your plans?”

I laughed.
“No, you didn’t. As I said before, Roxy has a leak on the prop shaft seal and needs to come out of the water to be fixed. That’s why I’m heading over to Oxford. There is a boatyard there who can fit me in in two weeks.”

“Surely it won’t take that long to get to Oxford?”

“The river Thames is not to be trifled with. If we get a lot of rain, we might well have to anchor up for up to a week. You can’t fight the Thames in flood. The low power of Roxy’s engine would mean that we’d probably go backwards.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You don’t argue with mother nature especially in a craft like a narrowboat. They aren’t designed to go anywhere fast. Canals really don’t have much current to speak of. Rivers like the Thames, Severn and Trent are the opposite. Then there is the fact that we will be going against the flow all the way to Oxford where we join the canal network again.”

“I have a lot to learn,” commented Melody with a distinct sigh in her voice.

“I had to start somewhere. My mistakes were… shall we say a tad embarrassing.”

“I’m going to call the owner of the gallery. If he can collect what I have ready then we can have a lot more space. It will be nice if he can get here first thing in the morning.”

“Until you paint some more?”

“Indeed, but I only need to do four or five before the show. I have all the preliminary sketches done. After that it is just a question of filling in the blanks.”

Melody was quiet for a bit.
“You don’t mind me being here then?”

I smiled.

“Not at all. It will be nice to have some company until you decide to move on with your life.”

“When will that be? I… I had no real idea about what to do with my life.”

I smiled again.

“Then consider this an opportunity to try to decide what to do with your life. After all, you get a room over your head and food in return for helping run the Roxy and making sure that we get to Oxford in time for her to be lifted out of the water. I plan on spending four to five weeks near Oxford finishing the paintings for the show. I also have to go over to a place just south of Stratford on Easter Sunday.”

“What happens there?”

“I have a showdown with my Father. By then I won’t be able to hide these any longer,” I replied looking down at my small breasts.

“Why aren’t you already living as a woman? You looked pretty good last night. That was a real shock you know.”

“I want my father to be shocked enough to want nothing more to do with me. As far as I know, he still thinks that I’m going to come to my senses and take over the family business. That is the last thing I want from my life. Ever since I started drawing landscapes when I was in Australia, I knew that if I could sell my work then that would be my life. Having Roxy as my base makes it a great way to travel slowly around the country finding great scenes to paint.”

“You seem very happy?”

“Most of the time I am. One day, I’ll find someone who will share it with me. One day I’ll probably settle down and do something different.”

“Did you ever want a family? You know, to be a father?”

I shuddered.

"No way. I'm not really a children sort of person, especially very young ones. I know that it sounds a bit selfish but my view is that far too many people have children who are totally unsuited for it. Then there are others who fit right into the role of being a parent. If you go to just about any large shopping centre on a Saturday and just observe the different families who go there. You can see for yourself those who shouldn’t be within a mile of their kids.”

“I didn’t know.”

I chuckled.

“Neither did I until I came back from Australia. I found myself sitting next to a child psychologist for the entire flight so you sort of get talking. Well, he really didn’t want to shut up but I listened to most of what he said. Some of it was actually quite informative. Anyway, not long after I returned to the country, I went to the Westfield Shopping Centre over in Shepherds Bush. That’s not very far from where we first met. During my visit, I spent a considerable time just watching people. After an hour or so, I started to see the patterns of behaviour. Children running riot and parents unable to control them then there are the insatiable demands for this and that and the kids never being satisfied with what they got.”

“That seems very down almost, anti-parent.”

“Not at all. There were others where the whole family is happy to be together and enjoying life. There was no way that I could imagine myself in the latter group. I guess having a younger brother who is a complete and utter bastard has a lot to do with it.”

Melody didn’t say anything so I asked,

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No. I’m an only child.”

“And did you play up all the time when you were out with your parents?”

“Not really. I just wanted to be somewhere else and be myself.”

Then she smiled.

“I sorta see what you mean. I was much like that. My father thought this rather odd so he sent me off to boarding school. That was his first attempt to make a man of me.”

I smiled.

“Good. Fancy getting us something to eat tonight?”

The colour drained from her face.

“How about you go and get something out of the freezer and nuke it in the microwave.”

Melody smiled. I could tell that she was relieved.

“What are you going to do?”

“Firstly, I’m going to call the owner of the gallery about collecting my pictures. Hopefully, he can be here first thing in the morning. Low tide is just before nine. It will be slack for half an hour or so and then we’ll get the benefit of the tide to take us upriver to Teddington Lock."

“Don’t you have to book the lock from here that takes us into the river? I saw the signs while you were emptying the toilet.”

I smiled. Melody was quite observant.

“Good point, but I booked it before I left the mooring near London Zoo yesterday. As it happens, there is another boat going out tomorrow morning and there is space in the lock for us as well. I’ve also spoken to the lock keepers at Richmond and Teddington. There is some rain forecast for tonight but not enough to affect our journey to at least Windsor which won’t be until the day after tomorrow.”

“Ok.”

“It is good that you are keeping your eyes open.”

“It is all a bit strange to me. There is a lot to learn.”

I smiled.
“It was strange to me at first but I got there in the end.”

I decided to change the subject.

“How about I help you try some different styles of makeup after dinner?”

Melody looked a bit puzzled.

“From what I saw last night, you are much better looking than I’ll ever be if you get your makeup right. You know emphasise your strong points like your cheekbones.”

Melody’s broad smile told me that I’d said the right thing.

[to be continued]