Chapter 7

Mum was extremely chipper when I went into her room. She was sitting in an easy chair, reading a book she had brought to the hospital, and stood, carefully, to give me a hug.

“Jamie, how lovely to see you. My! Don’t you look the lady! This new life has been good too you; I can see. Where’s your young man today?”

“He’s doing his job, looking after another film star. I didn’t ask, but the receptionist in the Agency said that he was in Paris, seeing why a starlet had a meltdown on set.”

“You’re different in some way. I can’t put a finger on it. Yes! I can. You’re more settled and you appear more confident in what you’re doing. Did you and Roger go further, last night?”

“Well, Mum, we kissed, but that was all. I told him that it was as far as I would go until I was a proper woman for him. I guess that it means that I’ll be in a place like this one day, having my outie turned into an innie. It’s something I’ve avoided thinking about until we kissed. I felt him against me and knew I wanted him. Is that too stupid?”

“Love is never stupid, my daughter. Lust can be, sometimes, but love knows what it wants. If it had been lust, you would have been to bed with him. One day he’ll take you to meet his parents.”

“Funny, that. I’ve met them both, already. His mother has a restaurant in London, specialising in Italian food. His father runs a seafood café in Whitstable, where they do the most fantastic oyster dishes. He’s taken me to both places. The only person he hasn’t met is my father.”

“That’s unlikely now, Jamie. I sent him a message through the airline not to bother coming home. I packed all his things in two cases before I came here, and the chap next door took them to a courier company that will deliver them to the airline office at Heathrow. So far, he hasn’t replied. He may just take the cases with him and go and live with one of his floosies.”

“That’s a bit drastic, Mum.”

“No, it isn’t. He’s hardly ever home as it is, so I won’t miss him. I feel as if this operation has removed a weight from my shoulders. I want to live as my own person. He put the house in my name, right from the day we bought it. I wonder if it was so he didn’t leave a trail that the other women could trace him by. I’m set up, and it’s paid for, so can get by with my little sideline sewing and my bingo winnings. I’m not destitute, Jamie, so you don’t have to worry about me. It was just that I didn’t have the cash reserve for this operation. By the way, the surgeon is an absolute dreamboat.”

“So was the assistant that met us when we brought you here. That’s something I would never had thought about a few weeks ago.”

She grinned and then sat down again. I pulled up a chair and we sat and talked, mother to daughter, for an hour. I asked her if there was anything I could do in her house before she came home, and she asked me if I could go and give it a clean, seeing that her problem had stopped her doing it properly. I said that I would go and do it the next morning. When I left her, she was happier than I’d seen her for years, and, oddly, so was I.

Next morning, I dressed in a pair of jeans and a tee that should have gone to the op-shop already, with an old jumper over the top. When I looked in the mirror, I still looked like Julia, but a Julia about to clean house. I still had the key to my old home, so parked my car outside and let myself in. Mum had a full set of cleaning materials, so I loaded up and went upstairs. Starting at the top, I thought that any excess dust would go down, to be cleaned when I got to that floor. I found out that my father now spent his nights, when he was home, in my old room. The wardrobe doors were hanging open, with nothing inside. I got to work. For a laugh, I looked in the gap behind a skirting board that I used to hide my illicit miniature bottles of spirits in. What I found made me sit on the mattress in disbelief.

What I held, in my hands, was a roll of high denomination banknotes. There was another roll, which I straightened out on the mattress. It contained marriage certificates in six different names, to six different women, in four different countries, all with the signature that was unmistakenly my father’s. None of them was the marriage that bore me.

I left it all on the bed as I continued my cleaning, needing a lot of time to process what I had found. The money would go to Mum, of course, but I wondered if I should load her with the other things. I knew that my father was a womaniser, but being a serial bigamist was something a whole lot worse. When I finished the job, I had all the rubbish out in the bin, waiting to be collected, and I went back through the house, inspecting my work. The last room was as I left it, with the items on the bed.

I had found a plastic bag in the kitchen and gathered up the papers, putting it all in the bag. I then went to the office, after calling Horatio and telling him that I needed to see him, urgently.

When he saw me, he gave me a hug, as usual.

“You even do the tomboy sexily.”

“Would you believe that these were part of my normal outfits, not that long ago?”

“You look worried, what can I do to help?”

I told him that I had found a stash that my father had hidden, while I was cleaning my mother’s house. I showed him the money and the certificates and sat back while he examined them and counted the notes.

“This is serious stuff, Jamie. The money is the easy bit, even though it’s five thousand Euro, it can be put into your mother's bank. We can put it in yours and then you can transfer it to her. That will cut the paper trail. These certificates are, though, something else again. Tell her about the money, when you see her, but don’t say anything about her bigamist partner. I’ll research all of these before we do anything else. We need to find if any of these women are alive, and whether they’ve had other children by him. Only then will we know enough to take the next step. When is he home again?”

“I don’t think he’ll be back. Mum sent his clothes and things to the airline office with a note for him never to return. She knew about his other women; he talks in his sleep. When he saw me in a dress, he thought that I was one of his children from a woman in Norwich.”

“I’ll look up his record to verify these dates and places. Do you know where he served?”

“He was born in 1962 and enlisted in 1980. I think he trained on Hawk T1’s in Yorkshire and went to Indonesia some time after1983 when they took a batch of T1A’s. After that he was transferred to 17 Squadron in Bruggen, Germany, and flew Tornados during the late ‘80’s. In 1991 they were in the Gulf War flying from Bahrain, and then he was back in Bruggen until 1999, when the Squadron took part in the Kosovo offensive. After that, he was in Lincolnshire flying Typhoons, with deployments to the north to do low level training around the Lochs and into the Lake District. In 2011 he was seconded to the German Air Force, back to flying Tornados from Kandahar over Afghanistan. He left the Air Force in 2015, after his 25 years were up, and started flying airliners.”

“So, this certificate from Middlesborough would be the earliest, in 1981. Then the one from Jakarta in 1984. It looks like the next is 1988, in Eind, in Germany, followed by this one from Manama, in Bahrain, in 1991. When did he marry your mother?”

“That was in early 1999. He was in London on sick leave undergoing treatment in hospital. They met at a dance, and it was a whirlwind affair. I came along in December, that year, and he was then on the base in Lincolnshire, training on Typhoons. He said that I would be about two years younger than his son, so, I guess that the next one is Janet from Norfolk.”

“Absolutely right, Jamie. The last one would have been when he was doing low level training, in the Lake District, because the last one is from Carlisle, in 2008. It all fits. Do you know why he was in hospital?”

“Mum told me that he had been injured at Bruggen, playing the fool in a hanger, he went arse up over an air compressor and fractured his leg. My question is why?”

“That’s what we’ll find out when we research his service record. I have a pal in the Ministry of Defense who I will ask. My guess is that it’s all to do about money. If all these other names are listed as serving officers, every woman would have been getting a family subsidy. You know that this makes you technically a bastard?”

“That has crossed my mind as soon as I saw the earliest certificate. I suppose it’s just one other thing that I have to bear.”

“What was he like, for the times you saw him?”

“I was in awe of his fighter pilot persona. He was a hero, fighting for the country. I always wanted to fly and follow in his footsteps. Whenever I voiced that, he would ask me questions about geometry, and when I couldn’t answer he would tell me that I didn’t have the brain to be a pilot, seeing that I would never master navigation.”

“So, when you were in an airliner, without being able to look out a window, you had no idea where you were in relation to the earth’s surface?”

“I’ve always known where we were. It’s knowing the route and keeping track of the elapsed time. I reckon, that if you asked me while we were in the air, I would be within a hundred miles of the correct position.”

“That’s all you really need to know, and it looks like you have a natural ability in regard to the first rule of navigation. Always be aware of where you are before you plan where you’re going to. You’ll have no problems flying if you want to.”

He took the cash through to the finance officer and told him to put it into my bank account, as is, as it was my own money. He then told me to go home, have something to eat and glam up to visit Mum. He told me that when I felt that I looked good, I would start feeling good. I followed his instructions to the letter.

When I went to see Mum, she was dressed and ready to go home. I was surprised and said that, had I known, I would have organised a car, but only had my own one in the car park.

“Jamie, it doesn’t matter. Your car is perfectly all right. It may have a little age, but that’s what gives it character. My bag isn’t that heavy, and it’s one with rollers, so, all we have to do is get me signed out and you can take me home. Did you get a chance to run the vacuum around?’

“Yes, Mum. That, and more. I hope that you have grub in the house, because I could have done some shopping for you.”

“I tell you what. We’ll take this case and unload everything, then it’s my treat for dinner, at the pub. You’ve done so much for me over the last week, it’s the least I can do.”

I helped her sign out, with the staff all wishing her well. When I looked at my car, I realised that she was right. It wasn’t bad, just a little dirty. At the house, we put her washing into a hamper and rehung what she hadn’t used. We then checked the cupboards and fridge and took her padded bag to the supermarket to get a small bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and some eggs. That would stay good in the bag while we had our dinner in her local pub.

I hadn’t seen her so bright in ages. The operation had been a total success, but she had to stay off alcohol while she remained on the medication that they had put her on, so we toasted the future with lemonade. That’s when I brought up the subject of my hidey hole.

“Is that where you kept the booze. I could smell it on your breath and looked high and low for it. What did you hide, miniatures?”

“Yes Mum. One of my mates worked in his parents off-licence, and he would get us to chip in for a couple each. It made me appreciate my sensible times when I woke up in the morning. That’s why I stay away from spirits now. Getting back to my hidey hole. I wondered if I had left anything there. I found a roll of money that Dad must have hidden. There’s no way I would have forgotten five thousand Euros.”

“What! Five thousand, hidden in your old room! What have you done with it?”

“I went to see the lawyer at the agency, and he will put it into my bank. In a few days, I’ll transfer it to yours, which will give you a little nest egg. If anyone asks, I gave it to you, right?”

“All right, dear. I can see that he may come back for it. If he asks, I’ll tell him that I had some cleaners in, and they were smiling when they left. He can’t badger me for something I don’t know about.”

I took her home and we put the shopping away, had a cup of tea and I helped her change her bed before she got in. I kissed her forehead and wished her goodnight. She told me to look after my own needs for a few days, as her friends will find out she was home and come around, to see how she was getting on. I let myself out, happy in the knowledge that she was much better. That keyhole surgery is something else, pity they couldn’t do it with a sex change, or boob job.

She was right, of course. I now needed to start looking towards my future. The next day I stayed in my nightie and gown, with the tablet on the charger while I read the script, so far. I could see where it would be going to. The finished film would likely be classed as a rom com, with darker parts. I ate a couple of the meals I had bought, which was enough to see me through the day. I drank too much tea, as it seemed that I was peeing every half an hour. At least it showed that my kidneys work. I was about to go to bed when my work phone rang.

When I answered, it was Roger. He reminded me that tomorrow would be Saturday and asked me if he could take me out for the day. I told him that I would be more than happy, and he told me to dress casually, jeans if I had them, because he wanted to take me to visit one of his relatives who had a sheep farm in the Cotswold's. When we finished talking, I went to bed and wondered whether he wasn’t allowed to pop the question before his entire extended family had been able to check me out. The prospect of a whole day with him allowed me to drift off, with a smile on my face.

I had a quick breakfast, showered, and then looked at my options. I found a pair of black, skinny, jeans from my teen days that still fitted, and a white shirt that I had bought the other day to go with a skirt suit. My new calf boots went over the jeans, and a longish sweater went over the shirt, long enough to hide my lack of hips. Made-up, and with my communication devices in the tablet bag, along with some essential supplies, I was ready when he knocked on the door.

When I opened it, the first thing I saw was a bunch of flowers, with a smiling Roger behind it.

“Sorry for being called away when you needed me, Jamie. It was all a storm in a teacup. I’ll tell you about it, later. Oh! These are for you, my love.”

“You’re forgiven. Just hold on while I put these in water, and I’ll be right with you.”

I took the flowers into the kitchen and found a tall glass, big enough to hold them upright. OK, so nobody had ever given me flowers before!

He was still outside when I got back, so I closed the door, and he took the opportunity to try and mess with my lipstick. In the Alfa, I pulled the shade down and used the mirror to repair my lips as he got in. As he drove, I could see that he was aiming to loop around the south-west corner of London and expected that he would end up getting to the Cotswold's though Slough.

As we travelled, he told me that the actress that had the melt down was from a Jewish family, and the scene that she was supposed to be shooting was to be in the Holocaust Museum. She had been all right until she had seen photos of the camps with a wall of names. It had been too much for her to bear and took a day with a therapist to get back on track. The scene was shifted to another room, and she had managed to get through.

I could sympathise now that I had my own family demons to face. It made me wonder what I would do if I met any of my half siblings but kept quiet.

“So, young Roger. Who are we going to meet, today, and why? How many of your family are there to be inspected by?”

That made him laugh out loud.

“Would you believe that I have three sisters and two brothers. The one you will meet is an older sister. I think you’ll appreciate what her business is. As for the others, they’re spread far and wide and I have no plans to visit them in the near future. The brothers run wineries in Italy that we could visit on our honeymoon. The other two sisters married and emigrated to the southern hemisphere. We might catch up with them on your world tour to open the film.”

I sat there, wondering if that had been a joke, or not. Not the honeymoon bit – the world tour part. As we travelled on, I told him about my mother being back home and how much better she was. I thanked him for his work in setting up the hospital and other things. He glanced over to me and smiled.

“Anything for you, Jamie. Although I should start getting used to calling you Julia when the paperwork is completed. Have you thought about whether you want to be Julia, Julie, or Jules. It’s important to get it ready, so it feels as if you’ve been called that since school.”

“I’m still getting my head around the Julia part, thank you. Maybe you can start calling me what you think fits, and I’ll go with what your superior knowledge has contrived.”

“Actually, I’d go with the full Julia. Julie Leigh isn’t right; it sounds like a stammer, and you’re too pretty to be a Jules. The scribes may call you Jewel when they see the film. Thinking about that, I wonder if we need to get David to give you another name for the film. Julia Leigh as Lily is also a bit of a mouthful.”

“That could be a problem. Perhaps I could be Barbara, with Kurt calling me that, or Babs. Jack could call me his Barbie, as a put-down, and we might get some spill-over from the Barbie phenomenon.”

“I love your thinking. I’ll put it to David when I see him, next week. He’ll be in town to do your first scenes at the local studio. You will have all week there, and he hopes to get quite a lot of the incidental scenes in the can before the big outside ones in Hawaii. I expect that, with his efficiency, he’ll have most of the film shot inside three months. This digital stuff has taken a lot of time off moviemaking. It’s so easy to edit, now, with a couple of touches of a keyboard, rather than cutting and splicing film. We’re nearly there, prepare to be welcomed by a whirlwind.”

He was right about the whirlwind. Anna was a raven-haired beauty, who couldn’t stay still. She gave me a hug as soon as Roger helped me out of the car, then gave him one as well.

“Roger, bambino, who is this lovely lady that you have brought to visit me?”

“This is Jamie, destined to be a leading lady opposite Kurt and Jack in their next film. We are also very good friends.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Jamie the film star to be. So, good friends or lovers? Not lovers, not yet. There is a difference in body language when you’re lovers. We have that to look forward to, eh?”

Over the course of the morning, Anna and I bonded as good friends, with her regaling me with stories of a baby Roger and his love of old movies on television. I was shown the farm, really just several acres with sheep roaming in them. But what sheep! The flock was all Merino stock, with top grade fleece. Her studio was a separate building behind the house.

“This is wonderful, Anna. I can see that you do a lot of knitting, with all these machines.”

“Yes. My business is the manufacture of fine wool clothing. We do all the cleaning and carding of the wool, in house. I have a few girls in to finish the products, but the bulk of the clothes are knitted on the computer-controlled machines.”

I looked at the labels on a bench.

“I bought two knit dresses that you made, just the other day. They’re glorious, and now I realise why they’re so warm. I think that I also got a sweater from the same place.”

“I supply to the shop that Roger’s company use, yes, but also to shops across Europe. You can see that my output isn’t huge, that’s why the items are expensive in the shops. You’re obviously a good eye with fashion. I’ve got some finished products in the next room if you want to have a look. We can offer farm gate prices.”

I was shown some more clothes, and she allowed me privacy to try a couple of her dresses on. One was what she called a ‘trial run’ of mixed colours in a kaleidoscope pattern. I loved it and wanted to take it home. Over lunch, we told her about the film, and she put her hand on my arm.

“Jamie, or should I say Julia. If you wear that dress at one of your interviews when the movie comes out, I’ll give it to you as a gift. If you wear my sweaters when you’re seen about, during winter, I’ll give you one of the ones you’ve seen, today. If you don’t wear them, I’ll invoice you, later. Deal?”

“Deal. Don’t worry, I hope that you’ll see your clothes on my back enough to expand your workforce.”

“Good. I expect you to be a regular visitor and bring my brother with you. I haven’t seen much of him since he got that high-powered job. I expect that he’s looking after you. Has he taken you to see our parents yet?”

“He has, and he’s met my mother when we took her into hospital for an operation. He can even call her by her first name, already.”

“This sounds serious, girl. He’s too good to be left on the shelf. Do you have anyone in mind as bridesmaids, yet?”

“That, Anna, is some way into the future. I have a film to make, first. In fact, It may be a few films before we can marry, if he still wants me by then.”

Marianne Gregory © 2024