CHAPTER 60
My feet knew their own way down to the Cow, as did my family’s, so the others simply followed. I had settled into a linked-arms walk with my lover, because after Mike’s revelations I simply didn’t feel like letting her go.

My stomach was still churning. I was so, so lucky in my family, as was Alys, and once again my mind was racing ahead, seeing us all simply as one family. Sod formality: Tref’s comment had set a very deep hook into my soul.

The Cow had a table for us, and even though I knew the menu both backwards and forwards, I still spent some time looking through it for the benefit of our guests, as I saw them. Illtyd was there, so I went through much the same silliness about noses and black eyes while Mike got the beers and other drinks in, and as he set them down on our table, he muttered “Bloody Hell!” and headed off to a different part of the bar to speak to someone. It was a few seconds before I recognised the older woman whom I remembered coming in with those various girls that Alys and I had assumed were on a similar path to her own. The other woman, the tall one with the hard eyes, wasn’t there, so I assumed that Mike’s new friend was alone for once.

He was away from our group for nearly twenty minutes, and in the end Ish went over to him with the menu to make sure he got his food order in. The lad was shaking his head as he sat back down with us, so I had to ask him why.

“Ah, Dad just said she’s an old friend, ordered the pie, or asked me to. Hell. Enfys, could I ask you a question?”

“Course you can!”

“I… Dad’s got so much history here. How do I stop feeling left out?”

I stared at him for a few seconds as once again I found myself blindsided by another’s problems. If this was an example of my ability to do the ‘sports as healing’ thing, I was going to be absolutely useless at it. I settled for waving a hand around the table, the one that wasn’t being clutched by Alys.

“Do you really feel left out? By us? If that’s… I’m really sorry if that’s how we’ve been. It’s just, like you said, so much history. I mean, your Dad knew my parents before I was ever born, so…”

To my surprise, it was Kitzy who interrupted.

“Can I say something?”

Ish nodded, and she waved over at the bar, where Sali and Colin had just arrived.

“Those two over there, I remember when we had a group trip out here, tutorial group. First time away from home for me, it was, and I could settle into the climbing, it’s my thing, you know, but then we were out at the pub, this pub, and these two, they knew EVERYBODY, and it was really hard for me. Didn’t know what to say, who to say it to, so I just kept quiet. Then there’s the music, and I can’t even sing, never mind play anything, so it’s even worser. Worse. And then…”

She looked down again, a blush steadily deepening on her cheeks.

“We had an accident when we were up in Scotland, and it was all active stuff, and it was what we’d been taught, probing the snow until we found Lee and Enfys under the snow, and we dug and hauled, and suddenly it wasn’t an exercise, it was a trembling man hugging me so tight I thought he’d stop my breathing. Suddenly real, yes? There’s more… Not now. What I’m trying to get at is this is all new to me, the whole thing, and I don’t know where… No. I DO know where I got the courage. I asked if I could share their house, this lot, these ones who are so, so sorted, and all they said was ‘Okay. Where are we eating?’. That’s where I am. Sort of same place as you, but, look. Included, straight away. Not used to that, me”

Alys sat open-mouthed for a few seconds before she found her voice.

“Us? Sorted?”

Kitzy nodded once again.

“I was sort of following you around the Freshers’ Bazaar, when we were all new. I don’t mean following you that way, I just mean I was going the same way, just started a minute or two later. Not a stalker…”

Alys reached across to pat her hand.

“We know that, love!”

“Well, I sort of ended up earwigging, and when you did that thing for Jordan here, I mean, how can you say you’re not both really sorted? Anyway. Not the point. Ish, that’s what I’m trying to say. This lot just include us, easy as. And that’s two of us newbies here, so you’re not on your own. That feel better? Anyway, your Dad’s on his way back over”

Suddenly, she was grinning.

“For god’s sake, lad, they’re even speaking English for our benefit!”

Sali caught that as she joined our table, waving a hand at Colin.

“Well, some of us better than others, ah?”

Colin in turn waved a hand at Lee.

“Still better than that one at it, eh?”

Lee immediately started hamming up his accent almost as badly as Jimmy Kerr did, and by the time Mike was at our table again, Ish was laughing out loud, and I took a mental cap off to Kitzy. Well done, that girl. As our food arrived, Ish started to quiz his father.

“So how do you know that lady, Dad?”

“Oh, long time, that. One of the regular faces when we would come up here, me and our hosts. Some people you see over and over, never speak, but you give a nod, get one back. Think I first really spoke to her on Foel Grach. Ish, the big mountains behind the bunkhouse, there’s a path takes you out almost to the coast, ends at a big waterfall. I was doing a solo walk, from Aber, the waterfall place that is, to Snowdon summit. Getting all the three thousands ticked in one walk—all the Welsh peaks over three thousand feet high, that is. Real expedition job, planned a couple of overnighters, at Foel Grach and the Cromlech Boulders. Traditional places, those; if the weather clears, I’ll show you them.

“Anyway, there’s this tiny shelter on Foel Grach, enough space for one to kip comfortably, two close friends snuggled up. Got my bivvy bag with me, and so I take my time over the northern tops until I’m at the shelter, and it’s already occupied, Pat there, and her husband, so I just think ‘Bum’ and prepare to move on, and she calls out to me, ‘Didn’t me meet on Crib Goch once?’, so I laugh, and point out that we’ve both been in the Bryn and Vaynol together on many occasions, not to mention standing gossiping with Dafydd and Dennis at the old tea-hut at Idwal, and her hubby, can’t remember his name, he just laughs and says that her memory is sometimes unreliable when beer is involved, and sorry for taking the space, but they know a good doss site a few yards away, and the kettle’s on, and all that sort of thing”

Our food arrived as he paused, and after a mouthful and a sip of his beer, his mouth twisted slightly.

“Put my foot in it tonight, though. Asked about her husband, and, well, widowed. Me and my size nines. Says she’s found a way of, a sense of, a… a focus now. Got another friend, who runs a care home. Brings girls up to the hills every so often, and Pat goes out with them and shows them the hills”

I realised he must mean the hard-eyed woman, but my train of thought went off down a completely different line as Mike suddenly started laughing so hard I thought he’d choke. Once he had his breath under control again, he turned to his son.

“There is a place up the road, Ish, a really great beginner’s slab, climbing spot, they call Little Tryfan. Turns out Pat’s friend’s girls have another name for it”

Colin grunted.

“Already got another name—the correct one!”

Mike waved his fork.

“No, I know the Welsh name. Sorry. Anyway, says Pat, since the first time she took one of these girls past there, when there was some lad on the rock in boots, short shorts and harness and nothing else, the girls, well, when they are there in the Summer, they take a picnic out to eat while they watch, and they call the place ‘The Perving Slab’. Remind you of anyone, Penny? Oh, Keith, mate! Didn’t know you could still be made to blush!”

Ish, naturally, wanted an explanation, which left Dad even more uncomfortable as three other parents sat grinning, and then it was music time.

Yes, we all stopped off at Colin’s place afterwards, but I didn’t get a chance to speak with ‘Pat’ as by the time I had finished my second spot on the harp, she was heading out of the door after a quick hug from Mike.

That man might have spared us all from his snoring by using a side room, but his son made a very effective understudy. At one thirty in the morning, I remembered I still had the earplugs in my fleece jacket, and finally managed to drift off to sleep, wondering where to take our group when the day had arrived properly.

‘Perving Slab’

Oh dear. I would have to let my old sports teacher know.