Leaving the City
The journey was long and the car airless. Even with the windows wide open it
remained stuffy Complaints from other drivers mingled with car fumes and together with Jack’s constant moaning, were making Mandy’s headache worse. She couldn’t see the point of whining about something one has no control over. She wasn’t in any hurry anyway because she was about to dip her toe in the new life she was very soon going to lead, and she wasn’t feeling at all brave.
She was deep in thought when she heard her fiancé announce that they were nearly there. Her throat tightened and her heart felt as though it was tumbling down into the pit of her stomach. It was early evening when they arrived and turned into the long front drive of the farmhouse. It loomed ahead. Jack had told her tha there was a small lake on the farm so she’d pictured an idyllic little pond scene with ducks and swans resting on the wing. She wasn’t prepared for the sight of a large reed-fringed lake across a field to the right of the drive. The beauty of it snatched her breath away. All this was soon to be her home. She was leaving the city but she didn’t know where she was heading; she certainly wasn’t walking into anything like she’d imagined. It was as though she was stealing someone else’s fantasy.
That was the first shock of which there were to be many; the size of the house, for instance. Jack had said it was a very typical farmhouse and no larger than most around there. It appeared massive to Mandy. She was yet to find out in what year it was built but her first impression was that it was probably early Victorian. You could have fitted four London terraced houses into it, so it annoyed her when Jack insisted on calling it ordinary. If it was ordinary, then just how ordinary did he think her own small family home was? When she paused to think about it she suspected that he was embarrassed by its size and therefore played it down. In fact, he wasn’t exaggerating nearly as much as she had believed because she was later to learn that indeed many Welsh farmhouses were very large and this one wasn’t out of the ordinary, as he had insisted.
Mandy was young and unworldly and about to meet her future parents- in- law for the first time. She felt that she’d been mislead about the size of the lake and farmhouse and by now was in a panic. How different from what she’d imagined were these people going to be?
After a bumpy ride down a long drive pitted with potholes, they arrived at a large forecourt. There was a white car parked close to a black wrought iron garden gate. Leading from the forecourt there was another much wider farmyard gate through which she could see a group of white painted farm buildings that looked as though they were straight out of a picture postcard. There was a tractor and a plough and other machinery that she couldn’t put a name to. She had a quick look around to see if there were any ducks or chickens roaming about, just to complete the scene but she was soon to learn that was fanciful. This was a working farmyard.
When Jack stopped the car they stretched their limbs before slowly opening the doors and getting out. Mandy noticed that he seemed to be in no hurry and wondered why he appeared so hesitant. He opened the garden gate and ever the gentleman, began to usher her through. Her natural instinct was to hold back and they tussled gently before he relented and walked ahead of her. The path was short and they reached the very large gothic- style, arched oak door which opened into a small vestibule where there was a second, less imposing entrance. Both doors were unlocked and she grabbed hold of his hand as he led her into the house. There was no one to be seen but within a few seconds a loud, well articulated voice came from the top of the stairs. Some would have called it well spoken English but in Mandy’s book it read, cultivated posh! She looked up and saw the figure of a well built, blonde woman, clad in a Caftan robe, very fashionable at that time. This striking woman had on gold mules and wore well applied, though rather heavy makeup.
Mandy found herself tugging at her mini skirt as though it was somehow disrespectful to show her knees, and wishing she’d worn jeans. But she quickly decided that hipsters with flared bottoms probably wouldn’t have been suitable either. She didn’t have much of a wardrobe to choose from anyway. After all she’d been a poor student until she had left college only a week before and was under the impression that she was visiting simple folk on a simple farm who wouldn’t give a jot about what she was wearing. She made a mental note to slaughter her fiancé for that bit of deception.
Jack’s mother glided down the stairs with arms outstretched, shouting “Daaaaaarling,” and without as much as a glance, swept her future daughter- in- law aside so as to embrace her son. It took her at least a minute to acknowledge Mandy was standing there, which is an extremely long time for anybody as nervous as this poor girl was, to be ignored.
When the terrifying woman deigned to turn towards her– and Mandy would always believe it was a deliberate delay - all she said was a dismissive “Oh, hello dear” without as much as a handshake. By now Mandy’s left leg was beginning to tremble uncontrollably and trying to quieten it took her full attention. She followed them both blindly into a room off the hall. This was the morning room, she was later to learn. It was a daft name in her opinion, because the room was used all day unless there were visitors. Jack and his mother talked for at least half an hour. Mandy was horrified that he didn’t at least try to involve her in the conversation, not noticing at first that he himself was barely involved either!
His mother then left the room to make a cup of tea, declining Mandy’s offer of help. When she and Jack were at last alone she turned to him, eyes wide with alarm.. Jack was neither on the defensive nor did he squeeze her hand to comfort her. He was clearly as stressed as she was. Though it surprised her, it also put her at ease because then she knew there was a good chance that they weren’t going to launch into battle the minute they left the house to return home. That definitely wouldn’t have bode well for the future. He seemed to find his mother almost as overbearing as she did, although she supposed some of that arose from embarrassment about the way she had greeted the girl he was about to marry, for the first time.
Jack’s mother came back into the room carrying a large tray laden with a china tea set, finely cut sandwiches cut into triangles and a homemade sponge cake. She appeared more relaxed and took obvious pleasure in pouring them some tea and telling them to help themselves to food. Jack began to relax too, as soon as his mother started to thaw out in the now warmer breath of her own voice. Now that her heart was no longer in her mouth, Mandy had room for a cucumber sandwich. She was soon to learn that this glamorous lady enjoyed entertaining more than anything else life had to offer her and was extremely warm and sociable with those she chose to be sociable with.
Soon enough Mandy was to be added to that list of chosen ones; once it was accepted that she wasn’t going to run off for good, with Jack under her arm.
Mandy wished she could have been sure of that when she took her first terrifying steps into what was to be her future.
© Christine Magee
