Read Online S.O.S. by Joseph Connolly - Free Book Online Page A

look – your last so-called marriage is hardly
typical
, is it? How long were you actually together?’
    Jennifer held her lips briefly ajar and wagged her head quite slowly.
    â€˜Seemed like a century. Thing was, though – oh Christ look! Four! They’ve got up to Four! telling you – might get on that boat before I’m forty. If not,
they
can pick up the bloody bits. What was I …?’
    â€˜Your blissful second marriage.’
    â€˜Oh yeh. Roger. Thing is, though, Stacy – I really did love that guy when I, you know – married him. Or I
thought
I did, anyway. Maybe I didn’t. But when I actually, you know – the actual day of the wedding – well
you
remember: it was really great, wasn’t it? Sun shining, and everything …’
    â€˜You looked fab.’
    â€˜
Felt
fab – felt it. Quite possibly the happiest day of my life, if I’m honest. Just like it’s meant to be – like it is in the movies. But then, oh God – it all seemed to go downhill more or less immediately. Even before the honeymoon ended, it all began. Staying out late, at first – and then not coming back at all till the next bloody day. Drink, of course … violence – quite a lot of violence, actually.’
    â€˜God …’
    Jennifer grinned widely, now: quite her most roguish.
    â€˜Yeh,’ she agreed. ‘I was really
awful
: don’t know how he stood it.’
    â€˜
You
,’ smiled Stacy, ‘should be shot.’
    â€˜That’s more or less what Roger said, poor sod. Anyway, he did, give him his due – he did put up with me for as long as he could, and we sort of, God knows how – jogged along together. But the
boredom
! Well – I’ve told you all this. Know it backwards. There was all the doubt and anger, you see, Stacy. Roger’s. Which are a killer, of course. And then the, well – betrayal. Mine. Yes, OK. But mostly I just remember the awful awful eternal
boredom
!’
    â€˜Poor little you.’
    â€˜You’re right. Telling you – ooh! Ooh look – they’re up to
Five
. Oh look – bugger this. We’re Five – I’ve decided. Can’t hang around this bloody dump any longer. We’re Five – let’s go. What was I …?’
    â€˜Still with the blissful marriage.’
    â€˜Oh yeh – my bloody awful marriage. Don’t forget your jacket. Coming? Got everything, yeh? Yeh, that marriage. Telling you – longest bloody month of my life.’
    Stacy laughed, and reached across to kiss Jennifer hard on the lips.
    â€˜You know what?’ she said. ‘You’re the craziest mother on earth.
None
of my friends have got a mother like you. You’re utterly, totally
nuts.’
    â€˜Poor friends,’ smiled Jennifer. ‘Lucky you. Come on, sweet child of mine – Christ’s sake let’s get on this fucking
boat
, OK?’
    *
    â€˜Oh God I don’t
believe
it,’ was all Jennifer frankly could manage. ‘It’s
another
bloody queue up another bloody ramp that leads to bloody nowhere. God Almighty – it would have been quicker to
walk
to America.’
    A smallish man with a damn big smile wheeled around to face her from just in front, managing to bash his olive green rucksack into Stacy’s face as he did so.
    â€˜Always chock-a-block at this stage, dear lady. Is that not correct, Captain Honeybunch?’
    As Aggie grinned her practically ga-ga complicity, Jennifer and Stacy gazed at Nobby wide-eyed, each of them willing the other to be still, not quite yet dissolve or explode –Stacy praying the while that her mother would not please unleash on this silly little man one of her torrents (because well, just look at her – patience was shot, you could see that); he maybe meant well, yes? Only, after all, trying to