Happy Birthday: Part Thirty-One

~ beetleypete

This is the thirty-first part of a fiction serial, in 800 words

Fifty years old that birthday, and Hettie thought she looked every minute of those years. There were things happening in nineteen fifty-one, not least the Korean War, and the Festival of Britain being held in London. Optimism was the word of the year, and despite concerns of all-out war with Soviet Russia, people were looking to the future.

Edward was one of those, as his business was doing better than expected. To Hettie’s horror, he had joined the Conservative Party, and was hoping to be elected to the County Council the next time elections were held. He had also joined the Freemasons, sponsored by his contacts at the golf club. Unlike her, he had easily put aside his working-class roots in pursuit of profit and influence.

Hettie’s motives were not really political though. She did her job for the security of her country, irrespective of the political party in power. In the privacy of the voting booth, she had put her cross next to the Labour Party candidate, but he hadn’t won in their constituency. At work, Richard had marked her fiftieth birthday by reminding her that she could take her pension at the age of fifty-five, and would be required ro retire at sixty anyway.

Ten more years maximum, that was all that was left of her freedom and independence, as she saw it.

So full of himself he looked fit to bust, Edward now had a car, a swish dark green Humber. He liked to drive it around with his golf clubs in the boot, and park it on the street outside the shop so everyone could admire it. Then when she got home from work one day, she was startled to see a television in the corner of the sitting room. He was out, and had left no instructions how to work it, but Hettie had no intention of watching it anyway.

The cleaning lady was now a daily, only taking Sundays off. She was doing the grocery shopping and cooking as well as the cleaning, leaving meals in the oven to be warmed up, or cold dinners in the new refigerator that Edward had insisted they buy just after they moved there. The arrangements suited Hettie, giving her more free time. She also noticed that the daily woman’s son was coming round at weekends to tend the garden and mow the lawn. It seemed that Edward had money to burn, and was too busy to spend time in the garden he had craved for so many years.

By the end of that year, a manageress had been employed to run the shoe shop, alongside the young woman already working as a sales assistant. The manageress was called Deidre, and was in her forties. Edward spoke highly of her. “She once ran the shoe department in Selfridges, Het. Can’t get a better track record than that”. With Deidre running the shop and even doing the banking, Edward was free to spend more time with his cronies, which meant more time at the golf club. He even left her to do the ordering, trusting her judgement on styles and trends.

Not usually a suspicious or jealous woman where relationships were concerned, Hettie couldn’t shake the feeling that her husband might be interested in more than the woman’s skill at selling shoes and accessories. He was certainly staying out later, then began to go away on what he called golf weekends that necessitated staying at a hotel on Saturday nights. Rather then become angry, Hettie was actually relieved. She couldn’t remember the last time they had made love, and she had no real desire to rekindle that aspect of their marriage. So she would accept the possibility of a love affair for Edward, and actually be happy for him.

Her fifty-second birthday passed unnoticed by anyone, not even a letter or card from South Africa. When she arrived home she thought she might find a bunch of flowers left for her, but there was only a note on the mantlepiece. ‘Back late tonight, don’t wait up’. She wondered if she should have a talk with him, tell him she knew, and that she didn’t mind. But how would you even begin that conversation?

The next day at work passed routinely. Richard announced he had been promoted, but would be staying at Victoria for the time being. There was to be a new section chief in charge of them, a Miss Taylor. She just knew that would be the young woman who had offered her the job all that time ago.

As she was walking to the railway station, it started to rain. Sliding up the umbrella, she thought she heard a voice behind call out her name. She walked on, then heard it again, louder.

“Hettie! Hettie pet. It’s me, George”.

29 thoughts on “Happy Birthday: Part Thirty-One”

  5. I was really hoping someone or something would come into Hettie’s life to break the monotony, to bring her a bit of joy … and here’s George!!! I just hope it doesn’t get too dangerous. I’m finding that I really don’t like Edward much at all these days. 

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. (1) Hettie thought she looked all 26,280,000 minutes of her fifty years.
    (2) Optimism was the word in 1951. Despite concerns of all-out war with Soviet Russia, people were looking to the future. “Wow! Can you even imagine what it will be like in 1952?”
    (3) Hettie is not a party animal. That’s true of political parties and birthday parties.
    (4) Edward drives around with his golf clubs in the boot. It’s was already bad enough that he walked around with a club foot in one of his boots!
    (5) You can tell when a man has a vision of the future. He buys a television.
    (6) When it came to spending, Hettie was no match for Edward, who had money to burn.
    (7) Hettie couldn’t shake the feeling that Edward might be interested in more than Deidre’s skill at selling shoes and accessories. (In fact, Edward was more interested in Deidre’s skill at selling her carnal wares, and had become skilled himself at locating her ware-abouts.)
    (8) George was able to track Hettie down. He found her at the railway station.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Oh that’s a thrill, now was that coincidence or had George somehow tracked her down, actually being a spy himself!  On the mundane side of things, it suddenly occurred to me to wonder if Edward’s club foot would be a problem playing golf.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Edward knows how to make shoes to compensate for his club foot, but his golfing is more about business than sport, so I doubt he was that bothered about developing a skill at it. You will find out why George has reappeared in the next episode, Janet.

      Best wishes, Pete.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

All comments welcome

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.