Man Of Few Words

Chapter 42

"Well, as you know, I was born in Oxford at what was then called The Radcliffe Infirmary..."

If you'd asked me that, I wouldn't have been able to tell you.

"...on which date?"

"On which date, David?" she repeated.

I hadn't realised she was asking me a question.

"Um...oh shit... ahh... 8th May?" I said.

"Yes... oh shit, 8th May," she said, with a teeny hint of bitterness. "And in which year?"

I'd surprised myself getting her birthday right.

"1955," I stated with a great deal more firmness and confidence than I actually felt.

"Good."

A lucky guess.

Dad was laughing slightly and said, "So, it's a quiz now, is it?"

"Actually Mum," I said, "The whole point of this is that I really don't know much about y... about your early life. That's... just how it is. But I'm listening now. Really. So please, just tell me everything you can remember."

She tilted her head and raised her brows, as if to say "Ah, well..." then continued,

"Well, I don't remember being born, of course. But I do know that I lived in the same house pretty much from birth, right up until... ooh... my mid-twenties."

Dad looked across at her.

"No... well... more like my early twenties. I mean, goodness, I was 25 when you were born, so I must have been... 22? Maybe 23 when you wer... I mean, when I moved into my own flat."

Dad started looking out of the window.

"Anyway, that house, as you also know, was just down the road from here in Abingdon."

"St. Helen's Street?" I guess I was in quiz mode now.

"St. Helen Street," she corrected, heavily emphasising the 'n'. I decided to just shut up and listen.

"Lovely little house, really. Close to the river and the shops. And the pubs." She gave a well-meaning, but hollow laugh.

"Actually... you know, I think my earliest memory happened at the river."

"Did you fall in?" butted in Dad, trying to be light.

"No," she said, without looking at him. "Nothing like that, really. I remember, we were feeding the ducks, down at the Abbey Meadows, I suppose. It was me, and Uncle Harley, and just Grandma Judith. I don't think Grandpa Richard was there, but I'm not sure. Anyway, doesn't matter. Mum and Harley were throwing bread into the water for the ducks and I... I suppose I saw some bread on the grass that someone else had dropped there. And I picked it up, and... well, I started eating it. I think I'd already had a few mouthfuls before Mum noticed."

Dad and I are both smiling. Like, real smiles.

"I don't think she got angry with me. Harley was probably laughing, and... she pulled the chewed up bread out of my mouth with her fingers. I just remember the bread tasted a lot better than her fingers?"

"What did they taste of?" asked Dad with a laugh.

"I don't remember really," Mum shrugged. "I just remember that I'd been quite enjoying the bread."

"What's your earliest memory, Dad?"

"Oh..."

He hadn't expected to be called upon so soon.

"Well, I, er... Actually, can I just go to the loo?"

He looked at Mum as he said this, but it was me who said "Sure" with a tone of mild surprise.