This is where I take you back in time, to the beginning of my story, not too far back though. The beginning of a whirlwind romance that would never last but would introduce me to my real soulmate who would change my world for the better and change my life forever.
On the morning of 10 June 2009, it was a Wednesday, just in case you were wondering. My sister, Amy had literally, just hours earlier given birth to her first child, a boy. My parents were both overjoyed at the thought of having a grandson, a brand new addition to the family. My mother had already made it well known that she would take him to the Church playgroup when he was old enough to give Amy some peace and maybe a little bit of quiet once a week. The moment she announced that idea the baby was barely four hours old. Although I think Amy might have had other ideas about how our parents should behave as Grandparents, after all there is a first time for everything, and I knew that my father would do a good job at storytelling because when Amy, Dexter and myself were children he used to tell us all about Long John Silver and he managed to do all the voices including the Polly the Parrot.
I arrived in work at my own blonde dizzy pace having been up for most of the night waiting to hear news from the hospital about Amy and the birth of Baby Harry. I caught the bus into the next village and arrived at the gallery a little bit later than usual. I couldn’t stop myself from grinning because I was so happy, the other passengers on the bus must have thought I was a proper geek, but to be honest I didn’t care. I had a brand new baby nephew and I felt like a kid at Christmas.
As I pushed the front door open, the little bell that was attached to the top of the upper latch just inside the door made a lovely sweet busy tinkling noise as I entered.
‘Morning Aunty Bea.’ Arty called out from the office at the back of the shop ‘I hear that congratulations are the order of the day then. Is Amy okay? What sex is the baby?’
‘Yes, Arty.’ I replied ‘Amy gave birth to a baby boy at 4.30am this morning with no complications. As you can imagine, she and Luke are overjoyed and my parents are absolutely over the moon. The baby is to be called Harry James and he weighed in at just under seven pounds, so he was a good weight too. Mother and baby are doing well.’ The words came tumbling out of my mouth at such a pace that I am surprised Arty even managed to understand what I had just said, and I felt like my tongue was tripping over my teeth in my excitement to get the words out without even coming up for air in the middle.
I moved to the back of the shop and put my handbag and purse away in my desk drawer and grabbed the invoice that was laying on the top of my desk which was for a portrait that Arty had been commissioned to do more than four weeks ago. The portrait which was finally finished was being collected from the shop later on that morning.
‘Bea, have you got a minute?’ Arty asked, peering at me over the top of his reading glasses which had slid half way down his nose.
‘Yes, sure.’ I replied ‘What’s the problem?‘
He pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose
‘Well, I have just looked in the Entertainments Diary this morning and we have a double booking this Saturday and as I’m not quite Olly the Octopus these days, I simply cannot stretch myself to be in two places at once. Would you do me a huge favour and take care of the second booking? I know that you can pull it off, your musical talents are very good and I think by now you should give it a go all on your lonesome, my dear.’
I looked at him in shock and disbelief, my mouth was open and my chin was nearly on the floor. He was asking Me, if I, me, lil’ ol me, would be prepared to do a musical spot on my own. At nearly twenty-seven years old I thought go for it, just do it. Finally I was being given a chance to put MY own stamp on the world of music. Would the world be ready for me?
‘Yes, Arty, I would love to,’ I answered ‘Is it a local booking?’
‘No Bea, that’s just the point, it’s a one-off chance for you to show case your musical talents, and show the world that you’re made of good strong stuff. I know you can do it.
You are going to have to pack an overnight bag and travel on Friday, stay overnight, it’s cutting it too fine to travel up on Saturday morning to meet up with the clients on Saturday afternoon. Then if the clients like you and what you do, you will perform on Saturday evening. You can travel back home again on Sunday, there’s simply no other way to do it. I would have done it myself but as I have already explained to you I cannot manage to be in two places at once and besides you’re much prettier than me.’ He grinned at me.
‘Okay Arty, so where are you sending me to?’ I asked. ‘How am I going to get there?’
Arty turned and raised his eyebrows at me, ‘Well you can catch the express train or you can fly if you like, the train will be a lot quicker than going by coach, I can book you some travel tickets this morning and sort some hotel accommodation for you.’ He said.
‘Fly? Arty, you still haven’t told me where you are intending to send me?’ I asked him again.
‘Oh yes, I haven’t told you that bit yet, have I.’ he said,
‘Well, you’re off to Outer Mongolia,’ he joked, ‘no, not really, only kidding Bea. You’re going off to Manchester for the weekend.’
‘Manchester!’ I cried, at that point I really think I preferred the idea of Outer Mongolia. ‘You mean Manchester the home of United and City, Coronation Street and Take That and all things northern.’
‘Yep,’ Arty roared with laughter, ‘the very same!’
‘Okay. Yes, I’ll do it, but I’ll travel up by train if you don’t mind, it will give me a chance to relax and prepare myself for Saturday,’ I told him.
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