A Suitable Companion

Chapter 7: Driving Master James

It is about two and a half hours drive from Bath to the army rehab center Headley Court, one direction. This means we spend about fifteen hours alone together in the small space that is the car every week. At first it seems daunting but it turns out not to be too bad. For one thing I'm pleased that there is at least this occasion when he cannot avoid me, so I can feel like I'm being of some use. To begin with, we are silent much of the time as he does not really encourage talking. It seems like he thinks that the brief introduction he gave about himself the first day is more than sufficient. Eventually, the silence gets on my nerves and without him asking for it I start to tell him things about my family. Like little stories, current and past ones. Come to think of it there are many crazy stories to tell about the Dawes family and quite a few cast members to choose from so it is a good way to spend time during the long drives.

Things I tell Mr. James; how happy we are because dad recently got a new job as janitor at the local cinema. Besides being a paid steady job, there is the perk that the whole family can go there for free on Sunday afternoons. Often, we go all of us, watch some movie which is suitable for the youngest and eat popcorn. It is turning into a nice tradition and I hope he will be able to keep the job this time.

How we had to cut off all of Ella's beautiful hair last weekend, because Liam made an experiment to see if slime would stick in hair. (It does!) And the week before that, Nan had another hair incident, planning to dye her hair with her regular chestnut just to cover her grey ones, but got the wrong bottle and ended up with a lovely purple. She looked like a Muppet.

I tell him how proud mum was when the headmaster at the school said he thinks she has potential to become a teacher, so now she is considering if she could start taking evening courses to maybe get there in a few years. I always knew she is not unintelligent, she has just never been given a chance before.

Then there is Bella, who finally freaked out at Mr. Wong and quit the nail bar, but not before she had scribbled all the mirrors with nail varnish saying, "Mr. Wong has a tiny dick". I know for a fact that she definitely does not have firsthand information on that (uh! As if) but I still bet she is right.

I tell about how I have started worrying about Bonnie like I did for Bella before, now that she is fourteen and has her first real boyfriend, taking on the role to nag her about protection without getting any thanks.

And the wild child Charlie who came home, smeared black around the mouth because someone had dared him to eat a Spanish slug and he did not back out because the girl he likes was watching. As if she ever would want to kiss him after that.

The first week or so he just listens, but he does not ask me to shut up either. Sometimes he makes a snorting sound, like he might be holding back a laugh. Over time he starts asking a few questions here and there and even ask follow-up questions to stories I have told the previous drive, seemingly interested to know how a situation has developed. I realise after a while that I do not know when I had conversations like this with someone before. Certainly not with Smurf. He is more interested in the details of accounting than the details of my family's life and listening is not his forte.

"It's strange..." I say to Mr. James.

"What?"

"This, driving around with you in a car."

"Why? Makes you think of a movie again?"

"What? Movie? Why would I think of a movie?"

"You seem to do that a lot. Army movies with yelling officers, Starwars... I thought maybe it was something you do, identify your life with movies"

"That's twice, it hardly indicates a habit."

There was a third time, when Katie and I thought of how it would be to replace Colin Firth in wet shirt with him, and I concluded it would work out more than fine if he was less skinny, but that he does not need to know.