Sid The Three-Wheeler Man (431 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.4 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <monkeylove.at.easy.com> (View user info) at 2008-04-25 17:13:38 EDT
This is part one, however I think I may leave it as a stand alone piece.
Views appreciated.
As he'd hoped the maroon Fiesta was parked there again; all alone out in the middle of the runways of the derelict old airfield that backed onto the rundown council estate. He and Susie just needed to get over to it.
In the war American bombers, B 17 Fortresses and B 24 Liberators, had roared off from the grey and now weed grown and muddy concrete runways, but Sid had been away at sea in the Merchant Navy then, flying the red duster. He hunched his tall, sparse body further down into his old black raincoat against the freezing February blow, and looked down to encourage Susie. The small white dog with the brown flecks in her coat looked up at him with worried eyes. She was a remarkable seventeen years old now, and had rheumatism in both her hind legs, but the vet had said that a little walking exercise was still beneficial. Gently coaxing Susie along with the new red lead he'd given her for Christmas, Sid set off toward the distant, solitary parked vehicle.
It was not a great deal of money, as Sid well knew, but not to be sneezed at either. The current sum in his Building Society savings account amounted to £26, 376 and so many pence. Other than that there was his few bits of furniture in the house including the clock, the three-wheeler now under an old sheet in the wooden garage he'd built for it, and the silver watch - though it no longer worked - that had been his father's.
He'd been just fifteen back then when Dad had given it to him. 1940, and he was called Sidney in those days. When he'd first gone to sea. His childhood in Bermondsey had been hard and his teachers at school, if not exactly thinking him stupid, seemed to take the mickey rather. As too did a lot of the other kids. But on board ship he'd seemed to be accepted okay, although the hard work and the conditions in the war years especially had been pretty grim. After the war he'd been one of the few to stay on in the service, and for several years had served on a freighter, the Malaya Star, making regular cargo runs down into the Mediterranean between the Port of London and the British army garrison at Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. It had been in a bar there that he'd met Maria ...
A gust of bitterly cold February wind swept across the desolate field. Sid could feel the chill of it penetrating the old raincoat with ease. He shuddered at its effect. The lone car was still a long distance off, or so it seemed, but he knew he must reach it in time. He would tell them what he had in mind, ask them their names and address of course - that was most important - and explain about Susie. Although, of course, that last bit might not matter anyway. She was so very old now, and although he knew he'd miss her terribly, he fully accepted that death was an integral part of life. He pressed on, and looking down noted Susie making steady if unhurried progress beside him.
The Bar Britannia. That had been the name of the place! And Maria, though he didn't know her name at first, worked there. It was at the time of the Suez crisis, and there was something of a buzz in the air. He could picture her in his mind's eye so clearly even now. Her light summer dress with the white apron she wore over it when serving behind the bar; her white teeth against her olive complexion as she smiled; her deep, dark Greek eyes. Hard to believe it was almost fifty years ago now. But he was sure she'd always worn some kind of a headscarf too, although try as he might he couldn't quite recall its pattern or colour. He could recall the Scotchman's face clearly though. In the Bar Britannia that night when Maria had been there, and alternating stints behind the bar with having dances with the all male sea faring clientèle to some old pre-war dance records pumped out from an ancient windup gramophone. Eventually overcoming his shyness, Sid had gone up to the bar and asked her. She'd smiled, but then said something he couldn't understand. He'd asked her again. She stood, still smiling, but still behind the bar with hands on hips, and repeated her answer. Sid had started to turn away when a seaman in a big group at another table called over. Sid could clearly see the bloke even now. Small, with badly rotted teeth, and a dark red woolly cap on his head. One of the deck crew from another ship moored close by the Malaya Star he thought. 'Hey, pal!' he'd called out in a heavy Clydeside accent, 'Shay's tellin' you'se it's thirty piastres fey a dance!'
Sid paused for a moment to catch his breath. The air was so very cold, and he thought he could feel a little light drizzle starting up. Beside him Susie stopped too and looked up. A discarded fast food container flew past on the stiff breeze. He and Maria became good friends over the ensuing years. He always made for the Bar Britannia when shore leave was granted, and she welcomed him with open arms. 'Sidney! Agapao! 'Ello!' And she'd run over from the bar. The money he gave her was by then no more than a private joke between them of course, they both understood that, but it had become a sort of ritual. And she'd give him all of the best dances, and come and sit on his lap and run her fingers through his hair, and every so often he'd catch a glimpse into her lovely eyes. Only once could he recall there ever being any trouble at the Bar Britannia, and that was when Maria had come down from upstairs one time, and a pair of drunken seamen started shouting the words of a rude song: 'Standing up or lying down ... one and six or half a crown ...!' The owner told them to clear out, and eventually several dockyard police had arrived. It must have been four or five years later that Maria suddenly wasn't there anymore. When Sid had enquired all the new owner would say was that her Turkish husband had been killed.
Husband ...?
User Reviews
Submitted by woolfe (user info) at 2008-04-29 10:42:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
worth reading - just.
oh, and I read these all in one go, then rated.
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2008-04-29 04:37:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I really like your style of writing.
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2008-04-27 17:11:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
plus two.
Submitted by FosterFoskin (user info) at 2008-04-26 07:04:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
A nice glimpse into another time balanced by references to the present circumstance. Could do with some fleshing out though. Is there any need to continue? I think not. The last question settled the reminiscence didn't it?
Submitted by Replen (user info) at 2008-04-26 04:42:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The grammar could be cleaned up a bit; however I look forward to part 2.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2008-04-25 22:43:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is a great start, but it just stops.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2008-04-25 20:54:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2008-04-25 19:13:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Not brilliant, but "i'm too fuckect to really care.
Submitted by Poots (user info) at 2008-04-25 18:14:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was ok. I got bored in the middle of it and had to give a dog a hummer then the dog gave me a hummer and we split a slice of apple pie later.
You keep it up though, if it makes you happy, keep it right up.
Thanks!
Submitted by Poots (user info) at 2008-04-25 18:00:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
He hunched his tall, sparse body further down into his old black raincoat against the freezing February blow, and looked down to encourage Susie. The small white dog with the brown flecks in her coat looked up at him with worried eyes.
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Those two sentences were very disturbing to me. I read them really fast so it seemed like to me that he was getting a blow a blow job from his pooch.
on top of that I, being the leader in almost every field of language arts which is approxiamtely five fields, don't think it's puncuated properly. Although, I, am: the, last, person, that, <would> punctuate! anything" properly? Seriously!
Now I will read the rest$
Submitted by Toshi (user info) at 2008-04-25 17:34:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks Jo.
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2008-04-25 17:22:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
very nice