a ball in play (3)

He reached into his jacket and took out an envelope. Inside it were two tickets to Brisbane and a bank statement flush with eight thousand pounds. He held it towards her.

“What’s that?”
“Take it and see.”
She looked at his outstretched hand.
“No: you tell me.”
“No, ach come on it’s a surprise! Just..just take a look inside.”
She looked at the envelope but wouldn’t take it. Davie’s arm wavered.
“It’s an escape. The answer to our problem.”
Catherine looked away through the trees to the field and town below.
“And what problem would that be?”
 A couple of crows caught her eye and she followed their gliding descent into the field.
“B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O.. “, sang Davie, conducting himself using the envelope as a baton, ”here have a look.”

Catherine walked away again. Davie was too wrong-footed to do or say anything.
“Cath.. Catherine!”
She was out of the trees and heading downhill.
“Catherine! Sorry about the eh..Bi.. the singing! “

There was a tweak of anger that propelled him after her. He ran past her and tried to stop, his momentum carrying him further on down the hill. He came to a stop and turned and faced her.

“Stop!” he held his hands out,”Look, I’m sorry! I know it’s no a joke. Please. I’ll tell you.”
He searched her face that refused to look at him. He didn’t want to grab her again.
“Please Catherine. It’s plane tickets out of here and eight thousand pounds to start a life in Australia.”

She took a few steps more then stopped. She had guessed it would be something like this, but not this. Davie liked his wee childish dramas and set-ups: “meet me on the edge of town at noon.”
 She smiled, not in acquiescence but that she was genuinely surprised by what he was offering. Davie pulled back his hair from his face and returned the smile. He held out the envelope again for her.

“No Davie. I don’t need to see it.”
“Take it. It’s yours. It’s all for you,” he waved the envelope.
Her head was racing. Oh the sun-kissed beaches and bedazzled blue of tropical waters, she remembered reading from a travel brochure. Her tight little world popping open and letting her breathe. Maybe there was a place where she could breathe…

“My uncle lives in Brisbane, he’ll put us up as long as we need. There’s loads of work there he says.”

  She tried her hardest to stop smiling, knowing the encouragement he’d take from it, but this was the first time that Davie really surprised her. She had always been one step ahead. She was the one that made the moves. She liked his innocence and loved to tease him about his long hair and whether he wanted her to plait it.
   Then one day in the storeroom she took a maddie and opened the neck of his t-shirt and emptied a burst bag of flour down his back and ran away to the toilet. He just gave her such a feeling of being back at school and being daft for daft’s sake. He’d given chase only to find the door snibbed.
“Hey you! I’ll get you back for that!” he shouted as he pulled on the door. She could hear his delight.
“No if I get you first!” She was sitting on the toilet pan and kicked her legs out at the thrill of the look on his face. All that flour in his fine hair!
His way of getting her back was trying to hide and jump out at her and give her frights. She thought it was sweet how obvious his hiding places were and would sometimes let him have his ‘surprise’ anyway. Mostly though she would be the one to give him the fright where he hid. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that her head was light and skip skip skipped when she saw him.
 A day came when he jumped out at her and grabbed her and held on awkwardly; she could feel his hard-on through his overalls. She gave him a little pat on the arm, pushed him away and tut tut tutted in mock outrage.
 
How Davie hated having to pass the dead time till he was at work beside her. He’d never had any interest from girls before never mind Bingo Daizley’s. Everyone seemed to know the way the bastard treated her, just as everyone knew - and probably exaggerated- details of the gruesome twisted bodies of those who mucked him about.
 Over the months she always seemed to want to find him for a wee bit fun, and Davie grew less cautious, less self-conscious. Then that work’s night out in Donaghie’s happened, where Bingo showed up and ignored her and went to the bar ordering pint after pint. She couldn’t relax or take her eyes off him and eventually went up to the bar and tried to get him to leave. Hell broke loose. He grabbed her, lifted her off the ground and bust her mouth open with his head in front of everyone there. 
 After she came to see him, after that soft generous kiss on the cheek he had fought for a way out for them. He enjoyed the secret meetings, the games, the cheeky wee glances at work and his heart grew and grew till all it knew was Catherine and his whole world looked to repay that kiss and all it had given him. He would fix her life for her. He was her saviour.