This is the twenty-second part of a fiction serial, in 800 words.

Colin was far from impressed with Thailand so far. It was too humid, and when it wasn’t just humid it was raining cats and dogs and humid. The hotel was pretty good, but then considering how much he had paid for the introduction trip, it should be. Bangkok was bloody noisy, and it seemed to him that nobody ever went to sleep.

The representative from the agency was a woman in her fifties who had met him in the hotel lobby the morning after he arrived. She spoke good English but her accent was so strong he had to keep asking her to repeat herself. She told him she would be back after lunch to take him to meet the first lady he had expressed a liking for, but she warned him to be respectful to her, and not to make suggestive remarks of any kind.

“Her family will be there to chaperone, Mr Richardson, and you will have two hours to talk to her and to see if you like each other”.

He couldn’t see the point of whether or not she liked him. As far as he was concerned, she should be snatching his hand off to be invited to live in England in a nice house and with a very presentable man who had a good job. But he didn’t tell the agent that of course.

At least the car taking them was air-conditioned, so he wouldn’t look like a wet dishcloth when they arrived. The agent took him to the door of a decent house inside a walled compound decorated with exotic plants and flowers.

“I will come back and collect you in two hours. Then you can tell me what you think of her. After that, I will telephone her and see what she has to say. She is well-educated and speaks good English, enough to get by. But her mother and sister do not”.

An old woman with a bent back answered the door. She had an incredibly wrinkled face and gave him a smile that showed most of her teeth were missing, She did a little bow and waved him inside. A chubby woman in her forties sat on a cane chair and didn’t get up when he walked into the room. She waved at some fruit and cold drinks on a low table. “Please. You drink, eat”. He guessed she must be the sister.

Declining the food, he sat on a wickerwork sofa opposite her and picked up a glass of fruit juice. Five minutes later, his choice arrived. Fah was supposedly thirty-six and single, but she looked younger, and very pretty in some kind of traditional dress. He stood up when she came into the room.

“Mr Colin, it is my pleasure to meet you, I am Fah. Please sit again, please don’t worry about my mother and sister, they are only here to observe the propriety”. He liked her immediately, and was impressed by how well she spoke Englsh. Certainly better than the agent he had been dealing with.

But before he could say what he had planned to say, a boy came into the room and bowed respectfully at him. Fah smiled. “My son. He is nine. He wanted to meet you too, in case you decide to become his new daddy”.

Colin put his head in his hands. What part of ‘No children’ did they not understand? He stood up, keeping his temper.

“Sorry, but I specifically stated no children, so this is unacceptable. It was nice to meet you, but I will be leaving now”. He had to spend almost ninety minutes on the corner of the street waiting for the agent to come back. So he went through what he was going to say to her when she showed up.

Lee and Kerry were up early to finalise the arrangements for the party later that day. Dean’s girlfriend Stacey was coming to help, but Dean was still in bed, fast asleep. Kerry wasn’t bothered about that, as he would only be wanting breakfast, and a shirt ironed, and she had too much to do to run around after him this morning. For one thing, she was going to clean the house throuroughly. She didn’t want any of the neighbours looking down their noses at her.

Jenny hit the shops in town as soon as they opened. She wanted to buy a new one-piece swimsuit. Alan had said he wasn’t going in the hot tub, but she was determined she would try it later. The bikini she had worn on their last holiday abroad showed a bit too much for comfort though.

Not so bad on a Greek beach that you would never go to again, but definitely too much for neighbours you would see all the time.

This is the twenty-first part of a fiction serial, in 756 words.

Two days before the barbecue party, Stan drove Grace to the hospital. The meeting with the consultant was brief, and he stuck to facts.

“The truth is, Mrs Verney, your husband has no brain activity. He is neither unconscious, nor dreaming. There is no sign of any nerve stimulus of any kind going on in his brain, and we have carried out all the necessary and mandatory tests. At this stage, the machines are the only thing keeping him alive. The brain damage from a prolongued period of oxygen deprivation was catastrophic, and there is no chance of a recovery whatsoever”.

He turned a page to look at something else, but Grace interruprted before he could carry on.

“That’s okay, doctor. I know he’s dead. I think it will be the best thing to switch off the machines and let him go”. The man didn’t sound surprised.

“I have to say I agree. It will be very quick, as the part of the brain that makes him breathe is affected beyond repair. I see you have brought along a friend to support you, would you like to spend some time with your husband before it happens?” Grace was already shaking her head.

“No thank you, I will remember him as he was. Just give me anything I have to sign and let me know what to tell the undertakers”. Flicking through more papers, he replied without looking up.

“He has been in our care long enough for me to certify death, so an inquest will not be necessary, I’m sure. But that will probably be up to the Police to inform the Coroner. The hospital will give you a death certificate tomorrow to take to the undertaker of your choice. Just come to Patient Affairs after ten. They can collect your husband from our mortuary once they have your instructions. You will also need to go to the Town Hall and register the death officially there. They can issue you with copies to send to any insurance or pension companies, and to use when you tell his bank”. He slid a form across the desk and she signed it where he had made a cross.

On the way home, Grace seemed to be ten years younger. “Busy day tomorrow, Stanley. I fancy a drink. Shall we walk to the pub once we have got back to your house? You deserve a large one for all the kindness you have shown me”.

While Lee was busy getting things ready in the garden, Kerry was making a shopping list for everything she needed to buy at the supermarket. She shouted through the open patio doors.

“Lee, you’re gonna have to come with me. I reckon we will need two trolleys, love. When you’ve finished out there we will make a move, okay?” He waved a hammer in acknowledgement then went back to hammering staples into the fence to hang the extra garden lights on.

Nico hadn’t been joking about the Hawaiian shirts and scanty swim briefs. When Luke opened the parcel addressed to him, it was full of bright-coloured shirts, and neon thongs that would leave little to the imagination. He held one up for his boyfriend to see. “Too much for Acacia Close, surely?” Nico shook his head. “Just right, lover. We will make their eyes pop out!”

When he got back into the house, Lee almost choked on the smell of fly-killer spray. Kerry was walking around spraying it like a woman possessed. “These effin flies, Lee. They’re everywhere, it’s never this bad. They’re gonna spoil our barbecue at this rate”. Taking the tin of spray from her hand, he reassured her. “Don’t worry, Kes. The smoke from the gas burner will keep them away”.

Stanley looked across at Grace as she sipped her large glass of chilled white wine. The change in her was remarkable. The dowdy, ghost-like woman he had seen coming and going during the last few years had completely vanished. Now she was smiling, chatting about anything and everything, and he could see the woman that had married Sam all those years ago coming to the surface. Ten minutes later, she downed what was left in her glass and stood up. “Let’s have another, and this time I’m buying”.

When she came back with the drinks, she sat next to him on the bench, and raised her glass. “Cheers. Here’s to new beginnings”.

As he raised his glass to hers, she held his left hand under the table and squeezed it hard.

This is the twentieth part of a fiction serial, in 790 words.

As June arrived, the weather got much hotter. Colin had packed his suitcase for Thailand, and was leaving in a few days. A piece of paper came through his letterbox, and he snorted as he read what was on it, before screwing it up and throwing it in the bin.

LEE AND KERRY WILLIAMS INVITE YOU TO A SUMMER BBQ ON THE 14TH
BRING SOME BOOZE-FOOD PROVIDED-6PM UNTIL LATE
DON’T FORGET YOUR SWIMMING GEAR IF YOU WANT TO TRY THE HOT TUB

Jenny was showing the same invitation to Alan. “We should go, they are making an effort”. Alan seemed to be in a very good mood. “Fine by me, let’s do it”.

Grace showed the invitation to Stanley. “Do you think it would be okay to go, with Sam being in hospital and everything?” Stanley was to the point. “Well it’s not as if we will be cuddling in the hot tub, is it? We should go, everyone was concerned when you had the fire”.

Luke was hesitant about showing it to Nico. After a couple of weeks, Nico already seemed bored. Not enough restaurants, no decent street cafes or bars. He wasn’t enamoured with English pubs, and was keen for them to spend a few days in London to see some high-life and nightclubs. The sort of barbecue food served in England, plus a mixed crowd of rather unexciting neighbours was hardly likely to be his thing.

But he was surprised when Nico jumped up. “Finally, something cool is happening in this godforsaken street. Let’s do it in style, get some Hawaiian shirts and some very racy swim briefs. We will knock their eyes out, lover!”

Dennis smiled when he read the piece of paper. Alcohol, swimsuits, and a hot tub. That meant scantily-clad ladies in a good mood after a few drinks. He showed it to Marion, who sighed. “I suppose we will have to show our faces. But we won’t be stopping long and you’re not to drink too much, Dennis”.

Even Phyllis was pleased to receive the invitation. Free food and wine seemed good to her. She would conveniently forget to bring any drink with her, and polish off whatever anyone else brought along. And she could wear her aunt’s ancient hearing aid, and pretend not to hear what anyone was saying.

Colin didn’t bother to let them know he wasn’t coming, and the Bangladeshi family were pleased to get the invitation, but the wife knocked and told Kerry they would be busy at the restaurant. Kerry had known that all along of course. Besides, they wouldn’t eat pork even if they had come, and Lee loved to barbecue sausages and pork ribs with a sticky glaze.

When Alan got home from work the next day, Jenny handed him a box. “I bought this thing this afternoon. Can you put it up on the kitchen wall for me, love? It needs to be wired in or plugged into a socket. There are so many bloody flies getting in the house since the weather got hot and we have had the windows open more. I have run out of fly spray, and that stuff gets in the back of my throat anyway, so this will be better”.

The device was something like an old electric fire. A blue light inside attracted flies twenty-four hours a day, and electric wires surrounding it killed the flies on contact. He had seen similar things in shops like bakeries and in sandwich bars. It only took him ten minutes to fit it, and within seconds it was making a snapping sound as flies went in to their deaths. He smiled at his wife. “That’s half a dozen dead already. At this rate we will have to empty the box underneath every day”.

Leaving his car at the house, Colin had ordered a taxi to take him to the airport. It was going to be expensive, but still cheaper than a couple of weeks of parking charges at the airport long-stay. He sat in the back and didn’t speak to the driver. He was too busy thinking about the lovely willing Thai ladies he would be meeting very soon.

When they went up to bed that night, Alan found Jenny swatting at flies with the bottom of one of her slippers. She got one, and it squashed against the wallpaper. She gave a little jump of joy at her success. He shook his head and said, “At least I haven’t decorated yet. Don’t be doing that once I have”. Sitting on the bed and slipping a short nightdress over her head, she mumbled though the thin material.

“Okay, love, that’s a promise. But I don’t know where they are all coming from”.

This is the nineteenth part of a fiction serial, in 770 words.

According to the weather reports on the news, that May was one of the warmest on record. By the end of the month it was becoming almost impossible to buy a fan anywhere, and people were walking through the Close to go sunbathing in the park beyond.

Alan was back on the big job now that the asbestos situation had been dealt with, and he was relieved not to be spending so much time at Sally Faraday’s place, as her flirting had gone from deliberate to downright uncomfortable.

Grace had builders in working on the roof and associated structure of the bungalow, and having turned down the insurance company’s offer of temporary hotel accommodation, she was getting used to living at Stan’s house. There was no change in Sam’s condition, and he had been moved from intensive care to a long-stay bed on a side ward. The last time she had visited him the nurse in charge took her to one side and discussed what she called, ‘decisions to be made in light of no potential improvement’.

The nurse was cagey, but her eyes widened at Grace’s reply. “If you want to turn off the machines, just tell me what I have to sign. Sam wouldn’t want to carry on living like this, not the Sam I once knew anyway”. The nurse said she would get a doctor to phone Grace, and took the number of Stanley’s home phone.

Luke had kept his temper about Nico, then on a Friday evening at the end of the first week in May, he had driven home from work to find the suntanned Californian sitting on his front step. As Nico saw the car arrive, he pulled a hand-written sign out from behind his back. It had one word in large letters, SURPRISE! Luke was overjoyed, and they hugged in the driveway before going in. Luke nodded at the one suitcase in the hallway. “Is that it?” Nico laughed. “As if! The rest is coming by carrier, two days at the most. Looks like you are going to be my boss here, so I had better tell you now that I need time off to get used to this country”.

He could tell from the look on his face that Nico was far from impressed by his house. But wanting to sound positive, Nico pointed at the sky through the patio doors leading to the neat garden. “Look at that weather. Did you arrange it just for me, lover? I thought you said it was always rainy and gloomy in England”.

Dennis had been watching from an upstairs window from the time Nico had arrived in a taxi. Once Luke got home and the door closed, he went downstairs to inform Marion what he had seen.

“Well, looks like Luke’s so-called friend has arrived. If you ask me they are a lot more than work friends, judging by the way they were cuddling each other just now”.

Marion was having none of his homophobia. “Leave the boy alone, Dennis. He is smart and polite, and we could have worse neighbours. We could be living next door to Colin across the street for one thing. If his boyfriend has come all the way from America to be with him, that should tell you something”.

Undaunted, Dennis carried on. “Yeah, it tells me we had better wear some ear plugs tonight to drown out their cries of passion”. With that, he went back upstairs to see what else was happening outside.

Jenny was running late. Her last home visit of the day had turned out to be a bad one, as the old lady whose dressings she was supposed to change was in a bad way. Jenny didn’t think she would last the night, so had called an emergency ambulance and waited with the old lady’s daughter until it showed up. That meant she was caught in what counted as rush-hour traffic in the town, and then got stuck in a slow queue approaching the big roundabout.

She was wondering why Alan had been so quiet recently. Okay, she had been nagging him a bit about getting on with the decorating, but he normally took that sort of thing well. He had always been a good sport when it came to banter. Now he was working late most nights on the big country house job, she had been on at him to employ someone to help out, and he had brushed that off. When he wasn’t there, he was at the solictor’s cottage.

Seemed to her he was spending rather a lot of time with Sally Faraday.