Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (35) Love Thy Neighbour

 

John Whittaker and his wife Kathy were getting divorced and as a result he moved out of the marital home.

His departure however wasn’t due to any acrimony between them, it was just that he had no particular emotional link to the place, whereas she really loved the house so he had agreed to let her buy his half and as soon as she sorted out the mortgage he bought himself a flat.

 

John and Kathy had no children so it was a fairly simple process to separate themselves and they managed to keep the involvement of the blood sucking lawyers in the process to an absolute minimum.

It was a very amicable split with no animosity or hatred, or lack of love for that matter.

There just wasn’t enough of that special ingredient that turned love in to breathless, heart skipping passion.

They still loved each other very much but only as friends.

 

While he was waiting for the money to come through from his half of the house he moved into a caravan up at the Whitecliff Hill Caravan Park overlooking Sharpington.   

 

John Whittaker had lived in the town all his life and he loved everything about the traditional seaside resort of Sharpington-by-Sea, with its Victorian Pier, seafront hotels, crazy golf, The Palladium ballroom, the well maintained gardens, a pristine promenade, theatre and illuminations, plus all the usual things to have a great time by the seaside, as well as amusement arcades and of course the Sharpington Fun Park.

 

The Sharpington Fun Park was the first purpose built amusement park to open in Britain, which was a proud boast for the locals.

The Fun Park had an assortment of rides, like the Rotor and the Wild Mouse, The Cyclone and the Morehouse Galloper, all very tame compared to a 21st century roller coaster but it was still fun and still popular with visitors and locals a like.

 

Apart from being a fun place for the many tourists to visit and great place to live for him, Sharpington was also a popular place for retirees and boasted a number of static caravan parks so a short term let in a caravan was ideal to keep him in Sharpington until he bought his flat and it wasn’t difficult to find a vacant caravan in February.

 

However by the end of the third month up at Whitecliff Hill the money had finally come through from Kathy and he was able to start looking for a flat and as it turned out it was perfect timing as he managed to find a flat in Jubilee Court that had just come on the market.

It was perfectly situated and gave him a view of Jubilee Park as well as a sea view and was close to the seafront. 

It was a slightly run down flat but it had everything he required though and it just needed a little TLC which he thought would give him the opportunity to stamp his mark on the place, he could just take his time because he intended to be there for a long time.

It wasn’t just a stop gap, he was in for the long haul, so a little bit of DIY didn’t bother him.

 

He moved in to flat 43, Jubilee Court, on May the 1st and he loved the flat from moment one, despite its initial dinginess, it was on the top floor so it offered spectacular views of the town, the other advantage being that there was no noise from above and in addition there were two flats between him and the lifts and so he just had the one immediate neighbour.

 

The fourth floor flat, next door to John Whittaker, was occupied by the quietest neighbour he had ever known.

In fact he had been living there for three weeks before he even realised the flat next door was occupied and the only reason he discovered that it was, was because of an obnoxious delivery man, and he was at home a lot because he was a freelance AutoCAD designer and worked from home more often than not.

 

On Monday John had been out for a walk along the promenade as far as Hemmings Post Office and General Store where he stocked up on provisions, it wasn’t the nearest shop to Jubilee Court but as he was passing he thought why not.

He had just returned to Jubilee Court, or more precisely had just emerged from the lift on the fourth floor and discovered a sweaty heavily tattooed man arguing with a small red haired woman in her late 20s, separated by what appeared to be a brand new fridge freezer, which was so positioned that she had to peer around it to see her adversary.

“It says on the docket “doorstep delivery”” he said aggressively

“And this is the doorstep”

“But I can’t get it inside the flat on my own” she pointed out

“Doorstep delivery means Doorstep Delivery” he repeated

“Please” she begged

“Look sweetheart, you’re lucky I bought it this far” he snapped

“Now are you going to sign for it or not?”

“Do I have a choice?” she said snatching his PDA from his hand and scribbling a signature on the screen.

He then snatched it back and hurriedly turned away.

John had to quickly step aside to avoid being trampled underfoot by the sweaty geezer and his trolley.

But after the lift doors closed he asked

“Do you need a hand?”

“Pardon me?” she said

“Would you like a hand getting it inside?” he said nodding towards the fridge freezer.

“Oh” she exclaimed in surprise “yes that would be very kind, thank you”

He deposited his shopping on his own doorstep then went back to his neighbour and began manhandling the fridge freezer into her kitchen and then he helped her unpack it.

“I’m John by the way” he said “John Whitaker, I live next door”

“Faye Harry, I live here” she replied and laughed

 

When they had finished in the kitchen she put the kettle on while he disposed of all the packaging, it took him a couple of trips in the lift but when he returned Faye had made him a coffee and then they sat in her lounge to drink it.

 

John returned from the bin store to find Faye had made him a coffee so they sat in her lounge to drink it.

And as they sat on the sofa he said

“I haven’t seen you out and about”

“That’s because I don’t” Faye replied

“You don’t what?” John asked a little confused

“Go out” she said

“I don’t understand” he said

“I don’t leave the flat” she confirmed

“What never?”

“No never” she confirmed

“Agoraphobia?” John asked her

“Yes” she replied enthusiastically, and her face lit up with delight because someone actually knew what was wrong with her.

“How long?” he asked

“What? Since I went out?” Faye asked

“Yes”

“Three years” she said

“Three years?” he repeated in disbelief

“Why?”

“Lots of reasons really” Faye said quietly and John just sat and waited for her to elaborate.

“I’m just scared I suppose” she said, “It’s very scary out there”

“Well if you can’t go out on your own why couldn’t you go out with someone?” he suggested “A family member or a friend”

“I have no one now” she replied sadly

“No family?” he asked

“No”

“Husband? Boyfriend?” he added

“No”

“Girlfriend then?” he ventured

“No” she said very definitely

“Ok, sorry, but you must have friends” he said

“Well I used to, but now they’re all gone, one by one they stopped coming to see me or answering the phone” she said sadly “avoiding the nutter clearly”

“Then they weren’t real friends in the first place” he offered

“I suppose not” she responded

There was a brief silence and then he asked

“How do you manage financially?”

“Well the flat was left to me by my gran, and I have an annuity from my parent’s estate, plus a small income from shares and investments, plus I earn a little money, proof reading”

He nodded in response and Faye added

“It’s only a modest income but I’m not an extravagant person”

“What about shopping?” he asked

“Home delivery” Faye replied “And they don’t mind bringing it inside”

“What about the things that can’t be delivered?” John asked

“I have a hairdresser who comes here to the flat” she said

“What about your health?”

“Well I have an exercise bike and a treadmill” she replied “so I work out regularly”

“No I mean your health, doctors, dentists, hospital visits and such like?” he asked

“Well I attend to myself” she said “The internet is very informative”

“Yes but you can’t attend to everything yourself” John pointed out

“What about prescription medications?”

“You can get anything on the Internet” Faye replied “Its mind boggling”

“Blimey” he said “you really need to go outside in the real world”

“Yes but I can’t though can I” she said and tears welled up in her eyes “I just can’t do it”

“What if I was to help you?” John suggested

“What do you mean?”

“Well what if I was to help you go outside again” he said

“You would do that for me?” she asked wiping away the tears.

 

When John Whitaker offered to help a complete stranger to conquer her agoraphobia, it seemed to him at the time to be the most natural thing in the world to do.

The look of sheer relief on her face when he offered to help convinced him that it was absolutely the right thing for him to do. 

The problem was that he had absolutely no idea how to achieve it.

 

When he returned to his flat he spent the rest of the day surfing the net, reading up on the subject and he read other people’s personal accounts of how they beat agoraphobia and finished his research at 2am, but at the end of it he had a plan.

 

So starting the next day, and continuing over the following months, he set about helping Faye to leave her flat.

It wasn’t easy by any means although it could have been if he’d taken a short cut and just given her Rohypnol and carried her outside and waited for her to come around on the beach.

But he decided that if he did that without her consent it would have been counterproductive so he decided they had to do it the hard way.

However the truth was he had no idea where to begin to help her, how to take the first step so to speak.

“So tell me how it started?” he asked her on the first morning

“What?” she said

“How did the agoraphobia start?” he replied and she totally broke down in tears.

“I’m so sorry” he said as he comforted her “I didn’t mean to upset you”

When the sobs had finally subsided and she’d dried her eyes she said in a faltering voice

“It wasn’t just one thing”

“Really?” he pressed her, sensing that she had lied.     

There was a long silence as she processed his question.

“That’s not actually true” she confessed “I lost my parents when I was in my third year at University, which ultimately cost me my degree”

John didn’t respond to her confession, but instead he let her take her time to continue when she was ready.

“I stayed in my room at University for three months”

“But you came out” John said

“That was Owen” Faye said

“Owen?” he asked

“Owen Blake” she replied “my fiancé”

“Oh”

“Well he wasn’t my fiancé at the time, he was just my boyfriend”

“But he got you out?”

“Yes, Owen told me that he loved me and that he couldn’t live without me and then he proposed to me” she said flatly “and so I left the room with him”

“But?” John responded and Faye looked at him and tears welled up in her eyes again but she swallowed hard and said

“But, four years later, a month before our wedding, when he was on the stag weekend, he phoned me from Amsterdam and said the wedding was off, because he didn’t love me”

“Nice” he said

“No it was worse than that, because he went on to say he’d never loved me”

“God” John said

“So if there was a single thing, then that was it” she said and the tears came again.

 

After Faye’s frank and honest revelation John was even more determined to help her, so he decided to contact a doctor, her doctor, or at least the surgery where she was still registered.

However it took 3 weeks to get one of the overpaid narcissists to do a home visit.

So in the meantime John sat and drank coffee together every morning and talked about her hopes.

When the Doctor finally showed up the best he could manage was to offer her a course of anti-depressants.

“I don’t want antidepressants” she shouted “I want help”

“I’m offering you help” the doctor said without looking at her

“No you’re offering me a chemical cosh” she said “I’m agoraphobic, I need proper help”

“The antidepressants will help” the Doctor insisted

“I don’t need your bloody antidepressants I can medicate myself with Pinot at £4 a bottle” she retorted

“Well if you change your mind” he snapped as he got up “make an appointment to come to the surgery”

“If I could make it to the bloody surgery I wouldn’t need your help, you pompous idiot” She shouted after him

John remained seated in the armchair and smiled as she slammed the door behind him, and that was the moment he stopped seeing her as a damsel in distress.

He liked Faye despite her phobia, she was a really feisty little redhead and quite cute to boot.

 

So having sought medical advice and found them sadly wanting they resorted to Faye’s cure all and read up on the subject on the internet again.

But even that was contradictory at best and was by and large unhelpful but despite this they took matters in their own hands, and formulated a plan based loosely on what they had read.

 

On day one, Faye just had to take one step out of her front door, count to 10 and step back again.

Although it didn’t happen on day one it actually took 3 days for her to take that first important step, which was a major breakthrough, and following that initial success she repeated the process for a week, and then for the following five days she did the same thing but counted five seconds longer each time before she stepped back inside.

 

So after ten days of taking a single step outside the front door, John moved her on to Phase two, which involved Faye having to walk out of her front door and take two steps and then touch the wall in front of her.

As she stood on the threshold she was very apprehensive, but when she summoned up the courage to move she achieved her goal at her very first attempt which she was so thrilled and excited about that when she stepped back through the front door she kissed him.

But it wasn’t just an excited peck on the cheek on the spur of the moment, it was full on the mouth, and was followed through with no holds barred passion, and one thing led to another and they ended up in her bed.

 

“Wow” John said as she collapsed on top of him.

“Oh yes that was very acceptable” she echoed and then as she cuddled up to him she added “I haven’t done that for a while”

 

As John and Faye lay entwined in each other’s arms in the afterglow of making love he was thinking about the events that had lead them to her bed.

It hadn’t occurred to John at any stage since he’d known her, even after she told him that she hadn’t left the flat for three years, that Faye Harry hadn’t had sex.

 

Well it had actually been 4 years since the last time she had made love and as a result she was as horny as hell.

“Couldn’t you order that on the internet?” he asked her jokingly after she revealed the truth about her frustration.

“Oh I’m sure you can” Faye replied tartly “but I don’t do it with just anyone you know”

John took her tart reply to mean that he wasn’t just anyone which made him smile, which was great because she wasn’t just anyone to him either.

 

As wonderful as it was, there was an inadvertent consequence of sleeping with her, and not just that first time but all the subsequent occasions as well, because he had unintentionally given her another reason not to go outside.

Although to her great credit she persevered, and although she enjoyed the love making she showed no sign of giving up, in fact the more progress she made the more vigorously she rewarded herself in the bedroom.

 

The steady progress and the love making that accompanied it went on for three months and by October she could walk to the lift without even pausing for breath, and by the end of the month she had made so much progress she could walk to the lift and take the lift all the way to the ground floor and even walk to the glass front doors in the lobby.

But that was where she faltered, day after day, she would pass through her front door with real purpose only for it to evaporate away at the threshold of the outside world and nothing he could say or do could make her go a step further.

 

Faye would cry on his shoulder all the way back up in the lift and once back in her flat a black depression would set in and so he had no option but to leave her.

It broke his heart to see her like that but he knew that trying to lift her spirits when she was that down was quite futile.

 

The next day however she would be a different person and would be bright, and full of new resolve which he knew would be short lived and there would soon be tears and depression again.

Seeing her in tears and depressed was all the more heart-breaking for John because he had fallen in love with her.

 

However he was in something of a quandary because he couldn’t tell her that he loved her, but not because he didn’t think she felt the same about him, but because Faye’s ex fiancé had once pledged his love to her in order to get her to re-enter the world and he turned out to have feet of clay.

 

It was a gloriously sunny early December day when it all came to a head.

“Today’s the day” she said as they left her flat, hand in hand, dressed for Sharpington in winter and he squeezed her hand in response and said

“I’m with you every step of the way sweetheart”

She smiled and they progressed briskly towards the lift without a moment’s hesitation.

The ride down to the foyer was made in silence but for the rattling of the cables and Faye’s breathing, which was slow and deliberate.

When the doors opened on the ground floor the foyer was full of winter sunshine and they stepped forward, still holding hands, and quickly crossed the foyer to the door to the outside world.

 

As they approached the double glass doors he reached his free hand out and pushed the left hand door open and without breaking stride he stepped outside and still holding Faye’s hand he pulled her behind him.

Once he emerged into the fresh air he was thinking to himself

“So far, so good” when his progress was halted.

He looked around to see Faye half in and half out of the door hanging onto the door frame with her free hand.

“You’re nearly there darling” he said

“I can’t” she said

“Just one more step” he urged her

“I can’t do it” she repeated and let go of his hand

“Please come with me” he pleaded

“Why?” she asked 

“Well there are so many places I want to take you, things I want to show you and things I want to share with you” he said

“But why?” Faye said remaining in the doorway

“Don’t you know why?” he asked her

“No” she said

He didn’t want to say it but she was giving him no alternative so he said

“Because I…..”

“No don’t say it John” she shouted

“I have too”

“No you mustn’t” Faye urged

“I must” he said

“You know I was tricked back into the world once before by a false love” Faye said “I’m scared it will happen all over again”

“I can’t not say it, because it’s true” he said “I love you”

“I love you too” she responded almost in tears “but I still don’t think I can do it”

“Then don’t” John said

“What?” she said

“I don’t care where we are as long as we’re together” he said

“You don’t ever have to come outside you can stay in there forever and I will bring the world to you”

“And you will still love me?” she asked

“Forever” he replied

“Hold my hand” she said and he reached out and took hold of her outstretched hand, and she grasped it tightly like her life depended on it.

John looked at her determined face and smiled at her and she returned it with interest.

“Ok I’m ready” she said and taking a deep breath she stepped over the threshold out into the sunshine and into his arms.

 

As they stood there outside Jubilee Court in the December sunshine she was laughing and then she said

“I did it”

“Yes you did”

“I love you John”

“I love you too”

“So where are you going to take me?” she asked looking up at him and smiling.

“How about a walk along the prom to begin with” he said and kissed her

“Well you really know how to show a girl a good time” she said putting her arm through his 

“Hold that thought for when we get back to the flat and we need warming up”

“Oh goodie, let’s go and get chilly then” she said and squeezed his arm.