Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (45) What Becomes of the Broken Hearted

 

The Purplemere Film Studio’s was a large complex of production spaces and studios that almost fell into disuse, but its fortunes were turned around by Peter Lutchford the renowned film director who had turned it into one of the premier film industry resources in Europe.

The complex catered for every aspect of film production including set design, costumes, sound and visual FX, in addition to the stages.

Some areas were in a security-controlled zone but there were still a lot of others on the periphery and it was into the small staff car park of one of the companies in a peripheral complex that Jed Anderson would park while he waited for his ex-wife Karen to leave work.

 

Karen and Jed had divorced the year before, but it was a completely amicable split because after eight years of marriage they both realised it wasn’t really working.

In fact they carried on living under the same roof for nine months until they sold the house and it wasn’t really very different to when they were married, and it really should have been if they belonged together as a couple, so they knew they had made the right decision.

But even after the divorce they were still very good friends which was why he still picked her up from work.

Even after they stopped living under the same roof they still lived within half a mile of each other and as the split was so amicable it made no sense to abandon their long standing routine of travelling to and from work together. 

 

However everything changed one Monday night at the end of April, she looked out of her office window just before she left and saw Jed was already parked and Keith Clarke, the odious buildings manager was talking to him through the car window and she could tell by his body language that he was actually talking at him so she put a bit of a spurt on.

As she stepped out of the lift she passed the pompous little man who was muttering to himself in a thick Scottish accent, he didn’t look happy she thought as she walked down the steps to the car park.

She was going to ask what it was all about once she got in the car but she got distracted by a song on the radio and he didn’t mention it so she thought no more about it.

Until the next morning when she found out that Mr Clarke, who was the de facto landlord, had made a complaint to the Facilities Manager, of the company Karen worked for, Pioneer Productions, who were involved in many aspects of film production.

 

Karen was very embarrassed when she was summoned to the office of Suzy Ford, the Facilities Manager, to be told that her husband had verbally abused the landlord, or at least his representative.

 

Karen was very embarrassed when she was summoned to the office of Suzy Ford, the Facilities Manager, to be told that her husband had verbally abused the landlord, or at least his representative.

“Ex-husband” she interjected

“What?” Ms Ford retorted

“Jed is my ex-husband” Karen explained to her

“But he still picks you up from work?” Suzy queried

“Yes” she replied

“Is he still carrying a torch for you?” The Facilities Manager asked

“No not at all” Karen replied “he’s just a very good man”

“I wish mine was” Suzy confided “the lousy bastard”

“Ah” Karen responded

“Anyway, Mr Clarke has alleged that your ex-husband was aggressive and abusive” Suzy continued “Shouting and swearing at him”

“Nonsense” Karen said

“Excuse me?” replied the FM

“Jed has never raised his voice in anger to anyone in his life, and as for swearing that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard”

“Well Mr Clarke says otherwise” Suzy said and handed her the email she had received from Keith Clarke which included a transcript of the alleged confrontation.

 

Immediately after the meeting Karen phoned Jed and she was not at all happy and she told him that Keith Clarke had accused him of shouting at him and swearing at him and as a result he was banned from picking her up in that car park in future.

“I promise you that not once did I swear at him or even raise my voice” he said “I may not have paid him the due deference that he was clearly expecting but that was all, in fact if anything he was the aggressor”

“It’s alright I’m not mad at you, but I had to find out your side of the story” Karen said “I didn’t think it sounded like you”

“I can’t believe he lied” Jed said

 

When Karen relayed her ex-husbands version of events to Ms Ford, the Facilities Manager said

“I have heard that about him from other sources, but unfortunately without proof that he has lied we have to obey the landlord’s instructions”

 

If Mr Clarkes intention had been to cause inconvenience to the man that had shown him no respect, then he failed miserably.

The alternative road, Studio Approach that he subsequently had to pick Karen up from was in fact better for her than the car park was, as it was nearer the exit, she used to come out of in the evening so every cloud had a silver lining.

 

Karen Anderson was thirty years old when her life began in earnest.

She was an attractive woman with shoulder length brunette hair and green eyes and was a divorcee who lived alone since the house she shared for more than eight years with her ex-husband Jed was sold and they went their separate ways

And even though she was living on her own her life still seemed to be on hold and she was unsure how to change that and she gave it a lot of thought.

So perhaps it should have come as no surprise that it was something beyond her control that actually got her in gear. 

 

It was Monday morning and the moment Karen walked into the office her boss Bob Turner called her over.

“Karen! Just the person” He said “My favourite person”

“What do you want Bob?” she retorted

“What makes you think I want something?” he said innocently

“Because you’re being nice to me” she replied

“Ok fair enough” he said “I need a favour”

“Ok what is it?”

“I need you to go over to Finchbottom” he replied

“No not Finchbottom, anywhere but Finchbottom” she said

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t urgent” he said

 

After 20 minutes of begging she reluctantly caved in and agreed to deliver some old film stock that had been unearthed to a specialist film restorer, Reel Times, Bob called them “cutting edge”

She had once lived in Finchbottom in fact for quite a few years until her mid-teens when she was still Karen Myles and she hadn’t been back since as it held bitter memories for her.

Because it was where she fell in love for the first time and where her heart was savagely broken.

 

They had been going out together for two years and she was head over heels in love with Peter and she thought he felt the same about her but she soon saw his true mettle.

It all came to a head when her dad dropped the bombshell that they were moving to Abbeyvale because the firm he worked for was relocating.

She was devastated by the news and didn’t speak to her dad for three weeks but she thought everything was alright between her and Peter.

 

When the time came for the move they agreed to spend the whole of the previous day together and planned to meet at the Mall as soon as it opened at 8am.

But on the actual day she stood there by the door at the moment the doors opened but there was no sign of Peter and she stood there until the clock on St Martha’s church struck 12.

She had stayed there every second and she had tried phoning him and got no response so the moment the last chime struck she went home fighting back the tears every step of the way and when she reached her house she went straight to her room and cried for the rest of the day.        

 

She was inconsolable and her mum tried her hardest

“It’s totally out of character for him” She said “are you sure you got the time right?”

The suggestion that it was her own fault just made her howl even louder so her mum left her to it and her dad fared no better when he suggested he drive her over to his house.

In the end they just had to leave her to cry herself to sleep.

The next morning she was much recovered but no one ever mentioned his name again.

Although she often thought of him and wondered why he had been so cruel.

 

The favour for Bob Turner turned out to be a bit more complicated than just dropping off a few cans of film, she was also tasked with seeing the restoration through to fruition and she was required to meet with the chief technician and discuss not just the restoration of the film she was carrying but also a large number of other films found in the vaults, which would be a potentially big deal for Reel Times.  

As her ex-husband dropped her off to work in the morning she didn’t have and transport so she got a cab to the station and caught the first available train to Finchbottom.

Once she had disembarked she took the first cab on the rank and she was quickly headed towards the address that Bob Turner supplied. 

When she pulled up outside the Reel Time Building she was in truth not particularly impressed.

The premises were drab and dingy and quite frankly uninspiring.

Her first instinct was to get the cab to return her to the station but Bob had said that they were experts with a great reputation so she decided she would at least meet with them first.

Karen paid the cab driver and walked towards the unimpressive front entrance.

 

Failing to locate a doorknob, she placed her hand on the push plate and put her weight behind it but the door didn’t open to her touch which was when she looked to the left and saw an intercom so she pushed the buzzer and a moment later the speaker crackled and a tinny voice said

“Yes?”

“Karen Anderson to see Mark Cross” she shouted at the wall  

“Come up” the voice said and the lock buzzed so she repeated her previous action with the door and this time it yielded to her.

On entering the dimly lit lobby her first thought was that at least it was in keeping with the façade.

She trudged up the stairs wishing she’d said no to Bob more forcefully but when she pushed open the door at the top of the staircase she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Everything was shinny chrome and bright lights and there was hi-tech equipment everywhere, it was such a stark contrast to the outside.

“Can I help?” a voice said in a manner that conveyed anything but the desire to help, however she couldn’t help smiling as she thought that she had done the speaker quality a disservice as the girl actually had a tinny voice.

She was a small girl in her mid-twenties, Lilya, according to the name on her coffee mug, and she was about 4ft 10 quite slim but with the most enormous breasts, rather too big for the rest of her in Karen’s opinion, they were almost in the realm of comedy breasts, totally out of proportion to her tiny frame.

They were displayed in a very low cut black top and looked like two bald men sharing a coat.

Her face was not an attractive one but Karen supposed, perhaps unkindly, that when you have your breasts on display like that, most visitors wouldn’t notice her face.

 

The diminutive receptionist, Lilya, sat with her disproportionately large breasts on display in a very low cut black top and they looked like two bald men sharing a coat.

Her face was not an attractive one but Karen supposed, perhaps unkindly that when you have your breasts on display like that, most visitors wouldn’t notice her face.

“Can I help?” she asked

“Yes” Karen replied, “I’m here to see Mark Cross”

“Name?” she barked

“Karen Anderson” she replied rather sharply as she’d already told her all of this over the intercom.

“Wait there” she ordered and walked away, Karen assumed that they probably employed her because of the size of her breasts and not for her expertise or personality.

A few moments later she returned

“This way” Lilya called and led her to her appointment.

When they reached Mark Cross’s office she stepped to one side and grunted

“In there”

Karen stepped through the open door and was greeted by a middle-aged man dressed like a used car salesman, who didn’t really project “Cutting Edge”.

“Karen?” he said standing up and proffering his hand which she took.

“Mr Cross” she said shaking his hand, and she thought he certainly shook hands like a salesman and it even felt like a used car salesman’s hand.

“Please call me Mark” he said pointing, “Take a seat”

She sat down and thought that Bob had clearly been given some bad information about Mr. Cross and she thought there was little chance she would remain there for long.

“I must apologize for Lilya, she’s just a temp our usual receptionist is on maternity leave” he said

Karen wasn’t really in the mood for chit chat so she pressed on him the reason for our meeting.

“Bob Tuner tells me you come highly recommended”

“Well not me” he interrupted “it’s my company but Peter is the genius” 

“I’ll introduce you” he said and stood up and walked around the desk and then she led him along a corridor and into an office/workshop, which had computers and editing desks and every gadget imaginable, clearly Peter was the “Cutting Edge” that she had heard about.

And sitting at a console was a man with his back to them wearing headphones with his eyes glued to a screen.

“Peter?” Marcus shouted and as he turned around he looked up and smiled as he took off his headphones.

He rose from his chair and she saw Peter was a tall man, stick thin, with an unusual posture.

She ascertained he was probably mid to late twenties and wore a neatly trimmed beard.

He had a handsome face, what she could see of it even more so when he smiled, which he did as he approached with his one hand extended in greeting and other grasping a walking stick.

“Peter this is Karen Anderson” he said to him but Peter corrected him

“No this is Karen Myles”

“Well I used to be” she said “But not for quite a few years”

“I thought it was you, you haven’t changed a bit” he said

She studied his face but couldn’t place him, there was something familiar around the eyes, but not enough to identify him, but clearly he knew her.

“You have me at a complete disadvantage” she said which was when Mark completed the introduction

“This is Peter Strickland”

Which was when Karen did something she had never done before in her life, she fainted.

Peter Strickland was the boyfriend who so cruelly stood her up when she was just 15 years old and broke her heart.

 

When Karen came to she was slumped on the floor leaning against the wall while Mark Cross, Peter Strickland and a skinny minnie of a girl called Claire, who was the first aider, all fussed around her uttering words of concern.

“I’m fine, I’m fine” she insisted “I just feel a little ridiculous sitting on the floor”

With that Peter and Mark helped her up and into a chair while Claire went off to get her a cup of tea.

 

After finishing her cup of tea Claire excused herself and went back to work and Mark asked once more if she was alright before shaking her hand and returning to his office.

She was a little uneasy about being on her own with Peter, she was scared that 15 years of pent up anger that she felt towards him might erupt and she would beat him to death with his walking stick, what was that all about anyway?

Even before she realised that Peter Strickland was the “Genius” of the company, Reel Times hadn’t so far lived up to her expectations, and she was lost in her own thoughts when Peter said.

“Karen Myles, I would have recognised you anywhere”

It was funny but although his face was unfamiliar the voice was unmistakeable.

“Really?” she asked blandly “is that supposed to make it all better?”

“I don’t understand” he said

“That was a cruel, cruel thing you did to Karen Myles, you broke her heart” she said

“But…” he began but Karen was in full flow.

“Four hours she waited, I waited, outside the Mall and you didn’t show up, I phoned you and you wouldn’t even pick up the phone”

“But…” he began again

“It was a cowardly thing to do, if you didn’t want to see me again you just had to say, I would have been hurt, but not the way I was, and later when I was distraught and crying in my bedroom, you could have called me, to explain but no, that was too much to ask, too much to expect and all I got was silence, and I see you’re still silent”

“But…” Peter began

“You ruined my childhood, you broke my heart so badly it took two years to repair and even now it doesn’t work properly, when I get close to someone I am afraid they will have feet of clay like you did, God I can’t believe it even after all these years it still hurts, to feel you weren’t special enough, weren’t loved enough, to be let down with a gentle word, instead of a cowardly act.

I loved you so much and as if it wasn’t heart breaking enough that I was moving to another town you had to pull the rug from beneath me.

Silly me, I thought even living in different towns we would carry on, I thought our love was strong enough for that, but how wrong I was.

And where were you while I cried myself to sleep for the next two weeks? Answer me that Mr clever Dick, cutting edge, genius bloody whiz kid”

“If I remember rightly I was in a coma” he replied and Karen almost fainted again.

 

Karen and Peter had been going out together for two years and she was head over heels in love with him and she thought he felt the same about her.

But her dad dropped the bombshell that the family were moving from Finchbottom to Abbeyvale and when the time came for the move Peter and her agreed to spend the whole of her last full day in Finchbottom together and planned to meet at the Mall as soon as it opened at 8am, but Peter was a no show.

And when, 15 years after the event, she confronts him he says the reason he wasn’t there was because he was in a coma and she was suitably dismissive.

“What do you mean you were in a coma?” she asked “is that supposed to be amusing?”

But she could see by his expression that he was deadly serious so she sat down and waited for him to gather himself.

“I was as desperate to see you that day as you were to see me, perhaps even more so” he said “I was certainly in a hurry to get there”

In fact so much so that he took risks that he had never taken before but he was so much in love that he felt he was invincible.

“My mum made me have breakfast before I left so I was ten minutes late leaving so I took my bike and tried to make up the time, unfortunately I tried too hard and ended up under the wheels of a van”

Karen gasped on hearing his words and tears welled up in her eyes, partly because of his revelation and partway because of the remembrance of the day when she stood by the doors at the Mall the moment they opened at 8 o’clock and stayed there every second until the clock on St Martha’s church struck 12.

The tears that had been welling that she had been fighting to hold back flooded from her unabated and accompanying her tears was an overwhelming sense of guilt and a sense of relief that she could let go of the hate and bitterness she had held in her heart for 15 years.

As he explained about the accident and the horrific injuries he suffered she suddenly felt very foolish, all the while she was feeling sorry for herself and wondering why he had been so cruel he was actually fighting for his life.

As she cried Peter comforted her which made her feel even guiltier after the tirade she had launched at him and berated him so vehemently.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did I never hear from you?”

She asked when the flow of tears was finally stemmed. 

“I didn’t have your address of phone number” he said and she recalled that she hadn’t told him the address in Abbeyvale, she had kept it to herself and teased him with it and wasn’t going to give it to him on that last day together.

“Oh God I remember now” she said

“I tried to get your address and phone number from Julie and Kelly but they wouldn’t tell me” Peter said and Karen put her face in her hands.

“I told them not to, because you were such a bastard” she mumbled and then started to cry again.

 

As if she didn’t feel guilty enough about everything, the anger, the ranting, the insults and the tears, she left the offices of Reel Times, without discussing the cans of film she had taken with her at Bob Turner’s behest or even discussed them and then she allowed the victim of her wrath to buy her dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant, The Leathern Bottle and even drive her back to Purplemere afterwards.

 

Over dinner he explained more about his injuries and the fact that he almost lost his leg, but the surgeons saved the limb although he walked with a pronounced limp and needed a walking stick as the musculature was prone to spasm or cramp whenever the will took it.

He also broke several bones in his face had some reconstruction on his face and some of the scarring resulted in his wearing a beard.

But overall he was quite sanguine about the whole incident after all he was still alive.

“But my greatest injury” he said over coffee “and the one that bears the deepest scars was losing you”   

That one sentence made her heart skip a beat and caused a tear to form in her eye but it was not like the earlier tears.

“You shouldn’t say things like that to a married woman” she said coyly

“Are you married then?” he asked “I don’t see a ring”  

“That’s because I’m divorced, but that’s not the point” she said “And what about you, what would Mrs Strickland say if she heard you say such things to another woman?”

“There isn’t one” he said and she smiled to herself “There has never been one”

And so the conversation turned towards their lives and relationships in the fifteen years since they last saw each other.

She told of her eight year marriage to Jed and the amicable divorce and even when the marriage was over they carried on living under the same roof for nine months until they sold the house and how it wasn’t really very different to when they were married, and it really should have been if they belonged together as a couple, so they knew they had made the right decision.

His story was a much shorter one he had never married or even come close to it, he couldn’t find anyone that fitted him.

On the drive back to Purplemere they arranged another evening out, they both avoided using the word date in fear of jinxing it.

 

Over the following two months they had many evenings out but Karen was holding back from total commitment, partly unable to in case her heart was broken again and a little bit of her was waiting for permission.

 

It wasn’t until May when that permission was forth coming.

It was time for her to leave work and she was nowhere near ready to go, so she picked up her phone and rang her ex Jed who was her ride home.

“Hi” he said

“Hey Jed” she replied “I’m running late”

“No problem” he responded “how long?”

“About an hour” she replied “But you don’t need to wait, I’ll get a cab”

“No problem, I’ve got no plans” he said “I’ll meet you in the Directors Arms”

“Brilliant” she said “You’re a star”

She hung up the phone and cracked on with the task she need to complete.

 

As Karen pushed open the door of the Directors Arms she saw a young woman talking to Jed, she had jet black curly hair and she estimated she was mid to late twenties, attractive if not beautiful and was wearing a smart grey suit and dark tights.

As she said goodbye and walked away she noticed Jed was surveying her lovely legs and her curves and she smiled.

“Who was that?” Karen said when she reached the table

“Just someone I bumped into” he replied

“It looks as though you wouldn’t mind bumping into her again” she said

“Funny you should say that, I’m seeing her on Saturday” he said proudly

“Good for you” Karen said and meant it

“I’m sorry I’m so late, it’s been a pig of a day”

“That’s ok” he assured her “Do you fancy a drink?”

“Oh yes please” she said “as long as I’m not holding you up”

“I wouldn’t have offered if it was a problem” he insisted “as I said I don’t have any plans tonight”

He went and got her a large white wine and himself a coke and returned to the table

“What about you?” he asked

“What?” she said

“Plans for tonight” he explained

“No nothing” she said

“Why don’t we eat then” he suggested “the foods pretty good in here”

“That would be really nice, Jed” she replied “Thank you”

 

Jed got menus from the bar and they ordered their food and then they spent a couple of hours on a proper catch up which they hadn’t done in a while.

When they split up, even though it was amicable and they remained the best of friends themselves, some of their friends felt it there duty to take sides.

So it was about the people “they” as the enemy had lost touch with that filled most of the conversation, then they moved on to the more personal stuff.

There was something Karen had been reluctant to tell him, so she thought she would take the opportunity to share the fact that she had been seeing someone else for a couple of months, his name was Peter and she had met him at work.

“That’s brilliant Karen, I’m really pleased for you” he said “but why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I don’t know really” she replied “it seemed a bit insensitive”

“Well for future reference you can tell me anything” he said

“But you haven’t told me” she said in her defence

“Well there hasn’t been anything to tell” he said “I’ve been on a couple of disastrous blind dates and that’s about all”

“Until today” she added

“Yes until today” he concurred and smiled

 

They finished their drinks and Jed dropped her off at about 9.30.

Even after they stopped living under the same roof they still lived within half a mile of each other and as the split was so amicable it made no sense to abandon their long standing routine of travelling to and from work together.

“Thanks Jed” Karen said “Enjoy your date on Saturday”

“I will” he replied and drove the short distance home.

Now she had found the courage to tell him about Peter she could now move on, she could permit herself to get on with her life.

 

The day after Karen had given herself permission to get on with her life she was once again on the train from Purplemere to Finchbottom and once she had disembarked she hurried off the platform and out through the barriers and took the first cab on the rank and was quickly heading towards the Reel Times building. 

When they pulled up outside she was still not at all impressed with the drab and dingy exterior of the premises, she had been meaning to ask Peter what the deal was but it always slipped her mind.

She paid the cab driver and walked towards the unimpressive front entrance and pushed the buzzer on the intercom and in response the speaker crackled and a tinny voice said

“Yes?”

“Karen Anderson to see Peter Strickland” she shouted at the wall  

“Come up” the voice said and the lock buzzed, Lilya’s manner clearly hadn’t improved since her last visit, she thought as she climbed the stairs.

Karen was still struck by the almost lavish interior of the premises, with everything trimmed with shinny chrome and bright lights everywhere illuminating all the hi-tech equipment, it really was such a stark contrast to the outside.

“You can go straight through” Lilya said as she packed away her laptop, her enormous breasts, rather too big for the rest of her, were hindering rather than helping her efforts.

As she left reception she glanced at her watch and thought she must have been later than she intended but no it appeared they  finished early on a Friday, and why not she had after all.

Karen finished work at midday and went home to get herself ready for what she hoped would be a big night and changed into something more appropriate for what she had in mind.

So she was wearing a knee length emerald green dress that hugged her figure, well what figure she had, and her shoulder length brunette hair was down so it danced around her nape as she walked.

And although it wasn’t obvious to the casual observer she was wearing black stockings on her lovely legs.

When she reached Mark Cross’s office he was stood by the hat stand putting his coat on, he paused briefly and gave her a wave, so she waved back and continued down the corridor.

Her shoes were also green to match her dress and because she wanted to make the best of herself she was tottering along on heels.

When she reached the door to Peter’s office/workshop she knocked on the frame.

“Come in, it’s open” a voice called so she turned the handle and pushed on the door and Peter was stood among his gadgets and consoles and he smiled when he saw her.

“Wow this is a nice surprise” he said and it was a surprise because they weren’t supposed to be seeing each other until Saturday.

“You look fabulous” he said “are you going out?”

“Well I hope so” she replied “I didn’t dress like this for nothing”

He thought she must have a hot date because she’d really gone to town and she had been very liberal with the perfume which was very pleasant.

“So where are you going?” he asked suddenly feeling jealous,

“Well that depends on where you take me” she replied coyly

“You choose” he said relieved that she had dressed up for his benefit

“The Beaumont Park Hotel” she replied

“Good choice” he replied “They have a fabulous restaurant”

“I was thinking more along the lines of room service” she said as she sidled up to him and his mouth fell open, so she kissed it.

It was a wonderful kiss, which took her back to the magical moment when they first kissed when they were childhood sweethearts.