Looking Forward(Kristin Dockar) Looking Forward

As Alice walked down the lane, she looked gloomily at the bare trees and the way the branches spiked up, dark and sinister, into the grey sky. Every now and then there was a hint of colour: some ivy twisting its way along and around tree trunks, a flash of red berries on bushes but mostly she saw frosted brown, earth covering the fields, iced mud on the lane and increasingly, brown mud clogging up the soles of her boots. She was wary of slipping.
She walked on past some stables where one or two people were mucking out horses. No one answered her when she said ‘good morning’. That suited her mood too.

As she walked on towards the lake, she saw a van parked. This caused her to pause for a moment because it was lonely here, and it was unusual to see any vehicle parked. There was no reason for it to be here.
Alice wasn’t quite sure what to do? Should she walk past or turn and go back up the lane to where she knew people would be?
Then she recognised the van. It was Tom’s. Typical. So that’s where he went.
She took a few steps nearer and saw quite clearly that Tom was fast asleep in the front passenger seat. He looked very cold and moved restlessly in his sleep. To be fair, she saw that he looked completely exhausted, and this caused her to feel a pang of sympathy.

Alice decided to retreat, back to a ditch where she could jump to get onto another track. As she crossed frosty grass covered in frozen horse prints, she looked over her shoulder, and paused. Should she go back, wake him up and see if he was OK? He’d been so drunk last night and when he stormed out of the house and she heard the van start up, she had been worried. What if the police stopped him? He needed that van for work.
That had been what the row was about, money. There were only a few days to go before Christmas and neither had found much work. Money was so tight and what had he brought home, a bottle of whisky.
‘Let’s put our feet up and have a good drink. We’ve earnt it’.
She had simply exploded. ‘Are you mad? We’ve hardly got enough to last over Christmas and you go and waste money on Whisky’.
He had looked so hurt. ‘Will you listen. I was given it by a customer instead of a tip. I just thought it would cheer us up’.
But once started, Alice wouldn’t shut up. All the worry of weeks and weeks caught up with her. Tom had simply sat down, switched on the TV and steadily worked his way through the bottle.

As Alice stood quite still, the first tiny flakes of snow floated down. She noticed that it had become increasingly colder. Soon the track was covered in white, and looking up she smiled and stuck her tongue out to catch some flakes.
Turning round, she walked back to the van. Tom was still asleep. She rapped on the window causing him to wake up with a start. He blinked and saw her. Then he smiled. Winding down the window he said:
‘Hello there my lovely’.
Reaching through the open window, Alice pushed her arms round him.
‘Come home Tom. We’ll manage and I’m sorry. I’m just worried all the time’.
Surprising her, he grinned.
‘If you’d given me the chance, I had some good news. That bottle was given to me as an add on to me getting a permanent contract. I’m now officially the building maintenance contractor for that block of flats I’ve been working on. No more zero hours contract. It’s a proper salary, double what I’ve been getting’.
On hearing this, Alice burst into tears.
‘Oh Tom, I feel such a cow. How could I have been so horrible’.
Getting out of the van, Tom wrapped his wife in his arms.
‘Come on. Let’s go home. I’ll shower and change, and then we can go Christmas shopping’.
They looked at each other and burst out laughing because they were both covered in snow, and then they got into the van and drove back up the lane towards home.
Alice said:
‘I won’t say ‘Happy Christmas’ but I will say ‘All to look forward in the New Year’.

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