Part 8.
In Which Alice Realises She is a Woman and Pete Becomes Domesticated!
When they awoke the sun was shining. Alice woke first and it was one of the most wonderful things that had every happened to her, to find Pete asleep behind her, breathing deeply and rhythmically, his lips parted. She bent and kissed him gently without waking him and then slid silently out of bed. She collected up her clothes from their various positions on the floor, out her leather on and made her way to the bathroom. All her own belongings were downstairs somewhere but she managed all right. The bathroom was well equipped with soap, flannels and sponges. She found a tin of talcum powder and used it liberally. Then she looked at herself critically in the mirror. Her body just looked the same as ever, she thought, rather disappointed. There was nothing to show that she was Pete’s, but then she realised that she felt differently inside, not physically but emotionally. She felt older, more mature, ready to face anything to defend her love. She was no longer a girl but a woman. The realisation made her catch her breath – she was on equal terms with her mother. She was a woman!
Dressing quickly she crept back to the bedroom. Pete was still asleep. She decided to go downstairs and see what was happening. Entering the room she nearly burst out laughing. Bottles and people were strewn all over the floor and chairs. Boys lay on their backs with their mouths open, oblivious to the world around them, snoring gently. Most of the girls were asleep in chairs, but a few were on the floor. Alice stepped carefully over them and went through into the kitchen where, after a search amongst the debris of the party, she found a packet of tea, milk, sugar and a teapot. She put the kettle on and waited for it to boil. The slow sounds of awakening began to come from the next room and after a few minutes a boy with tousled hair and a stubbly chin came stumbling into the kitchen.
"Morning!" said Alice pleasantly. A grunt was her answer and then a groan of "Oh my head!"
"Are they all still asleep?" she asked.
"Yeah. I could do with some tea."
"This is for me and Pete," she replied. "You can have a cup though."
"Who’s Pete?" asked the boy, "Is he in there?"
"No, he’s still asleep in bed," she said pouring the water into the pot. "I warn you this tea will be weak because we don’t like it strong."
"I don’t care. Bed, eh? You were all right last night then." His eyes travelled over her. "What about tonight?" he asked.
"Do you mind," Alice said angrily, "I’m not like that. I love Pete and we are going steady."
"Whoops, sorry love," he said "I didn’t think you looked like the sleeping around type of girl, but you can never tell"
"That’s okay," said, giving him a cup of tea. "I’ll take this up to Pete now."
She carried two steaming cups of tea up to the bedroom. Pete lay in bed. She opened the curtains wide and the room filled with soft yellow sunlight. She kissed his eyes, his nose, his lips. He groaned softly and his eyes slowly flickered open.
"I bought you some tea," said Alice.
"Wha—oh - -yeah. Thanks love," he said, struggling to throw off the blanket of sleep. He put his arms around her.
"What a lovely way to wake up," he smiled. "A bit different from my mum’s screech of ‘Get up Pete’ shouted up the stairs. "And tea too. I’ll have to sleep with you more often!"
"And it was just lovely to wake up and find you asleep beside me," said Alice.
"I hope I wasn’t snoring," he said, sitting up to drink his tea.
"Yes you were" she teased, "it was terrible. I just couldn’t bear the noise and had to go downstairs."
"What woke you up so early? What’s happening downstairs? Has everyone gone?"
"Everyone except one boy, are still asleep," she told him. "They look ever so funny – mouths open, bristly chins and snoring – and that’s the girls!" They laughed together and then he put the empty blue and white striped mug on the bedside cabinet. He kissed her.
"Marry me Alice, let’s get engaged and married."
She gasped and breathlessly began trying to answer him.
"Oh, oh Pete! Oh God, yes. Yes, yes, yes." She jumped up, her eyes bright and let out a loud yell. Then she threw herself on Pete and the bed and began to cry and laugh at the same time.
"Steady on love," he said laughing.
"Oh, I’m so happy," she sobbed into his shoulder. "I’m sorry but I just went mad. Oh I love you! Yes, yes yes – oh Pete!" After a couple of minutes she gulped and sat up. Pete looked at her and collapsed with laughter.
"Oh, oh! If you could see yourself. You’ve got mascara all over your face and a tear drop at the end of your nose." His shoulders shook convulsively. "My sweet little Alice, I love you." He put her down gently and kissed her tear stained face.
"I can’t even afford to buy you a ring at the moment, but as soon as I get a job you’ll have the best one in Bristol. Until then, wear this." He took off the signet ring he wore on his little finger and caught hold of her left hand. She watched wonderingly as he put it on her slender ring finger. It was almost a perfect fit and looked so right. They were engaged!
"Thank you Pete," she said, her voice full of love, then smiling a little.
"You’ve got mascara all over your face too!"
He smiled back at her and they kissed, slowly and solemnly as if sealing a pact.
***
Downstairs life was slowly stirring. Bodies were stretching and yawning, eyes were bemusedly opening to the ache of daylight. A girl staggered out to the kitchen and made more tea, giving everyone a liberal helping of aspirin. No one felt like any food although the tea and aspirins were very welcome. Then the panic began. It was 8.30 and they somehow had to get to work. For the next quarter of an hour the house was in a turmoil of girls hurriedly washing and trying to make up and bristly boys also washing and trying to shave with only one electric razor between them.
During this pandemonium Pete asked Colin if he and Alice could stay, as they had nowhere to go. Colin was only to glad to agree especially when Pete said they would clear up the mess left behind in the aftermath of the party. Colin asked no awkward questions, he had too much of a headache to do that. At 9.00 the front door slammed for the last time and the final scooter purred quickly away. Pete and Alice were alone.
"It’s like being married," said Alice, turning the ring around on her finger.
"And we will be soon," Pete replied, "this is practise."
They surveyed the damage around them. The empty bottles, cigarette ends everywhere, the empty glasses, some of them broken and the scattered plates which last night had been overflowing with appetising food. Upstairs it was almost as bad. The beds were unmade and crumpled and cigarette ends and bottles were in abundance.
They started upstairs, Alice making the beds, Pete emptying ashtrays and taking bottles downstairs. Gradually they worked their way through the house until the only room left was the kitchen. There was not too much washing up to do as few people had used glasses. Most had drunk straight from the bottle. A number of glasses were broken which made the work even lighter. Pete nobly offered to dry up with a light-hearted remark about ‘getting quite domesticated’.
They had not come off so badly as some of the others who had gone on drinking all night long as they had gone upstairs about 11 o’ clock. They both had very slight headaches but these wore off as the day went on.
As Alice had remarked, it was ‘like being married’. They spent the rest of the morning just listening to Radio London, reading pop magazines together and looking for ‘Situations Vacant’ in the local paper. There were quite a few possibilities for both of them but they thought they had better lie low for a week or two first.
At about 12.30 she went to make some lunch. After exploring the kitchen thoroughly Alice found a pound of sausages, potatoes and apples which she managed to turn into sausage, mash and apple sauce which they ate with relish. The pantry was well stocked with food which Colin’s mother had left for her son so they had no difficulty over food. As it was so warm they enjoyed the soft coldness of ice-cream which Alice found in the freezer.
The afternoon passed uneventfully. They played all Colin’s records, practised a new dance or simply lay kissing and talking on the big divan. Their relationship was now of complete harmonious togetherness. Whereas before Alice had always had on her mind that she must not get too carried away and that Pete must be fought off by slapping, biting and kicking – even though in fun – now she was released from this worry and could devote herself to him. As for Pete, he no longer felt frustrated and did not have to spend his time constantly fighting a fierce unrelenting battle with her, which left them both miserable and unfulfilled. Now he could spend more time loving her in less passionate ways. They had the long summer nights for love; they could spend the days slowly and enjoying each other’s company.
At 6.15 Colin came back. He had almost forgotten that he had said to the couple that they could stay the day but he began to think it was a blessing in disguise when Alice cooked him dinner and he realised that there was no ‘clearing up after the night before’ to do. He was tall and dark with rather a baby face. He was also a mod, although he did not seemed to quite achieve the way-out effect that Pete did even though he could afford better clothes. He looked at them, sitting opposite him at the table and wondered where they came from, who they were and what sort of trouble they were in.
"Well then," he said "suppose you tell me why you haven’t anywhere to go and everything. I’m a bit out of the picture."
They had decided to tell him everything so Pete began the long story
"Alice’s mum forbade her to go out with me anymore and she was very upset. When she got to school a teacher had a go at her as well and said she didn’t approve of me either. Alice ran away from school, went home and got some stuff then came over to my place in Gloucester. I remembered there was a party here tonight so we came to it because it was somewhere to stay the night. I expect the police are looking for us now – but they’re not going to get us apart!" He finished vehemently.
Colin looked at them both appraisingly.
"I’ll help you as much as I can," he told them. "You can stay here till Saturday afternoon when my parents come back – and I’ll ask around and see if I can find anything for you after that."
"Oh, thanks so much Colin," Alice said gratefully."We’ll pay you for the food –"
"No, that’s okay," he replied quickly. "my mum has left enough to feed a regiment. If we start to run out then I’ll come to you for more but that’s not very likely – and your cooking is enough payment."
Alice laughed. "I can’t cook anything very much – just beans, spuds, sausages, eggs – the basics!"
"I can’t even butter a piece of bread without making a mess," Colin replied. "Well, that’s settled. Where are you sleeping, separate or together?" The question was asked quite naturally, with no dirty snigger attached to it. Pete replied just as calmly.
"Together. We were in a blue and white room on the second floor last night."
"Yeah, that’s fine. Stay in there, it’s a guest room. My girlfriend’s coming over tonight, she’s told her mum she is staying with a girlfriend. She should be here about half seven."
Alice got to her feet. "I had better wash up quickly then."
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