Tim Connor Hits Trouble Read online

  True to his intention Tim took Maria around the North West and even added a brief foray into Yorkshire to see the Dales and the tumbling, rock-scattered rivers that intersect them. They rowed on Windermere, climbed half-way up Helvellyn and exhausted themselves on a trek along the Ribble Valley. To avoid Maria becoming surfeited with the ‘green and pleasant’ Tim spliced in a few urban delights, including visits to the Cavern, the first venue of the Beatles, and the football ground where her grandfather used to play. It was all good stuff for Tim as well as Maria, keeping him in the present when he might have been pre-occupied by the past.

  The last act of their stay was one of generational communion. Tim wanted to share with Maria the scattering of some of Teresa’s ashes on Dominic’s grave. They collected the urn together as they had done everything that week and drove to the cemetery. The sturdy granite Celtic cross of the tomb was visible almost as soon as they were through the cemetery gate. As they parked the car and walked towards the grave, a single shaft of sunlight seemed to pick it out.

  ‘Your grandma’s saying hello to us,’ Tim said, ‘she’s arranged for the sun to shine on her husband and to welcome you and me.’

  Maria, who had become quiet, smiled up at Tim.

  ‘And soon it will be shining on her.’

  Once at the graveside it was Maria that suggested burying some of Teresa’s ashes in the soil around the grave as well as scattering them on it. Tim was glad to do both. It was as close as he could ever get to reuniting Teresa and Dominic.

  They knelt in silence by the grave for a few moments before Tim spoke.

  ‘Your granddad, you know, Maria - he was a good man. And your grandma, she did her best, she was a good woman.’

  As they got to their feet, a question occurred to Maria.

  ‘What about you Dad, are you a good man?’

  They looked at each other for a moment, smiling.

  ‘Maria, that’s a very good question.’

  Copyright

  Published by Clink Street Publishing 2015

  Copyright © Frank Lankaster 2015

  First edition.

  The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that with which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978–1–909477–73–5

  Ebook: 978–1–909477–74–2