Eleven

On their first morning in Blackpool, Bob Maitland insisted on accompanying Maddy and his grandaughter on a walk along the promenade. “Now that I’ve got you back,” he told Ellen, “I’m not having some handsome cockney fella snatch you away again.”

“That’s not likely to happen,” Ellen assured him. “I’ve seen enough of the bright lights of London to last me a lifetime. I prefer the bright lights here, Grandad.” In fact, if she never left Lancashire again, it would not be a hardship.

“And how do you feel about that, love?” Addressing himself to Maddy, he saw how preoccupied and nervous she seemed. “Are you ready to swap the sophistication of London for cheap and cheerful Blackpool?”

Maddy answered truthfully. “I hope so,” she said. “I just need to find my way around, and get a feel for the place.”

Everything was so strange though. Where London was her familiar stamping ground, Blackpool was a completely different environment. It was exactly as Ellen described; at times noisy, other times quiet. Outside the pubs, there were waste bins spilling over with squashed beer cans and crisp packets. Ice cream cornets had been dropped on the ground and trodden into the pavement cracks, and there were people everywhere, laughing, arguing, taking up the entire promenade with their playful antics.

The atmosphere was so different from the hubbub of Central London. Having seen only part of this renowned seaside resort, Maddy thought it was far from being the most beautiful place in the world. There were areas that came across as bawdy and tatty, and sometimes when a group of exuberant, well-oiled, bare-chested young men started chasing each other, you had to stand your ground or be accidentally knocked flying.

Yet for all that, there was a sense of fun and excitement, with holidaymakers wearing kiss-me-quick hats and colorful wigs, while most children and some adults merrily buried their faces in whirls of pink candy-floss. Uplifted voices of the bingo callers echoed through the air, and like a fantasy army on the march, the rhythmic clip-clop of horse and carriage wheels played a tune over the ground.

As they neared the Pleasure Beach, a portly, smiley-faced woman tapped Maddy on the arm. “Can yer hear that lot, screaming like banshees?” She gestured toward the Big Dipper ride. “You’d never get me on that – not for a million dollars. I’ve nowt against showing me knickers,” she winked knowingly, “Lord knows, I’ve already done that a few times in my heyday, but when it comes to having me stomach turned upside down, no thank you very much!”

With that, she gave Maddy a surprisingly gleaming smile, before chasing after her young son, who had run off to feed a carrot to the carriage horse. “Yer little sod!” she bawled. “Come away afore he bites yer bloody fingers off!”

Smilingly averting her eyes, Maddy glanced across the pier and on toward the beach. It was an awesome sight: little girls in pretty sun hats, boys playing with frisbees, young people lying on towels beneath the wonderful sunshine, and the old ones sprawled in bright stripey deckchairs, wearing big-rimmed hats and sucking on ice creams.

The scene evoked other memories. There was a time, eons ago, when she too had enjoyed days out at the seaside with her parents. She had visited Brighton, Clacton and Southend, but she had never seen anything quite like Blackpool, with its trams and horse-drawn carriages, and endlessly long, wide promenade.

“Well then, Maddy?” Grandad Bob interrupted her reverie. “So, d’you think you might settle here, or what?”

Maddy looked up at him, shading her eyes with the palm of her hand when the sun half-blinded her. “I do like what I’ve seen so far. The people are really friendly, and there seems to be so much going on.”

“So?” he persisted. “You still haven’t given me a proper answer.”

She laughed. “You’re worse than Ellen,” she chided. “And yes, I think I’d like very much to settle here… if you’ll have me?”

“What! I wouldn’t have you going anywhere else,” he declared. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re part of our family now.”

Choked with emotion, Maddy could only nod. It had been so long since she was part of a family, she had made herself believe it would never happen again.

Seeing the glint of tears in Maddy’s eyes, Bob quickly rescued her by putting on his best Sergeant-Major voice. “Right, that’s settled then.” Content with his lot, he wrapped one arm round Ellen and the other round Maddy. “I bet I’m the envy of every manjack here,” he declared proudly, as he marched them along the promenade, his face uplifted in the happiest of grins, and his step more brisk than it had been in a long, lonely time.

“I might be old and ugly, but there can’t be a luckier fella anywhere, to have two darling little females hanging on his arm.”

“You’re not ugly!” Maddy thought him to be “a fine-looking man, for your age” and said so; much to his delight.

He laughed, that deep-throated laugh that seemed to shake the ground beneath. “That’s a backhanded compliment if ever I heard one!”

“You want to be careful, Grandad.” Ellen whispered a warning.

“Oh? And why’s that then?”

“Because we might run across Nora from next door, and then what would you do?”

“What would I do?” He winked from one to the other. “I think I would wish her good day, and let it be known that I’m already spoken for – twice over.”

Maddy’s heart was warmed by her two delightful companions. As they now cut across the wooden ramp to chase recklessly along the sands, she made a secret wish. “Please God, let this be a brand new start for all of us.”

There was so much to think about. Firstly, she would need to make sure she did not become a burden on Ellen and Bob – financially or otherwise. She must pay her way and pull her weight and with that in mind she must be quick to locate the bank. Later, when the baby was born, she might have to think about a place of her own or going halves with Ellen. Oh, and just thinking about the baby made her heart leap with joy.

“Look, Maddy.” Jumping up and down with excitement, Ellen was pointing to a red and yellow striped balloon hovering above their heads. “Look what it says – three pounds a go, from the top end of the pier. D’you fancy a trip on it?”

Grandad Bob was quick to tell her she need not include him, because there was no way he would ever let himself be taken up in an oversized toy balloon “…with a flimsy wicker basket dangling on the end of it. I’d like to think I’d got more sense than to trust meself to such a dangerous article. You two can do what you like, I can’t stop you. But you won’t get me in no blown-up balloon, flying on the wrong end of a rope, no siree.”

But in no time at all, all three of them were up, up and away, soaring into the skies and loving every minute of it. “Trouble with me is, I let meself be talked into anything!” Grandad yelled from the other end of the basket. “I must want my head tested!”

Maddy thought it was the most exhilarating thing she had ever experienced; even more than her very first night on stage at the tender age of fifteen. The breeze whipped against her face and the feeling of weightlessness set her heart pounding. “I can’t believe how fast it’s going!” Silent as a ghost, the balloon whistled along, until they were so far out to sea, the landline looked like a thin, hazy shadow in the distance. “Oh, look! You can almost see the curve of the earth!”

Ellen laughed. “I knew you’d both love it,” she said. “All that arguing and moaning, and now look at us – like birds in flight, we are.”

Soon, the balloon was brought gently to earth on the pier, with only the slightest of bumps; the passengers all fell out, breathless and laughing, thrilled by the experience but immensely relieved to feel the pier beneath their feet once more. “Come on!” Ellen was the first away. “I want the biggest, most chocolatey milk-shake in Blackpool.”