BLUE BIRD ( PART THREE )

"The following night we decided it was a nice evening, so we would walk to Celia's and Jack's,
it was only about a mile, so it wasn't to far. When
we arrived they were sitting by their pool, sipping
wine, it was such a balmy, hot evening, you could
hear the crickets. Their garden was like a huge
courtyard, with hanging baskets, being a gardener
myself, I was very impressed.
"Have you done all this yourself Jack?" I enquired.
"Oh no," he replied, "we have a gardener who comes
once a week to tend the garden, I don't have time
for gardening, what with us looking after the bar."
"Yes I can imagine it takes up all your time." I
said.
"It sure does," replied Jack. "Now what can I get
you guys to drink?"
"A couple of beers will be fine," said Lawrence.

"Celia had made a paella, Jack said it was her
speciality, it was certainly the best I had tasted
since coming to Spain. She said she had put a
secret ingredient in to give it a special flavour,
but she wouldn't say what it was.

We talked about how we came to be in Spain, Celia
and Jack told us that they used to live in London,
but when their son moved to France with his wife,
they decided to sell up and move out to France, but
it didn't work out, Celia said she couldn't cope
with the French language, she said she felt isolated, so that was why they moved to Spain. they
both seemed to make so many friends in Spain, the
spanish were so friendly and hospitable."

"We have decided to retire in five years time,"
said Jack. "We've been running the bar for nearly
eight years now, we are both sixty, we just hope
we don't kick the bucket before we have time to
enjoy our retirement." Jack said laughing.
"I had to admire their outlook on life.

While we were sitting round the pool, getting through our fourth bottle of wine, Jack told us they had a yacht and they would be going out in
her, the next weekend, he asked us if we fancied a
trip out.
"Where will you be going?" I asked him.
"Oh just across to one of the nearby islands, not
to far. So come on say you'll come, you don't have
to stick with us old folk." Jack said laughing again. So we agreed that it would be a great idea.

Kate looked at Raymond, breaking the story.
"Are you ever going to tell me, what has happened
to Lawrence? only this is turning into a long story."
"Please have patience Kate, I'm trying to lead up
to that." Raymond wanted to tell Kate everything.

"We had been really busy that week, Lawrence had
managed to do some overtime, so we hadn't been out
in the week, we just finished work then crawled
into bed. So when Saturday came around, it was a
relief to be getting away. Jack had asked us to
arrive at their place around noon.

As we arrived Jack was loading up the car with
essential items."
"Hi there!" he gestured. "I've just finished.
Celia is already down at the yacht, so we had
better get going."
"We piled into the car, for the quick drive down to
the harbour.

It took us about an hour to get to the island, the
journey over was so calming, breathing in that
wonderful sea air, with the warm breeze in our
faces, made us feel glad to be alive.

The island was alot smaller than I had imagined it
to be, there were quite alot of other yacht's
moored up in the harbour, the sound of gulls was
almost deafening, it was obvious to me that this
was the place to come for food. There were bars
and restaurants all along the harbour front. Some
of the local children were fishing from the harbour.
"Fancy a beer anyone?" said Jack going to the ice
box.
"Don't mind if I do," Lawrence replied.
"How about you Ray?"
"Sure," I said. "Are there any good eating places
along the front?" I enquired.
Jack was quick to mention that if we could wait a
couple of hours, he would be doing a barbecue of
steak sandwiches and salad. That sounded pretty
good to us, so we asked what time they were eating,
Jack told us to be back by 5 pm, so we had four
hours to kill.

We decided to try out the bars along the harbour
front. After trying out a couple of the bars, we
came to this one called, 'BLUZERS,' it seemed a
cool place, the decor was mostly chrome and leather, there were chairs at the bar, so we ordered a couple of beers and discussed our plans
for the next day. We decided we would explore the
island.

As we were talking, some girls walked in, I didn't
take much notice, but Lawrence seemed smitten with
this one girl, she was quite attractive, with very
tanned skin, one could be mistaken for thinking
it was a fake tan. She had bleached blonde hair,
I could tell it was bleached, cause of the dark
roots. She seem to be quite drunk and it was still
only the afternoon.

The girls sat down at one of the tables laughing
and giggly as girls do, when they've been drinking.
I had to keep nudging Lawrence, because he was
giving this one girl the come on.
"I think I'm in love," was all he could say.
"How can you be in love, with someone you've never
met before?" I questioned him.
"She's hypnotized me, honestly Ray, I can't explain it." was his reply.
It was rediculous, I couldn't understand what had
got into him.
"I gotta go over and speak to her, do you mind
Ray?"
"Go on then," I said, thinking how stupid this was.

"Anyway he walked right up to her and asked if he
could buy her a drink, as if she hadn't had enough
already. Oh she was keen alright, here was my friend willing to part with money to get her drinks. I don't know why I was so angry, I suppose
it was just because I had met her type before.

I finished my beer, then made my way over to the
girls table. "Are you coming to another bar Lawrence?"
"Do you mind if we stay and chat to the girls?"
he said looking at me.
I said I wasn't staying, that if he wasn't coming
with me, then I was off to explore the island.
He decided this girl was more important, so I left
him to it and said I would see him back at the
yacht at 5 pm.

To be continued .........