The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Mamie couldn’t help thinking it would be lovely if Chris and Robbie were romantically involved
Fifteen minutes later June saw Frankie leave the house, wearing dark trousers and a fashionable striped shirt. Isa came out to the garden gate with him. “What will I say if Mr Shaw wants to know where you are?” she asked. “Say you haven’t seen me since breakfast,” came the swift reply. “He won’t ask, though,” he added confidently. “I told him I’d be cutting out the weak trees from the far wood today.”
Isa leaned over June’s gate when he’d gone. “He’s a hard worker, Frank is. Deserves a bit of fun.”
June didn’t reply. Isa narrowed her eyes. “Frank’s a hard worker,” she repeated. “Don’t you go making trouble for him.”
“I’ll get it.” Mamie hurried into the hall to answer the phone.
The noise of coins falling at the other end indicated the caller was in a phone box.
“Mum?”
“Chris! What’s wrong?” She glanced at the grandfather clock. Half past four. “Are you at work?”
“No. I left London in the middle of the night to drive up home. We’ve had an accident – we’re all right, don’t worry. A deer ran out.”
“What? Where? Who’s ‘we’”?
“Let me speak, Chris.” A man’s voice came on. “Mrs MacPherson, it’s Robbie McLean. We’ve been sharing the driving.
“We’ve gone into a ditch at the Lochend crossroads. Is there any chance . . . ?” Pip, pip, pip. Silence.
Mamie put the receiver down, frustrated. “Who was it?” Neil looked up from his newspaper and laid it down on the table when he saw Mamie’s face.
Exclamations
“That was Chris and Robbie. They’ve driven up from London.” She held up her hands to stop her husband’s exclamations.
“They’re fine,” she said, “but the car’s gone off the road at the crossroads. They need help to get it out.”
“I’ll go up to Alec’s, see if he can come with a tractor. Of all the hare-brained . . .!”
“I know, I know.” Mamie shook her head. “Why didn’t she let us know she was coming?”
As Neil was leaving Mamie grabbed her coat. “I’ll come with you.”
“Don’t worry. Nine lives our Chris has, remember?”
Mamie thought of the times when her younger daughter had got lost in the mist on the hill farm, when she climbed on the shed roof, when she almost fell into the sheep dip . . . so many escapades.
“She did sound all right,” she admitted. “But I want to see for myself.”
“Alec’s coming with the tractor,” Neil told Chris and Robbie when he and Mamie found them.
“You’re taking him away from the potato field, so don’t be surprised if he doesn’t give you a great welcome.”
Chris looked contrite.
“We’re sorry, Dad. But Robbie had to swerve to avoid the deer, otherwise we would have hit it.” Mamie patted Robbie on the arm.
“Well done.”
“Thanks, Mrs MacPherson. I wasn’t going fast. One of the lights is smashed. I can’t tell if there’s anything wrong with the engine until it’s back on the road.”
Under his thatch of untidy brown hair Robbie’s face was white. Mamie went to their own car and took out a packet of barley sugar.
“Have one of these. You’ve had a fright.”
Appearance
Chris refused a sweetie. Mamie looked at her youngest daughter, perched on a gate, wearing a stylish pink and black frock and shoes with spiky heels.
Her hair was in a French roll, her eyes were darkly outlined and she wore pale shimmery lipstick.
Neil must have been taking in his daughter’s appearance, too.
“Sheep kicked me in the face one clipping time, Chris. I had black eyes like yours for a week.” “Ha, ha, very funny, Dad.”
Mamie smiled inwardly.
Teenage Chris would have answered back rudely to her father’s teasing but, at 25 years old, she’d learned to keep her temper.
Her rebellious days were over, thank goodness. Mamie couldn’t help thinking it would be lovely if Chris and Robbie were to be romantically involved instead of being just old school pals.
It was time Chris settled down. Robbie was a nice lad – good-looking, too. And, of course, they knew his parents.
“While we’re waiting,” Chris said, “I have something to say.”
Mamie gasped. Just what she’d been hoping for – an engagement!
“I don’t want to be called Chris any more.”
“What?” Mamie stared at her daughter. “You’ve always said you preferred Chris to Christine.”
“I do. But Chris sounds like a boy, and Christine’s old-fashioned.
“I know you named me after Dad’s mother, but this is 1963. From now on, I want to be called Crystal.” “Crystal!” Neil cried. “What kind of a name is that?” “It suits me,” Chris said calmly. “It suits my new . . .” “There’s the tractor,” Robbie interrupted.
Alec tipped his cap in silent greeting as he got off the tractor and tied a long rope to the back of it.
He handed the other end to Neil to attach to the car bumper, and climbed back into the driver’s seat. Neil raised his hand.
“That’s it, Alec, pull away.”
He turned to clamber out the ditch and suddenly put his hand to his back. Pain crossed his face.
“Alec, stop!” Mamie called. “Neil’s back’s gone.”
Groaning
“Not the first time this has happened, I see from Doctor Munro’s records.”
Struan Scott, the new locum, smiled ruefully at Neil. “The treatment as before, I’m afraid. Complete bed rest.”
It had been a long evening. Fortunately, Chris’s car was drivable once they’d got it out, and Robbie drove it home.
Mamie followed in their car with Neil stretched out, groaning, on the back seat.
Once he was lying on the sofa, Mamie phoned the doctor while her daughter went to have a bath.
Dr Scott said he’d come as soon as he could, just as old Dr Munro would have done, which was a relief.
Some folk in the area were grumbling about a few of the changes the young doctor had made but, in Mamie’s opinion, such changes were welcome and well overdue.
“Thank you for coming. I’ll show you out,” she said, leading the way into the hall just as Chris – Crystal – came downstairs.
She had changed into tight cotton trousers and a gingham blouse that tied at the waist.
Her wet hair fell in soft waves around her face. She looked at the doctor, her eyes widening. “I’m Crystal MacPherson.” She held out her hand. He took it, staring at her.
“Struan Scott.” The doctor’s voice was husky. He cleared his throat.
“Crystal. What a beautiful name.”
More tomorrow.