The Stratton Story by Elizabeth Cadell

Author:Elizabeth Cadell [Cadell, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: azw
Publisher: Friendly Air Publishing
Published: 2017-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Nothing could have looked more peaceful than the countryside as dusk fell and the Cotters, with Mark and Susie and the children, came strolling over the quiet hillside towards the inn for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Cotter went into the house in search of drinks. Mark Stevens followed them, leaving Susie with Gail at one of the small round tin tables. Sharon and Tag Junior sat at the one next to them.

“Awful hole to be stuck in,” Susie commented sulkily. “I told Mark not to come down that road. I told him twice, but he wouldn’t listen.” She frowned at the children, who were executing a rhythmic drumming on the table top. “Hey, you two; shut up.” She resumed her complaints to Gail. “This village gives me the creeps. You wouldn’t think there was a main road not far from it, leading out to civilisation. I don’t suppose any of these characters ever got as far as the main road. When do we eat?”

“Soon,” Gail assured her.

“I’ll be glad when we get out of here.”

“Well, I won’t,” said Tag. “I’d like to stay here. I wish we could go on being stuck. I’m sick of moving around. We do it all the time. I wanna go home, but we never will.” He sounded bitter. “I bet we never will.”

“Holidays come to an end,” Gail offered as comfort.

“Holidays? Who said holidays?” he demanded. “This is work—my dad’s work. Don’t ask me anything about what he does. All I know is he has to do it in a lotta places. We’re supposed to have a place to stay in Paris, but do we ever get to stay in it? No, we don’t. We just move around all the time. I’m glad we’re stuck, for once. But tomorrow morning, goodbye, nice to have met you.”

“Oh, you’re always grinding away at something,” his sister said in disgust.

“I know how he feels,” Gail said.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Tag answered. “Nobody knows how I feel. Everybody’s always giving off that junk about travel’s-good-for-you. Travel’s ed-u-ca-ting. Why didn’t they leave me in school back in the States, and let me get educated there? I wanna stay some place; just stay, that’s all.”

“I used to feel that way,” Gail told him.

“You did?” He came to her table and gave her his full attention. “Did you get dragged around when you were little?”

“My brother and sister and I—yes.”

“All round France, like me?”

“Worse. Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile. Until I was about ten.”

“And then what?”

“My parents died and we were sent to live with my grandmother. After that it was just home and school.”

Tag Junior sat gazing into this bright future. He was about to say something when Mark came out carrying a tray of drinks.

“I had to guess what Julian wanted,” he told Gail. “Where’s he got to?”

Tag Junior pointed towards the hillside.

“Here he comes.”

Julian, joining them, took the drink gratefully.

“Sorry to leave you to do it all,” he said. “You all looked so clean that I got out of my jeans into trousers.

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