The Unforgettable Coco Vincenza: A warm, funny, feel-good story about the people we remember... and those we forget by Mark Daydy

Author:Mark Daydy [Daydy, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-One

Grace watched Russ flick through an old ledger while he polished off an oat and raisin cookie. He was sitting on her front room sofa. She was sitting opposite in an armchair.

“These are great.”

“The cookie or the listings?”

“Both. But these lists are special. It’s a look back into a different world.”

“That’s exactly what it is.”

“There’s a guy here… June 1961, Arnold Constant, impressions. He would have done twenty, thirty voices. I can see him now, the summer sun streaming through the window of his bed and breakfast room… him practising how to sound like the celebrities of the day. John Wayne, Rex Harrsion… A paying audience would expect the best… but now… Arnold Constant is Arnold Who? Forgotten and overlooked apart from an entry in a ledger that would have ended up in a landfill waste site had it not been rescued by your aunt.”

“And here we are, bringing Arnold into our thoughts.” Grace smiled. “I wonder what became of him.”

“I don’t think he currently has a series on Channel Four.”

“No.”

Russ patted the page.

“It’s not a book of names, Grace. It’s a book of lives. A book of lives captured at certain moments in time. Snapshots in writing, not in photos – more’s the pity.”

He turned to the end of the volume.

“1966… Billy Spottiswood, comedian.” He sighed at the entry. “What became of you, Billy?”

Grace felt a pang of sympathy for the lost Billy.

“What becomes of any of us, Russ?”

“That’s very philosophical. I suppose Billy and Arnold had their younger years, where they searched for those routes to the top. Then their later years, where it would all be too much bother. The great hope is that they found some happiness along the way.”

“What about your younger years? You’ve spoken to Bev, but not to me. What became of you after you left school? Did you spend every waking hour studying music? Or did you meet anyone…?”

“A girlfriend, you mean. Yes, Ava. We were together for the whole three years.”

“Wow, so…” while I was wondering if you were thinking of me… “…while you were working hard on your degree, you had a serious relationship?”

“Yeah, it was pretty serious around the middle year. I mean the first year was just a blast. You know, total fun.”

No, I don’t know.

“What about your final year?” she asked.

“Oh… less intense. Fizzled out would be a better description. We went our separate ways a couple of months before our final exams.”

“Right… and after? You stayed up North?”

“I decided to do teacher training. I won’t pretend I had it all worked out, I just remember another student saying they were going to do it, and it seemed like a plan. I didn’t have a plan at the time, so it sort of made sense.”

“And you did teacher-training up there?”

“Yes, in Manchester. Part of the training included a placement at a local school. As luck would have it, they had a vacancy come up just as I qualified.”

“How long did you stay there?”

“Three years. Then I fancied a change.

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