Love and Laughter

The sun shone, people laughed and played on the beach and the lacy edge of the blue sea lapped at the golden sand – but Pam Doran saw none of this. Her fair head was bent forward moodily, her blue eyes stared vacantly and there were lines of concentration on her usually smooth forehead. She had a problem.
It shuttled back and forth in her mind in the shape of two names. Martin and David. David and Martin. And the more she thought, the greater her confusion. She had known David and Martin for the greater part of her life it seemed. David was tall, dark and rather handsome and lived in the house to the right of her own. Martin who was tall, fair and rather handsome lived in the house on the left. A sandwich, she thought bitterly, and I’m the filling.
In other respects too, Martin and David were similar. They were both in love with Pam. They had both rather more than hinted that they were tired of being kept in suspense. And they were both coming down to Dorset at the end of the week for a two day visit, ostensibly to holiday with her. Actually to try to force a decision. And that was problem enough for one girl in any language.
“Rubbish,” said a loud voice close by and Pam jerked out of her daydream, imagining that she had made contact with a mind reader.
The cause of the disturbance was seated on a large towel, scowling at a very impressive looking book. Pam was sure that he had not been there when she sat down to solve her problem.
“I beg your pardon?” she said.
“Eh?” He looked up sharply. “Oh sorry, I was talking to the fool that wrote this.”
Pam felt foolish, so she tightened her face into cold disapproval. “I see. I thought you were talking to me.”
He took her disapproval calmly. He appeared to be of the type of young man who would take most things calmly. “No,” he said gravely, and then suddenly grinned, “but now that you mention it – it’s not a bad idea.”
She blinked in surprise and took a second look at him. He was well built and deeply tanned but that was all she could see in his favour. Apart from that she considered his chin too determined, his mouth too wide, his nose too snub and the mop of flaming red hair that seemed determined to live a life of its own, ridiculous. “I’m glad you think so.” She said icily.
“You are? Good.” He put the book down and rolled over onto his stomach so that he was nearer to her.
Pam took her eyes off him and gazed with some dignity at the sea. “I don’t think we could interest each other.” She told him.
“I’m not sure about that,” He considered her point gravely. “I’m pretty sure you could interest me.” He paused and grinned. Impudently, Pam thought. “And you never know, I might be all sorts of an interesting character. A Prince in disguise. An anarchist. Or even a mind reader.”
Pam’s original suspicion leapt to life again.
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“A mind reader.”
“Of a sort.” He looked at her almost fiercely. “Now take you for example. Your name is Pamela Doran. You are here on holiday and staying at the Shortlands Hotel with your father and mother whose names are respectively, George and Sheila and – let me see – you have a problem on your mind.”
Pam forgot the sea and stared at him with a little awe. “How – how could you know all that?”
He continued to look at her gravely then suddenly his grin broke through. “Easy – I’m staying at the Shortlands Hotel myself. I saw you and made enquiries and you were so preoccupied just now that you didn’t even see me arrive. Simple, eh?”
Pam’s eyes burned and she had the impulse to borrow his heavy book and beat him over the head with it.
“Wonderful.” She said acidly. “Sherlock Holmes is definitely in the shade.”
“Oh,” he said, “now you are annoyed.”
Pam returned to the sea.
“Now that I know your name,” he continued unabashed, “it seems only fair that you should know mine.”
The bait was tempting but she refused it in silence.
“I thought you might. It’s MacLaren. Chester MacLaren.”
This was too good to miss.
“Chester,” she said with a great deal of emphasis.
“I didn’t choose it,” he said. “Most of my friends call me Chess anyway.”
“After the well known game no doubt,” she offered sweetly.
“I’m a little slower.” He admitted and caught her eye. There was a moment of suspense then suddenly they were both laughing.
“You’re completely mad.” She said as her chuckles subsided.
He got to his feet and looked down at her.
“I know, and you’ll find that now our relations will be much easier. You’ll be inclined to make allowances for it. How about a swim?”
She looked up at his pleasant face and then at the sparkling water. For a moment Martin and David faded discreetly into the background. She accepted his proffered hand and they ran down the beach.
After such a beginning, it was inevitable that Chess MacLaren should invite himself to dine with her and her parents that evening and he joined them looking better than she would have imagined in his dinner jacket. She wondered idly if the soberer clothes and atmosphere would have any effect on him, but it seemed not, and by the time he swirled her off to the dance her mother was already calling him “Chess” and her father had a quiet grin of appreciation on his face.
“You’ve made a conquest,” she said as they circled the floor.
“Ah,” he breathed. “I knew that in time you would come to care.”
Pam trod on his foot. “I mean my parents, stupid.”
“Oh well,” he said, “I suppose it’s a beginning.” Then he waltzed her out of the ballroom onto a wide balcony.
“And this too?” she asked, rigid within the circle of his arms.
He grinned and released her. “No. This is just an interlude. Cigarette?”
She declined, and then together they walked over to the edge of the balcony. Lights were beginning to twinkle in the town beneath them and beyond the wide sweep of the sea were beginning to loose its greyness and turn to silver in the pale light of the rising moon. There was a softness and a stillness about the coming night that seemed to swallow and lose the sounds from the room behind them and she felt the magic of it creeping into her slowly. Chess moved closer behind her and she felt rather than saw his eyes on her.
“Very lovely,” he said.
There was a faint stir of pleasure within her.
“Thank you,” she said demurely.
He dropped his cigarette to the floor and ground it with his heel. “I meant the view.”
The view, the softness and the pleasure went up in a burst of passion and she whirled to face him. “You are without doubt the most horrible man I have ever met. You deliberately lured me into that. You are the type of person who used to pull small girls hair and torture flies. You are…”
She said no more for his mouth was softly but firmly pressed against her own. Then he released her and she stepped back, breathing heavily.
“I’m sorry.” He said “I was too clever there.”
“I hate you,” she told him clearly.
He half-grinned and took a step towards her. She backed. He took another step. She backed again and felt the parapet of the balcony against her. “Behave yourself,” she warned and put out a restraining hand.
Half way through the kiss it occurred to her that she should be restraining him more, but it seemed a little too late then. In any case it was a very nice kiss and there was a tingle along the length of her spine that had nothing to do with the night air.
“You’re hurting my hand,” was all that she could offer in a very small voice.
He moved slightly and allowed her to move the hand that had been put up to hold him off and then crushed between them. “I hate you too,” he said and bent his head again.
“No, Chess. Please,” she said and he obediently released her.
“No impression,” he said woefully.
She put another six inches between them and took a deep breath. There had been almost too much impression. “Yes,” she admitted, “there was but we have to be sensible about it. After all, we are on holiday.”
He put his elbow on the balcony, cupped his chin in his hand and stared at her. “You’re a funny kid,” he said. “Now who’s crazy?”
Pam mustered all her dignity. She was twenty and no kid. “What I mean is that this is only one of those holiday affairs. They blow up quickly and burn out just as quickly. I know. I’ve read about them.”
“Oh, you have,” He nodded gravely and then one side of his mouth pulled up into a lop-sided grin..
She watched him, wondering why she liked that, then suddenly pulled herself together and carried on. “Yes – And besides, I am already engaged.” He looked surprised and she drove in harder. “To two men.”
One of his eyebrows flew up towards his hairline. “Two! Well which one is it going to be?”
A lot of her resolution departed and she dropped a little. “That’s just it. I don’t know. And they are both coming down here at the weekend expecting to know- I think.”
He started a low chuckle that grew into a terrific gust of suppressed laughter and she stared at him, beginning to feel very miserable.
“It’s not at all funny.”
He stopped abruptly at the note in her voice and put his hands on her shoulders.
“Of course it’s not. I’m sorry.” He stared deep into her eyes and for a moment something crept into his, but only for a moment, and then the old mocking gleam was back.
“All right then,” he said, “we’ll work on it together and in the meantime, have our holiday affair. That blow-up, blow-out quickly thing you were telling me about. Strictly for fun. No reproaches, no recriminations. What do you say?”
In spite of the grin on his face there was a certain anxiety as he awaited her reply.
She took a look at him for a moment as though trying to see behind that grin, then: “All right,” she said, “Just for the holiday, but we’re going back to the dance now.”
“Coward.” He mocked. Then took her back.
If Pam had really believed Chess to be mad, the following days proved it. And yet, there was always some point to his madness. He would take her off on seemingly impossible climbs and then reward her with a breathtaking view that few people had seen. They would map out a route for a walk and within an hour he would be off the route, only to finish at a wonderful inn where the service and hospitality were of the kind dreamed about.
He taught her to fish on a day when the rain simply fell down and then spent the evening laughing over it with her and she learned the thrill of buffeting through the water in a high speed boat. All these things and a host of others, while the days sped by as they laughed, enjoyed themselves and quarrelled ferociously!
One thing they did not do, and that was to make any headway with Pam’s problem. Then, quite suddenly it seemed, there was no more time. David and Martin had arrived.
They arrived together and Pam met them in the lobby of the hotel and found that they were both a little peevish. They had managed separate compartments on the train down but Bensea’s meagre taxi service had forced them together in the end and they had spent a bristling ten minutes together and were quite in the frame of mind to demand that she dismiss one or the other there and then. It was the dark impetuous David who opened hostilities.
“Well,” he said when the first greetings were exchanged, “I had better get cleaned up. Though it wasn’t a bad journey down – at first. But about tonight Pam. What would you like to do?”
“I – I…” She broke off hopelessly and looked from one to the other.
The quieter, more stolid Martin grinned a hangman’s grin at David and said slowly, “Why don’t we just have a quiet dinner Pam?” He was hoping that by not putting too much pressure on immediately that she would pick his idea.
“Well that would be nice Martin!” Quipped David sarcastically.
“I didn’t mean with you David. Just Pam and me.” Martin shot David a glare that would have killed had it be attached to a machine gun. David’s face twisted with rage and Pam could see that this moment could become rather ugly at any moment so she intervened with what she thought would be as good a peacemaker as possible.
“Well why don’t we have dinner together. Then tomorrow I will have some time with Martin in the morning and with you David in the afternoon. How does that sound?”
David and Martin looked daggers at each other but both were luckily able to read each others minds. Maybe a compromise was the answer.
“Ok.” They both replied almost together.
The evening went as well as it could but the air was tense. Pam went to bed in a real quandary not knowing the best thing to do. They were both really nice guys but recently they had both been behaving like little boys and she was growing tired of their fighting for her affections. Could she really see herself married to either of them?
Just at that moment as she sat alone in her room gazing out of the window there was a knock at the door.
“Hi.” It was Chess. “Thought you might be in need of a drink?” he asked.
“Oh Chess. It’s not a good moment. I’ve just spent the evening with Martin and David and I’m feeling a little fraught.”
“Well all the more reason for a relaxing drink to unwind.” He pressed. He produced a bottle of wine from behind his back. “Got any glasses?” he asked.
“Mmm yes.” Pam replied. “Oh I suppose you can come in – but just for a moment.” Chess entered the room and they sat and drank some wine together. He made her laugh. As before his rather weird humour that so infuriated her she realised she actually liked. If this was just a holiday affair then it was fun. But what about reality?
Chess eventually looked serious for a moment.
“Look Pam,” he started, “there is no pressure on you as I know you’re under enough strain at the moment, but after the holiday I would like to see you again.”
Pam was startle at his suggestion. She thought for a moment then smiled at him.
“Yes. It has been fun hasn’t it? Even if you are really infuriating at times!” she laughed as she said it.
The next morning she met with Martin. She had made her decision as she had not slept all night. She broke the news too him. She did the same with David in the afternoon.
Chess had purposefully kept away from them all that day. He had realised that they all required some space. He too nevertheless was wanting an answer to his suggestion.
The following morning Martin and David left in the same taxi and headed for the station. As Pam waved them off from the hotel Chess watched her from the bar area. He couldn’t help wondering what answer she had given either of them but their sudden early departure said to him that she had chosen him. He caught up with her as she was heading back to her room. He held her arm in the hotel lobby as he looked into her eyes. Pam couldn’t look at him straight, he eyes fixed firmly on the ground.
“Look at me Pam,” he pleaded, “Please.”
“I can’t Chess.” She said woefully, “I can’t.”
“You have obviously chosen me as they have gone home so early.”
“That’s where you’re wrong Chess.” Pam looked up at him for the first time.
“That’s where you are very wrong.” Pam looked back at the carpet, “I have chosen no one except to be with myself, to stay single and enjoy my life a bit.”
Chess was devastated. He pulled her towards him and embraced her. She put her arms around him and he asked desperately, “What did I do wrong?”
“Nothing Chess. You did nothing wrong. In fact you showed me something that I shall never forget you for.”
“What?” he pleaded, “You showed me that I can laugh, have fun and that I can look further than next door neighbours for love. That the world is mine for the taking and I am going to take it.” She lifted her head and looked him in the eye; they were both filled up with tears, “Thank you Chess, thank you.”