It was hot and hazy and so quiet it was almost eerie. Tree branches were still and the birds quiet, only the occasional ‘baa’ of a baby lamb could be heard.
This time it wasn’t the calm before the storm, not as Les knew it.
This time he had found peace, even if it ‘rained cats and dogs’ it was nothing compared to what he had lived.
Les looked around his garden. It was beautiful and he knew it as he had worked constantly to make it so; his refuge, his safe place, his joy.
It had been two years now since his life of turmoil. He drew in a long breath and took in the sweet scents of spring. It felt good.
‘How could I have lived like that?’ he asked himself, ‘stayed with a person so cruel and vindictive.’ ‘Narcissistic’, was the term used by a professional at the trial. Did a label help Les? ‘Yes’, he thought. It gave him vindication, and understanding.
Les’ gentle nature had deserved better but it wasn’t wasted on his little lamb, Betsy, his goat, Dagwood and two little light brown chickens. Of course he had to keep them away from his fenced off house garden, but occasionally Dagwood broke through and ate Les’ prize roses. That is when Les learnt that goats not only eat the flowers but the thorns and stalks. The gate height had to be raised, yet again to keep out this lovable renegade. “I should have called you Vella, Dagwood.” Les laughed
Les’ previous neighbour, Clancy, had witnessed assaults on Les. They were getting more violent and she worried the next one could be fatal for him. She, reluctantly, contacted his brother, Joe, who had been banned from coming to the house by Vella, his wife. She found reason to ban many of his friends or family, monitored his calls and kept him isolated.
The Police ‘welfare visit’ Joe initiated checking for any danger, was denied by Les, even though he sported a black eye. Following the visit he knew there would be repercussions from Vella, who had watched angrily from the front window.
Vella was about a head shorter than Les but had a temper like a powder keg.
“Why did you call the freakin’ police, Idiot? Can’t you do anything right? If you didn’t make me mad I wouldn’t lose my temper.” She slapped his chest and pushed him back and into the rose bush, took his shears and cut all the rose buds off and laughed. Les backed away and continued with his gardening.
“You, and your friggin’ plants.” Vella roared and knocked a row of potted plants over as she returned to the house. “Call the police again and you’ll live to regret it.” She spat.
“I didn’t,” he replied woefully.
Joe realised the welfare checks weren’t going to help, Les would just deny everything and Vella would up the ante. There was no more the police could do they said. Joe worried for his brother. He had heard of domestic violence against women, but hadn’t realised that in cases of assaults on men, 95% wouldn’t report the violence. ‘Do they think it is unmanly?’ He pondered.
Joe had a secret meeting with Clancy and they came up with a plan. The stage was set!
“Oh Vella, … Les, would I be able to borrow your whipper snipper for a bit. Mine has broken down.” Vella watched jealously from the kitchen window but wasn’t interested in replying. Whenever another woman was around she watched Les like a hawk. Les nodded to Clancy and went into the shed. As he handed it to her over the fence she pushed a note into his hand. “Put it in your pocket and read it in the toilet then destroy it.” She whispered. The note was from Joe.
Two years on, a certain amount of calm had entered Les’ life as he, again, recalled the contents of Joe’s note. He shook his head as he remembered the worried look on dear Clancy’s face as he secreted it in his pocket. The memories of this time were still painful. Clancy had seen, first hand, Vella’s subtle, yet dangerous abuse.
Les looked at his prized roses and reminisced again.
His childhood had been hell. He was the youngest of three children, his brother Joe, the eldest. His mother worked two jobs to pay the rent and put food on the table because his father’s violent temper meant he didn’t stay in work for very long. He spent the majority of his day at The Greyhound hotel. “I’ll pick up work from mates at the pub,” was his stock answer when his mother would plead with him not to return home drunk all the time.
Les shuddered again as he remembered Joe and their sister Ruth hiding in the wardrobe or under the bed to escape their father. It was, however, Les who faced the fierce and relentless beatings from his father. Sometimes these were so bad he was ashamed to go to school and would ‘play truant’ until the teacher spoke to his parents and he promised he would attend school every day. The beatings, however, continued. Very seldom did Ruth or Joe suffer. It was part of his young life. Marriage, he thought, would bring him happiness. How wrong he was?
He married Vella but the ‘honeymoon period’ lasted no time at all. He moved from his father’s abuse to that of his wife! Les felt ashamed Clancy heard and witnessed Vella’s abusive behaviour. His self-esteem hit rock bottom. Bless Clancy, Les thought, she was always there for him when he felt so humiliated.
Vella’s ‘abuse’ took many forms; black eyes, bruising of his body and very little sexual contact – another form of Vella’s cruel abuse. It was a wonder they were parents of twin boys! When Charlie and Angus were born, Les vowed they would have a happy life.
If he mentioned his home problems, his workmates laughed, ‘no wife of theirs would get away with that carry-on.’ He was alone except for his brother Joe, Clancy and his beautiful boys.
The contents of Joe’s note – ‘Job done, car brakes fixed!’ – would change everything. He was ashamed they had hatched such an extreme plan. Vella had to be brought to her senses for the sake of Charlie and Angus, Les thought he had destroyed the note and joined Vella in the kitchen.
“Thank goodness that bloody nosy cow has gone,” Vella shouted, pushing Les roughly against the wall as she stormed out to the garage. “I’m going into town to do some shopping.”
Betsy nuzzled Les’ arm as his mind again drifted back to the events that followed the ‘fixing’ of the brakes!
The police knock on his door had made his heart skip a beat. ‘Is this it?’ he thought. ‘Is it finally over?’
It was, well, almost. The officer told him as gently as she could that his wife had been involved in a serious accident, that the car had run off the cliff while approaching the bridge and rolled down the embankment. Fortuitously, the officer said, a group of hikers managed to pull Vella free before the car burst into flames and she’d been taken to Coffs Harbour Hospital in a critical condition.
Les tried to look relieved she hadn’t been killed but his acting ability hadn’t been up to it and the police officer was suspicious. He reported to his superior, DI Rob Archer, and the car was forensically examined and discovered the brakes had been tampered with. The resulting search of Les’s garage looking for a possible tool resulted not in a tool but the note in the skip bin with the incriminating words ‘Job done, car brakes fixed!’ was all the proof the police needed.
The resulting trial was just another nightmare in Les’s life. He and Joe were put on trial for attempted murder, it hadn’t taken the police long to match Joe’s and handwriting to the note. Their childhood and adult lives were looked into and there were no shortage of witnesses willing to come forward and speak in their favour. The judge had been convinced to accept there were extenuating circumstances and ordered a custodial sentence of eighteen months.
Those months were something else both men added to their list of things ‘ not to think about’ and had enjoyed the last few months of freedom, restoring their lives to some sense of normality, although both knew they would carry the burden of more bad memories.
Clancy had been the star witness, describing in vivid detail the horrors she had seen inflicted on Les by his ‘nightmare of a wife’. Although he felt ashamed that his weakness, as he saw it, was so publicly displayed, he was hopeful when he saw the look of concern on the judge’s face. Charlie and Angus had stories to tell too of her constant harassment, and the family stories of the abuse from their grandfather, and told how they had been relieved to be able to leave the household when they began their University degrees and could move onto campus accommodation.
Luckily, Clancy’s name had not come up as having direct involvement in the plan to tamper with the brakes, but it made Les’s heart warm to think she cared so much. Their relationship was blossoming since his release and his heart beat a little faster this morning while he was digging in his garden. He thought there was hope that Clancy would move in with him, he thought she might even agree to marry him, but…there was still that obstacle…Vella was still alive. She had been in a vegetative state ever since the ‘accident’ and the doctors at the care home had told him there was little hope of her recovering. He wondered if he could hurry the process of her demise so he could propose to Clancy with no lingering problems, He had always thought divorcing Vella would look like a coward’s act when he had been convicted of being the cause of her condition…and he was determined never to look like a coward again.
It was then his phone rang. He felt a tinge of irritation when he saw it was Willowtree Rest Home, Vella’s care home.
“What do they want now,” he muttered to his goat, lamb and chickens as they peered at him though the fence of his house garden.
“Mr Langton. I’m Dr Cleary from Willowtree Rest Home, I haven’t seen you visiting your wife of late and I need to update you on recent serious events. Are you able to visit as soon as you can, it’s important?” Les wasn’t sure if he was pleased he had answered the phone or not. ‘What could the important news be?’
“I’ll be there straight away, thank you for your call, Dr Cleary.” His mind racing.
“Could I be horrible enough to hope that Vella has passed away? She killed all love and care I had for her long ago.”
He flicked his car remote at Willowtree and walked toward the foyer.
“Are you Mr Langton?” a pretty young nurse asked. Les nodded.
“Follow me please; Dr Cleary will see you now.” She led him down a series of hallways and corridors, much like a rabbit warren and he practiced faking a sad response if he was told Vella had passed. He was finally ushered into a large bright office.
“Thank you Nurse Carolyn,” a female doctor replied when introduced to Les. To his shock, sitting in a huge chair nearby was Vella, a huge grin on her face. Les grabbed the nearest chair.
“A huge surprise, I expect. Isn’t it wonderful” the smiling doctor responded as she helped him to a seat.
“Surprise Les,” a cunning Vella blurted with a look of a cat that swallowed the canary. Les seated himself carefully. He was dumbfounded and unable to speak, his bottom lip quivering. He said nothing as the doctor explained the turn of events with Vella regaining her physical and mental health.
“I can tell you, Mr Langton; this has been a complete surprise to all of the medical team here. These things do happen once in a while; luckily it has happened for Mrs Langton. How lucky is she; and your family?” For a while the rest of the doctor’s conversation only appeared like ‘blah blah’ to Les’ brain. His mind rolled over the plans he had ahead of him, the hope for a relationship with Clancy, now all to take a turn for the worst.
“What are you saying, doctor? Do you expect Vella to make a full recovery?” He looked from the doctor to Vella who couldn’t hide her joy.
“We will have to do final tests and Vella will need physio before she can be released, but yes, we do hope and expect she can make a full recovery. I will give you a moment with her while I finalise some tests and if you could return tomorrow we will plan a release date.” She quietly exited the room closing the door behind herself.
“Good news, eh Les? Things can go back to how they were, what do you think?” Again Les was dumbfounded, ‘could she have been capable of faking all this time,’ he pondered. He couldn’t find any words.
“I’ll be back tomorrow to see you, Vella. We can work out what will happen then.” Les, quickly left, he was still in a state of shock.
“Clancy, oh Clancy, you won’t believe the latest news on Vella.” He blurted, telling her the rest of the story in a garbled mess of words.
“Les, I’m sorry but I think we will have to call it quits, I cannot be caught up in this continuing drama with Vella.” Sobbed Clancy.
A plan was formulating in Les’ head. “Clancy, please give me till tomorrow and then we can decide. Promise me. I know I can work it this out. Please Clancy?”
Les arrived at the hospital the next day as agreed. He asked for a meeting with Vella and Dr Cleary. After the initial formalities he asked, “Dr Cleary, do you judge Vella now being of sound mind?”
“Yes,” She replied happily. Les had finally found his courage and continued.
“I have had a life of misery with Vella and have no wish to be with her again. I am glad you believe she will recover fully as I am divorcing her and I wish her well. Our sons took charge of the sale of our house while I was in custody and they hold the funds for her share of the estate in trust. She can make a new life for herself and I will continue mine, as I have done. Please excuse me.” Les got up and left, the first in a long time he felt courageous.
He walked to his car and called Clancy.
DoubleSpeak 