A Book In A Month - Chapter 10

Clara rushed in full of excitement and saying, 'Look at this, look at all this.'

John looked up from his studies at the table. He pushed the bird book and map away from himself and pressed down firmly with his hands, rising to stand as he did so. 'Hello love,' he said as he turned to greet her. 'My god, that's a lot of papers. Looks like the trip to the tobacconist paid off?'

'Dad, it was amazing,' Clara gushed as she brushed his cheek with a gentle kiss, the box of papers pressed between them. Clara dumped the heavy box down on the table, her whole body following it's trajectory. 'Phew,' was all she said as she drew herself up to her full height, 'What an incredible day, I've learnt so much about the family and about the tobacco industry too'.

'Let's get the kettle on, shall we, and make a cup of tea?' Suggested John, 'Then you can tell me all your news over a cuppa.'

They headed for the kitchen,Clara acutely aware that she had very little time to chat tonight, John wanting her to stay and talk. She was hitting the town and needed every possible minute to transform herself from sensible little woman into glittering socialite. It would take time.

They returned to the living room brimming with coffee and excitement and parked themselves at the table. The map and bird book were moved out of the way; onto the floor and the box was very carefully emptied onto the table top. 'The woman let me photocopy anything I wanted. Anything else I just made notes on. It cost a bit, but it was OK, they didn't try to fleece me for my own grand dads' records.'

John began to look through the papers. Some had been stapled together into thick documents, others were single sheets. Some A3 others A4. All were legible and written in copper plate hand writing. Clara got up and went to the kitchen to prepare the evening meal. Tonight it was to be a roast beef, with all the trimmings, ready meal. She left John to go through the papers and begin to make sense of it all. The notes that she had pencilled onto the plain white sheets of paper and attached, by paper clip, to the front of each set of papers gave him an indication of the gist of the contents. He began by reading these and glancing at what lay beneath each on.

'Make space dad. Incoming!' Clara wafted in with the two meals on a tray, still in their packaging. She had pealed off the plastic lid and put a couple of knives and forks on the tray. It looked unappetising. 'Sorry to rush off on such an interesting night. But, I guess you'll be all right to wade through all this without me?'

Of course John was happy. He could spend the weekend researching the family in privacy. Some things were better tackled alone, and this was one of them. He said as much to Clara who felt a little hurt.

'I'll get on and compare Simon's travels with the bird book's dates. You never know, there may be a correlation.' He smiled at Clara, 'If nothing else it'll keep me off the streets, which will mean that on Saturday, you and your friends can rake the town centre with impunity; who-ever that is.' They both laughed as they tucked into their gourmet ready meals that Clara had picked up from a well known store. They agreed that this food was not a patch on ham,egg and chips, or a proper roast, but it did the job and that was important tonight.

*

Clara went to the pub, just as she had the week before. She had freshened up in her fathers bathroom, applying make-up and sparkely tights. After that she left her sensible shoes and bag behind in favour of somethig a little more daring; of the night. She would pick them up Monday evening, whe she next called at her fathers. Imagine, she thought as she skipped lightly along the street, only a few weeks agao I had never been in Dads' bathroom. Now I'm treating the place like it's home. Funny really. It is home. My home. Not that I live there. But it does feel good whenever \i go there. It's funny the difference time can make to a person. He's certainly changed, or maybe it's me.......

'Hey! Clara!'

Clara looked around sharply; snapped out of her revery. 'Hello Keith.' Her heart beat faster. She had not anticipated seeing him here, now, in the middle of her thoughts.

'You look like you were miles away,' He said accurately.

They chatted as they marched to the pub and the rest of the group. Clara, happy to have someone to walk through the big, old doors with, said as much. They both thought it was strange how people never grow out of the shyness of barging into unknown territory.

They settled down with their drinks, chatting as they waited for the rest of the group to to arrive. It was going to be a great night. A couple of drinks to bolster their confidence would make it even more memorable. The others began to arrive as Keith and Clara were sinking their second drinks. Oh yes, tonight was going to be fun. Clara was adapting quickly to being a member of a party pack. She wondered how she had got into her thirties and not ever had experiences of this kind. No group of mates. No boozing. No night clubbing. No waking up in a 'mates place'. No waking up on a 'mates sofa – naked; she still didn't know how she had come to be completely undressed. Strangely, it did not seem to matter.

*

John had, once again, settled at the table and was engrossed in the map of India and the record of Simon's journeys. As he had a rough idea of the dates of some of the routes, he sought those first. It was not as straight forward as he had imagined. The birds were clearly spotted during circular journeys. If, indeed these were Simon's a record of Simons perigrinations, the bird book did not necessarily show the places he had to visit for his work. The bird book recorded only those places along the way where the birds had been spotted. John realised quite quickly that, if this was Simons' book, he had probably gone out of his way an an attempt to see some of the rarer birds. All this meant that comparing the two documents to see if there was any corellation was going to be tricky. Not impossible, just tricky. He would probably end up going with a line of best fit for both the routes and the dates.

John sipped his near cold coffee and picked an entry in Simons travel record. He found the place on the map. And yes, there was a bird spotted in the area around the date. A good start. He looked at the next entry and marked it on the map. No birds spotted around here around that date. This was not going to work. What he needed, he decided, was a sheet of polythene, or perspex, so that he could mark Simons journeys and then superinpose them. Failing that, he could by a second, identical map. This first map was going to get into an unintelligeble mess before too long. He would have a go at this journey, now he had started it, but would think about how he might proceed from now on.

John found and marked off all the stages of the route he had chosen to work on. It took him over two hours. When he had finished he loked at the result. He had to admit that it was pretty conclusive. Some of the dates of the birds seen in the areas covered tallyed closely with the details of this first study trip. John was astonished. He really did not expect to find a  relationship, because he had known Simon and had never heard him mention birds, or bird watching. Here was a link between a dusty old bird identification book and a ledger of journeys taken by a tobacco worker. John was desperate to carry on with another trip from the old book, but time was getting on and he needed his beauty sleep. He decided to get ready for bed.