Misadventures by Sylvia Smith Page B

UK. His calls amounted to five hundred pounds. Also, British Telecom asked for a large deposit immediately or the line would be cut off. When Tom came home from work Sharon showed him the bill. He shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I didn’t realise the calls would be that much. I’ll just have to pay Shaunagh so much a month.’
    Sharon returned from work the following evening and as time went by, she began to wonder where Tom was. Around 9 p.m. she became very suspicious and went upstairs intohis room. She looked around her and noticed all the surface tops were clear and there were no possessions lying on the floor. She opened the wardrobe door to find Tom’s clothes missing. She looked through all the drawers and these too were empty. He had quite obviously moved out. As he had left no note or cheque she decided he was not going to pay his share of the bill. Sharon was unable to pay the large deposit British Telecom wanted and the phone was cut off a few days later. She told me of the situation but there was nothing I could do either.
    I spoke to Shaunagh in her office the Monday after her return from holiday. I asked, ‘How are you, and what’s happening with the telephone?’ She replied, ‘I had just got my suitcase inside the street door when Sharon pounced on me and told me Tom had gone and she showed me the telephone bill. I couldn’t believe it. I felt so ill I went up the pub with Sharon and got myself drunk.’ ‘How are you now?’ I asked. She replied, ‘I’ve phoned British Telecom and I’ve arranged to pay them eighty pounds a month for the next six months and I’ll have to pay them for putting the phone back on, but this time I’m having incoming calls only so no one will be able to dial out. I’m pissed off.’
    As I was concerned about the situation I phoned Shaunagh in her office two days later. This time it was the old Shaunagh. When I asked how she was feeling she said, ‘I’m grand now.It’s only money after all.’ I said, ‘If that had happened to me I’d be as miserable as sin for about a fortnight.’
    A few weeks later Shaunagh saw Tom in a pub. She went over to him and said, ‘Thanks for leaving me a five hundred pound telephone bill. Can I have some money off you?’ Tom replied, ‘I’ll come to the house next Friday and I’ll give you all I can.’ This he did, and gave Shaunagh two hundred pounds. After his visit no more was seen of Tom until Shaunagh went home to Derry for Christmas. She was walking down a street one evening and Tom drove past her in a car. He stopped and offered her a lift, which she accepted. On her return to London she told me of their meeting. I asked, ‘Didn’t you have a good old go at him and try to get your three hundred pounds back? If that had been me I’d have told him to give me fifty pounds out of his wallet. What did you do?’ She replied, ‘I’d completely forgotten all about the telephone bill and we just talked about our families and friends and that was all that was said.’
    Shaunagh had to pay the remainder of the bill and a further eighty pounds for the re-connection.
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    Shaunagh knew I was writing this book. I said to her, ‘I read in the paper the other day that a new author got a sixty thousand pound advance from her publisher. If that happens tome I’ll take you out to dinner.’ She replied, ‘You are going to get all that money and that’s all you’re going to give me?’

1990
J UNE
    June was forty years old. I was forty-five. We met through a social club. We also met a lady called Maureen, aged forty-six, through the same social club and we would go out in a threesome most weekends. June lived in a large bedsit in Swiss Cottage and was unemployed but had a wealthy mother who gave her a generous weekly allowance. June had an American boyfriend called John who was aged