{"id":1450,"date":"2022-12-13T15:07:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T15:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2022-12-13T15:07:23","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T15:07:23","slug":"say-my-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/say-my-name\/1450\/","title":{"rendered":"Say My Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, why not? Seven tasty days and nights with her in that holiday camp, fifteen years ago. She\u2019d said she lived in the Swansea valley, place beginning \u2018Ys\u2019, on an estate. Probably married now and moved. Probably wasting his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Atop Ystalyfera, a couple of streets clinging to a hillside, a deep valley dizzying below. A faded place: dogs, kids, toys on the pavement. Even the evening sun seemed grubby. He was getting in the car, about to go, when, standing by a front door, a blonde, thirties, curvy, nice<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Sue?\u2019 he said. \u2018Paul. Pontins, Bracklesham Bay?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            No reaction. He noticed the glass in her hand. Drinking early. Bored?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Come in,\u2019 she said, like she was expecting him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Once inside: hell, what a tip. Do people live like this? Mould on the ceiling; the toilet not been cleaned in weeks. A girl, ten or so, chubby, was sucking her thumb and eyeing him suspiciously. A single mother, fond of a tipple? And a fling maybe? Even so, a proper pigsty. If she weren\u2019t an attractive piece, he\u2019d have been out of there pronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Bracklesham Bay?\u2019 she said, her stare as straight as her daughter\u2019s. Then she laughed, loudly, lustily. \u2018Good times! Oh yes!\u2019 She fingered her glass slowly, not taking her eyes off him. \u2018Like a drink?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I\u2019ll have what you\u2019re having,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Warm sunshine: whisky with a lot of ice does the business.\u2019 And she took a swig like a fish in a bowl gulping water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Just the two of you?\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Stuart works away all week. Hinkley Point. Drives a ten-ton digger. You need strong hands to drive one of those boys.\u2019 Another quaff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Must be kind of lonely, him away? You remember me then? I was passing through. Just started in this part of the world as an agricultural rep. Staying in a hotel in Swansea.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Oh, I remember you.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018How about sending your daughter out to play while you and I renew old acquaintances?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Ha!\u2019 she said, her face becoming ugly. \u2018You haven\u2019t changed. I turned you down, didn\u2019t I? So you got off with Sue instead.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You\u2019re not\u2026?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018She said you spoke about me all<\/em> week. You even called her Kath in the middle of doing it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You\u2019re\u2026?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018That\u2019s it, go on. Say my name.\u2019 She had a big, brassy voice, as if a Salvation Army band was in her tonsils. \u2018Couldn\u2019t have me then. Can\u2019t have me now.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Who said I\u2026?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You\u2019re here, aren\u2019t you? Like playing away, do you? And not telling the wife.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I was looking up Sue, actually.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You know why I said no? I was engaged to Stuart. Now I\u2019m married to him. Commitment. You want to try it some time.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            He backed out. She shouted after him: \u2018And, you\u2019ve got a son in Ystradgynlais!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Ystrad\u2026? Of course! That <\/em>was the place Sue was from. – A son?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            For an instant he considered going there. Mould, grime, bath scum seeped into his brain. He drove on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, why not? Seven tasty days and nights with her in that holiday camp, fifteen years ago. She\u2019d said she lived in the Swansea valley, place beginning \u2018Ys\u2019, on an estate. Probably married now and moved. Probably wasting his time.             Atop Ystalyfera, a couple of streets clinging to a hillside, a deep valley dizzying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,693],"tags":[7,9,14],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-december-2022-the-stranger","tag-her","tag-said","tag-she"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-no","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1452,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions\/1452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}