Nothing is Forever Read Online Free PDF

table and three-piece suite and sideboard. It smelled of polish with a slight tinge of dampness. In the sideboard were three books; insurance, rent book and one marked coal and gas. Another three pounds. Without intending to go in – it was time to leave – he looked around the door of the living-room and to his horror saw an old man sitting near the fire.
    ‘That you, Dolly? What did you forget this time?’
    Jack ran and didn’t stop until there were three streets between him and the old man. He travelled a long way that day, even using some of his money to go a few miles by bus, then, as darkness was falling, he found a barn and slept cosily and without any qualms of conscience. He was used to getting up with the dawn and as soon as a pale light appeared in the sky he was on his way before the farmer was aware of his presence.
    In a café, he took out the notebook he carried and marked off another town on his list. No luck so far, but he felt sure he was in the right area. Today might be the day, he told himself, as he did every morning as, relaxed after a good night’s sleep and with a full belly, his confidence was at its height.
    He was searching for a family, but he didn’t know where they lived, just that it was in South Wales and not far from the sea. He had spent time in several small towns, investigating families with the name he sought, but hadn’t found the people who owed him money.
    He made his way by thumbing lifts and walking, back to where his fiancée Abigail, and her mother Gloria lived. He had given up his job and with Abi’s blessing was touring the towns of South Wales searching for the family whom he believed owed him an inheritance.
    Abigail was not quite twenty but already a successful hat saleswoman. With a car, she travelled around towns of Wales and western England selling to hat shops. She and Gloria lived in a beautiful flat which they rented; she had the smartest clothes so she looked successful and every customer who bought her hats hoped to look as glamorous as she did.
    She earned a lot of money for someone so young and knowing how badly Jack wanted to find his family and the money he felt he was due, she agreed that he should spend a few months searching for them.
    Abi’s mother was not happy about the arrangement and tried to persuade her daughter not to trust him. ‘You’re young and foolish,’ she told her, when Jack had once more left to continue his investigations. ‘You have a wonderful job and you earn a great deal of money, so why is he trying to find a family that might exist only in his imagination?’
    ‘Jack has to get it out of his system, Mum. If he doesn’t he’ll regret it later and perhaps blame me. Now is the time, before we marry and have children.’
    ‘Where is he now?’
    ‘I don’t exactly know,’ Abi admitted, ‘but I know he’ll come back to me.’

    It was three more nights before Aunty Blod came back and by that time sleep had begun to come more easily to Ruth. She wondered whether she would have to start getting used to the emptiness again, after having Blod’s company for the week.
    They spent their days sorting through drawers and cupboards trying to decide what to keep and what to throw away, Ruth’s intention being to reduce the clutter in the house and make the place easier to run. Henry came for a meal twice while her aunt was there. He explained that he was off to trawl the second-hand shops in the west of England. Listening to their conversations, to Ruth the house seemed almost back to normal and it was a painful moment when Henry left.
    Her aunt telephoned from the telephone box on the corner each day to learn of the progress on her house and Ruth crossed her fingers and hoped she would stay another day. It was only a few small repairs and some decoration and it hadn’t been expected to last more than a week.
    Aunty Blod, eventually and regretfully, left. Ruth went with her to the bus stop and walked back to the house as though