Free Happy Birthday and All That by Rebecca Smith

Years would take her home. She always hoped that it would be Frank.
    She could have had any of the others, and they had all tried their luck at some time or other, but Frank, the one who wasn’t available, was the only one that she would have had. It wasn’t that she was desperate or anything. She just thought he was pretty good-looking, and funny, and kind, and talented. And married. Actually she quite liked the idea that he was married. His wife obviously didn’t know how lucky she was. Melody remembered seeing them all together in town. Posy had been wearing a hippy skirt that was bunched up around her waist and made her hips look enormous. Posy hadn’t taken much notice of Melody when Frank introduced them. She seemed to be hunting in her bag for something. When James piped up, ‘Daddy, is this the lady you were throwing flowers to in Asda?’ Frank had quickly ushered them all away. It looked as though Posyhadn’t heard anyway. Pity. Melody would have liked to see him get out of that one.
    â€˜Ready, Melody?’ Frank said. She drained her glass and nodded. ‘Haven’t you got a coat?’
    â€˜You are such a dad!’ she said.
    â€˜I’m not,’ he said. ‘Really I’m not.’ But she was lighting another cigarette, not listening.
    He drove slowly because there were so many students about. You never knew when one of them was going to come lurching into the road in front of you. The lights were all for them, and soon they were through the city and heading over the Itchen Bridge. The warm, salty air streamed through the open windows.
    When they were almost at Weston he heard that tune again.
    â€˜Do da der du doo da da …’
    â€˜What is that?’ he said. It had been bugging him all day.
    â€˜When you wish upon a star …’ sang Melody.
    Of course, of course. It was playing again and again, getting louder. Jiminy Cricket was sending him a message from across the Solent.
    â€˜Mind if we go and see where it’s coming from?’ he asked.
    â€˜Don’t you know?’
    Instead of turning inland towards the estate he took the coast road, down past The Seaweed Pub, and soon they were parked on Weston Shore.
    â€˜When you wish upon a star …’ The tune came again, louder.
    â€˜When you park on Weston Shore …’ Frank sang.
    â€˜Look! There it is!’ said Melody. ‘I’d love to go on that.’
    Suspended in the darkness in front of them, strung with pink and yellow beads of light, was a ship.
    â€˜Off to Neverland,’ said Frank.
    It was the Disney cruise liner.
    â€˜When you wish upon a star …’
    â€˜I don’t suppose I’ll ever get to go on that ship,’ Melody said.She sounded so mournful and little and sad. He leant over and kissed her.
    There was something oblong digging into his leg. He pulled it out of his pocket and chucked it out of the window.
    â€˜When you wish upon a star …’
    It was like being young, doing it uncomfortably, desperately, with half your clothes still on.
    Posy had no passion any more. He wondered if she had ever had any. He suspected that it had become a wifely duty for her, listed somewhere between unloading the washing machine and making the packed lunches. He almost started to tell Melody ‘My wife doesn’t understand me’.
    â€˜Undo your hair,’ he said. She shook it out of its ponytail and it fell across her shoulders and her pale little breasts. They were like shells. He had a mermaid in the van with him.
    â€˜You are so, so beautiful,’ he said. When Melody took off her jeans he found that her stomach was smooth and taut. He couldn’t help notice the contrast with Posy’s, which had become, as she put it, like a used teabag, and as stripy as a tiger from stretch marks. Dear God, he was lost, lost.
    Melody was making all these little noises that were driving him crazy. Posy (oh why was he thinking