Free Narrow Minds by Marie Browne Page A

well.
    Since then he had found it hard to settle down. Unwilling to give up his bachelor lifestyle, he went through girlfriends like I go through shoes. We only really saw him at Christmas so I always bought a generic present for ‘a girl’. We never knew who would be with him and on a couple of occasions he was actually single. However, with his good looks, mischievous nature and quick wit he was never single for long. He wandered through life, concentrating on his sports, drinking too much, enjoying himself a little too much and leaving a slightly sad trail of disappointed but still hopeful women in his wake.
    Later, after regaling my husband with the tale about the ram, I picked up the invite and studied it again. ‘Philip’s getting married.’ I couldn’t stop my voice from heading upward in a surprised squeak at the end of that statement. ‘Who managed to reel him in and where has she hidden the negatives that are keeping him on a leash?’
    Geoff laughed, it had always been a source of amusement to me that two children from the same parents, brought up in exactly the same environment could grow up so differently. Geoff, techno hippy programmer, spent his leisure hours reading or playing silly board games, completely teetotal. Until I had turned his life upside down, he had seemed to live entirely on copious amounts of tea and canned ravioli. Philip on the other hand, drank like a fish and played cricket and rugby, he’s also connected with the local mountain rescue team.
    Their attitudes to people differ as well, Geoff, at a party, is usually to be found with a cup of tea and a book, preferring not to get involved in the social hysterics that always accompany such occasions. He can, quite happily do without people at all, bumbling about, intent on his own agenda. A classic programmer, keep him in the dark, give him an interesting problem to solve and occasionally slide pizza under the door of his darkened room and he would be a happy hippy.
    Philip can usually be tracked down to his local (even his mother knows that’s the easiest place to locate him.) he will be found in the thick of the crowd that is laughing the hardest, he knows everyone and everyone knows him. When visiting, Geoff is often treated to a wide-eyed, non-comprehending look from some of the locals – ‘ You’re Cookies brother?’ They’re like each other’s evil twin, it really is quite baffling.
    I was still slightly shell-shocked when we went to bed that evening. I had spent fruitless hours boat-hunting and had had an argument with Charlie about living conditions and why she couldn’t have a puppy. ‘We could have one if we still lived on the boat.’ I had finally started using blatant blackmail to force them around to my way of thinking.
    Charlie had thrown a tantrum. ‘I don’t want to live on a stupid boat, I want to live here, but I don’t want to live here, here. I want to live somewhere that’s not rented, I want to live somewhere I can have a dog.’ And with that she had stamped up to her bedroom, I could hear her ranting at her rats about the unfairness of life.
    Lying in bed listening to Geoff breathing I thought again about Philip getting married, she must be some girl to get him to give up his life of decadence and self-indulgence, or maybe she just loved him the way he was and she was happy to live like that. Ah well! I would find out for myself at the end of May. There was a sudden bright light that flicked on in my head. End of May, there was something about that date that rang bells.
    Quietly I climbed out of bed and went back downstairs to turn the computer on. Discovering what had rung the bells in my head, I started laughing. ‘Be really, really sneaky,’ Helen had said. Well here was an opportunity for me to be just that. Checking another couple of dates and venues I grinned then wiped all traces of my internet search from the