Borrowed Time

I listened in awe of the growing choir around me as their voices all came together as one. “It’s beautiful.”

Gwyn smiled and scooted along the grass getting closer to me. “It’s called Myfanwy. She was a rich and beautiful Welsh maiden who longed to be adored. A poor bard wrote a ballad of her beauty and his love for her but she rejected him for another and he wandered the woods for the rest of his life singing songs of unrequited love.”

The sound of a hundred voices singing in unison seemed to echo off the hills and fill the air around us and it felt electric. “I’ve never heard anything like it,” I said, and I had to turn my head from him as my eyes began to well up and goosebumps covered my skin. There was a sadness to their voices, despite their beauty, and while I didn’t understand a single word of what they sang it filled me with a longing for home.

“Tom, are you ok?”

I turned to face him and forced a smile onto my face. “It would have been my birthday today,” I said.

“Would have been?” he asked curiously.

“I mean it is my birthday.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything. Does Mair know? Or Mrs Hopkin?”

I shook my head and tried to smile again. “I didn’t feel like celebrating. It’s just making me realise how much I’m missing my brother. It’s his birthday too.”

“Twins?” Gwyn said, looking surprised. “And how old are you today?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Ah, I remember twenty-seven,” he said, as though it were lifetimes ago. “They were good times.”

“How old are you, then?” I asked curiously.

“Twenty-nine.”

I laughed and gave him a nudge in the arm. “Old man.”

“Not too old,” he replied with a wink. An easy silence fell between us as we watched the fire and listened to the end of the song. He had a way of making me feel at ease and the more I got to know him the less sad I felt about being stuck there.

“Shall we go and find my sister?” he asked, and I gave him a nod and sprang to my feet.

We found Mair back inside the barn sitting alone with a mountain of food and looking happier than she’d been all night. “The singing’s stopped then? It’ll be fighting next, just you watch.”

“I see Arthur is still sucking the fun out of the room,” I said as we sat. We all turned to look at him at the same time and he sent a sneer in our direction and then aimed it at Betty as she brushed past him to get some food.

“Tom’s got something exciting to tell you,” Gwyn said, and I looked over at him unsure of what he was talking about.

“You’re going back to London?” Mair replied, pretending to act excited. “You’ve worked out how to do your laundry? You’ve learned how to count change?”

“It’s his birthday.”

“Oh my god, Tom, why didn’t you say?” she replied holding a hand to her mouth to stop the contents from spilling out. “I feel bad for teasing you now. Almost.”

“It’s your birthday?” Betty asked excitedly from the food table, and as she turned to face us some food slipped from her plate onto Arthur's leg leaving a streak from his knee to his boot.

“I’m really sorry,” she panicked, and as she reached out to wipe it off he bolted upright sending her stumbling back, terrified.

“You idiot,” he shouted. Betty’s nose scrunched up and her face glowed a hot red and she looked like she was about to cry.

His raised voice caught the attention of some of the people outside who began to wander back in to see what was going on. The audience only seemed to make him angrier and he took a step toward her in a rage. I instinctively kicked an empty crate from the floor into his path and as his foot slipped through the wooden slats it rebounded against his shin and he stumbled forward, tumbling to the ground in front of everyone.

For a moment you could hear a pin drop but the silence was broken when Mair slammed a hand down on the table and began to laugh hysterically. As Arthur stood up and brushed himself off several others joined in too and with a look of contempt he fled from the barn followed quickly by Mrs Wilkes who rushed off after him.

As soon as he’d made his exit Betty rushed back to the table and sank low in her seat as though she was trying to disappear from view.

“Are you ok?” I asked, and she nodded, appearing more embarrassed than anything.