Eileen is divorced, and her ten-year-old son, Phil, stays during the summer holidays with her parents, so she makes regular
expeditions to visit her son every weekend. Bob accepts the invitation, and the outing is a success; on a second occasion,
Bob helps the boy to fly a kite - and Eileen is aware of a kind of intimacy growing up between Bob and Hilary.
Bob is equally aware - and tries to excuse himself from being included on any further outings, by pleading that now he
has moved out of the Motel, he's very busy ... Although in fact he has too much time on his hands, with nothing to do all
day but sit alone in the furnished house which he once shared with his wife, remembering ...
Eileen tells him that Phil rather hero-worships him, and Bob changes his mind for the boy's sake, agreeing to come on
yet another picnic. It is on this day out that they play a game of hide-and-seek; Bob and Hilary disappear together,
and Eileen feels a pang of jealousy.
Hilary doesn't realise this; she only knows that she is getting more and more involved with this unpredictable, tortured
man. She asks for David's help:
"You can talk to him, David - I can't. Try to get him to talk about Anne - try to make him see he can't go on living
in the past."
David is in a difficult position, at the centre of this uneasy triangle, guessing what is happening, but unable to interfere.
He hopes against hope that these three unhappy people will somehow manage to disentangle the twisted threads ...
*****************
Life's no bed of roses when you're young, either - as Jeff Gilbert, the new barman, swiftly discovers.
Jeff has an eye for the girls, and tries to chat up every pretty female on the Motel staff ... But when it comes to Stephanie
Colby - well, she's different. He feels he could be really serious with this particular girl, if only he had the chance.
Things look promising enough to begin with; they discover a mutual interest in travel, and books about travel,
and he calls at the basement flat one evening (when Avis is away for the weekend, seeing Bill Warren) and they sit up till
very late, talking and drinking coffee.
So far, so good; Stephanie enjoys his company - but she cools off rapidly when she discovers that he has
been trying out a similar line of patter with the other girls - and also gets the impression that he has been boasting to
Jane about his late-night visit to the basement flat.
Rebuffed, Jeff wonders what he's done wrong - and even turns to Rex Oliver for advice. He tries to put
things right with Stephanie, and only makes matters worse. And at this point, to cap it all, Anthony Mortimer walks
into Stephanie's life ...
*******************
