(Part 01)
In the quaint chocolate box English Village of Mornington-By-Mere, which was the beating heart of the Finchbottom Vale, David Cooper was sat on the sofa with his girlfriend Sharon Taylor.
Sharon was a soldier in the Downshire Light Infantry and had only recently returned after 3 months away on exercise only to drop the bombshell that she had been posted to Cyprus for a 12 month tour.
The bonus was that she had a month’s leave before she had to report for duty.
So they made the most of the time and spent as much of it as possible together.
“You’re very quiet, what’s wrong?” he asked
“Nothing” she replied
“Come on, there’s something on your mind” he insisted
“I’ve only got four days left of my leave” She explained “before I have to report to barracks in Nettlefield and then a week after that we go to Cyprus”
“I know” he said
“Well there’s something I want to do before then” she said
“You’ll have to wait for my mum to go out first” he said
“No not that” she retorted
“It must be something important then” he said with concern
“I want you to take me to the Regimental Ball in Nettlefield?” she asked and tensed up
“Is that all?” he asked
“Yes, but it’s important” she replied “I’ve never been before, because I never had anyone special enough before to go with, but now I do”
“Of course I will darling” he said
“Good because I’ve already bought the tickets” she replied cheekily
David lived in the centre of Mornington in a house in The Close with his family, whereas Sharon lived on the opposite side of the village on the other side of Manor Wood where there were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere Road and Dulcets Road which formed the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside and the Taylor family lived in Dulcets Road in a house called Green Fields.
Which was where he picked her up from on the night of the Regimental Ball and when he saw her his jaw almost hit the floor, she looked so stunning in a burgundy coloured cocktail dress, borrowed from her mother and matching shoes and handbag from her best friend.
He thought Sharon looked like a proper girl, not the daring soldier, afraid of nothing and nobody, she was a girl, gentle and vulnerable, and little bit frightened, and he couldn’t have been more in love with her than he was at that precise moment and when he walked into the Ball with Sharon on his arm he felt so proud.
They had a wonderful night, excellent food, a live band and lots of dancing, and neither of them really wanted the night to end, but end it did and at 2 am they were walking through Memorial Park in the moonlight heading towards the Hotel when David broke the silence as they were passing the bandstand.
“There’s something I need to talk to you about” he said and her heart was in her mouth, her worst fears were being realised, he was breaking up with her because she was being posted to Cyprus.
“I don’t know the best way to say this” he began and her stomach turned over.
(Part 02)
“There’s something I need to talk to you about” he said and her heart was in her mouth, her worst fears were being realised, he was breaking up with her because she was being posted to Cyprus.
“I don’t know the best way to say this” he began and her stomach turned over.
“I’m going to take two months off work, unpaid mainly, like a sabbatical, so I can come to Cyprus right in the middle of you tour, I’ve already spoken to my boss and he’s happy, so we’ll be together for Christmas and New Year” He said without pausing for breath.
“What do you think?”
“What do I think? I’ll tell you what I thought, I thought you were going to dump me” she said and slapped his arm
“Why would you think that?” he said
“Because I’m going away” she replied
“Which is why I want to come and spend time with you”
“Won’t you get bored while I’m on duty?” she asked
“No, Cyprus is a nice place with plenty to see” he replied “and there will be plenty of pretty girls to occupy me while you’re serving queen and country”
“You do know that I’m trained to kill don’t you?” Sharon said and laughed before adding more seriously
“Are you sure you want to come to Cyprus?”
“Look I’ve only just got you back in my life and I’m not letting you slip through my fingers again” he said
“I’ve decided that you’re a keeper”
“Does that mean what I think it means?” she asked
“It better had, otherwise I’ve bought this for nothing” he said “and took a ring box from his pocket”
“Oh my God” she exclaimed “Really?”
“Well what do you think?” he asked
“I…” she began and then put her head in her hands then she took a deep breath and stood to attention
“I think you need to ask me a question” she said
“Oh it’s like that is it?” he said and knelt down
“Sharon Elisabeth Emma Taylor, will you marry me?”
“Oh I don’t know” she said indifferently
“Fare enough” he replied and put the ring back in his pocket
“I got the ring on sale or return anyway” David added
“Don’t you dare” she said and got him in a half nelson until he gave her the ring “of course I’ll marry you, it’s all I’ve ever wanted”
“What to be married?” he asked
“No, to be married to you”
“Then I am your dream come true?” he said
“Well now you put it like that I appear to have set my sights rather low” Sharon jibed
“Is that right?” he said taking her by surprise and extracting himself from her head lock and turned the tables on her and bent her over the hand rail and spanked her arse hard
“Ow” she barked
“Sorry did I spank the rufty tufty soldier too hard” he said and spanked her again
“Oww” she said “that hurt”
“So what’s your answer?” David asked and slapped her buttock again
“Ok you brute, I’ll marry you”
Showing posts with label #Xmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Xmas. Show all posts
Saturday 27 May 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (65) The Gentle Giant and the Christmas Maid
(Part 01)
Aaron Keller was a great bear of a man, standing 6’ 6” tall, barrell chested with hands like shovels.
But he was brought to his knees by a skinny Little waif standind 4’ 11” by the name of Toni Kendall.
They were both in their mid twenties, both had flaming red hair but he was a gentle giant who barely spoke and she was a little livewire who never shut up.
The other thing that they had in common was more significant and that was the fact that they were in love, though neither of them knew that they were the recipient of that love.
Aaron couldn’t imagine that a beautiful little thing like Toni could ever be interested in him, and she thought he was probably looking for someone as quiet as him.
They both worked at Maxlin’s Holiday Camp in Sharpinghead, she was a chalet maid and he was a general handyman.
Aaron lived in Sharpinghead but Toni was from Finchbottom and as the summer season was coming to an end she was running out of time, if nothing happened between them they would go their separate ways and they would be unlikely to see each other again, but if she got her way, and got her man, she would stay on.
She had been following him around the camp for the whole summer in the hope that he would take her in his arms, but no matter how much she flirted with him the result was the same and she cursed his shyness.
Toni finally got her man when they were on what was known as mothball duties, closing down those chalet that would not be needed during the winter season, which meant a major clean and then all the furniture was sheeted.
Because she was so tiny she managed to enlist the help of the gentle giant with moving the furniture, though she was more than capable of doing it herself, because she was much stronger than she looked, she just used it as an excuse to get close to him.
But despite her managing to get Aaron to help her, it didn’t really help her in the way she wanted because she was such a chatterbox, so even if he could have found the words he wanted to use he would have struggled to get a word in edgeways.
However every thing came good in the end when They were on their fifth chalet and all was not going well for Toni as she was hoping he might have made a move on her by that stage, afterall they were alone and had been in very close proximity on many occasions.
She was also annoyed at her self because although she was a confident sparky girl she hadnt just come out with it and ask him out.
What Toni wanted though was for him to ask her but nothing happened so she decided that she had to make him get physical.
Toni started by undoing the braces on his overall as he picked things up and when he reatached that one she undid the other and so on and so fourth until he took action.
However she didn’t know when she started messing around quite how physical he would get.
But she wasn’t complaining when the gentle giant had her draped over his shoulder and he was playfully smaking her knicker clad buttocks while he watched the reflexion of his handywork in the mirror.
(Part 02)
Toni didn’t know when she started messing around with Aaron quite how physical he would get.
But she wasn’t complaining when the gentle giant had her draped over his shoulder and he was playfully smaking her knicker clad buttocks while he watched the reflexion of his handywork in the mirror.
However he only gave her another two strokes before Toni called a halt to proceedings.
“Put me down” she screamed “Put me down now”
“What’s wrong baby girl?” he said playfully “Have you had enough?”
“Just put me down” she insisted, and as he lowered her to the floor he cursed himself under his breath for going too far, but he couldn’t help it, he was really having fun.
“I’m sorry” he said when she was stood looking up at him “I went too far didn’t I?”
“Don’t be sorry” she snapped and pushed him backwards onto a chair “You haven’t gone far enough yet”
“Oh?” he responded as she inched towards him and when they were nose to nose she kissed him.
After that first time they couldn’t keep there hands off eachother and suffice is to say that she didn’t return home to Finchbottom and stayed on at Maxlin’s and the prospect of spending all winter kissing and canoodling kept them warm.
Though they didn’t have many opportunities for work time kissing and cuddling as they didn’t often work together but when they weren’t working they didn’t go out in the world much.
But halfway through the winter they got to work together again when they had to reopen some of the chalets they had mothballed earlier in the year in preparation of the Christmas season and that was when they told each other that they loved them.
It had been over a year since Toni and Aaron got together but they were as mad for each other as ever and their second Christmas together was on the horizon.
When November finally arrived Toni decided it was time to decorate for Christmas but no one could remember where the decorations were put after the previous year.
After two weeks of searching every nook and cranny they were finally spotted in the loft in the staff block by the head of housekeeping, Christine Evans.
In the staff accommodation village there were rows of chalets, similar in design to the guest accommodation but much smaller, and at the center was the staff block.
This contained offices, store rooms and a common room, with comfortable chairs, where staff can sit around and relax, drink coffee and watch TV or just sit around talking.
Christine Evans hadn’t actually seen the decorations herself as she had never been in the loft, and that was because she was scared, partly of the dark but mainly of cobwebs and spiders, but one of her staff had seen them.
(Part 03)
Toni and Christine were stood talking in the common room when Aaron walked through the door.
“Did you want to see me?” he said to Christine
“Yes, we’ve located the Christmas Decorations” she replied
“So come on big boy” Toni said cheekily “it’s time to get the Dec’s down from the loft”
The entrance to the loft, where the Decoration’s had been seen, was via a large hatch way in the common room ceiling.
Aaron reached up one of his great paws and pulled the catch and the hatch swung open and then he pulled down the loft ladder.
“Are you going up?” he asked Christine knowing the answer
“No fear” she said and shivered
“Go on then Danger Mouse” he said to Toni “You go first”
Without hesitation she was straight up the ladder and Aaron followed quickly behind her and enjoyed the view up her skirt of her jiggling buttocks as she wiggled up the ladder, he enjoyed the view above the top of her long socks.
She knew that he would and frankly would have been disappointed if he hadn’t.
He would have pinched her bum if Christine hadn’t been looking on.
Once they reached the top Toni switched the light on and started looking around but despite the light the corners were quite gloomy.
So Aaron switched on his torch which Toni immediately snatched from his hand.
It was quite a large space and was used as an additional storage area during the peak season and during the course of the year the boxes of Christmas decorations, which had been put up there after the previous year’s festivities, were gradually pushed further and further back from their starting point.
“There they are” she squealed excitedly and rushed to the far corner of the loft.
She then got down on her hands and knees and began pushing boxes in Aaron’s direction.
“Oh shit” she exclaimed
“What wrong luv?”
“The Angel has fallen out of the box” she said sadly “and it’s fallen down behind this thing”
The “Thing” she was referring to was the wooden “A” frame that held the roof up.
“There it is” she said as she shined the torch beam into the darkness.
It hadn’t fallen too far but it was difficult to get at because of all the boxes in the way.
“Can you reach it?” she asked you’ve got longer arms than me”
“A T-Rex has longer arms than you” he retorted and laughed but he clambered up however he couldn’t get close enough to the objective to bring his long reach into play.
“I can’t get close enough” he said as he crouched down “I’ll just have to move these boxes”
“That will take too long” she said impatiently
“I’ll just have to wriggle between the woody things, you can hold onto my legs so I don’t fall”
“Ok” he replied and she headed towards the biggest gap while Aaron moved some of the boxes to accommodate his huge feet.
The gap she went for was a little above Aaron’s waist height but it was higher for a skinny little waif of 4’ 11”.
He was helping her through the small opening between the roof supports and she wriggled and squirmed like a little ginger fish.
(Part 04)
He was helping her through the small opening between the roof supports and she wriggled and squirmed like a little ginger fish.
“How are you doing?” he asked
“I’ve almost got it” she replied “another couple of inches should do it”
“Ok” he said and manhandled her a bit further and in the process the hem of her skirt was pulled up towards her waist and he was so mesmerised by what came into view that he absentmindedly caressed her plump little buttock .
“What was that?” She asked
“Cobwebs” he lied
“Ok” she replied doubtfully but he didn’t pay attention his mind was on other things as he took something from his pocket.
“I’ve got it” she shouted triumphantly “pull me back”
So he began retrieving her small frame from the darkness and lowered her to the floor.
“See I’ve got it” she said holding the angel up proudly
“Well done, its very nice” he said “But I thought you’d be more interested in this little precious parcel”
“Whats that?”
“I don’t know but it has your name on it” he said
“Has it?” she exclaimed and thrust the angel into his chest and tried to snatch the little parcel from his great paw but as Aaron was such a great bear of a man, standing 6’ 6” tall and she was
a skinny little waif standind 4’ 11” he easily held the gift out of her reach.
“Gimmi, gimmi” she said “you meanie”
“Calling me names isnt going to work” he said
“You used to be a nice boy” Toni said “But now you’re just mean”
“Ok I’ll take it away then” Aaron said and walked towards the loft hatch
“No don’t take it away” she pleaded and hopped up and down
“Please, please, please”
“I dont think you deserve it”
“But I do” she said “I really do”
“oh ok then” he relented and gave her the little parcel which she tore into in seconds to reveal a ring box and she gasped
“Whats this?” she asked in a whisper
“Open it and see” he instructed and after a deep breath she opened the box to reveal a solitaire diamond engagement ring and she gasped again.
“Is this what i think it is?” she asked
“I don’t know” he said “What do you think it is?”
“Is it an…. Engagement ring?” she asked in a childlike voice
“Yes” he replied
“You want to marry me?” Toni asked
“Yes” Aaron said and she launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, almost breaking the angel in the process, and kissed him.
Aaron Keller was a great bear of a man, standing 6’ 6” tall, barrell chested with hands like shovels.
But he was brought to his knees by a skinny Little waif standind 4’ 11” by the name of Toni Kendall.
They were both in their mid twenties, both had flaming red hair but he was a gentle giant who barely spoke and she was a little livewire who never shut up.
The other thing that they had in common was more significant and that was the fact that they were in love, though neither of them knew that they were the recipient of that love.
Aaron couldn’t imagine that a beautiful little thing like Toni could ever be interested in him, and she thought he was probably looking for someone as quiet as him.
They both worked at Maxlin’s Holiday Camp in Sharpinghead, she was a chalet maid and he was a general handyman.
Aaron lived in Sharpinghead but Toni was from Finchbottom and as the summer season was coming to an end she was running out of time, if nothing happened between them they would go their separate ways and they would be unlikely to see each other again, but if she got her way, and got her man, she would stay on.
She had been following him around the camp for the whole summer in the hope that he would take her in his arms, but no matter how much she flirted with him the result was the same and she cursed his shyness.
Toni finally got her man when they were on what was known as mothball duties, closing down those chalet that would not be needed during the winter season, which meant a major clean and then all the furniture was sheeted.
Because she was so tiny she managed to enlist the help of the gentle giant with moving the furniture, though she was more than capable of doing it herself, because she was much stronger than she looked, she just used it as an excuse to get close to him.
But despite her managing to get Aaron to help her, it didn’t really help her in the way she wanted because she was such a chatterbox, so even if he could have found the words he wanted to use he would have struggled to get a word in edgeways.
However every thing came good in the end when They were on their fifth chalet and all was not going well for Toni as she was hoping he might have made a move on her by that stage, afterall they were alone and had been in very close proximity on many occasions.
She was also annoyed at her self because although she was a confident sparky girl she hadnt just come out with it and ask him out.
What Toni wanted though was for him to ask her but nothing happened so she decided that she had to make him get physical.
Toni started by undoing the braces on his overall as he picked things up and when he reatached that one she undid the other and so on and so fourth until he took action.
However she didn’t know when she started messing around quite how physical he would get.
But she wasn’t complaining when the gentle giant had her draped over his shoulder and he was playfully smaking her knicker clad buttocks while he watched the reflexion of his handywork in the mirror.
(Part 02)
Toni didn’t know when she started messing around with Aaron quite how physical he would get.
But she wasn’t complaining when the gentle giant had her draped over his shoulder and he was playfully smaking her knicker clad buttocks while he watched the reflexion of his handywork in the mirror.
However he only gave her another two strokes before Toni called a halt to proceedings.
“Put me down” she screamed “Put me down now”
“What’s wrong baby girl?” he said playfully “Have you had enough?”
“Just put me down” she insisted, and as he lowered her to the floor he cursed himself under his breath for going too far, but he couldn’t help it, he was really having fun.
“I’m sorry” he said when she was stood looking up at him “I went too far didn’t I?”
“Don’t be sorry” she snapped and pushed him backwards onto a chair “You haven’t gone far enough yet”
“Oh?” he responded as she inched towards him and when they were nose to nose she kissed him.
After that first time they couldn’t keep there hands off eachother and suffice is to say that she didn’t return home to Finchbottom and stayed on at Maxlin’s and the prospect of spending all winter kissing and canoodling kept them warm.
Though they didn’t have many opportunities for work time kissing and cuddling as they didn’t often work together but when they weren’t working they didn’t go out in the world much.
But halfway through the winter they got to work together again when they had to reopen some of the chalets they had mothballed earlier in the year in preparation of the Christmas season and that was when they told each other that they loved them.
It had been over a year since Toni and Aaron got together but they were as mad for each other as ever and their second Christmas together was on the horizon.
When November finally arrived Toni decided it was time to decorate for Christmas but no one could remember where the decorations were put after the previous year.
After two weeks of searching every nook and cranny they were finally spotted in the loft in the staff block by the head of housekeeping, Christine Evans.
In the staff accommodation village there were rows of chalets, similar in design to the guest accommodation but much smaller, and at the center was the staff block.
This contained offices, store rooms and a common room, with comfortable chairs, where staff can sit around and relax, drink coffee and watch TV or just sit around talking.
Christine Evans hadn’t actually seen the decorations herself as she had never been in the loft, and that was because she was scared, partly of the dark but mainly of cobwebs and spiders, but one of her staff had seen them.
(Part 03)
Toni and Christine were stood talking in the common room when Aaron walked through the door.
“Did you want to see me?” he said to Christine
“Yes, we’ve located the Christmas Decorations” she replied
“So come on big boy” Toni said cheekily “it’s time to get the Dec’s down from the loft”
The entrance to the loft, where the Decoration’s had been seen, was via a large hatch way in the common room ceiling.
Aaron reached up one of his great paws and pulled the catch and the hatch swung open and then he pulled down the loft ladder.
“Are you going up?” he asked Christine knowing the answer
“No fear” she said and shivered
“Go on then Danger Mouse” he said to Toni “You go first”
Without hesitation she was straight up the ladder and Aaron followed quickly behind her and enjoyed the view up her skirt of her jiggling buttocks as she wiggled up the ladder, he enjoyed the view above the top of her long socks.
She knew that he would and frankly would have been disappointed if he hadn’t.
He would have pinched her bum if Christine hadn’t been looking on.
Once they reached the top Toni switched the light on and started looking around but despite the light the corners were quite gloomy.
So Aaron switched on his torch which Toni immediately snatched from his hand.
It was quite a large space and was used as an additional storage area during the peak season and during the course of the year the boxes of Christmas decorations, which had been put up there after the previous year’s festivities, were gradually pushed further and further back from their starting point.
“There they are” she squealed excitedly and rushed to the far corner of the loft.
She then got down on her hands and knees and began pushing boxes in Aaron’s direction.
“Oh shit” she exclaimed
“What wrong luv?”
“The Angel has fallen out of the box” she said sadly “and it’s fallen down behind this thing”
The “Thing” she was referring to was the wooden “A” frame that held the roof up.
“There it is” she said as she shined the torch beam into the darkness.
It hadn’t fallen too far but it was difficult to get at because of all the boxes in the way.
“Can you reach it?” she asked you’ve got longer arms than me”
“A T-Rex has longer arms than you” he retorted and laughed but he clambered up however he couldn’t get close enough to the objective to bring his long reach into play.
“I can’t get close enough” he said as he crouched down “I’ll just have to move these boxes”
“That will take too long” she said impatiently
“I’ll just have to wriggle between the woody things, you can hold onto my legs so I don’t fall”
“Ok” he replied and she headed towards the biggest gap while Aaron moved some of the boxes to accommodate his huge feet.
The gap she went for was a little above Aaron’s waist height but it was higher for a skinny little waif of 4’ 11”.
He was helping her through the small opening between the roof supports and she wriggled and squirmed like a little ginger fish.
(Part 04)
He was helping her through the small opening between the roof supports and she wriggled and squirmed like a little ginger fish.
“How are you doing?” he asked
“I’ve almost got it” she replied “another couple of inches should do it”
“Ok” he said and manhandled her a bit further and in the process the hem of her skirt was pulled up towards her waist and he was so mesmerised by what came into view that he absentmindedly caressed her plump little buttock .
“What was that?” She asked
“Cobwebs” he lied
“Ok” she replied doubtfully but he didn’t pay attention his mind was on other things as he took something from his pocket.
“I’ve got it” she shouted triumphantly “pull me back”
So he began retrieving her small frame from the darkness and lowered her to the floor.
“See I’ve got it” she said holding the angel up proudly
“Well done, its very nice” he said “But I thought you’d be more interested in this little precious parcel”
“Whats that?”
“I don’t know but it has your name on it” he said
“Has it?” she exclaimed and thrust the angel into his chest and tried to snatch the little parcel from his great paw but as Aaron was such a great bear of a man, standing 6’ 6” tall and she was
a skinny little waif standind 4’ 11” he easily held the gift out of her reach.
“Gimmi, gimmi” she said “you meanie”
“Calling me names isnt going to work” he said
“You used to be a nice boy” Toni said “But now you’re just mean”
“Ok I’ll take it away then” Aaron said and walked towards the loft hatch
“No don’t take it away” she pleaded and hopped up and down
“Please, please, please”
“I dont think you deserve it”
“But I do” she said “I really do”
“oh ok then” he relented and gave her the little parcel which she tore into in seconds to reveal a ring box and she gasped
“Whats this?” she asked in a whisper
“Open it and see” he instructed and after a deep breath she opened the box to reveal a solitaire diamond engagement ring and she gasped again.
“Is this what i think it is?” she asked
“I don’t know” he said “What do you think it is?”
“Is it an…. Engagement ring?” she asked in a childlike voice
“Yes” he replied
“You want to marry me?” Toni asked
“Yes” Aaron said and she launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, almost breaking the angel in the process, and kissed him.
Those Memories Made on Teardrop Lake – (60) Molly’s Secret Santa
(Part 01)
In 1986, sisters Kay and Molly Webb’s parents were still living at Lakeside Villa on the southern side of the idyllic Teardrop Lake, although the girls spent most of their time in Abbottsford because both girls were nurses at the Winston Churchill Hospital.
Molly was the older of the two by three years and twenty year old Kay was still only a student.
Molly Webb was 5ft 6 with shoulder length blond hair and was a popular nurse at the Winston Churchill Hospital in Abbottsford and the general consensus among doctors and nurses alike was that she was drop dead gorgeous, they also knew all too well that she was aware of the fact and used it to her advantage.
Also on the staff at the Churchill was another blond nurse, more timid and less popular, who was her on/off boyfriend Patrick O’Neill.
When they first met, Pat thought he had found the one, and fell instantly in love, but for Molly it was different, she didn’t fall in love, she never had, for Molly it was all about the sex.
The other difference between them was that Patrick was monogamous, a one woman man, he had always been that way, he had never strayed, he had never even been interested in a another woman while he was in a relationship, and he was straight, whereas Molly was cut from very different cloth and swung both ways and as often as possible, and she loved men and women in equal measure.
But even with Molly’s wandering eye her and Patrick always seemed to end up back together, he for the love and Molly for the lust.
One of her regular lapses to the other side was with her rich cousin Pauline Barker who was a renowned philanderer who had a big house in the village of Shallowfield, a mile or so from Teardrop Lake.
It was a mutually gratifying relationship as Pauline put it about every bit as much as Molly did and played the field for both teams.
Molly’s parents were going to Tipton for a friend’s wedding so she suggested to Patrick that a weekend away from Abbottsford would be a nice change of scenery which could only help their relationship, but that wasn’t all that Molly had in mind for herself.
She proposed a surprise visit to her parent’s house on the pretence of using it as a base for a weekend on the Lake, Patrick however saw through this ruse immediately and refused to go.
“You only want to go so you can sneak off at some time over the weekend to have unnatural relations with Pauline” he said
“That’s not the reason at all babe” Molly said, “The thought never crossed my mind, honestly”
A long protracted argument ensued and ended with Patrick saying
“You have to promise you won’t have sex with Pauline, or I’m not coming”
“Ok I promise” she lied
“Cross you heart” Pat insisted
“What?” Molly said “how old are you?”
“Just do it” he said
“Alright” she said and made the gesture “Cross my heart”
(Part 02)
On the journey down from Abbottsford, Molly was in reflective mood as she mulled over in her mind the various scenarios that might lead to her getting what she wanted from her kissing cousin without Patrick finding out, and those reflections made her tingle as she saw the sign for Shallowfield.
Shallowfield lay on the southern edge of the Finchbottom Vale and Shallowfield’s fortunes had always relied largely upon forestry and agriculture for its survival.
In the post war years with rationing and a shortage of work a lot of people moved away, to Abbottsford, Abbeyvale and beyond and it only barely survived.
And the community around Teardrop Lake fared even worse.
Only a few of the houses around the Lake were thriving, a lot of the houses had been rented out and those that hadn’t were in a poor state of repair, some too such an extent they were little more than ruins.
But by the 70s things were beginning to change, thanks mainly to tourism and an increase in leisure time.
More importantly these people had money in their pockets.
This trend was reflected by the fact that the derelict Shallowfield Lodge, which had been inherited by a young couple from Lincolnshire, Rob and Sheryl Brown, was turned into a hotel.
Its completion formerly marked the rebirth of Teardrop Lake and by extension Shallowfield.
They drove through Shallowfield and turned into the lane that passed the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel and crossed the River Brooke as it flowed from the head of the lake and on towards Shallowfield, Mornington and beyond, and then the Lake was suddenly in front of them.
The lake was shaped like a teardrop, hence its name, and surrounded by the ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forest.
It wasn’t a huge body of water, just over two miles long and almost a mile at its widest point.
But he thought it was simply beautiful and it had remained relatively un-spoilt which was what made it so special.
The lake was surrounded by a perimeter road which gave access to the 12 significant dwellings that surrounded the lake.
The Webb’s lived at Lakeside Villa on the southern side of the lake.
What neither of them realised as they drove around the perimeter road was that the weekend was going to be life changing, because it marked the time that Patrick was to draw a line under the toxic relationship that he endured with Molly and by the end of the weekend he had fallen in love with her sister Kay.
The next time he went to the Lake it was to see Kay and he knocked on the door and waited for a few minutes before the door was opened by a beaming Kay.
“I was hoping you’d come” she said excitedly
“You were?” he asked in amazement
“Oh yes” she replied “I’ve made us a picnic”
And that was that and from that moment on they were a couple and were married the following year, they lived together in Abbottsford but spent as much time as they possibly could by the lake and eventually they lived fulltime in Lakeside Villa where they raised three boys.
Her parents welcomed Patrick into the family with open arms although Molly never spoke to either of them again.
(Part 03)
After Molly Webb was dumped by her on/off boyfriend she took solace in the arms of her rich cousin Pauline Barker who was a renowned philanderer who had a big house in the village of Shallowfield, a mile or so from Teardrop Lake and they lived together for three years before even Pauline grew tired of her lovers roving eye and wandering hands.
Molly continued to work at the Winston Churchill Hospital in Abbottsford after breaking up with Pauline, because it suited her on many levels.
Because being at a large Hospital she came into contact with a lot of potential partners both male and female.
Like when she was doing a rotation on paediatrics and she met paediatric registrar Polly Jones for the first time
Polly was a tall willowy brunette, 32 years old, stunningly attractive, with short brown hair and hazel eyes.
But sadly for Molly she was also happily married to an oncologist.
Although she was resigned to the fact she was not going to get in the lovely doctors knickers Molly made no secret of the fact to Dr Jones that she fancied her and flirted outrageously with her.
So when Christmas came around and she drew Polly’s name in the Secret Santa she bought her some really slutty underwear, which although she accepted she would never see Polly in them, just thought of her wearing the slutty scanties turned her on while she was barely halfway through wrapping them.
When the big day came she watched Polly carefully as she took the present from under the tree and carefully opened it at the nurse’s station and then blushed scarlet when she saw the contents.
Molly was so thrilled at the Doctors reaction to the sinful selection that she almost forgot to open her own gift.
When Molly finally opened the small Secret Santa present she was more than a little disappointed.
It was a three day, all-inclusive spa break for one, at the Dancingdean Spa Hotel, and although it was an expensive gift, far more than she had spent on the lustful lingerie, it wasn’t really her kind of thing at all.
Molly was in no way the rest and relaxation detox kind of girl.
She liked burning the candle at both ends and toxing her socks off or preferably someone else’s.
In fact if it hadn’t been for the fact that her girlfriend Samantha was so miffed about her going off for a weekend without her she would have given the voucher to someone else.
It was perhaps childish and in the realms of cutting off her nose to spite her face but she thought it was worth it just to see the look on Samantha’s sulky face as she left.
By the time she arrived at the Spa however she had resolved to make the best of it and try to get her Secret Santa their monies worth and when she was greeted in reception by a very attractive specimen of a man, her spirits rose.
He was over six feet tall, lean and muscular, very good looking, and she just hoped he wasn’t gay.
(Part 04)
When she was settled into her room she went on a tour of the facilities to see if she could find something “interesting” to do.
As it was a cold winter day she decided to stay inside and began with refreshments.
Which was when she got the first surprise of the weekend, when she saw, already sitting in the cafeteria wrapped in a pristine white towelling robe, Doctor Polly Jones.
“What kept you?” the smiling Doctor asked and Molly was speechless.
“I didn’t expect to see you here” she said
“I love coming here” Polly said “But I hate coming alone”
“So why me? And not your husband” Molly asked
“This is not his kind of thing at all” she replied “and you’re a good laugh so I thought we’d have fun”
“You could have had fun with a male friend” she said
“No way” she said “I’ve never cheated on Derek with another man”
“You love him?” Molly asked
“Very much so” she replied “What about you and Samantha?”
“What love you mean?”
“Yes, do you love Samantha?” Polly asked
“No, Samantha is just my fall back until something better comes along” she replied
“I see” she said “and what about your sex mad cousin?”
“We’re just sex buddies” she replied and laughed
The conversation moved on then to discuss the range of what was on offer, from fitness classes, the gym, rock sauna, infra-red sauna, aroma steam room, ice fountain, drench showers, Jacuzzi, a Romanesque pool, reflexology, facials, scalp massage, hand massage, Manicure and Pedicure, in the end they settled on a massage followed by a sauna.
The massage was wonderful and Molly was feeling very relaxed as she sat in the sauna room.
“I think it’s time for some of that “Fun” I was talking about” Polly said after she joined her in the sauna a few minutes later, and as she locked the door she turned towards Molly, she got her second surprise of the day when she slipped off her robe and stood in front of Molly completely naked.
“I thought you were happily married” Molly said
“I am”
“And you said you’ve never been unfaithful to Derek” Molly pointed out
“I haven’t” Polly replied “Not with a man”
Now Molly wasn’t a shy girl by any stretch of the imagination but even she was a little shocked and surprised by Polly’s boldness, as the doctor gently kissed her open mouth.
And Molly thought to herself
“Someone better has come along”
In 1986, sisters Kay and Molly Webb’s parents were still living at Lakeside Villa on the southern side of the idyllic Teardrop Lake, although the girls spent most of their time in Abbottsford because both girls were nurses at the Winston Churchill Hospital.
Molly was the older of the two by three years and twenty year old Kay was still only a student.
Molly Webb was 5ft 6 with shoulder length blond hair and was a popular nurse at the Winston Churchill Hospital in Abbottsford and the general consensus among doctors and nurses alike was that she was drop dead gorgeous, they also knew all too well that she was aware of the fact and used it to her advantage.
Also on the staff at the Churchill was another blond nurse, more timid and less popular, who was her on/off boyfriend Patrick O’Neill.
When they first met, Pat thought he had found the one, and fell instantly in love, but for Molly it was different, she didn’t fall in love, she never had, for Molly it was all about the sex.
The other difference between them was that Patrick was monogamous, a one woman man, he had always been that way, he had never strayed, he had never even been interested in a another woman while he was in a relationship, and he was straight, whereas Molly was cut from very different cloth and swung both ways and as often as possible, and she loved men and women in equal measure.
But even with Molly’s wandering eye her and Patrick always seemed to end up back together, he for the love and Molly for the lust.
One of her regular lapses to the other side was with her rich cousin Pauline Barker who was a renowned philanderer who had a big house in the village of Shallowfield, a mile or so from Teardrop Lake.
It was a mutually gratifying relationship as Pauline put it about every bit as much as Molly did and played the field for both teams.
Molly’s parents were going to Tipton for a friend’s wedding so she suggested to Patrick that a weekend away from Abbottsford would be a nice change of scenery which could only help their relationship, but that wasn’t all that Molly had in mind for herself.
She proposed a surprise visit to her parent’s house on the pretence of using it as a base for a weekend on the Lake, Patrick however saw through this ruse immediately and refused to go.
“You only want to go so you can sneak off at some time over the weekend to have unnatural relations with Pauline” he said
“That’s not the reason at all babe” Molly said, “The thought never crossed my mind, honestly”
A long protracted argument ensued and ended with Patrick saying
“You have to promise you won’t have sex with Pauline, or I’m not coming”
“Ok I promise” she lied
“Cross you heart” Pat insisted
“What?” Molly said “how old are you?”
“Just do it” he said
“Alright” she said and made the gesture “Cross my heart”
(Part 02)
On the journey down from Abbottsford, Molly was in reflective mood as she mulled over in her mind the various scenarios that might lead to her getting what she wanted from her kissing cousin without Patrick finding out, and those reflections made her tingle as she saw the sign for Shallowfield.
Shallowfield lay on the southern edge of the Finchbottom Vale and Shallowfield’s fortunes had always relied largely upon forestry and agriculture for its survival.
In the post war years with rationing and a shortage of work a lot of people moved away, to Abbottsford, Abbeyvale and beyond and it only barely survived.
And the community around Teardrop Lake fared even worse.
Only a few of the houses around the Lake were thriving, a lot of the houses had been rented out and those that hadn’t were in a poor state of repair, some too such an extent they were little more than ruins.
But by the 70s things were beginning to change, thanks mainly to tourism and an increase in leisure time.
More importantly these people had money in their pockets.
This trend was reflected by the fact that the derelict Shallowfield Lodge, which had been inherited by a young couple from Lincolnshire, Rob and Sheryl Brown, was turned into a hotel.
Its completion formerly marked the rebirth of Teardrop Lake and by extension Shallowfield.
They drove through Shallowfield and turned into the lane that passed the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel and crossed the River Brooke as it flowed from the head of the lake and on towards Shallowfield, Mornington and beyond, and then the Lake was suddenly in front of them.
The lake was shaped like a teardrop, hence its name, and surrounded by the ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forest.
It wasn’t a huge body of water, just over two miles long and almost a mile at its widest point.
But he thought it was simply beautiful and it had remained relatively un-spoilt which was what made it so special.
The lake was surrounded by a perimeter road which gave access to the 12 significant dwellings that surrounded the lake.
The Webb’s lived at Lakeside Villa on the southern side of the lake.
What neither of them realised as they drove around the perimeter road was that the weekend was going to be life changing, because it marked the time that Patrick was to draw a line under the toxic relationship that he endured with Molly and by the end of the weekend he had fallen in love with her sister Kay.
The next time he went to the Lake it was to see Kay and he knocked on the door and waited for a few minutes before the door was opened by a beaming Kay.
“I was hoping you’d come” she said excitedly
“You were?” he asked in amazement
“Oh yes” she replied “I’ve made us a picnic”
And that was that and from that moment on they were a couple and were married the following year, they lived together in Abbottsford but spent as much time as they possibly could by the lake and eventually they lived fulltime in Lakeside Villa where they raised three boys.
Her parents welcomed Patrick into the family with open arms although Molly never spoke to either of them again.
(Part 03)
After Molly Webb was dumped by her on/off boyfriend she took solace in the arms of her rich cousin Pauline Barker who was a renowned philanderer who had a big house in the village of Shallowfield, a mile or so from Teardrop Lake and they lived together for three years before even Pauline grew tired of her lovers roving eye and wandering hands.
Molly continued to work at the Winston Churchill Hospital in Abbottsford after breaking up with Pauline, because it suited her on many levels.
Because being at a large Hospital she came into contact with a lot of potential partners both male and female.
Like when she was doing a rotation on paediatrics and she met paediatric registrar Polly Jones for the first time
Polly was a tall willowy brunette, 32 years old, stunningly attractive, with short brown hair and hazel eyes.
But sadly for Molly she was also happily married to an oncologist.
Although she was resigned to the fact she was not going to get in the lovely doctors knickers Molly made no secret of the fact to Dr Jones that she fancied her and flirted outrageously with her.
So when Christmas came around and she drew Polly’s name in the Secret Santa she bought her some really slutty underwear, which although she accepted she would never see Polly in them, just thought of her wearing the slutty scanties turned her on while she was barely halfway through wrapping them.
When the big day came she watched Polly carefully as she took the present from under the tree and carefully opened it at the nurse’s station and then blushed scarlet when she saw the contents.
Molly was so thrilled at the Doctors reaction to the sinful selection that she almost forgot to open her own gift.
When Molly finally opened the small Secret Santa present she was more than a little disappointed.
It was a three day, all-inclusive spa break for one, at the Dancingdean Spa Hotel, and although it was an expensive gift, far more than she had spent on the lustful lingerie, it wasn’t really her kind of thing at all.
Molly was in no way the rest and relaxation detox kind of girl.
She liked burning the candle at both ends and toxing her socks off or preferably someone else’s.
In fact if it hadn’t been for the fact that her girlfriend Samantha was so miffed about her going off for a weekend without her she would have given the voucher to someone else.
It was perhaps childish and in the realms of cutting off her nose to spite her face but she thought it was worth it just to see the look on Samantha’s sulky face as she left.
By the time she arrived at the Spa however she had resolved to make the best of it and try to get her Secret Santa their monies worth and when she was greeted in reception by a very attractive specimen of a man, her spirits rose.
He was over six feet tall, lean and muscular, very good looking, and she just hoped he wasn’t gay.
(Part 04)
When she was settled into her room she went on a tour of the facilities to see if she could find something “interesting” to do.
As it was a cold winter day she decided to stay inside and began with refreshments.
Which was when she got the first surprise of the weekend, when she saw, already sitting in the cafeteria wrapped in a pristine white towelling robe, Doctor Polly Jones.
“What kept you?” the smiling Doctor asked and Molly was speechless.
“I didn’t expect to see you here” she said
“I love coming here” Polly said “But I hate coming alone”
“So why me? And not your husband” Molly asked
“This is not his kind of thing at all” she replied “and you’re a good laugh so I thought we’d have fun”
“You could have had fun with a male friend” she said
“No way” she said “I’ve never cheated on Derek with another man”
“You love him?” Molly asked
“Very much so” she replied “What about you and Samantha?”
“What love you mean?”
“Yes, do you love Samantha?” Polly asked
“No, Samantha is just my fall back until something better comes along” she replied
“I see” she said “and what about your sex mad cousin?”
“We’re just sex buddies” she replied and laughed
The conversation moved on then to discuss the range of what was on offer, from fitness classes, the gym, rock sauna, infra-red sauna, aroma steam room, ice fountain, drench showers, Jacuzzi, a Romanesque pool, reflexology, facials, scalp massage, hand massage, Manicure and Pedicure, in the end they settled on a massage followed by a sauna.
The massage was wonderful and Molly was feeling very relaxed as she sat in the sauna room.
“I think it’s time for some of that “Fun” I was talking about” Polly said after she joined her in the sauna a few minutes later, and as she locked the door she turned towards Molly, she got her second surprise of the day when she slipped off her robe and stood in front of Molly completely naked.
“I thought you were happily married” Molly said
“I am”
“And you said you’ve never been unfaithful to Derek” Molly pointed out
“I haven’t” Polly replied “Not with a man”
Now Molly wasn’t a shy girl by any stretch of the imagination but even she was a little shocked and surprised by Polly’s boldness, as the doctor gently kissed her open mouth.
And Molly thought to herself
“Someone better has come along”
Friday 26 May 2017
Downshire Diary – (60) A Christmas Tradition
(Part 01)
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton but our story begins considerably further south in the former industrial power house of Northchapel where the Hayward clan were gathered for Christmas, with the exception of Christina Hayhoe but plans were afoot in that regard.
Principally the plan involved one member of the family driving to collect the absentee and Jack Hayward thought he had drawn the short straw when he had to drive from the family home in Northchapel to pick up his 2nd cousin Christina Hayhoe from the village of Roespring in the far northeastern corner of the county on December 23rd.
However it was the long standing family tradition for the clan to gather together at Christmas in the ancestral home and even though everyone thought Cousin Christina was a pain in the arse she had to be got and that year it was his turn.
Although they were the same age, 35ish, were both single and shared a great grandfather, they had nothing in common whatsoever because he was an outgoing, personable and fun loving guy, whereas Christina was a dried up old witch, in the opinion of most in the family at any rate.
Jack on the other hand had always felt a bit sorry for her and had always tried to engage with her.
Christina lived alone in a big house, which she once shared with her deceased brother and parents, she didn’t socialize, she had never had a boyfriend as far as anyone in the family was aware or even a girlfriend for that matter and it was true that apart from the annual sojourn to Northchapel for Christmas she was a bit of a recluse.
She wasn’t really liked within the family in fact she was barely tolerated, but in the spirit of the season she had to be included.
But the truth of the matter was they didn’t really know her and made little or no attempt to rectify that situation, so no one knew what went on behind the façade that she presented to the world.
As he left Northchapel it started to snow, just lightly in the wind at first but it didn’t stay light, and the snow that had fallen ten days earlier was still evident on the ground so the fresh fall quickly settled.
He wasn’t keen on driving in the snow, and he didn’t like driving to Roespring either, doing it in the snow just made it worse so he drove very cautiously.
It was apparent that the snow was coming from the direction he was heading because as he was driving between the Oakham’s and Nettlefield the snow on the road was getting significantly deeper so he went even more cautiously until he finally arrived in Roespring.
(Part 02)
Jack parked the car on the drive and knocked on the door and when Christina opened it she looked the same as usual with her fine brunette hair scraped back off her face giving her a severe “Croydon facelift” appearance.
She also wore the familiar black pinafore dress over a grey blouse and black wooly tights.
There was a polite though monosyllabic exchange of words on his arrival but he urged haste on the basis of the weather and she quickly locked her front door while Jack put her case in the car.
“I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to get to Northchapel in this mess” he said as they set off
“I like the snow” she remarked
“Me too” he agreed “but not for driving in”
The road back to the Expressway was impassable so they tried the cross country road to the Oakham’s, however they only got as far as Millmoor and they had to turn back.
There was another route that involved taking a very circuitous route but the likelihood that it was anymore passable was severely in question.
“It looks like we’ll have to stay at yours and try again in the morning” he said
“Ok” she responded and looked out of the window and smiled
When they got back to the house he couldn’t get the car all the way up the slope of the driveway so he had to leave it where he came to a stop.
It was only ten yards from the car to the front door but the snow was calf deep so by the time they reached the sanctuary of her house the snow had got into their footwear and Christina’s thick woolly tights were wet through.
“Make yourself at home” she said and ran upstairs
Jack took off his coat and wet shoes and walked into the lounge and took out his phone.
“Where are you?” His sister Karen asked crossly “we were getting worried”
“I’m at Christina’s” he replied
“What still?”
“Yes, the roads are blocked so I’m staying here for the night and we’ll try again in the morning”
“So you’re spending the night with Cruella?” Karen said and laughed
“I hope you’re going to behave yourself”
“Very funny” he retorted
“Good luck” Karen said
Just then he heard Christina descending the stairs so he said
“I’ll see you tomorrow”
Christina walked into the room and she had lost the “Croydon facelift” look as her hair had been shaken out and was tumbling onto her shoulders.
She had also lost the black pinafore dress, the grey blouse and black wooly tights, instead she had on a full length pink fluffy dressing gown, pink socks and pink bunny slippers, an altogether more frivolous version of Christina than he had ever seen before.
In her arms she was carrying some clothes.
“It’s only joggers and socks” she said “they were Clive’s, he was about your size”
Clive was her brother, who died in the same car accident that took her parents.
“Thanks” he said still reeling from the softer pinker Christina.
But despite the fluffy exterior she was still the same monosyllabic woman as before.
At least that was the case until she opened the first of several bottles of wine and then she didn’t stop talking.
(Part 03)
Christina was still the same monosyllabic woman as before at least that was the case until she opened the first of several bottles of wine and then she didn’t stop talking.
Due to the snowy weather, which was showing no sign of abating, he was a captive audience as she sat and drank wine and as she did so she slowly revealed herself.
After Christina opened the third bottle of wine she proceeded to reveal more and more about herself with every drink, but the more she drank the more she tended to ramble and she spoke a lot about time and sands running through her fingers and choices and not knowing, but he couldn’t really follow her train of thought very easily as the alcohol had taken its toll, so before she could open a fourth bottle of wine he took the initiative and decided to steer her up to her room.
Once they reached her bedroom door he had to wedge her against the door jamb while he opened the door, unfortunately as the door swung open she fell into the room.
Dave instinctively reached out and grabbed her in an effort to prevent her from hurting herself but he unfortunately overreached and fell to the floor before she did and landed on his back just in time for Christina to land on top of him.
“If you wanted to kiss me all you had to do was ask” she slurred before planting an almost Labrador like kiss on his mouth.
“I’m too much of a gentleman” he said after extricating himself from her embrace and struggled to his feet and helped Christina to do the same before steering her into the bedroom.
“But you’re not a gentleman” she said as he plopped her onto the bed “so there’s nothing stopping you”
And she grabbed him by the lapels and planted another kiss on his mouth, much more controlled and unhurried than the first one and he started to reciprocate.
He had noticed before that despite the façade she presented to the world Christina was actually an attractive woman, but until the day he hadn’t realised quite how lovely she was and beneath her stern exterior she was a warm open person, with an altogether pleasant demeanour.
She was not the person that he and the family all thought she was, she was not the persona she projected to the world.
Christina began unbuttoning her dressing gown and her kissing became more intense and she snorted through her nose.
Jack couldn’t believe he was in Cousin Christina’s bedroom, kissing her while she was undressing herself, and enjoying it.
He thought his sister Karen would have laughed her socks off if she’d known he was snogging the “dried up old witch” and enjoying it.
But as he held her in his arms it didn’t feel to him like he was holding a witch, she was too warm, soft and tender, but he had to call a halt to proceedings before things went too far.
(Part 04)
Christina began unbuttoning her dressing gown and her kissing became more intense and she snorted through her nose.
Jack couldn’t believe he was in Cousin Christina’s bedroom, kissing her while she was undressing herself, and enjoying it.
He thought his sister Karen would have laughed her socks off if she’d known he was snogging the “dried up old witch” and enjoying it.
But as he held her in his arms it didn’t feel to him like he was holding a witch, she was too warm, soft and tender, but he had to call a halt to proceedings before things went too far.
As soon as his lips left hers she sighed and said
“I thought this day would never come”
And then she kissed him again.
After a few minutes, and only due to his strength of character he stopped again, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to take advantage of her, but she wasn’t worldly and wouldn’t have been fare so he broke away.
“No don’t stop” she exclaimed
“I think we should” he said “before we go too far”
“But I want to go too far” she said
“I thought you liked me”
“I do that’s why we have to stop” he said
“That doesn’t make any sense” Christina said “you just don’t want me”
Christina got up and went into the bathroom and while he waited for her to come back he paused to gaze out of the bedroom window and the snow was still falling fast and then he sat on the edge of Christina’s bed until she trudged forlornly back towards him.
“Why are you still here?” she asked bluntly
“Because I want to make sure you’re alright” he replied and he stood up and held her and she gave a rather smug self-satisfied sigh as he cuddled her.
“Did you really not want to stop?” she asked
“I really didn’t want to,” he replied “and I enjoyed kissing you”
“When can we do it again then?” she asked with her head on his chest.
“Tomorrow” he replied “if you still want to”
“Why wouldn’t I still want to?” she asked
“You may feel differently in the cold light of day” he pointed out “Without any wine”
“I won’t” she assured him
“How can you be so sure?” he asked
“Because…”
“Because?” he queried
“Because I’ve always wanted you” she replied as she looked up at him
“In which case we can do it all day” he said and kissed her
“But we have to drive to Northchapel tomorrow” she pointed out
“It’s still snowing so we won’t be going anywhere tomorrow”
“What about the Family Christmas Tradition?” she asked
“I suppose we’re just going to start our own tradition” he said
Christina lifted her head from his chest and looked at him coyly and said
“Then I hope it snows until twelfth night”
That Christmas the roads to Roespring were impassable until the day after Boxing Day and by the time they finally reached Northchapel Jack and Christina were very much a couple and the rest of the clan had long since dispersed for another year so they got straight back in the car and returned to Christina’s house and they stayed there, just the two of them, until the New Year.
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton but our story begins considerably further south in the former industrial power house of Northchapel where the Hayward clan were gathered for Christmas, with the exception of Christina Hayhoe but plans were afoot in that regard.
Principally the plan involved one member of the family driving to collect the absentee and Jack Hayward thought he had drawn the short straw when he had to drive from the family home in Northchapel to pick up his 2nd cousin Christina Hayhoe from the village of Roespring in the far northeastern corner of the county on December 23rd.
However it was the long standing family tradition for the clan to gather together at Christmas in the ancestral home and even though everyone thought Cousin Christina was a pain in the arse she had to be got and that year it was his turn.
Although they were the same age, 35ish, were both single and shared a great grandfather, they had nothing in common whatsoever because he was an outgoing, personable and fun loving guy, whereas Christina was a dried up old witch, in the opinion of most in the family at any rate.
Jack on the other hand had always felt a bit sorry for her and had always tried to engage with her.
Christina lived alone in a big house, which she once shared with her deceased brother and parents, she didn’t socialize, she had never had a boyfriend as far as anyone in the family was aware or even a girlfriend for that matter and it was true that apart from the annual sojourn to Northchapel for Christmas she was a bit of a recluse.
She wasn’t really liked within the family in fact she was barely tolerated, but in the spirit of the season she had to be included.
But the truth of the matter was they didn’t really know her and made little or no attempt to rectify that situation, so no one knew what went on behind the façade that she presented to the world.
As he left Northchapel it started to snow, just lightly in the wind at first but it didn’t stay light, and the snow that had fallen ten days earlier was still evident on the ground so the fresh fall quickly settled.
He wasn’t keen on driving in the snow, and he didn’t like driving to Roespring either, doing it in the snow just made it worse so he drove very cautiously.
It was apparent that the snow was coming from the direction he was heading because as he was driving between the Oakham’s and Nettlefield the snow on the road was getting significantly deeper so he went even more cautiously until he finally arrived in Roespring.
(Part 02)
Jack parked the car on the drive and knocked on the door and when Christina opened it she looked the same as usual with her fine brunette hair scraped back off her face giving her a severe “Croydon facelift” appearance.
She also wore the familiar black pinafore dress over a grey blouse and black wooly tights.
There was a polite though monosyllabic exchange of words on his arrival but he urged haste on the basis of the weather and she quickly locked her front door while Jack put her case in the car.
“I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to get to Northchapel in this mess” he said as they set off
“I like the snow” she remarked
“Me too” he agreed “but not for driving in”
The road back to the Expressway was impassable so they tried the cross country road to the Oakham’s, however they only got as far as Millmoor and they had to turn back.
There was another route that involved taking a very circuitous route but the likelihood that it was anymore passable was severely in question.
“It looks like we’ll have to stay at yours and try again in the morning” he said
“Ok” she responded and looked out of the window and smiled
When they got back to the house he couldn’t get the car all the way up the slope of the driveway so he had to leave it where he came to a stop.
It was only ten yards from the car to the front door but the snow was calf deep so by the time they reached the sanctuary of her house the snow had got into their footwear and Christina’s thick woolly tights were wet through.
“Make yourself at home” she said and ran upstairs
Jack took off his coat and wet shoes and walked into the lounge and took out his phone.
“Where are you?” His sister Karen asked crossly “we were getting worried”
“I’m at Christina’s” he replied
“What still?”
“Yes, the roads are blocked so I’m staying here for the night and we’ll try again in the morning”
“So you’re spending the night with Cruella?” Karen said and laughed
“I hope you’re going to behave yourself”
“Very funny” he retorted
“Good luck” Karen said
Just then he heard Christina descending the stairs so he said
“I’ll see you tomorrow”
Christina walked into the room and she had lost the “Croydon facelift” look as her hair had been shaken out and was tumbling onto her shoulders.
She had also lost the black pinafore dress, the grey blouse and black wooly tights, instead she had on a full length pink fluffy dressing gown, pink socks and pink bunny slippers, an altogether more frivolous version of Christina than he had ever seen before.
In her arms she was carrying some clothes.
“It’s only joggers and socks” she said “they were Clive’s, he was about your size”
Clive was her brother, who died in the same car accident that took her parents.
“Thanks” he said still reeling from the softer pinker Christina.
But despite the fluffy exterior she was still the same monosyllabic woman as before.
At least that was the case until she opened the first of several bottles of wine and then she didn’t stop talking.
(Part 03)
Christina was still the same monosyllabic woman as before at least that was the case until she opened the first of several bottles of wine and then she didn’t stop talking.
Due to the snowy weather, which was showing no sign of abating, he was a captive audience as she sat and drank wine and as she did so she slowly revealed herself.
After Christina opened the third bottle of wine she proceeded to reveal more and more about herself with every drink, but the more she drank the more she tended to ramble and she spoke a lot about time and sands running through her fingers and choices and not knowing, but he couldn’t really follow her train of thought very easily as the alcohol had taken its toll, so before she could open a fourth bottle of wine he took the initiative and decided to steer her up to her room.
Once they reached her bedroom door he had to wedge her against the door jamb while he opened the door, unfortunately as the door swung open she fell into the room.
Dave instinctively reached out and grabbed her in an effort to prevent her from hurting herself but he unfortunately overreached and fell to the floor before she did and landed on his back just in time for Christina to land on top of him.
“If you wanted to kiss me all you had to do was ask” she slurred before planting an almost Labrador like kiss on his mouth.
“I’m too much of a gentleman” he said after extricating himself from her embrace and struggled to his feet and helped Christina to do the same before steering her into the bedroom.
“But you’re not a gentleman” she said as he plopped her onto the bed “so there’s nothing stopping you”
And she grabbed him by the lapels and planted another kiss on his mouth, much more controlled and unhurried than the first one and he started to reciprocate.
He had noticed before that despite the façade she presented to the world Christina was actually an attractive woman, but until the day he hadn’t realised quite how lovely she was and beneath her stern exterior she was a warm open person, with an altogether pleasant demeanour.
She was not the person that he and the family all thought she was, she was not the persona she projected to the world.
Christina began unbuttoning her dressing gown and her kissing became more intense and she snorted through her nose.
Jack couldn’t believe he was in Cousin Christina’s bedroom, kissing her while she was undressing herself, and enjoying it.
He thought his sister Karen would have laughed her socks off if she’d known he was snogging the “dried up old witch” and enjoying it.
But as he held her in his arms it didn’t feel to him like he was holding a witch, she was too warm, soft and tender, but he had to call a halt to proceedings before things went too far.
(Part 04)
Christina began unbuttoning her dressing gown and her kissing became more intense and she snorted through her nose.
Jack couldn’t believe he was in Cousin Christina’s bedroom, kissing her while she was undressing herself, and enjoying it.
He thought his sister Karen would have laughed her socks off if she’d known he was snogging the “dried up old witch” and enjoying it.
But as he held her in his arms it didn’t feel to him like he was holding a witch, she was too warm, soft and tender, but he had to call a halt to proceedings before things went too far.
As soon as his lips left hers she sighed and said
“I thought this day would never come”
And then she kissed him again.
After a few minutes, and only due to his strength of character he stopped again, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to take advantage of her, but she wasn’t worldly and wouldn’t have been fare so he broke away.
“No don’t stop” she exclaimed
“I think we should” he said “before we go too far”
“But I want to go too far” she said
“I thought you liked me”
“I do that’s why we have to stop” he said
“That doesn’t make any sense” Christina said “you just don’t want me”
Christina got up and went into the bathroom and while he waited for her to come back he paused to gaze out of the bedroom window and the snow was still falling fast and then he sat on the edge of Christina’s bed until she trudged forlornly back towards him.
“Why are you still here?” she asked bluntly
“Because I want to make sure you’re alright” he replied and he stood up and held her and she gave a rather smug self-satisfied sigh as he cuddled her.
“Did you really not want to stop?” she asked
“I really didn’t want to,” he replied “and I enjoyed kissing you”
“When can we do it again then?” she asked with her head on his chest.
“Tomorrow” he replied “if you still want to”
“Why wouldn’t I still want to?” she asked
“You may feel differently in the cold light of day” he pointed out “Without any wine”
“I won’t” she assured him
“How can you be so sure?” he asked
“Because…”
“Because?” he queried
“Because I’ve always wanted you” she replied as she looked up at him
“In which case we can do it all day” he said and kissed her
“But we have to drive to Northchapel tomorrow” she pointed out
“It’s still snowing so we won’t be going anywhere tomorrow”
“What about the Family Christmas Tradition?” she asked
“I suppose we’re just going to start our own tradition” he said
Christina lifted her head from his chest and looked at him coyly and said
“Then I hope it snows until twelfth night”
That Christmas the roads to Roespring were impassable until the day after Boxing Day and by the time they finally reached Northchapel Jack and Christina were very much a couple and the rest of the clan had long since dispersed for another year so they got straight back in the car and returned to Christina’s house and they stayed there, just the two of them, until the New Year.
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (60) Christmas Came Early
(Part 01)
Twenty eight year old Paul Ingram was involved with an older woman, a forty year old woman to be precise, who was a beautiful unhappily married, soon to be divorced Carrington Chase educated woman, called Francesca Carrington-Webber.
Paul and Francesca both lived in the village of Forest Dean situated equidistant between Shallowfield and Childean, she lived in a huge house that backed onto the The Forest Ridge Golf Club, and coincidentally Paul worked for the Golf Club.
They became involved after three chance meetings, two on a train and the third more significant one was on the Promenade in Sharpington, where he came upon her small huddled figure on the bench ahead of him in some distress and after some tender moments of consolation lead to them making love in his caravan.
Since that night they had had a non-physical relationship and on the rare occasions that they managed to get to spend some time together they always made the most of it, sometimes they had to create opportunities and sometimes they just happened and sometimes one of them managed to surprise the other but the biggest surprise came on the Halloween weekend when she arrived at his caravan dressed as a witch and announced that not only was she divorcing her husband David but that she was staying the night.
But after that, on the rare occasions that they managed to get to spend the night together they always made the most of it, but most of the time they just stole a few hours here and there.
However in December, for a variety of reasons, several weeks had passed and they hadn’t been able to grab even a few minutes together.
In fact the first time he had seen her in a fortnight was on the day when he had driven over to Abbottsford to do a bit of Christmas shopping, which was when he bumped into Francesca coming out of a very expensive lingerie shop, Silk and Lace, in the Phoenix Shopping Centre.
“Hello darling” she said and air kissed him and then she spotted him looking at the designer carrier bag she was carrying.
“No you can’t look at them” she replied to his unasked question
“Ok I don’t mind seeing them on you, if you insist” he offered
“You’re incorrigible,” she said
“Is that a maybe?” he asked
Unmoved she shook her head disappointedly.
“The chance would be a fine thing anyway” she said quietly
“Have you got time for a coffee?”
“I do” he replied
They went into the Espresso Phoenix coffee house, a really nice one, not one of the chains, and he ordered the drinks as Francesca sat in the corner.
When he joined her he asked
“How about Saturday?”
“For what?” she asked innocently
“To show me your new underwear” he said
“No” she replied
“Why not?” he asked,
“I have to go to a dinner party at Mornington Manor”
She replied “but I don’t really want to go”
He looked at her with puzzlement and then said
“So don’t go, and let me spend the night doing all those things to you that fill your imagination when you’re alone”
That made her blush scarlet and avert her gaze but after a few moments she looked back at him and smiled.
“I have to go, I’m expected” she said but she reached under the table and held his hand
“But I want what you want”
“I understand” he said
“It will be soon though wont it?” she asked earnestly and held his hand tightly under the table.
“Yes” he replied
When they left the coffee house they air kissed and went their separate ways.
(Part 02)
Paul was working all day Saturday, so he wasn’t able to get away to the caravan in Sharpington, as he normally would, so he was at home in his flat and spent Saturday night watching a movie and drinking wine but at some point he leant back against the cushions and promptly fell asleep.
He woke up just after eleven o’clock, and he only woke up then because he needed a pee, so he got up and attended to the matter in hand.
When he finished answering his call of nature he was decidedly peckish so he went to the kitchen and made himself a snack.
Paul then returned to his sofa, restarted the movie he had begun watching four hours earlier and sat eating cheese and biscuits’ as he watched Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood taking on the Nazis.
At the end of the film he was still wide-awake so he got up and chose another DVD off the shelf.
He was about a quarter of the way through “The Fifth Element” when he detected the tell-tale clip clop sound of a woman in high heels from outside in the corridor.
He glanced at the clock and thought it must be his neighbour Elaine arriving home from somewhere so he returned his attention back to the action.
A moment later there was a knock on the front door and he checked the clock again before he got up and walked out into the hall, he guessed that Elaine had locked herself out and was knocking for the spare key.
So he opened the door and to his surprise a rather tipsy Francesca almost fell through it.
“Hello Paulie” she said with a flourish.
Francesca was immaculately dressed as usual in a full length green halter necked designer evening dress and a lavish faux fur shrug.
“Wow” he said, “you look stunning”
“Bless you darling” she responded
“You had a nice time then” he said as he helped her into the house.
“I had a wonderful time” she exclaimed
She tottered a few steps then kicked off her shoes, which made her a little more stable on her feet, and then she quickly progressed into the lounge.
All the while talking nine to the dozen about how marvelous the evening was, who was there, what they ate, who said what, and to who.
“And plenty of wine” he asked as she plopped down on the sofa.
“I did,” she said smiling and giggling
“I’m glad you had fun” he said
“Me too” she said coyly
“Good” Paul said as he sat down next to her
“So what are you doing here then?”
“Well I saw your lights were still on from the taxi and I thought I’d come and tell you all about my evening” she explained.
“Why were you in a taxi?” he asked, “I thought you went there with the Conway’s”
“I did” Francesca said
“So why didn’t you come back with them?” he asked
“They left early” she said
“Could no one else give you a lift?” he asked
“David someone offered” she replied
“So why didn’t you accept?”
“What kind of a woman do you think I am? I couldn’t get in a car with a complete stranger” she said affronted
“You weren’t that discerning with me” he said
“That’s different” she said “with you it doesn’t really count because you’re such a tart”
The statement caused her to roar with laughter to such an extent that she ended up collapsing in a heap with her head and shoulders on his lap.
“You’re my bit of rough” she said and then she disintegrated into laughter again.
“So you decided not to have David drive you home” he said
“It would have been cruel to tantalize him with my gorgeousness for the whole journey only to dash his hopes” she said
(Part 03)
“So you decided not to have David drive you home” he said
“It would have been cruel to tantalize him with my gorgeousness for the whole journey only to dash his hopes” she said
This bought about another burst of laughter and when she eventually composed herself she was laying at full stretch on her back looking up at Paul
“Do you still think I’m gorgeous?” she asked, regally draped before him.
“Quite gorgeous” he conceded
“Well quite gorgeous won’t get you a look at the new underwear I bought in Abbottsford the other day” she said
“I bet it does,” he said as he slowly moved his right hand, which had been resting on her chuckling belly, up to caress the roundness of her breast.
“Well maybe” Francesca murmured as she tipped her head back and closed her eyes and then he began tickling her and she was giggling so much she could barely breathe and Francesca wriggled and squirmed beneath his gaze.
But when she got control, Francesca suddenly sat bolt upright and she squealed frantically
“Ok, I’ll let you see my knickers”
And then she pulled herself up so she was seated on his lap and kissed him, he loved kissing her, he thought she was such a great kisser, the best in his experience.
The quality of a kiss is difficult to define and it is like many other things of a sexual nature, which is dependent on the perspective of the participants.
With kissing it can be the thickness of the lips, the width of the mouth, the size of the tongue, the size of the oral cavity and the amount of saliva produced.
For Paul, Francesca scored highly on every criterion and as she kissed him, he thought he had died and gone to heaven.
Once they had finished she stood up and looked at him smugly and then took hold of his hand and she said.
“Now come and enjoy my gorgeousness”
Paul got to his feet and they kissed again and then he said
“Just one question before your deliciousness distracts me”
“What’s that darling” she retorted
“How are we going to get you out of here in the morning dressed like that, without anyone noticing?” Paul said
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it darling” She purred
“I just might have to stay here with you all day, until I can leave again under the cover of darkness”
“That sounds like a wonderful plan” Paul said and walked her towards the bedroom and took Francesca off to bed and let her take him to paradise.
Christmas came early for Paul and Francesca as she did indeed stay with him until after dark on Sunday afternoon.
She would have stayed longer but she had to get back for the girls.
Getting her out of the flat unnoticed was less of a problem than either of them anticipated as he had a draw full of his sisters clothes in the spare room and they fitted his lover well enough and as he walked her home across the golf course they were aided in their stealth by some well-timed freezing fog.
Twenty eight year old Paul Ingram was involved with an older woman, a forty year old woman to be precise, who was a beautiful unhappily married, soon to be divorced Carrington Chase educated woman, called Francesca Carrington-Webber.
Paul and Francesca both lived in the village of Forest Dean situated equidistant between Shallowfield and Childean, she lived in a huge house that backed onto the The Forest Ridge Golf Club, and coincidentally Paul worked for the Golf Club.
They became involved after three chance meetings, two on a train and the third more significant one was on the Promenade in Sharpington, where he came upon her small huddled figure on the bench ahead of him in some distress and after some tender moments of consolation lead to them making love in his caravan.
Since that night they had had a non-physical relationship and on the rare occasions that they managed to get to spend some time together they always made the most of it, sometimes they had to create opportunities and sometimes they just happened and sometimes one of them managed to surprise the other but the biggest surprise came on the Halloween weekend when she arrived at his caravan dressed as a witch and announced that not only was she divorcing her husband David but that she was staying the night.
But after that, on the rare occasions that they managed to get to spend the night together they always made the most of it, but most of the time they just stole a few hours here and there.
However in December, for a variety of reasons, several weeks had passed and they hadn’t been able to grab even a few minutes together.
In fact the first time he had seen her in a fortnight was on the day when he had driven over to Abbottsford to do a bit of Christmas shopping, which was when he bumped into Francesca coming out of a very expensive lingerie shop, Silk and Lace, in the Phoenix Shopping Centre.
“Hello darling” she said and air kissed him and then she spotted him looking at the designer carrier bag she was carrying.
“No you can’t look at them” she replied to his unasked question
“Ok I don’t mind seeing them on you, if you insist” he offered
“You’re incorrigible,” she said
“Is that a maybe?” he asked
Unmoved she shook her head disappointedly.
“The chance would be a fine thing anyway” she said quietly
“Have you got time for a coffee?”
“I do” he replied
They went into the Espresso Phoenix coffee house, a really nice one, not one of the chains, and he ordered the drinks as Francesca sat in the corner.
When he joined her he asked
“How about Saturday?”
“For what?” she asked innocently
“To show me your new underwear” he said
“No” she replied
“Why not?” he asked,
“I have to go to a dinner party at Mornington Manor”
She replied “but I don’t really want to go”
He looked at her with puzzlement and then said
“So don’t go, and let me spend the night doing all those things to you that fill your imagination when you’re alone”
That made her blush scarlet and avert her gaze but after a few moments she looked back at him and smiled.
“I have to go, I’m expected” she said but she reached under the table and held his hand
“But I want what you want”
“I understand” he said
“It will be soon though wont it?” she asked earnestly and held his hand tightly under the table.
“Yes” he replied
When they left the coffee house they air kissed and went their separate ways.
(Part 02)
Paul was working all day Saturday, so he wasn’t able to get away to the caravan in Sharpington, as he normally would, so he was at home in his flat and spent Saturday night watching a movie and drinking wine but at some point he leant back against the cushions and promptly fell asleep.
He woke up just after eleven o’clock, and he only woke up then because he needed a pee, so he got up and attended to the matter in hand.
When he finished answering his call of nature he was decidedly peckish so he went to the kitchen and made himself a snack.
Paul then returned to his sofa, restarted the movie he had begun watching four hours earlier and sat eating cheese and biscuits’ as he watched Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood taking on the Nazis.
At the end of the film he was still wide-awake so he got up and chose another DVD off the shelf.
He was about a quarter of the way through “The Fifth Element” when he detected the tell-tale clip clop sound of a woman in high heels from outside in the corridor.
He glanced at the clock and thought it must be his neighbour Elaine arriving home from somewhere so he returned his attention back to the action.
A moment later there was a knock on the front door and he checked the clock again before he got up and walked out into the hall, he guessed that Elaine had locked herself out and was knocking for the spare key.
So he opened the door and to his surprise a rather tipsy Francesca almost fell through it.
“Hello Paulie” she said with a flourish.
Francesca was immaculately dressed as usual in a full length green halter necked designer evening dress and a lavish faux fur shrug.
“Wow” he said, “you look stunning”
“Bless you darling” she responded
“You had a nice time then” he said as he helped her into the house.
“I had a wonderful time” she exclaimed
She tottered a few steps then kicked off her shoes, which made her a little more stable on her feet, and then she quickly progressed into the lounge.
All the while talking nine to the dozen about how marvelous the evening was, who was there, what they ate, who said what, and to who.
“And plenty of wine” he asked as she plopped down on the sofa.
“I did,” she said smiling and giggling
“I’m glad you had fun” he said
“Me too” she said coyly
“Good” Paul said as he sat down next to her
“So what are you doing here then?”
“Well I saw your lights were still on from the taxi and I thought I’d come and tell you all about my evening” she explained.
“Why were you in a taxi?” he asked, “I thought you went there with the Conway’s”
“I did” Francesca said
“So why didn’t you come back with them?” he asked
“They left early” she said
“Could no one else give you a lift?” he asked
“David someone offered” she replied
“So why didn’t you accept?”
“What kind of a woman do you think I am? I couldn’t get in a car with a complete stranger” she said affronted
“You weren’t that discerning with me” he said
“That’s different” she said “with you it doesn’t really count because you’re such a tart”
The statement caused her to roar with laughter to such an extent that she ended up collapsing in a heap with her head and shoulders on his lap.
“You’re my bit of rough” she said and then she disintegrated into laughter again.
“So you decided not to have David drive you home” he said
“It would have been cruel to tantalize him with my gorgeousness for the whole journey only to dash his hopes” she said
(Part 03)
“So you decided not to have David drive you home” he said
“It would have been cruel to tantalize him with my gorgeousness for the whole journey only to dash his hopes” she said
This bought about another burst of laughter and when she eventually composed herself she was laying at full stretch on her back looking up at Paul
“Do you still think I’m gorgeous?” she asked, regally draped before him.
“Quite gorgeous” he conceded
“Well quite gorgeous won’t get you a look at the new underwear I bought in Abbottsford the other day” she said
“I bet it does,” he said as he slowly moved his right hand, which had been resting on her chuckling belly, up to caress the roundness of her breast.
“Well maybe” Francesca murmured as she tipped her head back and closed her eyes and then he began tickling her and she was giggling so much she could barely breathe and Francesca wriggled and squirmed beneath his gaze.
But when she got control, Francesca suddenly sat bolt upright and she squealed frantically
“Ok, I’ll let you see my knickers”
And then she pulled herself up so she was seated on his lap and kissed him, he loved kissing her, he thought she was such a great kisser, the best in his experience.
The quality of a kiss is difficult to define and it is like many other things of a sexual nature, which is dependent on the perspective of the participants.
With kissing it can be the thickness of the lips, the width of the mouth, the size of the tongue, the size of the oral cavity and the amount of saliva produced.
For Paul, Francesca scored highly on every criterion and as she kissed him, he thought he had died and gone to heaven.
Once they had finished she stood up and looked at him smugly and then took hold of his hand and she said.
“Now come and enjoy my gorgeousness”
Paul got to his feet and they kissed again and then he said
“Just one question before your deliciousness distracts me”
“What’s that darling” she retorted
“How are we going to get you out of here in the morning dressed like that, without anyone noticing?” Paul said
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it darling” She purred
“I just might have to stay here with you all day, until I can leave again under the cover of darkness”
“That sounds like a wonderful plan” Paul said and walked her towards the bedroom and took Francesca off to bed and let her take him to paradise.
Christmas came early for Paul and Francesca as she did indeed stay with him until after dark on Sunday afternoon.
She would have stayed longer but she had to get back for the girls.
Getting her out of the flat unnoticed was less of a problem than either of them anticipated as he had a draw full of his sisters clothes in the spare room and they fitted his lover well enough and as he walked her home across the golf course they were aided in their stealth by some well-timed freezing fog.
Thursday 25 May 2017
Downshire Diary – (55) Heatherlands – Doctor on Call
(Part 01)
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins slightly further south equidistant between Nettlefield and the Oxley’s, in the beautiful village of Heathervale.
When Chris Palmer moved to Nettlefield from Purplemere following a very acrimonious divorce he had sworn off women for good.
But he was a relatively good looking man who was fast approaching his 40th birthday, with a good physique and short sandy hair, greying at the temples and was possessed of piercing blue eyes, so he didn’t go unnoticed.
His reason for moving to Nettlefield in particular, over all the other places he might have chosen either in Downshire or beyond, was the Heatherlands District Health Centre.
It was a large practise that serviced a large area, covering Nettlefield itself, Oxley Green, Heathervale, Oxley Ridge and Tipton and Chris had been fortunate enough to land the job as practice manager and he also found himself a nice little flat in Nettlefield.
The senior partner, and Chris’s boss, at the Health Centre was Dr Clarisse Lowe, a tall statuesque woman who dressed in tweed, with Chestnut hair, a voluptuous figure, lovely long legs and a generous frontage, who was in her mid-forties and was just the kind of woman Chris would have fallen for in his previous life.
Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
She had been a widow for 10 years when Chris arrived in her life, her widowhood had left her lonely but also afraid of risking her heart on someone who might end that loneliness
But apart from the fact that she had vowed not to risk her broken heart again she also had instigated a policy at the practise forbidding fraternisation between members of staff, so even if she were so inclined toward Chris she wouldn’t be disposed to go against her own edict.
But the heart wants what the heart wants which was why two people who despite their reluctance to expose themselves to love again and who were very definitely not looking for a relationship, let alone love, found it anyway.
And as a bi-product of the loving relationship she scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships.
(Part 02)
As a bi-product of the loving relationship between Chris and Clarisse, she scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships which was just what the doctor ordered for 34 year old Linda Bowles who had the hots for one of the clerical staff, Peter Butler.
She was pretty, stick thin, flat chested, seriously ginger and tall so she looked like an unstruck Swan Vesta.
She was known rather unimaginatively as ginger Linda and she wanted nothing more in life than to be Peter Butler’s significant other the problem was that Peter was scared of her.
Not that he didn’t like her or find her attractive, he did, very much so, but she scared him, because she was everything that he was not.
She was a confident, outgoing and feisty woman of the world whereas he was timid, mild and extremely naïve about life, and in particular women.
Peter had lived a very sheltered life and had spent much of his 32 years looking after his elderly and invalid parents so all he had ever known was work and caring from the time he left school.
And it was from school that he first joined Heatherlands, although it wasn’t called that then, and nor was it a health centre, it was just an orthopaedic outpatients clinic.
But when it took on its present guise, he was one of the few who made the transition.
Peter was an only child and his parents had him late in life, his mother was 44 when she gave birth and his father was ten years her senior.
Neither of them were in good health while he was growing up, his mother never fully recovered from her traumatic labour, Peter had just turned 25 when her heart gave out and five years later his father lost his long battle with cancer.
For the two years that followed he lived alone in what had been the family home all of his life, he seldom went out, with the exception of the Heatherlands Christmas Party as Clarisse wouldn’t take no for an answer on that one, and he had no friends outside of work, and his job at Heatherlands was the only pleasure in his life.
That was until Dr Linda Bowles arrived just after Christmas and he had something else to look forward to every working day, seeing Linda.
He thought she was beautiful, especially when she smiled at him, but he couldn’t talk to her when she said hello because his knees turned to jelly and his mouth went dry.
She was gorgeous and terrifying in one moment, she was so direct and bold and fearless and she left him quivering, but he adored her more than anyone he had ever known but because of his shyness he knew he would never find the courage to speak to her.
So he resigned himself to the fact that he would just have to watch her from a safe distance.
(Part 03)
When singleton, Linda Bowles, first joined the Heatherlands District Health Centre, she was hoping it would be the last time she would be the newbie.
She had spent the previous three years as a locum, drifting in and out of various surgeries in the four corners of Downshire as well as the bit in between.
It had been a bit of a gypsy existence and she had been unable to put down any roots, but when she applied for the permanent position at Heatherlands, and got the job she hoped that she would finally have a normal life, her own home and someone to share it with.
In the short term she was able to rent a house in the village of Heathervale, or more precisely the granny flat in the garden of a house in the village, but it suited her needs very well.
But having secured a permanent job and suitable accommodation she was not prepared to lose her heart to a good looking man on her first day in her new job.
It happened while the senior partner, Clarisse Lowe, was introducing her to the staff around the building, and when they entered the administration office and she saw Peter Butler standing by the photocopier she felt cupid’s arrow strike home.
Peter was an inch or two taller than Linda was, and she was almost six foot tall, with a kind face, blue eyes and a mop of mousy hair and what endeared him to her even more was his shyness, she thought it was cute.
Having found someone for her to lavish her love upon she had to curb her desires because of the “No Fraternizing” rule but after Easter when Clarisse and Chris Palmer got together and she scrapped that particular edict Linda tackled her crush in the same way she dealt with everything in her life, head on.
She let him know in no uncertain terms what her intentions were and what her desires consisted of, namely him,
Or at least she thought she did, but if she had then her advances had fallen on stony ground.
For almost eleven months she flirted with him outrageously and flaunted herself unashamedly at every opportunity, but to no avail.
“He’s just not noticing me” she said to herself one day
Peter had noticed her, he couldn’t fail to notice her, she was always there smiling and looking good enough to eat he was just too scared to react, because he didn’t know how to act with a woman, especially one as lovely as she was.
By the autumn she was getting a little despondent so when in in November she was invited to a dinner party at Clarisse Lowe’s house she took her chance, when she got her alone to confide in her that she really fancied Peter.
“Well everyone in Heatherlands knows that” she retorted and laughed
“Really?” Linda said
“Well you’re not subtle Linda”
“Well Peter hasn’t noticed me or worse he has noticed and he’s horrified” she said and grimaced
“Oh he’s not horrified, he really likes you, he’s just scared of you” Clarisse said
(Part 04)
By the autumn she was getting a little despondent so when in in November she was invited to a dinner party at Clarisse Lowe’s house she took her chance, when she got her alone to confide in her that she really fancied Peter.
“Well everyone in Heatherlands knows that” she retorted and laughed
“Really?” Linda said
“Well you’re not subtle Linda”
“Well Peter hasn’t noticed me or worse he has noticed and he’s horrified” she said and grimaced
“Oh he’s not horrified, he really likes you, he’s just scared of you” Clarisse said
“Scared? Why? I’m not going to hurt him” Linda asked
“You have to understand that he has led a very sheltered life”
Clarisse said and then explained about him having to care for invalid parents and missing out on his childhood and a normal young man’s social experiences.
“It’s like he’s lived his whole life in monochrome and then you turn up and you broadcast directly to him in technicolour” she said
“You are larger than life Linda and Peter is a shadow dweller who is happy to be anonymous, which of course he wouldn’t be if he was with you, and that’s why he’s scared”
“So what should I do?” Linda asked
“Well if I were you I would wait until the Christmas Party” she replied
“Will he go to the Christmas party?” she asked “I wouldn’t have thought it was his kind of thing”
“It’s not, but he goes because I tell him to” Clarisse replied
“Why?”
“Because he’s scared of me” she said and laughed
It was true that Clarisse did tell Peter that he had to attend the party and because of that that was what he was going to do, but not out of fear he did what she asked out of respect.
So over the course of the year Doctor Linda Bowles had set her cap firmly at shy and naïve Peter Butler but she had struck out but then in December there was light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of the
Heatherlands District Health Centre staff Christmas Party which was held at The Foothills Hotel in Oxley Ridge.
Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
On his death however he had left her extremely well off so at Christmas Clarisse always laid on transport for those who had to get back for baby sitters after the part or alternatively they could stay overnight at the Hotel.
Unfortunately on the day of the party Linda was on call until midnight and therefore couldn’t indulge herself in the pursuit of Peter Butler.
And when Linda had to go to Nettlefield for a suspected case of Meningitis at 10 o’clock she thought she was going to miss her chance altogether.
(Part 05)
Unfortunately on the day of the party Linda was on call until midnight and therefore couldn’t indulge herself in the pursuit of Peter Butler.
And when Linda had to go to Nettlefield for a suspected case of Meningitis at 10 o’clock she thought she was going to miss her chance altogether.
However half way to see the patient she got a phone call to say that an ambulance had been called as there had been a deterioration of the patient’s condition and she was now critically ill and the ambulance beat her to the patient by 15 minutes which meant she was not required to attend after all.
And as Linda did a U-turn and headed towards Oxley Ridge she chastised herself for being relieved and felt guilty because it was an outcome that benefitted her.
She would have felt even worse if she’d known that the critically ill patient had died on route to hospital.
It was a little before midnight when she walked through the doors into the foyer of the Foothills Hotel and was greeted by Clarisse.
“Linda darling let me get you a drink” she suggested
“That will be lovely” Linda replied “But I’m still on clock for another ten minutes”
Just at that moment there was a commotion in the hall which prevented a slightly tipsy Clarisse from telling her not to worry about ten minutes and to get a drink down her neck.
They looked around and saw Chris Palmer and his brother Darren carrying Peter Butler between them who was holding his left foot.
“What’s happened?” Clarisse asked
“He tripped over his own feet” Chris replied and laughed
“I’m fine, I just twisted my ankle” Peter said
“We’ll be the judge of that” Linda said “After I’ve examined you”
“You can use room 104” The night manager said
“Perfect” Linda said “And can you arrange for some ice?”
“Time to get him into my consulting room” she whispered to Clarisse as she followed the casualty
“Just be gentle with him” Clarisse retorted and laughed
When she reached room 104 the door to the room was open and Chris and Darren had Peter laying on the bed waiting for her and he had already shed his shoe and sock.
“Right let’s have a look at you” Linda said
“It’s just twisted” he said
“Really? Remind me which one of us is the Doctor?” Linda asked
“Sorry Doctor” he said meekly
“That should reduce the swelling”
She said as she packed the bags of ice around his ankle
“And now if we can have some privacy I’ll give you a proper examination” she said
“We’ll leave you to it then” Clarisse said and went out the door with Chris but they didn’t close the door completely and stood peering in.
“Right then let’s start with your blood pressure” she said
“Why are you undoing my trousers?” he asked with alarm
“Are you sure that you’re a proper doctor?”
“Just relax” Linda said
“But I don’t think that’s the way to check blood pressure” he said
“Trust me I’m a professional” She said “you’re in safe hands”
“Whatever you say doc” he answered and closed his eyes.
“Well there’s definitely nothing wrong with your blood pressure”
She said
“Oh my” Peter exclaimed
“Well I think we can safely leave them to it” Clarisse said and quietly closed the door
“He doesn’t know what he’s in for” Chris added
“All his Christmas’s have come at one” she said and they both laughed
The next morning, those who made it down to breakfast were a sorry looking lot, severely hungover with bloodshot eyes and thumping heads, and among them were Clarisse and Chris.
But the exceptions to the rule were Linda and Peter who were both bright eyed and bushy tailed and smiling from ear to ear.
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins slightly further south equidistant between Nettlefield and the Oxley’s, in the beautiful village of Heathervale.
When Chris Palmer moved to Nettlefield from Purplemere following a very acrimonious divorce he had sworn off women for good.
But he was a relatively good looking man who was fast approaching his 40th birthday, with a good physique and short sandy hair, greying at the temples and was possessed of piercing blue eyes, so he didn’t go unnoticed.
His reason for moving to Nettlefield in particular, over all the other places he might have chosen either in Downshire or beyond, was the Heatherlands District Health Centre.
It was a large practise that serviced a large area, covering Nettlefield itself, Oxley Green, Heathervale, Oxley Ridge and Tipton and Chris had been fortunate enough to land the job as practice manager and he also found himself a nice little flat in Nettlefield.
The senior partner, and Chris’s boss, at the Health Centre was Dr Clarisse Lowe, a tall statuesque woman who dressed in tweed, with Chestnut hair, a voluptuous figure, lovely long legs and a generous frontage, who was in her mid-forties and was just the kind of woman Chris would have fallen for in his previous life.
Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
She had been a widow for 10 years when Chris arrived in her life, her widowhood had left her lonely but also afraid of risking her heart on someone who might end that loneliness
But apart from the fact that she had vowed not to risk her broken heart again she also had instigated a policy at the practise forbidding fraternisation between members of staff, so even if she were so inclined toward Chris she wouldn’t be disposed to go against her own edict.
But the heart wants what the heart wants which was why two people who despite their reluctance to expose themselves to love again and who were very definitely not looking for a relationship, let alone love, found it anyway.
And as a bi-product of the loving relationship she scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships.
(Part 02)
As a bi-product of the loving relationship between Chris and Clarisse, she scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships which was just what the doctor ordered for 34 year old Linda Bowles who had the hots for one of the clerical staff, Peter Butler.
She was pretty, stick thin, flat chested, seriously ginger and tall so she looked like an unstruck Swan Vesta.
She was known rather unimaginatively as ginger Linda and she wanted nothing more in life than to be Peter Butler’s significant other the problem was that Peter was scared of her.
Not that he didn’t like her or find her attractive, he did, very much so, but she scared him, because she was everything that he was not.
She was a confident, outgoing and feisty woman of the world whereas he was timid, mild and extremely naïve about life, and in particular women.
Peter had lived a very sheltered life and had spent much of his 32 years looking after his elderly and invalid parents so all he had ever known was work and caring from the time he left school.
And it was from school that he first joined Heatherlands, although it wasn’t called that then, and nor was it a health centre, it was just an orthopaedic outpatients clinic.
But when it took on its present guise, he was one of the few who made the transition.
Peter was an only child and his parents had him late in life, his mother was 44 when she gave birth and his father was ten years her senior.
Neither of them were in good health while he was growing up, his mother never fully recovered from her traumatic labour, Peter had just turned 25 when her heart gave out and five years later his father lost his long battle with cancer.
For the two years that followed he lived alone in what had been the family home all of his life, he seldom went out, with the exception of the Heatherlands Christmas Party as Clarisse wouldn’t take no for an answer on that one, and he had no friends outside of work, and his job at Heatherlands was the only pleasure in his life.
That was until Dr Linda Bowles arrived just after Christmas and he had something else to look forward to every working day, seeing Linda.
He thought she was beautiful, especially when she smiled at him, but he couldn’t talk to her when she said hello because his knees turned to jelly and his mouth went dry.
She was gorgeous and terrifying in one moment, she was so direct and bold and fearless and she left him quivering, but he adored her more than anyone he had ever known but because of his shyness he knew he would never find the courage to speak to her.
So he resigned himself to the fact that he would just have to watch her from a safe distance.
(Part 03)
When singleton, Linda Bowles, first joined the Heatherlands District Health Centre, she was hoping it would be the last time she would be the newbie.
She had spent the previous three years as a locum, drifting in and out of various surgeries in the four corners of Downshire as well as the bit in between.
It had been a bit of a gypsy existence and she had been unable to put down any roots, but when she applied for the permanent position at Heatherlands, and got the job she hoped that she would finally have a normal life, her own home and someone to share it with.
In the short term she was able to rent a house in the village of Heathervale, or more precisely the granny flat in the garden of a house in the village, but it suited her needs very well.
But having secured a permanent job and suitable accommodation she was not prepared to lose her heart to a good looking man on her first day in her new job.
It happened while the senior partner, Clarisse Lowe, was introducing her to the staff around the building, and when they entered the administration office and she saw Peter Butler standing by the photocopier she felt cupid’s arrow strike home.
Peter was an inch or two taller than Linda was, and she was almost six foot tall, with a kind face, blue eyes and a mop of mousy hair and what endeared him to her even more was his shyness, she thought it was cute.
Having found someone for her to lavish her love upon she had to curb her desires because of the “No Fraternizing” rule but after Easter when Clarisse and Chris Palmer got together and she scrapped that particular edict Linda tackled her crush in the same way she dealt with everything in her life, head on.
She let him know in no uncertain terms what her intentions were and what her desires consisted of, namely him,
Or at least she thought she did, but if she had then her advances had fallen on stony ground.
For almost eleven months she flirted with him outrageously and flaunted herself unashamedly at every opportunity, but to no avail.
“He’s just not noticing me” she said to herself one day
Peter had noticed her, he couldn’t fail to notice her, she was always there smiling and looking good enough to eat he was just too scared to react, because he didn’t know how to act with a woman, especially one as lovely as she was.
By the autumn she was getting a little despondent so when in in November she was invited to a dinner party at Clarisse Lowe’s house she took her chance, when she got her alone to confide in her that she really fancied Peter.
“Well everyone in Heatherlands knows that” she retorted and laughed
“Really?” Linda said
“Well you’re not subtle Linda”
“Well Peter hasn’t noticed me or worse he has noticed and he’s horrified” she said and grimaced
“Oh he’s not horrified, he really likes you, he’s just scared of you” Clarisse said
(Part 04)
By the autumn she was getting a little despondent so when in in November she was invited to a dinner party at Clarisse Lowe’s house she took her chance, when she got her alone to confide in her that she really fancied Peter.
“Well everyone in Heatherlands knows that” she retorted and laughed
“Really?” Linda said
“Well you’re not subtle Linda”
“Well Peter hasn’t noticed me or worse he has noticed and he’s horrified” she said and grimaced
“Oh he’s not horrified, he really likes you, he’s just scared of you” Clarisse said
“Scared? Why? I’m not going to hurt him” Linda asked
“You have to understand that he has led a very sheltered life”
Clarisse said and then explained about him having to care for invalid parents and missing out on his childhood and a normal young man’s social experiences.
“It’s like he’s lived his whole life in monochrome and then you turn up and you broadcast directly to him in technicolour” she said
“You are larger than life Linda and Peter is a shadow dweller who is happy to be anonymous, which of course he wouldn’t be if he was with you, and that’s why he’s scared”
“So what should I do?” Linda asked
“Well if I were you I would wait until the Christmas Party” she replied
“Will he go to the Christmas party?” she asked “I wouldn’t have thought it was his kind of thing”
“It’s not, but he goes because I tell him to” Clarisse replied
“Why?”
“Because he’s scared of me” she said and laughed
It was true that Clarisse did tell Peter that he had to attend the party and because of that that was what he was going to do, but not out of fear he did what she asked out of respect.
So over the course of the year Doctor Linda Bowles had set her cap firmly at shy and naïve Peter Butler but she had struck out but then in December there was light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of the
Heatherlands District Health Centre staff Christmas Party which was held at The Foothills Hotel in Oxley Ridge.
Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
On his death however he had left her extremely well off so at Christmas Clarisse always laid on transport for those who had to get back for baby sitters after the part or alternatively they could stay overnight at the Hotel.
Unfortunately on the day of the party Linda was on call until midnight and therefore couldn’t indulge herself in the pursuit of Peter Butler.
And when Linda had to go to Nettlefield for a suspected case of Meningitis at 10 o’clock she thought she was going to miss her chance altogether.
(Part 05)
Unfortunately on the day of the party Linda was on call until midnight and therefore couldn’t indulge herself in the pursuit of Peter Butler.
And when Linda had to go to Nettlefield for a suspected case of Meningitis at 10 o’clock she thought she was going to miss her chance altogether.
However half way to see the patient she got a phone call to say that an ambulance had been called as there had been a deterioration of the patient’s condition and she was now critically ill and the ambulance beat her to the patient by 15 minutes which meant she was not required to attend after all.
And as Linda did a U-turn and headed towards Oxley Ridge she chastised herself for being relieved and felt guilty because it was an outcome that benefitted her.
She would have felt even worse if she’d known that the critically ill patient had died on route to hospital.
It was a little before midnight when she walked through the doors into the foyer of the Foothills Hotel and was greeted by Clarisse.
“Linda darling let me get you a drink” she suggested
“That will be lovely” Linda replied “But I’m still on clock for another ten minutes”
Just at that moment there was a commotion in the hall which prevented a slightly tipsy Clarisse from telling her not to worry about ten minutes and to get a drink down her neck.
They looked around and saw Chris Palmer and his brother Darren carrying Peter Butler between them who was holding his left foot.
“What’s happened?” Clarisse asked
“He tripped over his own feet” Chris replied and laughed
“I’m fine, I just twisted my ankle” Peter said
“We’ll be the judge of that” Linda said “After I’ve examined you”
“You can use room 104” The night manager said
“Perfect” Linda said “And can you arrange for some ice?”
“Time to get him into my consulting room” she whispered to Clarisse as she followed the casualty
“Just be gentle with him” Clarisse retorted and laughed
When she reached room 104 the door to the room was open and Chris and Darren had Peter laying on the bed waiting for her and he had already shed his shoe and sock.
“Right let’s have a look at you” Linda said
“It’s just twisted” he said
“Really? Remind me which one of us is the Doctor?” Linda asked
“Sorry Doctor” he said meekly
“That should reduce the swelling”
She said as she packed the bags of ice around his ankle
“And now if we can have some privacy I’ll give you a proper examination” she said
“We’ll leave you to it then” Clarisse said and went out the door with Chris but they didn’t close the door completely and stood peering in.
“Right then let’s start with your blood pressure” she said
“Why are you undoing my trousers?” he asked with alarm
“Are you sure that you’re a proper doctor?”
“Just relax” Linda said
“But I don’t think that’s the way to check blood pressure” he said
“Trust me I’m a professional” She said “you’re in safe hands”
“Whatever you say doc” he answered and closed his eyes.
“Well there’s definitely nothing wrong with your blood pressure”
She said
“Oh my” Peter exclaimed
“Well I think we can safely leave them to it” Clarisse said and quietly closed the door
“He doesn’t know what he’s in for” Chris added
“All his Christmas’s have come at one” she said and they both laughed
The next morning, those who made it down to breakfast were a sorry looking lot, severely hungover with bloodshot eyes and thumping heads, and among them were Clarisse and Chris.
But the exceptions to the rule were Linda and Peter who were both bright eyed and bushy tailed and smiling from ear to ear.
Mornington-By-Mere – (42) A Christmas Misadventure
(Part 01)
Peter Andrew was a big barrel chested man with a bushy beard and a happy jovial face and along with his wife Helen he ran the Old Mill Inn In the idyllic village of Mornington-By-Mere in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
They had been there for 20 years and had raised two children, Polly and John, and it was the perfect occupation for him but he hadn’t always been in hospitality.
He left school when he was fifteen, which was in the late seventies and he was living in Finchbottom with his parents.
The family home was in Shaftsbury Court, a warden run block of sheltered accommodation for the elderly and his mother was the warden.
Peter attended the School nearby which he left at the end of May and he started his first job three days later.
However in the November of that same year his mum changed jobs and the family moved from one side of town to the other, the significance of which would have a life changing effect on him within a matter of weeks.
The house move didn’t affect him getting to and from work as the town had a particularly good bus service, operating a flat fare service on circular routes.
Which meant he could still get the same bus as he did from the old address but from a different bus stop and the price was the same a fact which would have some significance at a later date.
His job was as a trainee groundsman with the Finchbottom District Council Grounds Maintenance team it wasn’t by any means his dream job but then he didn’t have a dream job, he left school at 15 because he wasn’t a scholar and he just needed to get a job so he took the first one that came along.
He enjoyed it well enough, though it wasn’t very fulfilling but then he didn’t think his job needed to be.
He was just happy to be earning after all, but as it was his first year at work he also had his first works Christmas party to look forward to.
It was on the last day before they broke for the Christmas holiday when they had a little works party in the yard where a little Christmas cheer was imbibed and a drink or two were consumed.
Peter was only sixteen at the time and he had only had very limited experience of alcohol and as a result he got well and truly bladdered on whisky Mac, cider and something unpronounceable from Yugoslavia.
So at the end of the afternoon one of his workmates gave him a lift into the town centre and from there he caught his usual bus.
But despite his drunken state he managed to climb the stairs to the top deck and the bus set off filled with Christmas shoppers and a drunken trainee grounds man.
He drifted off on the journey and he suddenly came to and looking out the window he recognized a familiar sight and so he promptly disembarked from the bus.
Peter headed off up the road in the direction of home wishing all and sundry a merry Christmas as he went.
(Part 02)
He entered through the main doors to the flats and passed the Christmas tree in the foyer and headed straight for flat number one.
At the door he fumbled for his key and presented it to the lock and it wouldn’t fit.
He peered closely at it and he was satisfied that it was definitely his door key so he tried to put it in the lock again, but still it wouldn’t fit and suddenly the door opened and a stranger looked out at him.
“Can I help?” she asked.
“Ah” he exclaimed “my name is Peter and I don’t live here anymore do I?”
The lady, who was the new warden, laughed and agreed with him that he definitely no longer lived there.
Peter apologized profusely and wished her a Happy Christmas and then made his way back to the foyer were there was a public telephone with one of those large Perspex domes over it.
His intention was to phone for a taxi to take him to where he actually lived but after rummaging in his pockets he discovered he had no money for the taxi or indeed a coin to make a phone call to order a taxi that he couldn’t afford.
However as he tried to duck under the Perspex hood he tripped over his own feet and fell into the Christmas tree which ended up on top of him.
The lady who now lived in flat no 1, heard the commotion and came to investigate and to his great surprise she thought it was very amusing to find a drunken teenager wearing the Christmas tree.
“Oh dear” she said laughing.
Deeply apologetic he explained the circumstances of his predicament and the new warden phoned a taxi for him and even gave him the money for the fare.
He thought that was real Christmas spirit and he never forgot her kindness and tolerance and from that time on he tried to keep that same spirit in his own heart at Christmas.
On New Year’s Eve Peter returned again to Shaftsbury Court but unlike his previous visit he was stone cold sober and there by intention.
He was carrying a large bouquet of flowers and a thank you card, he wasn’t going to knock on the door, he would have been too embarrassed to see her face to face, so he leant the bouquet against the door frame and turned to walk away.
He had only taken two steps when he heard the door open behind him and he went rigid.
Peter took a breath and slowly turned around expecting to see Mrs Copeland but instead he was face to face with a pretty 15 year old girl.
“Oh you must be Peter” she said looking at the card on the flowers
“Yes, yes I am” he said falteringly
“I’m Helen” she said “Mum’s inside, I think you should give her these yourself”
“Could you give them to her for me” he said
“No I can’t” Helen said “Come on in she won’t bite”
So with Helen holding his hand he went into the flat that used to be his home to apologize to her mum and ended up staying until the following year by which time he had a girlfriend.
By the next Christmas he had secretly proposed to Helen and five years down the line he had given up his groundsman’s job and the kind hearted Mrs Copeland was his mother in law.
Peter Andrew was a big barrel chested man with a bushy beard and a happy jovial face and along with his wife Helen he ran the Old Mill Inn In the idyllic village of Mornington-By-Mere in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
They had been there for 20 years and had raised two children, Polly and John, and it was the perfect occupation for him but he hadn’t always been in hospitality.
He left school when he was fifteen, which was in the late seventies and he was living in Finchbottom with his parents.
The family home was in Shaftsbury Court, a warden run block of sheltered accommodation for the elderly and his mother was the warden.
Peter attended the School nearby which he left at the end of May and he started his first job three days later.
However in the November of that same year his mum changed jobs and the family moved from one side of town to the other, the significance of which would have a life changing effect on him within a matter of weeks.
The house move didn’t affect him getting to and from work as the town had a particularly good bus service, operating a flat fare service on circular routes.
Which meant he could still get the same bus as he did from the old address but from a different bus stop and the price was the same a fact which would have some significance at a later date.
His job was as a trainee groundsman with the Finchbottom District Council Grounds Maintenance team it wasn’t by any means his dream job but then he didn’t have a dream job, he left school at 15 because he wasn’t a scholar and he just needed to get a job so he took the first one that came along.
He enjoyed it well enough, though it wasn’t very fulfilling but then he didn’t think his job needed to be.
He was just happy to be earning after all, but as it was his first year at work he also had his first works Christmas party to look forward to.
It was on the last day before they broke for the Christmas holiday when they had a little works party in the yard where a little Christmas cheer was imbibed and a drink or two were consumed.
Peter was only sixteen at the time and he had only had very limited experience of alcohol and as a result he got well and truly bladdered on whisky Mac, cider and something unpronounceable from Yugoslavia.
So at the end of the afternoon one of his workmates gave him a lift into the town centre and from there he caught his usual bus.
But despite his drunken state he managed to climb the stairs to the top deck and the bus set off filled with Christmas shoppers and a drunken trainee grounds man.
He drifted off on the journey and he suddenly came to and looking out the window he recognized a familiar sight and so he promptly disembarked from the bus.
Peter headed off up the road in the direction of home wishing all and sundry a merry Christmas as he went.
(Part 02)
He entered through the main doors to the flats and passed the Christmas tree in the foyer and headed straight for flat number one.
At the door he fumbled for his key and presented it to the lock and it wouldn’t fit.
He peered closely at it and he was satisfied that it was definitely his door key so he tried to put it in the lock again, but still it wouldn’t fit and suddenly the door opened and a stranger looked out at him.
“Can I help?” she asked.
“Ah” he exclaimed “my name is Peter and I don’t live here anymore do I?”
The lady, who was the new warden, laughed and agreed with him that he definitely no longer lived there.
Peter apologized profusely and wished her a Happy Christmas and then made his way back to the foyer were there was a public telephone with one of those large Perspex domes over it.
His intention was to phone for a taxi to take him to where he actually lived but after rummaging in his pockets he discovered he had no money for the taxi or indeed a coin to make a phone call to order a taxi that he couldn’t afford.
However as he tried to duck under the Perspex hood he tripped over his own feet and fell into the Christmas tree which ended up on top of him.
The lady who now lived in flat no 1, heard the commotion and came to investigate and to his great surprise she thought it was very amusing to find a drunken teenager wearing the Christmas tree.
“Oh dear” she said laughing.
Deeply apologetic he explained the circumstances of his predicament and the new warden phoned a taxi for him and even gave him the money for the fare.
He thought that was real Christmas spirit and he never forgot her kindness and tolerance and from that time on he tried to keep that same spirit in his own heart at Christmas.
On New Year’s Eve Peter returned again to Shaftsbury Court but unlike his previous visit he was stone cold sober and there by intention.
He was carrying a large bouquet of flowers and a thank you card, he wasn’t going to knock on the door, he would have been too embarrassed to see her face to face, so he leant the bouquet against the door frame and turned to walk away.
He had only taken two steps when he heard the door open behind him and he went rigid.
Peter took a breath and slowly turned around expecting to see Mrs Copeland but instead he was face to face with a pretty 15 year old girl.
“Oh you must be Peter” she said looking at the card on the flowers
“Yes, yes I am” he said falteringly
“I’m Helen” she said “Mum’s inside, I think you should give her these yourself”
“Could you give them to her for me” he said
“No I can’t” Helen said “Come on in she won’t bite”
So with Helen holding his hand he went into the flat that used to be his home to apologize to her mum and ended up staying until the following year by which time he had a girlfriend.
By the next Christmas he had secretly proposed to Helen and five years down the line he had given up his groundsman’s job and the kind hearted Mrs Copeland was his mother in law.
Wednesday 24 May 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (41) You can take it with you
(Part 01)
The Finchbottom Vale nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, those who are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair.
There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean and third of course was Purplemere.
And in Purplemere 29 year old Nerissa Lopez worked behind the delicatessen counter at Stephenson’s Supermarket
She was quite a shy girl who had a gentle nature and almost always wore a warm open smile on her face and she was popular with staff and customers alike.
Nerissa was a very slim and attractive girl with beautiful long dark brown hair and dark skin, reflecting her heritage as did her brown eyes.
In her ancestry she had Filipino and Spanish blood but she was born and bred in Britain and had no family ties with either country or even in Britain for that matter.
She was the only child of parent who themselves were only children and both of them were gone now.
So she was all on her own and she lived alone in a small one bedroom flat about a mile from where she worked.
You might wonder why a lovely friendly girl with a slim figure blessed with a personality that was equally as lovely as her smile, living alone in a dingy one bedroom flat.
It was certainly something she often wondered.
She lived in a small block of flats called Gladstone Court in Flat 2b.
Her next door neighbour in flat 2a was 32 year old Harry Devonshire, he though had the luxury of a larger two bedroom flat in which to live alone in, courtesy of a failed relationship some eight years earlier.
Unlike Nerissa his heritage was strictly British and he did have living family, two brothers in fact, unfortunately they were both living in Australia so he hadn’t seen either of them for over 5 years.
Harry also worked at Stephenson’s where he was the warehouse manager.
Nerissa and Harry were best friends and did everything together, if either of them was invited anywhere the other was always their plus one.
Equally if one of them wanted to see a film or try out a new restaurant the other would accompany them, in fact they were so often seen together people assumed they were a couple.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that they loved each other but their relationship was strictly platonic and their friendship had been since forever and they were close almost to the point of symbiosis.
Coworkers at the store used to think their relationship was almost comic, when they seemed to know what the other was thinking and even finished each other’s sentences, Harry and Nerissa just got each other and their thoughts and desires remained quite esoteric.
(Part 02)
Harry and Nerissa’s all-consuming purpose in life, their primary objective, their ultimate goal, was finding life partners, in particularly a serious romantic relationship, soul mates if possible.
But their frantic search for love remained fruitless, though not for the want of trying.
They tried online dating, blind dates set up by friends or colleagues, they frequented clubs, virtually every pub in Purplemere and a number outside of it and out of sheer desperation, speed dating.
But all their efforts were to no avail and as a result of their considerable efforts they had both kissed more than their fair share of frogs along the way and neither of them knew why they hadn’t struck gold, in fact they couldn’t explain their lack of success.
Nerissa couldn’t understand why a good looking, gentle and kind man like Harry was unattached and he couldn’t fathom why on earth a gorgeous woman like her was still single, or why suitors weren’t cued around the block to ask her out.
But regardless of their continual failure the search for love went on.
On one particularly bitterly cold Friday night towards the end of October they were walking home from work but Nerissa was being unusually quiet as Harry prattled on endlessly about the arrival of the first of the Christmas stock into the warehouse.
“I might have to cancel Christmas this year” she said completely out of the blue
“Why?” Harry asked
“My rents gone up again” she said “and I’ve just got my Gas and Electric bills”
“Well look on the bright side” he said trying to cheer her up “You might have found Mr. Right by Christmas”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to put looking for him on hold as well” Nerissa said sadly as they arrived at the front doors of the flats “And I’ll have to break into my savings just to get through the winter”
Harry didn’t know what to say to that and they walked upstairs in silence and when they got to their floor he said
“Right you go and get changed and I’ll get the supper on”
“I think I’m just going to have a bath and get an early night” she replied
“Are you sure?” Harry asked “Well at least come in and have a glass of wine and we can talk it through”
“That’s kind of you but yes I’m sure babe” She insisted “I’ll probably be fine after a good night’s sleep”
“Ok Hon” Harry said and kissed her cheek “I’ll see you in the morning then”
Nerissa stepped inside and closed the door behind her and took off her coat and shoes but once she was in her slippers she decided to skip the bath and went straight to bed instead where she cried herself to sleep.
And while Nerissa sobbed uncontrollably into her pillow Harry had already decided to forgo supper and opened a bottle of red wine instead and by the time he was draining the last drop from his glass and the bottle was empty, he had thought of the solution to Nerissa’s financial problems.
(Part 03)
The next morning he was up very early, and considerably brighter than he should have been after polishing off a bottle of Chianti on his own.
He showered and shaved and then he went out, his first port of call was Addison’s bakery in Convent Road where he picked up some fresh croissants and then on to Labuschagne in the high street for two expensive coffee’s.
As he returned to Gladstone Court he could see the lights were on in her flat so when he reached the door to flat 2b, he rang the bell confident that she was up and about.
After a minute or two she opened the door looking like she hadn’t slept in a week.
“Come on sleepy head, croissants and coffee” Harry said ignoring the fact that she looked like death.
“Not for me Harry” she said
“No to croissant?” he said and put his hand to his chest as if he was having a heart attack.
“Not today” she said
“I won’t take no for an answer, so get your dressing gown on and follow me” he ordered her realizing the instant he said it that he sounded really camp.
Reluctantly, though and not with a happy heart, she did as he instructed and followed him into his flat.
“Do we have to do this this morning?” she asked “I really don’t feel up to it today”
“Yes we do need to do it now” Harry said firmly “and when you’ve heard what I have to say you’ll understand why”
“Ok give me some coffee” she said resignedly
After he had poured the Labuschagne coffee’s from the ghastly paper containers and into two proper mugs he sat down and began his spiel.
“I think I have a solution to your problem”
“Oh yes? And what might that be exactly” she said doubtfully
“I think you should give up your flat and move in here with me” he said
“What?” Nerissa asked scarcely believing her ears
“Give up your flat and move into my spare room” he elaborated
“But that’s a ridiculous idea” she said
“Is it?” Harry said
“Well isn’t it? Nerissa asked back
“Look we eat together most nights, we watch TV together most nights” he explained
“Most of the time you only use your flat as a bedroom and dressing room anyway”
“Yes but” she interrupted
“And my spare room is almost as big as your whole flat” Harry added
“Yes I know that, but” she persisted “But what will people think?”
“People won’t think anything” he said “This is the 21st century after all, and as I said you’re here more often than not as it is”
“I don’t know” she said doubtfully
“Look hon, it will be perfect, I’ll continue to pay the rent and we can split the bills for the utilities and food etc.” Harry concluded
“Well I…” she began
“And here’s the clincher, with the money we both save we might finally get that holiday we’ve always talked about” Harry said
“Greece?” she asked
“Greece” he replied
“Ok, you’ve convinced me” she agreed “now give me a croissant”
(Part 04)
Harry and Nerissa had often talked about taking a holiday abroad, not that they ever thought that they’d actually achieve it, it was planned more in a fanciful way, a fantasy really.
The prospect of foreign travel occupied their thoughts quite a lot as neither of them had been abroad before or even owned a passport for that matter.
At first they spoke in general terms about just going away but over the years they had narrowed their search for an actual destination and had finally decided on Greece as the destination for their dream getaway, or more precisely a Greek Island.
The particular Greek island was at the time unspecified as of that moment when Harry invited Nerissa to move in with him, their only stipulation was that it mustn’t have its own airport.
The reasoning for that was that it would limit the number of binge drinking lager louts if the travel itinerary was more complicated.
Nerissa went back to her flat after coffee and croissants and had a little cry once the door closed behind her, but unlike the bitter tears of despair she shed the night before these were tears of happiness.
After a hot shower and a quick tidy around her flat she went back to Harry’s.
So around midmorning they were sat in his flat looking through a stack of old holiday magazines.
When Nerissa asked out of the blue
“Are you sure?”
“Sure about what hon?” he replied
“Me moving in here” she said
“Never more so” Harry said and then he leant over and kissed her forehead before asking
“So have you seen anything you fancy?”
“Andros” she replied instantly and handed him the magazine.
“Well that was very definite” he said and after reading the full article in detail he replied
“Andros it is then”
Harry got up and switched on his laptop and went online, he typed in the address and navigated around until he found the relevant page.
“Here we go” he said and Nerissa moved closer.
“It will be cheaper if we go before the School summer holidays”
“June” Nerissa said “that will give us more time to save, and we’ll get our Easter bank holiday pay in May”
“Ok” he said “two weeks in June”
“Two weeks?” she asked “Are you sure we can we afford two weeks?”
“Absolutely” he said pointing at the figure on the screen.
“Oh” she said as he “Two weeks in June for us then”
He entered his details in the form and picked up his wallet from the table, entered his credit card number and hit the button.
“Booked” he said
“We’re really going then aren’t we?” she said and giggled.
“Yes Indeed” Harry concurred “We are taking our search for love and romance on the road, so to speak”
It was actually more like a train, a plane, a coach, two ferries and a bus but “Romance on the road” was near enough.
“Hooray” Nerissa yelled and danced around.
“Let’s open a bottle to celebrate” Harry suggested
“Let’s not” she said “Lets save the money and open one in Andros instead”
“Damn you’re so sensible” Harry said
(Part 05)
On Monday morning Nerissa gave notice on flat 2b and over the following month she completed the move into Harry’s flat.
This involved helping him clear the spare room and redecorating it to her taste.
They then had to decide what she would take from the old flat and what would have to be dumped or sold.
She and Harry then gave her flat a thorough clean and they were rewarded for all their hard work by the return of her deposit in full which meant she could clear her bills and put the remainder straight into the holiday fund.
As of the 30th of November she was properly moved into the spare room and there was no turning back because the day after a new tenant moved in to her old flat.
As a result of the holiday being booked the pair of them had to become quite boring and put on hold any hopes or expectations of finding Mr. or Miss Right as their focus was one hundred percent on the holiday and saving every penny towards it.
The decorations went up promptly on the first of December which was Nerissa’s first official day as a tenant and that Christmas they had twice the decorations to put up so they went mad.
The run up to Christmas was very profitable for them and added extra money to the holiday coffers as they picked up extra shifts due to the age old tradition of seasonal panic buying by the Purplemere residents.
They also restricted their spending on entertainment by only attending certain festivities, like staff parties and such like, and by cutting back on buying Christmas gifts.
This was a difficult decision as they were both huge Christmas fans and liked to make the most of the season but their new maxim was “needs must”.
What they didn’t stint on during the festive season though were the festive services at St John’s Church from the first Sunday of advent to Christmas morning.
After attending St Johns for the morning service on Christmas day they really pushed the boat out when they got back to the flat, despite having spent a pittance.
They bought the damaged or reduced items wherever possible and used their staff discounts on the rest and as a result they had a sumptuous feast for virtually nothing.
“Well that was very indulgent” Harry said as they sat on the sofa after dinner.
“Very” Nerissa said and burped
They both laughed and Harry patted his stomach and said
“I don’t know why I’m laughing this belly isn’t going to look great with my speedos on the beach”
“Damn I hadn’t thought of that” Nerissa said and patted her own tummy and burped again.
When they exchanged presents they both had novelty chocolates and one main present each.
Harry bought Nerissa a small Gold crucifix and she bought him a Gold tie pin engraved with his name.
(Part 06)
On New Year’s Eve, which was normally a night when they would hit the town hard, they spent that New Year’s Eve at home where they saw in the New Year quietly watching the meagre offerings that the television had to offer and when Big Ben chimed they toasted the New Year with a glass of cheap fizz.
But on New Year’s Day they were fit to work and did a shift and a half at double time which mightily swelled the holiday fund.
The remainder of January was a hard and depressing month, the decorations were packed away and as a result of them having double the amount of decorations up in the first place the flat looked exceptionally bare.
Then the weather turned bitter cold and prolonged periods of snow followed and it was a long 5 weeks until payday.
The January depression was made all the worse by not being able to go out and enjoy themselves but staying in meant no expensive treats like takeaways and alcohol.
However Nerissa came up with a plan to enable them to out without them spending a penny and furthermore her plan would add money to the pot.
They picked up the odd evening and weekend shift at the Worsted Viper Hotel.
Nerissa waited tables in the restaurant and Harry worked behind the bar.
And every hour they worked there meant more money to spend on their holiday or to buy clothes for it and it helped them to get through a difficult month.
When their January pay day did eventually arrive they paid the bills and applied for their passports and totted up their savings.
February brought yet more bitter cold and more snow but no valentine cards save for the joke ones they gave each other, it also brought more shifts at Worsted Viper and more importantly a much quicker payday.
March followed which brought an end to the cold and the snow and the produced the first hints of spring.
It also brought Easter and the long holiday weekend which was another chance for them to earn extra money which would be in their pockets in time for the holiday.
But following the spring like March, April brought nothing but rain, rain and more rain in fact the only bright spot of the month was the arrival of the passports.
May however was a horse of a different colour, the weather was milder and the days were sunnier and they were only one payday away from their holiday and when they had their pay slips it was time to do a final tally.
Harry got his laptop and opened the spreadsheet and entered the figures and totaled up the columns while Nerissa looked on nervously.
“Well?” she asked “is it enough?”
“You tell me” he said and showed her the screen “this is what’s left after the holiday is paid for”
“It can’t be that much” she said “Check it again”
“I’ve checked it three times already”
“Does that mean we can go shopping then?” she asked
“That’s precisely what it means” he replied and two days later Harry and Nerissa went on an all-day shopping trip to Abbottsford including a long leisurely lunch in the Phoenix Shopping Centre.
And a couple of weeks later they packed their cases and they were all set for Andros.
(Part 07)
The first week of June was tortuously long but the day finally arrived and they got a cab to the station at the crack of dawn and got on the first train out of Purplemere.
They were so eager to get on their way that they arrived at the airport two hours earlier than they needed to.
Harry had only been to the airport before to either drop someone off or pick someone up, Nerissa on the other hand had never been to an airport before in her life.
They were so excited about actually going on holiday, and to Greece of all places, that they didn’t care that they had two extra hours to kill, so the pair of them just wandered around and soaked up the vibe.
Harry and Nerissa didn’t care about the crowds or the queue’s the extortionate prices in the cafes, they were determined to enjoy every minute of it as they had no idea when or if they would do it again.
When they eventually got on the plane and stowed their bags they settled themselves into their seats and then both of them sat very quietly and for the first time that day their overwhelming feeling was not of excitement.
Neither Harry nor Nerissa had flown before and as a result the two of them were quite scared but neither of them wanted to mention it to the other.
It was basically a fear of the unexpected rather than of impending doom but as the plane raced down the runway they held hands.
Once the plane was airborne they soon relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the flight to Athens and the nervousness was once again replaced by excitement.
The anxiety did return briefly when the seat belt light went on and the captain began his decent but it was short lived but they did hold hands again just in case and as the wheels touched down Nerissa said
“We have arrived” and then she giggled.
However even once they had landed in Athens and disembarked, they were still a long time and a long way from their final destination.
Firstly they had to wait half an hour for their luggage and after they had claimed their bags then when they had rendezvoused with the holiday rep there was a further 30 minute wait for a coach.
The coach trip then took a similar duration to drive them to the docks where they boarded a ferry.
On board the boat they had to wait a further 40 minutes before the ferry departed on a journey which took two hours to carry them across the Aegean to the Island of Andros in the Cyclades.
To the seasoned travelers among the passengers, the journey would have been very tedious indeed but to Harry and Nerissa being novices at foreign travel, they didn’t mind it a bit as they saw everything about the journey as a great adventure that they would remember forever and on the journey they were rewarded for their patience by the appearance of a pod of porpoises who escorted them across the azure blue Aegean sea.
This bonus they took as a good omen for the holiday ahead.
When the ferry docked on the Island they were met by another holiday rep and another bus that took them on a 20 minute journey to the village of Batsi.
(Part 08)
As Nerissa and Harry walked into their apartments they had travelled for a total of 12 hours door to door but they thought it would all be worth it when they met the person of their dreams.
On the afternoon of their first day they had an orientation meeting with their tour rep who gave them all the spiel about the resort and handed out information on places of interest, transport timetables, day trips and local entertainment.
However the two of them were less interested in the talk than they were in their fellow tourists as they were looking for suitable candidates for romance in the sun.
But as they scanned each and every face in the assembly they noticed that there appeared to be no singles present.
Although Harry and Nerissa both noticed independently they chose to keep their discoveries to themselves.
However over the next 24 hours they both came to the conclusion that they had come to the wrong resort for romance because the other visitors, without exception, were already paired up and presumably loved up.
Over an Al fresco breakfast on the waterfront the next morning, as they sat in the fresh morning air at a quayside café it was Nerissa who broached the subject.
“Have you noticed they’re all couples?” she asked
“Yes I have” he replied
“We’re not going to find them here are we?” she asked
By “Them” she meant their soul mates, their perfect other halves, Mr. or Miss Right.
“I’m afraid not” he agreed
“So what do we do now?” Nerissa asked
“Now we just have fun and enjoy our hard earned holiday” Harry said and so they resigned themselves to the fact that they were not going to find who they were looking for and decided they should just enjoy every minute of their holiday instead, they had after all worked hard enough for it.
With their search for love over, they spent a lot of time on the beach or in the water, or alternatively on a boat and when they weren’t close to the sea they were in the bars and Taverna’s.
So they filled every possible moment of the holiday with fun and laughter, walking along the beach together playing in the waves and having fun, before finding a quiet sheltered spot or a shady tree to siesta under.
They also took day trips to Tinos and the Church of Panagia Evangelistria and visited the monastery of Agia Zoodochos Pighi and to Andros town of course.
Evening entertainments included cocktails at the Koala bar,
Nightcaps at the Paradise Club, Greek dancing, Beach BBQ’s and a Greek night of local cuisine and drink.
But most of all they spent their time in or near the water and one of their favourite spots was a narrow stretch of beach, north of Batsi at Agia Marina with its own beach side Taverna run by a colourful old character called Stavros where they often had lunch.
He was an elderly man with deeply wrinkled skin the colour of tanned leather and when Harry introduced him to Nerissa he said,
“Oh what a lovely name, Nerissa means goddess of the sea you know?”
Harry thought that might make her big headed but Nerissa blushed.
Mind you when Harry watched Nerissa walk out of the water wearing her yellow one piece swimsuit he could see what Stavros meant.
(Part 09)
As the holiday drifted amiable into the second week they continued in the same vein and any casual onlookers could have been forgiven for thinking that Harry and Nerissa were in fact a couple, they behaved like a couple in almost every respect and a happily married couple at that.
Every evening the pair dined together happy in each other’s company but unknown to everyone around them, they slept alone.
One day the beaches on their side of the island was covered in dead jelly fish, each translucent disk was roughly the size of a dinner plate.
Apparently June was the spawning season for jelly fish and having spawned out at sea, they promptly died and drifted in to shore and then two days later drifted back out to sea on the tide never to be seen again.
One afternoon Harry was lying on his stomach on the beach snoozing off his lunch and Nerissa picked up a dead jelly fish from the lapping waves and from a height of four feet, dropped it squarely in the middle of Harry’s back.
“What the hell” he yelled and looked over his shoulder to see Nerissa wearing a pink bikini, almost wetting herself with laughter.
“Oh” he said “I suppose you think that was funny?”
“Oh yes” she confirmed and laughed even harder
“Right that’s it” Harry said scrambling to his feet
Nerissa, still laughing like a drain turned and ran down the beach with Harry hot on her heals holding a jelly fish freshly plucked from the waves.
Her laughter quickly turned to squeals as he chased her and she ran about a hundred yards before she fell over in the lapping water and as she lay on her back in the wet sand.
Harry, with great delight, dropped the jelly fish on her exposed belly.
Nerissa screamed in disgust and it was Harrys turn to laugh.
Later that evening as the sun was setting, the sultry air was heavy with the scent of oregano as they sat on the terrace of the Medusa Taverna accompanied by the familiar symphony of evening birdsong Nerissa said
“It’s been another lovely day”
They had ordered their dinner and were just enjoying an aperitif, the cracking of ice cubes was clearly audible in their Gin and tonics.
“It really has” he said and they chinked glasses
After dinner and the best part of two bottles of wine and a hilarious reliving of the afternoons jelly fish escapades the subject of the conversation took a familiar turn.
“Of course there is one thing that could have made today even better” Nerissa said
“And what’s that?” Harry asked before draining his glass
“Our perfect partners” she replied
“Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that” he said
“Of course it would help if we could recognize them if we saw them”
“Well yes that would help” Nerissa concurred “But I don’t think they’re on the Island anyway”
“If they were I don’t think I would have noticed” Harry said “I’ve been having too much fun”
(Part 10)
As they sat on the terrace of the Medusa Taverna after having had a lovely meal and perhaps too much wine Harry thought Nerissa looked lovely.
And on that night he was particularly pleased to see she was wearing the gold crucifix he had bought her for Christmas.
After a short while the perennial subject of their perfect partners had come up again in their conversation.
“Ok then” he said “do you have pen?”
He already knew the answer, Nerissa always had at least three pens in her bag.
She fished in her bag and produced one.
“So what is your ideal?” he asked
“What do you mean?” she replied with a puzzled expression
“What would you want in a partner?” he elaborated
“Tell me what qualities you are looking for and we’ll make a check list”
“Oh I see, ok” she said “Well the usual I suppose”
“Let’s write them down then” Harry said and using a napkin he headed the list “The perfect other half”
“Someone I can trust” she said
“Dependable” he wrote followed by “trustworthy”
“Someone who shares my values and my faith” she added
Harry wrote “Christian” and “Moral compass”
“Someone who makes me laugh and laughs with me” Nerissa said
“Good sense of humour” he wrote
“Someone who loves me, and will cherish me” she said
He wrote “Caring” and “Romantic”
“Someone who will be there for me” she said “whenever I need them”
“A friend” he put
“Someone who listens to me and understands me” she added
“And who values me”
Harry thought for a moment before writing
“A confidant, kindred spirit” and for good measure “Open and honest”
“Someone I can grow old with” she said “who will want to grow old with me”
Harry wrote “Soul mate”
Nerissa was silent for a moment as she gave it some more thought and then said
“That will do I think”
Harry took another drink and then read down the list and his brow furrowed.
He read each item and mused over it, added the occasional word to it, and muttered under his breath as he studied it and in the end, after what seemed to Nerissa like an age, he nodded his assent.
“Are you ok?” she asked with concern
“I agree with every single one of those” he said
“Good” she replied
“And furthermore I know the person who has all of those qualities and more” he added
“Really?” she said open mouthed
“Who?”
“You Nerissa” Harry said
“What?” she asked
“It’s you” he said “you tick every single box on this list, you are my perfect other half”
“Don’t be daft” she said
He didn’t say anymore but handed her the napkin.
Nerissa took it from him, and started reading down the list of her suggestions and his additions and was very thoughtful for a few moments and then she went down the list in front of her again.
“You’re right” she said finally “you are the perfect other half of me”
Knowing smiles were exchanged and then they sat in silence as a confused turmoil raged inside them and thoughts raced in and out of focus.
(Part 11)
Harry and Nerissa sat in silence on the terrace of the Medusa Taverna after the startling revelation that they were each other’s “perfect other half” and as they sat in silence a confused turmoil raged inside them and thoughts raced in and out of focus.
“More wine sir?” the waiter asked breaking in on their silent deliberations.
“Absolutely” Nerissa said and returned to her thoughts.
Both of them shared the same thoughts and were afraid, afraid to take a chance, afraid of being wrong, afraid of getting hurt but most of all afraid of losing their best friend in the whole world.
The wine came and they drank in silence as they continued their internal struggle, until in a moment of perfect clarity Nerissa looked at Harry and smiled as it dawned on her that they had come to Andros looking for love but the romance they had searched for wasn’t on the island at all, they had brought it with them.
And when Harry saw her smiling countenance he was immediately entranced and all his doubts melted away and the deep passion for her, that he had always harbored subconsciously, stirred within him and rose to the surface.
Her inner beauty exposed Harry reached his hand across the table and Nerissa took it.
“All this time I was looking for Miss Right and she was there right under my nose”
Harry mused
“Living next door” She added
“Living in my spare room even” Harry corrected her
It was a miracle finding their heart’s desire so close at hand.
“How could we have been so blind?” Nerissa asked as she caressed his hand.
“Love is blind” Harry replied
“Yes” she agreed “yes it is”
Neither of them could comprehend how it was possible that they were both so short sighted.
He had always thought she was lovely but now Harry’s feelings for her were of love for his soul mate who lived in his spare room.
On the moonlight walk back to the apartment’s they were holding hands and drinking in the heady atmosphere of the night, not wishing to forget a single second of it and when they reached her door they kissed for the first time and it was a kiss that made the hairs stand up on the back of their necks and their skin tingle from head to toe.
“That was a first kiss to remember” Nerissa said and giggled
“Let’s try number two” Harry suggested and she obliged
“Wow” Nerissa said after kiss number two
“I think we should sit down for a minute”
“I think so too” Harry said
Nerissa walked a few feet and sat on the wall and Harry sat next her, she immediately leant in to him and rested her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around her.
So they sat there quietly in the moonlight, their hearts filled with a new found love and their minds awash with previously undreamt of possibilities.
Nerissa kissed Harry once more and it was the equal of its predecessors.
But as much as they wanted each other in that moment they resisted the desire until their minds were clear and their desires not fueled by cheap wine and Gin and tonics.
So they reluctantly said goodnight and slept alone.
Though neither of them actually slept.
(Part 12)
Harry and Nerissa were both up and about early the next morning all though in truth they hadn’t really gone to bed.
However both of them had made independent decisions on their futures.
The quandary was, had they both made the same one.
There were three possibilities, and two of which could cost them their friendship forever.
Harry was sitting on the terrace drinking his coffee when Nerissa appeared looking beautiful.
Harry smiled and stood up to greet her but remained frozen to the spot so she returned his smile and said
“Hello soul mate”
The relief Harry felt in that moment was palpable.
He found he was able to move again and he stepped forward and scooped her up in his arms and said.
“Hello, my perfect other half”
And then he kissed her as he had the night before, without the aid of alcohol, and the feeling was just the same, no that wasn’t true it was actually better.
Their complete and utter surrender to each other came later that afternoon when they made love for the very first time when loves consummated passions reached the ecstatic heights of fulfillment.
To the untrained eye the remainder of the holiday appeared to go much the same way as the days before their epiphany.
Harry and Nerissa still appeared as if they were a couple, as they behaved like a couple, a happily married couple.
Every evening the pair dined together happy in each other’s company but now unknown to everyone they did sleep together.
Harry and Nerissa had gone to the Cyclades in search of love and romance and it turned out they had actually taken it with them.
All too soon they were on the ferry heading away from the northern most isle in the Cyclades, and looked back at Andros, bathing in warm sunshine, the hills and valleys, the groves and vines and painting the hillsides in differing hues.
They would miss the place and its warm hearted people, the scent of herbs on the warm night air, the culture, the food, the warm sun, the blue sea and the golden sand and the soft sea breezes.
But most of all they would miss it because it would forever be the place where they fell in love.
Harry and Nerissa stood at the stern of the ferry, for one last look across the Aegean as Andros faded from view.
“Will we ever come back” Nerissa asked with a tear in her eye
“Oh yes definitely” Harry replied “On our honeymoon”
And in response Nerissa turned and she kissed him.
The Finchbottom Vale nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, those who are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair.
There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean and third of course was Purplemere.
And in Purplemere 29 year old Nerissa Lopez worked behind the delicatessen counter at Stephenson’s Supermarket
She was quite a shy girl who had a gentle nature and almost always wore a warm open smile on her face and she was popular with staff and customers alike.
Nerissa was a very slim and attractive girl with beautiful long dark brown hair and dark skin, reflecting her heritage as did her brown eyes.
In her ancestry she had Filipino and Spanish blood but she was born and bred in Britain and had no family ties with either country or even in Britain for that matter.
She was the only child of parent who themselves were only children and both of them were gone now.
So she was all on her own and she lived alone in a small one bedroom flat about a mile from where she worked.
You might wonder why a lovely friendly girl with a slim figure blessed with a personality that was equally as lovely as her smile, living alone in a dingy one bedroom flat.
It was certainly something she often wondered.
She lived in a small block of flats called Gladstone Court in Flat 2b.
Her next door neighbour in flat 2a was 32 year old Harry Devonshire, he though had the luxury of a larger two bedroom flat in which to live alone in, courtesy of a failed relationship some eight years earlier.
Unlike Nerissa his heritage was strictly British and he did have living family, two brothers in fact, unfortunately they were both living in Australia so he hadn’t seen either of them for over 5 years.
Harry also worked at Stephenson’s where he was the warehouse manager.
Nerissa and Harry were best friends and did everything together, if either of them was invited anywhere the other was always their plus one.
Equally if one of them wanted to see a film or try out a new restaurant the other would accompany them, in fact they were so often seen together people assumed they were a couple.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that they loved each other but their relationship was strictly platonic and their friendship had been since forever and they were close almost to the point of symbiosis.
Coworkers at the store used to think their relationship was almost comic, when they seemed to know what the other was thinking and even finished each other’s sentences, Harry and Nerissa just got each other and their thoughts and desires remained quite esoteric.
(Part 02)
Harry and Nerissa’s all-consuming purpose in life, their primary objective, their ultimate goal, was finding life partners, in particularly a serious romantic relationship, soul mates if possible.
But their frantic search for love remained fruitless, though not for the want of trying.
They tried online dating, blind dates set up by friends or colleagues, they frequented clubs, virtually every pub in Purplemere and a number outside of it and out of sheer desperation, speed dating.
But all their efforts were to no avail and as a result of their considerable efforts they had both kissed more than their fair share of frogs along the way and neither of them knew why they hadn’t struck gold, in fact they couldn’t explain their lack of success.
Nerissa couldn’t understand why a good looking, gentle and kind man like Harry was unattached and he couldn’t fathom why on earth a gorgeous woman like her was still single, or why suitors weren’t cued around the block to ask her out.
But regardless of their continual failure the search for love went on.
On one particularly bitterly cold Friday night towards the end of October they were walking home from work but Nerissa was being unusually quiet as Harry prattled on endlessly about the arrival of the first of the Christmas stock into the warehouse.
“I might have to cancel Christmas this year” she said completely out of the blue
“Why?” Harry asked
“My rents gone up again” she said “and I’ve just got my Gas and Electric bills”
“Well look on the bright side” he said trying to cheer her up “You might have found Mr. Right by Christmas”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to put looking for him on hold as well” Nerissa said sadly as they arrived at the front doors of the flats “And I’ll have to break into my savings just to get through the winter”
Harry didn’t know what to say to that and they walked upstairs in silence and when they got to their floor he said
“Right you go and get changed and I’ll get the supper on”
“I think I’m just going to have a bath and get an early night” she replied
“Are you sure?” Harry asked “Well at least come in and have a glass of wine and we can talk it through”
“That’s kind of you but yes I’m sure babe” She insisted “I’ll probably be fine after a good night’s sleep”
“Ok Hon” Harry said and kissed her cheek “I’ll see you in the morning then”
Nerissa stepped inside and closed the door behind her and took off her coat and shoes but once she was in her slippers she decided to skip the bath and went straight to bed instead where she cried herself to sleep.
And while Nerissa sobbed uncontrollably into her pillow Harry had already decided to forgo supper and opened a bottle of red wine instead and by the time he was draining the last drop from his glass and the bottle was empty, he had thought of the solution to Nerissa’s financial problems.
(Part 03)
The next morning he was up very early, and considerably brighter than he should have been after polishing off a bottle of Chianti on his own.
He showered and shaved and then he went out, his first port of call was Addison’s bakery in Convent Road where he picked up some fresh croissants and then on to Labuschagne in the high street for two expensive coffee’s.
As he returned to Gladstone Court he could see the lights were on in her flat so when he reached the door to flat 2b, he rang the bell confident that she was up and about.
After a minute or two she opened the door looking like she hadn’t slept in a week.
“Come on sleepy head, croissants and coffee” Harry said ignoring the fact that she looked like death.
“Not for me Harry” she said
“No to croissant?” he said and put his hand to his chest as if he was having a heart attack.
“Not today” she said
“I won’t take no for an answer, so get your dressing gown on and follow me” he ordered her realizing the instant he said it that he sounded really camp.
Reluctantly, though and not with a happy heart, she did as he instructed and followed him into his flat.
“Do we have to do this this morning?” she asked “I really don’t feel up to it today”
“Yes we do need to do it now” Harry said firmly “and when you’ve heard what I have to say you’ll understand why”
“Ok give me some coffee” she said resignedly
After he had poured the Labuschagne coffee’s from the ghastly paper containers and into two proper mugs he sat down and began his spiel.
“I think I have a solution to your problem”
“Oh yes? And what might that be exactly” she said doubtfully
“I think you should give up your flat and move in here with me” he said
“What?” Nerissa asked scarcely believing her ears
“Give up your flat and move into my spare room” he elaborated
“But that’s a ridiculous idea” she said
“Is it?” Harry said
“Well isn’t it? Nerissa asked back
“Look we eat together most nights, we watch TV together most nights” he explained
“Most of the time you only use your flat as a bedroom and dressing room anyway”
“Yes but” she interrupted
“And my spare room is almost as big as your whole flat” Harry added
“Yes I know that, but” she persisted “But what will people think?”
“People won’t think anything” he said “This is the 21st century after all, and as I said you’re here more often than not as it is”
“I don’t know” she said doubtfully
“Look hon, it will be perfect, I’ll continue to pay the rent and we can split the bills for the utilities and food etc.” Harry concluded
“Well I…” she began
“And here’s the clincher, with the money we both save we might finally get that holiday we’ve always talked about” Harry said
“Greece?” she asked
“Greece” he replied
“Ok, you’ve convinced me” she agreed “now give me a croissant”
(Part 04)
Harry and Nerissa had often talked about taking a holiday abroad, not that they ever thought that they’d actually achieve it, it was planned more in a fanciful way, a fantasy really.
The prospect of foreign travel occupied their thoughts quite a lot as neither of them had been abroad before or even owned a passport for that matter.
At first they spoke in general terms about just going away but over the years they had narrowed their search for an actual destination and had finally decided on Greece as the destination for their dream getaway, or more precisely a Greek Island.
The particular Greek island was at the time unspecified as of that moment when Harry invited Nerissa to move in with him, their only stipulation was that it mustn’t have its own airport.
The reasoning for that was that it would limit the number of binge drinking lager louts if the travel itinerary was more complicated.
Nerissa went back to her flat after coffee and croissants and had a little cry once the door closed behind her, but unlike the bitter tears of despair she shed the night before these were tears of happiness.
After a hot shower and a quick tidy around her flat she went back to Harry’s.
So around midmorning they were sat in his flat looking through a stack of old holiday magazines.
When Nerissa asked out of the blue
“Are you sure?”
“Sure about what hon?” he replied
“Me moving in here” she said
“Never more so” Harry said and then he leant over and kissed her forehead before asking
“So have you seen anything you fancy?”
“Andros” she replied instantly and handed him the magazine.
“Well that was very definite” he said and after reading the full article in detail he replied
“Andros it is then”
Harry got up and switched on his laptop and went online, he typed in the address and navigated around until he found the relevant page.
“Here we go” he said and Nerissa moved closer.
“It will be cheaper if we go before the School summer holidays”
“June” Nerissa said “that will give us more time to save, and we’ll get our Easter bank holiday pay in May”
“Ok” he said “two weeks in June”
“Two weeks?” she asked “Are you sure we can we afford two weeks?”
“Absolutely” he said pointing at the figure on the screen.
“Oh” she said as he “Two weeks in June for us then”
He entered his details in the form and picked up his wallet from the table, entered his credit card number and hit the button.
“Booked” he said
“We’re really going then aren’t we?” she said and giggled.
“Yes Indeed” Harry concurred “We are taking our search for love and romance on the road, so to speak”
It was actually more like a train, a plane, a coach, two ferries and a bus but “Romance on the road” was near enough.
“Hooray” Nerissa yelled and danced around.
“Let’s open a bottle to celebrate” Harry suggested
“Let’s not” she said “Lets save the money and open one in Andros instead”
“Damn you’re so sensible” Harry said
(Part 05)
On Monday morning Nerissa gave notice on flat 2b and over the following month she completed the move into Harry’s flat.
This involved helping him clear the spare room and redecorating it to her taste.
They then had to decide what she would take from the old flat and what would have to be dumped or sold.
She and Harry then gave her flat a thorough clean and they were rewarded for all their hard work by the return of her deposit in full which meant she could clear her bills and put the remainder straight into the holiday fund.
As of the 30th of November she was properly moved into the spare room and there was no turning back because the day after a new tenant moved in to her old flat.
As a result of the holiday being booked the pair of them had to become quite boring and put on hold any hopes or expectations of finding Mr. or Miss Right as their focus was one hundred percent on the holiday and saving every penny towards it.
The decorations went up promptly on the first of December which was Nerissa’s first official day as a tenant and that Christmas they had twice the decorations to put up so they went mad.
The run up to Christmas was very profitable for them and added extra money to the holiday coffers as they picked up extra shifts due to the age old tradition of seasonal panic buying by the Purplemere residents.
They also restricted their spending on entertainment by only attending certain festivities, like staff parties and such like, and by cutting back on buying Christmas gifts.
This was a difficult decision as they were both huge Christmas fans and liked to make the most of the season but their new maxim was “needs must”.
What they didn’t stint on during the festive season though were the festive services at St John’s Church from the first Sunday of advent to Christmas morning.
After attending St Johns for the morning service on Christmas day they really pushed the boat out when they got back to the flat, despite having spent a pittance.
They bought the damaged or reduced items wherever possible and used their staff discounts on the rest and as a result they had a sumptuous feast for virtually nothing.
“Well that was very indulgent” Harry said as they sat on the sofa after dinner.
“Very” Nerissa said and burped
They both laughed and Harry patted his stomach and said
“I don’t know why I’m laughing this belly isn’t going to look great with my speedos on the beach”
“Damn I hadn’t thought of that” Nerissa said and patted her own tummy and burped again.
When they exchanged presents they both had novelty chocolates and one main present each.
Harry bought Nerissa a small Gold crucifix and she bought him a Gold tie pin engraved with his name.
(Part 06)
On New Year’s Eve, which was normally a night when they would hit the town hard, they spent that New Year’s Eve at home where they saw in the New Year quietly watching the meagre offerings that the television had to offer and when Big Ben chimed they toasted the New Year with a glass of cheap fizz.
But on New Year’s Day they were fit to work and did a shift and a half at double time which mightily swelled the holiday fund.
The remainder of January was a hard and depressing month, the decorations were packed away and as a result of them having double the amount of decorations up in the first place the flat looked exceptionally bare.
Then the weather turned bitter cold and prolonged periods of snow followed and it was a long 5 weeks until payday.
The January depression was made all the worse by not being able to go out and enjoy themselves but staying in meant no expensive treats like takeaways and alcohol.
However Nerissa came up with a plan to enable them to out without them spending a penny and furthermore her plan would add money to the pot.
They picked up the odd evening and weekend shift at the Worsted Viper Hotel.
Nerissa waited tables in the restaurant and Harry worked behind the bar.
And every hour they worked there meant more money to spend on their holiday or to buy clothes for it and it helped them to get through a difficult month.
When their January pay day did eventually arrive they paid the bills and applied for their passports and totted up their savings.
February brought yet more bitter cold and more snow but no valentine cards save for the joke ones they gave each other, it also brought more shifts at Worsted Viper and more importantly a much quicker payday.
March followed which brought an end to the cold and the snow and the produced the first hints of spring.
It also brought Easter and the long holiday weekend which was another chance for them to earn extra money which would be in their pockets in time for the holiday.
But following the spring like March, April brought nothing but rain, rain and more rain in fact the only bright spot of the month was the arrival of the passports.
May however was a horse of a different colour, the weather was milder and the days were sunnier and they were only one payday away from their holiday and when they had their pay slips it was time to do a final tally.
Harry got his laptop and opened the spreadsheet and entered the figures and totaled up the columns while Nerissa looked on nervously.
“Well?” she asked “is it enough?”
“You tell me” he said and showed her the screen “this is what’s left after the holiday is paid for”
“It can’t be that much” she said “Check it again”
“I’ve checked it three times already”
“Does that mean we can go shopping then?” she asked
“That’s precisely what it means” he replied and two days later Harry and Nerissa went on an all-day shopping trip to Abbottsford including a long leisurely lunch in the Phoenix Shopping Centre.
And a couple of weeks later they packed their cases and they were all set for Andros.
(Part 07)
The first week of June was tortuously long but the day finally arrived and they got a cab to the station at the crack of dawn and got on the first train out of Purplemere.
They were so eager to get on their way that they arrived at the airport two hours earlier than they needed to.
Harry had only been to the airport before to either drop someone off or pick someone up, Nerissa on the other hand had never been to an airport before in her life.
They were so excited about actually going on holiday, and to Greece of all places, that they didn’t care that they had two extra hours to kill, so the pair of them just wandered around and soaked up the vibe.
Harry and Nerissa didn’t care about the crowds or the queue’s the extortionate prices in the cafes, they were determined to enjoy every minute of it as they had no idea when or if they would do it again.
When they eventually got on the plane and stowed their bags they settled themselves into their seats and then both of them sat very quietly and for the first time that day their overwhelming feeling was not of excitement.
Neither Harry nor Nerissa had flown before and as a result the two of them were quite scared but neither of them wanted to mention it to the other.
It was basically a fear of the unexpected rather than of impending doom but as the plane raced down the runway they held hands.
Once the plane was airborne they soon relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the flight to Athens and the nervousness was once again replaced by excitement.
The anxiety did return briefly when the seat belt light went on and the captain began his decent but it was short lived but they did hold hands again just in case and as the wheels touched down Nerissa said
“We have arrived” and then she giggled.
However even once they had landed in Athens and disembarked, they were still a long time and a long way from their final destination.
Firstly they had to wait half an hour for their luggage and after they had claimed their bags then when they had rendezvoused with the holiday rep there was a further 30 minute wait for a coach.
The coach trip then took a similar duration to drive them to the docks where they boarded a ferry.
On board the boat they had to wait a further 40 minutes before the ferry departed on a journey which took two hours to carry them across the Aegean to the Island of Andros in the Cyclades.
To the seasoned travelers among the passengers, the journey would have been very tedious indeed but to Harry and Nerissa being novices at foreign travel, they didn’t mind it a bit as they saw everything about the journey as a great adventure that they would remember forever and on the journey they were rewarded for their patience by the appearance of a pod of porpoises who escorted them across the azure blue Aegean sea.
This bonus they took as a good omen for the holiday ahead.
When the ferry docked on the Island they were met by another holiday rep and another bus that took them on a 20 minute journey to the village of Batsi.
(Part 08)
As Nerissa and Harry walked into their apartments they had travelled for a total of 12 hours door to door but they thought it would all be worth it when they met the person of their dreams.
On the afternoon of their first day they had an orientation meeting with their tour rep who gave them all the spiel about the resort and handed out information on places of interest, transport timetables, day trips and local entertainment.
However the two of them were less interested in the talk than they were in their fellow tourists as they were looking for suitable candidates for romance in the sun.
But as they scanned each and every face in the assembly they noticed that there appeared to be no singles present.
Although Harry and Nerissa both noticed independently they chose to keep their discoveries to themselves.
However over the next 24 hours they both came to the conclusion that they had come to the wrong resort for romance because the other visitors, without exception, were already paired up and presumably loved up.
Over an Al fresco breakfast on the waterfront the next morning, as they sat in the fresh morning air at a quayside café it was Nerissa who broached the subject.
“Have you noticed they’re all couples?” she asked
“Yes I have” he replied
“We’re not going to find them here are we?” she asked
By “Them” she meant their soul mates, their perfect other halves, Mr. or Miss Right.
“I’m afraid not” he agreed
“So what do we do now?” Nerissa asked
“Now we just have fun and enjoy our hard earned holiday” Harry said and so they resigned themselves to the fact that they were not going to find who they were looking for and decided they should just enjoy every minute of their holiday instead, they had after all worked hard enough for it.
With their search for love over, they spent a lot of time on the beach or in the water, or alternatively on a boat and when they weren’t close to the sea they were in the bars and Taverna’s.
So they filled every possible moment of the holiday with fun and laughter, walking along the beach together playing in the waves and having fun, before finding a quiet sheltered spot or a shady tree to siesta under.
They also took day trips to Tinos and the Church of Panagia Evangelistria and visited the monastery of Agia Zoodochos Pighi and to Andros town of course.
Evening entertainments included cocktails at the Koala bar,
Nightcaps at the Paradise Club, Greek dancing, Beach BBQ’s and a Greek night of local cuisine and drink.
But most of all they spent their time in or near the water and one of their favourite spots was a narrow stretch of beach, north of Batsi at Agia Marina with its own beach side Taverna run by a colourful old character called Stavros where they often had lunch.
He was an elderly man with deeply wrinkled skin the colour of tanned leather and when Harry introduced him to Nerissa he said,
“Oh what a lovely name, Nerissa means goddess of the sea you know?”
Harry thought that might make her big headed but Nerissa blushed.
Mind you when Harry watched Nerissa walk out of the water wearing her yellow one piece swimsuit he could see what Stavros meant.
(Part 09)
As the holiday drifted amiable into the second week they continued in the same vein and any casual onlookers could have been forgiven for thinking that Harry and Nerissa were in fact a couple, they behaved like a couple in almost every respect and a happily married couple at that.
Every evening the pair dined together happy in each other’s company but unknown to everyone around them, they slept alone.
One day the beaches on their side of the island was covered in dead jelly fish, each translucent disk was roughly the size of a dinner plate.
Apparently June was the spawning season for jelly fish and having spawned out at sea, they promptly died and drifted in to shore and then two days later drifted back out to sea on the tide never to be seen again.
One afternoon Harry was lying on his stomach on the beach snoozing off his lunch and Nerissa picked up a dead jelly fish from the lapping waves and from a height of four feet, dropped it squarely in the middle of Harry’s back.
“What the hell” he yelled and looked over his shoulder to see Nerissa wearing a pink bikini, almost wetting herself with laughter.
“Oh” he said “I suppose you think that was funny?”
“Oh yes” she confirmed and laughed even harder
“Right that’s it” Harry said scrambling to his feet
Nerissa, still laughing like a drain turned and ran down the beach with Harry hot on her heals holding a jelly fish freshly plucked from the waves.
Her laughter quickly turned to squeals as he chased her and she ran about a hundred yards before she fell over in the lapping water and as she lay on her back in the wet sand.
Harry, with great delight, dropped the jelly fish on her exposed belly.
Nerissa screamed in disgust and it was Harrys turn to laugh.
Later that evening as the sun was setting, the sultry air was heavy with the scent of oregano as they sat on the terrace of the Medusa Taverna accompanied by the familiar symphony of evening birdsong Nerissa said
“It’s been another lovely day”
They had ordered their dinner and were just enjoying an aperitif, the cracking of ice cubes was clearly audible in their Gin and tonics.
“It really has” he said and they chinked glasses
After dinner and the best part of two bottles of wine and a hilarious reliving of the afternoons jelly fish escapades the subject of the conversation took a familiar turn.
“Of course there is one thing that could have made today even better” Nerissa said
“And what’s that?” Harry asked before draining his glass
“Our perfect partners” she replied
“Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that” he said
“Of course it would help if we could recognize them if we saw them”
“Well yes that would help” Nerissa concurred “But I don’t think they’re on the Island anyway”
“If they were I don’t think I would have noticed” Harry said “I’ve been having too much fun”
(Part 10)
As they sat on the terrace of the Medusa Taverna after having had a lovely meal and perhaps too much wine Harry thought Nerissa looked lovely.
And on that night he was particularly pleased to see she was wearing the gold crucifix he had bought her for Christmas.
After a short while the perennial subject of their perfect partners had come up again in their conversation.
“Ok then” he said “do you have pen?”
He already knew the answer, Nerissa always had at least three pens in her bag.
She fished in her bag and produced one.
“So what is your ideal?” he asked
“What do you mean?” she replied with a puzzled expression
“What would you want in a partner?” he elaborated
“Tell me what qualities you are looking for and we’ll make a check list”
“Oh I see, ok” she said “Well the usual I suppose”
“Let’s write them down then” Harry said and using a napkin he headed the list “The perfect other half”
“Someone I can trust” she said
“Dependable” he wrote followed by “trustworthy”
“Someone who shares my values and my faith” she added
Harry wrote “Christian” and “Moral compass”
“Someone who makes me laugh and laughs with me” Nerissa said
“Good sense of humour” he wrote
“Someone who loves me, and will cherish me” she said
He wrote “Caring” and “Romantic”
“Someone who will be there for me” she said “whenever I need them”
“A friend” he put
“Someone who listens to me and understands me” she added
“And who values me”
Harry thought for a moment before writing
“A confidant, kindred spirit” and for good measure “Open and honest”
“Someone I can grow old with” she said “who will want to grow old with me”
Harry wrote “Soul mate”
Nerissa was silent for a moment as she gave it some more thought and then said
“That will do I think”
Harry took another drink and then read down the list and his brow furrowed.
He read each item and mused over it, added the occasional word to it, and muttered under his breath as he studied it and in the end, after what seemed to Nerissa like an age, he nodded his assent.
“Are you ok?” she asked with concern
“I agree with every single one of those” he said
“Good” she replied
“And furthermore I know the person who has all of those qualities and more” he added
“Really?” she said open mouthed
“Who?”
“You Nerissa” Harry said
“What?” she asked
“It’s you” he said “you tick every single box on this list, you are my perfect other half”
“Don’t be daft” she said
He didn’t say anymore but handed her the napkin.
Nerissa took it from him, and started reading down the list of her suggestions and his additions and was very thoughtful for a few moments and then she went down the list in front of her again.
“You’re right” she said finally “you are the perfect other half of me”
Knowing smiles were exchanged and then they sat in silence as a confused turmoil raged inside them and thoughts raced in and out of focus.
(Part 11)
Harry and Nerissa sat in silence on the terrace of the Medusa Taverna after the startling revelation that they were each other’s “perfect other half” and as they sat in silence a confused turmoil raged inside them and thoughts raced in and out of focus.
“More wine sir?” the waiter asked breaking in on their silent deliberations.
“Absolutely” Nerissa said and returned to her thoughts.
Both of them shared the same thoughts and were afraid, afraid to take a chance, afraid of being wrong, afraid of getting hurt but most of all afraid of losing their best friend in the whole world.
The wine came and they drank in silence as they continued their internal struggle, until in a moment of perfect clarity Nerissa looked at Harry and smiled as it dawned on her that they had come to Andros looking for love but the romance they had searched for wasn’t on the island at all, they had brought it with them.
And when Harry saw her smiling countenance he was immediately entranced and all his doubts melted away and the deep passion for her, that he had always harbored subconsciously, stirred within him and rose to the surface.
Her inner beauty exposed Harry reached his hand across the table and Nerissa took it.
“All this time I was looking for Miss Right and she was there right under my nose”
Harry mused
“Living next door” She added
“Living in my spare room even” Harry corrected her
It was a miracle finding their heart’s desire so close at hand.
“How could we have been so blind?” Nerissa asked as she caressed his hand.
“Love is blind” Harry replied
“Yes” she agreed “yes it is”
Neither of them could comprehend how it was possible that they were both so short sighted.
He had always thought she was lovely but now Harry’s feelings for her were of love for his soul mate who lived in his spare room.
On the moonlight walk back to the apartment’s they were holding hands and drinking in the heady atmosphere of the night, not wishing to forget a single second of it and when they reached her door they kissed for the first time and it was a kiss that made the hairs stand up on the back of their necks and their skin tingle from head to toe.
“That was a first kiss to remember” Nerissa said and giggled
“Let’s try number two” Harry suggested and she obliged
“Wow” Nerissa said after kiss number two
“I think we should sit down for a minute”
“I think so too” Harry said
Nerissa walked a few feet and sat on the wall and Harry sat next her, she immediately leant in to him and rested her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around her.
So they sat there quietly in the moonlight, their hearts filled with a new found love and their minds awash with previously undreamt of possibilities.
Nerissa kissed Harry once more and it was the equal of its predecessors.
But as much as they wanted each other in that moment they resisted the desire until their minds were clear and their desires not fueled by cheap wine and Gin and tonics.
So they reluctantly said goodnight and slept alone.
Though neither of them actually slept.
(Part 12)
Harry and Nerissa were both up and about early the next morning all though in truth they hadn’t really gone to bed.
However both of them had made independent decisions on their futures.
The quandary was, had they both made the same one.
There were three possibilities, and two of which could cost them their friendship forever.
Harry was sitting on the terrace drinking his coffee when Nerissa appeared looking beautiful.
Harry smiled and stood up to greet her but remained frozen to the spot so she returned his smile and said
“Hello soul mate”
The relief Harry felt in that moment was palpable.
He found he was able to move again and he stepped forward and scooped her up in his arms and said.
“Hello, my perfect other half”
And then he kissed her as he had the night before, without the aid of alcohol, and the feeling was just the same, no that wasn’t true it was actually better.
Their complete and utter surrender to each other came later that afternoon when they made love for the very first time when loves consummated passions reached the ecstatic heights of fulfillment.
To the untrained eye the remainder of the holiday appeared to go much the same way as the days before their epiphany.
Harry and Nerissa still appeared as if they were a couple, as they behaved like a couple, a happily married couple.
Every evening the pair dined together happy in each other’s company but now unknown to everyone they did sleep together.
Harry and Nerissa had gone to the Cyclades in search of love and romance and it turned out they had actually taken it with them.
All too soon they were on the ferry heading away from the northern most isle in the Cyclades, and looked back at Andros, bathing in warm sunshine, the hills and valleys, the groves and vines and painting the hillsides in differing hues.
They would miss the place and its warm hearted people, the scent of herbs on the warm night air, the culture, the food, the warm sun, the blue sea and the golden sand and the soft sea breezes.
But most of all they would miss it because it would forever be the place where they fell in love.
Harry and Nerissa stood at the stern of the ferry, for one last look across the Aegean as Andros faded from view.
“Will we ever come back” Nerissa asked with a tear in her eye
“Oh yes definitely” Harry replied “On our honeymoon”
And in response Nerissa turned and she kissed him.
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