(Part 01)
The Varney’s lived in the small country village of Mornington-By-Mere in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
Which was a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.
He lived and worked up at Mornington Field which had once been an RAF base but had been converted into a mixture of commercial and residential units.
They lived in one of the Cottages in Dulcet Mill Lane, number 5, in the part of the Village known as Manorside and they had lived there together all of the married life.
70 year old George was employed at the Mornington Brewery before he retired while his wife Tracey was a stay at home mum, raising their six children.
They were obviously all grown up now and most of them had children of their own and were now in every corner of Downshire.
In the summer of 2016 it was to be their fiftieth wedding anniversary and as a special surprise for his wife he had booked the Finchbottom Flyer, a renovated steam engine and coaches, which ran from Sharping St Mary along a section of preserved track that was very significant to them both and the whole family were going to be aboard for the celebration.
Their story began far back in the previous century in April 1965 when during the final days of the age of steam, the Sharpington to Abbottsford train rattled its way through the Finchbottom Vale late on a Monday night.
George Varney had spent the Bank Holiday Monday with a couple of mates in the traditional seaside resort of Sharpington-by-Sea, where they inhabited the Victorian Pier, and played crazy golf, frittered away their time in the numerous amusement arcades and of course rode the rides in the Sharpington Fun Park, like the Rotor and the Wild Mouse, The Cyclone and the Morehouse Galloper.
But Harry and Len didn’t leave when he did as they had pulled a couple of local girls so they decided to get the milk train back the next morning.
George was nineteen years old and had no hard feelings over his friends getting lucky he had had his chance but he declined what was on offer, he wasn’t looking for knee trembler in an alleyway or a bunk up under the pier, he was looking for something or someone a little more wholesome.
So he left his friends to their cheap thrills with their cheap slutty girls and got the train home.
When he reached the station the train was already on the platform so he got aboard and slammed the door behind him and walked down the corridor and went into the first compartment he came to.
When he slid the door closed he sat down and found himself seated opposite a girl sitting quietly in the corner.
Her name was Tracey Garvey and she had long straight brown hair and was on the plain side of pretty with a heavily freckled face, lovely blue eyes, a cute nose and a thin-lipped smile, which she greeted him with.
George returned the smile and sat down and slowly appraised the short quiet girl in the pale lemon dress and cream cardigan.
Her legs were nice, he thought, sheathed in tan coloured stockings and she had tiny feet, always a bonus for George, small feet.
Although he didn’t know it she was the same age as him and had also spent the day in Sharpington, but in her case she had been visiting a maiden aunt.
They spent the next twenty minutes exchanging glances, his of curiosity, mixed with desire, and hers of coquettishness.
But then the motion of the train began to lull him off, and when the long blinks had set in he slept, and while he slept he dreamt, and his dreams were all about the girl in the lemon dress.
(Part 02)
George and Tracey spent their first twenty minutes together exchanging glances, his of curiosity mixed with desire, and hers of coquettishness.
But then the motion of the train began to lull him off, and when the long blinks had set in he slept, and while he slept he dreamt, and all his dreams were about the girl in the lemon dress.
He was following her, but she was just out of reach and his friends Harry and Len were behind him and they were shouting
“Don’t let her get away, she’s the one”
But he couldn’t catch her, she was always just out of reach, and the dream would have continued in the same vein indefinitely had the sound of a train rattling by in the opposite direction not brought him back and through half opened eyes he saw the girl seated diagonally opposite him across the aisle was also dosing.
He was starting to close his eyes again but he began to think that it may have been providence that had brought him wide awake.
So he rubbed his eyes and forced himself to stay awake and watched the quiet girl across the aisle with her legs drawn up under her and her head resting against the seat back as a smile played about her lips.
“She looks so angelic” he thought as he watched her, and although he didn’t know it as he was watching her, she dreamed a dream of him.
A dream of similar ilk to his own in which her aunt urged her on
“Don’t make the same mistake as I”
The train was just approaching Childean when she suddenly awoke with a look of alarm on her face, she looked out of the window to get her bearings and he said
“We’re just pulling into Childean”
“Oh good” she said and quickly crossed the aisle and sat beside him, smiled coyly and then she kissed him
The kissing came to a halt at the same moment that the train did
“That was very nice….” he began
“Tracey” she said “My name is Tracey”
“That was very nice Tracey” he continued
“I’m George” he said and kissed her on the lips as the guards whistle echoed shrilly
“Is this you’re your station?” he asked
“No” she replied “I’m going to Abbottsford”
“Good, so am I” he said and kissed her again as the train pulled out of the station.
By the time they reached Abbottsford they were no longer strangers as he and the quiet girl in the corner chattered all the way and they only paused in order to kiss again.
Not only were they not strangers anymore but they were also no longer singletons looking for their perfect fit and by the following Easter they were no longer singletons.
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