Snippets of Downshire Life – Boxing Day

 

In the small but thriving English county of Downshire people go about the tasks of their everyday existence in ways that range from the mundane to the extraordinary as their forebears had done for centuries before, in the varied and diverse landscape, from 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, to the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and the short but beautiful coastline to the east.

But our story is set in and around Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne, a large rambling village, originally settled in the 12th century on the sparsely wooded slopes on the Northern fringe of the Finchbottom Vale about 5 miles from Purplemere, and it was everything you would expect from a Downshire Village.

It was the village where the Higgins and Hewer families lived next door to each other and the families should have been tied by the marriage of Helen and Neil, but instead of a joining of the two families they were split apart when Helen ran away, and two years passed before the couple met again, on Boxing Day.

Neither knew that the other would be in the village on that day and they were both taken aback when they bumped into each other at the Hen and Chickens, he was on the way up the steps and she on the way out, and they stood there as the snow fell and minutes past before either spoke, but it was Neil who broke the silence.

“I’ve really missed you”

She seemed both surprised and pleased by the revelation and he wondered if she had heard him correctly or if it was just whatever she’d been drinking having an effect on her processing ability,

“I’m sorry” she replied

“Why did you go?” he asked “I never understood why you left”

“I had to” she replied earnestly

“But why??” he asked

“Because I was scared” Helen confessed

“Scared?” he asked aghast

“Yes” 

“Of what?” Neil asked angrily

“Marriage” She admitted

“So, all you had to say was no” he said and then there was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes as the snow began to fall faster but then she said

“I thought it was for the best”

“It wasn’t the best for me, or you” he said and turned and began to walk away and Helen followed him

“Let me explain” Helen said as she trotted behind him, but he ignored her and pressed on across the car park towards the road, but she caught up with him as he stopped to allow a car to complete its maneuver.

“I made a mistake” she said from behind him and he span round on her

“I realised almost immediately” she continued

“So why didn’t you come back?”

“I didn’t know how” she said and fell in to his arms

“So, you just made us both unhappy” he said gently

“Yes” she replied, and Helen began to cry

“Don’t cry honey” he said

When he imagined them meeting again he hadn’t expected to see that side of her, vulnerable, that was a different girl to the one who had run away, she wasn’t vulnerable or unsure of herself on that day.  

So, when she looked up at him through tear filled eyes he kissed her, a kiss they had both longed for, and dreamt of for two years.