It is an area of stark contrasts and attracted a
variety of visitors.
The quarry hill side of the park
to the west, as the name suggests, was heavily Quarried over several hundred
years, though more extensively during the industrial revolution, the Quarries
had been un-worked for over fifty years and nature had reclaimed them and
former pits had become lakes and were very popular with anglers and the sparse
shrubbery and woodland made it popular spot with courting couples whereas the northern
crags and fells were popular with climbers and more hardy folk.
To the south and east was an extensive tract of
magnificent mixed forestry and was rivalled only by the ancient woodland of the
Dancingdean Forest, which is where the village of Pepperstock Green was
situated, and two of the residents were second year students Shermaine Mahoney and Matti Leinonen who both
attended Finchbottom College, albeit on different Courses.
They were casual acquaintances, the fact they were from the same village
and on the same college course was purely coincidental, although she had
appeared on his radar, but he very much doubted if he was on hers.
Most days they travelled home straight after College, sometimes at the
same time, sometimes separately, but occasionally they would stay in
Finchbottom for some reason or other, such as at the end of March, which was
World Theatre Day.
In order to mark the occasion, the college were given a fair number of
complimentary tickets for various theatre in the town, which were distributed
among the students on a first come first served basis.
Matti wasn’t particularly interested in the theatre, but his friend
Harry got a couple of tickets for the Finchbottom Playhouse.
“It’s not my thing” Matti said “And you won’t even tell me what the play
is”
“Oh, come on” Harry urged “It’ll be a laugh”
“So, it’s a comedy then?”
“Come with me and find out” Harry said so he reluctantly agreed
“How bad could it be” he said to himself
After they left college they went into town and ate at a burger bar
before walking to the Playhouse and when they got there he realized just how
bad it could be, and it was really bad, it was opera, but not Puccini or Verdi,
he could have coped with that, he could even have coped with Gilbert and Sullivan.
But no, it was none of them, it was modern opera, about the 1980’s Minors
Strike.
“I thought you said it would be a laugh?” Matti said when he saw the
posters
“It will be” Harry assured him
Harry was wrong, it was not fun, and at the interval Matti said
“I can’t sit through any more of this shit”
And he left Harry and his protestations in his wake and headed straight
to the railway station.
On route it began to rain so he stepped up the pace and he had his
collar up and his head down when he reached the entrance of Finchbottom station
and ran straight into another passenger trying to escape the rain and they both
ended up on their backsides.
“I’m so sorry” he said getting quickly to his feet and proffered a hand
to his prostrate victim, which was when he discovered that his victim was
Shermaine Mahoney.
“Nonsense, I wasn’t looking where I was going, my mind was elsewhere” she
replied as she took his hand
“Mine too” he said “are you ok? Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride” she replied
They dusted themselves off, figuratively speaking, and there was a brief
moment of silence.
“Are you heading back to the village too?” he asked redundantly
“Yes” she replied and looked at her watch “but we just missed our train, there’s
another in half an hour”
“Shall we get a coffee then?” he suggested
They were sitting in a café on the main concourse at a table in the
window when she asked
“So, what’ve you been up to tonight?”
“I’ve been through hell” he replied
“Bad date?”
“Worse than that” he said
“Oh, do elaborate” she urged
“I’ve been to the playhouse
Theatre watching a very bad opera about Geordie miners” he said “if they’d been Welsh
miners they might have been more musical”
“Yorkshire” she said
“What?”
“They were Yorkshire miners” she replied “According to the program”
“You were there too?”
“I was” she replied “I was dragged there by Mandy”
“And you bailed too?” he asked and laughed
“I said I had a Migraine” she said and winced
“I feel guilty, but I just had to get out of there before I got one for
real”
They were still laughing five minutes later when there was a station
announcement about their train.
“We’d better go” she said
They had just got outside when Shermaine froze like a
rabbit caught in the headlights
“What’s wrong?”
he asked
“It’s Mandy” she replied and pointed “Over there”
Matti looked where she was pointing and spotted Harry
a few paces behind her.
“Oh no there’s Harry too” he said
“Come on” she said and
took him by the hand and led him at speed across the concourse and into the far
corner
“They won’t see us in
here” she said and opened the door to the disabled toilet.
“Well it looks like
we’ve missed another train” he said
“I guess so” Shermaine
said and then she took him completely by surprise and kissed him, however a
surprise it may have been, but unwelcome it was not, and she knew that
immediately by the way he responded to her kiss, so as a result it went on
longer than she first intended when the notion came into her head to capitalise
on the situation.
“Well that’s been a
long time coming” she said when she eventually came up for air “I’m sorry I had
to pounce but I got tired of waiting for you to make a move”
“I’m not complaining”
he said “but I didn’t think I stood a chance”
“I guessed that, which
is why I needed to take drastic actions” she said “Which is why I had to
deliberately knock you on your arse and drag you into a toilet”
“I’m glad you did” he
said and then it was time for him to kiss her
“Come on” she said “or
we’ll miss the last train”
“Ok” he agreed, and
they slipped out of the disabled toilet and on to the concourse and they walked
hand in hand across to their platform.
“You know when I left
the Playhouse I thought it had been a waste of an evening” he said
“And what do you think
now?” she asked
“I would say that it
hasn’t been a complete waste” he replied “Only the first half”
“Good answer” she said
and stopped to kiss him
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