Snippets of Downshire Life – Holy Week – Easter Sunday

The Finchbottom Vale nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, and to the east 15 miles inland from Sharpington-By-Sea, equidistant between the seaside resort and Pepperstock Green was the rambling village of Brookley and at its heart was St Mildred’s Church.

The villager’s spiritual needs were met by its vicar Rev Cecil Payne who lived at the adjacent vicarage with his wife Lily and their six unmarried daughters, Chrissie, Daniela, Hazel, Heather, Katie and Elise.

Cecil and Lily loved their children very much but as they reached the time in their lives when they were nearing their sixties and they had expectations for their daughters.

For Lily her hopes involved the grandchildren that were not forthcoming whereas Cecil just wanted them to spread their wings, but as Easter loomed, there was no sign of either of them getting their wish, but the power of prayer was a wonderful thing and both parents prayed for their daughters. 

The youngest of whom were twins, and the youngest of them, by two minutes was Elise.

They were not identical twins, but she and Katie were as alike as made no difference.

 

Anyone who looked at Elise Payne would have seen that she was one of the most popular girls at college and not just because she was gorgeous, even though she was, her face had a shape and symmetry that was very easy on the eye and her figure was to die for.

Although there were girls who were more classically beautiful than her they didn’t have any of the character of Elise’s.

Her silky red hair shone and shimmered as she moved her head and her brown eyes bore into your soul when you met their gaze.

As if her unique beauty was not enough she was also athletic, artistic, intelligent and sexy, but it was her personality and inherent goodness that put her head and shouldered above the competition.

Everyone, boy or girl that ever met her fell instantly in love with her, but Sunday School leader Calvin Peat had been in love with her since before she blossomed.

However, despite all the attention Elise managed to keep everyone of her admirers at bay, which led to the rumours that she was in fact gay.

Calvin never believed that for a moment and he had known her longer than anyone at college because he was the boy next door and he had lived there since she was three and they had been best friends since the beginning.

But when she was invited to the seventeenth birthday party of another of the cool girls, he was still extremely surprised to get an invitation from Elise to be her plus one, even though they had been friends since nursery school.

However, having established that Elise was one of the popular group, Calvin was in no uncertain terms, not.

He was not athletic, artistic, sexy or cool, they did have a keen intelligence in common and he was bound for the University of Downshire to study Theology, with teaching being his ultimate goal.

But under normal circumstances, friendship and intelligence aside, it was a surprise that one of the popular girls would want to invite a Theology geek to one of her friend’s 17th birthday party on the afternoon of Easter Sunday.

 

The party was in one of the grander houses at the other end of Brookley from the Church, and it was ostentatiously decorated and a bit gaudy, and there were a lot of guests, it was one of those big flashy parties with an abundance of superficial friends.

It was not really Elise’s kind of thing as she was never a flashy person, once they got there they soon separated themselves from the main throng and had their own private party in a quiet corner and found six likeminded friends to join them one was Elise’s twin Katie, who was also one of the popular girls, and three others who they had also been friends with since nursery school, Danny Perry, and his cousins Roy and Susan Peach.

 

Their party was a great success, with Roy keeping up the supply of wine which they drank liberally as they reminisced about their shared history and they laughed until they cried.

When they left the party propper and got to the end of the road,  they split up, Katie was going back to Susans and Roy went off with Danny so they had the usual hugs and kisses on the pavement and then went their seperate ways.

 

As they walked through the village, the slightly tipsy Elise had her arm through Calvins and he said

“I had a really great time” 

“Yeh, me too” she replied

“Wasn’t it great to get the six of us together again?”

“We should do it more often” Clavin suggested

““We” should get together more often” Elise said

“What just the two of us?” he asked

“Yeh” she said coyly

“Just you and the geek?” he asked with surprise

“You’re not a geek” she said defensively “And anyway even if you were that wouldn’t stop me fancying you” she said.
“You fancy me?” Calvin asked pointing at himself
“Didn't you know?” she asked, and he shook his head
“What about you?” she asked shyly

“Do you fancy me?”

“I don’t know about fancying you” he said, and she was clearly crestfallen for a second

“But I’ve been in love with you since we were 7 if that counts”

“You pig” she said and laughed before she kissed him softy on the lips, which led to the most wonderful spine tingling embrace that seemed to last forever.

When it ended she looked at him with her soulful eyes and smiled the most loving smile.

He returned her smile and wanted to say something fitting for the moment but in truth he was lost for words.

“Wow” she said beating him to the punch and then she giggled and ran off up the Church Road and shouted over her shoulder

“You’ll have to marry me now”