It
was the long hot summer of 76, and Paul Cooper was still courting the love of
his life Shallowfield girl, Lynn Fletcher.
Their
relationship was almost concluding its third year and was showing no sign of
abating.
Since
he had arrived home from school for the summer break he had worked in the Addison’s
Tea Shop with Lynn as he had almost every holiday for the previous two years.
There
was a significant difference this time however as he was would not be returning
to boarding school at the end of it.
Because
that autumn, by hook or by crook, he intended to join the police, though as of
the beginning of that summer he had not told his father.
Paul’s
relationship with his father, the Colonel, however was deteriorating with every
passing day and it seemed to be fast approaching terminal velocity.
Paul
was 17 and his father had hopes of him joining the Downshire Light Infantry as
his elder brother had.
However
Paul was in no hurry to emulate his brother Simon who did indeed follow Harry Cooper
into the regiment and was rewarded with three tours of duty in Northern Ireland
for his trouble.
It
was in 1969 that Simon followed Harry into the Downshire regiment.
He
did not return from his third after he was shot dead while on patrol on the
streets of Londonderry in 1972.
But
that wasn’t the reason he didn’t want join the Army, it wasn’t fear, it just
wasn’t his dream, it was his fathers.
His
aspirations lay with a career in the police force and not the military.
The
Colonel was very disparaging about the police and quite brutal with his opinions
on his youngest son’s lack of moral fibre.
Colonel Harry Cooper was on sick leave for the
duration of the heatwave, due to injuries received during an IRA bomb attack on
the Downshire Light Infantry barracks in Nettlefield.
And all summer long Harry took out his frustrations
on his son Paul.
If it wasn’t the Army it was the length of his hair,
the music he listened to, or the clothes he wore.
But the final straw for Paul was when he attacked
Lynn, not physically, but personally.
It happened one day at the beginning of August when
he was on his way out.
“Where are you going?” Harry snapped
“I’m off to see Lynn” Paul replied
“What again?” he barked “you see her everyday”
“Yes and I’m seeing her today as well” Paul retorted
“You spend far too much time with that little tart”
Harry said
He regretted the words almost the moment they left
his lips but once said they were hard for a proud man to take back.
He didn’t know if it was the blistering heat, his
enforced convalescence, his stubbornness or his need to hurt his son.
But whatever the reason he had said it.
He had nothing against the girl, he liked her, and
he certainly hadn’t seen anything that suggested she was a tart.
“You are unbelievable” Paul said
“She’s just a common little forestry girl” Harry
added “you can do better than her, someone of your own class”
“You bastard” Paul said coolly and slammed the door
behind him.
“Why
did I say that?” Harry muttered to himself
He
sat down heavily in his chair and remembered when his father had used those self-same
words against him, when he was courting a local girl.
His
family disapproved of his choice as well, he hadn’t listened to them either.
He
and Paul were more alike than either of them would have admitted in fact they
were like two peas in a pod.
Lynn had been to Coopers Villa many time over the
three years she had dated Paul and she had met Harry on at least half of her
visits, and their exchanges such as they were had always been without
exception, perfectly amicable.
So nobody was more surprised than she when Paul told
her what his dad had said.
They
were up at one of their favourite places, up above the northern perimeter road
in a patch of meadow in front of the row of derelict woodman’s cottages.
The view of the lake from there was spectacular.
The lake was shaped like a teardrop, hence its
name, and surrounded by ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forrest.
It wasn’t a huge body of water, just over two miles
long and almost a mile at its widest point normally.
But it had shrunk considerably during the summer
drought.
However it was just as beautiful and unspoilt place
as ever, which was the reason they loved it.
Teardrop Lake and the surrounding woodland was
privately owned and divided into twelve parcels each with one significant
dwelling on it, although there were a number of cottages dotted around the
woodland as well, some in use and some were not and some were near to collapse.
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.
Things
were changing though, there was a new optimism in the area and only two years
earlier the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel Opened.
“He didn’t mean it” she said after a moment’s
thought
“He’s just trying to hurt you”
“I know” he said
“But I don’t think I should come to the house
anymore, not for a while anyway” she suggested
“But I’m not ashamed of you” he said indignantly
“I know that” Lynn said and kissed him.
On the walk home from the meadow they
came upon a scene that put their problems into perspective.
They walked down the hill from the cliff
top down to the eastern end of the lake.
It was the end of August 1976, and the
summer had been the hottest, driest summer ever recorded and there were severe
droughts across the whole country as a result the water level in Teardrop Lake had
dropped dramatically.
In fact it fell so low it resulted in the
discovery of a body, or at least the remains of a body.
There were a number of policemen, in and
out of the water, and Paul and Lynn paused for a while to watch them work,
until the remains were brought to shore.
Those discovered remains were later
found to be those of a local woman, Christine Turner, who disappeared in 1915.
A few days later the first of several
thunderstorms hit the area and to some degree cleared the air.
The associated rain led to flash
flooding but they were short lived and caused no lasting damage, but the level
of water in the lake did begin to rise.
Though as a period of generally wet
weather followed in the weeks after the storms there was another storm brewing
which would prove to cause damage that would last for many years.
At the end of September the impending storm
finally broke when Harry once again raised the subject of Paul’s joining the
army.
“I have spoken to the adjutant at the Military
College and providing you get your application in this week he will guarantee
you a place” he said and tossed an application form onto the table.
“I have forms of my own that require a
signature” Paul said in response and waved them briefly in the front of Harry
before slamming them on to the table next to the other one.
“You are not joining the police” Harry
yelled “I’ve told you that before, and I am growing weary of saying it”
“And I have told you, I’m not joining
the bloody regiment” he yelled back
“The Coopers are a military family”
Harry shouted “you have no respect for tradition”
“I suppose I don’t” Paul said in a quieter
tone
“But your bloody tradition has already
cost you one son”
“Simon was proud to join the regiment,
there was no argument from him” Harry said proudly
“He joined the Downshire’s to please you” Paul shouted “and if he
hadn’t been so obsessed about seeking your approval he might still be alive
today”
After a few minutes of awkward silence Harry said quietly
“If you defy me in this matter Paul and join the police force you
will do so without a penny’s support from me”
“I can live with that” Paul said and left
Those were the last words they said to each other for many years.
Harry re-joined the Downshire’s the
following day and in October Paul turned 18 and no longer needed parental
consent, At 18 he was legally a man so his first act as a man Paul disappointed
his father by not joining the army and joined the County Constabulary instead.
It was half day closing and Paul had
just posted his application in the sack at the post office and was waiting
outside Addison’s for Lynn to finish work.
He was taking her for lunch at a new
Beefeater Restaurant that had just opened in Childean called The Mallard.
They were going on his newly acquired
Yamaha which was to be his mode of transport now he had burned his bridges with
his father,
They sat in the salubrious surroundings
of the converted pub and perused the menu such as it was,
Starters comprised of Prawn Cocktail or
Avocado Pear and the mains were basically Steak, Chips and Peas or Place, Chips
and Peas and desert was Black forest Gateaux.
But it wasn’t the food he was there for,
he had just ordered them Irish coffee and steeled himself for what he had to
say.
“Lynn” he said abruptly and she jerked
like a startled dear
“Lynn” he said less forcefully
“With us being so far apart over the
coming months” he continued, “maybe even longer”
Once her heart had stopped racing Lynn
listened with increasing dread.
“It would be difficult for anyone” he went
on
“I don’t like where this is headed” she
thought
“Long distant relationships are hard” he
said “at the best of times”
“He’s going to dump me” Lynn was
thinking
“Which is why” he began
“Oh God” Lynn thought “here it comes”
“I think we should get engaged”
“What?” Lynn asked
“I think we should get engaged” he
repeated
“Really?” she asked
“What do you think?” he said doubting
her response
“What do I think?” she said shaking her
head in disbelief
“Yes is what I think” she squealed and reached across the table to kiss him.
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