The Summers and the Overend’s lived in Northchapel and every year they had a family holiday together in the Dancingdean Forest.
Peter and Kate Summers and their sons
Mark and Brian, Kate’s sister Christine Overend and husband David and their
daughters Julia and Karen, all travelled to the lakeside home of the Davies
family, Matthew and Lindsey who were Kate and Christine’s parents and Shelley
who was their maiden Aunt.
The Davies family home was East Side
House and was situated on the eastern shore of Teardrop Lake.
Teardrop
Lake and the surrounding woodland was privately owned and divided into twelve
parcels of land, each with one significant dwelling on it and there were also a
number of cottages dotted around the woods as well, quite a few of the
properties were vacant and an equal number were derelict.
It
was both idyllic and peaceful, there was little or no noise pollution and the
lake was little used and the kids always loved going there even
more so in the summer when they could get out on the lake.
But in the
summer of 1969 childhood pursuits started to take a back seat.
Access to Teardrop Lake
was via Shallowfield which was a sprawling sparsely populated village and its
fortunes had always relied largely upon forestry and agriculture for its
survival.
In the post war years
with rationing and a shortage of work a lot of people moved away, to
Abbottsford, Abbeyvale and beyond and it only barely survived and the community
around Teardrop Lake fared even worse.
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 the Davies family were one of the lucky ones.
Mark Summers was a few weeks short of
his nineteenth birthday, tall and athletic with flowing blond locks and his
cousin Julia was a curvy brunette and was just sixteen.
Julia had followed him around with
puppy dog eyes for as long as he could remember but he always gave her the
brush off, but since the previous Christmas he had suddenly become aware of her
sexuality when instead of just following him around Julia started flirting with
him outrageously and quite expertly so.
From the moment they met up the morning of day one she was flaunting herself
and flirting with him, but he wasn't really interested, he already had a steady
girlfriend plus a spare or two in the wings so he tried his best to ignore her,
she was just a kid as far as he was concerned, beautiful with a great figure,
but a kid nonetheless.
So for the first three days of the
holiday he gave her a wide birth as he always had and tried to brush aside her
flirtations.
But that proved to be easier said
than done when she spent most of the fourth day in a figure hugging swimsuit
and although she was still only sixteen she flaunted what she had very well
indeed and even though she was completely inexperienced she knew by the
expression on his face that she had got his full attention.
After years of him brushing her attentions
aside she could tell his resolve had weakened so while he was still only eighteen
she took her chance one hot afternoon.
The grandparents, the maiden great aunt, both sets of parents and the younger
siblings had all gone off on a visit to Pepperstock Castle, somewhere boring as
far as she was concerned, so she made an excuse and stayed by the Lake as she
had lust on her mind.
And Julia knew she had Mark exactly where she wanted him when he did the same, but
then she was almost certain he would.
Once the family were well on their
way to Pepperstock Mark thought Christmas had come early so he walked into her
bedroom wearing only a towel, which he thought would have the desired effect on
her.
However Julia thought his action
somewhat juvenile and not very subtle.
She was stood with her back to him as
he entered but she could see his reflection in the mirror but he could not see
her smile.
It would not be that easy, she would
not make it that easy, he would have to work so much harder on his technique to
claim the conquest.
She knew he had a steady girlfriend
back in Northchapel, but she also knew he had been unfaithful to her on more
than one occasion and she had no intention, no matter how gorgeous he was, or how
much she may have lusted after him, that she was going be added to that list.
Julia was not going to surrender her
virginity to him cheaply, or give all of herself to him just to be another
notch on his headboard.
Watching him in the mirror Julia
could see him watching her and she knew that she had him hook line and sinker
so she decided to have him dance to her tune for the rest of the holiday.
“I hope you’ve got trunks on under
that towel” she said as she turned around to look at him
“I’m going for a swim in the Lake,
I’ll see you out there” she added as she walked casually out of the room.
“Erm, oh, um” he stammered “Ok”
Five minutes later when Julia was
already in the water, Mark arrived on the jetty wearing his swimming trunks
“I like you in those” she thought “so
much hotter than the towel”
Almost immediately he dived off the
jetty and they spent the next hour swimming and messing around in the Lake
before he tried to kiss her but she was too quick for him and gave him the slip
and swam to the shore laughing.
Over the following weeks they were
virtually inseparable, and after all those years of her following him around
with puppy dog eyes and being continually brushed off, it was now Marks turn to
follow in her wake like a love sick hound while Julia wore an expression
somewhere between smug and coy.
At least once a day during those
weeks Mark tried to kiss her but Julie always resisted him, despite the fact
she was desperate to taste his lips.
But on the last day of the holiday
when she was convinced she had him body and soul she kissed him to reward him
for his patience and herself for her cleverness.
That day may have marked the end of
the holiday but the long awaited kiss by Teardrop Lake was the beginning of a
love that lasted thirty-eight years.
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