Downshire is a
relatively small English county but that didn’t bother its inhabitants, they may not have
been the biggest, but they were in no doubt that it was the best and that belief was no truer than in the southern town off
Abbottsford which was Downshire’s administrative capital and the seat of the
Downshire government.
It was also a place of learning thanks to the Downshire University, was home to Abbottsford Town football club and benefitted from
the renowned Winston
Churchill Hospital as well as Abbottsford
Cathedral.
It was at the
Cathedral where the Christingle service was being held which well attended as
usual as there were children and families there from all around the
diocese.
The Christingle
Service had become ingrained in Anglican worship though it had its origins in
Eastern Europe and the Christingle Service is a Service of candle lights, where
very many years ago people gathered in the street, sang carols and collected
gifts to help the less fortunate in the community.
It is a beautiful
candle lit service of hymns, carols, recitations and bible readings, but Christingle
goes beyond a candle light service and it tells a story.
A story is told with
the symbolic use of the following items:
An orange representing the world.
A red ribbon tied around the orange to symbolize the blood of Jesus shed for
his people.
Toothpicks decorated with dried fruits and sweets placed at the four corners of
the orange representing all the people of the world.
A lighted candle in the centre of the orange represents the gift of the light
of Christ to the world.
Firstly, the children
make the Christingle lights in Sunday school, and then they carry them proudly
in procession into the church where they are lit for the service.
Because the symbol of the service began life in the Sunday School
classes the leaders also attended to watch their charges and from St Hilda’s
were Matt Genner, Paul Hill, Diana Sherlock, and Pamela Skeet.
Diana Sherlock thought
of herself as a plump girl but in reality, she was just a couple of dress sizes
bigger than her best friend.
In every other respect
she thought she was ok, with her luscious Auburn hair and an abundance of
freckle and was a tall girl, but that hadn’t been enough for her to get her
anywhere with Matt Genner, and she was convinced he didn’t even know she existed,
but she had been in love with Matt since she was 12 years old and she was now
18.
Matt Genner and Paul
Hill were cousins and had black hair and wild gypsy eyes and were also 18 years
old and good-looking boys, and were very popular with the girls, but the sort
of girls who kept throwing themselves at them were not the type of girl they
were looking for.
Pamela Skeet was 17-year-old
and she was pretty, tall and slender girl with long dark hair and she was on the outside
at least ultra-confident and ultra-popular with the boys who she kept dancing
on strings, but they were not the right boys.
She was always
immaculately turned out, painted, perfumed and powdered and ready to impress Mr
Right.
But apparently, he was
never looking her way, whoever he might be.
But for all her big
talk and bravado she was fast approaching 18 and hadn’t even been kissed.
Because she was pretty
and because she knew she was pretty, Pamela always talked big when it came to
the opposite sex, and her friends bought into it.
But it was all
bravado, if one of the men she flirted with actually came on to her she would
have run a mile.
Outside she was sexy
and confident but inside she was a shy and dowdy little mouse.
Pamela was convinced
she was never going to be kissed and especially not before she reached her 18th
birthday.
She could quite easily
get a kiss in time if she acted like a tart, but she wasn’t a tart and she
wanted her first kiss to be romantic, not desperate.
Meanwhile Diana was
still dreaming of a romantic affair with her prince charming Matt Genner but
was resigned to the fact it would never happen.
The two friends
finally confided in each other during December
“You fancy one of
them?” Pamela probed “Which one?”
“Matt” she reluctantly
replied
“How long have you
fancied him?” Pam quizzed
“Since I was 12” she
replied
“Why didn’t you tell
me?” she asked
“Because nothing will
ever come of it” Diana said definitively
But Pam was very persuasive,
and they made a plan, so on the afternoon of the Christingle service the girls did
each other’s makeup, so they could each snag themselves a dark-haired Gypsy
eyed boyfriend.
“Wow” Pam said “I look
really hot”
“Not bad eh?” Diana
said admiring herself in the mirror
“I look about 20” Pam said,
“Don’t you think?”
“21 maybe” Diana added
“Shall we go to the
pub with them then” she suggested
Diana thought about it
for a moment and said
“I don’t know” she
said “I look rubbish”
“You can borrow
something of mine” Pamela said
Diana reluctantly
agreed so half an hour later they were laughing and joking and on their way to the Cathedral.
At the same time Pamela and Diana were doing their makeup Matt and his Cousin
Paul were just leaving home themselves for the same destination.
The Christingle service was lovely, and the huge congregation thoroughly
enjoyed it but for the girls it caused a problem for them as they lost track of
the boys, but unbeknown to them they had also decided to go to the pub, fortunately they also chose the Castle.
Pamela hadn’t been to a
pub before and although she looked old enough to be in there after the makeover,
she had no ID, so she went and found a table and Diana bought the drinks.
The girls were sat at
a corner table facing back towards the bar.
“Look who’s just come
in” Pamela said, and Diana looked up and saw their prey standing at the bar.
As soon as she saw
them Diana got all flustered and her cheeks flushed.
“What’s wrong with
you?” Pamela asked
“Nothing” she said
trying to look anywhere but at the bar.
“Just play it cool”
Pam asked and glanced at the bar just as Matt looked across at them and smiled
“He’s looking over
here” Pamela whispered
They both smiled back
at him and then Diana said
“Well he’s not looking
at me, is he?”
Diana spent the next
20 minutes sneaking glances at Matt as he laughed and joked with his cousin,
every now and then he would throw a glance at her and she would look away.
There were a number of
girls who approached them but whatever they were after they left without it.
Pamela suddenly got up
and announced she was going to the loo and almost as soon as she left there was
movement at the bar as Matt started walking towards Di.
“Hi Diana” he said
“Hello” she replied “Pamela’s
gone to the loo”
“I know I saw her go”
he said “it was you I wanted to talk to”
“Me?” she said
incredulously
“Yes you” he replied
“Why?” she asked
“Blimey you don’t make
it easy for a bloke” he said
“I don’t understand”
she said
“I wanted to ask you something
while Pamela was in the ladies” he explained
“Oh, I see” Diana said
with a sigh “you want her phone number I suppose”
“No” Matt replied with
surprise “Why would I want her number?”
“Sorry?”
“I wanted to ask you
out” he explained
“Me?” she said
incredulously
“Oh no not again, yes
you” he replied
“I’ve been wanting to
ask you out for ages, but I can never get you on your own, so I never get a
look in”
“Seriously?” she
asked
“Yes” he replied “So?”
“Yes” she said
“Now was that a
question or an answer?”
“Definitely an answer”
she said and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
“Good” he said, “now
can I get you a drink?”
Matt walked to the bar
just as Pamela returned from the toilet and Paul joined his brother at the bar.
When he first walked
to the bar and saw Diana sitting at the corner table he congratulated himself
on his choice of venue and hoped Christmas had arrived early and seemed he was
not to be disappointed.
“Well?” Pamela asked
when she returned to the table.
“Well what?” she
replied
“Did he ask you?” Pamela
asked
“Yes” she said excitedly,
and they hugged
“But how did you
know?”
“Paul told me” she
replied
“But how did he know?”
“Matt told him?” Pamela
said
“Oh”
“Anyway, Paul told me”
she said “and then he kissed me”
“Where?” asked Diana,
wide eyed with curiosity
“On the lips stupid”
“No, I mean, where?”
she explained “Where were you when he kissed you”
“Oh outside” Pamela
clarified
“What were you doing
outside?” Diana asked “Apart from being kissed”
“Well I went to the
loo” Pamela explained “and when I came out Paul was there waiting for me and he
told me no to go back to the table because Matt was asking you out”
She paused for breath
“Which was taking
forever by the way, and we were blocking the door, so he suggested we went
outside and that was when he kissed me, in the moonlight, it was very romantic”
“Wow” Diana responded
“And did he ask you out as well?
“Yes” she said excitedly,
and they hugged again
“Who’d of thought it,
I have a date”
Diana said
“Me too” Pamela
squealed just as the boys and the drinks arrived.
After they were on the
way home from the bus stop they split up.
Paul turned left so he
could walk Pamela home and romantically kiss her in the moonlight once more and
Matt and Diana turned right and walked slowly hand in hand in the moonlight, as
they were in no rush to get home.
“Fancy that, I’m
walking hand in hand with Matt Genner” she said inside her head
While Matt was
thinking to himself how lucky he was.
“Was that romantic
enough for you?” Paul asked moments after his lips left hers
“It was acceptable”
she said
“Perhaps I should have
another go” he suggested
“Definitely worth a
try” Pamela said obligingly
When they got to the end
of the path that led to her front door they came to a halt and he turned to
face her, and he kissed her soft lips, in a long and sensual kiss.
“I’ve been waiting a
long time to do that” Diana said
“Me too” he concurred
“How long?” she asked
“A couple of years,
almost three to be precise” he confessed
“I was 12” she
admitted “when I first noticed you like that”
“Was it worth the
wait?” he asked
“It was for me” she
said
And then her kissed
her again which she took to mean “me too”
So, the Christingle
Girls got their dark-haired gypsy eyed boys and had them hook, line and sinker,
and they were all set to have a very happy Christmas indeed.
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