Mornington-By-Mere – (31) Roving Angel

 

Nineteen year old Jenna Crockford lived at number 5, The Close, in the picturesque village of Mornington-By-Mere with her parents and three siblings.

She was small girl, a smidge over five foot, with delicate features and long strawberry blonde hair and a large heart and that heart was full to overflowing with love.

And most of that love was directed at John Cooper the blonde haired, blue eyed boy next door at number 4 where he lived with his parents Roy and Sally and a brother and sister.

John was not oblivious to the young girl next door, far from it but he thought she was way out of his league, and she was stunningly attractive and he was an ordinary looking man.

The other problem was that she was not yet 20 whereas he was more than five years older and that had to make a difference.

 

John was an Electrician, and a good one at that, and although he did a lot of work in and around the village and was a “first call” tradesman for the Mornington Estate, most of the time he worked away on bigger jobs and as Jenna was in her second year at Abbottsford University their paths seldom crossed anymore which for Jenna at least made her want him even more.

 

Apart from his professional work he was also very active in the church, at St Winfred’s as well as farther afield.

This involved among other things, being a greeter at the church services, delivering Parish Magazines, and helping at the Christmas Bazaar in fact you name it and he did it and that was only in the village.

His wider good works included the Soup Kitchens in Finchbottom or Purplemere, the Christmas Charity Wagon in Sharpington, which was an old Mornington Brewery dray pulled by two white shire horses with the whole thing bedecked with tinsel and lights and carried on the back a multi denominational choir.

John Cooper was among those going from door to door, as the wagon drove around the town, collecting donations in plastic buckets and handing out sweets to the excited children.

He also helped out on the Santa Express, which was something else to behold.

The Santa Express was a renovated steam engine and coaches, which ran from Sharping St Mary station to a secret location where Santa was waiting in his grotto.

It picked up the local children and their parents late afternoon so that they arrived at the grotto in darkness in order to make the most of the spectacular lights.

It was one of the high points of his year, he well remembered his parents taking him when he was a young lad and he liked to see other the kids as excited as he used to be at their age.

 

But then as if all his other good deeds weren’t enough he decided to volunteer for the Roving Angels and after his training at St John’s Church in Purplemere, and his receipt of his Roving Angels uniform  he was deemed ready for duty.

 

He had timed his first Patrol to be in January so as not to impact on his other commitments around the busy Christmas period.

On Friday he finished work at lunchtime as that night was his first patrol with the Roving Angels.

He couldn’t deny that he had reservations about doing it despite all the encouragement and wondered if it was really for him.

He left the house in his newly acquired uniform, worn over several layers including Long John’s and stout boots and thick socks.

As it was forecast to be minus 6 that night he was going to need every stitch of clothing to keep warm so he donned a woollen hat, scarf and gloves.

The Roving Angels had been in existence for about two years and was similar to the Street Angels, Street Pastors and other groups that had sprung up all across the UK in the previous 12 or 15 years.

They had made a really positive impact on crime and antisocial behaviour in Finchbottom and Purplemere town centres over the first two years particularly in the general vicinity of the bars and clubs.

They provided a calming presence on the streets late at night in situations where a police uniform might have the opposite effect.

In the two years since they began Roving Angels had contributed to a 29% fall in public place violence on the weekends.

It all began when Christian Churches in the area came together with the Police and the Borough Council to establish the Angels.

But it took people of Faith to make it work as with so many things in life.

 

To be perfectly honest he was feeling a little apprehensive about his maiden patrol as he drove to Finchbottom.

He was after all doing something he had never done before and patrolling the streets in the small hours was not without its risks one of which being that drunks are such unpredictable creatures. 

Not to mention the fact it was a bitterly cold night and he was a bit of a wimp and it was to be a long shift starting at 10pm and possibly finishing as late as 4am.

All the bars and clubs closed for the night at 3 am but the clientele have been known to hang around.

He had to confess that when he went into the council building where the Angel volunteers congregated he had butterflies in his stomach.

He supposed he was nervous of meeting a bunch of strangers but when he walked in he found that he knew almost half of the assembled group one of whom was Michael Hargrave who also lived in Mornington.

“John” he said offering his hand “good to see you”

“Hi Mike” he responded taking his hand “I didn’t know you were an Angel”

“Yes” he said “since the beginning”

“Really?” he asked

“Yes” he responded proudly “two years now”

Although he had been trained he didn’t really know what to expect so he was quite relieved to find he was going out on the first hour, the quiet hour, with Mike, who was a veteran.

As expected it was an uneventful maiden patrol which saw Michael taking the lead with him carrying the back pack full of Flip Flops, lollipops, space blankets and the first aid kit.

 

Going out on his first patrol with Michael Hargrave was useful for him, Mike showed him the boundaries of the patrol area and he pointed out the potential hotspots for later, he showed him all the CCTV camera locations and identified areas not covered and crucially the radio dead zones.

Also the quiet stroll gave him and Mike a chance to chat and catch up.

 

After the first uneventful hour there was an hour of coffee and chat in the council building then out again at midnight until one.

That also proved to be rather uneventful in fact Michael said he had never known it so quiet, they concluded it must be the low temperature, nobody was hanging around.

On their last lap around town they did come upon a group of girls who had just spilled out of one bar and were negotiating with the bouncers to get in another one and on the periphery of the group was a face John recognised.

He hesitated before speaking because he didn’t want to embarrass the girl but while he was wondering what best to do she spoke to him.

“Hello John” Jenna said a little tipsy

“Hello Jen” he said

“What are you doing out this late?” he asked himself.

It was then that he noticed a small group of lads lurking in the shadows.

“Are you on your own?” he asked, “Where’s Kath?”

Kathryn Williams was her best friend

She nodded in response to the first part and shrugged at the second, which he interpreted to mean they had had a falling out.

“You make sure you get a cab home,” he told her

“Ok” she answered

“Have you got enough money?” John asked

“Yes John” she replied

“What’s it got to do with you?” a loud mouthed girl from the main group said

“Are you a paedo?”

“That’s enough of that if you want to get in here,” the bouncer said and then they all filed into the pub, Jenna included.

The other girls were much older than her and he was a little worried, then the group of lads emerged from the shadows and also entered the pub.

“You know her then” Mike said as they headed back to the office.

“Yes” he replied, “So do you, Jenna Crockford, she lives in the village”

He was mightily relieved to get back inside at one o’clock, he was frozen and he didn’t understand how the girls could walk around half naked in that weather.

 

It took almost all the next hour to thaw out and he was not looking forward to another shift and he was mightily relieved when the Supervisor announced that they would be finishing at 3am.

Because it was so cold no one was hanging around to cause trouble so his final patrol was deemed unnecessary.

With that news John and Mike said their farewells and headed out towards the car park.

As they were walking down the road they saw a most extraordinary sight on the other side of the road.

There was a girl squatting beside a parked car peeing against the hubcap, which to all intents and purposes sounded like it was being jet washed.

At the same time her friend, they presumed she was a friend as they were engaged in conversation, was peeing like a horse against a shop door.

But the remarkable thing to Johns mind was that while this was going on a young man walked briskly down the path between them and said

“Alright girls?” as he high fived them both.

John was absolutely gobsmacked at what he was seeing.

But Mike on seeing his reaction just laughed, he had clearly seen it all before.

 

When John and Mike reached the carpark they were parked within a few cars of each other and after a brief chat Mike got in his and had driven out of the car park before John had even started the engine.

Once the engine had warmed up a bit and hot air started to blow through the vents he got out and took off his coat and fleece.

He knew from the journey over, that once the heater got running full throttle it would be too hot with them on and as he drove out of the car park the car was toasty warm.

As luck would have it his route took him past the railway station and the taxi rank and as he reached the former he noticed Jenna staggering towards the latter and more alarmingly just behind her was the small bunch of lads he had seen following her earlier.

So he pulled up just ahead of her and wound down the window.

“Do you want a lift?” he called

“I’ve got taxi fare,” she slurred

“Look” and she waved a ten-pound note at him.

“You’d better get in then” he said

When she got in the car John noticed she was shivering so he reached over to the back seat and grabbed his fleece

“Put that around you” he suggested

 “Ok” she said, “Oooh it’s still warm”

Then he gave her his coat as well and put it over her legs and lap and tucked it around her.

When he looked up the young lads were just passing the car and they all stared in so he locked the doors.

 

On the journey back to the village he garnered from Jenna that she had indeed fallen out with her best friend Kath.

It was a typically trivial reason brought about by Kath texting her boyfriend while Jenna was on a sleepover at Kathryn’s.

Jenna also admitted she got jealous and stormed out of Kath’s house and went to see another friend, Summer, who had the bright idea of going into Finchbottom.

Summer then met her ex-boyfriend and abandoned Jenna who then tagged along with the group of older girls that John saw her with and it was then that she started crying.

As luck would have it they were just approaching a lay-by so he pulled over to comfort her, nothing else.

He had offered her a lift out of genuine Christian kindness and because he cared about her and not because he wanted to take advantage of her while she was drunk.

He just pulled over to give her a hug and calm her down and as soon as he pulled on the hand brake she leapt into his arms.

“Oh John what am I going to do?” she sobbed, “I’ve been so stupid”

Well it took about 10 minutes to calm her down enough to establish that Kathryn wasn’t expecting her back that night but he certainly couldn’t take her home in her drunken state, her parents would not have been pleased so as he had the house to himself he said

“You can sleep on the sofa at mine”

“It doesn’t have to be the sofa” she slurred and placed her hand on his crotch.

“You can stop tha...” he began but she had passed out and her hand went limp.

When he got back to the house he pulled up on the drive and set about carrying the drunken Jenna into the house.

Not an easy task even taking into account she was barely seven stones.

In the end he chose the fireman’s lift technique, which was easiest once he got her out of the car.

John took her straight into the lounge and deposited her on the sofa.

He left her there and went back to lock the car and secure the front door.

He then threw a blanket over her, turned off the lights and went upstairs.

When he finally got to his bed he went out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow.

         

It was just after eight when he went downstairs to check on Jenna and found she was already up.

And as soon as he walked into the lounge she threw herself in his arms.

“I’m sorry” Jenna whispered

“What for?” he asked

“For being a drunken bum.” she said “and embarrassing myself”

“As long as you’ve learned a lesson,” he said sagely

“Am I forgiven then?” she asked

“Of course” he replied “but what about Kath?”

“I phoned her already and I’m off to see her now to make things up”

Then she kissed him long and passionately and then she was gone.

 

For some reason, despite the fact that he had only had four hours sleep he was wide awake, it was probably the intensity of the kiss, but he decided not to go back to bed.

He was quite hungry so he cooked himself a full English breakfast and he ate it on his lap in the lounge while watching TV.

After that he still wasn’t tired so he had a long soak in the bath and by the end of it he was yawning so after finishing his ablutions he returned to bed where he had a lovely restful dream filled sleep dreaming about Jenna and that kiss.

It was a lovely dream so vivid that he imagined he could feel her soft lips on his.

 

It left him thinking that the age difference between them didn’t matter and when she kissed him she didn’t seem to think he was out of her league.

So as he got out of bed he was feeling very positive until he looked in the mirror.

“It was obviously drink induced” he said to his reflection “She passed out in the car after all”

He slipped on his bathrobe feeling more optimistic.

“But she wasn’t drunk when she snogged me this morning before she left” he said triumphantly and opened the bedroom door.

“Hungover then” his doubtful side countered as he walked to the bathroom

“Oh this is getting me nowhere” he snapped as he stepped in the shower “Does she fancy me or not?”

 

By the time he had finished in the shower he had made a decision so after shaving and dressing he slipped out the front door heading for the Crockford’s, however halfway there he lost his nerve and diverted down the alley.

 

In between the Cooper’s at number 4 and the Crockford’s at number 5

There was an alleyway which lead from The Close and emerged between Mazzone’s Hairdressers and the Dental Surgery in The Street.

But John didn’t proceed down the alley he merely paced up and down muttering to himself that he needed to get a back bone.

 

He had been pacing for about ten minutes when he heard a voice from above.

It was Jenna who had been watching him with amusement from her bedroom window, but her amusement was giving way to frustration.

“Are you ever going to get round to asking me out?”

“That depends” he replied

“On what?”

“On whether you say yes or no” John said

“Well why don’t you knock on the front door and find out” she said and closed the window.

 

John took a deep breath and knocked on the glass and the door opened immediately and a grinning Jenna was on the other side of it.

“Hello John this is a nice surprise” she said

“Hi Jen” he said

“What can I do for you?”

“I was just wondering…” John began falteringly

“Yes” Jenna said

“I mean would you….”

“Yes” Jenna said again 

“Will you….”

“Yes, yes, yes” she said “how many times must I say yes before you snog my face off?”

It proved to be a rhetorical question as she followed it by taking the kiss she desired which was prolonged and spine tingling.