The village of Brocklington
was on the River Brooke about six miles downstream from Sharping St Mary in the
Finchbottom Vale which was nestled comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean
Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, those who
are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.
The Vale was once a
great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to
Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the
north.
But over the many centuries
the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by
the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the
present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states
of repair.
There were only three
small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean
and third of course was Purplemere.
One of the newest
inhabitants of Brocklington was a Purplemere native, Sam Townsend, who had
moved to the village to live with his widowed sister Ruth and her two children Olivia
and Cecily.
Sam was five year
younger than his sister who was a few months short of her milestone 30th
birthday.
They were unmistakably
siblings with their dark curly hair and green eyes.
Sam wore his hair
collar length while Ruth’s tumbled lavishly onto her shoulders.
Sam still worked in
Purplemere and travelled back and forth to work by train and every day, twice a
day, he would call in at Stephenson’s corner shop and see the lovely Adele.
Stephenson’s had
supermarkets and convenience stores all over Downshire and the one in
Brocklington was owned and run by Glen and Lisa Thompson and ably assisted by
their lovely Niece Adele who did a disproportionate amount of the work.
Glen was a surly old
goat and since she was orphaned at the age of 12 he had been like her father to
her although in truth he was old enough to be her grandfather.
Adele and her Aunt
Lisa were both really nice although Sam thought Adele was lovely, she was a few
years younger than him, with caramel coloured skin betraying her mixed race
heritage and she was tall and slim but her thick back combed black hair made
her look even taller.
She was a skinny girl
but not in a boney way she just had a skinny frame.
Her eyes were big and
almost black and she had a huge toothy smile, which lit up the whole shop when
she smiled, if not the street.
Sam would always flirt
dreadfully with her and her aunt and they would always flirt back and when it
came time to pay there was always a lingering exchange where their hands would almost
touch, but not quite, and occasionally he would caress her hand with his thumb
or brush his fingertips against hers and she would blush, and if she was on the
shop floor he would brush passed her very close and she would get very
flustered.
Alas on a particular
in June she and her aunty were at the cash and carry, so only the surly old
goat was in the shop and he was sat on his arse watching cricket.
Sam Townsend really
fancied Adele Young, who worked at the corner shop and he always flirted
outrageously with her but he hadn’t been able to use that to his advantage and
ask her out, he always entered the shop with the intention of asking her out
but she was so seldom alone, and when she was his courage failed him.
He entered the shop
and as luck would have it lazy Uncle Glen was out, and Aunt Lisa was ill in bed
and only the lovely Adele was in the shop.
When she saw Sam walk
in, she quickly fussed with her thick black hair and made herself look even
lovelier.
She was a skinny young
girl, too skinny for everyone’s taste but he was firmly in the “nearer the bone
the sweeter the meat” camp.
As he approached her
huge black eyes and toothy smile lit up her face and he felt encouraged.
So as there were no
prying eyes, when she handed him his change he blatantly held her hand and made
her blush and he was just about to invite her to the cinema when another
customer entered the shop.
It was Agatha Spivey,
a very stern looking middle-aged woman who disapproved of everything, and in
particular love, especially young love.
She never smiled and
peered superciliously over her spectacles at everyone, not a joyful person, so
he had to leave his question unasked, but hung around by the magazines, until
she exchanged pleasantries with Adele, if you can call them that, and then as
abruptly and as rudely as she first appeared, she was gone so Sam returned his
attentions to Adele, however before he could resume his activities with her,
Violet Bradley walked through the door.
She was also a
middle-aged woman, but as different from Agatha Spivey as cheese was from
chalk.
She looked a little
flustered when she walked in but then she often did, after more than ten minutes
of chattering and gossip there were five people in the shop, so his moment had
gone so he gave Adele a final smile and left wondering when he would get
another chance.
The problem was he had
never seen her anywhere other than the shop, she lived in the apartment above
the premises with her aunt and Uncle so he couldn’t catch her going to or from
work and as a regular patron of the Mulberry Tree he knew she didn’t go there
so he wasn’t sure how he was going to manage it.
He was a less frequent
visitor to St Cuthbert’s but he hadn’t seen her there either.
So he was left for the
remainder of June only with his morning and evening encounters in the shop when
he hoped he would have a change of fortune.
Of course had he
spoken to his sister Ruth about his attraction to Adele, and furthermore the
difficulty he was having in speaking to her away from the shop, she would have
been able to tell him where and when he could find her with no difficulty at all.
But instead it was
left to chance.
It was Saturday morning
and July had arrived and furthermore it had delivered to the folk of Downshire
a very hot day, the hottest day of the year that far in fact.
It was Sam’s day off
from work and his sister Ruth had arranged for them to take her two daughters swimming
in Purplemere, which was always great fun.
They had to do it in
the morning as they had to leave early as they had been invited to a BBQ in the
afternoon back in Brocklington.
Sam left Ruth and the
girls swimming in the pool, because they wanted another five minutes, which they
stretched to ten, while Sam went and got changed.
The Purplemere Lido was
a very modern facility with up-to-the-minute unisex changing rooms with two long
rows of cubicles’ flanked by lockers.
He wasn’t altogether
sure if he liked the idea of unisex facilities or not, the jury was very much
out for him in that regard.
Sam was in a cubicle
getting dressed, he only had his shirt left to put on and he could suddenly
hear some familiar voices nearby and the first one was right outside his
cubicle door
“Come on luvvie” the
voice, said and the voice belonged to Aunty Lisa from the corner shop, so
therefore by extension the other voice had to be the lovely Adele.
“I’m nearly ready
Aunty, you go on without me and I will catch you up” Said Adele
The lovely Adele, from
the corner shop was only a few yards away from him and she was wearing a
swimsuit.
“Ok I will see you in
a minute” Lisa said moving away.
He left it for a
moment or two, listening intently to see if he could detect any movement and
when he thought he could hear her close the locker door and pad along the tiled
floor he open his door and found he had timed it to perfection as Adele was
right there wearing a black one piece swimsuit and clutching a towel.
“Hello Adele” he said
still stripped to the waist
“Oh Sam” she exclaimed
a little flustered, not quite knowing what to do and feeling a little self-conscious
as she was in her swimsuit.
“I didn’t know you
came here” he said
“Yes we do it every week”
she replied
He couldn’t stop himself
from casting an appreciative eye over her swim-suited figure, and she blushed
when she noticed him watching her.
Trying to cover her
embarrassment and failing she said
“Do you come here
often?”
And they both laughed.
“Who’s running the
shop this morning if you and Lisa are both here?” he asked her
“Uncle Glen and the
Saturday girls” she said as she watched him intently as he put his shirt on.
“Are you not coming in?”
she asked
“No I’ve been in
already, we’re going to a BBQ this afternoon”
“We?” she asked trying
to be casual
“My sister Ruth and
the girls”
“Oh” she responded
with obvious relief so Sam seized his moment and said
“Why don’t you come?
As my plus one”
“You want me to be
your plus one?” she asked
“If you’d like to” he
said
“Yes please, I would
like that” she replied, the delight was obvious on her face until a crest
fallen expression replaced it and she added
“But I have to work
this afternoon”
“What time do you finish?”
he asked
“Not until six” she replied
glumly “and then I’d have to change”
“Oh dear, it will be
all over by then” he said and he watched as her shoulders slumped
“I know” Adele said
resignedly
“So we’ll just have to
go into Purplemere instead” Sam suggested “Pizza and a movie maybe”
“Yes” she replied
“Definitely yes”
“Great, I’ll pick you
up at seven” he said and Adele nodded exaggeratedly in response.
Which was when Ruth
appeared and the girls were shouting excitedly for Uncle Sam so Adele gave him
a dazzling smile and skipped away towards the pool.
“Well that was easy”
he said to himself
“Was that Adele” Ruth
asked when she reached his cubicle
“Yes, we have a date
tonight” he replied smugly
“It’s about time” Ruth
said “I thought you were never going to do it”
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