We met at the Christmas party
And I instantly
fell in love with you
The prettiest girl
in the room by far
Dressed in shades
of Christmas hue
And when I heard
your joyous laugh
The blissful love
in my heart grew
And though we had
never spoken
Nonetheless I
somehow knew
That for every
Christmas to come
In my future I'd
still be loving you
So, I look back,
with you in my arms
When I was growing up in the sixties we lived in North London and one of the things I really loved to do was to go swimming and we were quite well fixed for pools in the area, and I would swim until the chlorinated water left my eyes red and sore.
But of all the pools I swam in, the one I loved to swim in most of all
was the Durnsford Road Lido, especially during the summer months.
It was only sixpence to get in and for that paltry sum you could stay all
day long, which of course I did, and I would spend as many days of the holidays
there as I could, playing with friends and watching Mad Jack stunt diving off
the high platform.
When I first started to go there it was just a joy to spend all the time
in the sparkling water.
As I got older, I would come to appreciate the many delicacies on which
to feast the eyes upon, delicacies invisible to the eye of the eleven-year-old
boy who first visited the pool.
Whenever I arrived at the Lido there was always someone there that I
knew, so even if I went on my own, I could quite easily hook up with someone.
Some of them I knew from school others from where I lived, and some were
friends of friends.
I always took an old penny with me in the pool, and we would take turns
diving down to retrieve it or a group of us would play tag, it was basically
the same friends and the same games every visit.
On one particular day when I was thirteen, I went with a friend called
Keith and his cousin Simon and after spending about an hour diving for a coin
we sat on the side of the pool and watched the leathery skinned Mad Jack
perform one of his eccentric dives from the high board.
Almost before the ripples had subsided Maria Saunders and her friend
Lucy ran up behind us and pushed me and Keith in the pool and a chase ensued
resulting in Maria and Lucy being thrown in the 8-foot end and then being
thoroughly dunked.
This was the normal exchange between the four of us and it had been the
way of it since we were first years.
This time however when the four of us played tag it was different.
I eventually caught Maria after a long chase and during the ensuing
grapple something happened that had never happened before during our horseplay,
I got a hard on.
I didn’t know why; we had played that game hundreds of times before without
as much as a tickle in my trunks.
My first reaction to this unwelcome intrusion was to let go of Maria and
swim away, but the erection merely faded temporarily and as the game of tag
continued it returned with a vengeance whenever I got in close proximity of
Maria and that afternoon, we seemed destined to be in close proximity most of
the time.
After the third attempt at swimming away failed to diminish my woody, I
abandoned the tactic.
Afterall holding onto Marias voluptuous form whilst sporting a boner was
not an unpleasant experience and if she didn’t mind then I certainly didn’t.
I realise looking back that Maria was well aware of my discomfiture and
made sure that she rubbed up against me at every opportunity.
Our clinches lasted much longer than normal, and Maria must have been
aware of my erection prodding at her nether regions but she was clearly not
repulsed by it, in fact it was her more than I who seemed the most reluctant to
desist from our embrace.
And so, like an eager confused puppy humping a stranger’s leg I had my
first ejaculation in the presence of another human being rubbing up against Maria
Saunders in the pool.
Happily, although it was the first, I am pleased to say that it was not
to be the last time with Maria, in the pool or out of it.
Wearing a rather smug expression Maria stayed close to me the rest of
the day and afterwards I walked her home.
When we first started dating
I had no expectation of forever
I was content with the immediate
And enjoyed each moment with her
All the mundane chatter
And flirtatious wordplay
Leading to the longing looks
And the sentimental words of love
Back then time evaporated,
Hours seeming to pass in seconds
And in all those moments
Precluding our life together
The one thing we never had was silence
But that was then and this is now
And now the silence deafens me
No more chatter
Words are used miserly
As if endowed with great value
And not to be wasted
On flirtation or sentiment
Words, when used, now bite
With venomous spite
Moments now last an eternity
Clocks that once seemed to race through time
Run now in slow motion
Her contemptuous looks wither me
Longing now for my extinction
In the comfort of the coffee shop
Nestled into a sofa
Sits Abigail, homesick and sad
As she reads a letter from home
She knows the sadness will pass
And sooner this time than the last
It strikes each time a letter arrives from home
With news from those she left behind
Her parents, loving and kind
Her sister annoyingly lovely
All her friends of long standing
And of course, him
She left her hometown
The only place she had ever lived
After her marriage failed
So, she is building a new life
Away from the people and places
Away from all the familiarity
That reminded her daily
Of her failure and her inadequacies
So, she lives in a new town
And is making new friends
Discovering new familiar places
And trying to forget past mistakes
She has joined a new church
Where her angel’s voice
Sings in praise to heaven
And she is finding peace within herself
One day very soon Abigail will sit
In the comfort of the coffee shop
Nestled into a sofa
And not be homesick and sad
One day very soon Abigail will read
A long letter from home
And smile at it contents
And not feel the old pain strike
One day very soon
Abigail will let herself be happy
One day very soon
Abigail will forgive herself
The party was in full swing when Sinead arrived, she’d had to work late so arranged to meet Ben at the party.
But a combination of bad luck
and an awkward client meant that she was even later than she’d anticipated and
when Sinead walked into the Village Hall it appeared, she was too late to save
her engagement.
As she found her Fiancé Ben
otherwise engaged in a very passionate kiss with her cousin Fiona.
If Sinead had been surprised
by what greeted her in the Village Hall it was nothing compared to Ben’s surprise
when she knee’d him in the balls and there was definitely a look of surprise on
Fiona’s face a split second after Sinead slapped it, twice.
With Ben doubled up unable to
speak and Fiona with a scarlet handprint on each cheek of her startled face, Sinead
stormed out of the hall like a Celtic Goddess with her flaming red hair
streaming behind her.
She was like a heat seeking
missile and shot straight out into the car park and straight into Sebastian Cooper,
who was lost in thought as he walked the other way and they both ended up in a
heap on the floor.
“Why don’t you look where
you’re going you idiot” she screamed, Seb totally ignoring Sinead’s angry
remarks instead chose to look at the striking red head with an appraising eye.
“Are you ok?” he asked with
concern
She looked confused at first
and then opened her mouth to launch another tirade at him but dissolved into
tears instead.
Sebastian took her in his arms
and comforted her while she cried her pitiful tears and as they sat on the
tarmac of the car park in the darkness she sobbed and dribbled on his new shirt
until their hearts somehow became irrevocably entwined.
