Snippets of Downshire Life – May Day

 

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.

One of the Vale’s biggest employers were Brocklington Broadcast International, which is where employee Ross Manning had been  trying to get a date with Marta Gouveia since the BBI Christmas party, but for a variety of reasons it never happened, until shortly before the May Bank Holiday when they were talking and he asked

“Let’s go to Sharpington on May Day”

And in her response there was no prevarication and he was shocked when he heard her say “yes” immediately.

 

The weather in the week preceding the May Bank Holiday had been unseasonably warm, but from Friday lunchtime onwards it gradually deteriorated until by May Day itself it was a grey dismal day with torrential rain accompanied by thunder and lightning.

 

Ross picked her up at 9.30 and the rain hammered down all the way to the coast and he thought that the prospect of the weather clearing was extremely optimistic.

On reaching the traditional seaside resort of Sharpington-by-Sea they parked on the sea front facing the sea and sat in the car and for a few moments they silently looked for a glimmer of hope and simultaneously sighed.

They opened the car doors and the few other visitors that had ventured out, were already scurrying for cover as it was still lashing down with rain and there was a violent thunderstorm accompanying it.

“This is not what I had in mind” he thought as they hurried through the rain to a café.

“It was supposed to be perfect”

 

As they sat at a table in the café they perused the brochures that listed Sharpington’s highlights, its Victorian Pier, seafront hotels, crazy golf, The Palladium ballroom, well maintained gardens, promenade, theatre and illuminations, all the usual things to have a great time by the seaside, as well as amusement arcades and of course the Sharpington Fun Park.

He looked across the table just as a clap of thunder rattled the windows and said

“Not a very auspicious first date, is it?”

“I guess not” she replied flatly

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be presumptive, I mean, I’d like a second date, but I should ask first”

“There had better be a second date, after a seaside washout, but before we right off today completely, I think we should try to make the best of what we’ve got and go to the Fun Park” she said and reached across the table and squeezed his hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHE’S LEAVING

I suppress the sunshine, she says

And bring her nothing but rain

Now I’m begging her not to leave

But I know that it is in vain

And I know that if I let her go,

Although that would ease her pain,

I am full of fear of saying goodbye

In case we will never meet again

WHERE, WHEN AND HOW

 Where did it go?

The sense of one

Feeling of togetherness

Of mutuality, symbiosis

Thinking each other’s thoughts

A consciousness shared

Breathing in unison

A single beating heart

Speaking in a single voice

 

When did it happen?

At what point?

Did we separate?

Torn asunder

Split like an atom

Dissected like conjoined twins

To Breath alone

Stop sharing one heart

Speak for ourselves

 

How could it be?

When I looked at her with love

A stranger looked back

Independent and solo

Individual and free

Thinking on a different plain

Breathing different air

Heart pulsing with a different beat

Speaking a foreign tongue

The Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa – The Power of Prayer

 

The beautiful Downshire village of Clerembeax St Giles was situated to the west of Abbeyvale located between Grace Hill and Bushy Down and on the outskirts was the Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa which had become very important to the lives of those living in the village community with St Giles’ Church at its hub.

It was a busy village with all the usual amenities you would expect, in addition to St Giles’ Church there was a village Hall, and primary school of the same name.

There was also the Trinity Methodists Church, Stephenson’s General store, which included an off-license, newsagents and Post Office, and two pubs, Étienne of Normandy and the Saracen, and it was at the Saracen where James Timms and Constantina Mironica worked.

 

Twenty-three-year-old Constantina worked there full time in order to support herself and her lazy good for nothing older brother Emilios, who everyone referred to as Moronica.

James Timms on the other hand was a full-time gardener up at the Palace but worked as many shifts as he could get at the pub because he was in love with her.

He had asked Tina out many times but between the hours she worked at the pub and fetching and carrying for her brother she never had time for a date.

Emilios had made it perfect plain to James that he didn’t like him and that his sister was “off limits” not that James cared what he said or thought, and it didn’t make any difference to the way he behaved around her.

He addressed her as Tina, which he knew Emilios hated, and she called him JimTim, which he also disliked, but he had to tolerate it as he needed the money she contributed to the house.

 

James had been in love her for almost the whole two years he had worked at the Saracen and it looked like nothing would alter the status quo, until one weekend when Emilios had been to the Beer Festival in the village of Mornington-by-Mere and crashed his car on his way home while he was more than two and a half times over the legal limit.

 

As a result of his injuries in the accident he was in a coma for more than three months at the St Bernadette’s Covent Hospital in Abbeyvale and Constantina was constantly at his bedside and James saw little of her, and when he did there was an awkwardness between them that had never been there before, and he later found out that was because she felt guilty, but he didn’t know why.

 

Because of his catastrophic spinal injuries Emilios was destined to be a quadriplegic, but he never regained consciousness and died four months to the day after the accident.

Yet still she could not confide in James or feel at ease with him and he was confused, he wanted to be there for her to support and comfort her, but she pushed him away. 

 

Undeterred he kept a watching brief on her and was ready to step in when she needed him to. 

She kept her distance from him right up until the day of the funeral when her resistance withered, and she allowed him to hug her.

 

He was there to comfort Tina on the loss of her brother, in truth she didn’t really like her brother, he was older than she was and he was never a pleasant man once drink and drugs got their hooks into him and as he got older he got worse, she loved him because he was her brother, and she cried for him when he died, but her tears were for the boy he once was rather than the man he became.

But when James put his arms around her, it didn’t matter to her that she didn’t like Emilios, because she wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity for a hug from a good-looking man that she loved.

And her estrangement towards him following the accident were not borne out of dislike or distrust, she loved him, and she wanted him.

The reason her being distant towards him were as a result of her terrible guilt, a guilt brought on by the knowledge of her actions, because she had prayed on her knees countless times at St Giles’ church for God to grant her wish to spend her life with James, and then came the accident which she believed her prayers brought about.

But as she stood there in the arms of the man she loved she knew that the power of prayer didn’t cause the accident that ultimately killed her brother, she knew that the loving God she worshipped would not answer such a prayer or act in that way.

Her brother died because of his own irresponsible actions, and she was sad for the loss of the boy he once was, but she was content because the future that lay ahead was a bright one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUARDIAN

 

She was only slight

And petite of height

Her complexion light

Her smile so bright

 

Her hair was brown

Her eyes looked down

She never wore a frown

But a halo for a crown

 

Her eyes were green

And her intellect keen

Her limbs lithe and lean

With the poise of a queen

 

An angel in human form

Protecting me from the storm

Her embrace both soft and warm

From despair I will transform

CHILD OF NATURE

 

She was a child of nature

The most special one

With a smile as warm

As the summer sun

Yet fragile and delicate

Like an early bloom in spring

Bright as a shaft of sunlight

Illuminating the gloom

Spectacular and exiting

As the days first dawning

Yet simple and refreshing

As a clear winter morning

Tempestuous and wild, like

An autumn gale blowing

The most special one

She was a child of nature

ANOTHER

 

Our first year of wedded bliss

Then a second year united

Another year notched up

Yet one more year in concert

Another year together

One more year in partnership

Another year with you

A year of dull and sunny weather

The ninth year still bonded

Another year together

One more year of companionship

Another year of just us two

A year of sad and happy days

Fourteen years now coupled

Another year together

One more year of friendship

Another year chalked up

A mixed year of good and bad

Nineteen years now joined

Another year together

One more year of togetherness

Another year on the sentence

A year of nag and nag and nag

Twenty-four long bloody years

Another year together

What did I do to deserve this?

The punishment didn’t fit the crime

Not even the great train robbers

Had to serve this much time