Love is…
Is a dream fulfilled
Or a wish come true
Friday, 14 May 2021
ANNE
Anne stood on a still riverbank at peace
A
silent and untroubled location
She
knew well that then was the very last time
She
would stand in that special place alone
A
joining of hearts in the days to come
Meant
her life would be forever altered
Remembrances
filled her young head
Of
when her own council was all she had
No
more, since he entered her life
A
soul mate and kindred spirit, lover
A
friend and yet so much more besides
The
other half of her found at long last
And
with this new stranger reunited
They
will share the love that is requited
Uncanny Love Tales – (028) The Pyjama Game
At the time he had known her
for roughly six months and had had a crush on her since the first moment he saw
her.
She was in his sister’s
bible study group which was held at his house every two or three weeks.
When the diminutive woman
standing 4 feet 11 in her stocking feet looked at him with her large saucer
sized eyes he was ensnared.
Even before she deployed the
warm mesmerizing smile he was smitten.
But as remarkably beautiful
as her face was, her figure on the other hand was singularly unremarkable.
She had short chubby legs, a
flat chest and a barely distinguishable waist.
Though her bum was an
altogether different proposition and each buttock was beautifully defined
inside her cargos.
Colin however despite being
attracted to her didn’t envisage that anything would ever come of it, he was 12
years her senior and she was a sensible Christian girl.
So, it came as quite a
surprise when his sister Jane volunteered him to help Angela retrieve something
from the stationary cupboard and he ended up helping himself to a snog.
After the event Colin felt a
surprising lack of guilt about it even though he had snogged a fellow
congregant on church property during the Sunday service while his sister Jane
sat in the congregation.
He didn’t know if Angela
felt guilty however, he hadn’t seen her to ask her.
Though in fairness it was
Angela who had initiated the action in the cupboard when she feigned a slip
from the steps and fell into his arms.
He remembered so well
watching Angela taking her seat after the event, when she looked across at him
and smiled,
Colin winked at Angela and
her face went scarlet and she looked away.
But when a moment later she
turned and looked at him again she smiled broadly, and he knew the stationary
cupboard kiss was a proper beginning.
However in the week
following that eventful Sunday, Colin was away in Nettlefield on business so it
hadn’t been the beginning of anything and so it was the next Monday when he
decided to act and he decided to visit one of the places she worked and talk to
her away from the church.
Angela had a wonderful work
ethic, which was something else he admired her for and she held down three part
time jobs.
Monday to Wednesday she
worked at Abbotts Gardens Centre, Thursdays and Fridays she worked Dustbusters
Domestic Cleaning Services and at weekends she worked in the café and bookshop
at St Joseph’s church, which was situated on the edge of the town centre.
He visited the Abbotts
Gardens Centre numerous times but failed to see her, so he went into the St
Dunstan’s café and bookshop on three separate occasions just in case she was
doing extra shifts but there was no sign of her there either.
So, he thought that she was
obviously racked with guilt and was either keeping a low profile or had left.
Colin couldn’t keep turning
up at the church looking for her as people would doubtless notice and be
suspicious, he had already visited the bookshop more times in one week than he
had in the previous two years, and that would have been that had it not been
for an overheard conversation between his sister and the café and bookshop
manager, Mrs Patmore.
“Yes, I can do a couple of
hours on Saturday” Jane said “And I hope Angela is better soon”
After Jane had hung up the
phone Colin asked
“What was all that about?”
“Mrs Patmore is looking for
help at the café while Angela is laid up” she replied
“Why what’s wrong with her?”
his asked casually
“She fell off those rickety
steps last Sunday” Jane said in her “I knew that would happen” kind of way
He and Jane hadn’t been to
St Dunstan’s that day as they had a christening to attend at St Lucy’s in
Sharpington
“Oh dear” he said wondering
if she was thinking about the previous weeks’ antics “is she ok?”
“Badly sprained ankle” Jane
said
It was Wednesday when he got
the news about Angela’s fall, and once he realised, she wasn’t seriously hurt
Colin wondered if it would be classed as a fall from grace.
Particularly if she was
reminiscing on the previous outing on the steps.
He spent the next couple of
days trying to think of a plausible ruse that would enable him to go round and
see her.
The ploy would be
superfluous for Angela as she would know why he was really there; the ruse was
for the benefit of Judith who was Angela’s flatmate.
He racked his brain for a
solution, but none came so he resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn’t see
her until she returned to work.
On Saturday morning he was
busy in the garden pruning back the shrubbery when Jane appeared at the
backdoor
“I’m doing a shift at the
café this afternoon” she called
“Ok” he replied
“There is a bunch of flowers
on the table” she continued “I don’t have time to drop them off, so can you do
it?”
“Sure” he replied, “who are
they for?”
“Angela of course” she said
“why do you never pay attention”
Flowers, why didn’t he think
of flowers, it was perfect.
So as soon as Jane had left,
he went upstairs and showered and shaved, then he got in his car and drove the
six miles to the small block of flats where Angela lived.
He walked up to the first
floor and rang the bell and a few minutes later it was opened by Judith Small
the flat mate.
“Hi Judith” he said “I have
flowers for the invalid”
“Hello Mr Capel” she said
politely “Do come in”
As he followed Judith down
the hall staring at her denim clad derriere he thought that Angela’s flat mate
had the three main attributes that Angela lacked youth, height and breasts, but
despite that there was something Judith didn’t have and that was the equal to
her bum and more importantly her heart.
“It’s Mr Capel” Judith
announced as he walked in
“Hello Colin” she said
recumbent on the sofa with her sprained ankle resting on a chair supported by a
large cushion.
She was wearing a blue
fleecy dressing gown over the top of pink striped pyjamas.
“What a lovely surprise”
“I come bearing gifts” he
said and proffered the bunch of flowers which Judith snatched from his grasp
and took them away to the kitchen
“They’re lovely” said the Carrington
Chase educated girl and motioned with
her head like someone watching the grand prix and has just seen the car race
down the home straight.
He sat down on the sofa next
to her.
“I would have come sooner”
he said after Judith had gone.
“But…” He didn’t finish his
sentence as Angela had taken hold of his hand which she continued to hold until
Judith reappeared.
“What happened?” Colin asked
with concern
“I fell off those blessed
steps and you weren’t there to catch me” she said
“Or kiss me” she added in a
whisper
“I wish I had been” he said
and she blushed
Just then Judith’s mobile
went off and she took it out of the room to answer it and the moment she went
out the door Angela took hold of his hand again but released it a moment later
when Judith returned
“Will you be alright if I
just pop into town?” she asked “I won’t be long”
“Of course” Angela replied
“Colin will keep me company for a little while, won’t you Colin?”
“Oh yes” he replied “I’ll
take good care of her”
The second they heard the front door close Angela took
hold of his hand again and held it against her cheek.
“How’s your ankle?” he asked
“Not too bad” she said and Colin took that to mean
that she wanted a cuddle so he put his arm around her.
“I was hoping you would come to see me” she said in
her posh wanton accent
“I came as soon as I could” he explained
“I know” she said holding his palm against her cheek
and he moved closer to her and kissed her mouth.
She reciprocated instantly with lips, soft and
yielding, and her mouth was hot and her tongue inquisitive.
In the hour and a half that Judith left them alone
together they did more than kiss, they declared their love for each other.
However they decided to keep it to themselves for the
time being which they thought made their relationship
all the more exciting.
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
You always feel like
A Sunflower amidst the Daffodils
A Thistle among the Tulips
Out of place, unsightly
You see yourself
As the ugly duckling
But who never transformed
Into the beautiful swan
You feel ugly and at odds
Ungainly and ungraceful
How wrong you are
To me you are perfection
You should feel like
You are a Rose amidst Cabbages
An Orchid among Daises
In pride of place, radiant
I see you as
The beautiful signet
Who was transformed
Into a beautiful, graceful swan
That’s how I see you
An angel from the host
A goddess among mortals
Whom I shall forever worship
LOVE AT A STROKE
I saw her across the room
A
vision of beauty to the beholder
I
was struck, instantly
By
her loveliness, by her elegance
The
way she held herself
I
was spellbound by the image
I
was physically altered by her
Was
this love at first sight?
Or
mere infatuation
She
was really lovely
And
I doubtless felt something
What
I saw was a rare beauty
A
precious thing
Like
a work of art
Treasured
on a gallery wall
A
painting seen from a distance
But
what I felt wasn’t love
Not
from the first sight of her
Desire
yes, feelings of passion also yes
Want
and need certainly
But
real depth of love no
This
comes later, after closer study
Examining
the canvas
Every
nuance, each brushstroke
Form,
colours, composition, perspectives
Seeing
beneath the beautiful façade
To
find beneath the painted layers
To
where true beauty resides
Only
after this patient study
Can
you find true depth of feeling
And
claim to be in love
The Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa – Art for Art’s Sake
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 and when Yvonne Labuschagne inherited it from her cousin, the last remaining Clerembeax, she undertook the task of modernizing the Palace and opening a Hotel and Spa.
Staffing
was crucial, and Yvonne used her contacts in the Spa world to find the right
specialist people in her field of expertise’s and employed Hannah Morgan as
manager to fill the remainder of the roles, on the understanding that she
employ from the village populous where possible, whether they be part time or
permanent, and one of the part timers was Lara Mackie.
17-year-old Lara never knew her father, and she lost
her mum, Belinda, to breast cancer when she was only 12, which was how she came
to be living in Clerembeax with the Moore Family.
Her mum and Helen Moore were best friends from childhood
and remained in each other’s lives until the very end.
So, it was the most logical thing in the world for
Belinda to entrust her daughter’s future to the safe hands of her best friend.
Lara, and Helen’s son, Steve, had grown up together,
and spent every school holiday together, and when she moved in with the Moore’s
Steve took her under his wing and protected her, and they became inseparable.
They were the same age and had been in each other’s
lives since they were babies, and they shared the same milestones.
Even when they lived in different houses they saw
each other almost every week and the untimely death of her mother just pushed
them closer together so invariably they gravitated towards each other.
Her thing, her great passion, was art, it had been
from the moment she could hold a pencil, and her dream, between college and
University, was to go to an artist’s retreat in France for three weeks in the
summer, and she had worked every shift imaginable for 12 months to pay for it,
but she wasn’t allowed to go on her
own, but she could go provided Steve went with her, so of course he agreed.
His parents knew that his feelings for her weren’t
simply friendship or familial and furthermore they also knew that she didn’t
look upon him as a brother.
But nothing had come of it, so they thought time
away in France might finally get them together.
Thanks
to her hard work up at the Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa she had the holiday
paid for by the end of March and a good chunk of spending money by the end of
April but then disaster struck when she fell off her bike one day on her way
home and dislocated her shoulder, which meant that was the end of her earnings
until after France.
All
of this meant that after all her hard work and plans she wasn’t going to have
any spare funds to treat herself to some new artist’s materials for the trip.
She
really wanted them, but she told Steve that she would just have to get
something cheaper and gave him a weak smile.
Steve
managed to persuade her not to settle for less than she really wanted and just
bide her time and wait for a couple more months and as every cloud had a silver
lining by the time she was ready to buy them for University they would be at an
even better price and in response Lara punched him on the arm for his sunny
optimism, which meant she knew he was right.
When the time for the trip arrived, he sat and
watched her as she pottered around the house gathering up the things she would
be taking to France and he smiled.
For Steve there was no one lightbulb moment, when he
could definitely say
“That was when I fell in love with her”
Because he had always loved her, and he always
would, and now he had an opportunity for a demonstration of his love, and that
necessitated an impromptu trip into town with his dad James.
They
then had to sneak the purchases inside the house and upstairs without being
seen so Helen could wrap them up, then when they were done they needed to get
the wrapped presents back downstairs and into the dining room, Helen was keeping
watch in the hall and indicated when the coast was clear, so they tiptoed down
the stairs and across the hall and placed the packages onto the dining table.
A
few minutes later Lara walked in, to find the three of them standing in front
of the dining table on the other side of the room, and Steve thought she looked
lovelier than ever.
She
was immediately suspicious and said
“Why
are you all huddled over there?”
“Well
there is something we wanted to do before we have dinner” James said
“Well
we know how disappointed you were about your artist materials, so here you are”
Helen said and with military precision they parted to reveal the brightly
wrapped parcels.
“What’s
all this?” Lara asked
“Open
them and you’ll find out” Steve said
So,
she set about the task and as she ripped off the paper her eyes widened with
delight and she smiled broadly
“It’s
all the things I wanted” she said “You shouldn’t have”
Then
she hugged and kissed Helen and James.
“Thank
you”
“It
wasn’t us darling” Helen said “I just wrapped them”
“And
I just drove the car” James added, and she turned towards Steve
“So,
it was you?” she said and prodded him in the chest with an outstretched finger.
“So,
what was all that tosh about me biding my time?”
“Sound
advice” he replied, and she jabbed her finger into his chest again
“And
“every cloud has a silver lining”?”
She
asked with another prod
“And
all the time”
Jab
“You
were planning this”
Poke
“Pretty
much” he confirmed and then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his
cheek and said
“I
love you”
The
moment the words left her lips she stiffened as she realised she had said it
out loud, and she regretted it instantly, not because she didn’t mean it, she
did and she had often dreamed of saying it, but she regretted it because it was
on the eve of their departure to France, and the location was not ideal with
his parents looking on, what if they were angry, what if he didn’t love her and
they would have three weeks of awkwardness, but then she took a breath and
thought that regrets were pointless, it was said and it was spontaneous, but
she instantly tried to backtrack.
“I
mean… I…” she stammered but he put a finger to her lips
“Hush”
he said “You don’t have to explain, because I love you too”
“You
do?”
“I
do” he confirmed and then her arms were wrapped around his neck again only this
time when she kissed him it wasn’t on the cheek.
Helen
and James were hugging as they watched their son and surrogate daughter finally
expressing the love they had always held for each other, but they discreetly
slipped away as the couple shared a different kind of kiss.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)