THE SUN AND MOON

 

The sun and moon

Where once in love

But the sun burned hot

With want and desire

While the moon

Was cool and aloof

So they were destined

To be Star-crossed

For all eternity

ACROSS THE LONELY VOID

Hands reach out

Across the lonely void

Groping in the darkness

Reaching for love,

Blindly searching

For a kindred spirit

A lottery of chance

Without an angel’s

Tender guidance

Those Memories Made on Teardrop Lake – (99) Clandestine Christmas

Daryl Bodle had a mission to fulfil, but it was a clandestine affair that could only be undertaken in the early hours of the morning.

This in itself was not an issue for him as he was a nurse, so he was used to late night activity.

He arrived home from work just after 9 o’clock, showered and changed and then ate supper of cheese and biscuits following which he fell asleep during Match of the Day.

The alarm on his phone woke him up at 2.45am, so he stretched and got up from his chair, went for a pee and set off.

 

His destination was the Funny Bones comedy club in Childean and his target was Sarah Hanratty, who was also a night owl as she was the owner and manager.

Sarah was a very stern looking young woman with short brown hair with gold framed spectacle’s which she liked to peer over the top of and because she rarely smiled she was considered to be a joyless person, and as her habit was to dress in black she was known as the

“The Wicked Witch of the West”.

Some people considered it a little ironic that a sour faced old spinster should own and manage a comedy club.

But it was only the people who didn’t really know her who called her derogatory names and thought her sour faced and joyless.

 

He drove into the car park and walked round the back of the building to Ms. Hanratty’s office and he looked through the barred window and saw her sitting at her desk with her back to the glass.

She was counting the night’s takings and he smiled to himself as he thought how much she looked like Scrooge in his counting house.

It would have been a good night, being Saturday night and Christmas Eve.

 

On previous visits he had let himself in the staff entrance however since they had a break in at Halloween they had tightened up on security and now employed a biometric system requiring the staff member’s thumbprint so on that occasion as he was expected he just tapped on her barred office window.

Despite the fact that his visit was not a surprise he nonetheless startled her because she almost jumped out of her chair, which she then swung around so she could check out the source of the tapping.

When she saw it was him her stern face relaxed into a smile and she began to fuss with her hair.

Daryl pointed in the direction of the staff entrance and she nodded her understanding.

As he stood outside the door he looked through the small glass panel as Sarah appeared in the corridor and she clearly wasn’t aware he could see her, because she began straightening her clothes and when she was about ten yards from the door she hitched up her skirt and adjusted her stocking tops.

He stepped away from the door as she opened it and once inside he said

“Happy Christmas Miss Hanratty, how are you?”

“All the better now that you’re here” she said and stood on tiptoe to kiss him

“Are you done?” he asked

“I am, I just need to put the cash in the safe” she replied “and then we can go home”

“I like the sound of that” he said and kissed her

Ten minutes later after locking the takings in the safe and setting the alarm they drove to Shallowfield and spent their first Christmas together. 

I CAN SEE YOU ARE BLESSED

 

I can see you are blessed

With love in your heart

I see it in your face

Radiant like a sunburst

The glow on your cheek

When he’s near you

And the clarity in your eyes

When you look at him

And that self-satisfied smile

Of utter contentment

You are in love

Without a doubt

I can read you like a book

And I can see a love story

MONOCHROME WORLD

 

Without you today

Everything is grey, your love

Coloured all my world

FILL ME UP

 

Without you in my life

My cup is an empty whim

Your love nourishes and fills

Me right up to the brim

Those Memories Made on Teardrop Lake – (98) Christmas Memories Evoked

 

When Keith Fulbrook was growing up Christmas was a very special time for him and every year the season evoked so many memories and many of those memories were of the times he spent at his grandparent’s farm in Shallowfield.

A row of wellington boots standing on the flagstones, fresh from hours of play in the snow and dripping wet mittens drying on a string behind the tortoise stove in the kitchen, the smell of burning logs and damp wool invading the nostrils, soon to be replaced by the scent of a fresh cut fir tree in the living room filling the air with the aroma of Christmas joining the smells of nutmeg and ginger coming from the pantry.

He just had to smell pipe smoke and he was back with his grandpa with his twinkling blue eyes and wry smile as he puffed out a dense cloud of aromatic smoke from his meerschaum pipe.
But it wasn’t just smells, the house was always alive with the ringing sounds of boisterous laughter of ten grandchildren of varying ages filling the house.

And when the house wasn’t resounding with laughter it was music as the family gatherings always prompted renditions of the carols and songs of Christmas played on guitar and fiddle and sung with gusto.
But that wasn’t the only Christmas music he remembered there was also the sweet sounds of a choir at the candlelit midnight mass.

But candlelight was eclipsed by the sparkle and twinkle of the fairy lights reflected on the fragile glass ornaments and heirloom decorations that magically transformed his grandparent’s living room into his childish vision of a magic wonderland.

And then there were the tastes candy canes and chocolates from the tree, satsumas and nuts in their stockings, sugar almonds, jellied fruits, dates, liquorice, and mints.

Turkey and all the trimmings, Gammon, Christmas pudding, brandy butter, mince pies, shortbread, pies, tarts, fruit cakes, sausage rolls.

But all the bounty of the table was far outweighed by the abundance of love which was linked to every single memory.

But his favourite Christmas memory came when the winter delivered up the perfect Christmas gift, snow.

 

When Keith went to bed the wind howling through the trees gave no clue that it was carrying Jack Frost to the Vale but the next morning when he woke up to the sound of excited squeals and when he looked outside he gazed out at the whitened landscape and ten minutes later all the grandchildren dashed out into the white magical world, screaming and shouting like released convicts rejoicing in a new-found freedom.

The warm knitted gloves were soon abandoned as snowballs were hurled in all directions.

Shrieks filled the winter air as aims improved and increasing numbers found their mark.

As the battle ground expanded they joined forces with a group of village children and that was the moment he first saw Yvonne Sage and he discovered there was something even more exciting than a white Christmas.

Yvonne was the same age as him, give or take, and she was tall for a fourteen year old girl, lean and wiry with braided brown hair and a bit of a tomboy but he was smitten.

But he had never noticed a girl before so he didn’t really know what to do about his infatuation.

But because she chose to join a group building a snowman so did he.

   

Rudolf, their giant snowman, gradually took shape on the village green.

A red tartan scarf was draped around his broad shoulders and a boy produced an old battered black hat, which was accidently set at a jaunty angle on his huge head which gave him a rakish look.

Two un-sucked gobstoppers provided him with staring blue eyes.

Keith and Yvonne held the ends of a length of old rope which they tied around Rudolph’s substantial waist, some pebbles substituted for buttons, a carrot nose and a stick mouth completed the magnificent figure.

And then they stood back to admire their handiwork.
Despite being pleased with the finished article Keith panicked because he didn’t know what to do next if Yvonne suddenly went off with her friends.

But then Tom and Lindsay Collingwood suggested going up to Coopers Hill for a bit of sledding.

“Yeh count me in” Yvonne said “What about you Keith?”

Keith was so releived that he didn’t know what to say so he just nodded his agreement and she smiled because she really liked him and she wanted him to go with her.

And so they walked up to Coopers Hill together and the fact that they didn’t have a sled or a toboggan didn’t seem to faze them at all, so on the way there they collected some cardboard boxes from outside Stephenson Supermarket and shared a sheet of cardboard and used it to ride down the hill, screaming at every bump, and when they got to the bottom Tomboy Yvonne had a boyfriend.

Although they didn’t realise it at the time they were victims of love at first sight and it was a love that lasted a life time.