Nineteen year old Jenna Crockford lived at number 5,
The Close, in the picturesque village of Mornington-By-Mere with her parents
and three siblings.
She was small girl, a
smidge over five foot, with delicate features and long strawberry blonde hair
and a large heart and that heart was full to overflowing with love.
And most of that love was directed at John Cooper the blonde haired, blue eyed boy next door at number 4
where he lived with his parents
Roy and Sally and a brother and sister.
John was not oblivious
to the young girl next door, far from it but he thought she was way out of his
league, and she was stunningly attractive and he was an ordinary looking man.
The other problem was that
she was not yet 20 whereas he was more than five years older and that had to
make a difference.
John was an Electrician,
and a good one at that, and although he did a lot of work in and around the
village and was a “first call” tradesman for the Mornington Estate, most of the
time he worked away on bigger jobs and as Jenna was in her second year at
Abbottsford University their paths seldom crossed anymore which for Jenna at
least made her want him even more.
Apart from his
professional work he was also very active in the church, at St Winfred’s as
well as farther afield.
This involved among
other things, being a greeter at the church services, delivering Parish
Magazines, and helping at the Christmas Bazaar in fact you name it and he did
it and that was only in the village.
His wider good works
included the Soup Kitchens in
Finchbottom or Purplemere, the Christmas Charity Wagon in Sharpington,
which was an old Mornington Brewery dray pulled by two white shire horses with
the whole thing bedecked with tinsel
and lights and carried on the back a multi denominational choir.
John Cooper was among those going from door to door, as the wagon drove
around the town, collecting donations in plastic buckets and handing out sweets
to the excited children.
He also helped out on the Santa Express, which was something else to
behold.
The Santa Express was a renovated steam engine and coaches, which ran
from Sharping
St Mary station
to a secret location where Santa was waiting in his grotto.
It picked up the local children and their parents late afternoon so that
they arrived at the grotto in darkness in order to make the most of the
spectacular lights.
It was one of the high points of his year, he well remembered his parents
taking him when he was a young lad and he liked to see other the kids as
excited as he used to be at their age.
But then as if all his
other good deeds weren’t enough he decided to volunteer for the Roving Angels
and after his training at St John’s Church in Purplemere, and his receipt of
his Roving Angels uniform he was deemed ready
for duty.
He had timed his first Patrol to be in January so as not to impact on his
other commitments around the busy Christmas period.
On Friday he finished work at lunchtime as that night was his first patrol with the Roving Angels.
He couldn’t deny that
he had reservations about doing it despite all the encouragement and wondered
if it was really for him.
He left the house in his
newly acquired uniform, worn over several layers including Long John’s and
stout boots and thick socks.
As it was forecast to
be minus 6 that night he was going to need every stitch of clothing to keep
warm so he donned a woollen hat, scarf and gloves.
The Roving Angels had
been in existence for about two years and was similar to the Street Angels,
Street Pastors and other groups that had sprung up all across the UK in the
previous 12 or 15 years.
They had made a really
positive impact on crime and antisocial behaviour in Finchbottom and Purplemere
town centres over the first two years particularly in the general vicinity of
the bars and clubs.
They provided a calming
presence on the streets late at night in situations where a police uniform
might have the opposite effect.
In the two years since
they began Roving Angels had contributed to a 29% fall in public place violence
on the weekends.
It all began when
Christian Churches in the area came together with the Police and the Borough
Council to establish the Angels.
But it took people of
Faith to make it work as with so many things in life.
To be perfectly honest
he was feeling a little apprehensive about his maiden patrol as he drove to Finchbottom.
He was after all doing
something he had never done before and patrolling the streets in the small
hours was not without its risks one of which being that drunks are such
unpredictable creatures.
Not to mention the
fact it was a bitterly cold night and he was a bit of a wimp and it was to be a
long shift starting at 10pm and possibly finishing as late as 4am.
All the bars and clubs
closed for the night at 3 am but the clientele have been known to hang around.
He had to confess that
when he went into the council building where the Angel volunteers congregated he
had butterflies in his stomach.
He supposed he was
nervous of meeting a bunch of strangers but when he walked in he found that he
knew almost half of the assembled group one of whom was Michael Hargrave
who also lived in Mornington.
“John” he said
offering his hand “good to see you”
“Hi Mike” he responded
taking his hand “I didn’t know you were an Angel”
“Yes” he said “since
the beginning”
“Really?” he asked
“Yes” he responded
proudly “two years now”
Although he had been
trained he didn’t really know what to expect so he was quite relieved to find he
was going out on the first hour, the quiet hour, with Mike, who was a veteran.
As expected it was an
uneventful maiden patrol which saw Michael taking the lead with him carrying
the back pack full of Flip Flops, lollipops, space blankets and the first aid
kit.
Going out on his first patrol with Michael Hargrave was useful for him, Mike showed him the boundaries of
the patrol area and he pointed out the potential hotspots for later, he showed him
all the CCTV camera locations and identified areas not covered and crucially
the radio dead zones.
Also the quiet stroll
gave him and Mike a chance to chat and catch up.
After the first
uneventful hour there was an hour of coffee and chat in the council building
then out again at midnight until one.
That also proved to be
rather uneventful in fact Michael said he had never known it so quiet, they
concluded it must be the low temperature, nobody was hanging around.
On their last lap
around town they did come upon a group of girls who had just spilled out of one
bar and were negotiating with the bouncers to get in another one and on the periphery
of the group was a face John recognised.
He hesitated before
speaking because he didn’t want to embarrass the girl but while he was
wondering what best to do she spoke to him.
“Hello John” Jenna
said a little tipsy
“Hello Jen” he said
“What are you doing
out this late?” he asked himself.
It was then that he
noticed a small group of lads lurking in the shadows.
“Are you on your own?”
he asked, “Where’s Kath?”
Kathryn Williams was
her best friend
She nodded in response
to the first part and shrugged at the second, which he interpreted to mean they
had had a falling out.
“You make sure you get
a cab home,” he told her
“Ok” she answered
“Have you got enough
money?” John asked
“Yes John” she replied
“What’s it got to do
with you?” a loud mouthed girl from the main group said
“Are you a paedo?”
“That’s enough of that
if you want to get in here,” the bouncer said and then they all filed into the
pub, Jenna included.
The other girls were
much older than her and he was a little worried, then the group of lads emerged
from the shadows and also entered the pub.
“You know her then” Mike
said as they headed back to the office.
“Yes” he replied, “So
do you, Jenna Crockford, she lives in the village”
He was mightily
relieved to get back inside at one o’clock, he was frozen and he didn’t
understand how the girls could walk around half naked in that weather.
It took almost all the
next hour to thaw out and he was not looking forward to another shift and he
was mightily relieved when the Supervisor announced that they would be finishing
at 3am.
Because it was so cold
no one was hanging around to cause trouble so his final patrol was deemed
unnecessary.
With that news John
and Mike said their farewells and headed out towards the car park.
As they were walking
down the road they saw a most extraordinary sight on the other side of the
road.
There was a girl
squatting beside a parked car peeing against the hubcap, which to all intents
and purposes sounded like it was being jet washed.
At the same time her
friend, they presumed she was a friend as they were engaged in conversation,
was peeing like a horse against a shop door.
But the remarkable
thing to Johns mind was that while this was going on a young man walked briskly
down the path between them and said
“Alright girls?” as he
high fived them both.
John was absolutely
gobsmacked at what he was seeing.
But Mike on seeing his
reaction just laughed, he had clearly seen it all before.
When John and Mike
reached the carpark they were parked within a few cars of each other and after
a brief chat Mike got in his and had driven out of the car park before John had
even started the engine.
Once the engine had
warmed up a bit and hot air started to blow through the vents he got out and
took off his coat and fleece.
He knew from the
journey over, that once the heater got running full throttle it would be too
hot with them on and as he drove out of the car park the car was toasty warm.
As luck would have it his
route took him past the railway station and the taxi rank and as he reached the
former he noticed Jenna staggering towards the latter and more alarmingly just
behind her was the small bunch of lads he had seen following her earlier.
So he pulled up just
ahead of her and wound down the window.
“Do you want a lift?”
he called
“I’ve got taxi fare,”
she slurred
“Look” and she waved a
ten-pound note at him.
“You’d better get in
then” he said
When she got in the
car John noticed she was shivering so he reached over to the back seat and
grabbed his fleece
“Put that around you”
he suggested
“Ok” she said, “Oooh it’s still warm”
Then he gave her his
coat as well and put it over her legs and lap and tucked it around her.
When he looked up the
young lads were just passing the car and they all stared in so he locked the
doors.
On the journey back to
the village he garnered from Jenna that she had indeed fallen out with her best
friend Kath.
It was a typically
trivial reason brought about by Kath texting her boyfriend while Jenna was on a
sleepover at Kathryn’s.
Jenna also admitted
she got jealous and stormed out of Kath’s house and went to see another friend,
Summer, who had the bright idea of going into Finchbottom.
Summer then met her ex-boyfriend
and abandoned Jenna who then tagged along with the group of older girls that John
saw her with and it was then that she started crying.
As luck would have it they
were just approaching a lay-by so he pulled over to comfort her, nothing else.
He had offered her a
lift out of genuine Christian kindness and because he cared about her and not
because he wanted to take advantage of her while she was drunk.
He just pulled over to
give her a hug and calm her down and as soon as he pulled on the hand brake she
leapt into his arms.
“Oh John what am I
going to do?” she sobbed, “I’ve been so stupid”
Well it took about 10
minutes to calm her down enough to establish that Kathryn wasn’t expecting her
back that night but he certainly couldn’t take her home in her drunken state,
her parents would not have been pleased so as he had the house to himself he said
“You can sleep on the
sofa at mine”
“It doesn’t have to be
the sofa” she slurred and placed her hand on his crotch.
“You can stop tha...” he
began but she had passed out and her hand went limp.
When he got back to
the house he pulled up on the drive and set about carrying the drunken Jenna
into the house.
Not an easy task even
taking into account she was barely seven stones.
In the end he chose
the fireman’s lift technique, which was easiest once he got her out of the car.
John took her straight
into the lounge and deposited her on the sofa.
He left her there and
went back to lock the car and secure the front door.
He then threw a
blanket over her, turned off the lights and went upstairs.
When he finally got to
his bed he went out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow.
It was just after
eight when he went downstairs to check on Jenna and found she was already up.
And as soon as he
walked into the lounge she threw herself in his arms.
“I’m sorry” Jenna
whispered
“What for?” he asked
“For being a drunken
bum.” she said “and embarrassing myself”
“As long as you’ve
learned a lesson,” he said sagely
“Am I forgiven then?”
she asked
“Of course” he replied
“but what about Kath?”
“I phoned her already
and I’m off to see her now to make things up”
Then she kissed him
long and passionately and then she was gone.
For some reason, despite
the fact that he had only had four hours sleep he was wide awake, it was
probably the intensity of the kiss, but he decided not to go back to bed.
He was quite hungry so
he cooked himself a full English breakfast and he ate it on his lap in the
lounge while watching TV.
After that he still
wasn’t tired so he had a long soak in the bath and by the end of it he was
yawning so after finishing his ablutions he returned to bed where he had a
lovely restful dream filled sleep dreaming about Jenna and that kiss.
It was a lovely dream
so vivid that he imagined he could feel her soft lips on his.
It left him thinking that
the age difference between them didn’t matter and when she kissed him she
didn’t seem to think he was out of her league.
So as he got out of
bed he was feeling very positive until he looked in the mirror.
“It was obviously
drink induced” he said to his reflection “She passed out in the car after all”
He slipped on his
bathrobe feeling more optimistic.
“But she wasn’t drunk
when she snogged me this morning before she left” he said triumphantly and
opened the bedroom door.
“Hungover then” his
doubtful side countered as he walked to the bathroom
“Oh this is getting me
nowhere” he snapped as he stepped in the shower “Does she fancy me or not?”
By the time he had
finished in the shower he had made a decision so after shaving and dressing he slipped out the
front door heading for the Crockford’s, however halfway there he lost his nerve
and diverted down the alley.
In between the
Cooper’s at number 4 and the Crockford’s at number 5
There was an alleyway
which lead from The Close and emerged between Mazzone’s Hairdressers and the
Dental Surgery in The Street.
But John didn’t
proceed down the alley he merely paced up and down muttering to himself that he
needed to get a back bone.
He had been pacing for about ten minutes when he heard a voice from
above.
It was Jenna who had been watching him with amusement from her bedroom
window, but her amusement was giving way to frustration.
“Are you ever going to get round to asking me out?”
“That depends” he replied
“On what?”
“On whether you say yes or no” John said
“Well why don’t you knock on the front door and find out” she said and
closed the window.
John took a deep breath and knocked on the glass and the door opened
immediately and a grinning Jenna was on the other side of it.
“Hello John this is a nice surprise” she said
“Hi Jen” he said
“What can I do for you?”
“I was just wondering…” John began falteringly
“Yes” Jenna said
“I mean would you….”
“Yes” Jenna said again
“Will you….”
“Yes, yes, yes” she said “how many times must I say yes before you snog
my face off?”
It proved to be a rhetorical question as she followed it by taking the
kiss she desired which was prolonged and spine tingling.
