You said you had to go
away,
Just a day or two
A business trip
Something you had to
do
But I knew better
I knew that you were
leaving
I found out
About the cheating and
deceiving
I wait for the truth
to come
But you just keep
lying
You’re leaving me
And inside I’m dying
But you won’t see me
cry
I just smile instead
I won’t let you see me
I will do that in my
empty bed
You kiss me on the
cheek
And look me in the eye
And with that Judas
kiss
You turn and say
goodbye
All of my life
I have had no talent
Hidden or on show
No gift or endowment
No skill or mastery
No bent or flair
Ability or forte
Nothing to mark me out
From the common herd
Or stand me out from
the crowd
All of my life
I have been ordinary
Mediocre and average
Quite mundane and
everyday
No hint of genius
Expert only in my
ordinariness
But content in my
mediocrity
All of my life
I have been un-ambitious
No goals to be
achieved
Not driven by desire
In any shape or form
Some might say
shiftless
I would say satisfied
Happy with my lot
All of my life
I lived a half life
Until my outlook
changed
When I saw you smile
And heard you speak my
name
I was born again
With new purpose
A new vocation
To shed my mediocrity
And cast it aside
Like a well-used coat
And dig deep within
myself
To find that dying
ember of desire
That almost
imperceptible spark
So clearly visible to
you
And breathe life into
it
Until white hot
And then fan the
flames of passion
You have ignited in me
All the rest of my
life
Endowed with your gift
I will feel extraordinary
And with my newfound
ambition
My one and only goal
The sole purpose of my
being
Is to make you truly
happy
As happy as you have
made me
And with all my heart
and soul
I will dedicate myself
To always loving you
At lanes end
The rustic stile
Stands sentinel still
Marking that special
place
Where the fates
conspired
Our souls should meet
Though we purposely
Trod opposing paths
We met at that rustic
spot
And to help you cross
I took your hand
Small and silken soft
Guiding you safe to my
side
And despite the
presence
Of each others
companions
We were to all intents
Quite alone
And in those moments
When hand touched hand
We at once beheld
Our lives from that
point on
Would be forever
altered
And were content
With that destiny
At lanes end
The rustic stile
Stands like a monument
Marking the place of
alteration
A significant place
A spiritual place oft
revisited
And on such sojourns
We would find renewal
As the energizing
memory
Of that special moment
Assailed our senses
Essentially invigorating
Like imbibing the
waters
From the fountain of
youth
And our hearts would
once again
Resound with
joyousness
And sweet moments of
romance
Those excited tingles
Of loves first passion
When hearts beat
faster
And desire courses
Through every fibre
The thrill of
blossoming love
Adding to the strata
Of our love laid down
Through all our years
By returning to the
place
Of loves wondrous
inception
We keep our love alive
And in equal measure
Love returns the
favour
Like the star-crossed
lovers,
Romeo and Juliet,
They come from feuding
kin
And must hide their
love
They meet in secret
Beside the quiet lake
The only sounds,
Are of the faintest
breeze
Disturbing the lofty
tree tops
And ducks squabbling
on the lake
But despite the quiet
Fearful of discovery
They embrace hidden
from view
Beneath a weeping
willow tree
Whose leafy pendulous
branches
Trail down into the
still water
Stirred by the gentle
breeze
They dip in an out of
the water
Like the toes of a
reluctant bather.
They kiss there in the
quiet shade
And feel at once
renewed
No words are spoken
Their language is of
caress and kiss
Such tender converse
With limitless
vocabulary
And languid
pronunciation
Every syllable well
employed
And when the final
paragraph is reached
They end with perfect
.punctuation
Stirring from their lovers
languor
They tread separate
paths
To rejoin warring
tribes
Adopting adversarial
manner
No knowing looks to be
exchange
No casual brushing
past
When for that
exquisite moment
Hand touches hand
They must remain
entrenched
Until they can once
again
Embrace beneath the
weeping willow tree
The Finchbottom Vale
is 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.
And at the far eastern
end of the Vale was the traditional seaside resort of Sharpington-by-Sea, complete with a
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.
The four friends had
spent the morning playing a foursome at the Sharpington Dunes Golf Club, they
all lived locally in the town of Sharpington-By-Sea and three of them had houses
that backed onto the course.
Their foursome had
become a regular fixture on their social calendars after widower Dave Whitaker
had taken early retirement at the age of 50.
It seemed the right
thing to do at the time, his children had flown the nest, his wife had passed
and his job had lost its lustre, so he retired and he had never regretted it
for a moment.
Retirement enabled him
to spend time with his three favourite ladies of leisure, Sarah Price, Katie
George and Wilhelmina Winten.
Sarah and Katie were
both wealthy grass widows and ten years younger than he was and spinster Willi
was three years older and was a retired PE Teacher.
After spending a very
pleasant morning on the course they lunched at the club as was their habit and
as they sat down at their regular table Willi announced
“I can’t be late home
today, Marta is coming to help me tidy the attic”
“It must be important
if you’re going to cut your lunch short” Sarah said and they all laughed.
“If truth be told I do
rather look forward to the days Marta comes to help me” she said when the
laughter had subsided
“She’s really such a
nice girl and very good company”
Which was when, the
waitress, Georgina, arrived at the table to take their order.
“So you’re not coming
to mine for drinks this afternoon Willi?” Katie asked
“I’m afraid not” she
replied
“What about you
Sarah?”
“No not today” she
replied reading a text on her phone “somethings come up”
“Just me and you then
Dave” Katie said
“Ok with me” Dave
remarked
So after a very nice
lunch in very pleasant company, and feeling a little over indulged, they had a
rendezvous by their trolleys and prepared for the short stroll across the 18th
fairway, apart that is from Sarah Price, who was the only one of the group whose
house didn’t adjoin the Golf Course, she had a flat in Jubilee court
overlooking the promenade.
“I’ll say goodbye now”
she said “I need to pop to the pro shop before I head home”
So while the other three walked their trolleys across the 18th fairway
Sarah went the other way to the pro shop.
The text she received during lunch was from David Snowdon the Golf Pro,
a 6’ 2” bronzed muscular Adonis, Sarah on the other hand was not, she was
attractive but she was a big buxom red head.
The bronzed God was talking to a customer when she walked in but he
soon made his excuses.
“Can I help?” he said
“Yes I’m here for my Golf lesson” she replied matter of factly.
“Ok would you like to come through?”
David led her out through the door at the back of the shop and passed
the stockroom, to the end of the corridor to where there was a lounge area with
a Golf simulator set up.
“So what aspect of the game would you like to cover today?” he asked
“Well I have always thought that choosing the right partner is very
important” Sarah said as she sidled up towards him.
“Very important” he agreed
“And the grip is also all-important” she added wrapping her arms
around him.
“I have to complement you on your approach play” he said and then he
kissed her as he had done many times before.
She didn’t know why a gorgeous 35 year old athletic hung was attracted
to a curvaceous middle aged widow, but then she didn’t really care.
Twenty eight year old
Paul Ingram was involved with an older woman, a forty year old woman to be precise,
who was a beautiful unhappily married, soon to be divorced Carrington Chase educated woman, called Francesca
Carrington-Webber.
Paul and Francesca both lived in the village of Forest Dean situated
equidistant between Shallowfield and Childean, she lived in a huge house that
backed onto the The Forest Ridge Golf Club, and coincidentally Paul worked for
the Golf Club.
They became involved after three chance meetings, two on a train and
the third more significant one was on the Promenade in Sharpington, where he
came upon her small huddled figure on the bench ahead of him in some distress
and after some tender moments of consolation lead to them making love in his
caravan.
Since that night they had had a non-physical relationship and on the
rare occasions that they managed to get to spend some time together they always
made the most of it, sometimes they had to create opportunities and sometimes
they just happened and sometimes one of them managed to surprise the other but
the biggest surprise came on the Halloween weekend when she arrived at his
caravan dressed as a witch and announced that not only was she divorcing her
husband David but that she was staying the night.
On the rare occasions that they managed to get to spend the night
together they always made the most of it but sometimes they had to create opportunities
and sometimes they just happened.
Paul was the commercial manager at the Forest Ridge Golf Club which
was a job that gave him the opportunity to play himself.
He was quite a good golfer but he didn’t do it often as he had better
uses for his spare time, but after he started seeing Francesca he took to playing
a round of Golf more often, although in truth it was just a ruse, he would tee
off at the appropriate time and play the first three holes and then meet
Francesca in the woods for a kiss and a cuddle and if he was lucky they would
go into her house for a more comfortable cuddle, but on that particular day he
was only expecting to play Golf.
But too his great surprise and delight, as he was walking down the
fairway he saw her standing ahead of him just beyond the treeline.
Francesca was a very attractive woman, but apart from the fact she was
beautiful, sexy and breathtakingly sensual what set his heart racing was the
fact that he loved her and she loved him.
It was an unpleasant morning; warmer than it had been the previous few
weeks, but as those weeks were actually very cold that wasn’t really saying
much.
But the skies were predominantly grey, for the time being, with only
the occasional break in the cloud, but the forecast had mentioned the
possibility of sunny intervals later in the day.
The wind had a slight chill to it but was fairly light and so it
wasn’t expected to affect anyone’s scorecards too much, not that he normally
worried about that, he didn’t normally play the full 18 anyway, but that day he
was playing a friend.
Considering the morning’s grey weather, the course wasn’t very quiet
when he and Terry teed off at 8.30 there were a couple of twosomes ahead of
them and at least three foursomes behind.
As he approached, Francesca was looking lovely
“When didn’t she?” he thought to himself, and he smiled when he
noticed her ensemble.
She was wearing a grey flat cap with her shortish brown hair scraped
into a pony tail sticking out the back.
But it was the rest of her outfit that made him smile, it was as ever
all matching and perfectly co-ordinated.
In deference to the season she was dressed for the early autumn, in a
white cotton shirt, beneath a pale blue argyle cardigan, a knee length pleated
skirt, very flattering, in the same grey fabric as her cap and long argyle
socks, her ensemble was then finished off with black brogue Golf shoes and a
pale blue glove holding a Golfing brolley above her.
“Damn she looks good” he thought
She was kitted out as a Golfer but she wasn’t dressed to play Golf
Her rationale was that she was blending in, after all, who would look
twice at another Golfer on a Golf course.
He had seen her in that outfit many times before and on those occasion
he normally ended up removing her from it, but that was an unlikely scenario
that day.
Fortunately his friend Terry had sliced his tee shot into the woods on
the other side of the fairway so he knew he was safe to go to her for a few
minutes.
“Hi gorgeous” he said “I wasn’t expecting you to be here today”
“I wanted to see you darling” she said and they kissed
“I wanted to see you too” he confessed
They both knew what they wanted to happen; she wanted him to make love
to her and share in the afterglow and he wanted her with him to share his bed.
“Come to mine” he implored
“I can’t” she replied “I have a million things to do”
“Are you sure?” he asked
“I’m sorry,” she said and forced a smile “I can’t”
“I’ll give you lunch as well” he countered
“I want to so much” she said sadly
Just then it started raining hard so they kissed goodbye and then went
their separate ways, Francesca ran towards home and he ran across to find
Terry, by which time the rain was falling like stair rods,
Although spring was underway the leaves were yet to appear so there
was no protection from the rain,
“Shall we call it a day” Paul said
“Good idea” Terry agreed
So they took the shortest route back to the clubhouse and then Terry
dropped him off at his home.
They got absolutely soaked to the skin as they jogged and trotted to
the clubhouse so when Paul got home, the first thing he did after putting the
kettle on, was change out of his wet clothes and into a dressing gown, he couldn’t
believe in that short space of time that he could get soaked to the skin, even
his pants got wet.
As the rain continued to beat down he was sat in his kitchen drinking
coffee and regretting not being able to make love to Francesca.
He drained his cup and thought a hot shower was next on the agenda
when there was a light tapping on the kitchen window.
When he turned around all he could see was an umbrella, so he walked
to the window and the umbrella tipped backwards to reveal an absolutely sodden Francesca.
“Come round, come round” he said and went and opened the door
“You came” he said as she stepped through the door
“I couldn’t keep away” she replied and she kicked off her shoes by the
door.
“Well I think we need to get you out of those wet clothes” he advised
“You promised me lunch first” she said indignantly
“Do you want lunch first?” he queried
“No” she replied and not for the first time that day they kissed.
But before they had time to act on their desires her mobile went off.
It was in the pocket of her skirt, she took it out and sat on a
kitchen chair and answered it.
“Hi mum” she said with a grimace
“Yes I’m still in Abbottsford, if you could pick them up that would be
fab”
“No I’m not sure how long” she said and Paul held up a couple of fingers
and Francesca said “would two hours be ok? Brilliant, thanks mum, see you
later, bye”
“Two hours?” she said to him “what are we going to do for two hours?”
“Come with me and I’ll show you” he said and led her by the hand and
took her to his bedroom.
Half an hour later Francesca was draped across him with her head on
his chest.
His hand was resting on her hip so he caressed her from hip to buttock
and he kissed the top of her head and in response she hugged his torso and
sighed smugly
“Now can I have lunch?” she panted
Aaron Keller was a great bear of a man, standing 6’ 6” tall, barrell
chested with hands like shovels.
But he was brought to his knees by a skinny Little waif standind 4’
11” by the name of Toni Kendall.
They were both in their mid twenties, both had flaming red hair but he
was a gentle giant who barely spoke and she was a little livewire who never
shut up.
The other thing that they had in common was more significant and that
was the fact that they were in love, though neither of them knew that they were
the recipient of that love.
Aaron couldn’t imagine that a beautiful little thing like Toni could
ever be interested in him, and she thought he was probably looking for someone
as quiet as him.
They both worked at Maxlin’s Holiday Camp in Sharpinghead, she was a
chalet maid, and he was a general handyman.
Aaron lived in Sharpinghead, but Toni was from Finchbottom and as the
summer season was coming to an end she was running out of time, if nothing
happened between them, they would go their separate ways and they would be unlikely
to see each other again, but if she got her way, and got her man, she would
stay on.
She had been following him around the camp for the whole summer in the
hope that he would take her in his arms, but no matter how much she flirted
with him the result was the same and she cursed his shyness.
Toni finally got her man when they were on what was known as mothball
duties, closing down those chalets that would not be needed during the winter
season, which meant a major clean and then all the furniture was sheeted.
Because she was so tiny, she managed to enlist the help of the gentle
giant with moving the furniture, though she was more than capable of doing it
herself, because she was much stronger than she looked, she just used it as an
excuse to get close to him.
But despite her managing to get Aaron to help her, it didn’t really
help her in the way she wanted because she was such a chatterbox, so even if he
could have found the words he wanted to use he would have struggled to get a
word in edgeways.
However every thing came good in the end when They were on their fifth
chalet and all was not going well for Toni as she was hoping he might have made
a move on her by that stage, afterall they were alone and had been in very
close proximity on many occasions.
She was also annoyed at her self because although she was a confident
sparky girl she hadnt just come out with it and ask him out.
What Toni wanted though was for him to ask her but nothing happened so
she decided that she had to make him get physical.
Toni started by undoing the braces on his overall as he picked things
up and when he reatached that one she undid the other and so on and so fourth
until he took action.
However she didn’t know when she started messing around quite how
physical he would get.
But she wasn’t complaining when the gentle giant had her draped over
his shoulder and he was playfully smaking her knicker clad buttocks while he
watched the reflexion of his handywork in the mirror.
Toni didn’t know when she started messing around with Aaron quite how
physical he would get.
But she wasn’t complaining when the gentle giant had her draped over
his shoulder and he was playfully smaking her knicker clad buttocks while he
watched the reflexion of his handywork in the mirror.
However, he only gave her another two strokes before Toni called a
halt to proceedings.
“Put me down” she screamed “Put me down now”
“What’s wrong baby girl?” he said playfully “Have you had enough?”
“Just put me down” she insisted, and as he lowered her to the floor,
he cursed himself under his breath for going too far, but he couldn’t help it,
he was really having fun.
“I’m sorry” he said when she was stood looking up at him “I went too
far didn’t I?”
“Don’t be sorry” she snapped and pushed him backwards onto a chair
“You haven’t gone far enough yet”
“Oh?” he responded as she inched towards him and when they were nose
to nose, she kissed him.
After that first time they couldn’t keep there hands off eachother and
suffice is to say that she didn’t return home to Finchbottom and stayed on at
Maxlin’s and the prospect of spending all winter kissing and canoodling kept
them warm.
Though they didn’t have many opportunities for work time kissing and
cuddling as they didn’t often work together but when they weren’t working, they
didn’t go out in the world much.
But halfway through the winter they got to work together again when
they had to reopen some of the chalets, they had mothballed earlier in the year
in preparation of the Christmas season and that was when they told each other
that they loved them.
It had been over a year since Toni and Aaron got together but they
were as mad for each other as ever and their second Christmas together was on
the horizon.
When November finally arrived, Toni decided it was time to decorate
for Christmas but no one could remember where the decorations were put after
the previous year.
After two weeks of searching every nook and cranny they were finally
spotted in the loft in the staff block by the head of housekeeping, Christine
Evans.
In the staff accommodation village, there were rows of chalets,
similar in design to the guest accommodation but much smaller, and at the
center was the staff block.
This contained offices, storerooms, and a common room, with
comfortable chairs, where staff can sit around and relax, drink coffee and
watch TV or just sit around talking.
Christine Evans hadn’t actually seen the decorations herself as she
had never been in the loft, and that was because she was scared, partly of the
dark but mainly of cobwebs and spiders, but one of her staff had seen them.
Toni and Christine were stood talking in the common room when Aaron
walked through the door.
“Did you want to see me?” he said to Christine
“Yes, we’ve located the Christmas Decorations” she replied
“So come on big boy” Toni said cheekily “it’s time to get the Dec’s
down from the loft”
The entrance to the loft, where the Decoration’s had been seen, was
via a large hatch way in the common room ceiling.
Aaron reached up one of his great paws and pulled the catch and the
hatch swung open and then he pulled down the loft ladder.
“Are you going up?” he asked Christine knowing the answer
“No fear” she said and shivered
“Go on then Danger Mouse” he said to Toni “You go first”
Without hesitation she was straight up the ladder and Aaron followed
quickly behind her and enjoyed the view up her skirt of her jiggling buttocks
as she wiggled up the ladder, he enjoyed the view above the top of her long
socks.
She knew that he would and frankly would have been disappointed if he
hadn’t.
He would have pinched her bum if Christine hadn’t been looking on.
Once they reached the top Toni switched the light on and started
looking around but despite the light the corners were quite gloomy.
So Aaron switched on his torch which Toni immediately snatched from
his hand.
It was quite a large space and was used as an additional storage area
during the peak season and during the course of the year the boxes of Christmas
decorations, which had been put up there after the previous year’s festivities,
were gradually pushed further and further back from their starting point.
“There they are” she squealed excitedly and rushed to the far corner
of the loft.
She then got down on her hands and knees and began pushing boxes in
Aaron’s direction.
“Oh shit” she exclaimed
“What wrong luv?”
“The Angel has fallen out of the box” she said sadly “and it’s fallen
down behind this thing”
The “Thing” she was referring to was the wooden “A” frame that held
the roof up.
“There it is” she said as she shined the torch beam into the darkness.
It hadn’t fallen too far but it was difficult to get at because of all
the boxes in the way.
“Can you reach it?” she asked you’ve got longer arms than me”
“A T-Rex has longer arms than you” he retorted and laughed but he
clambered up however he couldn’t get close enough to the objective to bring his
long reach into play.
“I can’t get close enough” he said as he crouched down “I’ll just have
to move these boxes”
“That will take too long” she said impatiently
“I’ll just have to wriggle between the woody things, you can hold onto
my legs so I don’t fall”
“Ok” he replied and she headed towards the biggest gap while Aaron
moved some of the boxes to accommodate his huge feet.
The gap she went for was a little above Aaron’s waist height but it
was higher for a skinny little waif of 4’ 11”.
He was helping her through the small opening between the roof supports
and she wriggled and squirmed like a little ginger fish.
He was helping her through the small opening between the roof supports
and she wriggled and squirmed like a little ginger fish.
“How are you doing?” he asked
“I’ve almost got it” she replied “another couple of inches should do
it”
“Ok” he said and manhandled her a bit further and in the process the
hem of her skirt was pulled up towards her waist and he was so mesmerised by
what came into view that he absentmindedly caressed her plump little buttock .
“What was that?” She asked
“Cobwebs” he lied
“Ok” she replied doubtfully but he didn’t pay attention his mind was
on other things as he took something from his pocket.
“I’ve got it” she shouted triumphantly “pull me back”
So he began retrieving her small frame from the darkness and lowered
her to the floor.
“See I’ve got it” she said holding the angel up proudly
“Well done, its very nice” he said “But I thought you’d be more
interested in this little precious parcel”
“Whats that?”
“I don’t know but it has your name on it” he said
“Has it?” she exclaimed and thrust the angel into his chest and tried
to snatch the little parcel from his great paw but as Aaron was such a great
bear of a man, standing 6’ 6” tall and she was
a skinny little waif standind 4’ 11” he easily held the gift out of
her reach.
“Gimmi, gimmi” she said “you meanie”
“Calling me names isnt going to work” he said
“You used to be a nice boy” Toni said “But now you’re just mean”
“Ok I’ll take it away then” Aaron said and walked towards the loft
hatch
“No don’t take it away” she pleaded and hopped up and down
“Please, please, please”
“I dont think you deserve it”
“But I do” she said “I really do”
“oh ok then” he relented and gave her the little parcel which she tore
into in seconds to reveal a ring box and she gasped
“Whats this?” she asked in a whisper
“Open it and see” he instructed and after a deep breath she opened the
box to reveal a solitaire diamond engagement ring and she gasped again.
“Is this what i think it is?” she asked
“I don’t know” he said “What do you think it is?”
“Is it an…. Engagement ring?” she asked in a childlike voice
“Yes” he replied
“You want to marry me?” Toni asked
“Yes” Aaron said and she launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, almost breaking the angel in the process, and kissed him.
