Just the Two of Us

This story is part three of a trilogy:

(Part One) Kind Heart and Brunettes https://www.abctales.com/story/gletherby/kind-hearts-and-brunettes 

(Part Two) Degrees of Separation https://www.abctales.com/story/gletherby/degrees-separation

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(Part Three) Just the Two of Us

Saturday 1.30 pm

Having taken the last batch of spicy mince pies out of the oven Jacquie goes upstairs to change. Kate and Becky are already dressed in leggings and dodgy Christmas jumpers and are busy re-writing their letters to Santa yet again. Mincemeat treats and other edible goodies cooled and packed the family of three leave the house. They meet their next door neighbour Mrs Brown - Dorothy (Kate reminds herself yet again to call the older woman by her first name) -  as she is locking her front door. All good friends the children and Dorothy have established an especially warm relationship since Jacquie started working the early shift at the local cafe. Having no children of her own Dorothy is loving the school run, not just for the children’s chatter, but also for the insight into the lives of the generation of women who might have, if things had been different, included her daughters.

Across town Saabir is nervous. Today is supposed to be about Mick and Moira. Two charming but lonely individuals whose separate lives might just be better if only they got to know each other. Although he has never interfered in anybody’s love life before Saabir has felt comfortable with his small involvement in ‘project Mick and Moira’. His girlfriend Clare has supported Moira in her quest to, as Moira herself puts it, ‘crack the big wide world’ following many months of crippling agoraphobia. Whilst at the same time he and his friend Jacquie have independently, in a kind of pincher attack, tried to convince Mick that he will enjoy the Winter Festival event at the community centre this afternoon. For Saabir this feels a little like repayment for if it wasn’t for Jacquie he would never have met Clare, the funny, clever, kind woman who, with her two children Bobby and Kirsty, he hopes will move in with him after Christmas. He plans to put the proposition to her today. That’s if he can pluck up the courage. Just now playing Cupid for two septuagenarians is proving much less stressful than progressing his own love life.

Moira dresses carefully in her favourite dress and second best beads and a new scarf she bought on a trip to town with Clare. She is so grateful to the younger woman for her gentle, but persistent, encouragement but now the day has come – the day she might meet in the flesh the man with whom she’s  been sharing a through window flirtation that makes her feel like a girl again - she is feeling foolish. Clare and the children arrive, compliment her on her outfit and then wait patiently whilst she checks and re-checks the taps, lights and electrical goods, which she has to do before she can happily leave the house. Clare takes her arm and the children begin to talk about their day so far. There’s no more time, no need, for further self-doubt.

3.25 pm

It’s mid-afternoon and Mick still can’t decide whether or not to go out again. Following a happy couple of hours on the allotment he came home for a bite to eat and a wash before the afternoon entertainment. But with football on the telly and his slippers calling he doesn’t know how and why he let himself be persuaded to attend an event that he feels sure he’ll feel out of place at.

But his reticence has already lost him a possible new friendship, or more. He misses his silent but pleasing communication with the lovely woman in the window at No 11 Wilson Street. She’s often not there nowadays, clearly out with others having a life beyond home. He’s happy for her, of course he is, but regrets the chance he’s missed. Shrugging off his feelings of self-pity, he’s never been one to wallow, he dresses in an old but smart pair of trousers, a jacket and a favourite tie bought for him by his late wife Lou a month or two before she died.

4.20pm

Moira, and indeed all of her cheerleading team, have decided that Mick is not coming. Never mind, it's been a good afternoon. She’s had fun with the children, made a new friend or two, and experienced not so much as a heart flutter or shaky hand, let alone a panic attack.

The soundtrack to the afternoon is a mixture of Christmas Classics, a little Blues, some Celtic folk favourites and a smattering of Grime. Clearly someone with a sense of humour as well as eclectic taste has put the compilation together. As Mick enters the community hall the music changes from a 1970s hit, that everyone knows the words to, to Bill Withers singing of you and I who, amongst other things, are building castles in the sky. Looking around for Saabir or Jacquie Mick’s glance falls on the woman from No 11 Wilson Street. She looks up and smiles at him. Blushing a little she rises slightly from her chair. Taking a deep breath Mick walks towards her.

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OK, that’s it, for now at least, I’m going to leave Moira and Mick (and their friends) to work out what happens next for themselves….