The Long Road Ahead

Fay leaned forward and touched Roger’s arm. ‘There’s still me, Rog – if you’re desperate,’ she said. ‘But the sad thing is, I’m not the marrying kind. And never will be,’ she added firmly.

Roger put his arm around Fay’s shoulders. ‘Oh well, we’ll be fun and fancy free together, then, Fay,’ he said. He turned to the others. ‘One day, Fay and I are going to go somewhere a long way away and see animals in the wild. Aren’t we, Fay?’ he added.

Fay smiled at him blearily. She’d enjoyed rather a lot of drinks with her meal, and the champagne was a particularly good year. ‘Are we?’ she said. ‘I’d forgotten about that.’

But Fay hadn’t forgotten, and she moved closer into Roger. ‘P’raps we will – in another life,’ she said obliquely.

By now, everyone was beginning to feel sleepy – the meal had been more than adequate, to say nothing of the wine – when just then the landlord came over from the bar. He looked down at Eve.

‘We were just wondering…would you give us a tune on that old thing?’ he asked, glancing across at the piano. ‘It hasn’t had that much use lately – but we were thinking as this is a special occasion you might like to…well…show us if it still works.’ Eve had soon been recognized, by more than one, as the young woman who had entertained them all on New Year’s Eve in 1944…the last one before the end of the war. That night, she had made the place rock with nostalgia and hope and no one had forgotten it.

Mabel leaned forward eagerly. ‘Oh go on, our Eve,’ she said. ‘’Twould be smashin’ if you did.’ And as Eve hesitated, Mabel went on – ‘Can you play “If you were the only girl in the world”, Eve? Just for me?’ She glanced across at Walter who had his eyes closed. ‘’Twus always a favourite of ours…of mine…’cus we danced to it at our weddin’ supper, me and Walt.’ She paused. ‘He were very good on ’is feet…at one time,’ she added.

Nothing would stop Eve doing as she was asked, and she immediately went over to the piano and played a few tentative notes – then began to play the favourite, romantic number that everyone knew.

“If you were the only girl in the world, and I were the only boy…”

Everyone in the Wheatsheaf began to sing without even being asked, and there were several pairs of watery eyes in the room as the words rang out. Not least Alice’s, for whom the lyrics were so poignant, and for Eve, too, who was still basking in the knowledge that the man she loved would, one day, really be hers.

As for Mabel – who had joined in lustily – that had been the final, lovely twist to a birthday which she wouldn’t forget in a hurry. She nudged Walter.

‘Wake up, you,’ she said. ‘We’ve just been singin’ our special song – in case you ’adn’t noticed.’

Walter opened his eyes and leaned across to his wife. Then he gave her a big kiss on the side of her cheek. ‘Course I noticed,’ he said gruffly. ‘’Appy birthday, missus.’

And Alice was aware of her eyes misting as she observed the little charade between the farmer and his wife. It was touching to see those two, Romeo and Juliet – or perhaps Darby and Joan – so close, to intertwined in their lives as they spent each busy day on the farm together, pulling equal weight through good times and bad…their obvious happiness witness to their inherent love and affection for each other. That is what a true marriage must be, Alice thought, a togetherness, a mutual desire to be good to each other. Surely an example to follow – if possible…