Best to leave quietly, and no reunions. Move on, look to the future. Plenty more faces out there.
But as he made his decision, her mouth stretched open into a wide smile and without opening her eyes she said:
‘So, what do you reckon, Dex?’
‘About what, Em?’
‘Me and you. Is it love, d’you think?’ and she gave a low laugh, her lips tightly closed.
‘Just go to sleep, will you?’
‘Stop staring up my nose then.’ She opened her eyes, blue and green, bright and shrewd. ‘What’s tomorrow?’ she mumbled.
‘Today you mean?’
‘Today. This bright new day that awaits us.’
‘It’s a Saturday. Saturday all day. St Swithin’s Day as a matter of fact.’
‘What’s that then?’
‘Tradition. If it rains today it’ll rain for the next forty days, or all summer, or something like that.’
She frowned. ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Not meant to. It’s a superstition.’
‘Raining where? It’s always raining somewhere.’
‘On St Swithin’s grave. He’s buried outside
Winchester Cathedral.’
‘How come you know all this?’
‘I went to school there.’
‘Well la-di-da,’ she mumbled into the pillow.
‘“If on St Swithin it doth rain/Something dum-di-dum again.”’
‘That’s a beautiful poem.’
‘Well, I’m paraphrasing.’
She laughed once again, then raised her head sleepily. ‘But Dex?’
‘Em?’
‘If it doesn’t rain today?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘What are you doing later?’
Tell her that you’re busy.
‘Nothing much,’ he said.
‘So shall we do something then? Me and you, I mean?’
Wait ’til she’s asleep then sneak away.
‘Yeah. Alright,’ he said. ‘Let’s do something.’
She allowed her head to drop onto the pillow once more. ‘Brand new day,’ she murmured.
‘Brand new day.’
CHAPTER TWO Back to Life
SATURDAY 15 JULY 1989
Wolverhampton and Rome
Girls’ Changing Rooms
Ciao, Bella!
Stoke Park Comprehensive School
Wolverhampton
15 July 1989