“Lena, Leen!” A boy with a bicycle stood beneath the five-story building, its entrance door barely hanging on its hinges, shouting up at the windows. “Lenaaa, Len!”
“Oi, Ill throttle someone in a minute!” A burly bloke in a blue vest leaned out, glowering. “Clear off!”
“Wasnt calling you! Lenaaa!”
“For crying out loud,” a woman in a nightgown and curlers poked her head out another window, “its Saturdaypeople are trying to sleep!”
“Shut it, the lot of you!” A tall, bald man bellowed from above. “I barely slept all night, just nodded off, and now”
“Lenaaa, you coming or what?”
The creaky door groaned open, and out stepped a girl in a light summer dress, clutching a tote bag with something wrapped in parchment.
“Hey, took you ages. Oversleep?”
“Nah, was making sandwiches,” she said, unfazed, tucking the bag onto the bike rack before perching on the crossbar. The boy swung the bike round sharply, pedalling off as laughter trailed behind them.
“Bloody hooligan!” the sleepless man yelled.
“Let us sleep!” another voice carried from the windows.
“Sleep, then!” the boy called over his shoulder, circling back past the block. “Saturday morning, whats your excuse?” And with that, they vanished down the lane.
Pedalling hard, they left the town behind, speeding along a dirt path through the fields.
“Len, you alright?”
“Fine. You?”
“Me too.”
They collapsed laughing into the grass when the tyre blew, sending the bike skidding sideways.
“Blimey, what now, Al?”
“Dunno,” the boy mused, flopping back. “Maybe we live here forever.”
“Oh, Al!”
“What? Build a hut by the river. Ill fish; well roast em over a fire.”
“Whered we get firewood?”
“Gather sticks.”
“Matches, Al?”
“Who needs em? Rub sticks togetheror nick some off anglers.”
“Right.”
They flopped back, giggling.
“Al, that cloudlooks like a teapot.”
“Yeah, now its a dog.”
They lay there, cloud-watching.
“Fancy a swim?”
“Go on.”
They raced to the river, dried off on sun-warmed sand, and Lena turned to him.
“Whatll you do when you grow up?”
“Finish school, maybe uni, then work. You?”
“Marry you. Get rich. Or the other way round. Either way, those two things.”
“Dont be daft.”
“Fair. Better squeeze in the army and a trade before you run off with someone else.”
Lena snorted. “Like who?”
“Dunno… Dave? Saw you giggling with him. Leaning in all close-like.”
“We were doing the school paper!”
“Whatever. Just knowIll steal you back from anyone.”
***
Years later, another Saturday dawned sereneuntil a motorbikes roar shattered it.
“Lenaaa!”
“Hooligan!” a woman shrieked from a window.
“Let us sleep!”
“Pipe down!”
“Lenaaanot you! Its Saturday! Lie in!”
The same wobbly door clattered open, and out stepped Lena, now a woman.
“Hey. Overslept?”
“Nah. Made butties.”
“Keep it down!” someone hollered.
Al handed her a helmet. She strapped it on, climbed onto the bikeits rear wheel jacked highand wrapped her arms around him.
“Disgraceful!” howled the insomniac neighbour.
Al revved the engine, yelled “Sleep tight!” and tore off.
They blazed through town, hit the motorway, then veered onto a country track.
“You good?” he called over the wind.
“Fine!” She clung tighter.
When they stopped, Lena stretched her stiff legs. They sprawled in the grass, sky-gazing.
“Look, Altwo cats sitting there!”
“Yeah, and that ones a bike. Swim?”
“Go on.”
They swam, lazed on hot sand, then kissed till dizzy.
“Len…”
“Hm?”
“Ive got call-up papers. Army. Tomorrow.”
“What? Why didnt you”
“Didnt know myself.”
“Thats why you skipped uni?”
“Hey…” He wiped her tears. “Ill go after. Then marry you. You wont run off with Dave, yeah?”
***
On the platform, Lena watched the train disgorge soldiers.
“Al! Son!” His mother clung to him, weeping. His dad shook his hand stiffly; his little sister bawled into his shoulder. Then his eyes found Lenastanding apart, arms crossed over her chest. He pushed through the crowd.
“Len… crying?”
“Happy tears, Al.”
“Plenty more ahead.”
Never mind his mums pursed lips or his sisters pout. Right now, it was just herthe girl hed loved since childhood.
***
“Son, its too soon! What about uni?”
“Sorted, Mum. And Im marrying Lena.”
“That girls in a rush to trap you!”
“Nineteens hardly desperate. I dont want anyone else.”
“Al, its too”
“Mum, enough. When I got back, you lot nagged me to settle. Now I am.”
He left, door clicking shut.
***
“Its a boy! A son!” Al burst into his parents house, beaming. His mum wept; his dad blinked hard. His sister shrieked, “A nephew! Ace!”
Five years later, a daughtertheir little princess.
***
“Son, you quit your job? Howll you manage?”
“Mum, Im done working for peanuts. Well figure it.”
“And Lena agreed? This place had stability!”
“I want better for my kids. No sharing one Snickers with a knife.”
“Oh, love, we got by without fancy”
“Times changed. Well be fine.”
And they wereafter bumps. Nights when Al wanted to scream, Lena handed him a guitar.
“Al, sing. Bad things fade when you sing.”
So they did, softly: *”Ill ride my bike through fields so wide…”*
Lena cried when he wasnt looking. He knew. Pretended not to. Worked harder.
They made it. A house. Holidays. Kids set for life.
Yet Al grew restless. Something missing.
A mate dragged him to a dodgy club.
“Al, weve got theatre tickets!” Lena said.
“Work thing,” he liedfirst time ever. Hated himself. At the club, a woman approached. Polished. Out of place.
“Lets leave. I hate this too.”
“Why come?”
“Needed the money.”
Outside, she confessed: a kid, deadbeat ex. Saving to escape.
Al walked her home. Talked till dawn. Met her again. And again.
A month passed. Then he noticedhome felt empty. Lena gone.
He called the kids. His parents. Then the other woman.
“Sorry. I love my wife. You were… fresh air.”
“Thank you, Alex. For showing me what a real man looks like.”
***
Lena sat in her childhood kitchen, fourth day running. Making sandwiches. Thinking.
Thenengine roar.
“Lenaaa!”
“Give us peace!”
“Outrageous!”
“*Ill ride my bike through fields so wide…*” Al sang below.
She stepped out. Took the helmet. Held him tight as they sped through town, down country lanes, into flower-strewn fields.
“Len, tired?”
“No.”
They lay in the grass.
“Cloudlooks like a ship.”
“Mm. That ones an old couple sipping tea.”
“Len…”
“Yeah?”
“Forgive me?”
“For what?”
“Nothing. But I hurt you.”
“I forgive you.”
“Wont happen again.”
“What wont?”
“You singing alone. You did, didnt you?”
“Yeah.”
“Me too. Lets do it together.”
“Alright.”
*”Ill ride my bike through fields so wide…”*
