**Diary Entry**
“Lena! Len!” A lad on a bike shouts under the window of a five-storey block of flats, its entrance door hanging crookedly on its hinges. He cranes his neck, calling up to someone.
“Lenaaa, Len”
“I swear Ill throttle someone in a minute,” growls a man in a blue vest, sticking his head out. “Clear off, will you?”
“Wasnt calling youLenaaa!”
“Whats all this racket?” A woman in a nightdress and curlers leans out another window. “Its Saturday! People are trying to sleep!”
“Shut it, the lot of you!” snaps a tall, bald man from yet another window. “I barely slept all nightjust dozed off, and now”
“Lenaaa, you coming or what?”
The creaky door groans open, and out steps a girl in a light summer dress, clutching a tote bag with something wrapped in greaseproof paper.
“Hi. You take agesoversleep?”
“Nah, was making sandwiches,” she says matter-of-factly, securing the bag on the bikes rack before perching on the crossbar. The boy makes a sharp turn and pedals off.
“Hooligan!” yells the irritable man.
“Let us sleep, for heavens sake!” comes another shout.
“Sleep, then!” the boy calls back, circling past the windows again. “Its Saturday morningwhy arent you lot asleep?” Laughing, they ride out of the courtyard.
The boy pedals hard until they leave the town behind, racing down a dirt track through the fields.
“Len, you tired?”
“Nah. You?”
“Me neither.” He pushes on.
They tumble into the grass, laughing, when the bikes tyre gives out.
“Oy, what now, Alex?”
“Dunno,” he says, sprawled in the grass. “Might have to live here forever.”
“Alex!”
“What? Well build a hut, fish in the river, cook over a fire.”
“Where dwe get the firewood?”
“Make a fire.”
“With what?”
“Rub sticks togetheror nick matches off some anglers.”
They collapse laughing.
“Alex, that cloudlooks like a teapot.”
“Yeah, now its a dog.”
They watch the clouds for ages.
“Fancy a swim?”
“Go on, then.”
They race to the river, dry off on the warm yellow sand.
“Len, whatll you do when you grow up?”
“Dunno finish school, maybe uni, then work. You?”
“Marry you, get richor the other way round. Those two things, mainly.”
“Dont be daft.”
“Fair. Better fit in the army and a career before you marry someone else.”
Lena laughs.
“Like who?”
“DunnoVince? Saw you giggling with him, heads together over that newsletter.”
“We were working on it!”
“Whatever. StillIll steal you back from anyone.”
***
Years later, another Saturday dawns peacefuluntil a motorbike roars into the quiet.
“Lenaaa!”
“Hooligan!” a woman yells from a window.
“Let us sleep!”
“Keep it down!”
“Lenaaanot you lot! Its Saturdaylie in, yeah?”
The same rickety door screeches open, and out steps a young woman.
“Hi. Oversleep?”
“Nah, was packing sandwiches.”
“Quieter, please!” someone shouts.
Alex hands her a helmet. She puts it on, climbs onto the bikeits rear jacked upand wraps her arms around him.
“Disgraceful!” snaps the insomniac neighbour.
Alex revs the engine, shouts for everyone to sleep, and tears out of the yard. They speed through town, hit the open road, then bump down a country lane.
“You alright back there?”
“Fine!” Lena shouts, pressing closer as the wind whips tears from her eyes, loose hair flying.
They stop by a field, sprawl in the grass, stare at the sky.
“Lookthose clouds, like two cats!”
“Yeah, that ones a bike.”
“Swim?”
“Why not?”
They swim, bake on the sand, kiss till theyre dizzy
“Len”
“Mmm?”
“Ive been called up. Army. Tomorrow.”
“What? Why didnt you?”
“Only just found out.”
She hits his arm. “Thats why you didnt apply to uni?”
“Hey Ill go after. Then marry you. You wont run off with Vince, yeah? Len?”
***
Lena waits on the platform. The train arrives, soldiers spill out.
“Alex, love!” His mother clings to him, tearful. His father shakes his hand, his little sister leaps into his arms. Then he spots Lenastanding apart, hands clasped to her chest. He pushes through the crowd.
“Len crying?”
“Happy tears, Alex.”
“Plenty more where that came from.”
His sister sulks, his mum purses her lips, his dad grumblesbut right now, its just her. The girl hes loved since childhood.
***
“Son, its early dayswhy rush? What about uni?”
“Sorted, Mum. And Im getting married.”
“Oh, Alex”
“Shes nineteen, not some gold-digger. I dont want anyone else.”
“But”
“Enough. When I got back, you nagged me to settle downnow its too soon? Make up your mind.”
He leaves quietly.
***
“Its a boy! A son!” Alex bursts into his parents house, beaming. Tears all round. Five years later, a daughtertheir little princess.
***
“Son, you quit your job? Howll you manage?”
“Mum, Im done working for pennies. Lenas with me on this.”
“But its steady! What about the kids?”
“I want better for them. Well make it work.”
And they did. Not easilyups, downs, moments of despair. But Lena stayed calm, making sandwiches, strumming her guitar when things got bleak.
“Alex sing. It helps.”
So they did.
Years passed. House in the country, flat in town, kids set for life. They travelled, lived comfortablyyet Alex grew restless. A mate dragged him to a dodgy club.
“Len, Ive got stuff. Cant make the theatre.”
First lie he ever told her. Hated himself. At the club, a woman approachedpolished, out of place.
“Lets get out of here.”
“Whyd you come, then?”
“Needed the money.”
Outside, she confessed: a kid, deadbeat ex, scraping by.
“Ill save up, start over. Or find someone decent like you.”
Honest, sharp, magnetic. They talked all night. He floated home in a daze, kept meeting her, craving those talksuntil one day, he realised: the house was empty. Lena gone.
He called the other woman, looked her in the eye.
“Im sorry. I love my wife. You made me see that.”
She nodded. “I envy her. Good luck.”
***
Lena sat in her parents old flat, thinking. Making sandwiches. Then
“Lenaaa!” A motorbike roared below.
“Bloody hooligans!”
“Let us sleep!”
Alex sang under the window: *”Ill ride my bike for miles and miles”*
The door banged. Lena walked out, took the helmet, held tight as they sped through town, down country lanes, into flower-strewn fields.
“Tired?”
“No.”
They lay in the grass.
“Lookthat clouds a ship.”
“Yeah, that ones an old couple having tea.”
“Len”
“Mmm?”
“Forgive me?”
“For what?”
“I hurt you.”
She smiled. “Nothing to forgive.”
“Wont happen again.”
“What wont?”
“You singing alone. You were, werent you?”
“Yeah.”
“Me too. Lets do it together.”
And they did.
**Lesson:** Loves not about never strayingbut always finding your way back.
