AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She thanks me when I return taking a sugar cube from the bowl before dropping it into her tea, stirring it with the teaspoon.
“It’s always so nice to see Caleb’s friends. He hasn’t brought many home in the last few years except those two boys. I forget their names but they’re always well-mannered and so polite.”
I almost choke on the pie.
“I’m not too sure where Caleb went off too this morning but I’m sure he will be back soon. He’s such a good boy my Caleb. He looks after me so well. He’s the only one I have left you see after his mother’s death.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“He was just a boy when that awful day happened. Would you like to see a picture?” she asks proudly.
“I’d love to,” I say with an air of excitement because I really would love to see what a little blue-eyed Caleb was like compared to the tall tattooed person he is now.
She pulls out a photo album from a drawer next to her.
“This is my Caleb,” she proudly tells me pointing to a young boy younger than Millie. He’s wearing the cutest matching shorts and jumper I’ve ever seen and is holding the hand of a dark-haired woman with his eyes smiling at the camera.
“That was my Lily. Wasn’t she beautiful?”
“She is. She has your eyes,” I tell her.
“She had a kind soul that girl, just like my Caleb. He really is a blessing that boy. He has a wild side to him to you know, just like I did when I was his age.”
A wild side indeed. She doesn’t know the half of it!
“That was when I met his grandfather of course. We were head over heels in love but my father forbid us to see each other because Henry was leaving to go off to war you see. He didn’t want my heart to be broken, or worse still to become a widow like so many before me.”
“What did you do?” I ask curiously.
“We did what all young people in love did and got married in secret the very next day,” she chuckles at the memory.
“You didn’t tell your family?”
“He was my family. I knew I would never love another after that man. So to me it was all worth it.” She turns a page in the album then points to a tall handsome man in uniform.
“This is my Henry,” she says proudly with love in her aging eyes.
“Very handsome. I can see why you married him.”
“Oh yes. In those days there were lots of handsome men in uniforms to take your pick from. Believe it or not I didn’t care for him much in the beginning.”
“You didn’t?”
“No. I thought he was an arrogant fool. Fancied himself a little too much if you ask me.”
I laugh enjoying their love story.
“How did you two meet?”
“Let me remember.” She scrunches her eyebrows together in deep thought. “Oh yes it was at a dance in the old dance hall in Pilon. I was with a group of my girlfriends who begged me to go with them after work. Henry was there with his friends and asked for my hand to dance.”
“That doesn’t sound too arrogant to me.” I answer light-heartedly.
“It was when he told me that it would be the biggest regret of my life if I didn’t dance with the most handsome stranger in the room.”
“I see,” I smile. “What did you do next?”
“I danced with his friend instead,” she laughs. “He looked like he had been stung by a bee in the butt. Think I hurt his ego. That of course is the worst thing you can do to a man.”
