Chapter 8

Wednesday was the most wonderful day of my life.

Cathie was standing at the counter talking to – Jenny? – when I arrived. She introduced us, and we shook hands. It all felt very strained and strange. Then we caught each other’s eyes, and realized the absurdity of it, and both burst out laughing.

There was no one else in the café, and Jenny came and chatted with us over our tea and cakes. After a while a couple of customers arrived and Jenny went to serve them.

‘Well, shall we be on our way then, Pete?’

‘Okay. Where shall we go?’

‘Where do you suggest?’

Somehow I’d assumed that Cathie would have had some idea in her mind already. I hadn’t thought about it all. It hadn’t been wet, and it wasn’t so early, but there was a lovely clear sunshine and I doubted that there’d be many people around the paper mill and the falls yet.

‘Do you know the old paper mill?’

‘Of course! It’ll be lovely round there on a morning like this. Come on!’

‘See you Jenny!’

‘See you. Enjoy yourselves!’

Cathie had never been on the top of the viaduct before, and I felt great introducing her to it: she loved it. We wriggled out to hang over the edge, and dropped pieces of ballast into the canal. They seemed to take ages to fall, and it was so still that we could hear the little distant rip as they entered the water. Then we threw pieces in great exhilarating parabolas towards the falls.

We went back down to the river, and took off our shoes and socks and paddled about in the pool at the foot of the falls, and splashed water at each other.

We lay down in the sun to dry off, and I put my arm around her, and she snuggled up to me. We lay there in silence, our pounding hearts and breath gradually easing after the exertion.

After a while, Cathie surprised me by producing sandwiches from her bag. We chatted as we ate; I was still full of ‘After the Storm’ and we talked about politics, war and the media. Cathie hadn’t seen ‘After the Storm’, but she’d been with her dad to an old film called ‘The War Game’, which had apparently been made by the BBC and then banned. It had eventually been shown quite widely, but more or less underground. It seemed to have had a much less sci-fi ambience than ‘After the Storm’, to have been much more related to the real world.

When I mentioned the tunnel, and getting Mike to go with me, Cathie exclaimed,

‘Why do you have to go with Mike? Why don’t we two go, now? I’ll borrow my dad’s big torch.’

I waited outside while Cathie slipped indoors for the torch, and we went and bought a spare battery just in case.

In the tunnel it was very cold, and we wished we’d brought more clothes; but it wasn’t unbearable, and we didn’t want to chicken out. We got used to it after a while. At first the going was very rough underfoot, where the sleepers had been ripped up; but further in they’d left them to rot where they lay. Gradually the little rectangle of light shrank behind us, and then disappeared behind the curve of the floor as the incline flattened out. Suddenly there was a rough brick wall right in front of us. A little light filtered through here and there, but we couldn’t see out. The possibility that there’d be no door at this end had never occurred to me.

‘I never thought of that, either,’ said Cathie. She put her arm round my neck and pulled my face down to hers and kissed me. That kiss lasted for ages. We held each other tightly, partly for warmth. But standing still like that, the cold began to seep right through us, and after a while we set off back.

‘My mum’s not expecting me back until she sees me; what are you doing about eating tonight?’

‘I’ve got a load of stuff in the fridge to use up before I go away. Come round to my place and I’ll cook for us both. But I’ve got to get ready to go sometime.’

‘I’ll cook while you pack. Knowing you, it won’t take you ten minutes.’

It didn’t take me ten minutes, and we finished the cooking together. Cathie was surprised how tidy my flat was.

‘I expected to find the sink full of washing up.’

‘It usually is. I had a big spring clean on Monday. It was a terrible tip, and Chris and Terry were coming round to tea. I gave myself more time than I needed, so it got a better clean than it’s ever had.’

It was gone midnight when we kissed each other goodnight on Cathie’s front doorstep. Afterwards we noticed a small face pressed against an upstairs window. We laughed and waved, and then he was more embarrassed than we were.

‘I hope you’re up in time to catch your bus!’

‘Don’t worry – it doesn’t go until half past ten.’

Wednesday had been the most wonderful day of my life. I ran all the way home.

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