‘He already loves you. He can’t believe anyone could get me to sort my life out. He’ll be forever in your debt.’
‘You were already sorting yourself out,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘It was nothing to do with me. Maybe it was just having some time to think about things. Perhaps this lockdown has given us all a chance to think about stuff and what really matters. I was telling my school kids that.’
‘How are they?’
‘Good, even Alfie and Zane are enjoying having the whole class back together now.’
‘I bet – more kids to play with.’
‘True, although I’ll always remember the times we had as a small group. It gave me a great chance to get to know them better and for them to grow in confidence.’
‘It’s weird but this lockdown has had a few upsides.’
‘Like me?’ she asks with a cheeky smile.
‘Definitely you,’ he replies.
Sophia’s phone beeps. It’s from Bertie. Sophia reads the message aloud. Flora’s flight gets in tomorrow at 4 p.m. I’d be really honoured if you and Jack would come for tea to meet her. Mavis is coming too. Tilly has a new red bandana especially for the occasion.
‘That’s wonderful,’ says Jack, lazily picking at long stalks of grass and tickling Sophia’s arm with them. ‘Shall we go?’
‘You bet,’ says Sophia. ‘It’s funny, you know, but I can’t imagine Bertie without Tilly now.’
‘No, neither can I. She’s transformed his life. As well as Mavis and now Flora.’
‘He says they’ve Zoomed each other several times and he can’t remember the last time he laughed so much.’
‘It’s like it’s meant to be. Speaking of dogs helping people, Greg says there’s a local charity who work with dogs for the disabled. They’re fundraising to train a therapy dog to work at the autism college.’
‘That would be amazing,’ says Sophia enthusiastically. ‘I can’t imagine anything helping the kids more. We’ll have to see what we can do to organise some fundraising events.’
‘Knowing you, you’ll have it all sorted by this evening.’
‘I’m good, but not that good.’ She laughs, throwing bits of grass down his neck.
‘Yuk, I’m going to be getting that out for days.’ He throws a load back at her and long seeded strands land in her wavy hair.
The phone pings again. It’s from Jess. Hey, I’ve arranged a post-wedding organisational meeting for next week. Bring Jack; I’d love to meet him before the big day.
‘Are you up for a pre-wedding date next week?’ Sophia asks.
‘Ours?’ he looks at her speculatively.
‘No, steady on a bit! I mean Jess’s. Will you be my official date this time?’
‘You bet,’ he says, ‘on both counts.’
‘I think I love you,’ she says lightly touching his slightly stubbly cheek.
‘I know I love you, and believe me lockdown gives a guy time to think about these things,’ he says, gazing at her.
She laughs and instinctively they move closer to each other, their lips meeting, their whole beings connecting, as they hold each other, revelling in the joy of their basic human need for contact and warmth of touch. A luxury, which before they always took for granted, yet lockdown changed all that. In lockdown nothing was definite, nothing was certain except the strength and resilience of love and community.
But the reality is that when everything else stops, love is all that’s left. It counts for everything as it always does, in the key workers, the nurses, the hospital staff, the shop assistants, the bus and delivery drivers – everyone braving a common enemy for the sake of others.
As they lie entwined in a tangle of limbs and love, it all feels so new, yet so familiar as the sparrows chatter overhead, a dragonfly rests momentarily on a nearby leaf and the sun beats down warm on their backs.
But Jack and Sophia are oblivious; they’re immersed in each other. In the distance, but nevertheless all around them, the world inevitably begins to go about its business, slowly but surely discovering its new normal as they discover theirs.
Acknowledgements
I am so incredibly grateful to have been able to write this story about rather extraordinary happenings set within unprecedented times. In many ways, writing this book has carried me through what has been a difficult period and I hope reading it might help others who may have also been struggling, to try to make sense of this year’s events in some small way.
Lockdown was an extraordinary experience, totally different for each and every one of us but I have tried to give a few