Chapter 1: A Chance Meeting

Saturday is one of those typical blustery spring days where the weather can change dramatically in a matter of minutes. As usual I go for a run along the riverbank and back through the park. I’m nearly home when I see Sarah-Anne walking on the other side of the long narrow park between Church Street and Riverside Avenue. She looks different from when I last saw her, and I need to look twice to be certain that it is in fact my former classmate and childhood friend. We had been inseparable until Sarah-Anne suddenly dropped out of college nearly a year ago. No explanation, no sudden crisis ... at least as far as I was aware. One minute Sarah-Anne was one of my group of friends, and the next she wasn’t. She abandoned her studies and briefly disappeared from sight.

At first I was worried about her. She had emotional troubles after the death of her parents. But that was six years ago, and she seemed to have recovered since then. Her boyfriend, Pete, assured me that she was fine and I had no reason to doubt his word. I’ve known Pete for almost as long as I’ve known Sarah-Anne. Pete and I are acquaintances rather than friends, although he often joined our group on student trips. At college he was a typical sports jock, with the big difference that he was brighter than most of his team mates. There was a time I thought that he and I might get romantically involved, but it never came to anything. They say opposites attract, and Pete and I are too similar in temperament to really hit it off together. Sarah-Anne wasn’t really his type either, but they obviously found something that attracted them to each other.

I’ve kept in touch with Sarah-Anne to the extent that we exchange Christmas cards and birthday cards. Sadly the close friendship we shared ever since we were ten years old has been allowed to lapse. My initial attempts to see her after she dropped out of college were politely refused, and I gave up trying after a while. She has become a stranger to me. Text and phone messages were rarely answered. Her social media pages were deleted, or were simply left frozen in time. I have a new circle of friends now that I’m studying at university, and, to be honest, until just now I haven’t thought about Sarah-Anne for weeks.

Seeing Sarah-Anne again arouses my curiosity. I’ve always wanted to know why she dropped out of college when she was comfortably on her way to gaining entry to the local university. She always talked about wanting to study for an arts degree, so what happened to change her mind? And why was the change so sudden?

I jog across the grass to catch up with her. She sees me when I’m about twenty metres from where she’s walking. Several emotions quickly run across her face; surprise, fright, uncertainty, and finally the calm indifference that is one of her typical expressions. More than anything, her facial expression confirms that the woman before me is Sarah-Anne Lindström. I thought for a second that she was going to run away from me, but I could be mistaken.

“Hi, Sarah-Anne. How are you?” I ask as I approach.

“I’m fine, thank you,” replies Sarah-Anne like a robot, refusing to look me in my eyes. “How are you, Jenny?”

“I’m fine,” I reply weakly. This isn’t the warm reunion I was hoping it was going to be.

“Do you want to go for a coffee and catch up on old times?” I ask when Sarah-Anne makes no effort to continue the conversation.

“Um. Sorry, but I must meet Pete off the 11:15 train. He doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Pete Ashcroft? Are you two still together? I thought I saw him dating someone else a month or so back.”

“Pete and I live together,” replies Sarah-Anne, not seeming surprised at my mentioning seeing him with someone else.

“Can’t you call him and tell him you’ve bumped into an old friend and that you’ll be a bit late?” I suggest.

“I don’t have a phone,” replies Sarah-Anne. “Besides, I mustn’t be late. But you can walk with me to the station if you like.”

I find it strange that Sarah-Anne no longer has a phone. When we were at college together her phone was virtually glued to her hand. But that’s only one of the many things which have changed about Sarah-Anne. She’s certainly looks healthier and fitter than she did in college. I can’t see much of her body under her long coat, but her previously unkempt shoulder length tangle of blond hair is now replaced with a well groomed coiffure that ends half-way down her back. If nothing else, she now takes some pride in her appearance ... something she never used to bother much about. She looks well and I begin to feel foolish for worrying about her.

“So why the sudden change to your life?” I ask, deciding I don’t have time to circle around the subject.

“Pete helped me to see what I really needed in life,” replies Sarah-Anne.

Her answer intrigues me. Pete Ashcroft is not the sort of person who should be advising anybody about anything. He’s good looking, moderately clever, and fun to be with, if you ignore his tendency to be bossy ... OK, I admit that could also describe me. But nobody would ever accuse Pete of being wise or knowledgeable about life. Particularly somebody else’s life. And certainly not the emotionally fragile Sarah-Anne. But I suppose Sarah-Anne has hidden strengths too. After her parents’ death, her ailing grandmother was made Sarah-Anne’s guardian, but their roles were usually reversed. Her grandmother died shortly after Sarah-Anne turned eighteen, leaving Sarah-Anne to manage on her own. As far as I know, Sarah-Anne now owns the family house, and has a small trust fund to help pay the bills. It’s one of the reasons I found Sarah-Anne’s change of direction so unexpected.

“Are you happy?” I ask, fishing for some clue about what has happened in her life.

“Oh yes,” replies Sarah-Anne. “What makes you think that I’m not happy?”

“You changed so suddenly. We used to be such close friends and now something has come between us. I’ve been worried about you.”

“Oh, Jenny! Thank you for being concerned, but please don’t worry about me. My life has taken a different turn to yours. It was unexpected and sudden, but I’m happy with my choices. I’m sorry if it caused you any distress.”

Her answer only leaves me more intrigued, but I can see that I’m not going to get much more out of her at the moment. Perhaps now we’ve met again, we can try to re-establish our friendship. I would like that, but only if Sarah-Anne really wants it.

We arrive at the railway station at exactly a quarter past eleven. That’s another thing that’s changed about Sarah-Anne. The girl I knew was never punctual for anything. We arrive on time, but unfortunately the train Pete is expected to be on doesn’t. I know from my own weekday commute into university that the railway timetable is more of an expression of intent, bordering the realms of fiction, than anything a traveller can rely on. At weekends the service is even more unreliable. The electronic sign on the platform says the train is expected to arrive in ten minutes.

“Do you still keep in touch with Adam Forrester?” asks Sarah-Anne out of the blue.

Sarah-Anne and Adam had been dating for a few months before Pete muscled in on the scene. That was about four months before Sarah-Anne dropped out of college. I don’t know why Sarah-Anne dumped Adam in favour of Pete. To my mind she and Adam had a lot more in common. But Adam must have been okay with the split because a few weeks later he was frequently seen in the company of the rapacious Caroline Waters.