Chapter 7

At the start of 1974 after just over two years of married life I was single again and this time intended to stay that way. Once again I put all of my time into work, spending many unpaid hours on unofficial projects. The only activity I did outside work was my sports and a lot of that was for the works team. Much to my ex-wife's chagrin I was never a social animal, so the only people I knew were my work colleagues. My marriage and its failure had taught me not to mix business with pleasure.

My endeavours at work paid off as I was twice promoted in the next three years, ironically becoming John Hopkins' boss. He and Barbara were by then married and she had become a housewife and mother. On the rare occasions that we met we were civil but no more. My running decreased with the heavier work load but I was content with my life.

When I was approached by the Company's senior PTI {Physical Training Instructor} about making up the numbers in the first team for a national cross country event I was dubious. This was way above my usual level of competition even at my peak but when I thought about it, I had nothing to lose. These events were mainly team events with the top five out of a team of seven having their scores counted. If I didn't run then our team would just enter six runners. Only a little reluctantly I agreed.

The day of the run dawned to glorious sunshine, not the ideal weather for distance running, but ideal for the spectators. The company bus took both the men's and women's teams the 120 miles to the venue. As soon as we approached I could see the magnitude of the event. There were already contestants everywhere and we were one of the earlier arrivals.

Because of the hot weather, most of us decided to get changed immediately into our running kit, just as the majority of those already here had done. As it was my first time at a national event I decided to walk around and sample the atmosphere before starting my warm up.

The first thing I noticed was the abundance of very fit, in both meanings of the word, women walking around in just running shorts and tops. I may have chosen a celibate life but I was still very much a heterosexual man and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery.

"David!" I heard a woman's voice scream. I turned in the direction the voice came from and I saw two of the younger competitors heading towards me, one a lot faster than the other. Both were extremely beautiful young women, one with long copper hair, the other with dark brown hair similarly long, but I had no idea who they were. Before I knew it the brown-haired one was in my arms and squeezing the life out of me.

"Its so great to see you again. I really missed you." She rattled enthusiastically.

I was beginning to think she had the wrong person when she added. "Me and 'Nita still talk about you sometimes."

It then struck me who this young girl in my arms was.

I pushed her slightly away so that I could see her face. "Susan!"

"Who else?" With that she pulled me down and gave me a smouldering kiss.

"I've wanted to do that since I was ten." She told me and the other girl who had now joined us and looked even more bemused than me. Recalling her reaction to my kissing her sister I felt that she exaggerating somewhat.

"Wow! If you'd done that at ten I'd have been locked up for my thoughts alone."

Rubbing her pelvis against my instant erection she laughed. "Yes I can feel your thoughts."

Blushing I tried to apologise. "No need, I'm not a little girl now and I take that as a compliment."

She then started talking about Anita and why I'd stopped writing before remembering her friend.

"Oops, sorry Steph, this is David, 'Nita's very first beau and true love. David this is Stephanie, although she prefers Steph, she's my chaperone at these things."

"I am not your chaperone, I just try and keep you out of mischief." Her friend complained, then looked at me. "You'd never believe the energy this girl has."

My turn to laugh. "Oh yes I would, I remember her at ten and she couldn't stay still for two minutes."

"I haven't changed a bit." Susan said smiling.

I made an exaggerated look at her figure before saying. "I wouldn't say that."

"Pervert!" Giggled Susan, "You always did like young girls."

I spluttered and coloured up instantly. I tried to refute it but I didn't know where to begin.

Seeing my reaction, Susan just laughed louder. "I'm only joking David, you were younger than I am now."

She turned to her friend and said. "He was 17 and 'Nita was 14 when they went out together."

Relief washed over Stephanie's face as she hadn't known what to believe.

Wanting to change the subject I asked Susan what she was up to.

"Nothing much." She answered. "I've only just done with college and I have no idea what to do next. Dad wants me to go to university or at least he says he does."

"You think he doesn't then, really?" Asked her friend.

"Yes and no. I know he would love me to be the first graduate in the family but he's scared of the cost. I'm sure that they can't afford to support me through four more years especially away from home. To be honest, I'm not sure whether I want yet more school time."

"Which is a polite way of saying that she's bumming around." Explained Stephanie.

"Not quite, as I do work for a living, admittedly only as a part-time barmaid. At least until I decide what I want to do."

We had a very brief chat, mainly about Anita, my marriage and current status before agreeing to meet up after the two races. I was told that Anita was in Australia with her current boyfriend and rarely came home. She and her mother rarely spoke because Anita had found out, via my mother and her grandmother, why I'd really stopped writing. It appeared that Mrs. Jacobs had been talking with Mrs. Alcock about me. The latter, as usual, had been so vehement about my behaviour that my mother who had heard everything told them the truth. Mrs. Alcock hadn't believed a word but Mum took Mrs. Jacobs into our house and showed her the letter I'd kept. Somehow Anita had discovered the truth from her grandmother. Susan said that she couldn't stay in the room now if her mother and sister were there together, the atmosphere was so tense. I grimaced and said preventing that sort of thing was the exact reason I'd done what I did.

The men's race was first so I had to excuse myself and prepare for the race. I felt an anger growing as the race approached. In hindsight I knew I'd been very close to loving Anita and with time was certain that it would have developed even further. The fact that my sacrifice had been in vain just made matters worse. I took that anger into the race and subconsciously used it as I ran. I turned in easily the best time of my life over the distance and finished in an astonishing thirtieth place and third in our team. Much to the surprise of my fellow team and its management Susan came over and gave me another smouldering kiss as she congratulated me. With most of our girls' team watching it was fortunate that I was by far too exhausted to react this time. Susan then rushed back to her own team leaving me with a myriad of questions to answer. They all started with "Who was that?"

Fortunately the call came for the ladies to make their way to the start line. As they had done for us the men headed over to the spectators area to support our fellow team. During the fifteen minutes or so that it took to start the second race I was inundated with questions about Susan. Most of the men's team were younger than me and single so whereas, the women had wanted to know about my involvement with Susan, the lads were only interested in whether Susan was available. They didn't believe me when I told them I didn't know and that I hadn't seen her in years. I hushed everyone when the race was under starters orders, not that I was that interested in the start, but just so they'd shut up.

The gun went off and there was the usual surge ahead. Given the size of the field I was not too surprised when I saw a dozen or so towards the back fall to the ground. We all noticed and immediately watched for our girls. All went past unscathed, as, I was pleased to see, did Susan. The course was a short twisty one that each runner lapped four times. This was so that spectators had a better view for the full race. I managed to sneak off by heading for the toilet and then not returning to the start. Instead I went behind the officials' tents where I could watch the race, hopefully in peace. I wanted our team to do well but also wanted to see how good Susan was. My position was about three quarters of the way around the track so I had time to find a comfortable place to sit before the leaders reached me. I was amazed when I saw that Susan was running in third place. She had a very long and easy stride, ideal for this sort of distance. I wanted to cheer her on but our leading runner was about fifteen yards behind and I didn't want to appear disloyal.

"She's good isn't she?" A voice from my side said.

Turning sharply I saw Stephanie there, still in her running gear.

"She is that alright." I acknowledged before asking. "How come you're not running then Steph?"

"I twisted my knee a bit in that stupid mess at the start. Not that I'd have done any good. I'm only here to make up the numbers."

"Sit down then and take the weight of your leg." Automatically I started to look at her bandaged knee as I spoke, but because I was sitting and she was standing my eye level was right at her groin and my eyes were drawn to her tight shorts. Blushing I forced myself to look at her knee but her very shapely legs broke my concentration again. I was very glad when she managed to sit down. The smile on her face showed me that she was aware of my attention and wasn't upset by it. I saw her look down at the tenting in my shorts.

"You do like young girls don't you?" She said giggling.

I felt my face start to burn and had no comeback, but managed to mumble 'sorry' half a dozen times.