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Whatever, it soon became obvious that the whole damned town was aware of that rumour. Doormen at the local pubs and clubs would get all jittery when Sally and I arrived sometimes. And then shortly after, it would be drawn to my attention that Reggie Arnold had just left the establishment.
It had little effect on me because I was never refused entry anywhere. More likely, I believe, Reggie might have been asked to leave. The Arnolds weren't at the top of very many people's popularity polls.
It was around that time that I first heard mention of Roger Vine. I had no idea who the guy was -- and didn't care really -- but it was often reported to Sally or me, that Vine had been in Reggie's company.
To be honest it was like a little game I played, I never denied the rumour that I was after Reg Arnold's blood, but I never confirmed it either. Life went on as if the guy had never existed.
Sally and I got on well at college and pretty quickly she announced that she was going to train as a schoolteacher. That kind-a left me wondering where I was really going, but the head of physical education at the college suggested that I should study it at University.
Immediately I came up with the "No student loan for me!" argument but he instantly shot that down by talking about bursaries. I'll be honest I had little idea what he was talking about at the time.
Whatever, a year or so later the bugger swung it and I went off to study physical education at university level. But that was in the future.
Bill completed his training and then because he was stationed miles away while he trained, he asked Sally to marry him. Sally said yes and at seventeen and eighteen they became man and wife. What was extremely fortuitous was that Sally quickly wangled her way into a teacher training college not far from the college Bill was attending.
I missed having Sally around almost as much as I'd missed Alice when she had left. But I was much busier by then. Most evenings and weekends, I was either life-guarding or teaching swimming at the Country Club.
Unreliable reports reached my ears that Alice was already at university somewhere, or alternatively at some flash finishing school, reputed to be in Paris. However as I said, several different universities mentioned, ranging between Oxford and Cambridge, and even Yale in the States on occasions. Someone was deliberately feeding-out misinformation I very much suspected. But whether it was intended to confuse me or Alice's real father, or for some other reason, I have no idea.
The day before I shipped off to university I went to the Country Club to say goodbye to all my friends and colleagues there. And on the way home, for some reason I didn't go the short way along the main road. I took the back path round the golf course and through the park as Alice and I had done together so many times. Boy was that a mistake; did that walk make me feel melancholy!
As a walked through the park itself I remembered it all, everything that had happened there over the years. Especially the day Bill, Sally and I first heard Emma screaming in fear up that tree. And how cold the water had felt when I dived into the lake and dragged Alice out. "Yeah, it is a lake, why the hell does everyone call it a river?" I asked myself staring back at the water.
Then I looked up at our tall climbing tree and wondered whether any children still climbed into its hallowed branches.
Don't ask me why because I can't tell you; but something forced me to climb that tree one more time.
It took but a few seconds and at the top I found that someone had obliterated the initials that Bill, Sally Alice and I had carved into the trunk by the top most (sitting) branch many years before.
Taking out my Swiss-army-knife, I carved them back again. Then feeling even more morose, I climbed down and went home.
At Uni I threw myself into everything I could find. Student union, sports clubs... you name it and Jeffrey Turner was on the membership list. Before I knew it I was representing the university in swimming and diving competitions. Not that diving was really my forte, but I was roped in anyway. I believe because the chief coach had heard of my uncle.
I also discovered that I had been very lucky getting that particular bursary. It was the first time it had been awarded to anyone, and it covered my term fees, accommodation and there was even enough money leftover for all my books and the like.
I dated a few girls, but never anything serious. Jesus, I was too busy to get serious with another girl. Thoughts of Alice filled my head when my mind went in that direction.
Well really, by that time, I had it figured that Alice had forgotten about me. Surely she had to be in university herself by then and wherever it was, it was unlikely to be a prison camp like that school had been. As far as we knew Alice had made no attempt to contact Sally or myself. Or Bill either, I suppose I should add.
I was in my last year just coming up to my finals when my mother and father died. A gas explosion they said at the inquest. Just one of those things, another unfortunate and tragic accident!
Bill's mother's house had also been damaged but she had been out at the time of the explosion. She had hers repaired, then she sold it and moved into a house she was to share with Bill and Sally. Possibly she bought the house and they shared it with her, I never learnt the details anyway.
I didn't have my parents' house repaired, I sold it as it stood and banked the insurance money. With my mother, father, Bill and Sally all gone, there was nothing back there for me anyway.
Instead -- on graduating -- I took a job on the south coast, with -- of all organisations -- the Ambulance Service. I have no idea why, but I'd made up my mind to train as a paramedic. I really do not know why, possibly because it had been paramedics who'd been the first on the scene of the explosion that killed my parents. Who knows how or why these ideas get into our heads.
I hadn't been down there a year when I got word that Bill had been killed, following a land mine explosion. Actually they don't call them landmines now.... Oh no, lets not go there. Bill had been picked-off by a sniper when he went to the aid of another injured soldier. Posthumously Bill and another guy -- who did survive -- were decorated for their actions that day.
I went back home for the funeral -- Bill was buried alongside his father -- and that's where I had made my naive promise to Sally. At Bill's graveside I promised Sally that, wherever and whenever she needed me, I would be there for her!
At his funeral, Bill's mother had looked like she'd suddenly aged ten years. Within weeks she and Sally had moved in with Sally's parents. Sally getting a job quite quickly at our old junior school. But within eight months, Bill's mother had past away; from a broken heart according to Sally. The grass hadn't fully grown back on Bill's grave when they laid his mother in with her husband.
Almost another year passed and I was visiting Sally, helping her celebrate her twenty-forth birthday. And my own twenty-fifth, which was due shortly I should add. We were sitting in her parents lounge after dinner when Sally handed me an envelope.
"This is addressed to you," I pointed out."
"Yeah, but you need to read it, Jeff!" She replied.
"What is it?"
"For Christ sake, open it and see!"
I did and then pulled out the card that was within and read it out-loud.
It went on the list our local church, the time and venue for the reception, etcetera.
"Are you going?" I asked.
"I'm not sure Jeffrey. I really don't know that I ever want to go into that church again. Bill and I were married before that altar. Bill's coffin lay there, and so did his mother's and both your parent's coffins. I'm not sure that I ever want to go into that place again."
"Then don't!"
"That's easy for you to say, but Alice wants me to be her maid of honour!"
"She's asked you; you've spoken to Alice?"
"No, Emma called me the other day to ask me on Alice's behalf; the same day as that invitation arrived."
"Where is she... are they?"
"I'm not sure, maybe over the road, but no one's seen either of them. All of the girls just got invitations in the post like me. I still don't think anyone has seen or spoken to Alice since... well, they went off to that school."
"What did Emma, actually say?"
"Well that was a little odd, but then everything about that family is odd, isn't it? Emma was short and to the point. Like she was in a hurry. She just said "Hello Sal" and asked me if I'd received the invitation to Alice's wedding. I said that it had come that morning and she said that she already knew it had. Then she said that Alice had asked her to ask me if I would be her maid of honour.
"You know Alice and Emma must be over there. Emma must have seen the postman deliver that invite, or even may have asked him if he had when he went there. Then she called not five minutes after I got home from the school that evening. She just gave me time to put the car in the garage and get inside the house. She must have been watching for me."
"But Alice didn't ask you herself."
"No!"
"And are you going to go to her wedding, maid of honour or not?"
"I'm not sure Jeff, I'm in two minds. She was my friend remember, probably the best girlfriend that I've ever had."
"Best Girlfriend?"
"You know that, beside my parents, the two most important people in my whole life were you and Bill. But Alice... and little Emma, they are running close behind you. I'm just not sure that I can face going into that damned church again."
"Then don't Sally, that place holds enough bad memories for me, let alone you. Give it a miss girl, maybe go to the reception later."
"I'm with Jeffrey on that one Sally. You always look like you are about to cry when you drive past the place." Sally's mother added from the doorway.
"Are you going to go?" Sally asked me.
"Jesus no! Nothing in heaven or on this earth could persuade me to attend that wedding, I can assure you of that!"
"That's what I figured you'd say. But you should do!"
"For gods sake why?"
"Because, Jeffrey, just because!"
"Well I wouldn't go even if I did have an invite, which ain't likely to happen you know that as well as I do!"
I popped in to see Sally before I went back my own home on the south coast the following day. From what she'd said then, I thought that Sally had decided to give Alice's wedding a miss. That early morning phone call I received from Sally the following weekend, proved that I was wrong.
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We hadn't caught Alice's eye, but Emily -- who was a bridesmaid -- did spot us... well, me for sure. I know because our eyes locked for a moment or two, effectively stopping Emma in her tracks and almost causing her to lose her position in the procession. But she soon recovered when another bridesmaid nudged her from behind.
"Did you tell Alice and Emma that I was coming today?" I whispered to Sally.
"No, I hadn't seen either of them since the hen night, I don't think any of the girls have. I don't recognise any of those bridesmaids except for Emma. I wonder who they are?"
"Friends from Uni or that school, I should imagine." I suggested, "Maybe even from that French finishing school that was bandied about. They all look pretty full-of-themselves anyway. Weren't any of them at Alice's hen night?"
"Bridesmaids are supposed to look like cultured young ladies, Jeffrey; and until they've had a few drinks at the reception, most behave like they are. Anyway no, there were only our old crowd... the girls from school at the hen night. To be honest with you, I don't really think that the Arnolds knew where Alice and Emma had been that night. They looked pretty shocked when the two girls fell out of that taxi."
"Fell out! Were they that bad?"
"Worse than bad, Jeff; Alice was legless. She was putting it away like there was no tomorrow!"
"Why? Christ, having a few is one thing... but getting completely pie-eyed. I can't see the point in it."
"I told you the other night; to me it looked like Alice was having second thoughts."
"What makes you say that?"
"I don't know, she never said anything in actual words. But Alice didn't seem to want to talk about her intended and neither did Emma. Besides telling us that that ruddy school was far worse than any of us could ever imagine, they never said much at all really. Oh they had no idea about us going up there by the way. Emma says she thinks she could recall a security clampdown around the right time, but they had no idea that it was you and Bill trying to get into the school. They thought it was another girl getting caught trying to get out. Not an unusual occurrence, I gathered."
By that time the procession had reached the front of the church and the usual rigmarole was beginning to get itself organised. So Sally and I stopped speaking and turned our attention back there.
Alice and Vine were by that time standing in front of the vicar, but her bridesmaids were still fiddling with her dress and helping her lift the veil from her face, as they tend to do.
But then I noticed Emma put her hand on Alice's arm to attract her attention. That led to Alice turning slightly and leaning her head close to Emma so that her sister could whisper something to her.
Whatever Emma did say to her, it took Alice by surprise. Everyone could see that from her body language. Alice's head shot-up and she scrutinised the congregation, with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. Eventually her eyes fell on Sally and me. Well, to this day, I believed that they did. I'm convinced that Alice was staring right back at me for what seemed like an absolute age, but was probably no more than a couple of seconds; if that. Then she... well she smiled and shrugged her shoulders; then looked back at her sister and began to whisper something to her. Well, I assume she was talking in a very low voice anyway.
But then fate took an unexpected hand. It was while Alice was whispering to Emma that someone decided to turn the PA system on. The radio receiver collecting the signals from the wedding party anyway, and we all heard Alice's voice suddenly booming out of the speakers.
"... late now, anyway!"
"Too late for what?" Vine asked Alice.
But then he realised that his voice was also coming over the PA system and he covered his microphone with his hand.
Alice did the same, and they had a short private discussion that led to Vine staring out at the congregation for a few seconds. Then after conversing with Alice again, he removed his hand from the microphone and asked the vicar to proceed with the service. I'm afraid that I could make little of either's body language. While they had been talking, Alice had been shaking and nodding her head quite a bit. But what she was saying yes and no too, I have no idea.
The vicar then looked at Alice, I assumed to get confirmation that it was her wish to proceed, and she gave a nod of her head in reply.
Whatever, from then on the service then went much as hundreds of others do in churches all over the world every weekend. They are roughly the same, except for the two principles, so there is no point in describing any of that here.
As Alice and her new husband neared our pew on their parade out of the church, Alice glanced my way and... well, I can't really describe what passed between us; I found that I was a little more than emotional by that time. But Alice appeared to have an apologetic expression on her face. Then an instant later she and Vine had passed out of our sight through the door.
But as they vanished from my sight, George and the Second Mrs. Arnold came into it. There was no mistaking the expressions on their faces!
Moments after Alice's parents had gone through those doors; the general rush to follow the Bride and Groom outside started.
"Let's get the hell out of here?" I said to Sally, and we began moving in the opposite direction to the throng.
Being that it had been our local church all of our lives, Sally and I were well aware that we would be able to exit to the outside much more quickly, via the ringers' door at the base of the bell tower.
Those bells were ringing, so that door would have to have been unlocked during the service so that certain bell ringers could nip out for a quiet smoke.
Actually it was supposed to be unlocked so the bell ringers could come and go without disturbing the sanctity of the service; but my first explanation is far closer to the truth of the situation.
"What now? I hope for Christ sake that you don't want to go to the reception!" I said to Alice when we did get out into the afternoon sunshine.
"Hell no, Jeff. But, I think I want to watch the photo call out front!"
"Why, for haven's sake?"
"Because I need to, and I think you need to, Jeff. Alice has gone, I really do think that you need to see her go."
"We just saw her get married and it nearly tore my heart out, Sally."
"I know Jeff but you need to see her drive into the sunset without you. I'm sorry but I honestly believe that you do need to witness that."
"Okay Sally. But I can't understand why, and I'm not sure that it's a good idea!"
"Jeffrey, don't I recall your father telling you, on more than one occasion, 'Don't argue, say yes...'"
"Okay you win, come on lets get round there before they've gone then."
"There's no rush, we've plenty of time. They'll be fiddling with those pictures for a good ten minutes yet."
When we made the front of the church the wedding party was indeed still fiddling with the photo call. But on spying us, Emma instantly stepped out of her place and rushed to envelope me in her arms.
I might add that her doing so brought some confusion, and an unplanned and unwelcome hiatus in the proceedings. George Arnold and the Second Mrs. Arnold started yelling at Emma, ordering her to return to her place.
"I'm sorry, Jeff... and so is Alice. God it's so good to see you!" Was all Emma had time to say before she was quite literally, pulled away from me and pushed back into her place in the line-up by her mother. Who, by the way, was giving me a look that should have sent me to my maker.
"What did Emma mean by that?" I asked Sally.
"I don't know, Jeff; I honestly don't know!" She replied.
Just a couple of times during the photo call, did Alice and my eyes catch each other's, but she was definitely avoiding looking directly at me. I'd say that when our eyes did engage, she'd instantly looked away. It was like Alice wanted to know that I was there watching her, but she didn't want me to know that she knew. I found it all very confusing.
But then our eyes did lock for a moment or two, just as the limousine carrying Alice and her new husband off to the reception, pulled away. As vehicle moved clear of the great crowd of humanity surrounding it, Alice's eye's met mine for the last time. I could read little in her expression, but there was no mistaking the tears rolling down her cheeks. Then the big limousine disappeared from my sight.
"Can we get the hell out of here, now?" I said to Sally again.
"Yes Jeff, and the sooner the better; Reg is heading this way!"
"Whoa, that changes things. Where is the bastard?" I replied.
Well I was in the mood to give some bugger a smack on the nose; who could be better than dear old Reggie Arnold?
Although I was looking for him by then, Reg Arnold, his entourage and George Arnold burst out of the throng and were upon me before I saw them coming. Reggie did most of the talking, possibly because he did have more than a little back-up behind him that day.
