I shall return. Just wait for me.
Emily! called out Michael, switching off the engine of his Triumph motorbike and looking up to the second-floor window. I know youre home! If you dont come out in
He stopped, for the curtain fluttered and there she was the one true love of his life.
Emily! Look, Ive bought myself a Lightning! Nearly as good as new. Come out, let me give you the ride youve always dreamed of.
You? You can ride a motorbike? Emily sounded quite surprised as she leant out, her laughter dancing in the air. Id never have guessed.
I can, I can So? Are you coming? Or shall I offer someone else a ride?
You dare! Emily burst out laughing. Wait, Ill be down in five!
All right. Times ticking. Even a second late and I shall leave without you.
Emily, naturally, took almost fifteen minutes to appear, but Michael waited despite his threat.
He waited because he loved her, loved her with all his heart. She was his first true love.
And besides, everyone knows girls need time to look their best.
Fifteen minutes meant nothing. Hed have waited a lifetime.
Michael frowned as she approached, eyes wide at his gleaming, powerful motorcycle. Wheres your helmet?
I want to ride without it. Feels more daring, dont you think?
She didnt mind that Michael came from a working-class family and his steed was bright red, not white. What mattered was that he made her heart flutter, and she was quite besotted with him.
She had always wanted to feel the wind on her face, hurtling along the hedgerows, and she told Michael this often. Today, he decided, was the day to grant her wish.
And in truth, Michael was an extraordinary sort of chap. Emily had never met a young man quite like him; indeed, their very first meeting seemed something of a marvel, a stroke of fate.
It was just over a year earlier, around May Day, when Emily and her school friends had taken the train out of London for a camping trip in Epping Forest. They were six girls and four boys, including Simon, who for years had vied for Emilys affection, without ever truly winning her over.
That day, Simon made one of his attempts buoyed by too much cider, he promised Emily a stroll in the woods to show her something marvellous, but as soon as they were out of sight, his intentions turned crude. He tried to kiss her, then pressed for more, ignoring her rejections.
Emily, naturally, was repulsed. Even her mother Mary, friends with Simons mum and always saying, Hes a good lad, give him a look, Emily! could never have changed her mind, especially after that display.
When Simon wouldnt take no for an answer, Emily fled deeper into the woods, running until she could run no more, terrified to look back. Simon, meanwhile, stumbled and limped back to the camp.
Lost and frightened, her phone useless with no signal, Emily wandered for hours, resolutely failing to find her way until at last, tears streaming down her face, she crouched under an old beech tree and sobbed, knowing no one could hear.
Then, from a few yards away: Good heavens! a mans voice rang out. Did I just hear someone crying?
Emily looked up with apprehension at the stranger. Was it trouble again? Yet, within minutes, she realised Michael as he introduced himself was kind and gentle.
He calmed her, listened to what had happened, gave her some water from his thermos, and walked her all the way to the bus stop under a gentle dusk sky.
Good luck to you, he said at parting, and Emily, moved by his kindness, kissed him lightly on the cheek.
Ring me, if you remember my number, she whispered, her heart fluttering as she hurried off. He did remember and he called.
From then on, they met two or three times a week. Emily showed him around her village, told him her grand, childish dreams, and sat utterly enchanted while Michael recited poetry.
Michael came from a neighbouring village, ten miles away, and always arrived with a bouquet of wild daisies. Genuinely touched, Emily joked, Imaginative! to which Michael simply replied, From the heart.
More and more, Emily found herself taken by him. She paid her first visit to his village, met his parents, and even went fishing with him by the river. Michael, deft and cheerful, showed her how to cast a line, how to fry the catch over an open fire, and distinguished the boletes from the toadstools on their woodland rambles.
They swam together in the river, danced in the rain at the bus stop until two old ladies passing by muttered about mad youth these days but Emily and Michael only laughed the harder, uncaring of gossip.
Sometimes, Michael would catch up with her before school, bearing a little box of freshly baked scones.
For you, hed say, cheeks flushing. Hope you like them.
You made these?
Up early, asked Mum how. Because, well, I love you. Have a good day, Em.
Nothing had ever made her so happy.
Every day with Michael, her world opened wider, bright with genuine love and the joy and care of childhood rediscovered. She, who had lived so quietly until he burst into her life, now lived for every next adventure.
And now hed arrived, not to woo, but to grant her oldest wish: a wild ride on a real English motorbike.
Wheres your helmet, Em? he asked again. Its nippy.
She grinned, Im fine! Lets go!
And away they roared Emily clinging with all her strength, living in the moment, not a thought of this ever ending.
They rode through lanes lined with golden wheat and tangled woodland, clouds rolling overhead and a brisk wind shrieking through Emilys hair. She whooped for joy, breathless, feeling utterly alive.
Their happiness seemed destined to last, but soon after, Michael brought unexpected news.
Im to serve my year with the army, he told her, sorrow threading his words as he squeezed her hand. Will you wait for me?
Is that what you want?
Michael nodded, hope and worry mingling in his eyes. Of course. Ill come back to say goodbye before I leave.
He kept his promise. They strolled through the village park, discussing dreams for after his service, when they stumbled upon a tiny snow-white kitten huddled on the path, lost and shivering.
Shes been abandoned, Michael observed sorrowfully, scooping up the kitten until she purred in his arms. Poor thing, shes just like the one my dad gave my mum, saying it would watch over their love while they were apart. It worked for them. Maybe itll work for us too?
He gazed at Emily, hopeful. Would you take her? May I give her to you?
Emily hesitated: her parents were not fond of pets. But Michaels earnestness melted her defences, and she pressed the trembling kitten to her chest.
What shall we name her, then? Michael asked.
Lets call her Lily, decided Emily at last.
Michael smiled. May Lily be our little talisman. When I come back, well make a home together you, me, and her.
I promise, Ill wait for you, Emily whispered.
Before leaving, Michael embraced Emily and Lily both, vowing softly, I will return. Just wait for me.
******
For three months all was well; Michael and Emily wrote and spoke once a week on Sundays, when the soldiers were allowed an hour to call home.
How are your parents taking to Lily? Michael asked.
They werent pleased at first, Emily laughed, covering her anxiety. But its all right now.
But I remember well that it wasnt all right. Emilys parents made quite a scene about the stray kitten, and an even bigger one when they learnt Emily was waiting for Michael from the army. Emilys mother insisted Simon was a proper match, now much softened, determined to win Emily by any means.
After time, the distance grew too much, and Lily no longer a delight became a nuisance, especially after, chasing a sunbeam, she knocked Emilys phone onto the floor, breaking it.
Little nuisance, Emily scolded, losing her temper. Lily slunk out of sight for days and Simon, always nearby, whispered, Shed be happier outdoors, you know.
One day, Emily carried Lily to the bins behind the terrace houses and left her there. She felt nothing, not guilt or sorrow.
When Michaels Sunday calls failed to connect, he grew worried. Letters went unanswered too. Military leave was too short to make the long journey to see for himself. Loyal to his promise, he waited, marking days in hope.
Finally, his service ended. Michael returned, worn but eager, and went straight not to his parents but to Emilys house.
Emilys mother answered the door, steely-eyed.
Hello, Mrs. Bennett. Is Emily in? Is she all right?
Emily? she frowned, lying with ease. Im afraid youre too late. Shes away at university engaged to Simon now. Has moved on. Please do not trouble her again.
Please, if I could just speak to her? At least tell me about Lily, the kitten. Where is she?
Oh, the cat she threw her back out onto the streets. Quite right too.
Sheabandoned Lily? Michael stammered, barely able to breathe.
He wandered the streets, finally sitting in the park where once theyd found Lily together. Tears streamed down his cheeks, for while betrayal hurt, his sadness for Lily stung even deeper.
If only Id brought her home to our village, he muttered to himself.
Suddenly, he heard a desperate mewling. A grimy, thin cat with emerald eyes emerged from beneath a bench. She brushed against his leg and, with an old, familiar gesture, offered him her paw.
His heart leapt it was Lily! Shed waited, unlike Emily.
Scooping her up, Michael spun on the spot, laughing and crying. Passersby shook their heads, thinking him mad.
Perhaps he was, but he was happy, for Lily, at least, had never forgotten him.
Michael and Lily were never parted again. She didnt replace his lost love, but she helped him heal.
In time, Lily brokered a new beginning. A young woman named Alice, staying with her grandmother in the village, paused to pet the pretty white cat perched on a garden wall as she passed each day on her way to the shops. One day, when Michael reached for Lily at the same moment, their hands met.
So began the next chapter of his life: Michael, Alice, and dear Lily together at last, moving to the city, where his new love quickly outshone the first.
As for Emily, she returned to the village a year later, having left her studies unfinished, with a child and no sign of Simon, who vanished the day he heard her news.
What became of her after, I cannot say. But I know she regretted her choices; she wandered the village still, calling for Lily and yearning for the love shed spurned, the love that had transformed her small world into an entire universe.
She never found Lily again, nor the happiness she once took for granted.
