Inspired by a remark from my 'little sister'.
My grateful thanks to evanslily for her time and patience, and her editing skills. As always, the good stuff is due to her, the mistakes are mine.
ALLIE
The Piccadilly line in the middle of the morning is hardly the Road to Damascus, and yet the premonition that morning was no less apocalyptic in my life. The advertisement was for Help The Aged, the picture, a sprightly-looking older lady, but it was the wording that caught my attention:
Remember Alison, she's still an incredible person.
At the time, I didn't realise the importance of the message.
A fifty-four year old widower, I'd been alone for six years since Sally-Ann died. The children had been a big comfort, but I couldn't impose on them -- they had their own lives and families to think about. I hid my loneliness by throwing myself into work, starting early and finishing late. That way I didn't have to spend much time at home.
I'd been with the company since I left college, starting as a process chemist monitoring the production of food additives and eventually promoted to quality control manager -- where I stayed. I wasn't ambitious; as long as we had the money to do what we wanted, Sally-Ann and I had been satisfied. Of course, without her I didn't want to do much.
My monthly visits to Head Office were a penalty of my job. A meeting with the senior managers that could probably have been done by a conference telephone call; they preferred to make me take the two and a half hour journey into London and then out to the west of the capital to the sprawling offices of our parent company. It was on my way to this meeting I had the prescient experience on the Tube.
As I made my way to the male toilets before I started my meeting, I walked down the plush corridor between the fancy offices of the executives, mentally comparing my own 'broom cupboard', and idly reading the name plates on the doors. It was only whilst I was washing my hands that the name "Allie Stevenson" triggered a memory of a little blonde-haired girl, Alison; it was an odd coincidence.
Her brothers had been playmates and school friends of mine, living in the next road to my family. My older brother and I had spent many hours in their house and they in ours. Allie, being eight years younger, had been the nuisance we had to put up with; pubescent boys rarely want anything to do with little girls, being far more interested in the older ones. Our families had drifted apart as we four boys grew up and left home to go to university and, in the case of Allie's eldest brother, the Army.
On my way back I did something completely alien to me and knocked on the door. To this day I have no idea why I did it; my usual response would have been to keep a very low profile and dash past in case she saw me. I can only blame that advertisement.
"Come in," said a faint voice within.
Already regretting my rash action, I opened the door. Inside an attractive blonde woman in her mid-forties was sitting behind a tidy desk and working on a laptop computer off to one side.
She looked at me inquiringly. "Yes?"
"Allie?" I asked timidly.
"Yes?" She sounded irritated, obviously annoyed by the interruption.
"Allie Stevenson?" I felt tongue-tied. Now I was in the office I had no idea what to say.
"That's what it says on the door. Who are you -- and what do you want?
"I'm -- er -- Jerry Jones."
"And?" she snapped.
I lost my nerve. "I'm sorry, I made a mistake," I said hastily, turning away and reaching for the door handle.
As I began to close the door she called out. "Wait!"
"Yes?" I looked back nervously.
"Jerry Jones?" She was frowning now. "Who used to live in Grove Avenue?"
I stood holding the half open door, hopeful now. "Yes."
"You owe me an apology."
I was stunned into silence. I couldn't imagine what she was talking about.
Suddenly, she smiled. "You used to pull my pigtails."
That smile changed the whole atmosphere. "Guilty as charged," I admitted with a laugh. "Can you ever forgive me?"
Still smiling, Allie rose and walked around the desk to shake my hand. "I'll think about it."
We chatted briefly before I remembered my meeting. She insisted I return for coffee and a longer talk, which lasted so long we eventually went to the canteen for lunch together.
She told me about her brothers, James who joined the Army as a career officer, now a captain, and Paul who took a fine arts degree and worked in a London auctioneers. She was divorced with two children who were now sixteen and twelve.
I told her of my own very happy marriage, ended by cervical cancer and my two great daughters, Emma and Jane, now both happily married mothers. Our conversation had been so easy, so warm, by the time I left I was actually looking forward to my next visit.
I didn't have to wait for my next visit; Allie rang me the following week. We enjoyed our conversation sufficiently to make it a weekly event.