Elizabeth Jones woke at 6.29am as usual, precisely 1 minute before her alarm clock was due to perform its now pointless task. Her meticulous morning routine swung into action. Stretching herself to remove the last remnants of sleep, she removed her long cotton nightdress, donned her towelling robe and proceeded to the bathroom. Although not conscious of the precise details, if she had taken the time to analyse her actions she would undoubtedly have been delighted to know that the start to every working day was virtually identical. She brushed her teeth with the same number of strokes, showered for the same number of minutes, tied up her hair in the same way and returned to her bedroom at precisely 6.45am.
At 42 years of age, and having lived alone since her mother died, 6 years ago, she had slid into a way of life which suited her. Had a husband or lover been watching her as she dressed, they would have seen a woman whom they would have considered shapely and attractive. She was 5'4, with a still firm 36 C bust and she kept herself trim with a sensible but not obsessive diet and just enough moderate exercise. But, of course there was no husband or lover to make such an observation (and they would certainly not have approved of her conservative choice of plain white cotton underwear, tights and shapeless calf length navy blue dress)
An hour after rising she left the house and made her way to the bus stop and caught the number 34 to work. Work, for Elizabeth Jones, was St Saviour's High School for Girls, where she taught English and occasionally helped to coach the senior girls' hockey team. Arriving at 8.00am precisely she made polite conversation with the other members of staff, with who she was generally on good terms, while organising her lesson plans for the day. Most of the other members of the Staff Room considered Elizabeth to be a little aloof but admired her professionalism.
Elizabeth herself was happy to keep her home and work life entirely separate and did not encourage mixing outside school hours. When the first class bell rang at 8.30am, she made her way to her allotted classroom and began her Thursday timetable.
The day that followed was entirely predictable and by the time 4.30pm arrived Elizabeth was weary and looked forward to a quiet evening. Catching the bus home, she arrived in time to watch the early evening news on TV before making an evening meal of lamb casserole. As she settled down with a glass of wine and a historical novel to read, the evening, like her day, and indeed week, seemed much like any other in her usual existence.
At 8.30pm the phone rang. As she answered, she expected another family update from her brother, or possibly her friend Margaret to invite her out at the weekend. Instead, a woman's voice that she had heard many times before but not for a long time, said just one word; "Tomorrow". In the split second between hearing the word and the phone line going dead, Elizabeth's orderly and regimented world totally unravelled and she began to tremble. But as a testament to the strength of the woman, by the time she had washed up her meal, made a hot drink and readied herself for bed an hour later, she had recovered her composure enough to think clearly, in preparation for the following day at school and what lay in store for her afterwards.
By 6.29am the following morning, precisely 1 minute before her alarm clock was once again due to perform its pointless task, Elizabeth had already been up for an hour because her morning routine had been so rudely altered by the telephone call the previous evening. The imaginary husband or lover who may have been watching her as she dressed the previous day would have been much more interested in her choice of underwear as she dressed on this occasion! However, the girls at St Saviours that Friday would scarcely imagine what Miss Jones was wearing under the usual shapeless dress with which she covered herself. Her reputation in the classroom as a likeable but entirely sexless spinster was, in essence, deserved but then neither the girls nor almost anyone else knew her secret.
As she sat on the bus that morning she tried to concentrate on her days teaching but hard as tried, she could not help thinking back to the days, over 20 years ago, that her life changed, forever.............................................
Elizabeth had been brought up in a small Welsh village at a time when the outside world had made little impression on the power of the local Methodist Chapel and village school to shape the destiny of children. Her father had been tragically killed in a mining accident when she was just 3 and her mother had brought her up in virtual seclusion. By the age of 18 she had done well enough in school to have earned a place at college where she trained to be a teacher. It was at college, away from her sheltered home life, that it dawned on her for the first time that there was far more to life than going to church on Sunday and reading books. Having said that, she didn't exactly embrace the traditional wild student lifestyle in the same way as many of her fellow students did. But she did enjoy making new friends, particularly Katie, her flat mate at the college hall of residence. After a few weeks they had become pretty close and Katie began to encourage the shy girl to go out more and enjoy college life
One thing that Elizabeth did take to was the occasional glass of wine and it wasn't long until an evening out ended in Elizabeth arriving home very flushed and merry with the unfamiliar effects of alcohol, while Katie was in a much worse state. Elizabeth helped her friend onto her bed and then went into the bathroom to undress and get ready for bed. When she came back she found Katie giggling helplessly and making a complete mess of unbuttoning her dress in her drunken state. Elizabeth's sense of duty to a friend overcame her initial inhibitions regarding her friend's behaviour. She helped her unbutton the dress and it fell to the floor but being drunk she then lost her balance again and fell back on the bed dragging Elizabeth on top of her. The two friends were soon laughing together and as they lay there next to each other they told each other more of their life stories.
Katie was tall, slim and obviously very attractive to the guys at the college. Although from a similar background to Elizabeth, Katie had sampled a few more of life's pleasures, including pleasures of the flesh with the local boys and wasted no time in filling in a bemused Elizabeth.
So far, Elizabeth had avoided any kind of contact with the opposite sex, largely because she wondered what all the fuss was about as the boys she had met at school had been either bullies or stupid and she had ignored them. In truth Elizabeth just hadn't felt that men held much interest and hadn't begun to consider the kind of intimacies that most girls of her age had already discovered.
Katie found it hard to believe her new found friend was quite so innocent but with the wine having its effect she was soon telling her about the various ways her boyfriend had pleasured her before she had split with him several months before. For her part, Elizabeth listened in amazement. Her religious upbringing had not prepared her for such open conversations and she felt a curious mixture of guilt and excitement at discussing such things.
Katie did shock her when she suddenly announced that she was now very horny after talking about it and wishing she had a man around to satisfy her.
Elizabeth was feeling quite confused herself by that point and didn't know what to say but didn't want to appear rude so she gave her friend a hug, made excuses about being tired and tucked herself up in her own bed. But having moved to her bed she could not sleep. A combination of the warm glow from the wine and her continued mixed feelings about the conversation with Katie kept her awake. She watched her friend, now asleep, on the bed where she had left her as the light from the street outside dimly lit her near naked body.