A chance encounter over a small dog leads to an afternoon of passion.
The Rectory
It was a cold December day. Rain had been continuous for about three days previously and now it was falling as a miserable grey drizzle that just made everything feel cold and clammy.
I was out for a walk. At the age of thirty and recently divorced I had decided that, for the sake of both my physical and mental health, I needed regular breaks away from my desktop computer, and so I got into a routine of finding interesting places to visit and walk, pretty much regardless of the weather conditions.
Being single and living alone also made me yearn for the company of others and walking was a great way to meet new people and strike up interesting conversations, though not necessarily on freezing cold, wet December days.
On this particular occasion I had found a small village about an hour's drive from where I lived. It had a lake, or 'mere', as a feature and looked interesting on google earth, so I decided to pay it a visit.
I parked at a local Country Park picnic area and made my way on foot the two miles or so to the lake. When I arrived there, due to the weather, the paths were muddy and slippery and there were few other walkers around.
So, there I was walking and lost in my own thoughts when I heard a woman scream. There was also the sound of splashing and I feared someone had fallen into the cold, murky waters. I rushed to where the noise had emanated from and saw a small woman standing nearly to her boot tops in the water and franticly shouting, and trying to reach something out by the reeds.
I ran to a spot close by.
"Are you okay? What's happened?"
She turned to me, tears in her eyes.
"My dog. He's caught on something. I can't..."
She sobbed as I ventured closer to the edge of the water. There was a commotion a little way out, and I could just make out a pair of pointed ears and some yapping amongst all of the splashing.
I turned to the lady. She looked to be in her late fifties and was obviously very distraught. There was no one else around to help, so I decided I had to rescue the dog.
Thinking fast I took off my large winter coat and handed it to her. She looked at me quite shocked as I then, very gingerly, made my way down the muddy incline and into the water.
The shock of the cold as it filled my walking boots made me gasp, but there was no way to reach the dog without wading out into the lake.
Slowly I inched forward aware that I had no idea how deep the water might turn out to be.
The dog, a small curly haired terrier, appeared to be caught in a fishing line, which, in it's struggles, it had managed to wrap securely around it's body.
As I got closer the water level came up to my waist and then rose towards my chest. It was freezing and smelly.
The lady on the bank was shouting out for me to be careful and I suppressed the urge to curse at this little dog out loud.
When I reached it, it was whimpering and growing tired. At first it snarled and tried to nip me but when I supported it and raised it slightly out of the cold water it became a bit more friendly.
The trouble was, I didn't have anything on me that could cut the line, so I looked in amongst the reeds to see what it was attached to. It looked like there was an old fishing chair which had ended up dumped in the lake and the line was caught on that, so I started pulling until it finally came free of the reeds and I was able to drag it and the dog back to the bank.
It still took some effort to get out of the cold water, but the lady was repeatedly thanking me and trying to reach out to help me up.
Finally I was able to extricate myself from the mud and sat panting on the bank while she cuddled and spoke to her little dog, trying to calm him. Once I had my breath back I decided to try to untangle the creature, though my hands were now shaking furiously from the cold.
"We need....a knife....scissors...something...." I said through chattering teeth.
She looked at me. "I don't know. I haven't....what about a key?"
I shrugged. It was worth a try. She handed me a house key and I could feel it's sharp serrated edge.
I quickly grabbed the fishing line and started working at it with the key, at first thinking it was useless and then, suddenly, the line snapped.
Now we had enough slack to be able to get the remaining line off the dog's body. Once free the dog was content to be cuddled by the lady and attempted to lick her mouth.
"Thank you. Thank you so much!" she said as I handed back her key.
"Do...you....have....my..coat?" I asked while my teeth chattered and my hands shook.
She picked it up from where it lay and handed it to me and I quickly wrapped myself in it, but all that really did was make the coat wet and did little to retain my body heat.
"Where do you live? Is it far?"
I told her and she gasped. "Oh my god, how are you going to get home in that state?"
I shrugged again. I'd done my good deed for the day, now I just wanted to be dry and warm. It was a couple of miles to where I'd parked my car and the day was not getting any warmer, so I felt like I should set off soon.
"No you must come home with me. I'm only over there." She pointed to the other side of the lake where some rooftops could be seen through the trees.
"No....really..." I began.
"I insist!! You'll catch your death out here much longer!", she eyed me, "Besides you're absolutely filthy. You don't want to get into your car in that state, surely?"
To be honest, now that she had indicated where her house was I felt less inclined to argue.
"Okay." I said, "Thank....you."
During the walk to her house, she told me her name was Christine, which she preferred to 'Chris', the dog's name was 'Toby' or 'Tobes', though I doubt he cared which was used. She lived with a housemate, having been a widow for twelve years.
Her chatter and encouragement kept me going on that walk. There really was no way I could have made it back to the car before hyperthermia set it.
We arrived at her house, a pleasant looking detached Georgian building that used to be a Rectory.
She paused at the front door and then made a decision.
"Round the back." she said, and led me down the side of the house and through a wooden gate into the garden.
Attached to the rear was a conservatory which she opened with one of her keys and set down the little dog in it's basket. Warmth from the house came to me from the open doors and made may hands tingle.
"Just a sec." she said and quickly walked over to a small table that contained a stack of newspapers, which she then spread on the tiled floor just inside the conservatory.
"Okay, come in and stand on the paper."
I did as she asked and was relieved when the doors were closed behind me and my body started to warm a little. Though now I also realised that I smelled rank.
"Take off your coat and boots, then we'll get you to the downstairs shower room. Your clothes are going to need to be washed, and your coat and boots need time to dry out. And I need to get Tobes cleaned up as well."
She walked away then, spreading more newspaper on the floor as she went.
I removed my boots, squelching with muddy water, and my coat and stood shivering waiting for her return.
She came back into the conservatory, now without her coat and boots. She had short greying hair, was quite athletic in build, and was wearing a thick woollen jumper and blue denim jeans.
"Now, dump your coat there, I'll deal with that later, and follow me. Be careful not to get muddy water on the carpet....if you can"
