It was a sunny day and although the air was still chilly, they went at lunch-time to the park at the back of St Helen's Church, ten minutes walk from their office. It was quiet there away from the hustle and bustle of city life. They relaxed in the sunshine, sitting on a bench and eating their sandwiches.

"It's so peaceful here, I wonder why more people don't come." said Clare.

"I expect they're all busy dashing about doing something. Nobody has time to stop and think these days. It's sad." said Angie, taking a bite of her cheese sandwich.

"We're trying for a baby," said Clare, "but nothing's happened yet."

"I suppose these things take time." said Angie "After all, you've only been married three months. Matthew has a patient who has only just fallen pregnant and she's been married for six years. It can take six weeks, six months or six years, Matthew says."

"I hope it doesn't take six years, I'll be in my mid thirties by then! I had hoped it would have happened by now, but nothing in life is that easy, is it?" said Clare.

Clare had a book with her, which was not unusual.

"Listen to this, Ange. A man who worked on a farm out in the wilds somewhere caught his hand in farm equipment and was trapped for hours and hours. Unable to break free, he was forced to cut off his own hand to save his life."

"Ugh, how horrible!" said Angie. "I suppose you might if you had no choice, but I must say it's put me off working on a farm. I don't think I'll bother now! I can't understand why anyone would want to work on a farm with all that mud and those horrible country smells. I don't like the countryside, I much prefer the sea."

A small group of sparrows flew down to eat the crumbs of bread they'd dropped.

"I love sparrows." said Clare, crumbling bread and tossing it on the ground. "But, there aren't many left now, are there?"

"No, but there used to be large flocks of them when we were children." said Angie. "They're biblical little things, aren't they?"

They watched as the sparrows pecked at the crumbs and fluttered about.

"Yes, I suppose they are and most countries in the world seem to have sparrows." Clare replied.   They walked back to the office, feeling more relaxed and chatting about this and that; this and that being Matthew and Hal.

It was another busy day. They stopped for a tea break around 3.30 that afternoon.  

"I think I'll pop round to see Alan tonight, just to make sure he's all right." said Clare as Angie handed her a cup of tea.  "I wouldn't normally do that, but Alan is like family."

"Under the circumstances, I think that's a good idea." said Angie "Poor old Alan."

"Less of the old, I'm the same age as him. We were born two weeks apart, in the same hospital. He's the eldest." said Clare.

"I didn't know that." said Angie in surprise.

"I've only got an older sister, so Alan was like my brother. We had such fun growing up together."

"That, I can imagine!" said Angie.

Clare left work on time and made her way through the traffic listening to her favourite tape and singing along. She remembered the location of the block of flats where Alan lived and after parking, she locked her car and walked up to his apartment. It sounded very quiet. She rang the bell and he came to the door, obviously surprised to see her.

"Oh, Clare. Come on in." he said.

"I wanted to make sure you were all right, Alan. How are you feeling?"

"A bit better, thanks." He still looked washed out and there were dark rings under his eyes. She made him sit down on the sofa while she went to the kitchen to make tea. She returned to the lounge with two steaming mugs.

Alan had obviously been sitting at the dining table before she'd called. There was a wedding album on the table, a pair of scissors and a pile of photographs, cut into neat squares. "What on earth are you doing?" she asked, walking towards the table. It seemed ludicrous and slightly amusing. Most other people would have torn them up in a rage and let them flutter all over the place, but Alan wasn't most people; he was Alan.

He answered, "I want to forget I ever met her, that Marie."

Clare picked up the photograph album and put it on a shelf.

"Don't do anymore Alan, you might live to regret it. You might get back together."

"No, definitely not." said Alan raising his voice. "Not even if she crawled back on her hands and knees. I couldn't not after all she's done to me. No! Don't even mention it!"

"I'm sorry. It's none of my business." said Clare "I was just thinking sometimes people do. Don't torture yourself Alan. We all love you, you know that; you're like a brother to me... well you were... once."  She stopped there. 'I'm making a mess of this,' she thought. Alan sat leaning forward from the sofa, his head in his hands.

There was a pause, while Clare considered what to say next.

"I hate to see you like this." she said.

Alan looked across at her, as she settled down into an armchair.

"Thanks for coming, it was good of you, but I'll be okay once I get her out of my system. You are right Clare, I'll take it a day at a time. No other way, really. I'll be at work tomorrow."

They chatted and he told her about the time when his father died and how he'd felt. They'd hardly recovered from his mother's death when his father was taken seriously ill, with heart trouble. He died eight months later, made worse by the fact that Alan's best friend was killed in a motor-bike accident just four weeks beforehand.

"It was horrendous, someone so young, twenty years old losing his life like that. It was a particularly nasty accident. There were masses of people at his funeral."

Clare sympathised.

"I never rode my motor-bike again. It put me off for life. I sold it soon afterwards."

"So your dad did buy you a motor-bike then?" she asked.

"Yeah! I thought the world of my bike."

"How awful! I mean... the accident."

They chatted on about boyfriends and girlfriends and Clare said she'd not had many boyfriends. "Teenage boys are such jerks, I couldn't be bothered." said Clare. "I don't like Americanisms, but I like the word jerk, it seems to apply."

"And teenage girls aren't jerks?" asked Alan.

"Well some are, but I wasn't." said Clare.

"You were lots of things, if I remember rightly." said Alan smiling "but you never were a jerk!"

"Hal was my first love." said Clare. She felt a sparkle come into her eyes as she spoke of him.

"Marie was mine." said Alan "Well not quite, but almost."

Alan fell silent and Clare glanced at her watch. "I'd better be going, I have to cook Hal's dinner. It's my turn tonight. See you tomorrow then Alan, I expect you'll feel better after a good night's rest." She rose to her feet and Alan got up too. It was unusual to see him looking so serious. "You're a good friend, Clare. Thank you." Alan let her out of the door and she said "Good night, Alan" and, under the circumstances, she felt it appropriate to give him a sisterly kiss on the cheek.

As she left the building, Clare thought, 'They're right what they say about Alan, even in the grip of a migraine he looks absolutely drop dead gorgeous!' These thoughts didn't stay with her for long, however. After all it was Hal for whom she was cooking dinner and Hal who was the man of her dreams. There wasn't room for anyone else in Clare's heart.

                                                                            *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The next morning Bob came into their office and said "Alan around? I need a word with him."

"Yes, he's in his office." replied Clare. Bob knocked on Alan's door and went in.

Later in the morning Angie said, "They've been in there a long time, it's unusual don't you think?"

"I think they're talking about Alan's marriage break down." said Clare quietly.

"Poor Alan." said Angie "He's so nice. He doesn't deserve all this."

Clare sighed, "Oh well, mum always says 'Anything can happen to Anybody' and it does doesn't it?"

"She's a very wise woman your mum."

"Yes, she is. I hope when I'm a mother I'm as wise as her."

The weeks went by. It seemed that Alan was coping without Marie, but Angie and Clare kept an eye on him and gave him plenty of 'Tender Loving Care'. He looked nothing like his normal happy self and was pale and thin, they thought.