PROLOGUE 

                                                            Part One

Bristol, England    -   1975

 Clare ran down the garden path clutching a bag and a book in her little hands.  She was spending the day with Alan. She usually did, or he with her, but today had been pre-arranged as her mother was going to the Dentist for protracted treatment.  As her mother closed their front door Clare heard her say, "What a glorious day, unusual for the summer holidays," then she followed Clare out onto the pavement and up the garden path to the front door of 59 Sycamore Grove, where Pam and Alan Harding stood waiting.

"Hello sweetie, how are you?" asked Pam patting Clare's dark curls.  

"I'm fine, thank you." replied Clare. "Hello Alan." 

Alan said nothing, but grinned a welcome from ear to ear.  

Kathy, Clare's mother, handed Pam a bag of spare clothes, which accompanied Clare wherever she went.

"Thanks for this, you're a good friend." Kathy said, then turning to Clare, 

"Be good, won't you?" 

Clare nodded.

"She's always good.  It's this cheeky little monkey I have to watch," Pam replied wagging her thumb towards Alan.  Kathy stroked Alan's cheek with her fingers and bent down towards him whispering, "Don't tell anyone, but I've got a soft spot for cheeky monkeys."  

Alan grinned and Clare giggled.  Kathy walked down the path and waved to them from the front gate, then went on her way to catch the bus.       

"Come on in, then." said Pam, ushering Clare into the hallway and closing the front door.  

"This is our lunch." said Clare happily, holding up her bag.

"Ooh, what is it?" asked Alan, grabbing the bag and peering inside. 

"A tin of spaghetti hoops, two apples, two bananas and four chocolate biscuits." replied Clare.

"Well, that was kind of your mum.  I'll put them away for later."  Pam took the bag into the kitchen and Alan rushed into the lounge, followed by Clare.

 Alan's racing game, with four cars, was set up in the middle of the floor with exciting loops and bends.  Small toys and cars filled a plastic box to overflowing and larger action figures lay abandoned on the sofa and the floor, having fought their war and lost.  

Clare sat down on the red patterned carpet resting her book about the human body on her knees.  Alan sat beside her with his legs crossed, looking at the pictures.  

"See, that's a heart." said Clare, pointing with her finger.

"Yuk, it's horrible!  I haven't got one of those!" said Alan pulling a face.

"Yes you have.  It pumps the blood around your body."

"I haven't got any blood in my body." said Alan turning up his nose.

"You have!  You had a nosebleed, remember?  All your blood dripped onto the floor and Miss had to clear it up.  You're silly!" 

Annoyance showed on Clare's face.  Alan said stupid things at times, giving his family cause to wonder if he did actually have a brain in his head.  She knew he had one, otherwise he wouldn't be alive, but he didn't use it very often.  Strange really as Alan was very clever, being second in the class, so she assumed it was merely lack of concentration on his part.  

She turned the pages of her book and found the page she often studied. "Look, that's a baby in a mummy's tummy." she said, eyes aglow with wonderment. "It grows in there until it's big enough to be born and then it comes out, all pink and chubby."

"How did it get in there?" asked Alan.

"I'm not sure, but my mum said it takes a mummy and a daddy to make a baby.  She said I'd understand when I was older."

"I don't want to be older." said Alan with a sneer, "I never want to grow up!"

Clare frowned.  "No, nor me, but I think we have to, we can't help it. Last year we were six, but now we're seven."

Alan shrugged nonchalantly.

"Come on, let's go and play in the tent."

Books were of little interest to Alan, he was more a boy of action; charging around all over the place suited him better.  So up they jumped and rushed out towards the garden, passing through the kitchen where Alan's mother was washing up at the sink.  She caught his arm gently as he passed.

"Now Alan, please be careful not to hurt Clare today.  The way you tug and pull her about, I expect she's covered in bruises."  

Alan turned his innocent eyes upwards to meet his mother's.

"I don't do it on purpose, mum." he said, raising his eyebrows.  Then turning to Clare he said "Do I Clare?"  Clare, who was always just replied,

"No... no, Alan wouldn't hurt me on purpose Auntie Pam.  Alan always takes care of me."

Clare's large, brown puppy eyes were full of concern.  Pam glanced at her, then back at Alan and sighed deeply.  "Well, go on then," she said "but please be careful Alan."  Alan, feeling justified, ran out of the kitchen door and down the garden path with Clare running faithfully at his heels.

The garden was the width of the house and the garage on the side and was in two parts.  The top part, nearest the house, was dug into a vegetable garden with a concrete path running down the middle.  A red washing line, which today was full of clean, crisp laundry also ran the length of the path.   An item or two belonging to Clare was often to be found on the line, kindly washed by Auntie Pam and hung with coloured pegs to dry.  

On the right hand side, where the vegetable garden ended, was a battered shed with a crooked door and behind it, a beech hedge and then the part of the garden where the children played, which was given over to lawn.  Various flowering shrubs, large and small, flanked the sides of the lawn, adding colour and texture.

In the very centre of the beech hedge, separating the vegetable garden from the lawn was a large, ornate archway.  Pale pink roses with yellow stamens were entwined over it and their sweet smell wafted around Clare and Alan as they passed beneath.  Clare pulled a rose to her nostrils and sniffed the heady perfume, while Alan rushed towards the tent.

It was a warm, beautifully sunny day, the sky was blue with little cloud and the air was still.  Birds twittered in the ornamental cherry trees which stood at the end of the long garden and bees buzzed in the purple blue flowers of the Russian Sage.  Alan dived into the green tent.  Clare followed, sitting down close to him and she continued their previous conversation.  

"Mummy said we have to grow up and leave our childhood behind."

Alan, blue eyes deep in thought, was quiet for a moment or two.

"Well, I'm not leaving mine behind." he said "I'm taking it with me.  I get into trouble if I leave things behind."   Unaware of the humour of the remark, he briefly touched Clare's nose with his nose and promptly crossed his eyes.  He grinned, his cheeky grin, showing two deep dimples each side of his mouth and the children laughed together.  

Unable to sit still for longer than a minute, Alan sprang out of the tent, stretched out his arms and started to spin round and round, faster and faster.  Clare joined in and they spun round and round until they were dizzy and fell softly onto the grass, laughing again.  They lay on the grass with heads touching, their dark hair blended together, the exact same colour.  With arms and legs outstretched, they gazed up at the blue, blue sky high above them and stared silently at the few clouds overhead.  

As they lay staring quietly at the sky, feelings of dizziness subsiding, an aeroplane made it's way across the expanse of blue.  Alan said "I bet it's going to Spain!  I want to go to Spain.  If I go, will you come with me?"

"Ooh! I'd love to go.  Mandy went to Spain.  She went swimming in the pool every day and it was hot!  I'm going to ask my mum.  Let's go and ask your mum right now."

They climbed to their feet and ran back through the archway and down the path to the kitchen, where Pam was now peeling potatoes at the sink.  They held a long conversation about Spain, whether they could afford to go and what Clare's parents would think about it and Pam promised to mention it to Clare's mother when she returned from the dentist.  IF, Alan pointed out, she was not in too much pain and IF the dentist had not pulled out all of her teeth!