Number Four Rowland's Park
Dear old Doris Penney wasn't that old at all.
She was just the sort of genteel lady about whom
people said...dear...and sweet, but there was a lot more to Doris than even
close acquaintances knew.
Towards the end of the 1950's she had been the 'it'
girl, beautiful, with honey colored bobbed hair, she had collected more than her
fair share of admirers and was seldom without a date or a party to go
to...everybody wanted to be seen with ... wanted to be, Doris Penney.
At the age of nineteen, Doris had met and fallen in
love with a very distinguished gentleman named Geoff.
Geoff Smythe was the editor of a consumer magazine and
mixed in very influential circles so the love struck Doris was to be seen dining
in some very plush restaurants, not bad for a girl who had been brought up in a
little and very ordinary house on a small development.
For two years Geoff and Doris were inseparable, her
parents grew to admire their only daughter's life partner and though nothing was
mentioned, it was expected that one day soon, the sound of wedding bells might
be heard!
Geoff was extremely well thought of in his profession
and was fast gaining recognition as a very competent editor; so much so that he
had been approached by a well known daily newspaper who were willing to increase
his already substantial salary considerably in a bid to have him work for them.
Within three months Geoff was well ensconced in his
new job and spending much more time working away...some weeks, Doris didn't get
to see him at all!
On the increasingly rare times that Geoff was free to
take Doris out socially, he would talk about nothing more than his new-found
friends and on a few occasions, he had put her down when she had regaled him
with her own day's happenings.
One week Geoff went away for four days to Liverpool
...he would always phone her when he couldn't get to see her, this time though,
she didn't hear from him until the day before he was due to return home.
When he spoke to her he had seemed very distant,
Doris, being so excited to actually hear his voice had pushed any doubts she
might have had to the back of her mind...he was probably tired or overworked.
The following Saturday, there was a dinner and dance
in the local town. It was to be quite an important occasion and Doris was at
long last to meet many of Geoff's new colleagues.
Her mother had helped her to make a beautiful
ball-gown in ping organza and her friend Hellen had done her hair in an elegant
chignon.
Doris's parents had tears in their eyes when they saw
her, she looked so gorgeous, but funnily, when Geoff arrived to pick her up, he
seemed distracted and barely seemed to notice her outfit.
On the way to the venue, he pulled over and stopped
the car.
He told Doris that although he still cared for her, he
was no longer in love with her...he had met another woman; actually she worked
alongside him...it had just happened!
Doris had run from the car, the tears running down her
cheeks...some said that from that moment Doris Penney changed significantly, she
lost all her sparkle and love of life. The life, which she had once thought was
mapped out for her, had gone for good. She spent her life caring for her
parents, who were in a sense, as broken hearted as their daughter. When both her
parents died, within two years of each other, she had sold their house and
bought a little flat in Rowland Park, still single and still broken hearted.
Doris didn't have a lot of spare money after she had
bought the essentials...food...toiletries etc, but she still found time for her
one love, which was music.
Many times the other residents would hear the mellow
tones of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Matt Munro ringing out from her flat.
Doris would lose herself in her own world, the one
where nothing bad happened and nobody ever let you down.
She loved her home, her neighbors and everything about
Rowland Park, Doris had good taste and the flat was peppered with ornaments,
good ones too, that she had gazed at when she was a tiny girl at home with her
beloved parents.
The flat was spotlessly clean and always full of fresh
flowers for, although there was a lot of sadness within this lady, there was
also a good deal of 'love for life' just waiting to be unleashed.
Doris would go on a daily basis to the library to
indulge in her passion for romantic fiction...romance, yes it was just fiction
to her.
She put on her jacket and picked up her handbag,
letting herself out of her home Doris walked to the front door, pausing to say
hello to Jessica, that nice young girl from flat three.
In the space of twenty minutes she was in the little
library, which was quite full today.
Doris walked slowly along the aisle, which housed her
favorite books...she was just about to select her first choice when...bang!
She looked quickly to where the noise had come from,
just along from her, a man of perhaps seventy had dropped a whole pile of
reading matter on the polished tiled floor.
"I am so terribly sorry, you almost jumped out of
you skin," he said apologetically.
"Please don't give it another thought" said
Doris generously
The man introduced himself as Henry Jacobson, he
explained that he had lost his wife seven years previously and that the library
had been a real comfort to him.
Doris found out that he lived not too far from
Rowland's Park and so, after selecting her books she walked with Henry towards
their respective homes. They chatted all the way and she found out that he had
been a double bass player in a dance band; they also realized that they shared a
common interest in Sinatra ballads.
Henry made a remark about a husband and Doris told him
that she had never married...far to busy for that, she told him, diverting from
the painful truth.
They got to the end of a small row of houses; Henry
explained that the second one was his and told Doris how much he had enjoyed her
company
He told her that there was to be a concert in Gentry
next week and asked her a little sheepishly if she would be willing to go as his
partner. Doris listened to him, it had obviously been very difficult for Henry
to ask her out and she felt a little nervous but flattered all the same.
"It's no fun going out to that sort of thing on
ones own," he said and waited for Doris's answer.
Doris surprised herself by saying that she'd love to
go with him; it had been too long since she'd enjoyed a night out with a member
of the opposite sex.
As she let herself in through the heavy old front
door, Doris Penney could almost have been the Doris Penney of years gone
by...suppose Henry let her down...suppose...
No she would be positive and look forward to the first
date in over forty years. Maybe, just maybe, Doris's life was about to begin!
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