Whenever the snow fell, he remembered a time from his childhood. Alastair Beech was fourteen years old when
his parents decided to move from their three-bedroomed, terraced house near the
town centre to a four-bedroomed, double-fronted, detached house in a new
housing development on the site of an old convent just half a mile away. For
Alastair, it was an uncontentious move. He welcomed the fact that the new house
had a large garden, that his bedroom was twice the size of the one he was
leaving, and although the journeys to and from school might take an extra few
minutes he was relieved that he would be able to walk or cycle there with the
same group of friends.
Within days of
their house appearing on the market, his parents received an offer several
thousand pounds above the price they had been told to expect. The prospective
buyer was a young woman who was keen to complete the purchase as soon as
possible. Following the advice of their estate agent, they immediately accepted
her bid and looked around for somewhere to rent for several weeks until their
new house was completed. They quickly
found a furnished bungalow in a village two miles outside the town, placed
their own furniture in storage, and moved in to their temporary home at the end
of January.
For the next few
weeks, Alastair was dropped off at school by his father on his drive to work,
but on those days when their timings did not coincide he used the recently
constructed Metro system which ran along the lines of the old suburban rail
network and connected several of the small towns in the region. By and large he
preferred this option. The journey was quick, the service was regular and
reliable, and the large numbers of university students who used the system to
travel between their outlying halls of residence and the town’s central campus
gave him the opportunity to eavesdrop on what he fondly imagined to be exciting
and bohemian conversations. In addition, one of the stations on the route was
close to St Dominic’s School for Girls, and the crowded carriages provided
opportunities for fleeting and unfamiliar physical contact with the opposite
sex.
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