Lonely Heart by Susan Brown

Copyright © 2007 by Susan Brown

All Rights Reserved

Lonely Heart

by Susan Brown

ONE

Joanne looked at her watch for the hundredth time and tapped her foot impatiently.

She had been waiting under the clock at the station for twenty minutes. Admittedly, she was a bit early. They had agreed on the telephone that they would meet at eight o'clock and it was still only five to eight.

She glanced at her watch yet again and then looked around; still no sign of anyone looking remotely like Jonathan.

Joanne pulled the well-creased letter out of her handbag and read Jonathan's description of himself. She knew the words by heart, but a girl has to be sure of her facts.

Six feet one, blue eyes, blond hair, thin and muscular. Joanne's heart seemed to have half a dozen butterflies in it as it fluttered with anticipation at the coming meeting.

Just then there was a bing-bong from the speaker at the side of the clock.

'The train just arriving on platform four is the seven thirty from Snoddington. We apologize for its late arrival as there were leaves on the line at Oakton.'

Joanne looked over at the gate where the train had just arrived. The bored ticket collector had woken up, arisen from his little cubbyhole and was standing sleepily at the gate to collect the tickets.

There was a slamming of doors and a great rush at the gates as bemused, bewildered and battered commuters fought their way to be first out of the gate. The ticket collector was nearly knocked over in the stampede, but luckily jumped out of the way just in time.

Joanne looked anxiously at the teeming throng, trying to see if there was a Blond Adonis among the sea of faces.

Just then, a man who looked just the ticket pushed his way through the jostling crowd and headed directly for her.

'What a hunk,' thought Joanne enthusiastically. He fitted the required description exactly. 'Over six feet, blond hair, bristling with repressed muscles under his well fitting suit.'

As he got nearer, he looked at Joanne with eyes of such deep blue that she felt as if she could dive straight into them and swim about forever.

She brushed her teeth with a finger, smelt her breath, straightened her skirt and finger brushed her hair in record time as he approached, slowly but purposefully. A smile played on his lips as he increased his pace, realizing that his date was waiting for him with bated breath.

The butterflies in her heart were working overtime as he came nearer and nearer. She smiled pleasantly and was about to say something witty like, 'Hello, can we get married'?' when he walked right past her and into the arms of a beautiful brunet with legs up to her ears who, unknown to Joanne, was standing immediately behind her.

The butterflies in Joanne's heart decided enough was enough as they deserted her. She felt like things were not going right today.

Just then she felt a tap on her shoulder, she looked around expectantly, couldn't see anyone and then looked down. She could see the top of a shiny bald head. It was so polished; she swore that she could see the reflection of the clock in its mirror like surface.

'Hello,' said a squeaky voice, 'are you Joanne? I'm Jonathan. Sorry I'm late.'

Joanne took one look at the small, balding, plump, fifty plus man in front of her and said in a rather desperate voice, the first thing that came into her head.

'My name is Amanda and I'm waiting for my boyfriend who is a kung fu expert.'

Jonathan's plump face fell at that and he just mumbled, 'sorry, my mistake,' and wobbled away to find happiness elsewhere.

TWO

Joanne arrived home and the first thing she did was to ritually burn Jonathan's letter. It made her feel a bit better, but not much.

She was fed up with meeting people on blind dates. She had lost count of the number of times she had been let down. They either didn't turn up or when they did, they weren't anything like their descriptions. They were either too short or tall. Some had personality of a slug; others thought that they were God's gift to women. A few were frankly weird and one just wanted to have sex and to hell with the foreplay. She remembered once going to a dance with a man who was six feet seven inches tall in his socks and she spent the evening dancing with her eyes roughly in line with his belly button.

There was another time when she had a date with a man who loved garlic. She nearly fainted at the smell of his breath.

Many times she had been out with people who were so boring that they needed a personality transplant to get them up to the level of a moron. All of them had one thing in common; they wanted to go out with someone like her, different. She decided there and then that she wouldn't try any more lonely heart adverts in the local paper.

Just then Sarah, the baby-sitter bounced into the kitchen and said, 'hello Joanne, you're back early.'

'Yes, I decided not to go to the pictures after all as I've got a headache.'

'Oh dear,' said the pimply, pubescent Sarah, 'have you taken anything for it?'

'No. I'll just go to bed early. I should be OK tomorrow. How has the beast from hell been?'

Sarah, who used to go to Sunday school looked shocked and said, 'you shouldn't call your son that. Peter's lovely.'

Joanne sighed and said, 'you're right, he can't help being a pain sometimes, but I love him to bits. I'd better go to bed. Is he asleep?'

'Yes I checked him about ten minutes ago. He was well away.'

Sarah with twenty pounds baby-sitting money clutched in her hand was just about to go when she said, 'Oh, by the way, a letter came for you while you was out. It's on top of the television. See you later.'

Sarah let herself out as Joanne went to see what the letter was about. Joanne picked up the large brown envelope and saw that it had been opened and then sealed again. On the front of the envelope it had her address and written next to it was the words 'this was opened in error, as the postman put it in the wrong letterbox, sorry!'

Joanne opened the letter and saw that it was another one from the box number in her lonely hearts advert. Instead of the dozen replies she had last time, there was only one small white envelope. Remembering what she promised herself a few moments before in the kitchen, she didn't open the envelope, but just threw it in the waste paper basket.

Joanne was just about to climb the wooden hill to Bedfordshire when she heard the doorbell go.

'Blast,' she said, 'who can this, be!'

She opened the door and saw the pleasant features of Robert, her next-door neighbor. 'Hello Robert, what can I do for you?'

He smiled and said, 'do you know that you've left the lights on in your car?'

'I haven't have I? I'm so stupid sometimes, I don't know whether I'm coming or going. Thanks very much.'

'That's OK.' said Robert, 'don't forget that it's Tammy's birthday party tomorrow.

'I won't,' said Joanne, 'Peter's been looking forward to it all week. See you then.'

With that, Robert left and after tuning her car lights off Joanne went upstairs.

THREE

She quietly went into Peter's bedroom and went over to his bed. He looked a little angel sleeping there, thumb in his mouth and battered teddy locked securely in his arm. He might be somewhat noisy sometimes and perhaps a little bit naughty very occasionally, but Joanne thought that he wouldn't swap her little boy for any other child in the world.

It was so difficult, being a pre-op transsexual with a young son, failed marriage and not much in the way of prospects for a secure and happy future.

As Joanne cleaned off her makeup she dwelt on the mess that her life had now become.

Up until 2 years ago, Joanne was known as John and married to Sally.

John had been dressing secretly since he was a young boy. Being inquisitive, he soon found out about the delights of the wash basket and his twin sisters clothes that were often dumped carelessly around her room.

Penny, his sister was a bit of a tomboy and hated wearing dresses and anything remotely feminine. However, she was forced to wear girls clothes just as John was equally force to dress as a boy.

John had, for as long as he could remember, been fascinated with all things girly. As a small child, he could not understand that if he felt like a girl, why couldn't he dress and be one? Many times he was smacked by his mum because he would try on his sisters clothes. Penny and John quite often swapped clothes just to mess with their mum's head.

It was hard on John's mum. Dad was always away working as a sales rep and she was the one trying to look after two healthy and boisterous kids who insisted that they should be wearing each other clothes.

John now felt sorry for his mum and wished that he (and his sister) had been better kids for her.

John had tried to put his thoughts of being a girl and dressing behind him when he got married. He had thrown away all his girls clothes whilst he was engaged. He was happy, had a good sex life and felt that he had probably just gone through a phase, all be it a long one, and he was now over it.

The couple then had a child and Peter was a lovely, contented baby. John was on top of the world. He now had a family to love and cherish.

However, Sally was not happy. She had never really gelled with the child. The pregnancy and difficult childbirth did not help. She suffered badly from post natal depression. She had problems even picking up the child and cuddling him, let alone feeding and changing him.

Eighteen months passed. More and more, John took over the care of Peter who was growing fast. They started arguing over silly things and often things were said which they both regretted. Sally finally started taking anti-depressants and they both went to counseling to try to get over their problems and differences.

However, nothing seemed to help and Sally had problems handling the situation. The fact that John did not know how to cope or help Sally meant that things started to go stale between them. In short, both of them were coming to the conclusion that the marriage was not one made in heaven and things could not go on like this for much longer.

Gradually, John and Sally drifted further apart. They rarely had sex or any sort of physical contact and the only thing that kept them together was Peter. It was as if they were no longer a couple, but just two people sharing a house. They started sleeping in separate rooms. Sally went back to work in an office as a legal secretary and John, as he was a supply teacher and freelance writer, stayed at home and looked after Peter.

FOUR

It was about then that John started to have irresistible urges to dress up as a woman again. His feelings had been hidden in his subconscious whilst being with Sally, but with all his marriage problems he started to think more and more about dressing.

John took the plunge and went online and secretly ordered several dresses, tops and skirts together with lingerie. He then ordered a couple of wigs and some makeup. He was thankful that he did not have to visit shops for these items as he was somewhat shy. He waited impatiently for the parcels to arrive.

Just a few days later the parcels arrived and John was in the position of being able to dress again.

The relief John felt as he looked at himself in the mirror was almost palpable. He was wearing a classic linen cream short-sleeved button through dress. It was semi fitted, calf length with a collared v-neck. It had a tiny red poppy print design and it showed off John's, or Joanne's as she preferred when dressed, shape to perfection. She wished that she had slightly bigger hips and the socks that she used as breast forms were far from ideal, but with the shoulder length strawberry blond wig and max factor makeup, she felt that she looked lovely.

As she swished about in her three-inch heels in front of the mirror, all the feelings came back to her. She was in the wrong body. It was senseless.

Why did she feel like a woman but stuck in a man's body? Perhaps something got mixed before she was born. Perhaps wires were crossed before birth.

Penny had always acted like a boy and John like a girl. There is supposed to be this telepathy thing between twins. Why couldn't they have swapped minds or something? She laughed at the idea and went into Peter room. He was just waking up and had a beautiful smile on his face as Joanne picked him up and cuddled him. Peter didn't seem phased at seeing his dad wearing women's clothes. He was perhaps too young to think it strange.

Joanne glanced at the mirror on the door and saw a perfect picture of mother and son in the reflection. Joanne started to cry but didn't know why.

Three months passed and because Sally went to work, John had ample opportunity to dress as he wanted and he took full advantage of that fact by changing into Joanne whenever possible.

Peter was stringing a few words together including mummy and daddy and getting things a bit confused about who was who. He progressed from crawling and was beginning to walk. He laughed a lot, even when he fell down. He seemed so happy and well adjusted despite the bad things that were going on around him.

Things got steadily worse between John and Sally, they were barely talking and even more alarming, Sally refused to look after the child. She was taking more pills and refused to go to counseling any more.

It was on a Thursday that John came back from shopping with Peter to find an envelope on the kitchen table. It had his name written on it in Sally's handwriting.

He took the single sheet out of the envelope and with shaking hands he read the tear stained letter,

John,

I know that this may come as a bit of a shock, but I am leaving you.

We haven't been getting on for some time now and I feel that my head will explode if I stay in the house one more second. I have found someone else and we are moving abroad. I think that Peter would be better off staying with you as you are more a mother to him than I would ever be.

I do know about your strange dressing habits. I have known since before we were married, your mum let it slip once. Also I have found some clothes in the attic which I know are not mine.

It never bothered me about you dressing as a woman, but I was hurt that you didn't confide in me when you had the chance.

That isn't the reason why I am leaving you. I could live with that. I just feel stifled in a relationship that is going nowhere and with a child that I cannot love, however much I would dearly love to do. I wish I could be the ideal mother to Peter, but I can't. I'm too screwed up.

You can divorce me on the grounds of adultery. If your solicitor needs proof, I can get it for him. Michael, my lover, has pots of money so I do not want the house or anything else from you.

Finally John, do not think too badly of me. I had a very bad childhood and that left scars which have never healed. I think that this is the reason why have a problem with Peter, you know, commitment and not wanting to hurt or be hurt sort of thing. I blame myself for falling out of love with you, so remember, it wasn't you or Peter; it was me that has the hang-ups and all the problems.

Sorry if I sound if I'm rambling. This is the hardest letter I have ever had to write.

I hope that you find someone else and can be a complete family.

Sally

John put his head in his hands and cried.

FIVE

After the divorce, John had a lot of decisions to make about how he was going to live his life, bringing up a young child as a single parent.

He thought long and hard and after much soul searching, decided that he wanted to correct the defect of his birth and become a woman. Now he had this chance, he was going to take it and to hell with the consequences.

John saw many specialists, psychiatrists and other experts in the gender field and after many tests and meetings, it was decided that he should spend a year as a woman before finally having the operation that would complete his transition.

John went over to his mum's house so that he could tell his family about what was happening. He thought about going dressed as Joanne, but he felt that it might cause more problems. He spoke to his mum and sister whilst Peter was in the other room watching cartoons. John's dad and mum had divorced several years ago and was not contactable so these two were the only real family he had left.

His mum and sister were worried for him and tried to persuade him that the steps he was taking were too drastic.

Ironically, Penny was now ultra feminine and the complete opposite of what she had been as a child. She got upset more than John's mum at loosing her twin brother.

'John, you can't do this. Everyone will laugh at you. You will loose the few friends you have and what about Peter?'

'What about him?'

'He has just lost his mum and now his dad is going to change into a woman overnight.'

'He has seen me dressed as a woman before.'

'What!'

'I have been dressing in front of him for ages. He doesn't seem to care.'

'It can't be good to see that sort of thing.' said John's mum.

'Look, I know that it could confuse him and I probably shouldn't have done it but one good thing is that he is not going to be surprised to see me in a skirt.'

They argued and discussed the situation long and hard. Eventually, they came around and gave him reserved approval at what he was doing.

'Look John,' said his mum, 'I don't begin to understand what you are doing or why but as long as you don't harm Peter in any way, I'll go along with this.'

As Penny walked outside, holding Peter's hand as they went she turned to John.

'Look, John. I blame myself for this. If we hadn't swapped clothes when we were kids, you wouldn't be doing this now.'

'Penny, this has nothing to do with you. I would be like this, I'm sure, even if I didn't have a sister. It's just the way I am.'

She looked at him for a second and then smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

'OK John, or should I call you Joanne from now on? I may be loosing a brother but at least I get a sister out of this and we can always go shopping and do girly things together.'

They hugged in silence until Peter decided that he was tired and wanted to go home, 'NOW!'

SIX

So it was that John disappeared and Joanne came out into the open. She changed her name by deed pole and became Joanne legally. There was a lot of form filling and letters to write about the changes but eventually the paperwork was completed.

Peter didn't seem to notice or care that Joanne was around full time and Joanne was grateful for this.

It was difficult for Joanne at first to live full time as a woman as she had no confidence in herself. She was lucky though, as she had a nice slender body, was five foot six inches tall and looked quite pretty. With the help of makeup, her slightly mannish features were effectively hidden. Hormones helped to soften her shape and her budding breasts were her pride and joy.

Peter was coming up for a two-year-old now and paying a lot more attention to what was going on around him. He smiled, laughed, talked and ran around a lot and Joanne was the proudest mum around.

Joanne's neighbors got used to seeing her around. If anyone wondered what was happening, no one said. It wasn't a closely-knit community and people kept to themselves unless help was needed. But she was on nodding quittance with most of the mums and some of the dads in the neighborhood. One exception to this was Robert Dobbs; her next-door neighbor, who had a daughter of a similar age to Peter called Clair.

Robert was a widower and the local plumber. He was in great demand because he did a good job without fleecing his customers.

Joanne had called Robert in when she had a burst pipe and she found him to be a friendly if a bit of a quiet person who had few words but was able to fix her pipe quickly and efficiently.

As Joanne needed a more permanent job, she managed to get a teaching position at the local primary school. She was up front about her circumstances, and luckily, the head teacher and governors were progressive enough not to concern themselves about any perceived gender problems. Another good thing was that Peter could join the school crèche. All this meant that meant that things started to get a bit better for Joanne and she hoped that she was turning the corner into a better life.

In her personal life, Joanne slowly realized that she was becoming more and more attracted to men. There was no defining point when this happened. She had a feeling that she had always been bisexual but had never actively looked at men. Now, her heart beat faster if she saw someone she thought as attractive. She was definitely a face and bum girl, though she went red when she realized that she was looking at a man's bum too closely!

Joanne had a great deal of difficulty in managing a house, a child and holding down a full time job teaching in the local primary school. Somehow she managed but she found it very hard to cope sometimes. She was determined that her divorce wouldn't wreck her life. Joanne was hoping, some day to find someone to love and be loved and someone who could also be a father to Peter as he grew up, if that man could get over the fact that Joanne was once John!

'Oh well,' she thought, sighing, 'one day perhaps.'

SEVEN

As Joanne was reading some of her class's homework assignments in bed, struggling to understand some of the scrawled words, she reflected on her next-door neighbor Robert. She was amazed that he was able to cope with running a house, a plumbing business and looking after a boisterous young daughter. It was tragic that he lost his wife in a car accident a couple of years ago and she wondered if he had managed to get over the tragedy.

'How was it that he was able to become some sort of superdad,' she thought, 'when I can't even manage to run this place on my own?'

Joanne sighed again. She'd been doing a lot of that lately. She took another look at Brenda Cole's homework with distaste. The writing was so bad it could have been a doctor's prescription. Her eyes drooped as the combination of the day's hard work and disappointments took their final toll. She finally fell asleep and had a nightmare about finally managing to get the man of her dreams only to find that he had turned into another Jonathan, with no teeth. B.O and smelly feet.

Next day, Joanne had a day off and after dropping off Peter at the crèche, she came back to do some chores. She hated housework but it had to be done sometime and it was easier to do when Peter wasn't around.

She hoovered the carpets flicked around with a duster and emptied the bins. She was just about to empty the small wickerwork bin in the lounge where she saw the small white envelope, lying on top of the rubbish, just dying to be opened. Remembering that she had thrown it in there the previous night, Joanne's curiosity got the better of her and she opened the envelope to see what the letter said.

Dear Jo,

I read you advert in the local paper and would very much like to meet you.

I am 5 feet nine inches tall. I have many interests like the cinema, theatre, reading and sport. I am, of course, unmarried and would very much like to meet you. I saw in your ad that you are a pre op transsexual and that is not a problem for me if it isn't for you. Unfortunately I don't have a phone at the moment so I can't speak to you beforehand, but if you are agreeable, please meet me at the railway station, under the clock at 8.00 p.m. on Saturday. I will be wearing a blue jacket, white shirt and red tie.

I will be there but if you do not want to come, I quite understand and hope that you are able to find the person you are looking for.

Yours Sincerely,

Bob.

Joanne was a bit puzzled as the letter didn't give Bob's address or his surname. At first she thought that it would be silly to turn up at the station to see someone who she knew nothing about. He could be a mad axe murderer for all she knew but then reasoned that it was a very public place and if she didn't like the look of him she could just go home again.

Forgetting all the promises she made to herself not to respond to any more of these letters, she decided to give this one a try, she was that desperate.

'This is definitely and positively the last time,' she said to herself as she rang Sarah to arrange the baby-sit. 'God I must be mad.

EIGHT

At 7.55 p.m., according to the station clock, Joanne was waiting impatiently for the mysterious Bob to turn up.

She was wearing a very sexy black dress. She thought that it was a gorgeous dress. It had a halter-neck and v-neck line with ruched detailing around the bust and was asymmetric in style.

Joanne had been to the salon and had had the works done. Her hair had now grown out a bit, but not long enough for her taste, so she had some hair extensions weaved in and she loved the look and the feel of her blond fuller locks. Not content with that, she pushed the boat out and had her nails done together with a makeover. After looking at herself in the mirror, she thought that she felt and looked truly lovely. If this were the last try at finding love, she would make it the best.

She felt a sense of deja vu to be standing at this place at this particular time. It brought back horrific memories of Jonathan and she hoped and prayed that Bob at least was normal looking.

There was a bing-bong over the speaker and a muffled voice said, 'The 1930 train from Snoddington is just arriving on platform 4. The delay was due to unspecified incident.'

Joanne looked over to the platform gate and saw the mob rushing through like lemmings rushing to get over a cliff. They stopped for no one and the poor ticket collector was knocked over in the melee.

When the rush of humanity reduced to a trickle Joanne saw, to her horror, none other than the horrid Jonathan coming through the gate and walking purposefully towards her! She just couldn't believe it. She had been expecting a rendezvous with someone nice and attractive and all she could see, getting ever closer all the time, was the last person on Earth that she wanted to meet.

Joanne wished fervently that the ground would open up and swallow her. As that evidently wasn't going to happen, she held her handbag firmly; fully intending to use it as a sort of improvised sandbag if the need arose.

Jonathan walked up to Joanne and then proceeded to walk straight past her!

Unbeknownst to Joanne, a small mousy-looking woman with thick pebble glasses was standing immediately behind her. As Joanne looked on, her mouth went wide open with surprise and relief as she saw Jonathan give the woman a big hug and a kiss that sounded like a sink plunger working overtime. They both went off arm in arm to the station buffet where no doubt they would be poisoned by the undrinkable tea.

Joanne's heart was once again being invaded by those blasted butterflies. She looked at her watch and then at the clock above her. It was precisely eight o'clock and he hadn't arrived.

Just then there was a tap on her shoulder. Joanne jumped a good two feet in the air and then turned round, heart thumping with alarm. To her surprise she saw Robert standing there with a big grin on his face and a huge bunch of flowers in his hand.

'Hello Robert,' said Joanne smiling with relief, 'what are you doing here?'

'I've got a date with someone lovely called Jo.'

Joanne's mouth fell open as she said, 'that's me! Erm, are you Bob then?'

'Yup.'

'I don't understand,' said Joanne, 'was it you who wrote to me then?'

Robert looked sheepish and said, 'I know a little restaurant where we can have a quite chat and I'll explain everything.'

NINE

Twenty minutes later Joanne was sitting in a plush Italian restaurant, toying with her Spaghetti whilst listening to Robert's explanation.

'A couple of days ago,' said Robert, a bit sheepishly, 'I found a letter on the mat. I didn't look who it was addressed to because it's only me that gets letters now.'

He paused to sip some wine before continuing, 'when I opened the letter, it had a pile of envelopes and a complement slip from the local paper inside. I was a bit confused as to why they should be sending me the letters and then I saw on the front of the envelope your name and address. I picked up all the letters and put them back into the envelope. As I picked up the last letter, it hadn't been sealed properly and the contents sort of fell out. I picked the pages up and couldn't help but read a few lines on one of the pages,'

Joanne saw that Roberts face was red with embarrassment.

'Go on.' she said quietly.

After taking a gulp of wine, Robert continued, 'it was obvious from the few words I read that it was responding to a lonely hearts advert. I went to look at the paper and saw your advert. I had to search a bit and found it under the mixed section. I could tell which one it was because of the box number. On the spur of the moment I took out all the other letters, put mine in, sealed it up and stuck it in your letter box.'

'So you wanted to play a trick on me,' said Joanne angrily, 'I can't help it, if it's difficult for me to find anyone without having to put an advert in the paper. Its so difficult meeting people when you're a single parent who's also trying to transition from male to female. It's very hard. It might be nothing more than a joke to you but for me it's heartbreaking.'

Joanne started to cry. All her frustrations and disappointments were coming to a head. She didn't think she could take much more.

Then she noticed that Robert was holding her hand. He wasn't laughing.

He looked upset and his voice was full of concern as he said, 'Joanne, it's not like that at all. I didn't want to make fun of you. I just thought that as you're lonely and I'm lonely, we might be able to make a go of it. I've always liked you and I think that you like me too. I know your circumstances and I couldn't care less if you were born an orangutan. You are now a pretty young woman and we're both unattached with a kid to look after.'

'You realize that I still have a thing down there?'

'Thing?'

'Penis.' She whispered.

'Are you keeping it?'

'No, I have to wait a few more months and then I can have surgery.'

'What will they do?'

'Are you sure you want to know?'

'If we are going to have a meaningful relationship, we should have no secrets. Tell me.'

She told him.

He looked a bit green.

'Well, you did ask.'

'And you would go through all that just to get your plumbing fixed?'

'Yes, it will make me as complete as I can be under the circumstances.'

He looked at her for a few seconds.

'God, you're lovely. Look, we've got quite a lot in common and perhaps we can find out if we've got enough going to make a success of things. What do you think?'

Joanne looked into Robert's eyes. She could see that he meant every word of what he said. She remembered that he had always been kind and helpful to her, even though he had problems of his own. She knew in her heart that Peter and Tammy would get on fine and hopefully be the best of friends, so that wouldn't be a problem.

She looked down and noticed that Robert was still holding her hand. It felt soft, warm and very nice. She looked up and said, 'I think that you are manipulative, scheming and devious, but I certainly wouldn't hold that against you.'

She leant across the table in full view of the waiter, who was hovering about with a bottle in his hand, and kissed Robert tenderly on the lips. She whispered, 'Is that you're answer?'

Robert smiled and whispered back, 'Yes I think it is, but the first thing we need to do tomorrow is go to the shops.'

'Why?'

'Because you've just covered your blouse in Bolognese sauce!'

THE END

Cover design by Joyce Melton Based on a public domain photo of Conversation Hearts A product of the New England Confectionary Company