**Diary Entry**
The summer air was still, the kind of quiet that only comes with an early Saturday morninguntil some lad on a bicycle started hollering under the block of flats.
«Lily! Liiiily!» His voice carried up to the windows, where a few irritated faces appeared.
«For Gods sake, shut it!» A bloke in a white vest leaned out, scowling. «Some of us are trying to sleep!»
«Im not calling you!» The boy grinned, unbothered.
A woman in curlers poked her head out next. «Its Saturday! Have some decency!»
Then another, a bald man with bags under his eyes. «I just fell asleep, you little»
«Lilyyy, come on already!»
The front door groaned open, and out stepped a girl in a light summer dress, clutching a tote bag wrapped in brown paper.
«Took your time. Oversleep?»
«No,» she said calmly, securing the bagfull of sandwichesonto the bike rack. Then she hopped onto the crossbar, and the boy pedaled off, laughing as shouts followed them.
«Bloody hooligans!»
«Let people sleep!»
«Sleep, then!» the boy called back, grinning. «Its Saturdaywhats wrong with you lot?»
They raced past the edges of the village, down a dirt road, wind in their hair.
«Lily, you tired?»
«No. You?»
«Nah.» He pedaled harder.
They tumbled into the grass when the tyre blew, laughing as the bike veered sideways.
«Now what, Alfie?»
«Dunno,» he said, sprawled in the clover. «Guess we live here now.»
«Oh, Alfie.»
«I mean it. Build a cottage, fish in the river, roast it over a fire.»
«Where do we get matches?»
«Dont need em. Rub sticks togetheror nick some from fishermen.»
She giggled.
«Look, that cloudlike a teapot.»
«Now its a dog.»
They lay there, cloud-watching.
«Fancy a swim?»
«Yeah.»
They raced to the river, dried off on sun-warmed sand.
«Lily, whatll you do when you grow up?»
«Finish school, go to uni, get a job. You?»
«Marry you, get richor the other way round.»
«Prat.»
«Alright, fineIll join the army first, get a trade before you run off with someone else.»
Lily laughed. «Like who?»
«Dunno Tom? Saw you giggling with him.»
«We were working on the school paper!»
«Whatever. Ill still steal you back.»
***
Years later, another Saturday dawned, shattered by the roar of a motorbike.
«Lily! Liiily!»
«Bloody nuisance,» a woman shouted from a window.
«Let people sleep!»
«Not you lotsleep, then!» Alfie revved the engine as Lily slipped out, pulling on a helmet before wrapping her arms around him.
They sped through the village, onto country lanes, wind whipping tears from her eyes. When they stopped, they lay in the grass again.
«That cloudtwo cats sitting together.»
«Over therea motorbike.»
They swam, sunbathed, kissed until breathless.
«Lily Ive got my call-up papers. Leaving tomorrow.»
«What? Why didnt you say?»
«Didnt know how.»
She wiped her eyes. «Thats why you didnt go to uni?»
«After the army, I will. Then Ill marry you. You wont run off with Tom, yeah?»
***
At the train station, Lily waited. When Alfie stepped off, his mother sobbed into his shoulder, his father shook his hand, his sister clung to himbut his eyes found Lily.
«You crying?» he teased.
«Happy tears.»
«Plenty more where that came from.»
***
«Alfie, love, you just got backwhy rush into things?» His mother fretted.
«Mum, Ive enlisted. And Im marrying Lily.»
«Shes just after security»
«Shes nineteen. And shes all I want.»
His mother sighed. «Its too soon.»
«Funny, you werent saying that when you nagged me to settle down after the army.»
«That was different! You were drinking too much!»
Alfie just smiled and left.
***
«Its a boy!» Alfie burst into his parents house, breathless. «A son!» Tears ran down his mothers face; his fathers grip was tight on his shoulder. Five years later, a daughtertheir little princess.
***
«Alfie, your dad said you quit your job? How will you manage?»
«Well figure it out.»
«What does Lily say? Theres security here!»
«Mum, I wont raise my kids splitting one chocolate bar between them.»
«We managed without such things!»
«Times change.»
They made itnot easily, but together. There were nights Alfie wanted to scream, but Lily just handed him a guitar.
«Sing. It helps.»
So they did, soft and shaky.
*»Ill ride my bicycle far»*
Lily cried when he wasnt looking. He pretended not to notice.
Years passed. They had money nowa house, holidays, kids sorted. But Alfie grew restless. A mate dragged him to a club»Not just any night out, trust me.»
«Lily, weve got theatre tickets.»
«Work thing,» he lied, hating himself.
A woman approached him insidepolished, pretty.
«Lets get out of here.»
«Whyd you come, then?»
«Needs must.»
Outside, she confessed: a son, a deadbeat ex, just trying to survive.
«Ill save up, leave this behind. Or find someone decent like you.»
They talked all night. Honest, sharp, magnetic. He met her again. And again.
Then one day, he came home to silence.
Lily was gone.
He called the kids, his parentsno one had seen her.
So he found the other woman.
«Im sorry. I love my wife.»
She nodded. «Tell her the truthwe never even kissed.»
***
Lily was at her parents old flat, making sandwiches, thinking.
Thenengine noise. A shout.
«Lily! Liiiily!»
The same old chorus of complaints followed.
Alfie sang under her window, voice rough:
*»Ill ride my bicycle far stop in the quiet fields pick flowers, give them to the girl I love.»*
She put on the helmet, held tight as they sped through the village, down to the meadows.
«Lookthat clouds a ship.»
«Over there, grandparents having tea.»
«Lily forgive me?»
«For what?»
«You know.»
She sighed. «Alright.»
«Wont happen again.»
«What wont?»
«You singing alone. You did, didnt you?»
«Yeah.»
«Me too. Lets do it together.»
So they did.
*»Ill ride my bicycle far»*
**Lesson:** The grass isnt greener. The best thingsthe real thingsare the ones youve had all along.
