It was just 7am but already there was a touch of warmth in the early summer sunshine. Evelyn strode out purposefully, as she did at this time every morning, her terrier Tess trotting alongside and stopping occasionally for a snuffle in the hedgerow enclosing the park.
Now that she was retired, she could walk Tess at any time of the day, but Evelyn had been walking round the park between 7am and 7.30am every weekday for the past eight years, and old habits die hard. She would miss the misty morning air, and the peace and quiet that prevailed in Longley Park first thing and was lost later in the day. At 7am it was empty, and Evelyn enjoyed having it all to herself.
But this morning she saw someone else walking around the park perimeter, in the opposite direction with what appeared to be a large mongrel with him, fortunately on a lead. At first Evelyn paid him little attention, but as he approached she grew nervous.
Despite the pale sunshine, the youth, for that was all he was, was wearing a scruffy parker, jeans and trainers. He had a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. He kept his head down and lurched as he walked, the way John Wayne used to do in the old Westerns.
He looked a menacing character altogether, and Evelyn clutched tightly onto Tess’s lead and hoped he would continue to keep his head down as he passed her. He did, but then, just as they were shoulder to shoulder, he looked up, and she felt steely blue eyes boring into her.
Evelyn shuddered, shocked. The youth had a long scar running from his left eye practically to his mouth. She hurried past, unnerved by the way he had looked at her, acutely conscious that they were alone in the park.
When she took Harold his morning cuppa in bed, she told him about the strange youth. Harold struggled to sit up to take his teacup. He had strained his back trying to put up a build-it-yourself conservatory at the back of the house, and was barely able to sit, let alone walk. It meant he could do nothing about the house, and while Evelyn felt for his pain and privately grieved that her new conservatory may not be completed this summer, she was glad to see him having to take it easy.
Since he retired two years ago, he had made decorating and modernising the house a priority, and when he wasn’t working at that, he was busy in the garden.
It was a lovely house, Evelyn had to admit, and she knew it was the perfect place to enjoy her retirement which began when term ended at the high school last month. They had brought their two children up in this house, but both were married and living away from home now. At times she missed them dreadfully.
Harold didn’t seem unduly concerned about the youth. “Probably just a young lad in a bit of a temper because his father has told him to walk the dog before he goes out to work or whatever it is he might do,” said Harold. “I’m sure Tess would protect you from any bad men in the park,” he laughed.
When Evelyn arrived at Longley Park next morning, there was no sign of the youth. But as she rounded the bend by the old walnut tree she spotted him coming towards her. This time he looked straight at her as he approached. She drew her breathe in. For all she knew he could be high on drugs, or have slept rough in the park, or have crept out from one of those seating areas where alcoholics sometimes spend the night.
“Mornin’,” he said, and walked on by. Evelyn exhaled and made her way home.
He was there again the next day. Again Evelyn tried to ignore him and his mottley dog, but again he stared at her from under his cap with those deep blue eyes as she approached.
“Nice dog,” he muttered. Evelyn tugged on Tess’s lead. “Come on girl, daddy will be waiting for us,” she said pointedly and quickened her pace out of the park.
By the fifth day she had decided he wasn’t going to kill her. He would have done that by now. But she did not see why he insisted on talking to her. Maybe he was trying to lull her into a false sense of security. That thought made her nervous. So she changed direction, going left instead of right when she entered the park and becoming aware that the youth was half a lap in front of her.
But as she approached the gate at the end of her lap she realised he was waiting, his dog sitting patiently by his side. It was only 7.20am. There was no-one else in sight. She began to panic, but kept walking towards him, willing him to walk away. He stayed.
“Sorry to bother you,” he said as she came towards him. “I wanted to know if you had dropped this yesterday, I found it after you left.”
Evelyn had to stop. It would have been very rude not to. She looked at what he proffered. It was a small silver brooch in the shape of a butterfly.
“No, no it’s not mine,” she said.
“I’ll take it to the ranger’s office then,” said the lad. “Someone else must have lost it. I just thought it might have been your’s. You dress so smart when you’re out walking.”
As a teacher, Evelyn always dressed smartly. She was about to thank him for his observation, but checked herself, remembering he was just a young thug, and most probably a thief too. She hurried home to update Harold.
Against her better judgement, Evelyn called by at the ranger’s office later that afternoon, to enquire if a butterfly brooch had been handed in, quite certain it hadn’t.
“Yes,” Tom the ranger replied. “But it’s already been returned to a lady who came looking for it in a panic at lunchtime.” He looked alarm. “You’re not saying it was your’s, are you?”
“No, no. It was just some young man offered it to me this morning, I wondered if he had handed it in or not.”
“That would’ve been Joel. He’s always finding bits and pieces in the park. He does some work for me, voluntary you know, but he’s very handy. Can put his hand to anything. A nice lad, in spite of everything.”
“In spite of what?” Evelyn asked, her inquisitiveness getting the better of her.
“Well now ma’am, I’d not be one to talk about other people’s business. Best ask Joel yourself, you’re bound to see him round.”
Braced by the knowledge that Tom seemed to think this youth Joel was pretty harmless, and the reassurance that he had in fact handed the broach in and not kept it himself, Evelyn was all set to be a little more civil to him when they met the next morning. But when Joel failed to turn up, she discovered she was disappointed. He wasn’t there the next day, or the day after that. She actually began to worry about the lad. What had Tom meant when he’d said Joel was handy, ‘in spite of everything.’ She waited until mid morning and made her way to the park ranger’s office.
Joel, it appeared, was away at his sister’s wedding. A simple explanation. He hadn’t been involved in some horrific accident, he hadn’t been arrested, he wasn’t sick. He was just at a wedding.
And when he appeared in the park shortly after seven the next morning, Evelyn strode up behind him and armed herself with a smile. Hearing her approach, he glanced over his shoulder. “Mornin‘,” he said.
“Good morning. Nice to see you back in the park. I missed bumping into you. There‘s not too many bother to say hello these days.” Evelyn volunteered.
“Just bein’ friendly. Had to go to my sister’s wedding back home,” he said. “Or rather, what used to be home. We live here now.”
“You moved in fairly recently then?” Evelyn enquired, as she unwittingly scratched the head of his large and hairy dog, and was rewarded with a pair of soft brown eyes turning fondly towards her, and what she could swear was a smile on the mutt’s face.
“Couple of months. We live over there,” he indicated a new development backing onto the park. Evelyn was surprised. She imagined he’d be living on one of the more run-down council estates.
“Dad’s in the bank, mum doesn’t work. Well, I suppose she looks after the twins, they’re four now.”
“And how old are you?” Evelyn enquired, peering into his face under his cap, and seeing that he really was just a boy, a child whose face was horribly altered by the scar.
“Sixteen.” There was a silence. Then Joel continued. “Look missus, I don’t want you thinking bad of me, but the likes of you probably wouldn’t want to be seen talking to me. I‘ve done time you see.”
Evelyn went to interrupt, to tell him there was no need, but he silenced her. “We moved here when I got out of the young offenders’ centre. Mum and dad wanted to give me a new start, so we left Portsmouth and moved here. I’m not an axe murderer or anything, but I’ve got form.”
“For what?” Evelyn was shocked. Despite all her preconceptions, she was now finding it hard to believe this child, with his face innocent despite the scar, was the thug she had first taken him for.
“Me mate nicked a car. I was in the front seat and we got chased by the cops. He crashed it into a wall.” Seeing her face he hurried on. “He got a broken collar bone. I broke me ankle and got me face pretty smashed up,” his hand went involuntarily to his scar. “I was four months inside. It wasn’t nice.”
Evelyn indicated a nearby bench and they both sat down. She learned that he had fallen into bad company shortly after the birth of his twin brothers. His sister was older and already away at university. He had been the golden boy until the babies arrived. Angry at what he had felt was rejection, he started spending time with some of the rougher lads at school. He never did drugs, he assured her, but he had been coerced into some petty crime, and the car stealing incident had brought everything to a head.
“So what are you doing now?” Evelyn asked.
“Not a lot. Rex here is my neighbour’s dog. She’s three kids to get ready in the morning, and doesn’t get time to give him a good walk, so I volunteered to do it before she heads out to work. I do a bit here and there for Tom, you know, the park ranger, and mum has me enrolled in a carpentry skills course at the tech next term.”
He sighed: “I’m trying to sort my life out, but it’s not easy, what with dropping out of school, and my record. And this,” he indicated to the scar again. “Mum and dad have been great, but I really want to get a job. I have to pay my own way.”
“Tom says you’re pretty handy,” Evelyn said.
“Yeah, I do some odd jobs for him, fixing things, tidying up trees, lifting litter, I even helped rebuild the bit of the hut that was kicked in by vandals. Mum says I’m useful to have around too.” His young face lit up with pride. “She reckons I could’ve done a better job building our house than that crew of contractors the developer had in.”
Evelyn had an idea. “Tell you what Joel. Can you come to my house, its number 17 Cooper Street, at about 11 this morning? Don’t dress up. You might be able to help me with something…”
There was a ring on the doorbell at precisely 11am. Noting with pleasure that Joel had removed his baseball cap revealing a head of thick dark hair, Evelyn showed him into the kitchen where Harold sat, rather stiffly, at the table drinking coffee.
“Harold, meet Joel,” she said simply. The young man reached out to shake Harold’s hand.
“Believe you’re a bit of a dab hand at building things,” Harold said gruffly, accepting the proffered hand.
“I do a bit,” Joel said.
“Well, if you step out the kitchen door there you’ll see a wee job needs doing. And as I can’t manage it myself at the minute I’m hoping you can help.” Joel’s mouth dropped when he saw the foundation for the conservatory, all the frames and glass still stacked in polythene. “Think you could manage it?” Harold shouted from indoors.”
Joel stepped back into the kitchen, nodding furiously. “I’d control the show, of course, tell you what goes where, you know.” said Harold. “And we’d pay you for your work.”
“No, I couldn’t….” Joel started, but Harold interrupted. “Don’t be daft lad, if you’re going to make a go of any sort of business you have to accept payment and keep accounts. And if you make a good enough show of this, I’ll recommend you to my sister Elsie. She’s been wanting her old shed pulled down and a new one built for ages. Sit down now, let’s see what we need to do first.”
Evelyn went to the back door and picked up Tess’s lead. She thought it best to leave the men to talk shop.
“See you tomorrow morning at seven,” she called back as she went outside. She got no answer. Joel’s face was smiling, animated, handsome despite the scar. He was just a boy and someone she was proud to call her friend.
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