Young love

 

                                                    Young love

David ‘Pete’ Peterson and Julia Smethurst had known each other most of their lives. At school, they and their friends socialised as one large group, but as they grew older, they began to pair off and develop closer, more intimate friendships.

Inevitably, some relationships foundered on the rocks of jealousy, misunderstanding, immaturity, and incomprehension. Pete and Julia had a few arguments, but recognised that their desire to be together was strong enough to overcome their problems. They prided themselves on being able to retain their individuality and not become each other’s shadow. They knew their own minds, were confident and happy and respected each other.

As the end of their school days beckoned, they made plans for the future. They were too young to settle down and each had careers to make. They were fulfilling their long-held desires, or at least, making the first steps. Pete wanted to become an RAF officer, and Julia was determined to become a teacher. They were clear-sighted and ambitious and faced the future with optimism.

The night before they set off for their separate lives they realised how much they would miss each other. To this point, their social lives had revolved around school, family, and friends, though they had also pursued separate hobbies and interests. Now, they were going somewhere quite alien, where they knew no-one. The next few years would be consumed with new challenges, in training, and in professional interactions.

If it felt a little daunting, neither of them admitted it, telling themselves that nothing fundamental would change. There would be holidays, and they would learn from each other’s experiences and grow stronger together.

The Christmas after their first term was a heady, exciting time. Pete and Julia were overjoyed to be together again after weeks apart. Nothing had changed, though there were some expectations about how they should behave. Pete had to observe a certain dress code, while Julia’s lecturers encouraged all the students to treat them with casual respect and address them by their given names. They agreed that it was quite different to school days, and so it should be – they were young adults, now.

On Christmas Eve, Pete proposed to a flustered and overwhelmed Julia. They would not be able to marry for a few years, he stressed, but she understood and was happy to develop her own career in the meantime.

Their friends and families were excited for them and there was much back-slapping and hugging. Pete had to return to Cranwell before Julia’s vacation finished but they were already making plans for his next leave.

When next they met, Julia noticed a certain reserve in Pete’s manner, and a change in the way he spoke. His local accent was still apparent, but he used fewer dialect expressions. When she asked him about it, he explained that everyone’s delivery was changing subtly. As officers they had to make sure they could be understood by everyone, particularly when issuing orders.

The Jocks and the Geordies, the Welsh, and the Irish, the Eastenders and the East Anglians, all had to modify their speech. It was mainly a case of clear articulation, and not swallowing their words. Julia nodded. She had needed to adjust the way she spoke, too, so understood. Once or twice, she had used phrases which caused puzzlement and had had to explain what she meant.

She was surprised, the next time they met, when he asked her to stop calling him Pete and use his given name of David, as that was how he was known in his new life. Reluctantly, she agreed, but had misgivings about the way he was changing. She had met many of his new friends, and liked them, but he seemed overly impressed by some of the more privileged among them, though she could not understand why. She began to suspect that he was becoming ashamed of his humble origins, even though many of his new friends came from similar backgrounds. The misconception that they were all ‘toffs’ was laughable.

Later, when he started advising her how she should dress and what she should say when meeting his superiors, she realised that the boy she had known and fallen in love with was becoming an insufferable snob. She returned his ring and wished him well in his future, though privately she thought his progress would be blighted by his lack of confidence and self-awareness.

If Julia was bitter, she tried not to show it, but she made no effort to maintain contact with her old college friends once they had all graduated and taken up their new posts. They were left to wonder, and to hope that she would find happiness and fulfilment.

This short story is based on an erstwhile friend of mine. It’s fair to say that her heart was broken, but not her spirit. I never did discover what became of her, or ‘Pete.’

Names have been changed.