Beyond the Riverbend

‘Isn’t this simply delightful?’ Wren remarked.

           For it truly was idyllic summer weather. Most summer days are thinly veiled promises, but this was pulled from a childhood dream and stretched out across the sky. The warmth was draped gently over her skin, and filled her heart as a soothing embrace should. It wasn’t a dry summer either. The grass was still lush and green, and the roses on the bushes were in full bloom. The trees around the garden shrugged a gentle breeze through the air, and the water from the fountain in front of her provided the hope of cool relief if she needed it.

           ‘Don’t you reckon?’ she asked, turning to look at her companion.

           For it was one of the most pleasant sensations, and Wren needed confirmation that she had not faded up into the sky, and she really was still living.

           Leighton had the wide brim of his hat pulled over his eyes, and his head rested on his chest. He was slumped in the chair with his legs up on the table.

           ‘I tend to reckon very little,’ he muttered sleepily.

           She sighed, though it was with a smile.

           ‘You speak in tongues, my friend.’

           They sat together in silence for quite some time, soaking up the afternoon sun.

           Suddenly Leighton sat up, tipping his hat out of his face. He looked back at the house along the garden path.

           ‘Such carry on!’

           Wren frowned, tilting her head to listen. There was a faint yelling, although it seemed to be growing louder.

           ‘Quite. I find it most unbecoming. He really has worked himself into such an angry state.’

           They watched the man racing down the garden path as he tripped over a planter box.

           Wren winced. ‘Ouch. That’ll only anger him more.’

           Leighton got to his feet, extending a hand out to Wren.

           ‘Well, my friend, perhaps we should vacate his garden.’

           ‘Yes, that may be the best thing for it,’ she replied, taking his hand.

           They rushed down along the path, navigating the maze of hedges across the sprawling grounds.

           ‘If I catch you here one more time!’ he wheezed behind them.

           ‘He says that every time. I really don’t know what he plans to do,’ Leighton said.

           They laughed, running through the grass hand in hand. Wren hitched her dress up with one hand as they neared the fence on the edge of the grounds.

           ‘After you.’

           Leighton held out his cupped hands. Wren placed a hand on his shoulder, and her foot on his hands. He hoisted her up, and she slid over the other side of the fence with ease. Leighton clambered up the wood, holding his sun-hat steady with one hand. His foot slipped, and he stumbled over onto the other side. Wren stifled a laugh.

           Leighton smiled. ‘I meant to do that, you know.’

He linked arms with her as they walked through the thick trees on the outskirts of the village. There was silence for a while. Sun beamed through gaps in the canopy of trees above them, and birds gently chirped somewhere in the distance. Wren studied Leighton’s face. She could sense he wanted to say something.

           ‘Tell me, is something troubling you?’

           Leighton’s eyes remained locked ahead as they navigated their way down towards the riverbank.

           ‘Nothing troubling, no. Rather the opposite. It is simply too delightful.’

           Wren was not entirely convinced, but decided not to push him further. They reached the clearing in the trees, and she was much too distracted by its beauty to be worried. The grass sloped down and gave way to a slow-travelling river, shimmering in the summer sun. The water was so clear that you could see every pebble, every plant, and every little fish. Wren hitched her dress up, and hopped across the rocks to the other side. Leighton followed behind her, and they both stared up at the large willow tree that seemed to glow in the sun.

‘You know, after so many years, I think this may still be the most amazing place in the world,’ Wren said.

Leighton lay down on the bank, looking up at the cracks of sky through the branches.

Wren frowned. She stayed by the water and began to take her boots off.

‘You’re quiet today,’ she said.

Wren slipped off her socks and sat on the bank, dipping her feet in. The water was refreshingly cool, and her skin seemed to smile at the feeling. She turned back to Leighton, who was watching her from his position in the shade of the willow tree. She reached down and flung water at him, which sprinkled his legs. He smiled, but remained silent.

‘Come now, what’s wrong?’ she asked.

He paused, before at last getting up and sitting beside her. He followed her lead, taking off his shoes and dangling his feet into the river. His eyes followed a little fish as it darted around the rocks.

‘Do you remember when we first met here? All those years ago?’ he asked.

It was a long time ago, this was true. It was also something she would never forget. It was a summer day, only hotter than the one they were in. Wren spent most of her summer holidays sitting under the giant willow tree reading books or studying insects, ever since she was old enough to walk there by herself. As she went to boarding school in the city, she had never made friends with the local village children. She was only there every summer, and she couldn’t see the point in it. She was only eleven years old, but she was fiercely independent.

Wren’s reading was interrupted by the screaming of some boys swimming in the water. Assuming they were playing around and being joyfully idiotic as kids tended to be, she ignored it. It continued on, and Wren grew more and more irritated. She put her book down and marched out of the shade of the willow tree, storming over to the group of boys around the bank of the river. She was prepared to ask them as calmly as she could to keep the noise down when she saw that one of the boys was holding another’s head under the water, with two looking on and laughing.

With force, Wren kicked the back of the boy holding the other under. He toppled into the water, splashing all of them. The two onlookers gasped and began to run away. She helped to pull the boy up, gasping for air as water spluttered out of his mouth. Wren looked across the river and watched on as the boy she had pushed into the water dragged his way up the other side of the riverbank, and wailed as he ran away. She turned back to the boy, who was trying to push her off him.

‘I’m trying to help you,’ she said.

‘I’m fine!’ he exclaimed. ‘We were just messing about…’

The boy got to his feet, folding his arms.

‘They looked like they were going to kill you!’

He stared at her and she stared back. Eventually, his eyes fell to the ground.

‘Thanks, I guess…’

Wren extended her arm. ‘I’m Wren.’

He shook her hand, looking up at her through a furrowed brow.

‘Leighton’ he muttered.

‘Well, Leighton, it is nice to meet you. Do come and dry out in the sun. You are dripping wet.’

He gave a weak smile. ‘I suppose a bit of sun would be good.’

And they had spent every summer together since that day.

‘Of course I remember. I saved your life.’

‘Well, let’s not be melodramatic…’

‘And you were so whiney about it!’

‘Okay, okay,’ Leighton said with a smile. ‘That’s not the point.’

‘What is the point then?’

Leighton looked at her, and then back at the water, sighing heavily.

‘I look forward to every summer. Every time you come back home is the best part of my year. The rest of the year I’m working away on the farm, but I’m still thinking of you. And then when you get back, it is like I’m a kid again. Nothing has changed, and I can just be myself. I’ve missed you, Wren. Truly, it’s not the same here when you’re gone.’

Wren’s heart dropped. ‘That’s what I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.’

Leighton turned to look at her. ‘What do you mean?’

 Now I am studying at the university, I won’t be coming back home every summer. There’s simply too much to do, and Freddie would prefer if I…’

‘Hang on, slow down. Who’s Freddie?’

‘He works at the university. He’s asked me to marry him.’

‘No, you can’t. You can’t just…’

‘What do you mean I can’t?’ she interrupted, her face growing hot. ‘I haven’t said yes yet!’

He paused. ‘You haven’t?’

‘I’m taking the summer to think it over.’

Leighton breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Wren, I need to tell you something.’

Wren held his hand. ‘Leighton, what is it? Your hands are trembling.’

‘I…I got a job in the city. It’s as a gardener. I know it doesn’t pay a lot, not like a university professor or something…but it is good work. And I’ll do that until I can find a better job, and I’ll get a place to support us both.’

Wren’s heart was hammering in her chest. ‘What are you saying?’

‘Wren, I can’t just keep living for the summer. We write letters, but you know it isn’t the same. My life is miserable when you aren’t in it, and I can’t stand the thought of you marrying off with this man and me never seeing you again.’

‘Does this mean what I think it does?’

‘You know there is something between us. I would have told you how I felt if it weren’t for you leaving at the end of every summer. I knew we couldn’t be together. Not while I was living here, working for my father. But now it can be different.’

Leighton shakily reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a box. He opened it up to reveal the most beautiful diamond Wren had ever seen. The summer sun gleamed off it.

Wren gasped. ‘Leighton, you didn’t! That must’ve been all of your savings!’

           ‘Wren, let me do this properly, will you?’

           She nodded, sealing her mouth shut with a gesture of her hand.

           ‘Wren, I have always admired your independence. You are so smart, and determined, and sometimes you scare me with your intensity. But you have the biggest heart, and once you let me in, I felt at home. Even when you leave for the summer, I can’t escape you. You’re in my head, and my heart, and my soul. And I can’t go on living like this, with you coming and going with the seasons. I want a whole life with you, and I’m prepared to do what it takes. I can’t offer you everything like Freddie probably can. I’m poor, and stubborn and reckless and idiotic. But, I know you. You’re the small town girl with a massive brain and a heart of gold. And I know this is meant to be. I can’t offer you a fancy house, or the nicest clothes. But we would have the world if we only had each other. So please, Wren. Don’t go away with him. Just stay here for the summer, and then I am on that train into the city, right there with you.”

           Wren thought his words over in her head for what probably felt like an eternity. She smiled.

           ‘Twenty-one years without any suitors and I suddenly have two proposals in the span of a week. This is madness.’

           ‘Then don’t say yes.’

           ‘Leighton, don’t take it that way…’

           ‘No, I mean don’t say yes yet. We can spend the summer as we always do. We can trespass through Mr. Danver’s garden, and go to the markets, and sit by the river. We can go on dates like we were always meant to do. And then, at the end of summer, we can go off together, or you can go alone.’

           Wren gripped his hand tightly. ‘You know I love you, and I probably always will. But is this really what you want? Moving away with me? This place is your whole life.’

           Leighton shook his head. ‘It only is when you’re here.’

           Wren laughed. ‘You really are corny, you know that?’

           Leighton smiled. ‘So, is that a yes?’

           She nodded. ‘You have until the end of the summer. I’ll likely say yes, of course…but I want you to work hard to impress me.’

           Leighton was beaming. They sat together and watched as the sun began to go down in a brilliant blaze of orange, pink, and purple. Leighton had always loved summer, but for the first time in his life, he couldn’t wait for summer to be over.