When the Night has come, and the land is Dark

When we were 16, my friend and I used to walk home from school, which took us perhaps the best part of an hour.

We would then meet after tea, have a drink in the local cafe, and wander the streets.

Our evenings always finished with a walk either in the direction of my house, or hers. We lived at opposite ends of the town, so it was a mile from either of our houses. We normally sat for a while at a bench outside the Football Park and contemplated the world going past us. There always seemed to be so much to talk about, and it was almost guaranteed we would be late heading home.

One particular night, it was dark like this. We knew it was time to move, but we had so much to talk about...that we hadn't already talked about for the best part of 7 hours of the day. As I stood up to go, I looked down the street - about the distance you can see in this picture.

At the corner, I could see my Dad heading towards our direction. He had our new puppy with him, so I realised he had come out looking for me. I quickly squealed goodbye, and then started running down the road towards Dad, and Honeypig.

I loved the new puppy, and was overjoyed that Dad had brought her with him for a walk. I yelled and shouted. "Dad, Dad, Dad, Let her come to me, Come on Baby, come on Honey, Come on, Come on, Come to me",

I kept this constant scream of encouragement going for about 50 yards, until "Dad" came into focus. It was neither, Dad nor the new puppy. My mind was in overdrive. Oh My God. This man, had watched me for 50 yards, bounding down the road, making loud encouraging noises and waving my arms at him. He must have been scared, confused..... wondering what was going to happen next.

I made up my mind. I just continued to shout and scream encouragement, waving my arms in the air and I ran straight past him. I kept the shouting up for about another 20 yards, until I turned the corner, where I kept running, and ran until I got home.

When I got in. I took a Cushion out of the cushion cover, and put my head in it.

And sat like that for quite a while, til I was a little less flustered.