The Loner, page 51
“Do you have any regrets, Mark?”
“I will never forget that first night we had together – it changed my life!”
“Really?”
“Yes it did, but now that I’ve told you my story, Carol, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”
“Oh, my life story is very ordinary. I had this boy friend – he was my childhood sweetheart. We grew up together. Then he went away to university, and got carried away with some of those weird and wonderful ideas about free love. So he ditched me...and I had a fling with a nice lad on the rebound. Tommy came to his senses eventually, and we got married and had children, but he never quite grew out of being a ladies’ man. In the end, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and we got divorced.”
Mark reflected on his own divorce: “Everything is relative these days and there are no absolute values,” he remarked. Then he added, “Tell me, Carol – haven’t I seen you before somewhere?”
“It was a long time ago,” she said. “I saw your name in a newspaper bulletin about a yacht race, as I was passing through. So I thought I’d see if you wanted a crew. Then I’d know if it really was you. Don’t you recognise me, Mark?”
Mark looked into her eyes and then at her shoulder length, loosely curled grey hair. “I don’t believe it,” he said. You can’t be...your name’s Carol.”
“Carol is my second name. My first name is…”
Mark’s eyes lit up. He seized her and held her in his arms. “Fiona!” he cried.
Acknowledgements
Chapter 8
(1) Bob Dylan
(2) Trad.
(3) Pete McGovern
(4) Ewan McColl
(5) Trad.
Chapter 9
(1) Bob Dylan
Chapter 10
(1) Trad.
(2) Ian Tyson
(3) Tom Paxton
(4) Trad.
(5) Trad.
(6) Bob Dylan
Chapter 25
(1) “The Anabasis” or “Persian Expedition” by Xenophon.
Paul Andrews, The Loner
