The scene is a railway station somewhere north of Watford. The platform is deserted apart from an elderly man and woman. He has no luggage and she has a small holdall at her feet.


   MAN: (Staring at the departure board)  Fifteen minutes. Are you excited?

   
   WOMAN:  Excited? No. Curious perhaps, but not really excited. That vanished forty-odd years ago.


    MAN: Half a lifetime.

    
     WOMAN: (Gazing down the empty track) Funny how things come back to you. I remember the day I met him. I`d gone to this poncy wine bar off the King`s road for a quick drink after my first day at work. I was just about to leave when he appears from nowhere and starts chatting me up. Said he`d got this fabulous pad in Chelsea and how I`d love it. Three hours later and somehow we`re back at my rabbit hutch of a flat, and that`s where he stayed for the next six months!


     MAN:  (Laughing lightly) Well I must admit he`s always struck me as a bit of a chancer...sorry but that`s how I see him. 


     WOMAN:  (Smiling to herself)  He was always a bit of a Jack-the-lad. He loved clinching a deal. Said it made him feel alive. And it didn`t matter where it was either. He once sat up all night on the phone so he could buy a block of new flats overlooking the Sidney Harbour Bridge. I mean, can you imagine, Australia! and he`d never even seen a picture of the damn things.

    
      (There is a pause as an express train speeds through the station and disappears, leaving the platform silent again)


      MAN:    Where you happy with him..I mean really happy?


     WOMAN:  I`m not sure. How do you measure REAL happiness?  We had our moments like all couples. He was so..so driven, made him hard to live with sometimes. Calculating too. Everything he did had to have a purpose.


      MAN:  Is that why he got involved with the kids, because it made him look good?


      WOMAN:   Partly I suppose. But there was more to it than that. He loved kids but he couldn`t  have any of his own.  `Not enough bloody tadpoles in the pond` he used to say. It hurt his pride of course, the big macho businessman. I once mentioned adoption to him but he dismissed the idea out of hand. Not something he`d produced with his own sweat and tears, if you see what I mean. I think in a warped sort of way the Africa thing was a way of easing his own feelings of inadequacy.

     MAN:    How did you feel when he told you what he wanted to do?

 
     WOMAN:  Suspicious at first. He was always a political animal, and like I said, he wouldn`t usually do anything without the benefits going firmly his way. But if I`m honest I thought mainly of what I would be giving up - the beautiful house, the cars, all those exotic holidays in the South Seas. But in the end I could see he was deadly serious about it...and so that was it.


      MAN:    I remember reading the headlines at the time:  Britain`s youngest tycoon gives it all up to help child AIDS victims in Africa`.


     WOMAN: (Grinning broadly)  Yes, he liked that. Mind you for a week or so it was mad. Press camped out on our doorstep, phone constantly ringing. Cranks saying why didn`t he use his money to help English kids. In the end I was glad when we finally boarded the plane and left it all behind.


      (Another train rushes through the station. After it has gone the woman continues talking):  
            I still have this mental picture of him..vibrant, brimming over with enthusiasm mixed with a steely determination. He never took no for an answer. Three brand new hospitals he built, in just two years. I`d never seen him so happy...no happy is the wrong word. Elated. That was it. Pure elation.


       MAN:   So what made you come back to England without him?


       WOMAN:  It took him over in the end. The media in Africa and over here were full of it, and I guess it went to his head. He had to be seen building more hospitals, getting the goverment to cough up more and more money. It was a constant battle and I suppose somewhere along the way I became just another of his minor irritations.


      MAN:   Still, you must be proud of what he achieved before he came back himself?


      WOMAN: (Staring again down the track)  I guess his hospitals helped save a great many lives, so yes, I`m proud of that.



       MAN: (Gazing at the woman)  Any regrets...?



      WOMAN: At the time, maybe, just a few.


                   (Sound of approaching train)


       MAN: And Now?


      WOMAN:   Now?  (Picks up holdall and clings to man`s arm)  Now my darling we are going to catch this train to London, watch the maiden speech of our esteemed new Prime Minister, and then we will go and do what we are really going to London for...A ride on that beautiful wheel and a shiny new toy for our favourite little grandson....