True love really needs no introduction...

A LOVE STORY

It was the 2nd June 1943 and Maureen Angela Needham was in love. Not actually in

love in the normally accepted meaning of the words, but consumed by love, blinded by love, could not think coherently of anything other than the object of her love, one Matthew James Fraser.
Whilst soaking in the bath that afternoon Maureen had made a decision; she was going to confess her love to Matthew. She knew that the romance would not blossom unless she told him of her feelings and found out if he had similar feelings towards her. Perhaps she would discuss marriage, or at least sow the seeds within his mind.

 Today was Maureen's birthday; a few close friends were coming round to help her

celebrate it by sharing a small buffet. In these days of ration books and austerity it had to be small. Maureen was thinking that the whole evening was a charade, a sham. The only guest she wanted to be with was Matthew.

As she gently eased herself into her pure white underwear, white stockings and palest of pink cotton dress a thought flashed into her mind. "If I 'phone all the guests except him and tell them that the party is off, I will be able to spend the evening alone with Him." She dismissed this idea almost as soon as it had formed in her mind. She knew that there would be lots of time in the future when they would be together.
Her furtive glances at the clock were becoming more frequent now, as the magic hour approached. She couldn't relax, all the time brushing imaginary hair from her eyes and smoothing the front of her already immaculate dress.

Each ring on the doorbell, as the guests arrived, brought a flush to Maureen's already pink cheeks. A quick check revealed that all were present except one, the only one that mattered, the most important person in her life.

"Perhaps he's had an accident," she thought, "taken ill, gone out with someone else,

decided he doesn't like me after all, or maybe died." all these thoughts raced through Maureen's over active mind prior to their being cast aside by the sound of the door-bell.

She walked the length of the hall in a dream. Slowly she opened the front door to

reveal him, Matthew, standing there. She was so pleased to see that he had worn his uniform for the occasion. He smiled his lop-sided, sheepish smile as he handed her an inexpertly wrapped gift and a card. Maureen could hardly speak; she stammered a hasty"thank you" and removed the paper from the present. "Oh Mathew, it's just what I wanted," she said when she saw the latest Angela Brazil book nestling in its gift wrapping. She then opened the card and saw the Teddies, golliwogs and flowers tumbling all around the large number eleven on the front. She looked inside and read the handwritten message with its accompanying ink-blots :-

HAPPY BURTHDAY MOREEN. WITH LUV FROM MATTHEW. X X.

She thought that she would faint with ecstasy when she leant over, touched the collar of his Boys Brigade uniform and claimed her two kisses.