Starlight Café Pt.1

Miss J Simmons

31 Woodvale Avenue

Appleford

Oxfordshire

OX14 9TS 

Millie stared at the envelope. It was her address. It wasn’t her name. She had never heard of a J Simmons; the man she had bought the house from was called Mark Newfield, and he’d had it at least 30 years.

The envelope had arrived with her latest batch of Christmas cards. A week before Christmas and cards were still coming thick and fast, more so than they had in previous years. Although Millie supposed that was the norm when one moved halfway across the country and didn’t plan on going home for Christmas. She looked at the envelope again. The ink was quite faded, and the envelope looked like it had seen better days. Perhaps it was old? Maybe it had been lost in the postal system until now. Millie’s curiosity got the better of her and she turned it over to open.

The glue holding the envelope closed was so brittle it released the flap with barely a touch. Definitely old then. Millie went a little more carefully, scared of the whole thing disintegrating in her hands if she was too rough. There was a card inside. A Christmas card.

“How fitting.”

Millie pulled the card out gently. It was very pretty – branches took up most of the space, but a vibrant robin filled the centre. Peering closely at it, Millie realised the whole thing was hand drawn. She flipped the card over, hoping to see an artist’s name on the back, but it was blank aside from a date; 14th December 1956. Over 50 years old. She set the envelope down on the table and opened the card. Millie raised an eyebrow at the amount of writing inside. Both sides of the card were completely covered in lines and lines of neat but scrawling words. 

My darling, Juliet 

I hope this reaches you in time. I know you’ve only returned to be married before leaving for London again, but I couldn’t let this chance slip away from me again. I love you, Juliet Simmons. I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you in the school library – I saw you from across the street earlier and the way the sun shone through your hair reminded me of that day. The sun gave you a golden halo, and you’ve been my angel ever since. The way things ended between us has always bothered me, they didn’t even really end. You just left for London without even asking if I wanted to go with you, you didn’t even say goodbye. I waited for you to come back. I thought your university must have a holiday at some point. But you never came back. And I never left.  

Don’t marry him, Juliet. I know you don’t love him – the whole town knows it. We could be together again. Seven years might seem like a long time, but I love you now just as much as I did then. Run away with me Juliet. We can be together, just like we dreamed. I’m staying at my parents’ house, so if you still feel the same, meet me at midnight on Thursday in our spot.

Yours, forever and always,

Bobby

Millie set the card down. Not an ordinary Christmas card then. She wondered what happened to Bobby and Juliet. Obviously, the card had never made it to Juliet, who presumably had gone through with getting married. Bobby must’ve waited for her all night. Millie wondered if Bobby still lived in Appleford, if he was even still alive. She could ask her next-door neighbour. Joan had introduced herself the day Millie moved in and had apparently lived in the same house all her life. If Millie had to guess, she would say Joan was well into her seventies, maybe even older. Definitely old enough to know who Juliet and Bobby were. She checked the time; 12:47pm. Joan should be back from yoga by now.

Millie grabbed her keys, and the card, and left the house. It was a little bit of a walk to Joan’s. Millie quite enjoyed the fact her ‘next-door neighbour’ was actually a mile down the road, it meant she didn’t have to worry about her music being too loud. Appleford was quiet and, from what Millie had noticed in the three months she’d lived there, everyone was very friendly with each other. It also seemed to be the sort of place people never left. Almost everyone her own age lived in a house that belonged to their grandparents or some other relative. It was interesting, being the newcomer. She truly had no connections to anyone in the town – couldn’t tell any small-town stories about how her cousin and so-and so’s brother stole a tractor, or how her great great uncle opened a shoe shop that’s still there today. Millie liked it that way, though. It was a fresh start, nobody knew her, and she didn’t know anyone.

Millie unlatched Joan’s front gate and let it swing closed behind her. Joan’s front garden made Millie very jealous. Even in the middle of winter it was obviously still well-cared for. Neat flowerbeds bordered the garden and on one side of the stone path there was a bird feeding station set into the square of well-kept grass. The robin pecking at the seeds stopped for a second to eye Millie before going back to its meal. The other side of the path was just grass, but Millie knew Joan was getting a fishpond installed as soon as winter was over. 

Knocking on the door, she hoped Joan would remember who these people were. Millie felt the strangest need to find out what happened to them both.

“Millie, dear! What brings you by?”

“Hi, Joan. I was hoping to ask you about something.”

“Come in, come in. I just put the kettle on. Would you like some tea?”

 “That would be nice, thank you.”

Millie made her way to the kitchen table and sat down. She loved coming to Joan’s; there were always freshly baked biscuits on the table, and the tea was delicious. Joan set two teas down on the table and sat opposite Millie.

“So, what did you want to ask, dear?”

Millie set the envelope on the table

“I was wondering if you remember a woman named Juliet? She used to live in my house.” 

A wistful smiled crossed Joan’s face.

“Juliet Simmons? I remember her well. We went to school together, until she went off to university in London, of course. Why do you ask, dear?”

“I got this card in the post today. It’s for Juliet, from someone called Bobby?”

“Oh, Bobby Newton! Yes, they were together all through school. They were inseparable for years; everywhere Juliet went, Bobby followed. And everywhere Bobby went, Juliet was always there. We all thought they were it; you know? They were the type of love we all wanted. They never fought, and we all thought they would be married straight out of school. But then, Juliet left for London, and Bobby stayed here. He never told us what happened.”

“This might help.”

Millie handed over the card and watched over the rim of her cup as Joan read it.

“Oh, poor Bobby. She went through with it. The wedding, I mean. I was a bridesmaid. A man named Ian Holmes. Bobby’s right though, she didn’t love him. There was nothing wrong with him; he was perfectly lovely, and he looked at Juliet like she’d hung the sun in the sky, but it was obvious she wasn’t in love with him.”

“Do you know what happened to them? Bobby and Juliet?”

“Well, after the wedding, Juliet and Ian went back to London. She came back a few years later when her mother passed away, but no one’s heard from her since then. That was in 1964, I think. Bobby still lives here, in his parents’ house. His friend Andrew lives with him now. They met playing golf back in the seventies. Andrew’s wife passed quite suddenly, and Bobby never married so it made sense at the time for them to share the house, what with the recession and all.”

“He still lives here? Do you think he would mind if I went to see him?”

“Not at all, dear! If anything, I think he’ll be glad of it. Between you and me, if Juliet had got that card, I think she would’ve run away with him. It’ll be nice for him to get some closure. He’s never gotten over her, you know. His heart was so broken that he never had a girlfriend again, too hung up on the one that got away.”

“That’s a shame. Maybe after I’ve spoken to him, I’ll try to track down Juliet and give her the letter.”

“I think that would be nice, dear. Let me find Bobby’s address for you. I know I’ve got it written down somewhere.”

Joan wandered into the other room, leaving Millie to stare at the card still open on the table. She had hoped Bobby and Juliet were both living happily, but by the sounds of it Bobby had never moved on, and Juliet had married a man she didn’t love.

“Here you go, dear. Why don’t you pop over there tomorrow? It’s getting rather late now, and I wouldn’t want you walking around in the dark by yourself.” 

Millie took the paper with Bobby’s address on and checked her watch. To her surprise it was already 3:30pm, and the sun was on its way to setting.

“Thank you so much for this, Joan. I’ll stop by at some point to let you know how it went.”

“Good luck!”

Millie made her way back home, tucking her hands into her sleeves as she went. It was rather mild when she’d left, but there was a chill in the air now and she wished she’d brought a coat. She wondered what Bobby would be like. Would he be bitter about his lost love? Or would he be pleasantly nostalgic? Millie thought about how to find Juliet; social media could be a good option, or just a good old fashioned google. If she could find out from Bobby what university Juliet went to, she might even be able to find where she worked. But for now, just one question floated around her mind: Why had Juliet never come back?