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Valverde Maclean

Life and love can take us to unexpected places


................attention but this was very obvious.  I do prefer some subtlety after all.

“Excuse me, please forgive my imposition, but I couldn’t help but notice your pendant.  It is quite original.”

I don’t often wear my gold nugget these days.  My father gave it to me when I turned eighteen.  It is a gold nugget from the Ballarat Goldfields and hangs around my neck on a leather cord.  My father bought it on a visit to Ballarat and gave it to me at my first birthday party after I finished school.  It has hung from many cords over the years and I still wear it occasionally.  It always reminds me of that birthday party with my family, old school friends, and new friends from teachers’ college.

“Oh, I have had it for many years, it holds rather special memories.”

However there was something about the voice.  People change over the years, looks change, but the voice often retains something—tone, timbre, speech patterns perhaps, and there was something about his voice.

“I once knew a girl who wore a golden nugget.  Many years ago, in London.”

That voice again!  I was in London many years ago, more years ago than I want to admit.  There was something about this man.  Something familiar.

“Are you Sue Benedict?”

Oh dear.  I was once Sue Benedict, after I stopped being Susan, and before I became Suzie.  That was before my marriage.

“Yes.”  There was something familiar in the voice and the look … not the hair, but the face and the eyes.

“I’m Peter Jamieson.”

Now it all falls into place.  Over thirty years ago.  In England, and I left suddenly on a trip to Germany.  Anywhere to get away from Peter.

“Well, this is going back a long time.”

“May I join you?”

It would seem impolite to say no to his request, and it was all so long ago.  So much has happened in my life since then.