The news of his imminent departure had turned Gladys into a much more accommodating girlfriend. She had always been very insistent on setting boundaries before the day his call-up papers had arrived. ‘Not until we are married, Eric,’ she would whisper into his ear as his hands cupped her buttocks and Eric, always a gentleman, had obeyed her every command. This night, however, Gladys was on fire as she pressed herself into him and things advanced too quickly for Eric to ask himself the question, what is going on?

She startled him as she placed his hand firmly on the most private part of her body, a place he had never thought he would ever be allowed to roam free. He froze in astonishment, the act robbing him of his breath, and her next words were, to Eric’s total amazement, ‘Marry me, Eric, if you want to go any further.’

Eric was stunned and recoiled, but she grabbed his arms and pulled him back into her, lifting her woollen skirt which had slipped back down to her knees, and replaced his hand. ‘Marry me,’ she’d said, pressing his hand harder into her, his fingers as frozen in movement as a dead man’s.

‘When I come back, Gladys,’ he had said, his voice sounding thick, not at all like his own, his senses dulling, then all he was aware of was the warm mound beneath his hand. It was as if nothing else in the world existed right at that moment.

She grabbed his free hand and pressed it to her thin breast. ‘Go on, Eric…’

Suddenly Eric was alarmed; the speed and direction at which events were moving were faster than his reasoning could keep up. ‘No, Gladys, we can’t, it isn’t right.’

What he meant was that Gladys wasn’t right. Eric was young, he was about to do his duty to fight for king and country. The fog in his mind became thicker as he tried to work out how and why he was here. The truth was that Gladys had singled him out, not the other way round. She was the only girl he had been brave enough to approach at the dance and that was because every time he looked over to the chair she was sitting on, she was already looking his way, and smiling. He’d thought that, as she was alone, she would be grateful for the offer of a dance, but that was all. He was a nervous kid and he looked it. If he survived the war and came back alive, he was determined that he would set his sights on Maggie, the popular girl who worked in the grocer’s on the Dock Road and lived on Nelson Street. She wouldn’t look twice at him now, but maybe if he returned a hero, he might stand a chance.