When We Were Young

Prologue - Ray

Hammersmith, London - 1989

"Sabrina! Sabrina! Saaaaabreeeeeeenaaaa!" the young boy cried out from the footpath just in front of her house. At only seven years of age, his could just barely peek over the top of their gate. Nearly every day, if it wasn't raining and they were both healthy, they'd meet in his yard or hers to play. From the day that Sabrina and her family moved to Hammersmith from New York City, they were inseparable. He'd spotted her on their lawn, just three years old, quietly playing in the grass by herself while their things were being unloaded from a truck. Like it was meant to happen, they became friends and the rest is history. Two halves of a whole, a pair of shoes, thick as thieves. Sabrina and Ben, one never without the other.

"Settle down out there, you. She'll be out in a minute!" her mother called out to him from the open front door. She spun around to find her daughter clumsily yanking her shoes onto her feet in the middle of the entryway. She was in such a hurry to get to Ben that it made no difference whether or not her shoes were on the wrong feet, they were on and that's the part that mattered. Sabrina popped up quickly and scurried to the front door but was intercepted by her mother.

"Stay in the yard. Where I can see you, okay?"

"Okay mama," the four-year old girl said as she threw her arms around her mother's legs, as high as she could reach. The embrace was over in an instant though, and she was tearing out the front door, out to where the little boy was waiting for her.

"Benedict, you keep an eye on her! Stay in the yard!"

"Yes ma'am," he nodded eagerly as Sabrina ran across the lawn to meet him. As always, her mother kept a watchful eye as he led Sabrina into the garden behind the house. Hand in hand, they walked together until they couldn't be seen, hidden by the lush summer plants that were on full display. When winter arrived, they'd play in the dried brush and make an igloo if there was enough snow.

"You're my best friend, Ray," he stated as he sat cross legged in the dirt, twirling a broken stick in his fingers.

"Ray? My name's not Ray," she said, turning up her nose.

"I know...but you make me happy. Like the ray of sunshine that wakes me up. I decided this morning that I'm going to call you that, okay?"

"Ummm, okay. I'm gonna still call you Ben though."

"Okay. Come on, Ray...do you want me to push you on the swing?" he asked as he crawled out from the cover of the thicket.

She squealed and scrambled out of the garden to the wood-plank swing that hung from the thickest limb of the old oak tree in her yard. She tightened the grip of her little fingers around the ropes as he pushed her. The wind whipped her auburn hair around wildly as she flew through the air and begged him to push her higher and higher.

***

The Attwater School, Hammersmith - 1997

"Class, before you go, make sure you outline your literature project with your partner. You have two weeks until its due date, so spend your time wisely. It's never wise to put it off until the last minute."

Sabrina waited at her desk until a fellow classmate named Scott approached her to go over their given topic, William Shakespeare. Scott was a likeable chap, played sports, had wealthy parents and was generally swooned over by all of the girls in their class. When he sat down next to her, the butterflies in her stomach fluttered around, surprising her and she wished she'd been given a different partner.