Chapter One - Part Two

He’d had to leave the office and go for a brisk walk around the block to rid his mind of shocking thoughts of Leila’s future, when perhaps he may not be there to help her.  This was really dragging him down. He was at a loss to understand how to best deal with this. He was just a simple ordinary man, not used to dealing with deep psychological dramas, least of all where women were concerned. They seemed to have a different slant on things, a different perspective.

He had always found that most of his inner turmoil, if indeed that was what he’d experienced, could always be soothed by a game of cricket in the summer, and football in the winter. His father had been a great advocate of healthy exercise – healthy body, healthy mind, my son. Nine times out of ten this worked for him.

Then of course, there was the other philosophy, which also worked for him most of the time – if you leave something long enough, it will sort itself out without any intervention from you.

His mother had had a plaque on the wall in the front room next to the Grandfather clock that made a great impression on him in his youth, and formed the basis of his parents’ attitude to most things in life.

There are only two things in life to worry about, either you’re well or you’re sick. If you are well, then there is nothing to worry about.

Amy hated any form of exercise however, and had forcibly discouraged their daughter. Well, maybe not discouraged, simply not encouraged, and as she was always very voluble on the stupidity of grown men kicking a ball about in the mud in the pouring rain, or throwing a ball at a piece of wood in order to whack it to Kingdom Come, it was quite apparent that she was very far from encouraging. Especially as most of these grown men ended up with a multitude of injuries, some being muscular and not so obvious, but others were gruesome to see and caused permanent scars and considerable pain. “Do you really want your daughter to have a body like a patchwork quilt with bruises and scars all over her, not to mention muscles in all the wrong places?” It was difficult to point out the health advantages when he was sitting on the settee with his leg in plaster after he’d torn his Achilles tendon.