“Tommy!  Tommy!  Tommy!”  The voice echoed into Tommy’s vivid dreams, becoming clearer as he slowly returned to wakefulness.  Was it Charlie’s voice?

The light outside his closed eyelids became brighter and brighter, and with his eyes still closed Tommy could feel a rocking sensation.  He put his hand on the hand that held his face, and, opening his eyes looked at the girl who was the image of Charlie bending over him.

“Oh, you’re back with us at last.  I was getting worried about you.”

Tommy looked around, still a little confused and exclaimed to no one in particular.  “It was all a dream!  Nightmare more like, and in such detail,” he muttered to himself.

Jenny nodded to her hand, which Tommy still held to his cheek.  “Can I have my hand back now, please?”

“Oh, yes, sorry,” Tommy said, sitting up straight and letting her hand go.

“I had to wake you up by patting your face.  You said your shoulder had been hurt.”

“Yes, thank you,” Tommy said as he tried to straighten himself up.  He had been slumped down onto the seat and felt very stiff all over.  He looked out of the window again to see the sun was very low in the sky.

“It seems very late.  Did we stop for a while?”

“A while,” Jenny repeated.  “You slept for hours and we stopped three or four times.  It’s gone eight-o-clock, I think, and you did say your stop was The Links, didn’t you?”

“Yes, thank you very much.  I could have missed my stop.”  Tommy looked around him, still slightly confused.

“Blimey!  I must have dreamt it all.”

“All what?”  Jenny asked him.

“I don’t think you’d want to know, and thanks again for waking me up.  I must have really needed that sleep, but I don’t know about the dream.”

Tommy’s voice trailed off as he thought about it.  Jenny sat looking at him, but she was not thinking, ‘The war, I suppose.’

“Why, was it that bad, your dream?” she asked him.

“I don’t really know.  I’ll have to think about it.  The last bit was horrible though,” Tommy replied, and after a little more thought, “We should have been at The Links at two-o-clock.  Where were you going?  Yorkshire, was it?”  Tommy reached up for his kitbag, which Jenny unnecessarily held for him.

“Yes, I’ve still a bit of a way to go yet, but, you never know, we might bump into each other some day when I visit the town again.”

“Yes, we might, and I hope we do.  It’s a small world in many ways.  You should have woken me.  I haven’t been much company, especially after that kiss.”

“Oh, you remember it then?  I thought you forgotten it, or dismissed it,” she said with a smile.

“Never.  You kissing me back was lovely, and on a par to the best I’ve had,” he told her.

“Flatterer.  We could do it again before you go, as we might never meet again.”

Tommy took his kitbag from this beautiful girl and took her in his arms to kiss, with long, loving, full on the lips, lingering kiss.  He could not help himself, and felt his member rising hard against the material of his trousers.  He was sure the girl could feel it too, as they held each other close.  Reluctantly, they broke off the kiss with a long sigh, but still held each other for a few moments longer.

“Now we will definitely have to meet again,” Jenny told him.  “You definitely fancy me.”  To be sure, she added, “Don’t you?”

“I do, yes, and wish we had more time, but I am committed to someone and have been for a long time,” Tommy told her, almost with a sigh.  “But if you lived next door to me, my life would be in a permanent turmoil.”  Tommy picked up his kitbag.  “I feel awful now, having slept nearly all the way home, but it’s been a real pleasure meeting you and I do hope we will meet again.”

He gave Jenny another peck on the cheek and left the compartment to make his way down the corridor to the end of the carriage.  The corridor, being narrow, forced Tommy to hold his kitbag in front of him, and while doing so he spotted a piece of white notepaper stuffed into the neck.  He dropped the kitbag as he stood by the door and took the paper to read:

Call me.  Jenny from Yorkshire

A telephone number was also included

Tommy looked back along the corridor to see Jenny watching him from the compartment door.  He waved to her with the piece of paper in his hand, and made a show of putting it into the top pocket of his army jacket.  Seeing this, Jenny almost ran down to corridor to stand beside him.

“I don’t ever do things like this, believe me, but I would like to see you again even if it’s just for a drink.  Would you really want to meet me as well?”

“Why yes, most certainly,” Tommy told her.

“Then I’m glad I took the chance, and if, when you get home, you find things are not working out for you, call me.  I would rather it was sooner than later.  We both might need a shoulder to cry on.”

“What makes you think things won’t be all right for me?” Tommy asked, a little alarmed.

“Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think Mary and Charlie are what you want.”  Tommy’s eyes opened wide.

“But that was just a dream, and nothing like the real Mary and Charlie,” Tommy told her.  “By the sounds of it, you’ve been listening to the ravings of a stressed-out man.”

“Well, you have my number and I still dare to hope,” Jenny said as she started to walk back to the compartment.

“I will ring you anyway.  You are a very beautiful lady, Jenny, and if things have changed that much, then you will be the first one I’ll call.”

He put his arm around her waist and kissed her again and again on the lips, finding her responding willingly, and they remained like that until The Links station came into view.  Jenny, who had her arms around Tommy’s neck as they kissed, let him go with a reluctant sigh and made her way back to her compartment where she stood at the door to look back at Tommy.

Tommy took the piece of paper out of his pocket and kissed it, waved, and put it back in his pocket.  Seeing this, Jenny smiled and waved back to him.

Tommy now leaned out of the window and waved excitedly to those who were waiting for him.