‘Then what, what?’ he asked.
‘What will you do when you’ve done that?’
‘I might try and ride my motorbike through Canada or America,’ he answered.
Diana sat back in her chair. ‘So just for adventure?’
He nodded and took a long drink until it was nearly finished. ‘Adventure is exactly it,’ he said and he smiled, his blue eyes bright. ‘Seeing other countries and people and how they live and eating new foods and hearing new languages and music… What a grand thing it will be.’
Diana hadn’t ever imagined she would travel unless it was with a husband and yet here was this young man about to head off alone, on a motorbike.
‘Do you have money?’ she asked, thinking of all the practicalities.
‘A little, but I’ll find work,’ he said.
‘And when the adventure is done, what then? Will you be married or get a job in Scotland?’
Douglas laughed. ‘The adventure never stops,’ he said. ‘We’re not meant to be doing one thing forever, staying in one spot. We need to keep learning and evolving; that’s the way to really live your life. For you, not for anyone else.’
His words lit her up inside. Imagining the places she could go and see and the things she could do.
‘I want to see the waterfalls of Norway,’ he said. ‘And ride through the alpine passes in Austria, and feel the air in the Black Forest in Germany, and the warmth of the sun on the coast along Sardinia. There is so much to see.’
Diana had never thought about many places to see like Douglas had. He could rattle off countries like a geography teacher and spoke with a passion that she had never had for anything in her life.
‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘What great adventures do you have planned?’
Diana looked down at her hands, ringless, fine-boned, without a scar or a callous.
‘I don’t know,’ she said with a shrug. ‘But I’m only eighteen. I have time to find out.’
Douglas laughed. ‘Aye, you do that.’
The sat in silence watching people dance. Helen was close with a new guy Diana hadn’t seen before. He looked handsome and Helen was gorgeous. They made quite a pair as they danced together.
‘You hungry?’ Douglas asked.
‘They don’t have food here,’ said Diana. ‘Only drinks.’
‘I know, but there’s a chippy up the road,’ said Douglas. ‘I could murder a cod and chips.’
Diana looked around for Helen. She was still dancing and laughing. She was fine.
‘Okay,’ she said quickly, before she could change her mind.
She waved at Helen and pointed to Douglas. Helen made a silly face as though she was kissing the air and then waved goodbye to Diana.
They walked out of the club and down the street. Diana winced as the shoes pinched her feet, occasionally stopping to get her balance.
‘Those shoes are ridiculous,’ said Douglas, looking at her feet.
‘I know, they’re Helen’s. I thought they made me look interesting and modern,’ she said.
‘They do, if you think modern if a woman saying “ow” as she hobbles down the street,’ he said with a gentle laugh. Suddenly he stopped and took off each of his shoes and pushed them towards Diana.
‘There you go,’ he said.
She could see a small hole in one of his socks near the big toe.
