Love Story Competition 2020 - Runner Up

Once upon a time – no – let’s not start with that. It doesn’t really mean anything and if we do then you, reader, might think that this is one of those happy ever after stories where the handsome prince marries the beautiful princess after a long struggle with witches, poisoned apples, wicked stepmothers, crones in woods – any number of obstacles in fact.
    It’s not like that at all. Quite the opposite. There are no princes here, or enchanted castles or talking frogs. There is no-one with a spindle and no little man trying to get you to guess his name. But there is a love story of sorts and it does end happily, so here we go.

The thing about Leonard Pocock was that unfortunately and through no fault of his own, he was a nerd. A devoted son, he lived with his mother and father even though he was nearly thirty. He worked in the local supermarket, specialising in exotic fruit and vegetables, which while very worthy in itself, did not actually endear him to anyone, not even his family. Not many people have anything useful to say about aubergines, or for that matter okra. But Leonard loved his work and was happy most of the time.  It was just that every now and then, he felt there was something missing in his life - something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
    By contrast, his eldest brother had made a real success of life. His name was Adrian and as soon as he could, he changed his surname from Pocock, which he hated, to Montague, which he felt gave out a powerful message. Kind of Shakespearian mixed with French nobility. Also it made him sound as if he came from the capital and not the Lancashire backwater he’d had the misfortune to be born in.  Adrian worked in a top Merchant Bank, was married to Samantha and had two children – a boy and a girl of course – in that order.  His parents were always going on to the neighbours about what a success he was even though they did admit to each other in the privacy of their bedroom that Samantha was not a very nice person - always nagging - and the children were little horrors – always whining or fighting. Still, Adrian and Samantha had a beautiful house and fabulous exotic holidays. As his parents, what more could they ask for?
    The second brother, Edward had also made a success of his life though not quite as much as Adrian, a situation which rankled him ever so slightly – not quite enough to be labelled jealousy, but something like that. Edward also changed his name, feeling that Pocock might expose him to ridicule in the school where he worked. He became Edward Armstrong, a name which he felt gave him gravitas and made him sound as though he knew what he was talking about. He too was married and lived with his wife Chloe in an elegant villa at the edge of town.  Chloe was a model and had flatly refused right from the outset to have children as it would ruin her figure. She also travelled a great deal leaving Edward for long periods on his own in the elegant villa. In fact he’d taken to dropping round at his parents once a week for his tea, though he had long ago given up calling it tea in favour of Chloe’s preferred term ‘supper’.
    In the privacy of their bedroom, when the parents were not discussing Adrian and Samantha, they discussed Edward. They both agreed that Chloe was also not a very nice person but not quite as bad as Samantha.  Oddly they never discussed Leonard. There wasn’t really that much to say.
But Fate moves in mysterious ways, and it had a huge surprise up its sleeve for Leonard in the generous shape of Tracey Clutterbuck. Tracey lived across the town from Leonard Pocock and in normal circumstances their paths would never have crossed, hers being a rather down-market sort of area to put it politely. Tracey herself was a sweet- natured if somewhat ill-favoured girl who more than anything wanted to meet a handsome young man and settle down. Her parents had successfully married off Tracey’s two elder sisters to important men with incomprehensible jobs.
    In the privacy of the Clutterbuck bedroom they sometimes discussed the two elder sisters and their children and not always in flattering terms, but in public they were full of pride for the way things had turned out. They rarely discussed Tracey and when they did it was always with a vague sense of disillusionment. In fact disappointment would not be too strong a word. Tracey was good-hearted and they loved her very much, but she did have rather a tendency to plod through life and that, they said, was not going to get her very far.
    Tracey may have been ill-favoured - a matter of opinion as one man’s meat is another man’s poison - and she may have been a plodder, but there was more to her than met the eye. She was blessed with an amazing talent. Nothing to do with a fairy godmother at her christening or anything – she was just born with it.
    You see, Tracey loved to cook. The problem was that she rarely got the chance to experiment and her parents’ food of choice was a bit too visceral and offal-like for her tastes. Not that she minded tripe, or indeed the odd trotter or two, but she felt there must be more to culinary life than her mother’s offerings.  So she took the plunge and bravely, for she was quite a shy girl, embarked on a cookery course at the local tech.
In the beginning there were many difficulties.  For instance Tracey had never encountered terms like ‘gratin’ ‘bavarois’  and ‘coulis’, but she persevered and was Highly Commended for her Easy Pork and Apple Tacos, a dish which her parents could not get their heads round but ate anyway out of a sense of duty. But that was just the start of it. The second term was all about vegetables and when her next challenge involved salsify and samphire, and her local Co-op looked blank when she asked for them, she almost gave up.
    Almost, but not quite for Tracey was made of sterner stuff. If there were obstacles to overcome then she would. And no - this didn’t involve walking through impenetrable thickets at dead of night spurning the advances of strange men, venomous wolves and cackling crones. It involved taking the number 32 bus across town to - well - to the supermarket where Leonard just happened to be the expert in exotic vegetables.
    Battered and dishevelled from her journey but undaunted nevertheless, Tracey scanned the entire vegetable section, overwhelmed by its splendour. She had no idea what salsify and samphire looked like and after examining the piles of Romanesco, Kohl Rabi and such like, she became acutely aware that she was out of her depth - a girl from the wrong side of town. She looked at her worn coat and workaday shoes and decided to go back home and forget about samphire and salsify for ever, when it just so happened that Leonard returned from his tea-break at that precise moment. He was enchanted by her as no-one had ever asked for salsify before. She was enchanted by him and his fulsome apology at not actually having any in stock. In fact there was so much smiling going on between them that Leonard’s manager had to remind him in no uncertain terms of his leguminary duties.
    It’s tempting to say here that they lived happily ever after – and in a sense they did. It all rather depends what you think happiness is. They didn’t have a trendy pad, or an exotic villa, just a neat terraced house not far from her mum and dad. They had two rather plain, but always good-natured children. Leonard never got to be manager of his section and Tracey was happy simply to look after the children, cook for Leonard and keep the little house beautiful.
    In the privacy of the Clutterbuck bedroom, Tracey’s parents sighed with relief - not only because Tracey was blissfully happy but also that out of all their sons-in-law they actually knew what Leonard did for a living and could impress the neighbours accordingly.
    And in the privacy of the Pocock bedroom, Leonard’s parents stopped talking about Adrian and Edward who in any case never called or visited.  Instead they talked about Leonard and their wonderful - (if plain) grandchildren and Tracey - solid and homely - who loved them unreservedly and more importantly thought their son was a knight in shining armour.
     And just before they turned out the light they both agreed that although Tracey’s Easy Pork and Apple Tacos were delicious in their own way, they would never be able to hold a candle to her braised pigs’ trotters and her tripe and onions.