The Town’s Story

Comillas is a small town fifty kilometres from Santander, near the sea. In the town there are quiet streets of old buildings and there is a small square. There are small shops and cafés with tables and chairs in the square, under the trees. A lot of people from Madrid come to Comillas for their holidays, and a lot of people from England stay in the town too. In the evenings in June and July and August people like to walk in the streets of Comillas. They stop in the square and stand and talk together; their children play together. Some people sit at the café tables and have a drink and watch the children or read their newspapers or talk.

       It was disco-night in Comillas on the evening after the boat arrived in Santander from Portsmouth. There were a lot of people in the square—Spanish people from Comillas and Madrid, but families from England and France and Germany and Holland too. Some of the English families from the boat were there now, in Comillas for a night or two.

       Donna was there with her family, at a table under some trees. Her eyes were on the dancers . . . but she didn’t see them; the music was in her ears . . . but she didn’t hear it. She didn’t want to look or listen or dance; she didn’t want to be there. She only wanted to see the lovely, shy boy from the boat, perhaps to dance with him.

       First Mr and Mrs Webb wanted to go to a little place near the beach where they always had good fish. They wanted to have a good time on their first evening in Spain, and later there was the disco in the square at Comillas . . .

     Mark didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to eat or dance or talk and laugh. He wanted to sit quietly and think about the good-looking girl on the boat. Where was she now? But Dave and Harry and Nick and Sue all wanted him to go . . .

     Later that evening he walked into the square at Comillas with his friends. They found a table at one of the cafés and they all sat down.

       Mark looked slowly at the people at the tables near them . . . Donna looked sadly at the people dancing and standing in the square . . . then their eyes met.

       Time stopped. He was here! She was here!

       He smiled at her with his nice blue eyes. She smiled back at him with her dark brown eyes. Suddenly he wasn’t shy. He stood up and started to walk across to her . . . she was on her feet. Their hands met. She wanted to dance now, only with him!

       The others watched and smiled—they all knew. And Dave? Dave watched and smiled happily. You see, only Dave really knew the story. Only Dave knew his plan for his brother.

       And Donna and Mark started to dance. They were together.

-The End-