Waiting by the canal

The story reaches Jansie too, passed on from Geoff. Sophie is upset, because Jansie is nosey and might spread it; but she is relieved that Geoff kept the date of the meeting a secret.

On the evening of the meeting, Sophie goes and waits on a bench by the canal, under a lone elm tree. She waits and waits. The light fades. Slowly her hope turns to doubt, and then to sadness: he is not coming.

She knows that no one will believe her now. Her father will say she made it up. But she tells herself that it does not matter: 'we know how it was', she and Danny.

Walking home through the arcade, she imagines the meeting again, as she had imagined it before. Now the reader understands what really happened: the meeting was a fantasy. She never met Danny Casey at all.

The only time Sophie ever saw him was at the football match, from the stands, far away. The meeting, the date, and now the heartbreak, all happened in her head.