Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 A Lovely Man by Alison Whitehead (c) 2003
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   Gran climbed slowly up the steep field towards the road.  Eighty-two
years had taken their toll.  The large bucket that she'd carried to the
pigs was heavy even now that it was empty.  Still, there would be pork and
bacon for the family at Christmas time.

   She glanced up as a motorbike slowed and stopped in front of her
cottage. By the time she reached the road and opened the gate the young man
and woman had climbed off the gleaming machine and were waiting for her.

   "Hey up, you two." Gran grinned at them, showing pink gums and a
shortage of teeth.  "Have you come for some cake?"

   The girl took off her helmet and let her hair stream in the wind.

   "We've come to show you Mick's new bike.  But I can always eat some of
your cake.  Shall I put the kettle on?"

   "You know where the things are." Gran stared at Nell and she responded
as she always did by stretching to show how flat her stomach was.

   Gran chuckled and looked at her grandson standing with his helmet off.
"I don't know what you men are coming to.  You've been going with Nell for
two years now and there's no sign of my great-grandson." Gran said to the
girl, "Is he no good?"

   "Oh!  He'll do." Nell looked fondly at Mick and laughed.  "There's
plenty of time for kids yet.  You'll have to wait a bit.  Mick couldn't
have afforded that bike if we'd started a family."

   Gran prowled around the big bike.  "By heck!" she said to Mick, "I'll
bet that can shift, even with a great lump like you on it.  Not like when I
was a lass.  Harry and me thought we were going well if his old Norton did
sixty."

   She chuckled again, "Mind you, the roads were that bumpy you didn't half
get a thrill.  Harry could do anything with me after five miles on that old
bike."

   Mick looked at her and she straightened herself.  "I didn't always look
like this you know.  When I was a lass I could pick and choose.  Now then,
how about a ride for your old Gran?"

   "Where do you fancy?"

   Gran scratched her whiskers and thought.  "How about up on Morridge? 
You can see half the world from there.  And the road's straight and quiet.
You can give me a thrill."

   "Do you still get a thrill?" the girl teased.

   "I should be so lucky," the old woman retorted.  "When you get my age
it's only your memories that get stirred up.  Just you wait.  Make sure
you've got a good few remembrances for when you're old."

   "Are you right?" Mick was getting impatient.  "You'll have to wear the
helmet or the cops'll have us."

   "Don't be daft, lad," she grumbled, "There's no cops up there.  Half the
fun is having the wind blowing your head off.  You just leave the cops to
me.  Give us a hand, lass."

   Mick was on the bike, canting it so the girl could boost the old woman
onto the back, her ancient jodhpurs stretching across the seat.  She
settled herself with her arms round her grandson and nodded to the girl.

   "You get the kettle on while we have a spin.  There's flapjacks as well
as cake.  Get stuck in.  You're thin as a lath."

   Nell went into the cottage and Gran's eyes followed her.  "You don't
deserve that lass.  She's too smart for a daft sod like you.  But you're a
handsome devil; I'll say that.  Just like your dad.  He was handsome and
brainless, but the women all went for him."

   "Come on, Gran!  Just because Dad never took to farming like Uncle Jim
and my aunties, you've always been down on him."

   "He never took to farming or ow't else.  Breeding tells, whether it's
pigs or people.  Your dad took after his father.  "

   "What do you mean?"

   "Never you mind.  Come on, now.  Let's have this spin."

   The bike started with a roar and Mick drove up towards the ridge.

   This was the rough country of the East Staffordshire moorlands.  The dry
walls of brown gritstone were tumbled down and patched with cracked posts
and rusty barbed wire.  The fields were small and going back to sedge and
bracken.  Black faced sheep ignored the boundaries and made a living as
best they could.  The farms were surrounded by ranks of rusting machinery
abandoned by successive generations.

   Despite it's unthriftyness the moor had character.  The light was like
mother-of-pearl beneath the grey clouds.  On the ridge, twelve hundred feet
up, the rough fields were scattered among skylark-haunted moorland and the
view opened up before them.  As Gran had said, they could see half the
world and from this ridge the Potteries were a smoky blur and the Cheshire
plain stretched endlessly to the hills of Wales.  It was a place of light
and singing air and freedom.

   Mick turned the bike along the ridge and accelerated to ninety.  He felt
Gran's thin arms tighten round him and the shift of weight as she peered
round his shoulder.  He sensed her pleasure and opened the throttle further
until he had to slow to cross the main road.

   "Not so fast on this bit," she said.  "I'll tell you when to stop."

   She was looking intently to the left as he cruised along the ridge and
then she squeezed his arm.  He stopped the bike and turned off the engine.
There were tears in Gran's eyes that weren't caused by the wind.

   "What is it?" Mick wanted to know.

   "Just remembrancing," she murmured, hardly audible above the singing
wind.  "We came up here, Harry and me, that first time.  When I'd picked
and chosen my man."

   They'd stood beside the old Norton, hearing the engine ticking as it
cooled and Harry had gestured towards the bright grass of the little field.
She'd let him help her over the wall for the pleasure of his touch.

   They walked hand-in-hand until the fall of the land hid them from the
road.  This time, their kiss was different from any previous one.  She
didn't hold back and he had no need to urge.  With that kiss, they offered
each other everything they had.  They stood as equals at the edge of a
mystery.  Their hands were slow and gentle on each other, tentative and a
little nervous.  She let him undress her and warm her body with large rough
hands unused to tenderness.  His nakedness delighted her with its
contrasts. The white, hard smoothness was sunburned to mahogany at arms and
neck and his powerful limbs were roughened with dark curling hair.  At the
centre, always drawing her eyes was his urgent maleness, threatening and
promising at the same time.

   They hovered on the edge of love, caressing each other.  For a little
while they delayed the mating that was the only way the tension between
them could be resolved.  At last she lay with parted legs and he knelt
between.

   "Are you ready?" she asked him and he understood.  Not ready for the act
of love, for they had been impatient for ten months already.  It was
readiness for all that the act implied.  They would likely make a child and
that would bind them into a new life of commitment to each other.  Growing
up on these moorlands taught them early that life was hard and serious and
best lived with someone you could love and trust.

   They became adults as he entered her.  The pain was sharp and fitting to
that moment of transition to adulthood.  His sudden ecstasy amazed her and
touched her deeply.  It was her triumph that the scalding softness of her
body could reduce his strength to trembling gratitude.

   And later, her triumph became gratitude as his strength returned.  This
time their lovemaking was prolonged as he sought a second release. 
Suddenly his penis was no longer threatening but rather promising to be the
instrument of her own ecstasy.  To her joy, he understood and was
fascinated and then delighted by her increasing pleasure.  He helped her to
the brink of release and as she cried out in her climax he joined her. 
They slid together towards completion and contentment.

   The wind keened through the wire that topped the wall.

   "Are you warm enough, Gran?" Mick had seen her shiver a little.

   "Warm enough," she answered.  "I was remembering.  It was lovely."

   She grinned at him.  "Do you keep that little lass pleased?"

   "I think so.  She's keen."

   "There's now't better.  Just think on.  If you keep her pleased she'll
do anything for you.  Now then!  Take us down to the other end of Morridge.
Where you look over the rocks.  You can crack on.  This bike doesn't half
shift - I enjoyed that.  How fast will it go?"

   "It's new yet.  One-twenty."

   "Go on then - we should be there in next to no time."

   "Hang on!"

  
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   "What's this place?" he asked as they looked over the end of the ridge.

   "This is where your dad was started."

   "Bloody Hell!  Did you always do it out of doors?"

   "Don't be daft.  We had a bed.  It was just your dad and your Uncle
Jim."

   "You had six, didn't you?"

   "Ay.  Two boys, then the three girls and then little Dan."

   "I suppose you couldn't stop them?"

   She thumped him in the back.

   "Pah!  You mean them rubber things.  Or them pills.  No.  We did it
better.  I had the kids when I wanted them - except for Dan - I thought I'd
finished.  But that was grand - a baby to enjoy just when I thought I was
getting old."

   "Go on!  You mean looking at the moon and that."

   "Like clockwork.  My mum taught me.  And when it wasn't safe I still
gave Harry what he wanted.  By heck - he was always ready for that time of
the month, when he could have his wicked way in all the other places.  It
kept us keen.  We'd try anything.  Is that lass of yours willing?"

   "Gran!"

   "Ah!  I thought she might know what she was at.  She's a smart little
thing.  You just look after her."

   Gran was pensive and Mick didn't care to interrupt.

   She murmured, "Only the war came.  And Harry was abroad for
two-and-a-half years."

   She'd been patient and waited for a long time with Harry's child to live
for.  But the Observer Corps detachment had come and the corporal was a
lovely man.  He had a sweet, soft way with words and a body that sang to
her even under the rough tunic.  He'd brought her up here on his bike - a
Norton too.  On the end of Morridge he'd lifted the dress over her head and
her body had counterpointed his song.  He had entered her and satisfied her
and that had finished the affair - except for the child growing in her
womb.

   It was just as well that Harry had got long leave and couldn't count too
well.  He'd never questioned their second born son.

   But she had only to look at Mick to see the nose and the lips of the
corporal - the genes passed through two generations.
   He'd been a lovely man.