Better on our own - English

Never better off alone

>3½ years later <

I checked the outside sockets one last time so that they wouldn't be overloaded when we turned on the garden lights later. But everything was perfect and we had already prepared everything else. There was nothing more for me to do.

Charlie was standing at the grill with my father and his father. The women were in the kitchen preparing snacks and salads. That's how I got to know and love Pontypandy, and even my parents were drawn here precisely because of the warmth of the people in this area, as soon as my father retired six months ago. Even though it was my birthday today, the work wasn't left to me and Sarah alone, because everyone here was there for each other and because everyone liked to help and lend a hand, but just as much enjoyed spending time together and celebrating.

In the first year, we didn't get the house ready by Christmas, as I had originally planned. Firstly, because we were constantly stumbling across new surprises in the old house, like a rotten beam here or a damp corner there. But we were actually able to move in at spring and had been living here together for three years now. I could say with complete confidence that these were the happiest years I had ever had! The other reason was the incident in the caves, which had paralyzed us, so that for weeks hardly any of us had any interest in putting our own problems above the events, but rather we did everything we could to support and comfort Sam and Cody in this hard times as much as we were able to.

Nevertheless, our lives had changed completely since then. The new fire station had been finished for six months and my way to work was no longer worth mentioning. Penny had submitted the planning application before Mr. Brown had kidnapped her and from then on this project was a no-brainer until it was build and opened. We from Tonypridd and Pontypandy now all worked together, complemented each other perfectly with all our strengths and weaknesses and we always had a lot to laugh about - especially since Elvis wasn't the only one who could drive our station officer crazy with his clumsy actions. Unfortunately, I still often wasn't any better myself.

On the other hand, Sam and my Interaktion with each other had become much better since I asked Sarah if she wanted to marry me a little over six months ago. He had already begun to accept our relationship - what else could he do? But in the end he was always somehow afraid that I would hurt his niece in some way at some point. That's why I couldn't be mad at him. He simply cared about the happiness of his family. The fact that I wanted to spend my life with her and was really ready to marry her apparently gave him the security he needed not to keep trying to intimidate me - which was obviously difficult for him because he was having a lot of fun with it - in contrast to me!

I looked around the garden and spotted our friends from Pontypandy sitting at a table talking and laughing, which got me thinking about the past few years. Mandy had become a damn good reporter and was dating Peter, who had now started pilot training after completing his paleontology studies. Hannah had become a marine biologist and was now quite happy with Norman since he had calmed down a little - because Norman had found peace, by the way. He volunteered for the army two years ago. As strange as it was, this was exactly what he needed. The structures, the tasks and the feeling of being part of something big were exactly what seemed to fill him. James had graduated with honors and was now working for a drug manufacturing company in Tonypridd. He had the research department under him and put his own focus first on inventing a cure that could cure poisoning caused by gases. What the sulfur dioxide had done to Penny was still in our heads to this day, but I found it remarkable how ambitious James was about this. He and Susen were still together and pretty happy. They had just confessed to us last week at a Jones family dinner in the whole fish cafe that Susen was also pregnant. Only James wasn't quite ready to take the next step, even though I suggested a double wedding to him next year. He and Sarah are twins. They had spent their entire lives together. Then why shouldn't they get married on the same day? Sarah didn't like it so much because she had always had to share everything with her brother and didn't want to have to do that on her wedding day. We would see. James had to think everything through and plan carefully anyway, given how he was. Oh, and Sarah had gotten a job alongside Officer Williams in Pontypandy. She was a police officer and in a city that couldn't be more peaceful. That calmed me down immensely!