Next day, Mum and I went to Winterton for a walk. Winterton is one of my favourite places. It's cast of Norwich, by the sea. Winterton is where Mum took me and Ron when we were children. It takes about forty-five minutes to drive there. We put on our coats and made some coffee and some sandwiches to take with us.

On the beach it was told but sunny. Some children were running by the sea with their dog. As we walked along, I told Mum about Jim.

When I was finished, my face was a bit red. 'You really like him, don't you?' she said, looking at me.

It was windy by the sea. Mum's hair was all over her face, but I could see her smile through it.

'Yes,' I said, 'I do.'

Just for a moment, she looked a little sad. She walked ahead a short way, then she looked back at me. 'Love is wonderful,' she said, smiling again. 'Enjoy it while you can, Sam. Enjoy it while you can.'

I did enjoy myself that evening. Very much.

Jim and I went to a bar in the centre of Norwich. It was in the old area of town, close to the river. There was a pool table in the bar. I like playing pool. Ron taught me how to play, years ago. Now I'm better than him.

Jim saw me looking at the pool table and the next moment he was putting some money into the side of it. We played and I won easily. It only took five minutes.

My last boyfriend got angry when he lost. Bur when I looked at Jim I saw that he was laughing. I liked that.

'Very good!' he said. 'But my snowballs are better than yours! Then he looked at me. 'Can you understand me?'

I smiled. 'Yes,' I said. 'I can understand if you speak slowly. Can you understand me?'

Jim smiled too. 'Yes,' he said, 'I can understand you very well.'

We sat down together at a table and for the next two hours we talked. Most of the time we spoke to each other, and sometimes we wrote things down. I didn't think about how we were talking. I was too interested in what we were saying.

This was what I found out about Jim. He was twenty-one years old and he was studying English at university in Norwich. This was his last year as a student. His family lived in Derbyshire, in the middle of England. He had a brother of twenty-five, a sister of seventeen and a dog called Sky. He liked walking in the hills near his family home. He told me that in winter the hills were often white with snow. Winter was his favourite time. Then he told me the only two things he didn't like about Norfolk: there weren't many hills and it didn't snow very often!