When Bill met Maggie they were both in their teens. Bill was a a Teddy Boy so he wore his hair slicked back with an impressive, well tended, blond quiff. Back then he used to hang around Camden with a small group of other like minded lads who were into Rock'n'Roll music and the Teddy Boy look. They didn't have much money but most of it went on clothes and records.
His father had been one of the original Teds in the fifties and Bill had always been proud of that. He even had one of his fathers old original jackets, a fantastic electric blue drape with velvet lapels and cuffs which he wore with his white brothel creepers and black drainpipe jeans.
Bill was popular with his mates and got respect for his ability to handle himself if any trouble kicked off. He didn't go looking for aggro but he would never back down from a good scrap. He was a handsome, well built young man with piercing blue eyes, who caught the eye of many a girl in his day.
Bill had spotted Maggie walking down Camden High Street one spring morning, her auburn hair catching the sunlight as she made her way to work in one of the local pubs. He was besotted with her from that moment on. She had curves in all the right places and had a beautiful doll like face with porcelain white skin. Maggie oozed confidence and yet at the same time appeared fragile and vulnerable. This brought out Bill's protective instincts.
There was only ever one girl for Bill and that was Maggie. He never looked at another women from that moment on. He was in luck as one of his friends knew her from a hostel in Holloway and made an introduction for them. He asked her out, she accepted and that was that.
He loved cars even back then and had picked her up in an old Ford Consul that he had fixed up himself. It was all he could afford. To Bill Maggie was a woman of mystery, only eighteen but she lived alone. She never talked about her past or why she was alone. She always managed to skirt around it or change the subject. She was a great listener and Bill got used to not knowing much about her past. She would always say: 'Ah Bill, the past is the past let it be.'
Somehow been locked up together they had drifted apart both of them taken away from their daily activities and routines they had struggled to find balance and had both retreated into their own worlds.
Bill loved his grandkids and they loved him so he looked forward to waving to them and just seeing their faces every week. He was sweet and fun yet still very much the head of the household. He was a lot softer with them than he had been with Andy.
He spoiled them and when they were little he loved taking them to Regents Park to the Zoo or just to feed the ducks. He gave them his undivided attention and they all had so many memories of these trips to London. He would walk through Camden telling them stories of the way it was in his childhood and his days as a Teddy Boy. The kids would laugh when he described his clothes and the way he wore his hair greased back like a 'duck's arse'. They loved all the stories.
Bill spent most days in his den. As the novelty of the porn wore off he started playing Wodoku and solitaire on the PC. He then moved on to some card games and then one day he played a Grand Prix car racing game. That's when it all started really. He was transformed into a Formula One champion overnight. He stayed up untill three in the morning not realising the time passing, streaking around Monte Carlo like a demon with the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He became quite addicted to winning and moving up the levels.
Over the next weeks he started playing a few different games and started to go by the username @BillyBoy97. He chose an avatar of a blonde boy with a rucksack on his back. Somehow he felt it represented him even though his blonde locks were long gone.
Very quickly he seemed to get accepted into an online group. He made new friends like KrazyKat and an oriental looking girl called Bitchface. They introduced him to other games. He would go offline and practice like crazy and then send a message ..hey wanna play ..to some of his favourites.
'Billyboy is back!' he would say.
As Bill sank more into the gaming world he decided he needed more equipment, a fancy gaming chair for his bad back and some headphones to stop Maggie going on about the noise. What he really wanted was a virtual helmet and some gloves but he'd get them later. He didn't want Maggie to see what he was spending their money on anyway it was none of her business.
One day she asked him what he was getting up to in there, her face quite pinched and angry, her hands going nineteen to the dozen knitting away furiously.
'Just a racing game,' he said, 'You know how I love cars and all that.'
Her eyes narrowed and she said in a mocking tone 'Aren't those silly games for children?'
'No, no,' said Bill feeling quite offended 'All kinds of age groups play. It's quite sophisticated you know not just for kids. It's almost like the real thing'
'Anyway it's none of your business,' he growled 'I'm allowed to have a fucking hobby aren't I?'
'And look at you knitting all day click click click!' he said, as he stood by the fridge drinking from a litter bottle of some weird bright green energy drink, his face strangely orange from eating too many Cheetos.
Playing these computer games along with all the subliminal advertising that was going on had given Bill a huge appetite for snacks and sports drinks. All his online friends talked about snacks and drinks too so @Billyboy97 got himself huge bags of monster munch and Cheetos along with enormous bottles of his favourite energy drink 'Green Goblin'.
Maggie looked at him with utter disgust. 'Whatever' she said and went back to her daytime TV. Taking a break from her knitting she devored a whole tray of Ferrero Rocher in what seemed like minutes. Crumpling up each wrapper into a tight ball and lining them up in a straight line on the coffee table.
In the past they would sit together at mealtimes and chat about what was going on in their lives but this had changed and now Bill would emerge from his den to take his plate and disappear back into his own little world eating alone in front of the computer. Maggie resorted to having her's on her lap watching Loose Women and the like. They slowly stopped communicating.
They still zoomed with Andy, Jan and the kids every Sunday and it was the only time they would put on any normal outdoor clothes. Sometimes Maggie would put a blouse on over her nighty and Bill would wear a Polo shirt with his pyjama bottoms. They looked relatively normal from the waist up and somehow Andy and the family didn't really notice what was going on. Often they put their startling facial appearance down to bad lighting and the computer screen.
Andy was under the impression that all was well and he had enough to worry about what with the pub closed and the kids all hanging around the house. Victoria had been doing a hairdressing course but that had been cancelled and Emma's job looked in jeopardy. They were paying her a small amount as it was a small independent clothes shop but god knows how long this would go on for.
Luckily his son Darren was getting fully paid as he worked for an accountancy firm and could work from home. Andy worried for his kids and for the future. Everything looked unstable all of a sudden and he wondered how long he could continue with the pub closed. The government had a scheme for small businesses and he had managed to get some money from them but it wasn't enough really and he missed the work.
It just felt like all the dreams and plans had gone out the window. Still sometimes he felt it was wrong to complain after all everyone was in the same boat with this dreadful pandemic.
He was worried beyond belief about money and family life was strained to say the least. He had been drinking heavily and was lost in a world of his own reminiscing about the past and what might have been.