Here’s a strange tale. One I’m still working through my mind. Certainly I have some resolution now, and yet in my head it doesn’t feel like anything’s resolved. It all too weird, seems too odd, it still feels too strange and uncanny to be fathomable.
I was outside the Icarus Gym at dawn today. The sun was just peeking over the rooftops as I arrived. This time I wasn’t going to fail, today I’d succeed.
Obviously I didn’t march up to the door again, instead taking my place at the corner. It occurred to me that as hard as I’d stared yesterday, I hadn’t stared hard enough. After all this is a girl I met once while quite dunk, I couldn’t just dismiss the figures coming in or out because a bulky coat made this woman seem too wide or heels made that woman seem too tall. This time I’d scrutinise them as best as I could – even leaving my corner so I could walk past them and see them up close.
(Before anyone says anything, I know this is odd. I know it’s stalker-like behaviour. I make no apology for my actions though. I needed to get answers.)
How long was I there for? I don’t know, maybe about two hours. Two hours that were crammed full of long tedious seconds, and moments of elation when I thought that must be, has to be her. I was disappointed numerous times, and then I wasn’t.
Suddenly there she was. She was walking down from the other end of the road in a long red, elegant coat. I’d seen her yesterday, I could remember her now – seeing that coat come out of the door and then turn the other direction without me getting chance to look at her face. Somehow I’d remembered her with wider hips and altogether squatter, but today she seemed tall and elegant – with a model’s gait and cheekbones most women would kill close friends for (even if her frizzy hair mitigated her glamour somewhat).
I dashed from the corner, restraining myself from actually running across the road at her. The purpose of all this was to get information, not scare the hell out of my girlfriend’s friend. She was talking on her mobile, chatting away when suddenly I appeared in a rush in front of her.
Such was the adrenalin pumping through me I couldn’t help blurting out, even though she was still on the phone: “Hey! Have you heard from Alison?”
There was a moment when she stared at me a little baffled, her wide brown eyes registering surprise but no shock (she’s far more attractive than I remember), before she gave a reply which astounded me:
“Yes, I’m speaking to her now.”
I think my mouth must have hung open for a minute or so, but it can’t have been that long as she calmly took the phone from her ear and handed it over to me.
“Would you like to speak to her?” she asked.
My fingers were shaking as I reached out for her mobile, and I was trembling all over by the time it got to my ear. She just watched me with knowing amusement, as if this was just an average day for her, like it was just a simple and harmless prank she was playing.
“Hello? Alison?”
The line was really crackly, and her voice when it came was so distant – like she was speaking ten foot from the phone – but I could tell she knew who it was. “Hey, you!”
“Hi, how are you?”
(The dialogue does get thin at this point, but I was too stunned to think of anything meaningful to say.)
“I know you’ve been worried about me,” her voice sounding so far away “but all is fine. Tell anyone who asks that all is fine. I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Where are you, Alison?”
“I’ll be in touch soon,” she said. “We can talk about everything and talk about us. I’ll understand if you want to think we’re on a break for now.”
“Where are you?” I asked again.
But she had her own sentence to repeat. “I’ll be in touch soon.” there was a crackled pause. “Can you pass me back to Katie please?”
Numbly and with my hand still shaking I passed the phone over to Alison’s friend.
Katie smiled at me – a sympathetic smile perhaps, and then resumed her conversation, skipping past me on the pavement and heading up the steps to the gym.
And I was left stood there in the road with my head zooming around the ether, having no idea what was going on or what had just happened.
I went home and lay down for the rest of the day.
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