SearchStepping over a twisted damp discarded bra I caught sight of her. Standing by some feeble looking new trees she was chainsmoking Rothmans, swearing into her mobile phone and doing her best to ignore her screaming child. Her milky complexion was peppered with medium tan freckles and her short skirt hugged slim pale thighs.
Pulling a grey hooded fleece around her shoulders she twisted around as if someone on the phone had told her there was something in the shops behind her. She looked at her reflection in the glass and brushed some hair back over her ears. The baby cried louder than before to get her attention and she yelled back at it “If you don’t fucking shut up I’m going to smack you. You want me to smack you? Do you? Cause if you don’t stop crying I will.” Speaking back into the phone she said “This fucking kid’s driving me round the fucking bend.” For a second she looked at me and caught me staring. I expected some "what you looking at?" tirade but she simply smiled and when she smiled she looked like the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen.
I shook it off and walked past her into the newsagents. The door had one of those bells that jingled every time anyone walked in or out. A white haired woman in her mid sixties was lecturing John, who had only arrived in London from Sri Lanka thirty five years ago, about the pitiful state of modern Britain and why things weren't as good as in the old days. “There’s no discipline. The parents don’t seem to care. They just let them do what they like. Teachers can’t do anything. The police can’t do anything. Theyse kids just stick their fingers up to anyone who tries to tell them what to do and nobody seems to give a damn. There’s no respect…” John handed her her paper as I approached the counter. On the front page there was a picture of a mini that had crashed in the middle of a duck pond.
"Morning John. Tenner on the electric and tenner on the gas please."
“Did you feel the Earthquake last night? Five point two. Biggest UK Earthquake in twenty five years.”
"No... I must have slept through it."
Truth was I’d felt it all right… Ten seconds of midnight intimations of mortality as the world around my bed shook. Glasses rattled. Books fell off my table. It shook me out of being able to get back to sleep. I got up and walked around the flat, looked out the window half expecting to see a nuclear cloud in the distance or every building around me reduced to rubble as Godzilla stomped through the streets looking for Japanese people to breathe radioactive fire on. Nothing so dramatic. Just a streetlamp lit dead road. The British don't like reacting to things like Earthquakes. If the end of the world was nigh we'd all be so busy writing stiffly worded letters of complaint to the Ministry for the Prevention of Armageddon that we'd forget to panic and run around the streets screaming like everyone else in the world.
“You want anything else?” Said John passing me back my electric key.
“No thanks.”
When I went back outside the girl was sitting on a bench. The kid had calmed down and was getting a sticky face from an ice cream. She looked up at me and smiled that broad beautiful smile. “You ain’t got a light have you?”
“Sorry.”
“Never mind. I think I've got one.” She took a lighter from her pocket and showed it to me laughing. “You want some company?” She said.
“Not right now.”
“I know. Not cool right. My mum usually takes care of him during the days but she's sick. Not like I can take a day off though. Those rocks won’t buy themselves…” She laughed again. "Where you headed?"
“Home.”
"Yeah... Sure you don't want some company. Fifty quid... Anything you want. Put him in the kitchen and you won't even know he's there."
I laughed because I didn't know what else to do. "Sorry."
"Hang on then." She reached into her pocket and handed me a business card. Her name was printed on it in bright red raised letters. Beneath her name was printed the words "Leisure Services".
"What's this?"
"My card of course. I know... Out in the middle of the street. You feel a bit shy. But I know when you're back home, sitting on your own, I know you'll be thinking of me. I know you'll be thinking what it would be like with me. That's my mobile. Call me."
She was right of course, sitting alone in my flat, I did look at the card and I did think of her. I thought about what it would be like with her. I thought about holding her slim white body. Then I saw what time it was and turned on the television to watch Countdown.
© Turk Fist. All rights reserved by the author.
Print Article
Send to a friend
Save as PDF