rosyrockets.com

...

"So every time I unrolled the blind, all these fat, sticky bluebottles would fall out, and there would be live ones climbing the walls." With the help of his eighth shot of whisky, Precious' eyes followed the imaginary bluebottles as he spoke. "No matter how many times I got rid of them, more would be there when I got home, all climbing up the same wall. I couldn't understand it. I emptied the bins and everything. I'm not a bad housewife. Then I remembered, under the bed..." The bar door slammed open clumsily, and they all looked around.

"Ummm..." frowned Precious. "Yeah..." he giggled, "sort of cenotaph... I'd..." and his face darkened, "oh, shit." A beautiful, vaguely battered looking girl was trotting towards the table, wrapped in damp furs and blinking through raindrops and determination. Unreasonably yellow curtains of hair framed her sharp features, and a greenish-yellow bruise bloomed on one cheekbone. Precious intercepted her and bundled her back towards the entrance. They whispered urgently at one another. Precious said what he had to say, and walked back towards his friends. The girl remained in the doorway, fists clenched at her sides.

"I'm in love with you!" she howled, with a voice like a warped cello.

"I think you'll find that's entirely your problem," said Precious reasonably, and she left.

"Who was that?" Daniel wanted to know.

"I don't know," replied Precious dismissively. Thomas winked at Daniel and said,

"Ah, that's Helen. She's a singer, performs here some nights. She's also Nicky's future girlfriend."

"Stop... talking... now," warned Precious.

"He didn't treat her as a future girlfriend just then," said Daniel. Thomas shook his head and began,

"You'll like this. He met her one night in here, about a week ago. He had a skinful and got bored of my company.
So he went and sat next to this girl Helen - the one you saw just now - she was on her own. He told her they'd met three years in the future, and had this big romance. Somehow he managed to work out her favourite drink - stuff about her past - and I have to hand it to him, he was brilliant. She was loving it. But the thing is, after about half an hour he started believing it himself. At the end of the night, he beat her up for cheating on him."

"I didn't beat her up. I just pushed her."

"Yeah, into a wall, with your fist," said Thomas reprovingly. Daniel blinked.

"So you didn't even get laid?"

"Nope."

"But if you know she's going to cheat on you, you can stop it happening, treat her a little better. Why didn't you make a go of it - knowing what you know now?"

"What I know now is that I never loved her - not the way I wanted to."

"You seriously believe you knew her, you nut," jeered Daniel.

"I just couldn't bear the thought of her with someone else." Precious' voice was soft and calm. His eyes swept up dangerously. "I should have killed her. There was nothing linking me to her."

"If you're psychic," said Daniel, deliciously, "how come you haven't punched me for fucking your ma yet?"

"My psychic powers tell me, Dan, that you have all the personality of... that cork over there."

"I have to say," remarked Thomas "I'm not psychic and even I could tell she was the cheating type." Precious coughed irritably.

"Look, I'm not claiming to be psychic. Can we talk about something else now, please?" Thomas leaned closer.

"The best part was where he sang her a song and told her she wrote it... in the future. And she started crying."

"I don't remember that part," sneered Precious. "Anyway... shut the fuck up. She's crap in bed, pulls weird faces. Who wants more beer."

Posted by rosy at novembre 4, 2004 11:03 PM | TrackBack