An Hour in the Darkness by Michael Bailey Read Free Book Online

up. Ronnie was right. There was indeed a great wet patch on my trousers.
    â€œWhy don’t you go home?” Ronnie said, more tenderly than before. “Before Geoff gets back and sees that you’re still here.”
    â€œYour heart is my home now.”
    Boy, my knee sure did feel all messy and cold.
    â€œDo you know what my favourite book is?” I said.
    â€œI don’t care.”
    â€œIt’s
A Padded Room with a View
. Only kidding, of course. I joke around a lot really. I have to joke about the serious things. It’s the only way I can say them, I suppose. I can’t say the serious things in a serious way. It’s a tragedy, I know.”
    â€œYou’re the tragedy,” she said. “I feel sorry for you.”
    I reached down and touched the knee of my trousers where they were wet. And then Ronnie suddenly smiled and I knew that I almost had her.
    â€œI always get you in the end,” I said.
    I knew that I had my hand on the magic string. I didn’t have it for long though because Geoff decided to come back at that moment and I shut up shop sharpish. I started to pick over the fruit again. I winked at Ronnie every few seconds, and moved my shoulders up and down in a real comical way because Geoff was behind me, but Ronnie didn’t seem to see the funny side of it. She stopped smiling. I think it was because old Geoff had come back and she didn’t want to lose her crummy job.
    â€œIs he still here?” said Geoff, loud enough for the whole wide world to hear, if you don’t mind.
    â€œYes,” said Ronnie.
    â€œIs he behaving himself?”
    It sure made me want to chuckle when old Geoff said “is he behaving himself?” like that, like I was just a naughty schoolboy, or something.
    â€œYes,” said Ronnie. “He’s pretty harmless, really. He doesn’t frighten you half as much the second time around. You start to feel a little bit sorry for him after a while. I don’t think he’s right in the head.”
    Ronnie sure was sweet about the whole thing. You know, telling old Geoff that I didn’t frighten her anymore, and everything. Listen, before you try and win over the love of your life, you’d better make sure she isn’t frightened of you, okay, because a thing like that sure can ruin a relationship.
    Anyway, I sort of turned to old Geoff and fluttered my eyelashes a couple hundred times or more to show him I was “quite harmless”, like old Ronnie had said. Old Geoff just sneered though because that is all his type can do in that kind of situation. I think the love we radiated between us – me and Ronnie – just sort of squeezed him out of the picture, if you really want to know, and he sort of felt like he was intruding, which he was.
    Anyway, things weren’t the same after old Geoff came back and I sort of dissolved into the background where I felt more comfortable. When I left the market I sort of held my hand out and announced to everyone that I was leaving for the day, but nobody seemed to notice.
    I always make a big entrance. I come joking and playing up to the party and everybody thinks,
wow, who’s this dude?
But by the time I leave they’ve all more or less forgotten who I am. I can’t keep it up, I suppose – you know – all the humorous banter. Well, you just can’t, can you? It’s a sad thing, of course it is, and I wish it were different, but it isn’t. Hey, live with it, okay, because those first few minutes – when you’re shining and everything – are like magic. Enjoy those moments because they’re gone so quickly and you’re going to spend the rest of your life trying to get them back.
Those first few minutes are just the best though, aren’t they Jenny?

5

    I didn’t go back to my room after that. How could I? Not after the drama of the day. I decided to get a bus from Leicester and go visit Bradgate Park. I