GHOST OF A DREAM
It was another day, the same as every other day. he woke, dressed, took the same old drive to the office,
the same people, the same banter, the same jokes. Then the same drive home ,to the same
lonely empty flat.
"Let's face it" he said to himself. "You're in a rut, and you've been in one for years.
Life was passing him by.
He was happy in his own way, though now he had finally sorted out his
messy divorce, he found himself sometimes feeling very lonely.
This weekend he thought he would go down to the West Country, perhaps take a walk along some rocky pathway on the
coast and stay in an old fishing village. He laughed, sounded like an advertisment or the start
of some slushy love story.
Still come the weekend, he
was to be found driving down the motorway towards Devon and Cornwall. He had even booked a
couple of days holiday for the start of the next week, just in case. This caused a stir at the
office, for he never had holiday. The music on the radio was songs from his youth, and his
mind went back to happenings from his early days so that it came as a bit of a surprise to
him to suddenly find himself in a narrow land leading down to the seashore.
He did not
really know where he was, still it looked as good a palce as any. He stopped at the
local pub to have a well-earned drink and try and find himself some accommodation.
He was on his second drink, the first not seeming to have touched the sides on its way down and chatting to the jolly
red faced landlord, when he mentioned about a place to stay.
"Well," said Seth, as
he had come to know the landlord. "Not many places this time of the year, I would say
stay here, but I already have a guest. But if you don't mind, I have a small attic that may
do you."
He was not too bothered. He liked the old weather-beaten Seth, and the
weather-beaten pub, and he was starting to feel a little sleepy after his trip down.
He soon decided to stay at the pub, and after sorting out the cost, went and got his bags before being shown his
small but cozy room, where in a very little while he was fast asleep on the bed.
It seemed like only minutes later he was woken from a particularly interesting dream about a party he went to when he
was 21. By what sounded like World War III coming from the landing below. Forgetting about the low ceiling beams in the atic,
he jumped out of bed, thumping his head on one of the rafters.
He groggily made his way to the door, peering down the stairs at what looked like a
mountain of parcels with legs.
He was just about to say something when the floor started
coming up to meet him. Hmm, he thought just before his head and the floor met, I guess I
hit me head a bit harder than I thought.
The first thing he remembered was looking two of the loveliest deep blue eyes he'd ever seen in his life, surrounded by a blond hallo of hair the color of ripe corn.
The next thing was the pain above his eye and the feeling of hot liquid running down the side
of his face.
"Are you OK?" A voice seemed to float down from a face that now
seemed to like an angel looking down at him.
"Gee," said the concerned voice. This time he thought he sensed hint of a scandernavion accent. "You've cut your head quite badly."
He put his hand up to his head trying to push himself up on his elbow at the same time and somehow hoping the room
would stop spinning, his hand came away sticky with his own blood.
"I guess I must have
clouted my head harder than I thought."
He tried to laugh but the effort made the room spin again. Instead he started to study the face of the administering
angel that was now dabbing his head with a slightly dirty handkerchief while helping him
to his feet. It was the face of an angel, or rather a cherub, because the hint of laughter
that seemed to play around the edges of the angels mouth were not angelic. Neither was the
look the brown eyes were giving him. Again he tried to get up, and
that's when all the walls seemed to fall on his head.
The next think he knew he was lying in bed, but as his eyes focused he realized it was not his room or his bed. He
put his hand up to his head, and felt a bandage. As he did so he also noticed that the
arm was naked. He checked under the sheets and sure enough so was the rest of him.
He heard a giggle behind him and turned to look into the face of the angel he had me earlier. "When you
collapsed that second time, you made me drop a bottle of red wine I was carrying." She
giggled." And being you, of course you had to fall right in it."
He struggled to
speak, but his head still felt like he was being hit by a hammer. She, sensing his problems
put her finger to his lips. "Hey rest you've had a nasty bump, and seeing as my room
was nearer, I put you in here."
His head was reeling, strange things were happening to his body, feelings he long thought had been lost under
the cover of a loveless marriage were starting to raise their heads. He tried to lift
himself up on one arm and the room started to spin again.
"Hey now. Rest, I said and rest you shall have," came the mock stern voice of his guardian angel.
With that, she leaned across the bed and tucked him in, her scent filling is mind and sending his senses
reeling. This state was not helped by the soft kiss she left on his lips before, closing the
curtains. With a final "Now get some rest,quot; she left him, his senses and his
now yearning body, alone again.
He awoke to the gentle touch of a pair of soft lips on his cheek, and for one instance thought he'd died and gone
to heaven, "How you feeling today?" came the soft voice of the person,
whose name he did not even know yet, but who twice now had made his body surge with want at the
touch of her lips.
She gave him a steaming cup of tea, and had on a tray some hot buttered toast, he took the tea from her, again lost in
her eyes as she smiled down at him, she sat on the edge of the bed watching him demolish
the toast.
"My name Sam," she said. "Actually it's Samantha, but everyone
calls me Sam," she smiled a smile that turned his heart inside out.
She sat on the edge of the bed and told him about how she was studying
the erosion along the coast line down by the harbor cliffs. He found he was able
to talk to her like he had not been able to talk to any woman before. He told her about his marriage, his life, his work his dreams, and before
they knew it, the sun was setting in the sky, and so was his heart. It had been a long
time, and before he knew it, and with what seemed the most natural thing to
do, she took her clothes of and slipped into bed with him.
It had been a long, long time since he had given himself and had given to him the love that they shared that night.
They reached peaks that neither of them knew was possible, and he found a love that he had
only dreamed about. Come the morning, he woke with his body sweetly aching from the night
of love, and his heart filled with longing for her, and the happiness of what he had at
last found.
He reached for her but found only an empty, yet still warm, pillow.
On it was a note left for him. "Morning
my darling, I will meet you on the cliff top if you
fancy a morning stroll." He sniffed the note, smelling her scent, remembering the previous night.
He slowly got dressed, still feeling a little light headed.
Not sure if it was from the last nights exertions, the lack of food, or the bang of the head that still made his head spin.
He made his way up the path to the cliff face, still clutching the note she had left him.
His love saw him, flashed him the golden smile, and started running to meet him.
He was not sure what happened next, one moment she was running towards him
a look of happiness and love on her face, the next as if in slow motion she seemed to slip and start falling over the edge of
the cliff. With a cry of warning and anguish he rushed towards her.
She slowly disappeared over the edge of a cliff, with what seemed to be a wave of good bye.
He got to the edge and looked down, but of his love there was no sign.
His head swam, and once again the earth closed over him as he sank to the ground.
His eyes opened slowly to once more look into a face of an angel, at first he thought it was that of his love, but then
as his vision became clearer, he realized that this face was not quite the same.
"Are you OK?"
Came that same accent from this angel. "I could't bear to lose somebody else
here." She looked out to the sea, and carried on with a tear in her voice. "It
was six months ago that my sister Sam slipped and fell of these cliffs.
I'm Sari, by the way, but most people call me Sue."
He looked into the same so blue eyes, so like his love's, and
saw the sadness there. Yet at the same time, he knew that this was not the end.
Sue helped him to his feet and they slowly walked hand in hand back towards the pub.
Without noticing he dropped a piece of paper that had been clutched in his hand
the soft wind sending it slowly spiraling towards the sea. He thought he heard
a faint soft laugh that seemed to mix with the noise of the waves.
Barry Eva 1998
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