exercise in style 26 |
Queneau - French bloke, wrote a book, inspired me. I've explained it all here.
Day 26 - Cofessin'
“Bill,
can you meet me down the pub… I need to speak to someone.
“Sure,
I’ll be right over.”
I’ve known Bill all my life. We grew up
together in the same village, we went to the same school and we both fell in
love with the same girl. We would have married her too if she had shown any
interest in us.
“Thanks
Bill, what can I get you?”
“
I’ll have a pint, what’s up?”
I can trust Bill, even if it’s the middle
of winter and snow is falling, even if it’s near midnight he will come out if I
call him. I’d do the same for him.
“It’s
old Jack, I think he’s gone too far this time; the police are up there.”
“Daft
bugger”
“Poor
bugger; what can he do? – he’s in love.”
“We
were in love, we coped”.
“We
were young”.
“You
think it’s harder when you’re old?”
“You
know it is.”
For a while we both started into our pints.
A few years rushed past.
“Aye.”
“Look,
I did sommit stupid.”
Bill looked up. He fixed me with his
unblinking grey eyes. Like a wolf he was.
“I
got there before the police, I heard him calling her name.”
“What
were you doing up there?”
“Never
mind that, look he had a knife, he was holding it in his fist and there was a
red stain on his sleeve, I thought it was blood.”
“Jesus”.
“It’s
ok, it wasn’t; I tasted it and it was wine.”
“You
tasted it! Are you insane?”
“I
had to be sure. If he had hurt her I don’t know…”
“She’s
ok.”
There was something about the way he said
it, a sudden confidence.
“How
do you know?”
“Never
mind that, what did you do?”
“I
took the knife.”
“Jesus
Frank, it’s evidence!”
“Evidence
of what? Desperation?”
“He
might have used it!”
“He
had”
“What
do you mean?”
“He’d
carved her name onto the table”.
“You
went in?”
“I
had to be sure.”
“She’s
ok.”
“Nothing’s
changed then?”
“I
guess not.”
“Coped!
Ha!”
“Drink
up , I’ll get us another.”
ab/161
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