Old Nick steps into town.

here/may 2020

‘They call me Nick; but it’s not my real name. What’s more, you know me; we’ve met.’ 

‘We have?’ Jack sounded uncertain, perhaps there was something about my face that he recognised.

 ‘Last year’. I wasn’t in a hurry, he would remember sooner or later, anyhow i was enjoying the sun out here on the terrace and the coffee was good. Dammed good. ‘Why don’t you sit down?’ I could see very clearly that Jack didn’t want to sit down, what he wanted to be was as far away from me as possible, but it was already too late for that.

 So, he sat down. 

‘What are you having? It’s my treat.’ And i smiled. 

‘Where did we meet Nick?’, Jack was sounding a little nervous now, ‘I hate forgetting my manners.’ 

‘Manners!’, I laughed, ‘since when did you care about manners?’

 In any other situation there would have been hell to pay for speaking to someone like this, but this wasn’t any other situation. Besides, I had the credentials if anyone did. 

Jack started to blush. I like that when it happens, and it ALWAYS happens. 

‘Ah, Red; it’s my favourite colour’, and I laughed again. You wouldn’t say that my laugh is infectious, probably the opposite. What would that be? Fectious? As a word it probably isn’t recognised but if I’m the one to use it who’s going to stop me? I don’t give a shit. But when I laugh people around me do. Shit. I could see Jack squirming in his seat. It was beginning to dawn on him. 

‘In the Village?’ He was certainly nervous now. 

I nodded. 

‘December?’ 

Bingo! 

‘You remember.’ It was a statement. ‘So, what are you having? Like I said, it’s on me.’ 

Jack looked around, he was thinking of running but what did I care? I knew his legs were not going to respond to the feeble grasping of his brain. 

‘I recommend the coffee, as dark as the night and as smooth as velvet.’ 

Today I was dressed for the sunshine; a simple T-shirt, 50’s cut trousers, open toed sandals. Not a hint of velvet, except for the coffee. May had begun with an explosion of heat and blossom; Spring was in the air, temptation everywhere.

It wouldn’t do to be wearing black.