You remind me of my brother - only he had a human head.
Judy Tenuta.
Fifteen Minutes Of Pain
I was on the other side of the street when I saw Shirley heading up towards the station. Where on earth was she going? She was supposed to be meeting me in five minutes at ‘Wedding Belles’ the bridal shop, to look at bridesmaid dresses. She and I had been friends since we were kids. We had grown up together, we’d even double dated boys at school together and she was to be my chief bridesmaid when I married James.
I called across to her, but she continued to walk on and it was obvious she hadn’t heard me over the roar of the traffic. I crossed over and hurried to catch up with her, but before I could reach her she turned into the station entrance. Weird, she was supposed to be meeting me, yet here she was either going to catch a train or to meet someone getting off one. I turned in after her and called out once more, but she carried on walking towards where a train was disgorging passengers onto the platform.
Shirley stopped and waved a hand, I looked in the direction she was waving and wished I hadn’t followed her there. She was meeting a tall, very good-looking, fair-haired man and that man was James. My James. He pushed his way through the crowd and they embraced, not a little peck on cheek type embrace, but a full body clinging hug. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. How could they do this to me?
Finally they disentangled themselves and headed up the platform towards me. I slid behind a pillar but I needn’t have bothered, she was clinging onto his arm and they were so engrossed in each other that they wouldn’t have noticed me anyway. Staying back a bit I followed, they stopped at the flower stall outside the station and he bought her a bunch of red roses. They were my favourites and he had bought them for her. I wanted to rush over and rip them from her arms but I was so upset I couldn’t move.
They set off again, this time heading for the centre of the town. I dodged from doorway to doorway keeping them in sight and when they turned down a small side street I could have cried, they were going to Luigi’s our special place. From a doorway at the other side of the street I watch in dismay as they entered and sat at the very same table where James had asked me to marry him. They held hands until the waiter arrived with two glasses of white wine, then they clinked glasses no doubt in a toast to their own deviousness and took a sip of the wine. A little more talking a little more holding of hands and then they rose to leave.
They left the bar and turned right, taking them away from me. At the end of the street they turned right again. There was nothing to the right but ‘The Dene’ a small ravine that been turned into a park. Beyond the ravine however there was a row of terraced houses and number six in that row was the house that we were going to move into when we were married. Surely the two timing bastard wouldn’t take her there. I couldn’t follow; there was nowhere to hide. For the full length of the dene, there was not one tree or lamppost, just the road, the path and the fence that surrounded the dean.
Now where were they going? They had gone through the park gate and disappeared down into the dean. This was my chance to follow, I hurried along the path and was halfway to gate when I looked down through the trees and spotted them walking back towards me along the path at the bottom of the ravine.
They stopped and that was when it all came flooding back. James proposing and slipping the ring on my finger, leaving the bar floating on air, the hit and run driver ploughing into us knocking James to one side with nary a scratch and throwing me, every bone in my body broken, over the fence and down into the dean. It took James fifteen minutes to find me in the dark and all of that time I lay in excruciating pain. We never did get to say goodbye and now he was taking the roses from Shirley and laying them on spot where I had died.
