STRANGE LOVES

She hadn’t spoken to him, but then again, she didn’t need to. She knew what made him tick, what took his breath away, and, most importantly, what put fire in his eyes. Of course, she could only see what she saw and in her mind as she joined up the dots – it was a space where she turned him into everything she wanted in a man. So, perhaps he wasn’t good with kids, or animals or old people (delete where necessary) but she couldn’t see that in him. From her point of view, she could only see kindness in that beautiful face. He had brought women back, but she had told herself that they were only friends and nothing more.  He left for work every morning at 7.15 (except that morning after his Christmas party) and would return most nights at 6.35. She always made sure that in the evening, her pillows were pushed up the bed a little, so that she could see him. She was limited to the time she could sit upright – it impacted her breathing and as a paraplegic it could cause complications. But her mother would help her sit up for a few minutes around 6.30 and was unsure why her daughter would have a smile on her face. The girl knew that the boy across the street didn’t even know she was alive, but one day she’d get her faculties back and she’d walk across that road and kiss him.

It was the day after his wife had died that the dog had first turned up at his front door. She’d sent him, he was sure of that. There wasn’t any identification with the dog, so he took him in his home and decided to see what would happen. He’d thought of putting a ‘lost dog’ poster on some of the trees in the street – but what was the point? The dog had been given to him by his wife to keep him company until they could all meet up again. It was almost a year to the day of his arrival when he was walking ‘Jedi’ in the park, that the dog had run off. He searched and searched and couldn’t find his best friend anywhere. This time he did put posters up on the trees, ‘dog lost’ – I mean what would his wife say when they met at last?  It was only a day later when a lovely woman came to the door (not unlike his wife) and had asked ‘was this his dog’. It was indeed, so he invited her to come in for a cup of tea as a way of thanking her. She’s still there.

The man spent every single spare penny he had on her – she was an old Jaguar car, racing green, and perhaps a little over-the-hill. He cleaned her, polished her, sometimes slept in the car, and never ever drove her. He kept her in the garage and refused to open the door in case she got damaged. He had lady friends, but they always insisted that they spend more time with them than with that ‘damn car’. It wasn’t just a car – she was his family. He respected her, and she respected him.  To him it was love and no amount, of red-blooded women could ever replace her.  He was happy, and even although folks would tell told him that it was all a one-way thing, no one could convince him that she didn’t love him back.  It was on the day of his 50^th birthday that he decided to let her see the sunlight a little. He opened the garage door and pushed her on to the drive. He put the keys in the ignition and started her up. He could have kicked himself, as he’d only quickly nipped to the bathroom and when he came back she had gone. She had left him for some else. Where the whole racing green centre of his universe had stood purring away, was now a great space. They found the man downstream several days later. The police reckon he must have jumped from the old stone bridge.

He was always sure he was being watched. As he went to work every day at 7.15am and returned at 6.35pm, but he could almost feel eyes glaring into the back of his neck. He knew there was a strange girl across the road, but he’d never seen her. Tonight, was a very special night and he almost skipped back home. Some days were worse than others when there wasn’t that much to steal, but today he’d come across a racing green Jaguar just sitting in a drive with the keys in the ignition. He couldn’t help himself, he loved stealing and especially old cars. He’d sold it for 2000 and that for him, that was the best of all days.

bobby stevenson 2017