This was a story I wrote for my writing course... interpret it as you will :)
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The Dark Cover of Night
I walked into the darkened room and felt a
chill. This just doesn’t feel right, I
thought. I turned on the light and set my coat down on the bed. She followed me
into the room and took off her red high heels. I closed the door and drew the
curtains. I couldn’t afford for anyone to see this.
“I’m just going to go and freshen up” she told
me. I nodded and moved toward the counter.
“Can I get you a drink?” I called out to
her.
“Sure, I’ll have a scotch… On the rocks” She
added, as an afterthought.
I poured myself a whiskey, neat as always,
and prepared her drink. By the time I had finished she was back in the main
room. She was looking at me seductively as I set her drink down at the small
table by the window. I sat in one of the chairs and surveyed her carefully. As
she brushed her mid-length blond hair over one shoulder I noticed a tattoo on
her right shoulder.
“What’s your tattoo of?” I asked, to which
she blushed.
“It’s just a silly thing I got a couple of
years ago. My boyfriend paid for it for my 18th birthday”
I stood up and moved towards her. She
breathed in as I moved her hair out of the way to get a closer look. The tattoo
was of a dolphin leaping from the water surrounded by a rainbow. I smiled at
her.
“It’s beautiful” I said.
“It’s stupid” She turned away to hide her
ever-reddening cheeks. I laughed.
“Stupid? No. I once went to a tattoo artist
to get a beautiful Latin phrase” I pulled up my shirt to reveal, in large bold
text on my right side:
“I was told that it means ‘With more love; more life’”
“That’s beautiful” She said with a smile
“I should have done more research.” I said as I pulled
my shirt back down and sat by the window “It actually reads ‘Yes, that is a
very large amount of corn’”
Her tiny laugh seemed to fill the apartment and
illustrated to me just how young she was.
“So does your wife know you’re here?” She asked, sitting
in the chair opposite me and taking a sip of her drink.
“It would break her heart… So given our track record,
she probably does” I finished with a smile.
We sat in something of an awkward silence for a few
minutes, drinking our drinks in turn. I think she was just waiting for me to do
something, but I had no idea what was appropriate. A hug? A Kiss? I decided
that maybe I would need another drink and made for the counter again.
“So what do you do?” She asked, almost as if to break
the tension.
“Actually I’m in politics…” I trailed off, knowing that
I had to as for her discretion, but not wanting to.
“I won’t tell anyone about this” She said with a
compassionately, as though she had heard my thoughts.
“Thanks” I finished pouring my drink and sat back down. She
stood up and went to her handbag. She reached her painted nail fingers into her
purse and pulled out a slip of paper. ‘Oh
god’ I thought ‘She’s going to ask
for money’ She walked over to me and handed me the slip. I didn’t want to
look at the slip as I was afraid of how much she would ask for. She stared at
me, an intense stare. I was forced to look down just from not wanting to look
into those suddenly demanding eyes. I was surprised to see that I was holding a
picture in my hands.
She sat down on the arm of my chair and rubbed my back.
“Do you remember the summer that was taken?”
“Like it was yesterday” I told her with my hand on her
knee and a huge smile.
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Hope you enjoyed it :)... and if you didn't, let me know what you did think :)
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