vendredi 17 octobre 2008

The singer - Part II

From my job in the conservatoire I was able to find out, over the course of the next couple of weeks, that his father was really ill and that he wasn’t going to be coming back to the school. For that year, at least.

This was quite a blow. In my mind, we’d gotten married, bought a fancy penthouse apartment and were busy driving around in our 4x4 with a black labrador on the back seat. Well, maybe not, but I had hoped for more than we’d had on that one drunken occasion.

Don’t ask me why, but one evening, as I was passing his house on the way to the train station, I decided to call in and see if his housemates had heard from him. I didn’t know anything about his housemates, except for the fact that they weren’t music students.

I rang the bell, and it was someone I recognised that answered the door.

It was a guy from my year at the business school - not on my course, and not someone I’d ever spoken to, but someone I’d nod at and acknowledge if we passed each other on campus. The little I knew about him was that he was ex-armed forces, a mature(ish) student and that he was dating one of the most stunningly gorgeous and incredibly intelligent girls at the University.

“How you doing mate?”, he said. "What can I do for you?"

I explained that I was after news of the singing boy, that we were friends of a sort and that I was just wanting to be sure he was ok.

“Come in” said the housemate. “I’ll tell you what I know about him. You want a beer?”

I went in. I drank a beer.

How was I to know that this would be the meeting that would throw my life off balance for so many years?

It would bring me love and heartbreak, indifference and hatred in equal measures.

It would give me a not so short, but very sharp lesson in handling mental illness, drug abuse and betrayal.

It would lead to hiding from family, cutting ties with friends, betraying those closest to us.

And all this, with a little light S and M thrown in for good measure.

The doors had been opened.

18 commentaires:

tallulahbloom a dit…

And!!!!!! Now!!!!!!

Anonyme a dit…

ok here with my coffee and waiting, its my day off so I can wait:>)
Well I do have to go to M and S soon, I will wave at your places on the way down the Valley.
This is going to be a goodand unexpected one

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Tallulah, patience, dear, patience...

VM, You off down the A470? Ah, the memories!

Nico a dit…

Hmm. It sounds like "No night is too long" already :-( I am glad you lived to tell..

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Nico, I did live to tell, but there were moments where I was unsure if I would. Truly.

softinthehead a dit…

OK you got my attention.....

Anonyme a dit…

See, while I patiently waited for this sequel, I'm not in desperate need of details. And make it quick, I'm off on holiday tomorrow. ;)

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Marjolein - you're always off on holiday...you'll have to catch up when you get back!

aims a dit…

Dammit! I'll have to catch up when I get back too -

You snapped my head around with this little bit of tantalizing writing. Oooooh - such anticipation.

(I swear - if your experiences are even a little bit similar to mine - and they sort of sound like it - then we have to get together)

Stew a dit…

How was I to know that this would be the post that would throw my life off balance for so many hours?

Hurry up with part III man.

Breezy a dit…

My goodness how am I supposed to sleep now?

Louise a dit…

I'm with breezy. This is my last blog of the day, and I, being an uptight type of person at times (or all the time, if you ask my husband), will lie awake thinking about the last blog.

I'm now trying to remember the things I read here and there when I first started reading this that might have been clues to this. Not really clues, but I think I remember reading that you aren't proud of everything in your past, especially to do with your family relationships. Or maybe I read that somewhere else. WHATEVER, I'm so intrigued.

And I love your writing style, and can wait patiently (because we've got at the least the damned drunken weekend to cover before you continue this, right? But maybe the pirate post could fit in there somewhere?), I half want you to just be me for a day and throw the whole thing out there in an annoyingly long post. (Not annoying to me.)

I'm glad I forgot to take my Claritin this morning, or I wouldn't sleep at all. (Maybe Prince Charming is right about me.)

Unknown a dit…

talk about keeping one on the edge of his seat! i love your stories. can't wait for what's coming up ...

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Aims, it'll all be waiting for you....I think we'd have so much to talk about if we ever met! can you imagine?

Stew, it's a-coming....honest.

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Softy, I'm glad I did, too!

Breezy - I hope you got some sleep...

Louise, I hope you got some sleep too - I'd hate to think of you keeping prince charming awake... ;-)

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Mike, you got it - it's all about the edge of the seat!

Daryl a dit…

Sitting waiting, impatiently so to speak.... you had me at 'ish'


:-Daryl

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Hi Daryl, glad that (ish) got you then...i wrote the next installment on friday and then left it on my work pc, which is (obviously?) in the office....so part III is on its way...soon.