Earth

Alex

I held the glass and slowly sipped the iced water that Jamie had brought me. Jalholm sat protectively next to me and Jamie, glaring, sat protectively opposite.

I hadn’t been out long, seconds if that. And it was just as well, because the first thing I heard as consciousness came back to me was Jamie cursing at the top of his voice as he tried his damnedest to wrestle Jalholm away from me. ‘Jamie, he’s a friend,’ was all I’d managed to croak. But he’d heard, and for once he’d listened. Thank God.

So here we sat, all three waiting for some explanations, but not a one of us wanting to budge and be the first to speak.

Jamie looked glum now – Jalholm’s arrival and my calling Jalholm a friend had taken the wind out of his sails. I suppose that he now thought he’d been tricked into breaking his promise to David. Well that just wasn’t the case, and I’d make sure he knew it. I had to get to the bottom of this. I had to know where David was, what had happened to him, and what the hell was going on.

Gradually I began to feel a little less dizzy, and was able to think more clearly. More like my normally curt self, I suppose, because I heard myself say, ‘Out with it, Jamie! You’ve told me most of it already. Now I want to hear, word for word, what David told you when he came to see you that day. And then I want his phone number… I want to bloody speak with him myself. Too bloody royal I want to speak to him, I thought. I’ll bloody kill him if I get my hands on him.

Jamie didn’t answer, he just glared at Jalholm.

‘Give it a rest, Jamie. I’ve told you, he’s a friend of mine… and David’s.’

Turning to Jalholm, who was giving Jamie a glare at least as good as he was getting, I said, ‘Jalholm, this is Jamie, a very good friend of mine.’

Then, turning to Jamie, I completed the introductions. ‘Jamie, this is Jalholm, a very strange and secretive man who I have only known for a few days and yet trust completely.’

Jamie had sat more upright, a small grin on his face when I’d introduced Jalholm, and at my last words Jalholm’s glare had disappeared, too. Men! So bloody easy to manipulate, I though, and as I thought of David, So bloody infuriating.

With a little more manipulation and a promise of reciprocation, Jamie relented and told us all – of David’s morning visit, of his warning and plea for help and of the paired phones, and finally of the very brief phone conversation he’d had with David the night before.

David’s response to Jamie’s panicked call, if it was David that is, was to tell Jamie not to worry, that the man was known to him and was harmless.

Jamie had tried to protest but David had responded by telling Jamie to leave well alone, and to only get back in touch if something else happened, whereupon he’d promptly hung up.

Jamie had been severely tempted to ring back and tell David where to shove his phone, but given that he was really worried about the man that was watching me, he thought he’d try and find David to confront him and get something more concrete out of him face to face.

Jamie finished, and again the three of us sat silently.

Jamie had demanded that I now tell him what was going on, as I had promised, but I told him that I needed time to think through all that he had said.

And that was exactly what I was doing, and bloody well not getting anywhere.

Round and round in circles I went – David had disappeared in front of my eyes, and for some reason, weeks before, he’d asked Jamie to look out for me, and then yesterday, only bloody yesterday, Jamie had spoken to him.

Other than to beat Jamie senseless and steal his phone – he’d so far refused to hand it over until I’d told him all I knew – I didn’t have a clue what to do next.

Jalholm too, looked thoughtful, but his was the thoughtful look of one who knows something, one who has some snippet of information that let him see through the confusion that currently wracked my mind.

But he, too, refused to share, saying only that he had a theory, a theory yet in its infancy and far too young to share. Men, Easy to manipulate, I’d thought – what a load of balls that was.

Five minutes passed before anyone spoke, and surprisingly it was Jalholm who broke the silence.

‘I think that we need to be very careful from this point on, Alex. Not that I intended to be lax, you understand, not after the various run-ins I have had to date. But I do believe that we now need to be even more vigilant if David thought to set a watch on you so long ago… even before you knew of my existence. I also believe that we owe a great debt of thanks to Jamie, here. If not for his intervention now, we would be far less aware of our potential danger, and would know nothing at all of this person who professes to be David.’

‘So you don’t believe that it really is David?’ I asked, almost adding ‘either.’ Because I, too, couldn’t see how it could possibly be David. The words ‘Hold my hand, stay close. We will go together,’ came back to my mind, and the tears began to form yet again.

‘It was David, I tell you!’ Jamie said, for the umpteenth time. ‘At my place, and on the phone. I’ll never forget that voice of his… he scared the shit out of me.’

‘I don’t doubt you, Jamie. But something is amiss… something very strange is taking place. You should not use Jamie’s phone, Alex. Leave well alone. We have an advantage now, and should not alert David, or whoever it might be, to what Jamie has confided in us,’ Jalholm said, patiently.

I looked at him exasperated. All I could think of was getting my hands on that phone, and screaming my head off at whoever was on the other end.

‘More importantly, Alex, I believe that you should honour your promise to Jamie… As I said, we owe him a great debt for what he has told us. It is possible that he may well think you mad or insane long before your story is complete, as I am sure you did when you first listened to David. But I do think that unlikely, after all Jamie is clearly besotted with you,’ Jalholm finished with a wide grin on his face.

Jamie nearly choked as he spluttered out, ‘What?’ And I knew full well that I was at least a dark crimson colour by the time Jalholm had closed his mouth.

It was quite a while before anyone spoke again. Jalholm sat grinning, his bright blue eyes sparkling, and Jamie and I both sat stealing glimpses at each other alternating with icy stares at Jalholm.

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Five minutes later, when I thought that my colour had finally returned to normal, and I could take no more of Jalholm’s smug grin, I relented. ‘Okay. Shall I start …or do you think that this should be chronological, in which case you need to go first, Jalholm?’

‘Ladies first,’ Jalholm replied.

And so I began, starting with David’s story as he’d told it to me that first day, that day such a short time ago that now seemed almost a lifetime away, that day in the coffee shop when a very angry man told me a completely ridiculous, and yet so very true story.

###

Ages later, hours even, the sun had long set and the room was full of shadows, I finished all that I had to say.

Throughout, I had told myself how ridiculous I sounded, how crazy the story was, and how there wasn’t a hope in hell that Jamie would believe a word of it.

And as I sat back on the sofa and met his eyes, my worst fears were realised in the wide smirk on Jamie’s face and the bright wicked sparkle in his eyes – a look I had seen so very many times when he had played one of his pranks on someone, or was about to rip the piss out of them and make them look an utter fool.

And I was that person, I knew. He stared at me, and slowly his mouth opened, beginning to form his first jibe, his first piss take. Shit. Here it comes, I thought.

Yet all he said was, ‘I know someone else that needs to hear all that. Can I give her a call?’

I was speechless; relieved, bewildered, and bloody well speechless. The look, the grin and his eyes did not match at all with his words… or his very serious tone.

‘So you take all that Alex has told you as truth then, Jamie?’ Jalholm asked quietly, with a tone filled with the same doubt that the look on Jamie’s face had brought me.

‘Why wouldn’t I?’ Jamie asked. ‘Alex is not the sort to make up stories, let alone ones so fantastic and way-out.’

‘So why the bloody smirk?’ I asked, confusion, anger and relief all battling for control of my voice.

‘Smirk? Oh, this you mean,’ he said, pointing at his face, his smirk morphing into a wide grin. ‘I just wanted to see you squirm for a change… You should see your face! And, I suppose I’m grinning because it’s nice to be right for once… I just knew that it had something to do with David going missing… both the first time and now. That, and that he acted so bloody strange that day he came to my place. What he said was weird enough, but the way he made me shit myself just by speaking, was something else. I suppose it’s a relief just to know that I’m not off my head or something… well at least not the only one who’s off their head.’

Jamie’s grin somehow grew wider at the last as he looked from Jalholm to me and back.

As relief coursed through my whole body, I leaned forward and took a swipe at him. I missed of course; he was expecting the blow and was just too fast.

‘Who is this other person, Jamie? This woman you want to call,’ Jalholm asked, relief apparent in his voice, too.

‘Well I’m not the only one who’s taken an interest in you over the last few days. I passed your place a few times – jogging, on my bike, in the car, all sorts of things – and the thing is, I noticed Pauline over in the park sort of looking this way. You know Pauline, the cute Project Manager from networking… you must remember, she’s the one that was supposed to be visiting you earlier,’ Jamie said, his voice smug and dripping with sarcasm.

‘Bloody, Pauline! Snooping, spying on me?’ I said, angrily, even as I asked myself why. What reason could she have to watch me? ‘David didn’t go and ask her to keep an eye on me, too, did he?’

‘Nope, she decided to do that all on her own-some. Seems that she thinks she saw David just a few days ago. And what with him up and vanishing again, she thought that you might know more than you were letting on, and that you might even know where he was,’ Jamie replied.

‘And how the hell do you know all this?’ I asked angrily, a picture of Jamie and Pauline forming in my mind, a picture where they were altogether, too, close for my liking.

‘Now that’s another long story,’ Jamie said, grinning again. ‘But it’s not at all what you’re thinking. Pauline wouldn’t touch me with a bargepole… and you should know by now that I only have eyes for you, Alex,’ he said, flippantly, and then, as he seemed to realise what he’d said, he coloured up like a beetroot.

I grinned at his discomfort as I said, ‘You want to bring Pauline here? Not bloody likely!’ And then, my mind replayed what he’d just said. ‘She saw David? Where? When?’

‘Best ask her about that when she comes round… You are going to let me call here now, aren’t you?’ Jamie asked, though I was sure from the look on his face that he was already well aware of what my answer would be. Men, so easy to manipulate, what was I thinking?

Amazing really, one phone call and mere minutes later, Pauline was banging on my door. They’d bloody well arranged it, I was sure.

###

Again I asked, ‘But are you sure it was him?’ exasperation plain in my voice. Christ! It’s easier talking to Jamie when he’s playing the fool than to this bloody woman.

Four of us were there now – Jalholm in my chair, and Pauline and Jamie next to each other on the sofa. I was pacing again, glaring at the bloody woman.

She’d told us what she’d seen, what she thought she’d seen. What she’d wanted to see, I was sure, but it couldn’t have been David. It just couldn’t have been, no matter how much I wanted it to be. No matter how much I prayed it was.

‘Yes!’ Pauline snapped. ‘How many times do I have to tell you? It was him, I know it was.’

But I could hear the doubt in her voice, the lack of certainty. And she knew that I could. She could hear it herself, and feel it, I was sure. Just as I was sure that she knew that I, too, could sense her uncertainty. It was not magic, not a trick – it was just something that any seasoned Project Manager learnt with time – how to tell when one of the team was exaggerating a problem, not being entirely honest about their progress or downright bullshitting about how well they’d done.

It wasn’t a science, and certainly not something you could learn or be taught. It was just something that you picked up along the way. It could be an inflection in the voice, the eyes shying away from yours, a bead of sweat even. And you didn’t even really notice those individual things; they all just somehow came together as a feeling, a feeling that over time you learnt to trust.

That thought reminded me of the gift David said Dar’cen had given to the Nargu, and with that thought came another overwhelming surge of grief at loosing him, and following fast on its heels came yet another bought of tears.

I hated crying in front of that woman, but I just couldn’t help myself. Head in my hands I sobbed, tears flowing down my face. I cried so hard that I was only vaguely aware of arms holding me close, hands gently stroked my hair, and tender, calming words trying to break though my heartbreak.

Slowly, I pulled away and opened my eyes. Surprise filled me as I saw that it was Pauline holding me, tears filling her face, too.

‘I miss him, too, you know. Yet I barely knew him. What you feel, I cannot begin to comprehend,’ she said. ‘Please, if it’s okay with you, I would like us to be friends. Together we can help each other through this… I don’t want to be alone like this. Please!’

It was strange how suddenly one’s feeling for someone could change. I had disliked this woman intensely at times, tolerated her on others, and at best used her as someone to ease my own loneliness. And now suddenly, I could see her for who she was. Not the hard woman who was so very much like me, not the person who threatened my friendship with David – for I now knew that was what a great deal of my dislike for her had been; sheer jealousy that David, my only friend, might leave me for this woman – but just a woman caught up like I was in the net that David seemed to cast wherever he went.

I smiled, a weak smile, but a smile nonetheless. Pauline smiled back and her arms pulled me close again. Tentatively my arms reached around her, held her tight, and quietly we both cried.

Over Pauline’s shoulder, through the blurring of my tears, I could see a grin splitting Jamie’s face, whilst Jalholm’s blue eyes simply shone.

I knew then what a fool I’d been for so very long. When Sarah passed away I had hardening myself, put up walls and shut myself off from everyone. I told myself that I didn’t need anyone, I didn’t need anyone at all. And yet the scene before now told me otherwise.

Having friends wasn’t a bad thing, having friends wasn’t a betrayal of Sarah. David had been my friend, was my friend, I corrected myself. And that had been difficult at first. It somehow felt a betrayal of Sarah’s memory. But slowly, David had become my friend, a friend I missed so very much.

But I knew now that there were others, others who needed me, needed me to be their friend. One of them held me now, and two sat before me, smiling and being happy for me.

More tears came then, but they were tears of release, tears that preceded the laughter that I knew would follow to show the happiness I now felt.