Sarah sighed wearily as she saw the blinking light telling her there was a 'chatter' waiting and clicked on 'enter chat.'
The whole thing was a new venture for her law firm in an attempt to connect with the younger generation. The idea was that people could go to the corporate website and if they couldn't find the information they needed then they could 'chat' to a live person to discuss their legal questions. Sarah remembered her boss's words when they launched the 'chatty lawyer'; she still cringed when they called it that. 'This will put us at the forefront of modern technology, after all this is 1999 and the next millennium is just round the corner.'
"Not the only thing that is round the corner," muttered Sarah under her breath thinking of her 40th birthday that was just a few months away, as she typed into the box. 'Hi I am Sarah and will be your chatty lawyer today, please could you tell me your name and the nature of your requirement?'
Sarah threw her hand to her mouth and bit hard to stop herself from screaming as she read the words that appeared, 'Hey Short Stuff, you see it all started back in 86 in this gym in Convent Garden, London when this trainee dyke picked me up and stole my heart.'
Sarah read the words over and over not believing what her eyes were seeing and her brain was telling her, then typing one word 'Julie???'
'Wow,' came back the words, 'you remember me. I am honoured.'
The memory hit Sarah like a car crash as she remembered the day over three years ago when Julie had collapsed in front of her in Central Park Zoo, rushed to hospital only to vanish without a trace from the hospital bed leaving her confused and hurt. A few weeks later that year she had cried for most of the day when no card had arrived for her birthday, as per her agreement with Julie, leaving Sarah with a sinking feeling that maybe this time Julie had gone forever. At Christmas when no card arrived again Sarah started to accept her heart that Julie was gone forever.
Turning back to the screen Sarah wrote in a frenzy, 'remember you, of course I remember you, you are the one that tore my heart to little pieces. You are the one had me sobbing over an empty hospital bed wondering where you had gone. You are the one that ripped out a little piece of my heart every birthday and Christmas for the last three years when no card turned up, AS WE FUCKING AGREED.' Sarah put the last words in caps to show she was stamping her foot, which she actually was, then she carried on, 'and if you were here right now, I would make dam sure you remembered me as I throttled your stupid wonderful beautiful sexy gorgeous neck ...'
There was a pause before the reply came back, 'sounds like I am in the shit a bit.'
'A BIT!!!!!!,' Sarah put in capital letters adding exclamation marks to show how angry she was, ' you are in a whole world of shit and one day I will show you just how much.'
'Want to pick up where we left off? I guess I have a bit of explaining to do and have that list of questions to answer.' Julie typed.
"Where and when?' Sarah typed and back came the reply.
'Same place, good ole Gus is still there and as you are on you lunch break at 12 o'clock shall we say as soon after that as your little legs will carry you.'
'Today?' typed Sarah as she glanced at the clock and saw it was quarter to twelve.
'No time like the present,' came back the reply before the chat connection was terminated.
Opening her purse Sarah searched for the many times folded piece of paper that she had started three years ago with a list of questions one day she would get the answers to. Every time something had occurred to her over the years, even random things like 'who owned the flat in Covent Garden?' to 'why three passports?, who the hell are you?' with the last question underlined and in heavy capitals, 'pregnant?'.' Sarah added another question in her neat handwriting, 'and how did you know about this list?' before folding it back up and putting it away as her brain whirred at high speed planning what was going to happen next.
Walking over to her supervisor's desk she looked at him hoping she had the right degree of pleading without seeming over needy. "Excuse me Mr Delfont, I have just had a call from my sitter and it would seem that my Mitchie is running a bit of a temperature and she would like my opinion. " Sarah mentally chastised herself for her lie but rationalised to herself it was the greater good after all, before she went on. "Would it be possible for me to take a personal day to go and check, I do feel a little guilty." Mitchie was three, nearly four and a healthy and robust child full of happiness when she had left this morning leaving her in the more than capable hands of their nanny.
Mr Delfont looked up and considered Sarah's request silently as he stared at her over his glasses, then he spoke, "Don't be silly Mrs Lynch," Sarah felt her heart drop, "it's your lunch break so let's just call it a half day, so I will see you tomorrow and hopefully Mitchie will be back to her bouncing self."
"Thank you so much Mr Delfont, you are very kind," and with that skipped off in search of old Pete the janitor who she was fairly certain had an item she needed to borrow. Arriving at the basement Sarah glanced at her watch and knew she still had time as technically she still had five minutes before Julie was expecting her to leave. Knocking on Pete's door he smiled at her as she was always one of the nice ones in the office who would always say hello and be polite to him, "Hello Mrs Lynch it's an honour to see you down in the dungeons," as he laughed which developed into a cough.
"The thing is Pete, I need an urgent favour, I need to borrow something from you that I can let you have back in the morning." Sarah said in her best coy voice.
'Whatever you require," said Pete and his eyes opened wide with surprise and humour as Sarah leant close to his ear and whispered her request. "Mr Lynch's birthday soon is it?" as he rummaged round in his desk and the handed Sarah two packages that she thrust in to her large handbag before giving him a peck on the cheek.
"Thanks Pete will let you have them back to tomorrow, but don't breath a word to anyone," said Sarah as she rushed towards the exit.
"Oh you will need the other..." his final words lost as Sarah had already left by the service entrance and was hurrying towards Central Park.
*****
Julie sat on the same park bench where she had collapsed three years ago and glanced at her watch. It showed a couple of minutes before midday and Julie breathed deeply to control the butterflies in her tummy as she recalled how she had come to the decision to put herself in this situation.
*****
It was six months earlier, in the hilly regions of Japan far above the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, where there nestled a small isolated house and Julie had stood outside nervously wondering if she had made the right decision. It had taken her most of the day to get here and now she was wondering if the owner was in, and if he were in whether he would remember her, or perhaps she should just leave it and try to hitch a lift back to somewhere where she might find a bed for the night.
As she was about to turn on her heel a voice from inside spoke, "surely you have been outside for too long to make the decision to simply leave without at least saying hello to your old sensei." With that the door was slid open and a small wizen man with wispy grey hair and eyes that sparkled in his wrinkled face looked at Julie and smiled showing the few teeth that remained in his mouth.
"Master Takumi," Julie breathed softly as she bowed deeply to show her respect for the man who had guided her on the path for her lifelong love of martial arts. This was a man who had been a father figure to her after she had left home. After he had left London to return to his beloved Japan they had kept in contact by the occasional meetings when he was touring lecturing at various universities around the world and more often by letter as he refused to use modern technology.
"Come, come," he said as he shuffled into the room, 'and how is my yugana yanagi?,"using the Japanese words for graceful willow, a name he had bestowed on her when she had wandered into his martial arts school over thirteen years ago. Then looking at her face announced, "we eat, then we talk of your problems, then we sleep, in morning all gone." After the rice and fish meal simply but beautiful prepared they sat facing each other, cross legged sipping tea as Julie explained what had happened from the day she had met Sarah. When she got to the end of her story tears were pouring down her cheeks and Takumi looked at her and said, "Why do you cry?" Julie stared back and mumbled, "because ..." then trailed off. "You cry when you hit foot like clumsy child, you cry when you have made decision for wrong reasons, or even worse made no decision, but tears for making the hard right decision is just soft." Before Julie could respond he went on, "now you come seeking for me to make your next decision so you can blame me when you cry rather than making your own for the right reasons." Julie was stunned into silence for a few moments as the words slowly sank in, she knew in heart what she wanted was Sarah when she could, but for no one to get hurt and then answer dawned on her. Smiling as he saw her face Mr Takumi smiled, "good you have made decision now you must go and make it happen, now I must sleep old man is very tired." "Don't you want to know what my decision is?" said Julie to her Sensei's back but her question was answered with a snore. Unrolling the spare mat Julie settled down to sleep and began planning her next steps.
*****
"Julie? Oh my god it really is you?" Sarah's shriek of joy jerked Julie from her thoughts as Sarah threw herself into Julie's arms and hugged her tightly. "I thought you were dead, I thought I would never see you again, how long are you here for? where are you staying?" Sarah gushed as the questions tumbled out of her mouth.
Julie laughed, "slow down short stuff and breath, and in answer to your last question first a few days maybe and in some hotel just over there," she said as she waved her right hand over her shoulder towards some buildings.
It was at that point Julie heard a click and felt the snap of a handcuff round her left wrist as she looked and saw Sarah had snapped a handcuff on her wrist and had attached the other to her own right wrist, "what the hell short stuff?" Julie spluttered.
"This time you are not running away until I get all the answers I want," said Sarah trying to fold her arms then realising she couldn't while cuffed so having to contend with drawing herself to her full 5 feet 1 inch stature. "I demand answers and I will torture it out of you if I have to, so take me to your hotel room and you and I have some discussing to do."
Julie smiled then put on a mock scared face as she adopted a false Cockney London accent, "you have me banged to rights copper, though I ain't squealing or grassing on no-one, you are gonna have to squeeze it out of me."
Sarah just stared at her and couldn't help laughing as she said, "what was that in English?"
