Cindy in the park
Picture the scene. A lonely heath and a young man sitting all alone on a wooden bench with his head in his hands. Around him the wind blows gusting leaves into the air. In the distance dark clouds mass as if for a thunderstorm.
Things had gone so wrong. So terribly wrong. I felt so despondent, and at the same time so furious with myself. Why had I been so foolish? So arrogant really? I looked up at the sky and thought that I really did not care if the thunderstorm came and snatched away my special ability - my power to stop time at will. It would be better that way.
What had happened? Well, perhaps you had seen it coming, seen how carried away I had become, how I was getting more daring, more careless and uncaring with my friends. Was now not so much living in Croydon as 'sent to Coventry' by the office . Friends hardly speaking to me - that was no fun at all - and somehow, subtly, it seemed as if it was spreading.
I was going to have to change jobs, perhaps even move house myself and go to a different town. And it had all been so pleasant not so many months before. Me delighting in both the friendship and the surreptitious out of time sex. I could have kept both had I not been so foolish, arrogant, so sure it did not matter - did not matter when they, my friends, noticed odd things happening when I was around. It did matter - it mattered a lot and I was reaping what I had sowed big time.
My head dropped again into my hands as a distant roll of thunder came to my ears. I was going to get soaked but I did not care. Friendship and companionship are so important, so absolutely essential: plentiful sex is indeed good but not in the same league. What a fool I had been. My thoughts travelled back in time a few weeks, reviewing what I had done. Going over it again and again in my mind. Good things and bad things. What had I done? What had I done?
What had happened with Cindy? Ha! I had certainly overdone that. It had seemingly started so well – the contrast between the happy companionship on a day out and what came not long after. First that happy sunny day when Cindy had said she and Carson were taking Katy for a walk in the park and going to have a picnic. Would I like to come?
Such a joyful little scene. The spread cloth on the ground. Things I had brought along as well as Cindy's collection of picnic fare. Katy rolling around giggling as we all talked. Around us children playing with balls and Frisbees being thrown.
Cindy not the only young mother in the park - hardly! There were plenty of prams and buggies being pushed around; sometimes by the mother, sometimes by the presumed father. Happy little scenes. Young mothers, breast feeding on park benches or, as Cindy had, sitting cross legged on the ground, dress flowing around her. My lovely neighbour sitting, looking more than fine in her cotton dress and light brown strappy sandals. Not the tallest of girls but well proportioned and with those full breasts I was so enamoured of, pushing at the light cotton. For once her dark hair tied up - cooler I suspected - leaving just the odd stray hair hanging down around her exposed neck.
A particularly pretty girl walked past, very clearly pregnant and hand in hand with a young man. I watched them. I liked her big straw sun hat and long, curling black hair. I liked her figure actually. An attractive girl - well worth watching.
"I think she's taken," said Cindy.
"Huh? What?"
"You've been watching the girls."
"Um, err, perhaps..." She had very clearly seen where my attention had been!
"Why haven't you got a girlfriend? You're not exactly an unattractive boy; is he, Carson?"
"Wouldn't know! No idea. Shouldn't have thought so!"
Typical male comments of course.
"Well, I think so. Why haven't you?"
I could hardly tell her the real reason.
"I was disappointed in love," I said, trying to be a bit unspecific and a bit mysterious.
"Yes, we remember all of that, but it was months and months ago. Do you want me to fix you up with a date?"
Did I? Having a 'relationship' is not just about sex. By no means is it just about sex. Companionship, understanding, support and just enjoying being in each other's company.
I, though, was revelling in the sex! I had my friends including Carson and Cindy. Did I need a 'significant other?' I could certainly see it cramping my style - particularly if we ended up living together. Unexplained absences would not cement the relationship. Perhaps I might even feel I should not be 'playing away.' It not being so much a matter of practicalities as my own feelings rather than ethics stopping my time stop fun.
"Um, I don't know. I'll, I'll think about it."
"It'd stop you lusting after girls in the park!" It was Cindy speaking as I watched Carson's eyes following the pretty pregnant girl walking hand in hand with her man.
"Perhaps," I laughed but knew very well men were not like that at all! Knew that Carson was mentally undressing the pregnant girl in his mind even whilst holding his wife's hand.
It would have been so nice to be able to stop time not just for me but for my friend, Carson, as well. Imagine it - and I did. My mind wandering off into a little daydream about Carson and me having fun together:
"Hey what's happened?"
"I've just stopped time. Come on, let's go and inspect that girl."
The two of us - in my imagination - standing up and me leading a very puzzled Carson across the grass.
