Category: Bits and Pieces

The First Appointment.

Lucy

The stairway gave me an uncanny sense of déjà vu.

It curved tightly upwards, not a spiral, but a U, snug in the rounded end of a narrow room. Green tiles lined the floor and stairway; an early Deco stained-glass window let a little subdued sunlight cast itself in colour on the steps.

There was a hush in the building. The kind of hush that is only possible in a building that is not empty of people, where the muffled little sounds of separate individuals, each at their own separate purpose, create a strange sense of invisible company.

Fear.

Lucy

I used to sing around the schoolyard, tunes from Fred Astaire movies.

Isn’t it a lovely day to be caught in the rain?

I’m stepping out, with mah honey; can’t be bad to feel so good.

Shall we dance? Or keep on moping? Shall we dance, and walk on air? Shall we give in to despair? Or shall we dance with never a care?

It was strange; before then I had never sung out loud, where anyone could hear me. I could sing with the choir, I could sing alone, but never to be heard. So frightened of the sound, my throat would catch up.

At some point later, I stopped singing again. I wonder now if I was happiest then than I have ever been. Why else could I sing?