You Said Seven

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YOU SAID SEVEN

By Nicki Benson

The first in a series of stories set in a multiverse of my own creation. They will all feature the same protagonist.

You said seven. It’s nearly a quarter past. Where are you?

1975. A chilly November evening. A medium-sized English city.

A public square close to the centre. A wide flight of steps leads up to a concert hall, its neo-Classical exterior illuminated by floodlights. People are milling around the entrance. The pubs nearby are emptying. The performance will soon begin.

What’s keeping you?

A woman enters the plaza. Middle to late thirties. Dark hair cut in a shoulder-length bob. Bottle green sweater and tartan skirt under an unbuttoned grey overcoat.

“Where have you been? I was beginning to think–“

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“Oh…my mistake. You look like someone I…”

Ten minutes pass. The queue to enter the hall grows short. A few late arrivals hurry up the steps.

You aren’t coming.

It’s because of what I said. It must be.

Maybe I should call. Set things straight.

No. I told you everything. If this is your response then I have to accept it.

A silver cigarette case. A well manicured hand lifts out a Marlboro. An uninhibited imagination paints the nails pink, then dark red. It quickly returns them to their natural colour.

Because that isn’t what I meant. I thought you understood that.

“It’s a state of mind,” I said. “It’s who I am. It’s who I’ve always been.”

You talk so often of honesty. Now I see why. You want the right to demand it, not receive it.

Well bugger you.

Four hours later. An empty suburban street. Along the pavement lurches an inebriated figure, hurling obscenities at a cosmos he knows can’t hear him.

“Six foot four!” he shouts. “Six foot fucking four! Talk about taking the fucking piss!”

An upstairs window opens. From it issue words of complaint. The drunk staggers into the middle of the road, two fingers raised.

And meets destiny in the shape of a speeding Leyland Princess…

Image by Lolbrary

Music: 'Hey Man' performed by Rare Bird, from the album 'Epic Forest'
http://youtu.be/1QQ9kGUyLr4

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Comments

"You talk so often of honesty."

or "You can tell me anything" ... or "No matter what I will love you" ...

sigh

DogSig.png

The Truth Is Sweet

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies...

But then Todd R would argue that...

http://youtu.be/z0W7BpOJI84

I've been living with a lie for so long now, baby
I gotta set my soul free, I can't take it no more
That's why I gotta
Sing and shout it, tell the world about it
The truth is sweet
Sing and shout it, tell the world about it
The truth is sweet

I made a promise to myself not to let nobody else
Have any sway on the way I lived my life
I didn't see the need to compromise but now I've come to realize
That living is more than just surviving
And I've been lying to myself, I gotta cover up what I feel
But now it's time I must admit this is real, this is real

The truth is sweet
Just like honey from a bee, the truth is sweet

So many people in the world let it all pass them by, pass them by
They won't admit they need to be rescued from their lonely lives
That's why we gotta sing and shout it tell the world about it
The truth is sweet
Sing and shout it, tell the world about it
The truth is sweet

When you've been hurt so many times it's enough to make you blind
To anything that feels like true happiness
Nobody wants to be the foolish one but after all is said and done
You constantly settle for less
It's like a broken carousel, it just goes round & round & round
But now it's time you admit you've lost ground
Hear that sound?

The truth is sweet
Just like a baby's kiss, the truth is sweet

Go on admit it, you know you want it to be true
Go on admit it, you say you don't but you know you do
Go on admit it, you've been disguising what you feel
You might be living in a fantasy
But then that fantasy could turn out to be real

Sweet and true like my love for you baby,
Oh yeah

And everybody in the world's gonna wake up some day
Singing love is the answer, love is the answer
what's left to say
Sing and shout it, tell the world about it
The truth is sweet
What's left to say?

Ban nothing. Question everything.

Lovely....

Andrea Lena's picture

...I love the lyrical lilt of your lovely literature and lore!

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

Through With You

Thanks Drea

Here are the Lemon Pipers, those lovely people who gave us all 'Green Tambourine'.

http://youtu.be/CFWzS15pNPk

Ban nothing. Question everything.