Today's word count: 1676 Total count 3666
There was so much more that I wanted to ask, but my visitor
didn‘t wait to give me the opportunity. A few seconds after he mentioned my
headache I blinked and he vanished. I didn’t see him vanish; this wasn’t like
the Cheshire cat in Alice who faded slowly leaving just his grin behind, this
was literally in the wink of an eye. Suddenly he just wasn’t there any more. It
was like turning off a television set, only there wasn’t any noise like a
switch. I leaned down to the foot of the bed and felt the wood where he’d been
sitting, unsure what I thought I’d find, but there was nothing. It wasn’t warm
or anything. It was a perfectly ordinary bed foot.
“Well, that was rude,” I said out loud, and feeling slightly
stupid that I was talking to an empty room, but his departure had been so
sudden that I found it hard to accept he was gone. I looked around the room,
half expecting that he had simply moved very quickly and would now be enthroned
on a different piece of furniture, or leaning nonchalantly against the wall,
but there was definitely no sign of him. I paused to think for a while and then
I started to wonder if he had ever actually been there at all. Maybe I had
imagined him; I do have quite a colourful mind. It goes with my dramatic
streak. Perhaps he was actually a nightmare, but I hadn’t eaten anything
renowned to trigger them. Could migraines cause hallucinations, I
wondered. I’d never heard of such a
thing, but you never know about these things. I figured the best plan was to play the
remainder of the day by ear. If I really could have wishes come true I could
have huge fun with my power, but the first job was to put the idea to the test.
“I wish I had a bag of gold coins”, I announced, and waited
for my first miracle. Nothing. Nada. Absolutely zilch. No gold. No wish. No
surprise. I’d been hallucinating after all, and I decided to talk to my doctor
about it next time I had to see him. Perhaps the kind of migraine that could
make me see things needed special treatment. Maybe I had a brain tumour or some
other incurable disease. That would be a real swine, to go from thinking I
could have my dreams come true to finding I had a terminal illness. Just my
luck. I’ve been treated for depression
in the past and one of my symptoms was that I always feared the worst, often
before anything at all had happened to me. Lots of specialists had done their
best to help me and I had learned a few useful coping strategies. One of them
was to give myself a strict telling off, and that’s what I opted to do this
time. “Oh pull yourself together you stupid fool. You’re tired, that’s all. You’re
imagining things. There is no such thing as a genie, fairy godfather or any
other kind of magical creature, so stop this nonsense now!” And with that I
decided to ignore everything that had happened so far that day. I carried on
with my life as if nothing untoward had gone on, and for the rest of the day
nothing did. In fact nothing strange occurred for the rest of the weekend.
By the time I got up on Monday morning I had almost
forgotten my experience. I chose to ignore how realistic my visitor had seemed
and how convinced I was for a while that I had a magic amulet. Eventually I started
to accept that he was simply a figment of my imagination brought on by
tiredness and stress, and I started getting ready for work. My choice of
clothes for the day was smart casual. My office doesn’t concentrate too much on
appearance because we don’t deal with the public. The boss likes us to look
reasonably presentable and would frown heavily on torn jeans or rugby shirts, but
he doesn’t create a fuss about relaxed outfits. I chose a plain, pale blue
t-shirt and a dark blue over shirt because I thought it would present a good
background for my pendant and I wanted to show off my find. I set off to work at
my usual time, grateful that there was no sign of the threatened migraine remaining
to make the day difficult.
The drive was as tedious as ever. Traffic slow, drivers who
apparently had never passed their tests, or had forgotten whatever they once
knew; idiots changing lanes without signalling, doing thirty miles an hour in
the middle of the road, speeding along in half light without headlamps,
endangering others through lack of consideration, generally behaving like
selfish bullies. I run a very small car
and often feel as if the big vehicles are pushing me around, so by the time I
reached town I was feeling pretty fed up. “I just wish everyone would get out
of my way!” I shouted as a particularly arrogant van driver cut across me in
the queue as we approached a set of traffic lights. He swung all the way past
me and into the inside lane so he would be able to overtake on the wrong side
when the lights turned to green. I hate when people cheat that way. You just
know they are laughing as they pull away on amber and rush off up the road
ahead of everyone. Sure enough, Mr Van Man began roaring his engine and lurched
forward as the amber light lit up, but somehow he went no further. I drove off
on green and left him far behind, still trying to restart his stalled engine.
For once I laughed as I pulled away in front of a bully, and the rest of my
journey passed relatively easily except for my headache, which, from the
tingling at the back of my skull, seemed to be returning.
On arrival at the office I was greeted noisily by my
colleague Minty Deane. Yes, I know it’s a ridiculous name and I expect it’s
short for something, but I’ve never bothered to ask what. She’s just known as
Minty and she is exactly the kind of person you’d expect to carry such a name.
Short and slightly stocky, if I’m honest, she wears her dyed red hair in a
strange kind of plaited rope wound around her head. She pins it in place with a variety of
outrageous clips that feature brightly-coloured creatures of all kinds. There
are plenty of insects, and not just the pretty butterfly, moth and ladybird
kind. I’ve seen spiders and wasps, and even a jewelled scorpion, over the years
I’ve worked with her. You can’t help noticing them, so it’s easy to make her
day by commenting on her latest trim. Today’s choice was blue, and as she
approached I noticed it was a bird, with a small white flower in its beak. In
spite of myself it made me smile, and I pointed towards her head and said “Nice.”
She smiled in return .The great part
about her hairpin habit is the fact that she also notices anything new and
sparkly being sported by anyone else. She immediately spotted my pendant and
pounced on me with a shriek. “Is that
new? It’s wonderful! Where did you find
it?”
“And good morning to you too, Minty,” I answered, “Yes, it’s
new. Thanks for noticing. I picked it up at an antiques place over the weekend.
I wangled a fantastic deal on it too.” As I said that I felt the twinge in the
back of my head again and winced slightly, and Minty reacted immediately.
“You’re fibbing aren’t you?
Or at least you spent a small fortune in spite of your deal. That’s why
you’re wincing. How much did you pay for it? I know you can’t resist stuff like
that and you always spend way more than you can afford.”
“I honestly didn’t spend a fortune. I haggled for it and
beat the guy down a long way.” And I felt my skull twinge again. “Actually the
reason I’m wincing is because I’ve got a headache. I’ve been fending off a
migraine all weekend and I thought I’d beaten it, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Oh poor you. I know you’re a martyr to them, but it’s not
like you to suffer at weekends. They’re usually triggered by stress. Sure it’s
not a hangover?”
“Cheeky! No it isn’t. I never touched a drop all weekend. I’ve
been in bed with the curtains closed most of the weekend trying to avoid bright
light. Maybe I’d have been better off if I had put away a bottle or two of
red!”
“Spent all weekend in bed with who? Curtains closed is a
funny name,” she grinned, “I suspect you’ve really been having a very good time
and overdoing things. I’m not surprised
you’ve got a headache!”
“Oh shut up. I have not been living the high life. I’ve been
on my own for the whole time, I tell you. I’ve been sick!”
“I don’t believe you. I think you’ve got a new man in your
life and you’re just being secretive. Come on. Spill”
I am very fond of Minty and I usually find her hilarious but
on this occasion I couldn’t cope with her humour. I knew she was kidding but by
now I was tired of the joke and I’m afraid I snapped at her. “I’ve got a headache I tell you, and it’s
getting worse. I wish you’d just leave me alone.” And that’s exactly what she
did. Quickly and calmly she turned around and walked away towards her desk
without another word. I was amazed, but the sensation in the back of my head
was now so strong that I feared getting home. I took myself off to my own desk
to sit by myself and nurse my pain.
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