Today’s word count: 1826
total word count: 46,515
Some time later I began to worry about precisely how the
Artimis planned to take revenge on me for defying him. It was all very well
being told by a phoenix that I could sleep soundly, but I knew people around me
had already been caught up in this battle and suffered for it, and I feared for
my friends. I was specially concerned about Minty. The creature had already set
her up with a man who I’d been told would hurt her. When my nemesis left here in a bad temper he
could have forced the man to do something dreadful to my friend. I could only
hope that the Asterlings were keeping an eye on her too, but I wasn’t sure
whether their protection stretched so far. Did someone have to carry one of
their amulets to have protection? I promised myself I would look out for her at
work and the next time I spoke to Ami or one of his people I would ask for them
to protect her if they could. There was nothing else I could do, so I decided
on an early night because standing up to the Artimis had exhausted me.
Next day at work my anxiety over Minty increased when I saw
her. Unlike her normal styles, she had pulled her hair straight back into a
single pony tail, tied with an elastic band that had basic wooden bead toggles
on it. The simplicity stunned me. Without an elaborate concoction on her head
she was far more attractive, although the dark circles below her eyes were a
worry. I immediately went over and asked what was wrong.
“What makes you think anything’s wrong,” she asked in
return. “I just overslept that’s all. I
didn’t have time to do anything special with my hair this morning, so I had to
do a pony tail. I do go for the easy option sometimes, you know.”
She looked down as she spoke, apparently unable to look me
in the eye, and it felt as if she was avoiding telling me something. My concern grew with every word.
“Minty, you know if you ever need to talk about anything I’m
here to listen, don’t you? I’d hate to think of you going through anything
awful on your own.”
She gave me a strange, sideways look and she sounded as if
she chose her next words with care. “I promise I’m fine. I had a late night and
I overslept. If it was anything more than that I’d tell you. Besides, you’re a
fine one to talk about sharing problems. You’ve been keeping something to
yourself for weeks now, in spite of saying all’s well. That was what the trip
to Madame Rosa was all about. That was a total wash out, but you never told me
how else you’d dealt with whatever troubled you.”
That was true, of course, but I could hardly let her in on
my secret while she faced such potentially serious trouble of her own; trouble
I’d caused through my careless actions. I wondered if I could offer her one of
my protections. I couldn’t think of a way to persuade her to take either of the
books Ami gave me. They were hardly her style. She’d think me insane if I told
her to carry a small blue pebble with her. And I didn’t want to relinquish my
starling necklace because of the strength it had given me in the fight with the
Artimis. I dare not face my enemy again without the amulet, even if the phoenix
had promised to stay close to me, because I suspected any future meetings would
be increasingly difficult as it determined to beat me.
I nodded agreement to Minty. “I know I’ve been a bit
withdrawn over my problems, but I promise you they are nothing you can help me
with. “
“You don’t know that,” she shot back. “I’m not as useless as
you think, if only you’d trust me.”
“But look at you Minty. You’re clearly worn out. Even if you
could help me I wouldn’t want to load anything else on top of whatever you’re
going through. “
“OK, have it your own way. I know you’re trying to be kind,
but I still think you’d be surprised if you just confided in me.” And we went
our separate ways to work, but I continued to worry all morning. I wondered if
I could get a message to Ami somehow. He knew before when I was looking for
him, but it took a long while before he answered the call. Any help he might bring could be too late. If
anyone was going to help my friend it would have to be me, and I determined I
would try again to get her to talk. At
lunch time I asked her if she would like to go for a drink after work and she
seemed keener than I anticipated. She
also looked less stressed than when I’d seen her earlier in the morning.
Perhaps all would be well after all.
After we finished work we went to a little bar close to the
office. We avoided anywhere that our colleagues might go because I didn’t want
Minty to be scared to speak in case she was overheard. She settled into a corner table while I went
to the bar and fetched a couple of bottled beers, nothing too strong, but
something that might loosen her tongue a little. We had a short conversation
about how our day had gone before I broached the subject that was really on my
mind.
“So tell me more about Dan,” I started. “How did you meet
him?”
She looked startled by the change of topic but soon relaxed
and smiled. “I should have known you wanted to try the third degree when you
invited me here. Angela, you are sweet.
You could just have asked at work, you know.”
“Yes, but you might not want everyone at work knowing about
him. I thought here were could chat happily without anyone overhearing and you
can tell me the whole story. I want to be well prepared for when I meet him at
the weekend.”
She took a sip from her drink and began telling me about her
new man. She had met him while she was out shopping in a supermarket. I’ve
heard tell that lots of singles meet that way, but frankly I’d never believed
it before. Finding love over the deli counter seemed a bit far fetched to me.
“I’d spotted him in there a few times before actually and I
couldn’t help noticing him. He is very good looking and I guess I watched out
for him eventually. I smiled at him once or twice but even though he smiled
back I didn’t think it would come to anything.”
Apparently they had ended up in the same queue at the
checkout and he’d started talking to her as they both unloaded their items onto
the moving belt. They had a surprising number of similar items and he’d joked
about it. I suspected he’d chosen the same things just to have an excuse to
strike up a conversation, and it was no coincidence that he stood behind her in
the same queue, but I kept quiet. She’d just think of that as romantic. As they
got to the till he asked if she’d like to grab a coffee with him and she’d
agreed. They had been seeing each other
ever since.
“He’s huge fun to be with but I don’t think it’s going
anywhere. To be honest I think he might be gay!” And she laughed.
“But he isn’t, I assume.”
“Well I don’t know for sure about that. I mean we haven’t..
erm...” she lowered her voice and leaned towards me across the table, “He
hasn’t even kissed me yet. He just holds my hand. Not so much as a peck on the
cheek.”
“He wouldn’t be chatting you up in a supermarket if he was
gay, surely? “
“One would assume not.....” she hesitated, “but you don’t
really know about people these days do you?”
She looked down at her drink and my fear returned. “What do
you mean by that?” I asked as gently as I could. “What do you really suspect?”
“I don’t suspect anything really. It’s just....” I didn’t
reply in case she ended her story there. I let the silence stretch for a while
and she continued. “He can be a bit
moody sometimes.”
“Moody. Sometimes. How many times have you seen him?”
“Only four.”
“And how many of those has he been moody? And what exactly
do you mean by moody?”
It turned out that three out of the four times they met he
had been at best morose, and once he’d seemed angry. I didn’t like the sound of
that at all and asked her to give me more details.
“Well, take last night, for example.”
“You saw him last night? Is that why you looked so tired
this morning?”
“Yes,” she had the decency to look contrite. “He came to see
me last night and he was obviously in a foul mood. He wouldn’t tell me what was
wrong. Kept pacing up and down and saying someone had let him down badly. I
tried to calm him down but he wouldn’t. He just kept stomping about and talking
nonsense about lots of things I didn’t understand. He didn’t leave till the
early hours. That’s why I didn’t get much sleep.”
“He didn’t hurt you did he?”
She looked up at me, shocked at the inference. “No. Nothing
like that. I mean I wouldn’t even be thinking of seeing him again if he’d done
anything like that. He just unloaded all this anger onto me and then left.”
I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that this new man in
Minty’s life was there at the Artimis’s bidding and would hurt her badly if I
couldn’t get him away. It was too much of a coincidence that I’d overcome the
creature’s threats last night and it had gone away vowing vengeance. At least she didn’t seem to be physically
hurt, but too many nights without sleep would damage her and would weaken her
against future assaults. I had to find out my enemy’s name and drive it out before
she suffered anything permanently. I
tried to reassure her that all would be well, but I doubt if her idea of
everything working out OK would be the same as mine. She thought she had started a new
relationship, and in spite of her denials I thought she hoped it would lead to
something long term. I knew it was doomed from the start but I couldn’t say so.
Instead I told her I’d see what I thought of ‘Dan’ on Saturday, then I changed
the topic to something lighter.
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