What's Next? - Part 4 - Story

This is the fourth part in an ongoing long story / novel development. If you haven't already, please read part 1, 2 and 3 first - if you have already read them, thanks! :)

Part 1: What's Next? Part 1
Part 2: What's Next? - Part 2
Part 3: What's Next? - Part 3

I walked out from a café and as I headed to the bus stop I heard someone calling my name.     

  ‘Hey, wait up, Beth,’ I turned around and saw Adam running towards me. I smiled at him and he greeted me with a warm and friendly hug. ‘Hi Beth’ he paused, ‘You can sure walk fast.’

  ‘I was just going to catch the bus,’ I said, surprised at such friendliness from a virtual stranger.

  ‘Oh you have to go somewhere now?’ his face looked slightly disappointed.

  ‘Oh, well, er, no, I guess not. Nothing that can’t wait anyhow,’ I said. What am I doing? What am I doing? I don’t know this guy....

  ‘Great,’ his face lit up, ‘I was just about to go to the deer park, do you want to come?’ Without waiting for an answer he started walking, I followed him and we got on a bus.

I hardly know Adam, usually when I see him he is either doing something bizarre like wrapping his legs around his head or sitting cross legged and humming. I think we have said all of about ten words to each other the whole time we have been going to the same yoga class and here I am leaving a bus and walking towards the deer park with him.

  ‘Beth, are you alright? You look worried.’

  ‘Well, I was just thinking that I know anything about you.’

  ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘Er.. well... I don’t know… I guess I should ask you something sensible like what do you do for a living but what I really want to know is how do you get your feet behind your head?’

Adam laughed, ‘If I tell you this you won’t look so worried?’ I nod my head and so he sits on the floor and starts to swing his foot towards his face and then out towards his shoulder in a neat semi-circle, loosening himself up. ‘Look, its all in your hips. Once they are open then it’s easy.’ Slowly but surely, after a few deep breaths his foot moved higher and higher until it was behind his head. ‘Lucky I am wearing some decent trousers today,’ he said with his foot behind his head. He put his foot back on the ground and stood up, ‘Okay, your turn.’ I sat on the ground in the middle of the park holding my foot and swinging it the same way he did it but I was wearing jeans and it was not an easy task.

  ‘Er, maybe when I am wearing the right clothes,’ I said. Glad not to show how inflexible I really am.

All of the deer scattered as soon we entered the park but we tried to approach them anyway. We walked around, with the view of Bristol in the distance and I told Adam about my plans to go to India. Adam told me about his dream to do some aid work in Africa. We found out we were planning to leave at the same time and promised to send each other a postcard, if we could find such things where we were headed.

  ‘What are you looking for in India, Beth?’

  ‘Don’t know, what are you looking for in Africa?’

  ‘Don’t know.’

We sat in silence as we ponder the unknown answer to our questions and then Adam said, ‘My friends think I am running away, that I am not facing my responsibilities.’

  ‘Are you?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Running away?’

  ‘What have I got to run away from? I have my family, my friends, I love Bristol and I don’t have any responsibilities…. I don’t have a wife or a kid or anything like that.’

  ‘So maybe you want to run to something?’

  ‘Maybe… maybe I just want a little more excitement in my life.’

After a while we got up and started to walk to the bus stop. We both had to get a different bus home, my bus turned up first and so I turned around.

  ‘Guess I’ll see you at yoga then…’

  ‘Guess so,’ Adam smiled, almost as an afterthought he said, ‘I’ll look forward to seeing you with your feet behind your head.’

I laughed, ‘If anyone overheard that comment I am sure they would think you were talking about something else…’

  ‘Ah, I just love a good innuendo every now and then…’ Adam smiled brightly, ‘Take care Beth.’

I got on the bus and sat beside the window. As the bus headed back to Dilbert and Shoobs, Adam blew a kiss out into the open space towards the bus. I smiled, laughed and waved back and thought to myself, you just never know what’s going to happen in life.

  ‘Hello, is anyone home?’ As soon as I finished my sentence Dilbert was there, rubbing his head and body against my legs and purring like a madman. I picked him up and buried my face into his fur and listened to the insistent motorised machine that lived inside his body. I gave him big kisses and stroked his fur. His purring became louder and louder and I took him to the kitchen whereupon he wriggled out of my hands and got down to the business of food. I took his plate, cleaned it thoroughly and took my time to cut up the meat from the foil packet, enjoying all the attention my legs were getting as Dilbert waited very attentively and practically drooled over my feet for his evening meal.

As soon as I gave him his food, he completely ignored me and chomped loudly on all the jelly, leaving all the meat pieces aside. I think Dilbert secretly wants to be a vegetarian, he will only eat the meat if there is nothing else to eat and I refuse to give him more jelly.

I put the kettle on and sat on the kitchen work surface watching the steam reach a crescendo. I started to think about Adam and our afternoon together and was surprised at how much I enjoyed myself. I started laughing when I thought about a joke he made and I caught myself. I am laughing and thinking about another boy, what is wrong with me? If Callum ever came back and found out I’m sure he wouldn’t like it. But Callum wasn’t coming back. Again I started the cycle of, ‘Maybe one day Callum will see sense and realize he can’t live without me’ routine. I started to bore myself so in an effort to regain control over my thoughts I proceeded to make dinner and put on some music. Soon enough I heard the keys in the door and Shoobs' footsteps. 

Shoobs entered the kitchen and placed his school bag on the table, ‘Oh, that smells lovely, is there enough for two?’

  ‘There’s always enough for you,’ I pulled out a couple more veggies from the fridge.

  ‘You’re a star Beth, it has been a hectic day. Finals are just around the corner and the lecturers are piling on the pressure. They seem to think that life outside of university should be placed on hold, including eating or taking a shit.’

  ‘Sounds like fun, Shoobs, tell me, why are you doing this again?’ I asked.

  ‘Ah, for the good of humanity…’

  ‘Well I am sure you have your place waiting for you in heaven.’

He laughed and unpacked his things then Dilbert jumped on the table for his usual greeting. Shoobs picked him up and rubbed the back of Dilbert’s ears, his purring started up again.

 Author's note - should I continue with this story? x

Dilbert xxx

Other long stories can be found here: Gracie's long stories
  

Follow me here...
Twitter: Gracie's Twitter Page
Facebook: Gracie's FB page
Google +: Gracie's Google + page