― Ian Curtis
Scarborough Bluffs
I enjoyed meeting Marilyn and Scott...again. Although I knew Scott distantly in this life I didn't realize we were best friends in another.
As for Marilyn, I as yet had no detailed recollections other than the fact her face was familiar and I felt warm and loved around her.
I suppose one can't expect more from an initial meeting.
Cindy left early but I guessed she wasn't going home―probably doing a stake-out with Abe, her work spouse.
Such is the lot of an undercover detective.
I hadn't even given her strange work hours much consideration―how would that affect our marriage and children, if we had some, but it was such a part of her that I simply accepted it. Asking her to give it up for something more routine just wasn't an option.
It was natural like the way we held hands―her hand tightly balled into a fist, completely enveloped by mine. It was unusual but reassuring, telling me that's the way it always was, even further back than I could remember.
I loved this girl and wouldn't change a thing about her.
I sat by the fire with a hot chocolate for a little while, with the rain still drizzling outside and in the distance the mournful sound of a train reminding me for some reason of fog horns.
I was deliciously tired and the longer I sat in the warmth and the dark I felt progressively more drowsy.
Last thing I remembered was checking the time on the grandfather clock and hearing two chimes.
The land of dreams is a universe apart where we converse with the dead as if they weren't and go places familiar where we've never been...and yet each night, return to them in dreams.
I was with Marilyn at Scarborough Bluffs, high above the lake on a narrow peninsula of land that jutted out hundreds of feet above the waves.
"I'm scared James―I haven't told Joey. He couldn't bear it if anything happened to me."
"Why don't you go to the police? You know how dangerous this is."
"I can't―they'd kill me. It's my stupidity for going to the clubs and singing, but I can't resist the urge. I'm just hoping it'll all blow over if I just remain silent."
"Those people are gangsters, Mar―they're not going to just ignore this."
She grabbed my hands and squeezed hard. "Tell me you'll be there for Joey, if anything happens to me. Promise."
I nodded, tears streaming down my face. A fog was rolling in off the lake and in the distance the two-note sound of a foghorn.
I awoke just after four, confused and chilled to the bone. The fire was out and the world dark and forlorn.
I knew I should go up to bed but was shaking too much. I put on the kettle to make tea. Besides, the thought of going back to sleep terrified me.
I could almost recall what happened in the past but the details were fuzzy and incomplete. But what was unmistakeable was the sense of doom and the feeling of utter futility.
Whatever happened in the past had left its scar upon me.