‘Love is in the Air’
Love Is In The Air
People always tell you stories of perfect days, or scary days or whatever, and they're always laid out in straight lines, you know, 'we got off the train, then we had lunch with friggin' Mandela or whoever, then we won the lotto in the afternoon.' You know, like some 'story.' The best I can do is bits, especially on that day.
Bits. Not neat bits. More like a badly cut cake, or maybe camera snaps (without actually looking through the lens, or whatever it is). Just grabs.
Like, the guy we dropped the money off to that day. He's just a silver medallion and this smell of burning capsicum. There was a dog, too - big old mangy bitsa, huge balls.
Then the kiss. Again, I don't have much, just her pushy, desperate tongue. Oh yeah, and some guy yelled "Get a room!" from a cab on Terry Street.
What was she wearing?
Couldn't tell you.
The shot? Well that sounded like someone dropping a stack of telephone books.
Did I run? Well, yeah, but I don't remember running. I do remember grabbing Clara's hand and pulling her over towards the alley, and then her hand suddenly tugging me down. I remember thinking, no, no, don't lay on the ground, get away. Get away.
A look back. Clara, up on one elbow, another shot, then down flat. Some smoke from a doorway, backlit by the early morning sun.
Running through the Central tunnel. Chest hurting like buggery. Music.
Music?!
That's right. I ran toward it. That's right. People all done up for work looking at me like I was a monster, or a bad dream they were still having.
Then Main Street. It was all blocked off. Yeah, barricaded. I thought it was a protest, or - I dunno - a carnival. A kid was on his Dad's shoulders. He frowned down at me. He was wearing a cape.
All I remember then were the tears, bent double, breathing wildly like an asthmatic. There was a Hare Krishna sticker on the ground, one of those 'Smile' ones. My shoe had drops of blood over the toe and down one side, big splashes of blood, standing there next to the Hare Krishna sticker - my tears dropping down onto the blood. My boots looked beautiful, all wet and mixed up like watercolours.
The music got louder.
Love is in the Air.
Jesus.
That's when I looked up.