Fast Fiction: Or Something
'But I thought you were here for a lifetime, like me,' I exclaimed. 'That was the plan, wasn't it? Anyway, you can't go back in human form ...’ Richard Mallinson tells an enigmatic other-worldly tale.
At the party she sipped wine and left without speaking to me. I followed her out and touched her on the shoulder as she was getting into a taxi.
'Come on,' she said, knowing it was me.
We sat close together and were silent.
Then she touched my hand and said, 'I'll be going away soon.'
Shocked, I looked out of the window at the silent crowds.
When we reached the house, her husband and daughter greeted her and she said, 'Look who's here.'
I smiled at them as best I could.
'Let's have a drink,' the husband said, hastily.
'The last time I saw you I was only six,' said the daughter and went.
Having poured the drinks, the husband said, 'I'll just go and sort through some, er, papers -' and went.
I gazed at her as she sipped her wine.
'What did you mean about going away?'
They want me to go back,' she said, giving me that shy look of hers.
'But I thought you were here for a lifetime, like me,' I exclaimed. 'That was the plan, wasn't it? Anyway, you can't go back in human form ..."
She smiled and said, 'I know, I know . . . But all this was simply too good to last, wasn't it? ... The caring husband, the lovely daughter. . . and the job at the cutting edge of micro - '
'And the one lover,' I said.
She looked at me, fondly and sadly. 'Yes, and the one lover. . . I'll never forget you' - but we both knew that her earth memories would soon be erased.
We were silent for a few moments.
Then, almost as if she had been prompted, she said briskly, 'And by the way, they want you to have my eyes because yours are blurred or something and not sending back clear images.'
