YOU SAID SEVEN By Nicki Benson The first in a series of stories set in a multiverse of my own creation. They will all feature the same protagonist.

You said seven. It’s nearly a quarter past. Where are you?

1975. A chilly November evening. A medium-sized English city.

A public square close to the centre. A wide flight of steps leads up to a concert hall, its neo-Classical exterior illuminated by floodlights. People are milling around the entrance. The pubs nearby are emptying. The performance will soon begin.

What’s keeping you?

A woman enters the plaza. Middle to late thirties. Dark hair cut in a shoulder-length bob. Bottle green sweater and tartan skirt under an unbuttoned grey overcoat.

“Where have you been? I was beginning to think–“

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“Oh…my mistake. You look like someone I…”

Ten minutes pass. The queue to enter the hall grows short. A few late arrivals hurry up the steps.

You aren’t coming.

It’s because of what I said. It must be.

Maybe I should call. Set things straight.

No. I told you everything. If this is your response then I have to accept it.

A silver cigarette case. A well manicured hand lifts out a Marlboro. An uninhibited imagination paints the nails pink, then dark red. It quickly returns them to their natural colour.

Because that isn’t what I meant. I thought you understood that.

“It’s a state of mind,” I said. “It’s who I am. It’s who I’ve always been.”

You talk so often of honesty. Now I see why. You want the right to demand it, not receive it.

Well bugger you.

Four hours later. An empty suburban street. Along the pavement lurches an inebriated figure, hurling obscenities at a cosmos he knows can’t hear him.

“Six foot four!” he shouts. “Six foot fucking four! Talk about taking the fucking piss!”

An upstairs window opens. From it issue words of complaint. The drunk staggers into the middle of the road, two fingers raised.

And meets destiny in the shape of a speeding Leyland Princess…

Image by Lolbrary

Music: 'Hey Man' performed by Rare Bird, from the album 'Epic Forest'
http://youtu.be/1QQ9kGUyLr4