Page 13 of The Lucky Escape

‘I’m a good kind of guy,’ he said, that lopsided grin making another appearance, his eyes sparkling with the mischief I recalled.

‘I remember,’ I said.

The green man sounded, alerting me to the fact that it was safe to cross over.

‘See you,’ I said, and he lifted a hand to wave goodbye, watching me with a smile that I caught only as I turned back to glimpse him one more time over my shoulder, smiling too.

7

‘I thought I’d seek you out in case there were any more jumper-related emergencies today.’

I hadn’t seen Patrick in the bootcamp class. I’d arrived late and it was already dark in the studio, the overhead lights dimmed and the red and blue lights around the edges blaring to get us riled up. I’d rushed straight to my spot as the instructor, in her tiny crop top and shorts, chanted, ‘Push to your limits! How do you know what’s possible if you don’t understand that the only limitation is mental? Go beyond what you ever thought you were capable of!’ If we’d thought D’Shawn knew how to push us past crying point, Sinead knew how to make us cry and also thank her for it.

I was waiting for a green juice by the reception area instead of going straight home – I’d quickly learned, after five classes in six days, that trying to keep moving at full pelt after cool-down was impossible. I needed twenty minutes to just sit and recover, and a green juice was the best excuse for it.

‘Hey! Patrick!’ I exclaimed. ‘I wondered when I’d see you again!’ I’d kept an eye out for him, wondering if he’d bearound to reminisce about Yak Yak. I’d liked that. I’d surprised myself with how much I’d liked talking with somebody who thought I was as carefree and funny as I had been at twelve years old. The future was so uncertain but the past never changed, and that was a comfort. I looked towards the barista. ‘I’m just getting my spirulina fix for the day.’

‘Because what’s a day without an unpronounceable smoothie add-on?’ Patrick chuckled.

I grinned back, my body pumped full of endorphins after the exercise and feeling … not happy, exactly, but certainly flushed with something other than doom, at least temporarily. Bootcamp had been the only anchor to my day since I’d started. I’d get up, go straight there, and for one glorious hour think of nothing. Back at home I’d stare at the TV paying no attention to what I was watching, the dog in my lap and Mum and Dad, who continued to stay despite me suggesting they didn’t have to, pretending not to be worried. ‘Exactly. I actually had to point at the board just to order and then I asked Google how to say it afterwards. I only told you about it so I could practise.’

He leaned against the counter and tilted his chin up at the guy serving.

‘All right, mate, I’ll take a Coco Loco, please – and I’ll pay for the lady’s.’

He pulled a card from inside his body warmer and slid it away from him towards the server.

‘You’re kind,’ I said. ‘But I object to being called a lady.’

‘Annie Wiig ain’t a lady?’ His sandy waves were slick with sweat, swept off his face by a thin elastic headband like footballers wear, and he hadn’t shaved yet, a dance of dark blond stubble gathered across his chin. I wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, but there might have been the tiniest bit of redin there too. His green eyes glimmered brightly. I think it must have been the Norwegian in me that was at home with his height and his fairness, his breadth.

‘Oppressive word,’ I said. ‘Lady. So full of expectations. I’m in a season of liberation as it happens.’ I looked to my hands in front of me as I said it, betraying the jocular tone of my voice by tapping my fingers nervously. I was prepared to tell him about the break-up this time, if he asked. I still felt like shit, obviously, but I wanted to. I just knew he’d say the right things.

‘Ahhhh,’ he said, light-heartedly. ‘There she is. That’s the Annie Wiig I remember. Always making her own rules.’

I let out a small guffaw. ‘God, I wish,’ I asserted. ‘I’m about as close to the party line as a person can be. I’m going to beat myself up for the rest of the day that you treated me to a smoothie and I still gave you attitude.’

‘Really?’ he countered, seemingly genuinely surprised. ‘I’d get that seen to immediately – I’d hate for your Past Self to inadvertently get caught up in the plot of a time travel movie and come visit Present You on your way home, only to be disappointed that she follows the rules.’

I picked up my drink and took a huge slurp.

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘And thank you again, for being so sympathetic to me the other day. Your kindness really meant something.’

‘I know heartache too,’ he replied. ‘So don’t go thinking you’re alone in feeling alone, whatever made that particular morning a bad one.’ I wanted to ask him more about what made him feel alone, but he carried on speaking. ‘Which is to say: you’re welcome.’

Patrick grabbed his drink and we wandered over to the same bench where I’d cried on him two days ago.

‘Iwaspretty spunky at drama camp, wasn’t I?’ I mused. ‘I forgot about that. Do you remember staging that big midnight feast in the dining hall when we all got busted by the counsellors?’

‘Hadn’t that whole thing been your idea?’

I considered it. ‘I wanted us all to get together and sign a petition to get ice cream served after lunch as well as dinner,’ I recollected.

‘See, that’s what I remember about Annie Wiig. She knew what she wanted and how to get it done.’

‘Yeah!’ I exclaimed. ‘Wow. I just … totally forgot. You’re right. And it worked, didn’t it?’

‘You were literally all anyone talked about that whole summer. Even after you stopped coming people told stories about you as this urban myth of a student. I’ll bet you’re still spoken about now.’

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