The Canal by Lee Rourke

Author:Lee Rourke [Rourke, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-935554-90-5
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2010-10-27T04:00:00+00:00

- six -

As I was about to vacate the bench, somewhat nonplussed and weary, ready to walk back home for food, I noticed it on the ground, by the discarded cigarette ends, nestled by the right-hand foot of the bench: her purse. My heart skipped and began to pump blood faster and faster through my veins until it felt like my head was about to explode. It was a nondescript black purse, probably quite expensive. It was stuffed with money and credit cards. I counted the money: £410 in total. I immediately thought of all the things I could have bought with such an amount. Not that I was in any desperate need for money—I had been left a considerable sum which, if used wisely, would take care of me for quite some time. Yet, what was she doing with all that money in her purse? It’s not that she was going anywhere special. Surely it wasn’t safe? I looked for other things. There was an old, faded photograph. It looked like it had been left out in the sun, or beneath a strong light. I looked at the photograph. It was definitely her. She was standing next to someone, a man. I suddenly looked over to the man at his desk working through his pile of invoices, but he had gone, his desk was empty. I was unable to compare the faded image on the photograph with his bulk and frame—not that I thought it was him. I put the money back in the purse and pulled out two cards: a debit and a credit card. One gold, one silver. I held both in my hands and looked at her name. It was the same on each:____________. It was an ordinary name. It suited her. If I had a daughter I would probably want her to be called that, too. I held the cards in my hand, staring at them. It felt like a breakthrough had happened. I looked at the canal. The sun must have been shining directly above me because the whole of the canal—at least as far as I could see—seemed to be glistening, as if it was molten rock, or mercury. It shone with a cool brilliance that I had never quite seen before. It reminded me of machinery, a conveyor belt carrying a gleaming product through assemblage towards some state of completion. I looked at it for as long as I could, for as long as it lasted, and knowing that I would probably never see such light again. Then everything turned back to how it was before I looked at it … the murky water, the greyness. Then, as everything changed back, as one would switch off a light in a room, I found the card.

I stared at it. It was all I could do. My heart stopped functioning, blood lay dormant within me, things stopped. I was unable to do anything with it, the card, holding it in my hand with her purse and its other contents, my body unable to register, to deal with it, a momentary lapse.

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