Walking on the Sunny Side of Strange by Michael Graeme

Author:Michael Graeme [Graeme, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 9360328
Publisher: Feedbooks.com
Published: 2010-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

The Summer of ‘83

I haven’t been to Wigan for ages, not since the ‘80’s in fact and I can’t say for sure we’re really there now except it seems pretty much that way to me. If I’m correct, it’s a Thursday, just after lunch, and we’re standing in a huddle of people waiting to go inside the technical college on Parson’s Walk, but there’s been a fire alarm, and it’s chaos. It’s no hardship though because the sun is shining and every second I spend out here is a second less I’ll have to spend in class.

Okay,… so, here we are; this is the interesting bit: there’s a girl looking at me, smiling. Do you see her? That’s Serena, and I’ve been in love with her for a long time. Her smile is heart-warming - also completely unexpected because until this moment I’d not been aware of her having taken much notice of me.

Clearly though she is aware of me; dare I say she even seems to like me?

The crowd fades into the background and all I can see is her, except “see” isn’t the right word here. Sure - I can see every freckle, every individual eyelash, but I can also feel the texture of her skin, her clothes, her hair,… and though she is twenty feet away and just one person in the midst of so many others, I’m aware even of the warm-womany scent of her.

Emboldened by that smile I take a step closer, but the smile fades as if she’s read my thoughts and is wondering how to avoid the embarrassment of my making an unwelcome pass at her. See? She’s gone now, swallowed by the crowd whose din fills my ears once more as the fire alarm is ended and we all make our way towards the doors.

Here we are then, shuffling along corridors, heading for my Material’s Science session, which I warn you is going to be a couple of hours of grinding tedium, but you’re lucky because from my perspective things are made all the more unbearable by the ache in my heart, and the knowledge it might be weeks before I ever come that close to Serena again.

I’ve done this a few times now, slipped back to this moment, and what I’d really like to do is slow things down, savour the best bits, the glow of that smile for instance, and then pull out of it before this crushing disappointment kicks in, and I’m once more sitting listening to old Dodman explaining about Mhor’s Circle. I might have found a way of slipping back in time, but once I’m here, time ticks along at its normal pace and I’m unable to control how long we remain, though boredom usually kills it and sends you right back to whatever time you came from.

It’s curious, these trips to what I suppose must be the early summer of 1983, and my final year of the old HNC course.

It’s curious, because although I am myself,

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