Comrie

. . . .

I had had too much to drink and too much to smoke. I could feel that I was becoming drunk, not quite there yet, that in between stage. I knew that I was acting slightly irrationally, but I was past caring.

I had been watching her all night and had caught her on one or two occasions looking my way. We were both actually aware of each other and yet neither one of us had made the slightest attempt to approach the other. It was now, however, time to act or walk away and regret it later. I saw her look across, she smiled, I smiled and raised my glass, she responded and I moved across to her table. She watched me as I approached, never once taking her eyes off me. I said hi and sat down opposite her. She responded by saying, I thought you were never going to come across. I smiled and said that that would have been a pity. We made small talk flirting with each other, all the while drinking each other in with our eyes. The conversation was polite enough, the eyes were not. We were undressing each other and more. We left around 2am and went back to her place. Now we no longer spoke, overcome by the hunger we had been feeding for the last hour or two. We were barely in the door when we started undressing each other. She giggled and told me to be quiet her flat mate was asleep. We remained entwined and shedding clothes on our way to her bedroom. Eventually when we had both sated our hunger sufficiently we fell asleep.

I woke up in the morning with a few aches and pains and looked across at – oops, I couldn’t remember her name. Had she told me, I couldn’t remember. How much had I had to drink? She was still asleep, my arm was under her and I didn’t want to wake her. On the other hand I wasn’t sure what time it was. I did know it was Sunday morning and I had no pressing engagements so I snuggled back in and fell asleep again. When I awoke again, I was alone in the bed. I heard some whispering outside in the passage and presumed Mary must be talking to her flat mate. Mary was her name, strange I couldn’t remember it before. She came in through the door and noticing I was awake asked me how I felt. I wasn’t sure what to make of the question? Had I not been alright last night or this morning, what had I done, to warrant this question? I said I felt fine and returned service by asking her how she felt this morning. I added, I hope we didn’t wake your flat mate? She smiled, no its ok she doesn’t mind. It’s not as if I do this every weekend, you know. I was relieved to hear this as I was now wondering whether I should be regretting last night. She asked if I would like a cup of tea. I said that would be great and she slipped out of the room again. I started to look around the room. I was still surveying the bookcase when Mary came back in with 2 cups of steaming hot tea. We sat on the bed drinking our tea there was an uncomfortable silence between us. We were both aware of it and started speaking at the same time. We started laughing. After that we were more comfortable with each other. And discussed all sort of things.

An hour passed in no time. We had so much information to share with each other and we were getting on rather well, I thought. Somewhere during our discussions I had heard the front door closing and I presumed her flat mate had left. She then told me that she had to visit her Mom that afternoon and had to get ready. She asked me whether I would like a shower and we slipped into the shower together. This time I was a bit more self conscious and was glad that her flat mate had left before we had our shower. Imagine my surprise when I came out of the bathroom naked, only to discover Mary’s flat mate sitting at the kitchen table, with raised eyebrows, surveying me. I mumbled an apology and made a dash for the bedroom. She responded to me by saying something about nothing she hasn’t seen before. I heard her and Mary talking, followed by some giggling again.

Mary came into the room and was smiling from ear to ear, something had really amused her. We got dressed and I asked her for her phone number and said I would phone her during the week and we could go out for a drink or something. She said that that would be great and I left.

So that was how Mary and I met. Not really a story book meeting just two people mutually attracted to each other and acting on those impulses. I phoned Mary later during the week and we went out for a drink. It was the start of a whirlwind romance that culminated with us moving in together five months later.

We had a lot in common but also had our own individual interests. I had been going to the opera by myself and now had someone who thought the human voice was the ultimate instrument. She had often struggled to find someone to accompany her to the Glasgow Film Theatre to see the latest European films. Well some of my all time greats were films like Cinema Paradiso, so I had no problem with that. I was in to Tai Chi and she liked Yoga. We both had an interest in the spiritual side of things but not in standard religion. I was busy with environmental studies and she was doing a course in holistic crystal healing. I was interested in shamanic work. So we wrapped ourselves around each other but not to the extent that we felt could not breathe.

We had been in a relationship for about roughly a year when David appeared on the scene. I had met him through my studies. We were working in a project team together and we were going to Comrie, the earthquake capital of the UK for the weekend. Mary couldn’t come for the weekend but said that she would come down on Saturday evening. We had hired a holiday chalet in St Fillans, a few miles from Comrie. We’d first spent the day at the British Geological hut in Comrie, going over the seismographic equipment and replacing the paper rolls on the machine. Professor Heart from Stirling University was there and he discussed the Dudley earthquake, which was 4.7 in magnitude, and took place in 2002. We then hiked about 2 km’s south of the hut so that we could see the great Highland fault which is visible, above ground, at this point and runs all the way beyond Inverness. We were fairly tired when we got back to the chalet and David had suggested we make use of the barbecue, I thought it was a good idea and he started the fire, whilst I had a shower.

Mary arrived at about 19h30, later than I expected. I had heard a car coming up the narrow road and saw that it was her and waved from the balcony. She was soon in my arms and complaining that she had met a tour bus on one of the blind corners just the other side of Aberfoyle, she was a bit shook up about it. I poured her a whisky and after a short while she had settled down again and was back to her usual self. I introduced her to the rest of the project team. There were five people in total in the project, David his girlfriend Cassandra, Michelle part of the team was by herself, Bob and his girlfriend Sharon, Laura and her boyfriend Michael and last but not least Phillip by himself. We were having a barbecue at my place with David in the next chalet and Laura in the chalet next to him. Michelle was staying with a friend in Crieff and Bob was in the Lochearnhead caravan park. Both had decided to come through for a drink so we were all huddled in and on the veranda of my chalet. Personally I thought Bob and Michelle had something going.

It was a clear crisp autumn evening and there were far more stars in the sky than you would usually see in the city. We were all fairly pleased with the amount of work we had managed to cover and it only left us with a few minor details to sort out the next day. So we were all relaxed and enjoying a few drinks. What really happened next has several versions but the sum total of it was that the barbecue was knocked over. The sliding door was open and the coal and fire-lighters were strewn all over both the veranda and the living room. Well everything happened so quickly in no time there was a real fire in the chalet and everyone was running around looking for a hose pipe or a container to scoop water from the mountain stream. There was just enough confusion and delay to allow the fire to really take hold. Well in no time we had to beat a hasty retreat. Someone phoned the emergency services who contacted the fire brigade in Killin who sent out an engine. By the time they arrived my chalet was just a shell of what it had been. Their concern was the surrounding chalets and ensuring that the fire did not spread. An ambulance from Callander arrived about 15 minutes later. I had not even realised that I had burned my hands in an attempt to pickup some of the coal. They bandaged them and suggested that I come with them for treatment. By this time there was quite a crowd and the police were now taking statements from our group as to what had happened. It seemed that I was being blamed for horsing around and that I had pushed David who had stumbled knocking over the fire. So ultimately I was to blame, by the sounds of it. Mary was off to one side and seemed to be crying, Cassandra had her arm around her.

I climbed into the ambulance and looking back at the group – I wondered if we would ever be quite so carefree again, as we had been, just over an hour and a half ago.