Smurg
Fookin' Hell
Melodia
I began my walk here; as I looked at my surroundings I noticed that the sun was casting a deep orange light over all that I could see. I took a quick look behind me and saw that the sun was being slowly swallowed by the horizon. The day was fading into dusk and my stomach was still empty, it’s groans telling me nothing to the contrary. I walked along briskly whilst taking in the atmosphere of the place.
The Eiffel tower loomed in the background; this forced me to wonder how I’d suddenly reached these narrow Parisian backstreets. I shrugged off the thought and continued along. Cars whipped past me, silver and red blurs to my eyes. It was then that I spied a bakery, a small looking shop with open front windows and a huge red sign composed of red and gold paint. The bakery somehow stood out from everything else, all now seemed to be a morbid grey, except for this bakery. It glowed to me as if it was some secret shop that had sensed my spirit, and a hungry one it was too.
I marched up to it without a second thought; I couldn’t see much through the windows…almost as if there was nothing inside. I gave an almighty push and it was as if my hungriness had become manifest in my actions…ones of desperation.
The door swung open, it was joined with the tingle of a small bell that had been fastened to the top of the door. Clouds of resting flour were thrown up and proceeded to almost tumble away from the door I had just entered through. Before I even had a chance to glance at the wares the bakery sold, I saw her; a beautiful girl kneeling down and adjusting a small sign on the edge of the counter.
She had obviously been a little startled by my brusque entry and her eyes were open fairly wide…but she had a smile on her face. “Wow” was the only thought I could seem to muster as I looked at her. Her loveliness made my lungs seemingly unable to co-operate; I found myself a little short of breath. Her walnut eyes stared at me in a friendly manner, if that could be said.
“Hello!” she exclaimed in English as if somehow sensing that I didn’t speak French.
“Hi” I uttered almost sheepishly.
She stood up and said “I’m sorry, we are closing now, but if there is anything you would like, I’d be happy to get it for you. Although as you can see we haven’t much left.”
Her voice was so sweet and sincere; and the traces of French in her accent were hard to find but they added a certain regal sounding quality to her voice. For the first time since I had entered the shop I stopped looking at her and cast my gaze to the nearly bare glass-fronted counter. Her statement had been fairly correct; there was nothing for me to eat past a rather worn looking olive scroll – a food I had a large distaste for.
“Oh, you’re right…there isn’t much…I’m sorry to have bothered you, I was just really hungry.” It almost sounded like I felt sorry for myself; it was my stomach doing the talking however.
“Oh, that most definitely won’t do!” she said with a look of consternation on her face. Her brow furrowed up as if she was in deep thought, yet suddenly a cutesy grin emerged and she spoke.
“Well, if you give me five minutes, I’ll change out of these dirty work clothes, lock up and then I can show you somewhere to eat.”
I nearly gasped…I stopped myself short of this and looked quickly to the side as if to mask my surprise.
“Oh no, that’s too much trouble and you’ve just finished work, I don’t want to be annoying. I’m just hungry, I’m sure I can find my own way without bothering a girl who has just finished working.”
“It will be no trouble at all I assure you, let me just get changed!” she spoke quickly and before I could oppose anymore she walked off and through a door to a backroom in the bakery.
I decided I would stay and accept her offer, I was intrigued by her and I didn’t know where I would get food anyhow. Sure enough after roughly 5 minutes she emerged from the room, now dressed in a thick coat and blue jeans. She was carrying a bag which obviously contained her working clothes. She looked at me, and then reached up to her hair and slowly pulled out a pin that had been keeping her hair in place.
Her dark brown hair toppled down, brushing past her shoulders and continued further, almost reaching the middle of her back. She walked up to me casually and looked up into my eyes; she wasn’t that much shorter than me. ‘Just right’ I thought, she looked perfect…standing next to me.
“Well?” she questioned, making me burst out of my private reverie.
“Oh!” I exclaimed, realizing that she had asked me my name; my thoughts had prevented me from realizing this sooner. She giggled, I flushed slightly.
“Graeme” I said weakly.
“Well I’m Emily! Pleased to meet you, but you must be warned that here in Paris we believe that a man must kiss the hand of a girl when he first meets her.”
“You want me…to…ki…?” but before I could finished my half-stuttered sentence she raised her right hand towards me, I took it, and kissed the back of her hand gently. Her skin was smooth like silk, but as I let go, I felt that her palms were rough from the day’s work.
“Well that was lovely.” She said with a smile that took my breath away.
“It’s lovelier to have met you.” I uttered without thinking. Again she giggled…and yet again I flushed ever so slightly.
Without another word to this she said “Well shall we be on our way? I know this excellent little place just down the road. You’ll love it I’m sure, especially your stomach, I can hear it rumbling!”
She was right, I was slightly embarrassed by this, but I realized that being hungry was nothing to be embarrassed about. But somehow in her presence everything I did seemed to be some cause of embarrassment, as if I were doing something wrong with every action.
She finished locking the door, the padlock securely in place. She turned around and smiled yet again, now motioning for me to come over to her.
“Here.” And with that single word she took me by the arm and we started to walk.
“So how long have you been working here?” I offered some small talk if not only just to hear her voice again.
“Oh not very long, just a few months, it’s good work though, but hard at times!”
“Well you certainly are doing a good job with sales; otherwise I would’ve had something to eat back there!” I replied.
“Oh, but then we wouldn’t be here together.” She added with a smile.
At this, I just looked back at her…her smile was accompanied by a silly face, that was just too pretty for words. I couldn’t help but break out into a huge grin followed by a laugh. We both laughed and continued forth.
We eventually reached a small place on the street; large colourful umbrellas covered an assortment of chairs which were placed haphazardly at the front of the place.
“Just in here.” she said as she pointed at the door. “Would you prefer to take something to eat while we walk? I don’t enjoy sitting here very much.”
“That’s perfectly fine, I can eat on the move, and I’ll walk you to wherever you need to go.” I replied in hope.
I bought a chicken sandwich, and she ordered a coffee, when it was on the counter, I stepped in and paid for it…despite her protests.
“Hey, it’s for your courtesy, for showing me someplace to eat.”
It was now pitch black, the stars spotting the sky and the moon in full view, yet with some dark looking clouds looming close-by. She led me along to a riverfront, the moonlight glinting off the rippling surface as we walked; conversation occurred all the while, both of us learning more and more about one another.
She was a fascinating girl with a lot to say, she was strong in her opinion and had interesting views of the world. I must have interested her equally, as both of us did not run short of things to say. Often she would gaze at me and smile in ostensible wonderment, I could have kissed her.
As the river curved off, we decided to stop following alongside it and move off into the street that was in front of us, with the rows of riverside houses lining the pavement we now walked on. I saw a large water fountain in front of us, with giant stone lions as the centerpiece.
“Just past this fountain is where I live…I am sorry but tonight I cannot invite you in, my roommate will be sound asleep, and she has work very early.”
“That is more than ok; I wasn’t expecting any more charity tonight.” I said with a grin. I found myself now much more confident in her presence.
Our journey continued until we met the fountain, at first I thought it was spitting out water rapidly and hitting me. I looked up, and realized I had made a false assumption, it was rain, and the looming clouds had overtaken the moon and almost everything else in the night sky. The rain fell cold and fast on me…I hadn’t noticed the temperature until now, now the coat that Emily wore seemed very much appropriate. I looked down an Emily and saw that she was looking at the fountain with her back turned.
“Emily?” I called to her softly and proceeded to walk up to her.
Without pausing, she turned around and moved at me, we launched into a kiss. The kiss was charged with passion. Despite my initial surprise I was quick to drop my cares and gave her back what she gave me. The rain poured down around us as we were locked in this kiss. Everything else blurred, we were taken to another place…another reality…it was just the two of us engaged in a moment of pure passion.
Then after what felt like the longest time we broke the kiss, and a thousand flashes and reverberations of pure bliss discharged around me like electric in the air. I looked deeply into her eyes, she stared back at me. This time instead of a smile, a different look was on her face. I couldn’t quite comprehend that look.
“Now I truly am sorry I cannot let you in.” she said sadly. “Please meet with me again at the café tomorrow after I finish work…the same place…” with that, and nothing more, she walked off purposefully heading for the door of her house.
As soon as I heard the door closing…I looked up to the sky, thrust my hands aloft and let out a shout. Never before had I felt like this. A giant smile crept across my face - Emily would not leave my thoughts tonight.
Without knowing where I was or how I had slept, it was suddenly daytime, or at least everything was that deep orange which marked it as late afternoon. I woke up and sprung to my feet…I was in the street where I had started from the day before. This was all so strange…but the thought of seeing Emily again was too much for me to start questioning seemingly small lost details.
I had arranged to meet Emily in that small cafe; "I'm meeting Emily." The thought stuck in my mind. The lighting of the streets were now a surreal blue, a sort of dusk, but at the same time the light was fairly bright, enough to see most things in the distance at least. I hurried on thinking that I was late to meet Emily.
I rushed past the now-locked bakery which confirmed I was indeed late. It was then that I heard my name being called and a clamour of footsteps following. I turned around and saw her there, she smiled brightly and ran up to hug me...this embrace was so warm, and so close… Was this love I felt? We simply said how much we had missed each other... and what I remember most was just looking at her...her smiling back at me...and me feeling like I could fly.
We were both dressed in thick coats, hers with a big fleecy collar as the day before. I looked up at the sky and noticed that rain clouds had gathered again...or had been hanging over us without actually letting the rain fall. It was then it started to rain...it poured down fairly heavily, I could see the drops slapping off the cold pavement in front of us and the machine-gunning noise of drops on rooftops.
It was a fairly empty street that we were on now, a backstreet that wasn't quite a backstreet and instead a fairly open road...but it wasn't very busy. As the rain fell down, Emily made a small noise and told me she was cold...she then proceeded to rest her head on my shoulder as we walked. I slipped my arm around her and held her tightly...the embrace yet again provided me with so much warmth. I now knew that I was in love and was in no way going to be able to escape it, not that I wanted escape from this paradise.
It was then that I heard the music, a melody that was soft and sweet...it was coming from a violin or group of violins, the dulcet tune almost wafting up the street on the wind. I felt her hug getting tighter and all semblances of cold disappeared from my body. I looked down at her smiling back at me, she turned her head forward. Being taller than her, she was leaning down and as I saw the top of her head, I kissed it...again this was one of greatest feelings I had ever felt. As cliché as it might sound, I hoped this lasted forever.
This is when I was shafted into true reality.
A dream. Like a bad cliché I realized that all of this had been a dream. This was too much for me to take, I broke down then and there in my bed, and the tears poured in torrents down my heartbroken face.
Her name still resonated in my head. Her smile was trapped within my mind...
~
The Story behind the story:
This story surprisingly bears some semblance to truth. A fair proportion of this story was really a dream that I had. On request I turned it into an entire story and this is it the end result.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
- Smurg
I began my walk here; as I looked at my surroundings I noticed that the sun was casting a deep orange light over all that I could see. I took a quick look behind me and saw that the sun was being slowly swallowed by the horizon. The day was fading into dusk and my stomach was still empty, it’s groans telling me nothing to the contrary. I walked along briskly whilst taking in the atmosphere of the place.
The Eiffel tower loomed in the background; this forced me to wonder how I’d suddenly reached these narrow Parisian backstreets. I shrugged off the thought and continued along. Cars whipped past me, silver and red blurs to my eyes. It was then that I spied a bakery, a small looking shop with open front windows and a huge red sign composed of red and gold paint. The bakery somehow stood out from everything else, all now seemed to be a morbid grey, except for this bakery. It glowed to me as if it was some secret shop that had sensed my spirit, and a hungry one it was too.
I marched up to it without a second thought; I couldn’t see much through the windows…almost as if there was nothing inside. I gave an almighty push and it was as if my hungriness had become manifest in my actions…ones of desperation.
The door swung open, it was joined with the tingle of a small bell that had been fastened to the top of the door. Clouds of resting flour were thrown up and proceeded to almost tumble away from the door I had just entered through. Before I even had a chance to glance at the wares the bakery sold, I saw her; a beautiful girl kneeling down and adjusting a small sign on the edge of the counter.
She had obviously been a little startled by my brusque entry and her eyes were open fairly wide…but she had a smile on her face. “Wow” was the only thought I could seem to muster as I looked at her. Her loveliness made my lungs seemingly unable to co-operate; I found myself a little short of breath. Her walnut eyes stared at me in a friendly manner, if that could be said.
“Hello!” she exclaimed in English as if somehow sensing that I didn’t speak French.
“Hi” I uttered almost sheepishly.
She stood up and said “I’m sorry, we are closing now, but if there is anything you would like, I’d be happy to get it for you. Although as you can see we haven’t much left.”
Her voice was so sweet and sincere; and the traces of French in her accent were hard to find but they added a certain regal sounding quality to her voice. For the first time since I had entered the shop I stopped looking at her and cast my gaze to the nearly bare glass-fronted counter. Her statement had been fairly correct; there was nothing for me to eat past a rather worn looking olive scroll – a food I had a large distaste for.
“Oh, you’re right…there isn’t much…I’m sorry to have bothered you, I was just really hungry.” It almost sounded like I felt sorry for myself; it was my stomach doing the talking however.
“Oh, that most definitely won’t do!” she said with a look of consternation on her face. Her brow furrowed up as if she was in deep thought, yet suddenly a cutesy grin emerged and she spoke.
“Well, if you give me five minutes, I’ll change out of these dirty work clothes, lock up and then I can show you somewhere to eat.”
I nearly gasped…I stopped myself short of this and looked quickly to the side as if to mask my surprise.
“Oh no, that’s too much trouble and you’ve just finished work, I don’t want to be annoying. I’m just hungry, I’m sure I can find my own way without bothering a girl who has just finished working.”
“It will be no trouble at all I assure you, let me just get changed!” she spoke quickly and before I could oppose anymore she walked off and through a door to a backroom in the bakery.
I decided I would stay and accept her offer, I was intrigued by her and I didn’t know where I would get food anyhow. Sure enough after roughly 5 minutes she emerged from the room, now dressed in a thick coat and blue jeans. She was carrying a bag which obviously contained her working clothes. She looked at me, and then reached up to her hair and slowly pulled out a pin that had been keeping her hair in place.
Her dark brown hair toppled down, brushing past her shoulders and continued further, almost reaching the middle of her back. She walked up to me casually and looked up into my eyes; she wasn’t that much shorter than me. ‘Just right’ I thought, she looked perfect…standing next to me.
“Well?” she questioned, making me burst out of my private reverie.
“Oh!” I exclaimed, realizing that she had asked me my name; my thoughts had prevented me from realizing this sooner. She giggled, I flushed slightly.
“Graeme” I said weakly.
“Well I’m Emily! Pleased to meet you, but you must be warned that here in Paris we believe that a man must kiss the hand of a girl when he first meets her.”
“You want me…to…ki…?” but before I could finished my half-stuttered sentence she raised her right hand towards me, I took it, and kissed the back of her hand gently. Her skin was smooth like silk, but as I let go, I felt that her palms were rough from the day’s work.
“Well that was lovely.” She said with a smile that took my breath away.
“It’s lovelier to have met you.” I uttered without thinking. Again she giggled…and yet again I flushed ever so slightly.
Without another word to this she said “Well shall we be on our way? I know this excellent little place just down the road. You’ll love it I’m sure, especially your stomach, I can hear it rumbling!”
She was right, I was slightly embarrassed by this, but I realized that being hungry was nothing to be embarrassed about. But somehow in her presence everything I did seemed to be some cause of embarrassment, as if I were doing something wrong with every action.
She finished locking the door, the padlock securely in place. She turned around and smiled yet again, now motioning for me to come over to her.
“Here.” And with that single word she took me by the arm and we started to walk.
“So how long have you been working here?” I offered some small talk if not only just to hear her voice again.
“Oh not very long, just a few months, it’s good work though, but hard at times!”
“Well you certainly are doing a good job with sales; otherwise I would’ve had something to eat back there!” I replied.
“Oh, but then we wouldn’t be here together.” She added with a smile.
At this, I just looked back at her…her smile was accompanied by a silly face, that was just too pretty for words. I couldn’t help but break out into a huge grin followed by a laugh. We both laughed and continued forth.
We eventually reached a small place on the street; large colourful umbrellas covered an assortment of chairs which were placed haphazardly at the front of the place.
“Just in here.” she said as she pointed at the door. “Would you prefer to take something to eat while we walk? I don’t enjoy sitting here very much.”
“That’s perfectly fine, I can eat on the move, and I’ll walk you to wherever you need to go.” I replied in hope.
I bought a chicken sandwich, and she ordered a coffee, when it was on the counter, I stepped in and paid for it…despite her protests.
“Hey, it’s for your courtesy, for showing me someplace to eat.”
It was now pitch black, the stars spotting the sky and the moon in full view, yet with some dark looking clouds looming close-by. She led me along to a riverfront, the moonlight glinting off the rippling surface as we walked; conversation occurred all the while, both of us learning more and more about one another.
She was a fascinating girl with a lot to say, she was strong in her opinion and had interesting views of the world. I must have interested her equally, as both of us did not run short of things to say. Often she would gaze at me and smile in ostensible wonderment, I could have kissed her.
As the river curved off, we decided to stop following alongside it and move off into the street that was in front of us, with the rows of riverside houses lining the pavement we now walked on. I saw a large water fountain in front of us, with giant stone lions as the centerpiece.
“Just past this fountain is where I live…I am sorry but tonight I cannot invite you in, my roommate will be sound asleep, and she has work very early.”
“That is more than ok; I wasn’t expecting any more charity tonight.” I said with a grin. I found myself now much more confident in her presence.
Our journey continued until we met the fountain, at first I thought it was spitting out water rapidly and hitting me. I looked up, and realized I had made a false assumption, it was rain, and the looming clouds had overtaken the moon and almost everything else in the night sky. The rain fell cold and fast on me…I hadn’t noticed the temperature until now, now the coat that Emily wore seemed very much appropriate. I looked down an Emily and saw that she was looking at the fountain with her back turned.
“Emily?” I called to her softly and proceeded to walk up to her.
Without pausing, she turned around and moved at me, we launched into a kiss. The kiss was charged with passion. Despite my initial surprise I was quick to drop my cares and gave her back what she gave me. The rain poured down around us as we were locked in this kiss. Everything else blurred, we were taken to another place…another reality…it was just the two of us engaged in a moment of pure passion.
Then after what felt like the longest time we broke the kiss, and a thousand flashes and reverberations of pure bliss discharged around me like electric in the air. I looked deeply into her eyes, she stared back at me. This time instead of a smile, a different look was on her face. I couldn’t quite comprehend that look.
“Now I truly am sorry I cannot let you in.” she said sadly. “Please meet with me again at the café tomorrow after I finish work…the same place…” with that, and nothing more, she walked off purposefully heading for the door of her house.
As soon as I heard the door closing…I looked up to the sky, thrust my hands aloft and let out a shout. Never before had I felt like this. A giant smile crept across my face - Emily would not leave my thoughts tonight.
Without knowing where I was or how I had slept, it was suddenly daytime, or at least everything was that deep orange which marked it as late afternoon. I woke up and sprung to my feet…I was in the street where I had started from the day before. This was all so strange…but the thought of seeing Emily again was too much for me to start questioning seemingly small lost details.
I had arranged to meet Emily in that small cafe; "I'm meeting Emily." The thought stuck in my mind. The lighting of the streets were now a surreal blue, a sort of dusk, but at the same time the light was fairly bright, enough to see most things in the distance at least. I hurried on thinking that I was late to meet Emily.
I rushed past the now-locked bakery which confirmed I was indeed late. It was then that I heard my name being called and a clamour of footsteps following. I turned around and saw her there, she smiled brightly and ran up to hug me...this embrace was so warm, and so close… Was this love I felt? We simply said how much we had missed each other... and what I remember most was just looking at her...her smiling back at me...and me feeling like I could fly.
We were both dressed in thick coats, hers with a big fleecy collar as the day before. I looked up at the sky and noticed that rain clouds had gathered again...or had been hanging over us without actually letting the rain fall. It was then it started to rain...it poured down fairly heavily, I could see the drops slapping off the cold pavement in front of us and the machine-gunning noise of drops on rooftops.
It was a fairly empty street that we were on now, a backstreet that wasn't quite a backstreet and instead a fairly open road...but it wasn't very busy. As the rain fell down, Emily made a small noise and told me she was cold...she then proceeded to rest her head on my shoulder as we walked. I slipped my arm around her and held her tightly...the embrace yet again provided me with so much warmth. I now knew that I was in love and was in no way going to be able to escape it, not that I wanted escape from this paradise.
It was then that I heard the music, a melody that was soft and sweet...it was coming from a violin or group of violins, the dulcet tune almost wafting up the street on the wind. I felt her hug getting tighter and all semblances of cold disappeared from my body. I looked down at her smiling back at me, she turned her head forward. Being taller than her, she was leaning down and as I saw the top of her head, I kissed it...again this was one of greatest feelings I had ever felt. As cliché as it might sound, I hoped this lasted forever.
This is when I was shafted into true reality.
A dream. Like a bad cliché I realized that all of this had been a dream. This was too much for me to take, I broke down then and there in my bed, and the tears poured in torrents down my heartbroken face.
Her name still resonated in my head. Her smile was trapped within my mind...
~
The Story behind the story:
This story surprisingly bears some semblance to truth. A fair proportion of this story was really a dream that I had. On request I turned it into an entire story and this is it the end result.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
- Smurg