Old Porters

Excerpt from Old Porters: Moving Target

Abe saw a flash of blonde between the ever moving stream of students marching up and down the stuffy corridor. His first instinct was to warn Roger about who was coming, but Abe had only seen blonde hair. There was no way of knowing if it was her or someone else and warning him for no reason would only stress Roger out. Of course bumping into her with no warning would stress him out too. It was a dilemma and Abe did not know how to resolve it.

     “Heads up,” Steve said subtly disguised by a fake cough.

     Roger looked ahead and locked eyes with Kate Howe. The corridor suddenly felt like an empty void. Nobody in the way, no noise, no heat, just her. Roger had loved virtually everything about Kate for longer than he had been shaving. Blonde hair that looked like spun gold and an inquisitive mind. Eyes the same blue as the summer sky and the domestic skills of a slob. Hips that swayed when she walked and the ability to see him. Everything he had loved about her had been flipped from something that brought him joy to something that made him miserable.

Watching her walk towards him, Roger felt like someone had ripped his heart out and thrown it into a cement mixer, leaving him alive just long enough to see the grey cement splattered with chunks of gory red.

She smiled at him nervously. “Hi,” she said. “You got a minute to talk?”

He put his head down then pushed through the corridor without an answer.

     Abe and Steve watched Roger weave in and out of the students in matching uniforms. He vanished after a moment and the pair turned their attention to Kate. She was not smiling anymore. Her friends Heather and Lisa were talking to her, but Kate did not seem to be listening.

     “It’s been what, two months and he still can’t even look at her without pulling that face,” Steve mumbled. “God Roger can be a baby sometimes.”

     “Six weeks,” Abe corrected. He knew the date, it was burned into his memory because he had been dumped the exact same day. The difference was that Abe did not have to see Catherine all the time. He guessed that made things easier for him, but he wondered if she did live in OldPort instead of Browne, if he could have won her back by now. He guessed not.

“How’s Genevieve?” Abe asked. He could not ask how Catherine was, that would be weird, but asking how her non identical but still similar looking twin sister was, would be acceptable in anyone’s books.

     “Good,” Steve said a little reserved. He felt like he was rubbing his functioning relationship into his friend’s faces sometimes and now was one of those times. “I’m going to see her next weekend.”

     Abe nodded. There was no need for Steve to rub his happy, healthy relationship in everyone’s faces. “I suppose we should go find Roger, make sure he’s not crying or something.”

     “I don’t think he’ll be crying,” Steve said as they walked through the corridor in the direction Roger had gone. “Sobbing maybe but not crying.”