Isobel

Isobel Pt.11

Isobel stands gazing into the shop at Brendan. She knocks the window. He looks around startled and disorientated but is unsure where it is coming from. She knocks again. This time he sees her at the window.
She waves for him to come outside.
He looks confused.
She waves even more franticly.
Eventually, he gets what she is trying to say and goes outside to meet her. The bell rings as he leaves. His father comes up from the basement and observes Brendan with Isobel. He contemplates for a brief moment and then just shrugs to himself as he goes back to work.
Brendan and Isobel stand outside the shop. Things look awkward between them.
"Hi! How are you?" She said.
"I'm okay. So, you got out alright?"
"Yeah!"
She looks away from his stare. "I got out last night," she said. "I'm finding it hard remembering everything. I'd just like to apologise to you, for the way I behaved."
"You don't remember anything? He said. "Even trying to top yourself."
She laughs. "I'm sure I was only joking."
He looks at her in disbelief. "It didn't look like you were joking from where I was standing."
"Oh, you take things so seriously. I thought you were the crazy one," she said.
"You know you think you know someone and maybe you don't know them at all."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Take you for instance. You didn't even know me, when you agreed to meet me again. I could have been anybody, you wouldn't have known that."
"I think you can tell a lot about a person by just that first meeting. Whether they are a good person or not and I could tell from you, that you were a good person."
"What I'm trying to say is that my impression of you isn't exactly who you are," he said.
"There you go again always thinking too much about silly things and that's part of the reason why you make yourself unhappy. You're a very moral person, whether you like it or not."
"It's just catholic guilt," he said.
She smiles. "Call it what you will," she said. "I want to take you away. I want to make things up to you. I know things haven't been the best between us lately but I'd like to try. So, will you come away with me now?"
Brendan doesn't say anything.
"Will you?" She pleads.
He smiles at her. "I will."
She smiles back at him as he goes inside to the shop to tell his father that he's going away for a while.
She stands outside waiting on him. His father doesn't take too kindly to the news and you can hear the profanity as Brendan leaves the shop and heads off with Isobel.

Raymond is tapping away at the steering wheel as he reaches down and turns the dial, switching the station. He suddenly stops tapping as he sees Isobel and Brendan walking towards the car.
Brendan's face also changes to surprise as he wasn't expecting to see Raymond.
Isobel knocks the window on the passenger side for Raymond to let her in. He reaches over and lifts the lock on her door and the back door for Brendan. She gets into the front seat as Brendan gets in the back. Raymond looks in the rear-view mirror at Brendan. Brendan returns his glance.
Raymond switches off the radio. "Hi Brendan," he said.
"Hi. I called round to see you this morning but you weren't there," Brendan said.
"No...I...eh," Raymond looks out of the car window. "I left early. I went to the shop."
"Oh," Brendan looks away from Raymond's glance. "Is this your father's car?"
"Yeah."
"I thought you weren't allowed to drive it."
"No, I just borrowed it for a while."
Raymond starts the car and they drive off.

Isobel turns to Brendan. "You know what; I was just thinking we should find Raymond a girl. What do you think? Don't you think we could get a girl that would find him attractive?" She said.
"I don't know. It's hard to find any girl for Raymond. They would probably have to be blind. Raymond doesn't just fancy girls he falls in love with them. There is this girl called Sarah, whom he knows, he's got it bad for her talks about her all the time, never stops going on about her. He drives me crazy. He wants to go to places where he thinks she'll be. Do you know what? Do you know what the most pathetic thing is? He hasn't even spoken two words to her. She probably doesn't even know he exists. Now how sad is that?"
Isobel rests a hand on Raymond's leg, to reassure him. "I don't know. I think it's kind of sweet."
"It's sad!" Brendan said.
Isobel looks at Raymond. "You should meet her, before it turns to regret. Nothing is more crippling than wondering what might have been. It stops us living our lives."
Brendan is watching how they interact between each other. Raymond switches the radio back on and turns it up. A rock 'n' roll song plays away as the car speeds down the motorway.