The Shadow

Chapter 24 (Let It Snow)

-A (very VERY) late Christmas Chapter !

"Richard love? Care to help me a bit?" said the young girl standing behind him, trying once again to balance with the pins the Christmas lights above the doors of the clinic.

Richard smiled broadly and approached her, while still holding some garlands in his hands. He was beyond happy with the fact that his girlfriends had decided to pay a visit before Christmas to Liverpool.

Maureen had been Richard's girlfriend for some time. He had started dating her a year ago, when she was still fifteen and although she was practically a child, Richard had been astonished by Maureen's maturity even though she was four years younger than him.

She was a sweet, well-mannered brunette. Quiet, yet witty with nice sense of humor. Her dark brown eyes brightened up as she saw her blue-eyed boyfriend coming to her place and motioned her to climb down. As she did so, he leaned in and pecked her lightly on the lips, something that made her giggle gleefully.

"You know, I am glad you made it and came to visit me here."

"Of course, Richie. It's nice decorating the clinic you work at for Christmas."

"Sorry love, you know it was impossible to take a day off."

"No, I mean it. It's fun. And it's worth it to see people smiling with just some lights and a Christmas tree."

"You are golden Mo. Now get down and let me do all the hard work here."

Maureen smacked him lightly, something that almost caused the man to trip on the old ladder. She laughed at his flushed face and let him pin the lights on the wall while she walked towards the people decorating the Christmas tree. She could tell that some of them were patients here as the nurses stood close to them ready to intervene in case anything went out of hand.

She saw Paul sitting on the small sitting room alone, staring blankly at some young woman trying to come up with a Christmas melody on the piano.

He didn't even bother looking up as she was standing above him. Richard had talked to her about Paul and his case. He seemed like a nice guy and she couldn't even understand what made him one of the sick people. If anything he was a beautiful being, one of the finest men she had met. She liked him, obviously, not in the way she liked Richard but no one could deny he was attractive.

"Hello Paul."

The boy raised his eyes and gave her a smile.

"Hello Maureen. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, sure. Don't you want to help with the Christmas decorations?"

"Not really. Thanks for asking."

"Is anything wrong? You can tell me, you know." She sat down on the chair next to his.

"I'm just feeling homesick you know."

"You have every right. Are they going to visit you anytime soon?"

"Tonight, to be precise. But it's just, different to be here. Call it Christmas depression."

Maureen looked at the older man drifting away again, his attention somewhere else behind her. Curious, she turned to look at what might have distracted the hazel eyed boy. Her eyes met Richard and two other men talking. She couldn't detect their faces for they had their backs on her. As one of them turned to look at her place she realized why she was familiar with his body structure. It was John Lennon, Richard's fellow student in the psychiatry faculty and probably the other man was Stuart, John's closest friend as Richard had mentioned. She raised an eyebrow as he looked at her for a moment, nodded his head with a smile of recognition but then fixed his gaze in something, or better, in someone.