The Abnormality Of The Normality

'Where are you taking me?'

I am awoken by a light nudge. I open my eyes to complete darkness. I don't know where we are. As my eyes slowly adjust, I realise that we're parked in a small neighbourhood of apartments. It looks like quite a rough place if you asked me. "Al, you need to wake up, we need to walk from here." she speaks softly. I nod in response and allow her to help me out of the car. I walk close to her as we walk about half a mile down the street.

As we turn to walk down a small side alley I hesitate. I hated dark cramped spaces. Hayley turns to face me. "It's okay Al, we just need to cut through here and we'll be nearly there." She states. "where are you taking me?" I question. "We need to disappear for a couple of weeks so everything can blow over. I'm taking you somewhere safe. I will explain when we get there." She replies, not giving anything away. She can tell I am still nervous, so she closes the gap between us with a hug. I hug her back as I feel the world slow down around me. The moment lasts for only a few seconds. The world soon speeds back up again when she pulls away from me. She tucks some of my hair behind my ear and smiles determinedly. "come." She says as she beckons me to follow her. I walk close to her. As we walk our hands brush against one another and slowly intertwine. It was as if electricity was now pulsing through my veins. We walk through the rest of the alley like that. Hand in hand.

We emerge on an empty street  lit by only a few lamp posts. This neighbourhood looked more sophisticated. Instead of apartments, this road was full of mansions, each guarded by 8ft steel fencing. As I remove my hand, I attempt to study her face. She was rather good at hiding her emotions but let a few small details slip. She smiles at me, but it somehow looks forced. Her eyes betray her smile. Why did me removing my hand make her look so heartbroken? I attempt to hold her hand again just to get her to smile again, but she pulls away. I don't understand her right now. One minute she's wanting to hold my hand, the next she's not. I just don't understand her at all. She's a mystery to me. I tail behind her as she begins walking down the street, neither of us saying a word. At the end of the road she stops in front of a gate and buzzes to be let in. "who's there?" a voice asks through the speaker. She replies with "It's me, Aitch." "Okay, what's the code?" the speaker questions. "Tuesday, June 3, 1997" she replies. That's odd, it's the same date as the picture in Hayley's house. The gates open slowly to allow us in.

As we walk though, I am taken back a little by the building displayed in front of me. There are five stories with a long drive leading up to the front steps. As we walk up the drive, I take every little detail in. The driveway was lined with white pansy's and bright yellow daffodils. A lawn either side of these, mowed perfectly. To one side a large oak tree with a tyre swing attached to it. Once we get to the front door, I expect Hayley to ring the doorbell or knock on the door but to my surprise she just goes straight in. "I'm back!" she calls but gets no answer. "Come on," she speaks to me for the first time since the alley, "follow me." I follow her up a large staircase. She leads me down a corridor and then up a small spiral staircase. We come to a shut door at the top of the staircase of which Hayley opens to reveal a bedroom.

The room was about half the size of the one I had slept in at her house. It was small but cosy. A small single bed was in the corner. A bookshelf took up one wall in the room, packed to the brim with old classics and I'm almost certain there's a couple of first editions. On the wall where the bed is there is a large A2 poster of Maria Pensworth, a Canadian actress in the highly successful tv drama Dream-town. She is very famous for having a model body from a young age. She looks about 25 in this poster. I walk around the room inspecting it all as Hayley walks over and sits on the bed sighing. She looks both happy and sad all at once. Next to the bed is a small bedside table with an old picture on top of it. I recognise the woman in the picture as the mother in the painting.

Hayley beckons for me to come and sit next to her. "I guess it's time I explained a few things,"She pauses waiting for a response, but I just remain quiet, not wishing tointerrupt so Hayley continues. "I grew up here. This is my fathers house. I lived here until a few years ago when I was of age to have my inheritance, so Imoved to Newville. I couldn't bare to be in the same house as my father, so I just got up and left one morning. He always did blame me for her death." A tear escapes her eye as she speaks the last few words. Listening to her explain thismakes me realise I don't really know much about this woman I'm sat with."Hayley, who are you?" I ask quietly, I'm almost afraid of the answer. "My full name is Hayley Irene Johnson." She lowers her head as if ashamed. "Wait a second. Irene Johnson? As in the singer songwriter?" I ask finding it hard totake everything in. "You were the first person to ever not recognise me. I figured once you knew my full name you would be quick to put all the pieces together. I didn't want anything to change." She confesses, not daring to look me in the eye. I use two fingers to lift her face up like she had done to me before. "Hayley, nothing could affect how I feel about you." I tell her truthfully, "I am so grateful to have a friend like you" I add. Hayley stands up quickly, hurt written across her face. "you can go wherever you like in these grounds, but I need to go now" She informs me as she hurries out of the room.I spend the rest of the evening reading a copy of Blindman's chest whilst laying on the floor. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep.