crazy?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t blame you. I’d probably think the same actually. You really are very calm about it.’
‘Well, if I must either go insane or be haunted, well…I could have done a lot worse.’
This time Tess laughed.
‘That has to be the single most unusual compliment I’ve ever had!’ she said, ‘Thanks – I think!’
‘So why are you here then?’ he said, ‘here at my flat, I mean, not here generally.’
‘Though you’d like to know that too.’
‘Yes, as I guess you would?’
She nodded.
‘To both, I don’t know,’ she gave a little shrug of her shoulders, ‘I guess the best I can come up with is that I’m here because you asked me to come with you. On that first day, in my flat, you asked me to come for a drink. I just didn’t know I could leave, oddly it had never occurred to me to try to leave. Then I was downstairs and…you just went. I didn’t know where you had gone. I just stayed there, waiting, hoping that you would come back.’
‘Which I did.’
‘Which you did.’ She got up and walked to the window to look out again. ‘Why did you?’
That was a very good question, just why had he gone back?
‘I don’t actually know. You seemed nice and, OK, we had only chatted for a few minutes but you seemed to be somebody I’d like to get to know better. You’d also intrigued me by vanishing when my back was turned!’
‘I did? I thought it was you that had gone.’
‘No, you did.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Well I think you have a reasonable excuse.’
What exactly are you doing, Dan, he asked himself. He was flirting with an enigma, a wraith, something that he was imagining, someone who only existed in his own mind. But he was enjoying it, he told himself, and not to knock it until you’ve tried it.
‘But you did come back and then you took me out of the building, outside, down to the water. It was good to be out, good to be with someone, good to be talking with you. But it was then I began to realise just how wrong things were. I couldn’t feel things; the cool of the air, the cobbles under my feet, nothing. And then we started to talk about the attack and that raised lots of questions for me, the gaps, everything. It all got too much. I just had to get away.’
They were silent for a while. Tess came back and sat down again. At last Dan asked; ‘How did you find me again?’
‘I don’t know. Accidentally I guess. There were more gaps but I then remember walking, not sure where I wanted to go just knowing I didn’t want to go back to my flat. I found myself in town. I went and found my old office. I watched some of my old colleagues going in and out. Then I realised it was Friday evening and that they would be heading out for a drink. I followed them.’
‘Did anyone see you?’
‘No. It was the same as before. I spoke to them but they ignored me. Or I thought they did.’ She caught Dan’s gaze again. ‘I think it’s just you that can see me.’
Dan wondered whether he should feel blessed or cursed.
‘Anyway most of them headed to Bar 37. I didn’t go in, just watched them through the window. And, to my surprise, you were there too.’
Dan nodded. There had been a lot of legal people in the bar. He knew a few of them from work, a few more from attending CPD events on planning and development.
‘Was the blonde girl you were with the one that just called?’ Tess asked, taking Dan by surprise.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘that was Jenny.’
‘Hmm, OK.’
‘Hmm?’
‘Nothing. I’m sure she’s very nice.’
If Dan didn’t know better he was sure that she was going onto say something about her being a lot younger than he was, or that she didn’t thing she was right for him, but Tess didn’t say anything like that. So – if Tess was in his head – was his subconscious telling him to wake up and smell the coffee and get real about Jenny? That she was too young and too lively for him?
He decided it would be better to move the conversation on.
‘So you followed me and waited for me?’
‘Yes.’
Dan nodded.
‘That’s a bit like stalking isn’t it?’ said Tess, ‘Sorry.’
Dan shrugged.
‘And since I brought you here you’ve been here ever since?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’ve moved things.’
She nodded.
‘Yes. Sometimes I can. It’s almost if I forget,