Everything felt almost, but not quite, normal and it was only when I glanced to my left and looked out over the sea wall that thoughts of yesterday's bizarre encounter returned. The ocean was calm, cool, deep, blue-grey and as reassuringly familiar as ever and yet, somewhere out there, an immense alien ship was hovering over the water. The road slowly curved away to the right and entered the centre of the village proper and I concentrated on driving again.
Clare's house was only a few miles away and I was there in no time. I knocked at the door and it was quickly answered by Penny. Her mum appeared in the hallway behind her.
'Hello,' I smiled. 'All right?'
Clare nodded and walked towards me.
'You were quick,' she said.
I went into the house and pulled the door closed behind me.
'I know. I had nothing else to do so I thought that...'
'Haven't you got a life anymore?' she laughed, interrupting me. 'It's a sad state of affairs when all you've got to do on a Saturday afternoon is come round here and put shelves up for me!'
'Siobhan's at work and Rob's still half-drunk from last night,' I explained.
Clare said nothing. She just shook her head and walked towards the kitchen.
Penny hovered at my side. I looked down and she flashed a toothy smile back at me.
'How are you, mate?' I asked, ruffling her already untidy hair.
'All right,' she mumbled before turning and running away from me as quickly as she could. I didn't take it personally. She was often awkward and embarrassed for the first few minutes whenever I visited. Once she'd got used to me being around I couldn't get rid of her.
I followed Clare deeper into the house.
'Want a drink?' she asked. I stood in the kitchen doorway and watched her.
'Something cold, please,' I replied.
'Juice or a beer?'
'Juice.'
Clare glanced across at me and then took a glass from the draining board and poured my drink. She looked tired but relaxed, a million miles from the smartly-dressed professional career-minded woman I'd first worked with at the office. Although we had worked well together from day one, it was only recently (since I'd actually left work) that our friendship had blossomed. She and James were the only two people from the company that I'd bothered to keep in touch with since leaving. Coincidentally, they were the only two people who had bothered to keep in touch with me.
I took my drink from Clare and followed her into the living room.
'How's work?' I asked for no real reason as I sat down on the sofa.
She looked at me with an expression that spoke volumes. She knew that I wasn't really interested and that I had asked more out of courtesy than for any other reason.
'Shit,' she replied bluntly. 'Remember how it was when you left?' I nodded. 'Well it's worse now. A damn site worse.'
I said nothing. For a few long seconds I remembered my time at the office and then immediately did my best to blank them from my mind. The months and years that I had spent there had without doubt been the most unrewarding period of my life so far.
Penny distracted me from my daydreams by slamming the door of a nearby cabinet shut. She stomped heavily across the room (with all the grace of someone fifty times her weight) and slammed a video cassette into the machine beneath the television. She sat cross-legged in front of the screen and waited impatiently for her film to start.
'So how are you two getting on?' I asked.
Clare was sitting on the arm at the other end of the sofa to me. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders and I noticed that her face had dropped slightly. She was obviously trying to keep her change in expression hidden from me but it wasn't working.
'We're okay,' she replied softly.
'Sure?' I pressed. I knew her well enough to be able to risk probing a little further. She shrugged her shoulders again.
'Honestly, we're fine.'
I wasn't convinced, but I could tell that she didn't want to talk. Times had been tough for Clare recently and I knew that she would confide in me if and when she needed to. Until then I knew that I should just back-off and give her space. Upsetting or offending my friend was the last thing I wanted to do and I didn't want her to misread my intentions. She was in the middle of a messy divorce from her husband and it