nettle.
‘Tess,’ he said, ‘How did you get in here?’
He expected either a long pause or some long winded explanation. Instead she answered immediately and succinctly:
‘You let me in.’ Her voice was quiet but firm.
‘I did?’
‘Yes.’
‘When?’
This time there was a long pause, so long that Dan wondered if she was ever going to answer.
‘The other night?’ she said at last.
He noticed that this wasn't a statement; there was a definite lift at the end of the word. She had been asking a question. But he couldn't get away from the actual words. The other night. Of course. The night that he had brought her back here. It explained nothing but instead it begged the obvious question which he had to ask.
‘If that really is the case, Tess, then where have you been since then?’ He was surprised at how angry he was, and how easily and quickly the anger came out in his voice.
But then he was also surprised by her reaction; Tess got to her feet and went over to the window, staring out into the now gathering gloom. Again it took her a long time to answer but Dan, despite his anger, waited patiently.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, her voice barely audible. ‘I don’t know. Sometimes I’m here, sometimes…I just don’t know. Sometimes I’ve been here and I’ve talked to you but you’ve just ignored me.’
She turned, tears were now rolling down her cheeks.
‘I don’t know what’s happened to me Dan. Since I was attacked I have blanks in my life. Huge ones. And people ignore me. I speak to them and they ignore me. I’m so scared, Dan, so scared.’
Dan found his anger had gone. He walked across to her, not caring about finding out more, he just wanted to put his arms around her. However, Tess though looked alarmed and held her hands up in front of herself defensively.
‘No!’ she said sharply, ‘No you can’t. Please, I don’t know why but please don’t touch me.’
Dan stopped.
‘I only wanted to give you a hug,’ he said. ‘I really think you need one.’
She nodded. ‘I think I do. I just know I can’t let you. I just don’t know why I know.’ She wiped her tears away, ‘I’m OK, really. This is stupid. I never cry. That's for softies. I don't know why my eyes have got so damned leaky!’
She gave Dan a weak smile.
‘OK,’ he said gently, ‘Come and sit down again, where you were,’ he nodded at the settee, ‘and I’ll go back to where I was when you came in. Please.’
She nodded and they both went and sat down, Tess wiping the last of her tears away.
‘I feel so silly,’ she said, ‘I was never one for crying. I was always the one in control, always the one that everyone came to when they needed a shoulder to cry on. Now look at me! Pathetic.’
‘You’re not pathetic. I can understand you being upset under the circumstances.’
Tess looked up quickly.
‘Why? What circumstances? What do you know?’
Dan was stumped. What could he say? What was safe or right? Was it safe for him to tell his imagination that she was just that?
But what if it wasn’t that? What if she was something else?
No. No Dan, those things don’t exist.
But who was she?
What was she?
She read the discomfort and confusion in his face and her eyes filled with tears again.
‘Please explain this to me. Please? Explain it how I can’t remember touching anyone since I was attacked. No one at all. I have not had any human contact since. How can that be? How?’
Dan stayed silent. He just couldn’t think what to say.
‘Wait,’ she said, clearly remembering something, ‘I have touched someone. I think I touched you the other night.’
‘Me?’ said Dan, ‘You touched me?’
She nodded, looking slightly guilty.
‘I kissed you. You talked to me and you were nice and…I kissed you when you fell asleep. Sorry, that was a bit wrong of me.’
Dan brought his fingers to his lips. He remembered…something.
‘I kissed you,’ she went on. She was frowning now. ‘I kissed you and then…another blank. And the next thing I knew, it was suddenly daytime and you were gone.’ She put her head in her hands, ‘Oh Dan, what’s happening to me? What happened to me?’
Dan took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. What could he say to her?
He opened his eyes and put his glasses back on.
Tess had gone.
Chapter Eleven
Tuesday Night
Dan sat on the settee for a full ten minutes before moving. He found that