It is raining steadily. In the middle of the street, a woman stands, looking around her. She is shouting to a man nearby, 'Somebody call an ambulance!' Beside her, the body of another woman lies in front of a car. The door of the car is open and a man is sitting behind the wheel. He is shaking his head slowly.
THE FIRST time I met Serena, she was sitting by herself in a corner of Julia's Bar and Lounge, sipping a drink quietly. It was Friday night, and I was having the usual couple of beers with my friend Harry before heading home.
She sat primly, gazing through the window at the light drizzle that had begun to fall. Her hair was pinned up in a twist from which a few careless strands had escaped, giving her a rather tousled and vulnerable look. She was attractive, in an effortless sort of way, and she had the air of someone who
didn't quite know it. I'm not very good at talking to women, but I had been glancing at her all night and maybe it was the beer, but I was feeling adventurous. While Harry was gone to the bathroom, I decided to go over to her table.
She didn't look at me until I was standing right in front of her. Then, looking up, she smiled and said, 'Well, you might as well sit down. That's what you were going to ask me, isn't it?'
I gave a nervous chuckle and sat down, trying to think of something clever to say. Nothing came to mind. We sipped our drinks in silence for a while, while she looked at me expectantly.
She introduced herself, and I managed to remember my name.
'William,' she said. 'That means staunch protector.'
'I guess I can protect you then,' I said nervously. 'If you ever need it.'
KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR
'Oh, I always need protecting,' she said. 'Love a knight in shining armour.' Her laugh was like a tinkle of music amid the raucous bustle of the club.
'You don't usually find such a beautiful woman sitting by herself in a bar,' I commented.
She shook her head and gazed at the ice cubes swirling in her glass.
'And that's all I am?' she asked. 'A beautiful woman?'
Seeing the dark expression that had suddenly fallen across her face, I felt I had stepped in a wrong direction, and tried to redirect myself.
'Well, no, but...'
Then the dark look was gone, as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by twinkling eyes and a bemused smile. She laughed easily. 'No, you're probably right. Not much more to me than that.'
I thought she seemed a little bitter, but it sounded like a joke, so I laughed, too.
We chatted for a while, about music, politics, the high levels of violence in the country. She seemed unusually versed in foreign affairs, and I found out she had majored in international relations in college. I asked her what she did for a living.
'Not much,' she replied quietly. 'I do a little teaching at a local basic school. I like it a lot.' A shadow seemed to fall across her eyes again, and she drained the rest of her drink. I ordered two more, but as I looked at her, she suddenly seemed tired.
'Would you like me to leave?' I asked.
She shook her head, and smiled
suddenly. 'No, not yet.'
Outside it was raining even harder now, and low rumbles of thunder came and went in the distance. After a few uncomfortable minutes of silence, I was trying to think of something interesting to say when she put down her drink abruptly and said, 'Would you like to come home with me?'
Amazed, I shifted in my chair and cleared my throat. 'Well?'
INAPPROPRIATE
'Or we could go to your place.'
I tried to think of a response but my mind was blank. Was she serious?
'Forget it,' she said abruptly. She finished her drink and started to get up. 'That was inappropriate. I'm sorry.'
She stood there for a moment with a look of such infinite sadness on her face I felt she had misinterpreted my hesitation. I began to speak, all kinds of apologies and explanations on the tip of my tongue, but she shook her head and smiled brightly.
'Thank you,' she said. 'It was nice having someone to talk to.'
'Well, will I see you again?' I asked, standing too.
'Maybe.'
With that she walked away and stepped out into the unforgiving rain. The door swung closed.
I sat back down at the bar, where Harry was waiting for me.
'I can't believe you did that,' he said. I looked at him, blankly.
'Don't you know who that was?' he asked.
Serena, Harry told me, was married to Eddie Tavares, a well-known local businessman. His name was often in the social pages of the national papers, and he was always seen at events with some important CEO or politician. It was apparently a well-known fact that his 15-year marriage with Serena had been in trouble for years. They had no children, and it was rumoured that Eddie had several lovers.
'And she has no problem with this?' I asked, amazed.
Harry shrugged. 'She doesn't seem to.'
'Plus the guy is rich,' he added. 'Why would she?'
So Serena had continued to live her life without complaint. When she wasn't teaching, she spent most of her time gardening. She went to church, and she went shopping. Sometimes she simply sat at her window and stared out at the neighbourhood, for hours. Their neighbours speculated about her.
A peculiar feeling of disappointment had begun to creep over me. I couldn't believe that this was the intelligent, mysterious woman that I had just met.
Harry continued. 'Anyway, there was a big scandal about them the other day.'
I wasn't sure I wanted to hear more, but I let him go on.
A CROWD HAD GATHERE
One day a woman showed up at the Tavares' doorstep while Eddie was at work. She had two young children with her, and demanded to see Eddie. Serena locked the door and called her husband, who rushed home right away, but not before the woman had revealed to his wife, and all the neighbours who cared to hear, that Eddie was the father of her children. By the time he got home, a crowd had gathered in the street, and the woman was screaming abuse at the Tavares' door.
'She called her barren, a mule, all kinds of things,' Harry said. 'The police had to come take her away.'
It was eventually revealed that Eddie had had three children with two other women. The incident did little to affect his social life, but Serena became more withdrawn than ever.
'This just happened a couple weeks ago,' Harry said. 'I was really surprised to see her here.'
He had more to say, but I had stopped listening. I was thinking about what might have happened if I had accepted her invitation. I wanted to talk to her again, and ask her questions, and make her feel like she was important. I don't know why I wanted those things, all of a sudden, but I knew what I would do the next time I saw her.
We ordered more drinks and the conversation moved on to other matters. But I kept thinking about her and I wondered when I would see her again.
Outside, the rain thundered on.
It is raining heavily. A car is parked haphazardly in the middle of a street. A large crowd of people is gathered around it. A policeman stands next to a man, writing on a notepad. The man is shaking his head. He is staring at the body of woman on the ground in front of the car. 'She jus walk in front of the car,' the man is saying.
Nearby, another man stands in the doorway of a bar, staring.
