A few years ago I visited my rainy hometown with a bandaged thumb. My aunt and uncle were visiting and I had to borrow my mom’s yellow raincoat to go downtown. An old friend had reached out and invited me to visit him and his new fiancée. I’m not sure why this day makes me think of you because it was years before we met but it does just the same.
The fiancée’s 24th floor condo was small and filled with women drinking wine and listening to pop music and their nails clinked on the plastic glasses. My friend was a tall man who stepped over them to stride across the room as they nodded to me in the doorway. He gave me a welcome embrace and introduced me to his fiancée and she held out her hand for a moment and warned me that her nails were new and to be careful. I took the free stool in the corner by the balcony window where the rescue dog watched the pigeons. My friend said I had catching up to do and handed me a mug of wine to my bandaged hand and I took it in my other.
His fiancée asked me about my thumb and I held it up higher and began to explain as she picked up her phone to take a picture of the two friends sitting on either side of the television. I stopped explaining and watched the rescue dog growl at the pigeons and took a drink from my mug and the wine was very dry but welcome. My friend stretched his legs halfway into the room and he sat up on the sofa, jostling the fiancee’s wine-glass and she adjusted her tiara and he apologised and asked me about the last couple of years since we had seen each other and I did my best to explain. He said they were running out of wine and maybe they could treat me to dinner and I felt my face flush but accepted.
Again, I don’t know why these memories are tied to you. You never met these people but I would have liked to have walked into that cramped condo with you. Maybe that’s the link?
The other women were too drunk to continue their Sunday Funday and the fiancée suggested a place down the road. Her nails clacked on her phone screen and I put on my boots and my mom’s raincoat and he slapped me on the back and told me that it was good to see me and I said that it was good to see him too.
The restaurant was brightly lit and empty and I nodded when he told me to order what I wanted but I ordered what he ordered and the fiancée ordered wine and some appetizers and asked the water for a cloth to clean the table. The wine was nice and the glasses were made out of glass and they told me the story of how they met. The food was fine and in the large window to the street, I saw my hometown framed in the rain as yellow taxis and umbrellas slid by. The fiancée told me I hadn’t finished my story about my thumb and I told the story and she shivered at the part when the knife went through me and my friend laughed and slammed the table.
But, this time, I’m placing you beside me at the table. We told them the story of how we met in that strange office, and our first halted hello as we passed each other in the hallway.
My friend paid the bill for dinner and I thanked him and the fiancée said something about her pasta. There was still enough afternoon left for another drink and the fiancée said she didn’t care where but didn’t like the pub he suggested but he insisted. The pub was crowded with a playoff game on the television and fans cheered loudly. We found a corner booth that looked comfortable enough. My friend yelled over the cheering and told me a story and I didn’t catch all of it but he reached over the table to slap my shoulder and the fiancée sent her martini back.
They decided to leave after one drink and I said I would stay on to watch the last few minutes of the game with the cheering crowd and he almost fell into the booth as he hugged me and laughed and slapped my back and the fiancée struggled a smile and waved with a flash of her new nails. I sat for a while with my bandaged hand on the table and finished what was left of my pint and decided to beat the rush and as I got up from the booth, I noticed that my friend forgot his credit card under the bill he had paid. I put it in my pocket and put my mother’s raincoat on as the game wound down and the home-team lost and a few other fans left the pub early with me.
On the corner with the light rain falling, I was glad to be finally alone. It occurred to me that I could walk for a bit uptown in the rain and it felt good. I’m sure you would have enjoyed that or maybe even have suggested it.
Oliver Sullivan 