Chapter 4 : C'mere

All that was before. This is some time later, some time before "Now".
But we'll get there, and soon.
"Look", Hugo said, "I liked what you wrote. It's honest. It's real. And in a way, you ended up writing about something that everyone at one time or another has felt."
"Some of the things you wrote have a little bit of Morrissey, or Neil Hannon, or even Nick Hornby in it. It's good. And to be frank, it's a whole lot better than your poetry. Well, at least that stuff you sent me. It was... Jesus, I don't know... well..."
"Hey, give me a break, okay?", I said stunned still by such high compliments.
"I was younger, and everything then seemed and felt romantic to me."
"Yes", you agreed, "Excessively so!"

Now, the strange thing about this conversation was that we were in some coffee shop or the other, somewhere in the city, but it really wasn't one; we were in a huge stadium, a Roman coliseum, packed with thousands, hundreds of thousands of faceless people looking at us, all the while shouting such incomprehensible phrases as "Oh horror upon horror!", "Cheat anti set-piece", and above all "Paura", which means "fear" in Italian.
"Excessively so... cessively so... ely so...", the words echoed in my mind, meaningless, until i forced my eyes open.

I woke up, and I remembered sage words said to me long ago, "Who knows what bounties tomorrow may bring?".
I held on to this moment of introspection, and took a quick shower and got dressed.
I got out of my house and while i pondered what to do, a familiar ring tone plays on my cell.
I saw who the caller was, thought for long seconds what to do, then I made a decision I would later regret.
"Fuck it", I thought. "Had to happen sooner or later."

"Heya", I said, maybe with too much excitement. Don't want to give you any wrong ideas, do I?
No, we don't, Precious, I said to myself in my best Gollum.
"Huh-huh, and you?"
"Hmm-hmmm."
"Ok."
"Ok, sounds good!"
Damn, there goes Mr. Cool.
"Today? Gee... today is kinda... well, yeah, ok. What time?"
"...."
"Ok, ok. I'll be there."

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!
Fuck!
What now?
Seven o' clock came, and off I went to meet her.

"It's way too late to be this locked inside ourselves.
The trouble is that you're in love with someone else...
It should be me... it should be me!"

Interpol, C'mere