Tuesday 23 June 2015

The Padlock

For audio click here
Dale looked across the table into Teresa’s eyes, she looked lovely tonight. The stress of the last few weeks seemed to have disappeared from her face and her eyes sparkled. When Terri’s eyes sparkled the world lit up.  She smiled back at him, there was a cheeky glint in her eye and that often meant she was planning something special in the bedroom department for later on. Dale’s phone buzzed in his pocket, he knew it was a message from Monica. When Monica’s eyes sparkled, they too would light up the world. But Monica was in Spain, so she could wait for another evening.
‘I was looking through some old photos,’ Terri said. ‘She turned her phone around and showed Dale a photo of the two of them in Paris. Dale smiled, they were on the lock bridge, smiling into the camera having just attached a lock to the bridge with Dale and Teresa forever written on it.
‘Do you remember what you said when we took that photo?’ Teresa asked.
‘I said I’d love you for as long as the lock was there.’ Dale replied proudly.
‘And then you threw the key into the river,’ Terri said.
‘And then I threw the key into the river.’ Dale repeated.
‘Shame you didn’t mention Monica then.’ Terri said flicking the screen so it now showed a picture of Dale draped all over a smiling Monica.
‘What the?’ Dale said. Terri flicked the screen again.
‘And now the locks have gone.’ The picture showed Parisian council workers clearing the locks from the bridge. ‘And so have I.’ Terri took her phone, stood up and left the table, walking out of the restaurant with her head held high.
‘Fish?’ The waitress said, holding two plates above Dale’s head. Dale glumly pointed to the empty space. The waitress put the steak in front of him and the fish in the place where Terri had been playing with her napkin.
How had she found out? Dale thought. He’d always been so careful. And now what was he going to do with the rest of the evening. He was hoping to get laid but that wasn’t going to happen with Terri now and Monica was away, this was not on the plan. To top it all he was going to have to pay for two meals. Terri and he always went Dutch, that was why he’d ordered the steak, it was more expensive than the fish but Terri was happy to just split the bill in half. Now he was going to have to cover the lot. Bitch. Oh well, if he was going to have to pay for it, he may as well eat it. He reached over and moved the plate next to his.
The fish was good, maybe better than his steak, he took a large mouthful of wine and another forkful of fish. As he swallow he felt something catch his throat, he coughed but he couldn’t move it, his eyes began to water, he tried to take a swig of water but was scared that he wouldn’t be able to breathe. He sounded like a cat bringing up a fur ball, trying to get the bone out of his windpipe. Some customers looked at him with disgust but others began to realise the severity of the situation, this man was choking.
A waiter came over and tried to perform the Heimlich Manoeuvre, he was skilled at the abdominal thrust but nothing was helping Dale. His face had gone from red to blue, his eyes were running dry, his body spasmed, he could feel himself losing consciousness.  Blue lights flashed in front of his eyes as he slipped away from the world.
Dale heard voices, his head hurt and his throat hurt. He opened his eyes and saw a woman in a white coat looking at a chart.
‘Must have been a hell of a bone,’ he croaked.

‘Oh hello Mr Cooper,’ she said. ‘Glad you’re with us, but it wasn’t a bone, it was this.’ She held up a small key. Dale didn’t need to look at it to know exactly which padlock it belonged to.

4 comments:

  1. Haha:-) another story in the series: What goes round, comes round?
    I like it and it brought back memories of one of my favourite childhood stories 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by Andersen. Here it is if you want to have a look:
    http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheSteadfastTinSoldier_e.html

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  2. Petra Goláňová26 June 2015 at 23:22

    I like the full of light sentences:
    "When Terri's eyes sparkled the world lit up. ...When Monica's eyes sparkled, they too would light up the world."

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