Cathy Meardon entered Victoria Park a little after 8.30pm, and she was apprehensive about walking through the park at dusk but she was late for an appointment, so she didn’t feel she really had a choice.
Her brisk pace was as a result, in equal
measure, of her tardiness and her growing unease.
The appointment she was rushing for was with
friends at the Pink Parasol, a trendy pub that had the gimmick of only allowing
patrons to enter if they are wearing pink, the more pink the better.
Which is why Cathy was wearing a pink dress,
pink shoes and carried a pink handbag.
Ken Smith was heading in the opposite
direction to Cathy on his way home from work and couldn’t help but notice the
girl in the pink dress.
He always noticed pretty girls, especially
blondes, and he knew from the colour of her dress where she was headed.
As he passed her on a parallel
path she reached into her bag for her mobile phone and as she pulled it out she
also pulled out a small manila envelope with it, which fell silently to the
floor.
As Cathy strolled
purposely on, totally oblivious of her loss, Ken hurried to the point where he
had seen the envelope fall.
He picked it up and
saw it was addressed to Miss Catherine Meardon, 59 Carrington Avenue,
Abbottsford.
“That’s interesting”,
he thought, as she only lived one street away from him.
He didn’t look at the
contents of the envelope but thought quite understandingly that if she was
carrying it in her handbag it must be of some importance, so he set off to
close the distance that had opened up between them.
She was a small woman
but she covered the ground quite quickly regardless, Ken was a foot taller with
longer legs and yet he was still struggling to catch her.
Cathy had noticed the
man as they passed by, and she thought him quite handsome, and was at the time
disappointed they weren’t going the same way, but as soon as she noticed that
he was following her she didn’t think him so handsome anymore.
As pretty as she was
from the front, Ken had to say she had a very nice rear aspect and those busy
little legs of hers were really very attractive.
As she walked faster
so did he, but she was walking as fast as her little legs could carry her and
she thought she would easily reach the exit from the park before he caught up
with her, but then her legs began to tire and it was like she was walking
through treacle and he was gaining on her with every stride
Ken called after her
as he got closer but she had earpieces in so she couldn’t hear him and when she
glanced over her shoulder she was alarmed to see he was muttering to himself as
he got closer.
Cathy was in sight of
the gate just as Ken got close enough to put a hand on her shoulder and she
turned around and maced him.
“Get away you pervert”
she screamed
“What the fuck did you
do that for?” he shouted as the spray began to burn his eyes
“Because you’re a
pervert” she said
Ken was rubbing his
eyes while still clasping the envelope.
“I was trying to give
you this” he said waiving it in her direction “It fell out of your bag”
“What?” she exclaimed
and snatched the envelope from his hand, she quickly read the address and then
the full realisation dawned on her
“Oh God” she said “I’m
so sorry I thought you were…”
“A pervert?” he said “yes
you did mention it”
“Don’t rub them you’ll
just make them worse” she advised and then produced a small bottle of water
from her bag
“This will help” she
said and splashed water in his enflamed eyes “It also helps if you blink a lot”
“What helps most of
all is not getting sprayed in the first place” he corrected her
“Yes, sorry again” she
said “but I was scared, it looked like you were chasing me, and I’m a
defenceless female”
“I had to chase you,
you were like a whippet” he said “And defenceless you most certainly are not”
Cathy pulled a face
and then said defensively
“And you were
muttering to yourself”
“I wasn’t muttering to
myself” Ken said “I was trying to speak to you but you had earphones in”
“Oh dear” she said “I really
did get it wrong didn’t I?”
“That will teach me to
mind my own business in future” he said
“Oh don’t say that”
she implored “It was really sweet of you to try”
And then she gave him
the most dazzling smile which made up to him in part for the discomfiture.
“Let me make it up to
you” she said “let me buy you a drink”
“I won’t be able to
get in the Pink Parasol” he said “I’m not wearing anything pink”
“Well that’s not
strictly true” She said with a giggle “You haven’t seen your eyes”
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