25 April 2022

A Pirate Encounter

(Josie Sayz: This is based on a somewhat true event. I never actually spoke to the pirate myself, but I saw him. He just never quite wandered my way as I walked past him.)

 

A clatter of tapping keys echoed around the room. Chatter layered over chatter, as phone calls were answered. The song playing on the radio was lost to the office ambience and the rhythmical vibrating rattle of the gym class, upstairs, running on treadmills. Flickering her sight to the clock, on the wall, a sigh escaped Caitlyn. Only three minutes had passed since she last looked at it. Returning her attention back to her computer monitors, she joined the rest of her colleagues, adding to the clatter of tapping keys.

“Have a nice weekend. Bye now,” Caitlyn heard her colleague on her right, Jade, say before clonking down the phone receiver. “What a chatterbox,” exclaimed Jade. “She wanted to tell me all about her weekend plans. They sounded interesting, to be fair. Wish I was going to Lanzarote.” Jade let out a dreamy sigh. “Say, Kelly, what are you doing this weekend?” Jade asked the lady, typing away opposite her.

“Oh, just the usual,” replied Kelly, with a shrug. “Pete and I are going to theatre tomorrow – we’re only going to see ‘Les Misérables’ again, nothing special. Then we’ve got dinner reservations at that nice Italian restaurant we went to a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve told Pete we can’t spend as much as we usually do. We’re saving up to go to Cyprus in July.”

“Ooow, sounds fabulous,” Jade replied.

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. Shuffling in her seat, she lowered her head. ‘They have this talk every Friday,’ she sighed to herself.

“What about you, Jade?” asked Kelly.

“Now, I really want to go on holiday,” she pouted. “But we’re not going to Ibiza until September.” Jade let out a long, over exaggerated sigh. “I’ve got lunch with my family on Sunday. It’s my mum and dad, my sister and her fella and me and Jay.”

“Is that at your parents’ house?” asked Kelly.

“Gosh no!” exclaimed Jade, wrinkling her nose. “We’re going to that new Parisian place, you know, in the town square, the one with the alfresco dining and the gorgeous violinists. I’m hoping one of them asks to play at our table.”

“Oow, how exciting,” beamed Kelly. “I’ve heard they do that really expensive wine there.”

“I know,” Jade beamed, with side eyes. “I’ve told Jay he’s buying it for me.” The two let out an excited squeal.

Sinking in her seat, Caitlyn rolled her eyes at her colleagues’ chatter. ‘How is this their normal?’ she screamed to herself. ‘How is it that they can have the same conversation every Friday and both be doing something glamorous or expensive every weekend? Even when I had a partner we didn’t do something every weekend… maybe that’s why we broke up?’ She shook her head of her silly thoughts and continued working.

“What about you, Caitlyn?” she heard Kelly ask. Stretching her head around her monitor, Caitlyn gave Kelly a soft smile. “What are you doing this weekend?”

“Oh, don’t embarrass her, Kelly,” Jade said with a snigger. “You know she doesn’t do anything.”

“I was only trying to include her,” Kelly declared, as though the two were conversing about Caitlyn without her being present. “Ignore her,” Kelly told Caitlyn.

“It’s fine,” Caitlyn muttered, with a shrug, flickering her sight back to the clock. ‘Three more minutes have passed,’ she told herself, feeling her cheeks turn a deep scarlet, as her two colleagues stared at her. “Just housework. The usual,” she told them, with a shrug. “It has to be done,” she added, forcing a smile. “You know nothing interesting ever happens to me.”

“You’ll get up to something someday,” Kelly told her with a smile and a nod.

“Yeah, maybe you’ll bump into mister right and he’ll whisk you away on an adventure,” exclaimed Jade. Forcing a big smile, Caitlyn hummed, before flickering her sight back to the clock.

 

*

 

Leaving the office for the weekend, Caitlyn’s shoulders drooped. “Maybe I should do something interesting,” she wondered, as Kelly and Jade’s conversation echoed I her mind. She flickered a glance towards a charity shop and café, as she walked by. Sat outside the café, three ladies with short blonde hair squealed, as their waiter walked back inside. Caitlyn shuddered. ‘No,’ she decided, straightening her posture. ‘I am not doing something because they want me to. If that makes my weekend boring, predictable and the same as always, then so be it.” Looping her thumb through the strap of her satchel, Caitlyn strode towards the pedestrian crossing. Her eyes flickered to the other side of the road as a figure swayed towards the traffic. Caitlyn gasped. A car screeched its brakes. Scratching a hand to his head, the man waddled back away from the road. As Caitlyn’s heart thudded in her ribcage, a frown fixed on her forehead. She stared ahead at the man who seemed oblivious that he had almost stumbled into the road. A long, charcoal justaucorps coat billowed behind him, as his knee-high boots clopped along the pavement. Dreadlocks trailed down his back and a tricorn hat perched in the top of his head. ‘He must be in fancy dress,’ Caitlyn mused, as the man dressed in pirate attire swayed through the car park that stretched from the recently renovated pub to a newly opened Caribbean restaurant. ‘He must have come from one of them,’ she decided, flickering her sight from the pub to the Caribbean restaurant.

Wavering a tankard in his right hand, the pirate strode towards a lady with a pushchair, who upon spotting him, turned her pushchair around and powerwalked in the opposite direction. The pirate’s shoulders drooped. He arched his head over his shoulder and stumbled towards a man, who strode towards him. Taking one look at the pirate, the man threw his hands up, showing the pirate his empty palms, shook his head and sped up his walk to his car.

Caitlyn kept watch on the pirate, as she made her way to the pedestrian crossing. Her frown fixed upon her brow, as she watched several members of the general public race away from the swaying seaman. ‘Surely they know he’s just an actor,’ Caitlyn thought. ‘He looks like he just got off the set of a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film.’ As the pirate tottered towards another man, dressed in a suit and swinging a briefcase at his side, he too hastened his pace towards his car.

The pedestrian lights changed from red to green. Crossing over to the same side of the road as the pirate, Caitlyn’s insides began to spiral. She was the only person to cross the road. ‘He’s going to see me,’ she realised. ‘Then I have to talk to someone.’ Caitlyn wrinkled her nose up at the thought. ‘Why couldn’t someone else just talk to him,’ she sighed. ‘Or maybe he’s trying to sell something.’ Rolling her eyes, Caitlyn seeped in a deep breath, as she approached the car park.

“Afternoon me dear,” came the deep voice, as the pirate strode towards her. He swayed, as his left knee gave way. With a wave of his arms, the pirate regained his balance. “Yer wouldn’t be able t’ direct an honest gentleman, like myself, towards a tavern, would you?” he asked, coming to a stop beside her. “Yer see, the rum’s all gone,” he added, wavering his tankard upside down. Pinching her lips in, Caitlyn tried to conceal a giggle.

“Erm, there is a pub right there,” Caitlyn told him, pointing over his shoulder.

“Arh,” beamed the pirate. Caitlyn’s eyes widened, seeing the pirate’s dark, stained teeth.

‘That’s very good attention to detail,’ she mused. ‘Who would go to all that trouble just to promote a restaurant?’ The pirate spun around, wobbling his arms at his sides, to face the direction Caitlyn had pointed, before turning back to face her.

“Would you care t’ jolin me, lass?” he asked.

“Sorry?” Caitlyn muttered, with a puckered brow. ‘I can’t have heard him right, surely,’ she told herself.

“A drink, me lady,” the pirate rephrased. “Would you care to join me for a bottle of rum or two?”

“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” she told him, flickering her sight to her shoes.

“Understandable, understandable lass,” he said, as he swayed. “I’d stay away from me too, if I were you. A pirate’s not the best a company for a respectable lady, such as yourself.” Caitlyn let out a giggle. “Say, yer not a witch, are yer?” he asked, with a gleam in his eye.

“No,” she giggled, shaking her head. “But, didn’t you just come from the Caribbean restaurant? Aren’t you promoting them?”

“Caribbean?” muttered the pirate. “I’m afraid we’re far from the Caribbean, lass. Yer see, we’re on the English mainland, run by his majesty King Charles, so you might want to keep our interaction a secret, if yer know what I mean,” he told her, with a wink.

“Kind Charles?” Caitlyn frowned. “Are you… do you… You can see the cars, right? You know this is the twenty-first century.”

“Cars,” repeated the pirate. “Is that what those fast-moving loud things are?” Shaking her head, Caitlyn let out a chuckle.

“You are funny,” she told him.

Throwing his head over his shoulder, the pirate gazed at the pub. Shuddering out of his thoughts, he shook his empty tankard, before returning his attention back to Caitlyn. “Well, it’s been a pleasure lass,” said the pirate with a bow. Beaming back at him, Caitlyn pinched the edges of her skirt and gave a curtsey. “Say, I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s Caitlyn,” she squeaked, pressing her shoulder into her cheek.

“Caitlyn,” repeated the pirate. “What a lovely name. Mine’s Jack, by the way. Captain Jack,” he said, with a wink. A nervous laugh escaped Caitlyn, as she curled a hand to her mouth.

“Well, erm, nice meeting you… Captain Jack.”

A smile spread across Caitlyn’s face, as she continued her walk home, watching the pirate totter towards the pub. ‘That was something different,’ she told herself, with a smile.

 

- Josie -

18 April 2022

Can't We Do This Again?

 

I did what they said,
And I tried to move on.
Reunited with an old friend,
But something feels odd.
The way he holds my hand,
It just feels okay.
When he goes to kiss me,
It’s not quite the same.

Lying in bed awake,
With him next to me,
My mind starts to reminisce,
To when things were you and me.

The electricity from a look,
My heart you shook.
It’s such a strong feeling,
Something I can’t overlook.
You made my heart race,
From a simple embrace.
The heat from your touch,
Something I can’t misplace.

So I tried again,
But with a girl instead.
She was more than a friend,
But something’s still wrong with my head.
I can’t help but compare,
To what I had with you.
No matter who I’m with,
It doesn’t feel true.

Lying awake in her bed,
Her asleep next to me,
My mind starts to wonder
To when things were you and me.

My knees went weak,
With your hand on my cheek.
You pulled me close,
Made me feel complete.
When you tugged at my dress,
The racing of your chest.
The heat of your breath,
As we got undressed.

Do you feel this with her?
I didn’t feel it with him.
I didn’t feel it with her.
Now I have to give in.

The electricity from a look,
My heart you shook.
It’s such a strong feeling,
Something I can’t overlook.
You made my heart race,
From a simple embrace.
The heat from your touch,
Something I can’t misplace.

My knees went weak,
With your hand on my cheek.
You pulled me close,
Made me feel complete.
When you tugged at my dress,
The racing of your chest.
The heat of your breath,
As we got undressed.

Our fingers laced,
Your hand ‘round my waist.
The way that you taste,
It can’t be erased.
Your voice in my head.
I want you in my bed.
So much left unsaid.
Can’t we do this again?

 

- Josie -

Your Memory's A Melody

 

I’m always keeping busy,
I’ve got ideas on my mind.
I try to squeeze in creativity,
Whist working eight ‘til five.
Home is full of stress,
As another headache grows.
But as I try to fall asleep
Your melody begins to flow.

I tell myself that I don’t miss you,
Don’t need you.
And I really, really don’t want to kiss you,
But I do.
I tell myself that I can’t feel you,
Don’t need you.
But I really, really can’t do without you,
It’s true.

And your melody flows.
And your memory glows.

I’ve been feeling down,
Hidden this for a while.
Tell everyone I’m fine,
Wear my biggest smile.
I try to help people,
And make them happy too.
No one sees that I’m hurting.
They haven’t a clue.

I tell myself that I don’t miss you,
Don’t need you.
And I really, really don’t want to kiss you,
But I do.
I tell myself that I can’t feel you,
Don’t need you.
But I really, really can’t do without you,
It’s true.

And your melody flows.
And your memory glows.

It’s something I can no longer ignore.
I can’t fight the feeling anymore.
I pick up the phone, but stall.
I hesitate to call.
I said I wouldn’t.
You told me I couldn’t.
So I won’t.

And your melody flows.
And your memory glows.
And that feeling grows.
My heart only knows.
And your melody flows.
And your memory glows.

- Josie -