Tom
YES, TONIGHT IS SOME NIGHT.
It’s a long time since I had a night like this.
With plans and friends. With loud music and money in my pocket.
I catch Anna in the dance, and she is laughing.
It’s so long since I heard her really laughing.
How nice it is, to spin around in circles with my sister.
To hear Jack laughing behind me, too. It’s so rare that we are all happy at the same time.
But look at us now, part of a big dance.
Touching everyone, known by everyone. Isn’t it enlivening just to be touching somebody?
Dr Desmond passes me by. He smiles and waves as though we are friends. As though we know each other well. And although I’m still half afraid of him, I smile and nod right back at him. As though he was any old eejit.
I see Teresa Doyle catching Jack’s arm, and as the music slows, he brings her in closer for a dance.
Her dark blue frock and his dark blue trousers.
That girl, with her big doe eyes for him.
Always with a cigarette in her mouth or a bag of sweets in her hand.
Like a child with a dummy. If she wasn’t so pretty, Jack wouldn’t bother with her, because there’s nothing to her besides that. For once I am not jealous of him.