X Part III: Midnight

X headed towards the park next to the train line two streets behind his apartment and sat down underneath the little courtyard on one of the old stools made from cut tree trunks and fished around in his leather satchel for the packet of cigarettes. It was a summer night, probably the most definitive he’d seen he thought. The temperature was just low enough to allow for strolling without building up the usual quiet lather of sweat. Every so often the breeze came strong and unnanounced and it pushed the trees around irreverently. He had a direct view of the tall white lamp in the middle of the park bathing everything in a low haze.
He went to open the plastic wrapper at the top and hesitated for a second and then pulled the strip from around the side and tapped the pack on his knee the way he’d seen some friends do before and extracted a cigarette with his teeth and lit it and pushed the hundren yen lighter and the pack and the torn off plastic into the pocket of his jeans. A cockroach was exploring the brickwork of the pillar to his left. He looked at it. Its folded wings were shiny under the reflection of the white parklight glistening like the moon on some ocean out in the middle of nowhere. Above him a gust of wind threw the leaves of the canopy back and forth and he sat and drew on the cigarette and thought. To his right a public clock stood with both hands on twelve.

A girl about the same age as him appeared from the right and came over and looked at him for a second and then sat down on the stool beside him. She was wearing a leather jacket and big golden hoop earrings and canvas shoes and a barely noticeable layer of make-up. He wondered where she had just come from. He blew out a slow easy trail of smoke and waited for her to say something.
Hi.
Hey.
Perfect night, isnt it?
It is.
They both went quiet again for a few seconds and she looked over in the same direction as him. Then she spoke again.
You know this is my spot, right?
Yeah. I do.
She smiled. I’ve seen you around before. You come here a lot. You’ve always got that little notebook.
He nodded.
What do you write about?
He took a final drag of the cigarette and thought about it. Just stuff that happens.
Like what?
Like this.
You’re gonna write about me?
Yeah, probably I will.
What are you gonna say?
I dont know yet. He tossed the expired filter onto the ground and crushed it underfoot.
Can I have one of those?
He nodded and pulled the pack out from his pocket and tried twice to flick open the cardboard hood before it worked. He handed it over to her without having tapped out some protruding cigarettes first and she took it and in one effortless motion she shook the pack and extracted the foremost one and handed it back and he passed her the lighter. Then he reached in with a finger and coaxed a second out for himself.
You dont smoke, do you.
On and off. I just started again.
The metal clink of the lightertrigger resounded from across the park and someone sitting on a bench on the other side looked at them and then looked away. A light came on in one of the apartment windows to the east. She crossed her legs and leaned forward with her forearms crossed on her thigh and passed him the lighter and blew out smoke.
I hope it’ll be something good.
That depends on what happens.
Does it?
Yeah.
She looked at him. While lighting the cigarette he was looking down at the ground in front of their feet, where the cockroach was scurrying towards hers. She followed his gaze and then shrieked and recoiled into the fetal position on the wooden trunk stool. A silhouette appeared in one of the apartment windows across from them and stood there for a few moments and then disappeared. The cockroach had changed course and scuttled onto the sand.
He grinned. Not a fan of cockroaches?
I hate them. They should all be wiped out. Every single one.
They can survive a nuclear holocaust.
How do you know?
I dont, really.
You ever been in one?
I dont think so.
Even if they did stay alive at least I wouldnt be around to see it.
Both of them drew on the cigarettes simultaneously as if choreographed. A couple on bicycles rode past on the street nearby and he could detect the presence of sea salt in the warm breeze that came through like a slung blanket carrying off all traces of smoke from the air around them. He glanced over at the park clock. It was ten minutes past twelve.
Where’d you come from just now?
Where do you think?
I got no idea.
Guess.
No thanks.
Maybe I shouldnt tell you.
You dont have to.
I know. But maybe if I dont then you’ll have to come up with something creative to write in that little book.
I dont usually make up anything.
Why not?
He took a drag of the cigarette then sighed a sigh of smoke. I’m not sure. I never really thought about it.
You only write about what actually happens?
Yeah.
Doesn’t it get boring? If I did that I think I’d get bored.
It depends on how you look at things. Normal things can be interesting.
Not for me. I’d go nuts if I just wrote about brushin my teeth all day.
Hey, thanks.
For what?
The idea.
He grinned. She ignored the joke. A light came on somewhere down the street.
Do you ever write about exciting stuff? Like unusual stuff that happens?
It doesnt happen that much.
What do you mean?
Well I’m not sure what you mean by unusual but I dont think it happens to me that often.
What do you think I mean?
I dont know.
You’re saying exciting stuff doesnt happen to you?
Not really. I mean it does but not in the same way you’re talkin about. Like sittin here tonight. I noticed the smell of the air, reminded me of some place I’d been as a kid. It was kind of weird. But thats not unusual in your sense. Actually the most exciting thing that happened to me today was you comin over here and talkin to me.
She uncrossed her legs and stood up and flicked the cigarette away and looked down at him.
Stand up.
He lifted off the strap of the satchel and dropped his own cigarette and stood up and then faster than he had time to comprehend it she wrapped both her hands around the back of his head and stepped forward pushing her hips into him and pressed her mouth against his. Without realising anything he instinctively took control and slid his right hand behind onto the small of her back and pulled her even closer and inhaled the smell of her leather and kissed her harder than before, almost violently as though it were some kind of strange purging of a thing that had been growing and burning and torturing him over an unbearably long time. They stood there like that for several seconds, arms entwined and the wind whipping the strands of her hair wildly and nothing else was happening and the world had irrevocably changed. Then she gently pulled away and lowered her arms and he did the same and they looked at each other. She saw by the parklight that he had tears in his eyes. Her gaze surrendered and fell to his chest.
Then she turned and walked away and disappeared into the darkness and the streets beyond.

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