The Fog
Written by Daniel Barton
Jeffrey stood in front of the mirror eyeing his reflection as he did up his tie, he wore a yellow shirt and his tie was patterned with different shapes of varying shades of blue, he also wore tweed trousers and a tweed jacket, his brown shoes were the type that had the leather circling around the front like a pie crust, he smiled at the thought, Jenny was cooking pie tonight for their date. Jeffrey had originally wanted to cook, but Jenny was a chef and she had insisted, there was no way he could argue with her, she was beautiful. Tall and slender with long wavy ginger-blonde hair, a button nose and a sweet little smile, her blue eyes seemed to sparkle when she smiled, Jeffrey was in love and he knew it, he again found himself wondering how he had managed to catch somebody so seemingly out of his league.
They had met at the library; he had been looking after a friend’s daughter while her parents had gone shopping for Christmas presents. Jenny had been reading to a group of children as part of an afternoon reading group she ran at various libraries around Hampshire, and he had taken little Mary over to sit with them and join in.
They had gotten to talking after the reading group had finished, finding out amusing little secrets about each other, they both loved classical music and enjoyed white wine and chocolate ice cream. Silly little things really, but enough to spark an interest in each other that had lasted three months now.
For Valentines Day they had gone to the Cinema in Cosham, a small but nice little place really, and followed that with a meal at a Chinese restaurant, it had been invigorating and frightening too, it had been a long, long time since Jeffrey had felt this way about anybody since his wife had died of cancer six years ago.
Satisfied that he now had his tie on as well as it was going to go, he begun rummaging his fingers through his hair, messing it up, Jenny had often said he looked cute when his short curly hair had the uncombed look.
He took one last look at himself before heading towards the door and smiled, Jenny would probably be wearing that red dress he though, she looked so beautiful all dressed up like that. And then, pausing to grab his coat and scarf, he turned off the hallway light and went out into the foggy night, locked the door behind him, and went on his way.
As he made his way through the streets towards the crossroads near the heath, he briefly considered cutting across it, but decided against it, he didn’t want to muddy his shoes, he had only cleaned them that morning. Instead he crossed the road and followed the path that circled around the heath, being careful to note the route, this was the first time he had walked to Jennies house, his car had failed its MOT and he couldn’t drive until he could afford to repair it, and walking was somewhat different from driving, you saw routes and such differently behind the wheel of a car.
As he got further along the path the fog began to thicken, tendrils of mist seemed to be wrapping around one another to form larger tendrils which repeated the process, it wasn’t long before he could barley see the edge of the pavement or the hedge beside him.
Suddenly a car hurtled past, blaring its horn as if to let those walking know it was coming, instinctively, Jeffrey back away from the sound and the muffled headlights that flew past him too fast. He backed straight into the wet hedge behind him, soaking himself almost immediately “Gah! Crap! Dammit!” Jeffrey shouted, it was cold enough as it was, the water soaking through his coat felt like ice and he shivered, hugging himself tightly for a moment as he tried to regain some body heat.
Now the fog was so thick he couldn’t see at all, it seemed to be trying to crush him beneath its icy chill.
After a few minutes standing there shivering, Jeffrey gave up on warmth and decided he might as well continue, he reached out his hand to check how far from him the hedge was, he didn’t want to be standing in the road. His hand brushed something that wasn’t wet, in fact it was bone dry, thinking this odd, and wanting to know what he had touched, Jeffrey moved his hand back and pressed more firmly against the surface, it was soft and smooth, warm like skin, he moved his fingers up the surface and felt the distinct curve of a shoulder, he pulled his hand back in horror, it was skin, there was somebody there, somebody was standing hidden in the fog with him.
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