So, we finally met…
“Mike, whats the matter with you?” Emily asked after a few minutes of silence. “Youre not yourself tonight. You look so pale… Are you alright?”
“Yeah, Im fine,” I replied, mustering whatever composure I could. I put my fork down and reached for my glass of apple juice, dragging out those last few moments before I had to say something.
*****
I walked up to the entrance of Emilys block of flats, my hand on the cold handle of that stiff metal door, ready to pull it open. But at the last second, for some reason, I stopped.
Honestly, I didnt want to go inside.
I knew they were expecting me. I hadnt forgotten my promise to Emily that Id come round, but the nerves had hit so hard, I could barely move.
And honestly, it was embarrassinggrown man that I am, and here I am, knees wobbling like a schoolboy called up for the first time to write on the blackboard.
Seemed like such a small thing: open the door, walk in, go up to the third floor, find number 36…
But something was stopping me, pinning me to the spot.
Some weird sort of fear had grabbed me by the arms and legs, making it impossible to finish what Id set out to do.
All I wanted, in that moment, was to just turn and leave. It didnt matter if I went home or just wandered off somewhere else in Londonas long as it was far from here.
“Why did I agree to this?” I mumbled under my breath, shuffling back a step. “Theyre bound to take one look at me and say no.”
I took a few more steps away, glanced up at the lit window on the third floor.
The light shone so brightly, I was convinced it burned brighter than the rest, a sort of beacon to stop me missing my proper landing place.
And yet, I didnt want to go up.
The only thing keeping me there was the thought of how Emily would feel if I just disappeared. She asked me, after all. Id promised.
*****
“Mike, look, dont be scared,” Emily had said the previous evening. “Its just that my parents want to meet you…”
Emily. Thats my girlfriend.
Wed been sitting together in a little café, eating, chatting, making plans for the weekend. Then, out of nowhereher parents wanted to meet me. It caught me completely off guard; I even stopped chewing, surprised, trying to work out if she was joking.
Its not odd, really. If anything, its perfectly normal for a girls parents to want to meet her boyfriend. To size up the man their daughters chosen, maybe their future son-in-law. It would have been strange if they hadnt invited me.
But…
But I was just anxious Id disappoint them. That I wouldnt be enough for their expectations. And that concern wasnt plucked from thin airI had good reason.
You see, her mum, Victoria, spent her whole career at a reputable university, climbing from lecturer to vice-chancellor, and now held some sort of important government post in education.
Her dad, Charles Morris, had climbed the ladder too. Started as a junior engineer, ended up not just a director but eventually the owner of his own construction firm and was even on friendly terms with the mayor. The kind of man you take seriously.
And Emily herself, just turned thirty, was already heading the legal team at some big financial company.
And what had I done with my own 35 years?
Not much, honestly. I was just an IT support guy. No degree. The money wasnt bad, but there was nowhere to progress.
How was I supposed to sit and make conversation with such people? What could I possibly say? How would I look them in the eye?
You might wonder how on earth I ever ended up with someone like Emily in the first place. Pure coincidence, really.
That day, I went for a walk in Hyde Park. As it happened, Emily was there too, with two friends. Theyd gone to get ice creams, and shed stayed behind on a bench, holding their spot and making a quick call to her mum.
While she chatted away, she hadnt seen the bloke coming straight for her on one of those hired electric scooters. The guy was drunk, not even trying to avoid her.
I managed to grab Emily by the arm and yank her out of the way just as the scooter sped pastright before the rider crashed straight into a bin.
“Who do you think you are?” Emily said, a little annoyed at first.
But when she saw what nearly happenedand the state of the lad flopped near the binshe looked at me with a whole new perspective. If I hadnt been there…
And thats how we met.
Her friends were still queuing for vanilla cones. We started chatting, swapped numbers, agreed to meet sometimeand six months later, we were still together.
All of this went through my mind as I processed what Emily had said over dinner.
I was always afraid Id have to meet her parents sooner or later, and that theyd ban her from seeing me. Insist I was some opportunist, after her for her money. Itd happened to me before, years ago. Id lost a girl I cared about.
Now I risked losing Emily…
“Mike, are you alright?” shed said, after a long silence. “Youve gone all white. Is everything okay?”
“Im fine,” I answered, steadying myself. I put aside my fork, grabbed my drink, still delaying my answer.
“So, youll come round then?”
“Sorry, where?”
“To mine,” she smiled. “Mums making something delicious. Dads bringing a bottle of good wine. You just have to say yes. Will you come?”
“Im not sure I just cant see your parents thinking Im a good match.”
“Why not?”
“Because Im just an average bloke, no university degree. All I can do is install software and recover files. Surely they want a businessman, an MPs son, or at least someone on the up and up. Im just another IT guy.”
“Oh stop worrying,” Emily took my hand. “My parents are normal people, just like everyone. Dont forget, seven oclock tomorrow. Dont be late.”
“Right,” I nodded. Although I still wasnt sure if Id turn up.
*****
And then it was tomorrow.
I was standing outside Emilys block, five minutes to seven, freezing. And I had no idea what to do.
I knew full well meeting her parents was inevitableI wanted to marry Emily, after allbut I also knew I wasnt ready. In a few months time, theyd promised to move me to the IT department in the new office. Maybe then Id seem more respectable.
Maybe then, Mr. and Mrs. Morris wouldnt boot me out the second I stepped inside.
As I stood there ready to turn away, my phone buzzed urgently in my pocket.
It was Emily.
“Hi Mike,” she said cheerfully. “Mum and I have almost everything ready. Dads running a bit late but should be here any minute. Are you nearby?”
“Hi, Em…” I managed quietly. “Yeah, Im”
“Cant hear you. Are you nearly here?”
“Almost there,” I sighed. “Its just…”
“Darling, if youre worrying about what you said yesterday, lets not. Trust me, itll be fine. Dont work yourself up. If you want, I can meet you outside?”
“No, really, its fine,” I mumbled nervously. “Ill see you in a bit.”
“Okay then, were waiting.”
I shoved the phone back in my pocket and wandered down the street, rubbing my temple and trying to come up with a halfway decent reason not to go in.
But there wasnt one.
“And if Charles Morris turns up now, bumping into him here… thats all I need,” I thought miserably, deciding to walk right to the end of the block.
On the way, I met some bloke and cheekily asked for a cigarette. I hadnt smoked in ages, but right now, I really needed itanything to calm my nerves and collect myself.
So there I was at one corner, taking shaky drags, exhaling misshapen clouds of smoke into the chilly London mist, nervously peering around.
Nothing to see: to the right, rubbish bins; to the left, a flattened bit of old garages where theyd demolished things to throw up some new-build. Emily once told me they were putting in new flats soon.
Nothing remarkable, reallyexcept for the dog I spotted huddled over on that patch of wasteland. At first, I tensedits best not to get mixed up with stray dogs in winter. You never know if theyll go for you.
But on closer look, the dog seemed oblivious. It was just lying there, right on the frost-hardened ground.
Odd, really, that itd pick a spot on the exposed snow. But what choice did it have? It wasnt likely to be let in anywhere warm, not in this cold.
*****
Jack (that was the name of the dog I saw curled up there) hadnt eaten in days.
Hed once lived in a different part of town, where some people had even cared for him a bit, giving him leftovers. But…
Some woman in one of the flats decided he didnt belong. She got busy firing off letters to the council, rallied support, and people soon split into two camps: “Let him stay,” or “Get rid of him!”
“That strays always near the playground where our children play!” shed declare. “What if he bites someone? Just look at his hungry, angry eyes! Its appalling!”
Truth was, Jacks eyes werent angry, just sad. His first owner had been a boy named Nick.
Nick and his parents had found Jack, a four-month-old pup, on the way to their cottage. Nick was over the moon.
“Mum, Dad! Can we keep him? Please?” And they caved, just wanting their son to be happy.
But when it came time to go back to their London flat, Jack was left behind.
“We cant keep a stray in the flat,” Nicks parents reasoned. “And whos going to walk him? You?”
“No, I wont,” Nick said with a shake of his head.
And so they left him. Jack was heartbroken, not understanding why things had turned out that way.
It couldve been worsesomeone took pity a month later, took him into town. Only, she then hauled him to the market every day, not to find him a home but to sell him. Eventually, she talked a couple into taking him.
“Dont worry,” shed said. “Hes a pedigree. Just missing his papers.”
But when he grew and it was plain he was just a mongrel, they dumped him on the edge of town.
At least it was late Marchmilder. But Jack had been alone from then on, drifting around until he found this quieter neighbourhood. No big, aggressive dogs, so he stayed.
He used to come by the playground, watching the kids, missing Nick. He hoped deep down maybe Nick would come back. Maybe hed have a home again.
He never did see Nick. And recently, a few days ago, Jack had to move on. The people just didnt want him around. A woman would throw sticks and stones, shouting, while others glared, even though hed done nothing to them.
He never wanted to be a nuisanceso he left.
Now there he lay, curled up on the icy ground, so weak from hunger and cold that he could barely move.
He saw mesome man with a cigarettebut didnt expect help. “Hell just finish his smoke and go,” Jack thought. “No point hoping.”
*****
I flicked my cigarette, glanced about, and headed towards the entrance to bin the stub. I could have thrown it in the snow, but Mum always said, “If you want to change the world, start with yourself.”
Just then, a shiny black car pulled into the courtyard. I worried that might be Emilys dad, so I quickly tossed the butt and dashed further into the wasteland, forgetting the doguntil I found myself standing only a few metres from him.
“Dont bark,” I fretted. But Jack didnt. He didnt even look in my directionjust lying there as if he were sleeping or, maybe, worse.
“Oi, you alright there?” I found myself asking in spite of myself.
No response. Not so much as a twitch.
I crept closer and squatted next to him, flashlight on. He was alivebreathing, at leastbut barely. Freezing cold, more like a log than a living creature.
“If I dont help him, he wont last till morning,” I thought. And so…
I scooped him up and carried him towards the building, hoping to find a warm spot by a radiatormaybe call a cab and rush him to the vet.
All the entrances were locked. So off I marched to the next block.
My phone buzzed again and again, but my hands were full. I ran past Emilys building and looked up at her window, thinking: shed help, but her parents?
Theyd lose their minds if I turned up with a shivering stray at deaths door.
I kept going. Just as I reached the end, another posh black car turned in, headlights blinding me. I paused, and as it stopped, the drivers window slid down.
“Hey, mate, everything alright? Need a hand?” the driver asked.
“Its the dog… I found him half-dead. Do you happen to know a 24-hour vet?”
“Nearby? Not really,” he said, thinking. “But I do know a place, and a mate of mine works there. Get inbring the dog, Ill drive.”
“You? Are you sure?” I stammered. Genuinely shocked that a man with a car like that would let a stranger and a stray into his leather seats.
“Quick, get in! You said there isnt much time. Lets get him sorted.”
Didnt take much convincing. Next thing I knew, I was in the back seat, the man driving fast, and on the phone to someone.
“Sorry darling,” he said. “Somethings come up, Ill be late. You havent seen him either, then? Tried his mobile? Odd, I didnt see anyone outside. What does he look like? Yeah?… Well, if I bump into him, Ill let you know.”
“Sorry,” I said, “this is all because of me, isnt it?”
“No worries,” he replied. “Just keep an eye on your dog. Breathing? Eyes open?”
“Not open, but still breathing. Just about.”
“Right, lets step on it.”
Ten minutes later, we were at the vets, where the mans friend was already waiting. They rushed Jack off straight away.
I sat in the waiting room, phone full of missed calls from Emily, her message blinking up: “Mike, where are you? Is everything ok?”
I ought to have called back and explained. But all I could think of was the dog.
I never even thanked the driver. I dashed outside, but his car had gone. So I went back inside, hoping for news. Id already decided: if nothing worked out with Emily, at least Id have Jacka friend for all weathers.
*****
Nearly forty minutes passed with no word. But then I heard some lively voices at the front desk. One voice sounded distinctly familiar.
I turned my headand saw Emily, followed by a kindly woman and, to my absolute shock, the same driver from before.
He saw me and grinned broadly.
“Told you, darling, hed be here, waiting. Your Mike really cares about that dog.”
I realised at once this was Emilys mum and dadand I nearly fainted.
“Mike, why didnt you call?” Emily said, rushing up. “I was so worried.”
“Sorry, Em,” I said guiltily. “I just thought your parents wouldnt be thrilled if I brought a stray into their flat…”
“Oh, you nutter!” Emily laughed. “Didnt I tell you, my parents are ordinary people? And they love animals. We have three cats picked up from the street!”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Her parents came over, andto my surpriseit happened. We met.
“Well, weve finally met,” Charles Morris said, shaking my hand.
“Mike,” Victoria said, stepping forward to shake my hand as well, “what you did tonightthats the action of a real man. You shouldve come straight to ourswed have pitched in. I just hope the little dog pulls through.”
“Hell live, dont worry,” the vet interjected with a smile. “Hell be alright now.”
That very evening we were allowed to bring Jack home; warmed up, looked after. All that was left was to love him.
“Love works miracles,” the vet added. “Love can bring you back from the very edge.”
I wanted to go home, but Emily and her parents insisted we bring Jack to theirs. The cats would look after him better than any vet. Besides, it was a good excuse to celebrate his rescueand our acquaintancewith a drink.
While Jack lay stretched out in their living room, blinking in disbelief at his new feline companions and the warmth, I sat in the kitchen with Emily and her parents, talking and laughing. Turns out Id been scared for nothingthey were lovely, genuine, good people.
Within days, Jack was on his feet again and I took him home.
“Will you take me with you as well?” Emily asked, bag in hand.
“Are you serious?” I laughed.
“Deadly! My parents just banned me from sleeping at home. Their words: time to increase the family population, they want grandkids!”
I burst out laughing, and so did Emily. Jack barked cheerily, thoroughly pleased, though I doubt he understood what was going on. But he knewall was well at last.
So. Thats my story.
If Ive learnt one thing, its this: life often works itself out if you just have the courage to careand open the right doors, no matter how nervous you are.
