Hearts On Fire Episode 13
Mark closed his eyes and leaned his head in his hand, his elbow resting on the arm of a bench.
The warmth of the day and the lack of sleep had caught up with him.
He had finished a sketch of a street corner and decided to give in.
He felt relatively safe in town surrounded by concrete and stone, safe enough to switch off.
As his eyes closed and his brain headed towards slumber, the sounds around him heightened.
He heard the soft scratch of pencil on paper, nasal breathing from the woman sitting a few feet away, the distant chatter of Italian mothers out with their shopping bags.
Ah, yes – there she was. Julia.
He locked on to the measured, soft tones that had lulled him to sleep that morning and was transported back to his balcony, cocooned in a stream of relaxing words.
It had been years since he felt that serene.
She was talking to Debbie, asking questions to help draw out Debbie’s thought processes and knowledge, to help her find her own answer to a problem.
Why had she fretted about teaching here? She was a natural.
Her fresh face and pixie haircut floated into his mind’s eye.
Those clear blue eyes gazing into his an hour or two before, the shy smile – there was something inherently vulnerable about her, though he couldn’t quite identify what.
She brought out in him something he hadn’t felt in years. He wanted to protect her, to keep her safe.
Suddenly, another face replaced hers: Dominic, smiling and trustful.
Mark jolted awake.
His eyes flew open and his drawing pad slipped from his knee.
The woman sitting on the same bench jumped, too.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Yes. I’m fine. Sorry. I fell asleep.” He managed a light laugh and splayed his fingers over his chest. “Oh, that set my heart thumping.
“I probably realised my drawings were escaping.” He leaned forward and retrieved the sketchpad from the cobbles.
The woman smiled and returned to her own work, leaving Mark alone with his thoughts.
The slipping pad hadn’t startled him, but the fear of being responsible for another person’s life had.
It had been weeks since he’d been haunted by the face of the lad next door, who’d valued him as a father figure.
Mark rose and moved to the parapet to gaze out over the forest beyond.
Would he ever be free of that nightmare?
To be continued…