a ball in play (end)

“The flight’s tomorrow at half-ten. Iain’s the only one that knows and he’ll get his dad’s car and give us a lift to the airport.”
He walked up the hill to where she was sitting looking at the grass. He tried to lift her gaze to him but she resisted. All this ebb and flowing was just a tickling torment.

“Davie I can’t. We ... No.”
“Come on: it’s easy. We’ll leave and that’ll be the start of the good life for us both.”
“No.”

He’d find them. All she was doing was drawing Davie closer to real harm. One day Bingo had noticed something as she came out of the supermarket.
“Is that a bloke or a bitch?” he asked her. She knew better than to look interested.
“What’re you on about now?” she replied.
“That long streak of piss in there with his tongue hangin oot over ye.” He pointed at Davie who’d looked away. She turned her head and saw him bend down to put cans of soup onto the shelves.
“Him there!?”  She hoped she didn’t sound too disbelieving. She could feel her heart thudding and worried Bingo could too.
 “Aye him! Is it a ‘him’? Fucking freakshow!” Fortunately he spotted someone he knew further down the street and ran to talk to them.
 She stole a brief look at her Davie who was carefully straightening his soup display. The fussy simplicity of his life. He didn’t dare look in her direction and he was right not to. Yet he really had no clue. An image of Bingo with a hot blade piercing his eye while she held the lighter imprinted itself into her mind and would never leave. This had to stop.

“Yes, yes, yes!! Come on Catherine. A wee step is all we need.”
She looked up at his blameless face.
“Listen to me: No. Never. Not in a million years. I’m goin’ home and if you come near me again then Bingo’ll find oot about it. That’s what I came here tae tell ye.”
“What?”
“You heard. It ends here.”

She stood up and walked down the hill.

“You.. you don’t mean that! Ye keep comin’ back! You’re just scared that’s all, but I’ll keep you safe!”

This stopped her and she turned and walked back up the hill towards him. Her eyes were hard and pin sharp.

“You. Are. Nothing. To. Me.” She poked his chest at each word. “I was humouring you out of pity. Now fuck off… never come near me again!”
She turned quickly and walked away while she could still hold herself together. Any compassion would only complicate things. Davie stood there stunned and watched as she left him.

He wanted to scream at her. He wanted to beg, plead with her. Anything she wanted he would do, but not this: please Catherine, not this. He just wanted to be cradled between that cool hand and the kiss again. She had always come back to him but this time was gone. He knew it. His heart became boulder-heavy and plummeted.
 Above him the sun had passed its apex and was sinking itself, like a long high hopeful ball he’d set in motion that morning it was sailing over the horizon, trailing its light west to the other side of the world. In the useless light that remained he sat down on the grass and watched her as she disappeared into the logic of the streets and houses of town below.