Dark Harbour: The Tale of the Soul Searcher

by Joseph Kiel

  A spark of frustration welled from his stomach, another discordant arrangement from that infernal goblin, and he fired the coin into the machine. It bounced its way down to the pushers and caused a few to fall onto the next level, but the coins on the edge just bunched up even more, seemingly defying the laws of physics as they teetered over the edge so precariously.

  His empty hand fell to his side and he stood there staring vacantly at those shiny moon-shaped disks of metal, the random mosaic of heads and tails that had come to this unique arrangement at this unique moment in time. All of a sudden he saw something beautiful in it. Something so beautiful in the fragile yet fateful way things come together.

  He felt something touch his hand. Calmness came over him, as though he’d suddenly reached the eye of the hurricane. All the ragged fragments of his being fell into one and there was quiet, the goblin having reached the end of his interminable performance.

  It was the touch of another person. That person was her.

  Danny turned round as her soft hand slid from his fingers.

  ‘Hello there,’ she said, in that sweet voice of hers.

  Danny opened his mouth but no words came out. There suddenly appeared to be an infinite chasm between his brain and his tongue.

  Was he dreaming? Had he really become so delusional that he was now imagining her talking to him? For a moment Danny felt as though he was out of his body, as though he wasn’t really there. It seemed as though time had stopped again as the mechanics of the universe ground to a halt.

  Abruptly he heard the crashing, clinking sounds of coins falling onto metal which brought his attention back to reality. He turned to the ten-penny falls and saw that his tray was now full of shiny silver treasures as the mechanics of the falls at least continued with their motions.

  He turned to his side again. Sure enough she was still there smiling at him but still he could not deliver any words from his mouth.

  ‘Come with me,’ she whispered, a glint in her eyes.

  All this time he’d thought that her eyes were brown, but being this close up to her he was able to see an orchid-coloured hue within them. Those eyes seemed to have him under a spell, as though they’d whisked him away into another realm.

  She glided herself away from him and headed towards the entrance. Danny looked once more at the coins in the tray. What was he still looking at those for?

  He cleared his throat and ran a hand over his face. Eventually he was able to put one foot in front of the other as he walked after her. It was time to enter her world.

  The sobering sea air breezed past him as he stepped out of the arcades building. In the hazy brilliance of the evening sun, the seafront amusement rides were in full swing as the dodgems battered around and the teacups span. It really was as though Danny had just stepped out into a new world. All of a sudden everything seemed more alive, more colourful.

  There was one colour that stood out even more within this illuminating new world, and that was the sparkling radiance of Stella’s violaceous eyes. There she was at the edge of the park staring back at Danny. Once he’d seen her, she walked away through a gap in the wall to the shoreline. And like a helpless child of Hamelin following the melody of temptation, Danny strode after her.

  Through the gap ran the promenade, dotted along which were steps leading down to the sand and shingle of Dark Harbour’s beaches. Danny looked to see that she’d walked onto the sands and was looking out across the waves. The sky was just starting to show the first hints of a golden sunset.

  Instead of walking to the steps, Danny clumsily jumped straight off the promenade, landing dangerously close to a rock pool. With a slight bit more grace returning, he hopped his way around the water and then coolly walked over to her in his best Brad Pitt walk.

  Stella continued to gaze seawards, her honey hair blowing in the wind. Talking to her was something that Danny could only fantasise about before, but perhaps all that dreaming had finally manifested his desire, for here he was about to say his first ever word to the one who had held him under such enchantment for so long.

  ‘Hello,’ was the word that came from Danny’s now functioning lips.

  ‘I like to stand here and watch the sun go down,’ she began wistfully. ‘So many times I’ve stood on these shores and watched it.’

  Danny was too fixated by her to look at the sun, observing the strands of her hair dancing freely around her face as though they’d been inhibited for a very long time. Most probably feeling his stare, she turned to face him. Again she smiled.

  ‘Will you sit with me?’ Stella asked as she knelt down on the pebbly sand.

  Danny sat down next to her, as close as would seem appropriate.

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Daniel. Danny.’

  ‘And do you know my name, Danny?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  Stella sat back and clutched her knees. ‘I thought you might. Know anything else about me?’

  ‘I do,’ he replied, not really wanting to expand upon it.

  ‘So, you’re a reader,’ she then said on seeing the book that was still tucked firmly under his arm.

  ‘Yeah I’m a… I study English Literature,’ he replied as he placed the book the other side of himself, suddenly remembering the scrap of paper that was shut within it.

  Stella stared back towards the sibilant waves as their gentle swirling seemed to lull her senses deeper inwards. ‘Do you ever look at someone and feel a familiarity?’ she whispered softly. ‘Like you’ve just seen some part of yourself in somebody else? Or something long forgotten.’

  Danny took a moment to ponder her question. ‘I think so,’ he gingerly agreed.

  ‘You looked like you were drowning, Danny. A lost soul. Sinking into the waters. It… it’s haunting.’

  Danny didn’t know how to respond, but he was too absorbed by her words to think of a reply. He could have carried on listening to her sweet voice all day.

  But as a silence came over them, Danny sensed it was perhaps time for him to say something.

  ‘Is that why you spoke to me?’

  ‘Because one lost soul may understand another lost soul?’ she said as she turned to face him. ‘It was your eyes that gave it all away. It’s always the eyes.’

  She was such an enigma, but her expressions were resonating within him on some level, as if he knew what she meant but wouldn’t be able to find the words to explain. It was so typical of Danny to be without words these days.

  ‘Will you stay with me and watch the sunset, Danny?’

  ‘Sure. I’d like that.’

  And so for the next quarter of an hour that’s what they did. There they both sat in silence on the sands of Dark Harbour, watching the sinking sun flood the sky with its sanguine tones. Danny felt so calm and content being in her zephyr presence. He could almost feel the tingle of her aura against his, and it felt so inspiring, as though it flowed inside him. In this moment he no longer felt like an average, nobody student. Here the universe had reserved a special seat for him, in the presence of one of those clouds that floated high above all the others. And inspired by that, Danny felt like he was soaring too, an eagle flying within her airy heights.

  Stella broke the silence. ‘What time is it?’

  Danny looked at his watch. ‘Just gone half six.’

  ‘My goodness,’ she said as she started to get up. ‘I must get going. Sam will be wondering where I’ve got to.’

  The skies may just as well have clouded over and spewed cold rain all over him. Hearing that name brought Danny right back down to the normal world, as he was abruptly reminded of the person to whom Stella’s heart belonged. He got up.

  ‘Thanks for sitting here with me.’

  ‘I enjoyed it.’

  ‘You’re so sweet,’ she said with that ever-captivating smile.

  As usual, Danny bashfully lowered his eyes to the ground and at this point Stella stepped closer to him. Leaning in, she pressed her lips to his cheek and kissed him.r />
  Anyone looking on could have easily assumed that they were two young people consumed by romance and completely in love with each other. The way they’d sat on the beach like that watching the sunset, and the tender way she’d kissed him goodbye, it all seemed so obvious what this picture conveyed.

  Unfortunately for Danny, someone was looking on.

  Chapter 5.2

  The next afternoon, Larry was in bed snoring. The air within his bedroom was musky and the place looked like a washing machine and a crate of FHM magazines had both exploded in there. Drifting in and out of sleep, Larry’s eyes would occasionally open before the seduction of sleep dragged him back out of the waking world. Getting out of bed always felt such a struggle, as though he was giving birth to himself. His radio alarm had been set for midday but every time it went off he just pressed the snooze button and promptly fell into another nine minute increment of sleep.

  At some point during the twelfth snooze, as it was getting on for two o’clock, Larry heard a scuffing sound at the door.

  ‘Go away,’ Larry groaned in his semi-sleep.

  Still the scuffing continued, until he eventually heard the door pop open, the dry hinge making a slow, grating creak that couldn’t possibly be any more annoying. He then heard heavy breathing, and could have assumed some demented pervert had trotted into his room, especially when he felt the intruder licking his face. But Larry knew it was only the new resident at their flat, Eddie’s dog.

  Having dog slobber pasted over him was finally enough to wake him, and Larry sat up and wiped his pillow over his face.

  ‘Thanks. Just how I like to start the day, a dog drooling over me.’

  The wide-eyed dog sat on its hind legs as it panted cheerfully, proud of himself for having been so friendly to one of his new pack members. He cocked his head at Larry as if to say: ‘As I was so kind to you, can we play?’

  ‘Go find your master. Eddie will take you for a walk,’ Larry said as he lay back down again, resting an arm over his face, shielding the stinging daylight from his eyes.

  ‘Get lost. I’m not walking him again.’

  Larry opened his eyes and saw that Eddie was standing in the doorway.

  ‘All right, mucker?’

  ‘You want an old mutt?’ Eddie asked.

  ‘Um,’ Larry said as he looked at the dog. ‘Not for breakfast. You know, Eddie, when you told me you’d brought a dog home I didn’t think that you’d brought home an actual dog.’

  ‘And still he’s prettier than anything you ever brought back.’

  ‘Touché. So what are you doing here? I thought you had a seminar on Friday afternoons.’

  Eddie looked at his watch. ‘Yeah?’ he said blankly, almost as if he didn’t understand what Larry was on about.

  ‘You’re not going?’

  ‘You not getting out of bed?’

  ‘It’s still early yet.

  ‘It’s early afternoon!’

  ‘That’s what I said! It’s still early!’

  He noticed Eddie smile very briefly before the usual glower returned to his face.

  ‘Anyway, is being a student really about studying these days, eh?’ Larry pondered.

  ‘Studying to be an unemployed bum maybe,’ Eddie added. ‘In a year’s time all we’ll be doing is collecting our job seeker’s allowance and pissing it up the wall. It’s all a waste of fucking time, you ask me.’

  ‘You heard about Michael?’

  ‘No. What now?’

  ‘He’s going to be doing some work experience at the Gazette this summer.’

  Eddie shook his head. ‘And no doubt your mate Danny will have his best seller on the shelves soon. Writing about his student days in the famous fucking five.’

  ‘Do you know what you want to do when you leave college?’ Larry asked.

  ‘Do I fuck. There’s no jobs anyway. We’re living in a no man’s land, and the last fuckers that anyone looks at these days are single males. Hell, if I was a woman I could get knocked up and there’s my fucking career. A child fucking benefit collector with my own house thrown in to the deal. But you’re British and you have a dick? You’re not an immigrant? You don’t belong to the God club, or a secret society, or you were born to someone in a corporation? Then you got no fucking cards to play at all. We’re on our own. Our very existence is a political incorrectness.’

  Larry was speechless for a moment, allowing the angry dust from his diatribe to settle. ‘I thought you were foreign,’ he eventually responded.

  ‘Not that I care.’

  ‘Come on, you got the black card!’

  ‘No I don’t. My mother’s white.’

  ‘Then… wow. You really are fucked then.’

  ‘And you were fucked to begin with because you can’t even get out of bed.’

  ‘Well, who wants to get out of bed when they’re being fucked?’

  Eddie laughed, clearly that time.

  Larry propped himself up. ‘Oh well. I guess I should really get some work done.’

  Instead of taking the cue to leave, Eddie went over to the chair and started removing the things piled on top of it: a dinner plate with some stale crusts, some clothes, and an empty DVD case for a program about extreme impact racing car crashes. Eventually he was able to sit down.

  It was most unusual for Eddie to come into his room like this. Perhaps he was trying to be friendly for a change. Larry didn’t know what to say though. The conversation they’d just had was about as long and involved as they came.

  Larry looked back at the dog who was now lying down on the floor with its paws outstretched. All of a sudden the animal seemed relaxed, contented, ready to have a nap.

  ‘What are you going to call it?’ Larry asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The dog. What’s he called?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m not keeping the bastard thing.’

  ‘So what are you going to do with him?’

  ‘Hopefully his dumbass owner will get in touch.’

  ‘And how are they going to know you’ve got him?’

  ‘Oh Michael, he put on his Jesus cape and put some posters up, even an advert in the paper.’

  ‘We can still give him a name.’

  ‘What?’

  Larry glanced up at his wall. In amongst the pictures of scantily clad women was a film poster of The Return of the King.

  ‘How about Frodo?’

  Eddie glanced at the poster too. ‘That’s like the first name you thought of.’

  ‘Yeah?’ Larry replied defensively. ‘Okay, how about Meriadoc then? Yeah, that’s an awesome name.’

  Eddie rubbed his eyes. ‘Okay, sure. Fuck it. We’ll call him Meriadoc. I’ll get Michael to put on his goddamn robes and we’ll Christen him later. Happy now?’

  ‘Can I be the godfather?’

  Eddie couldn’t help but smile again, until another thought quickly dissolved it.

  ‘Hey, do you want to…?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Doesn’t matter.’

  ‘What?’ Larry persisted.

  Eddie appeared to be hiding under his baseball cap a little bit. ‘Do you want to go kick the football around or something? I’m bored.’

  Larry looked at his bedside clock. ‘I don’t know. I got this essay to do today. Supposed to be in on Monday.’

  ‘What, you’ve not started it?’

  ‘Dude, I’ve not even read the brief.’

  ‘What were we saying two seconds ago, Larry? I thought we’d just determined none of this academia crap is going to get us anywhere. Come on, are you coming?’

  It may have seemed like a small decision in the scheme of things, but Larry sometimes noticed how the universe threw up out-of-proportion consequences to small decisions. But what was it really going to matter if he spent an hour playing football? Maybe Meriadoc would like to come with them too. He was sure Eddie hadn’t taken him for many walks.

  ‘Okay,’ he replied. ‘We could go to the common. They have goal posts
up.’

  ‘Cool. Yeah, that’s the other side of town. We can get the bus and it’ll…’

  ‘No,’ Larry quickly cut in. There was a silence for a moment. ‘Not the bus. I don’t take buses.’

  Eddie would have argued with him but Larry was strangely insistent. ‘Okay, so we’ll walk.’

  He stood up and left the room, the newly named dog trotting after him, sensing already there was some fun about to go down.

  Next door to the students lived a young couple, the Malcomsons, who had a three-year-old son and a black Labrador. Larry and the other two got on with them quite well and often spoke to them over the garden fence when they were hanging out the washing or having barbecues. Michael even babysat for their child now and again.

  Before they went to the common, Larry made Eddie go and knock on the door and ask Mrs Malcomson if she perhaps had an old dog lead he could borrow. By the time Larry had changed, Meriadoc was harnessed up and they were ready to go. And so the three of them made their way across town, tapping a football along the pavement as they went.

  ‘You never catch buses?’ Eddie asked, thinking back to their earlier conversation.

  ‘Nah.’

  ‘You’ve never been on one?’

  ‘Oh yeah. Used to catch one to school.’

  ‘But now you don’t?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Oh you know. Buses smell. They give me a headache.’

  ‘You get travel sick?’

  ‘Yeah. Travel sick.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘That was nice of Mrs Malcomson to lend you the lead,’ Larry said to change the subject.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The dog lead. What did she say?’

  ‘She wasn’t in.’

  ‘She wasn’t?’

  ‘No. No one was in.’

  ‘So where did you get that from?’

  ‘Mrs Malcomson.’

  Larry looked at him to see if he was kidding. ‘You just went in there?’

  ‘Yeah. Michael has a spare key. I just borrowed it. I’m sure they won’t mind.’

  ‘You went in their house and just took it?’

  ‘That’s what I said, didn’t I?’

  ‘Yeah.’