“I need to go home, now,” he said in a pathetic voice, adding,“Will you help me?” and he went straight out of the front door of the pub. Kentfollowed, fascinated to see what would happen next.
Less than a hundred yards from his house Glen was desperateonce again. “Oh, God, oh God, please no,” he whined, powerless to fight againstthe downward pressure from his bowels. Just before he got to the front door,the inevitable accident occurred.
Kent opened the front door for Glen who was now almostcrying at his ordeal. Not so big and clever, now, are you? he thought. He didn’tfeel the slightest twinge of guilt about what he had done. As long as he keptthinking about all the things that Glen had done to him, Kay, and goodnessknows who else, then his conscience would remain clear. He had well and trulyhad this coming to him.
As Glen headed straight into the downstairs cloakroom, Kentdecided it was time he took his leave. He could easily have made a gloatingspeech at this point, letting his enemy know who had been the orchestrator ofhis downfall. But what would that achieve? It could even backfire if herecovered enough to take retaliatory action. Instead, he derived somesatisfaction by delivering an overly cheerful farewell, making no acknowledgementwhatsoever of Glen’s plight.
“Well, I’ll be off then, see you later!” Without waiting tohear the response, he closed the front door leaving his hapless friend to itand headed back into town. He still had £27 to play with, and he wanted to makeit count. It wasn’t alcohol he was planning to spend it on this time: he hadthought of a much better use for the money.
Less than four hours later, dressed as Batman, he rang the doorbellof Kay’s house and stepped back. He was holding his purchase in his right hand– a large bunch of red roses. Glen would never have bought a woman flowers, he wouldhave considered it corny and soppy, but Kent was different. He was going toshow Kay that he was romantic and a gentleman. Glen had bought twelve condoms, Kenthad bought twelve roses. That summed up the difference between the two of them.He hoped Kay would see it that way, too.
She opened the door, looking stunning, dressed as Catwoman. Shewas impossibly young and pretty compared to her modern-day self. Promptly, he presentedthe bunch of roses to her.
“For you,” he said. “Will you do me the great honour ofaccompanying me to the ball?”
“Richard!” she said in surprise, but certainly not in a disappointedway. “They’re lovely! What are you doing here? Where’s Glen?”
“Indisposed, I’m afraid,” replied Kent. “I’m taking hisplace.” He had decided to keep the switch a surprise, gambling that Glen hadbeen either too ill or too thoughtless to bother to tell her he wasn’t coming.Clearly he hadn’t.
She was initially delighted, he could see it in her eyes,but then he saw a look of worry cross her face. He had anticipated this and hadcome prepared for it. Before she could speak, he pre-empted her.
“Oh, by the way, that thing Glen told you about me beinggay? Not true, I’m pleased to say. That’s just his warped sense of humour.”
“To be honest, I never thought that you were,” replied Kay. “Ishould never have let him talk me into being his date. All along it was you Iwanted to go with.”
“And now you can,” replied Kent.
He had nothing to worry about. She didn’t seem botheredabout Glen’s non-appearance, not even enquiring about the reason for his absence.She was too happy being with him, on an evening that could not have gonebetter.
The feeling was more than mutual. Being with Kay wasamazing. It wasn’t just her looks and her body that were a quarter of a centuryyounger; it was everything else about her, from what she said to how she saidit. She told him all about her hopes for the future, how she wanted to travelthe world, surf on Bondi Beach, climb Everest, and ultimately make and presenttravel programmes.
Kent knew that none of those things had happened. Instead shehad ended up just another middle-aged loser in a small town drowning hersorrows at the bar. Obviously he didn’t let on that he knew her future hadn’tturned out the way she had planned. At seventeen she was starry-eyed and fullof dreams and there was no way he was going to spoil them.
Maybe she could have fulfilled those dreams if first Glen andthen her husband hadn’t wrecked things for her. The night of this ball wasclearly one of those pivotal points on which whole lifetimes can be turned. If sheand Kent had become a couple, he certainly wouldn’t have stood in the way ofanything she wanted to do.
If only things had worked out this way first time round in Universe1.0, her whole life could have been completely different. And not just her life,doubtless it would have set his life on a different path, too. He might neverhave joined the police, never married Debs, and could have ended up anywhere.
There was no point speculating on such things now. He had toaccept that he and Kay had no future together and no past. All they had wasthis one night, and it was flying by far too quickly. All too soon they hadtalked and danced the night away. Suddenly it was 11pm and the DJ was playingthe last song. It was a smoochy ballad, “Love Is All Around” by Wet Wet Wet, whichhad been number one for pretty much the whole of that summer. It wasn’t the sortof song that Kent would have had anywhere near his record collection but it wasabsolutely perfect for the moment.
Holding each other on the dance floor, they rotated slowlyaround in the flashing disco lights, resting each other’s heads on oppositeshoulders. Most of the discos Kent had been to in his youth had finished withthese slow dances. He remembered it being quite nerve-racking, trying to pluckup the courage to ask a girl to dance.
Tonight he had no such fears. Pulling away from the hug, helifted his head from his
