Red Light For Love

Friday, 14th February 1997

Marcus wakes up smiling, checks to his right, pulled a right cracker for a Thursday night, rolls/jumps out of bed, funky purple dressing gown, leaves the girl sleeping and saunters out of the room down the corridor hop skip jump down the stairs and sees the light through the doorway fall on a pile of variegated red envelopes plentiful enough to cover the door mat. Bending down he scoops them up and walks them into the front room where he pauses only to catch the cards slipping from his arms onto the floor, drops the pile onto the front room table and releases an almost inaudible yap of glee. Marcus loves Valentine's Day.

Ploughs through the cards, all different handwritings, ripping them open to scan the contents, check the jokey pet names people gives themselves and crosses them with their real names, playfully filling in his social calendar mentally and planning to take a week off. Some envelopes contain little keepsakes, falling out like rocks from the sky, hillock of envelope trash forming to one side and cards and gifts to the other. The doorbell goes; Marcus Trembly (38) dashes to answer - three delivery men with assorted bundles of bouquets. He spends a full five minutes signing for flowers and cheerily ignores the look on the second delivery man's face, the familiar "why can't I be you?" look Marcus saw all the time: "you're no different from me" jealousy, the scowl-beneath-the-surface slowly percolating through suppressing features, worn down by lonely years and ignored Valentines dreams - Marcus gives him the biggest smile of all, hoping pragmato-vainly that some of his facile charm and grace will rub off on him.

Door no sooner closed than the phone starts, and this could go on for ages, women, women, women, so many, so little time, so let's take our first caller, who's on line one? He picks up the phone - "Marcus? Marcus?" but the phone's still ringing, what the hell?, and the voice "Marcus? Marcus? Marcus..." and the bell hasn't stopped ringing, and that's when the penny drops, and the reality of Marcus being woken by his mum on Valentine's Day hits him. Breakfast, work, and sadness. But first he's going to check the post. Who knows.

Maybe today.

B