The Unexpected Drink

Jamie Thompson stared into space, waiting for the next train. He thrust his hands deeper into his overcoat pockets, pulling the open coat closer around him. Yes, he probably would be warmer if he actually did the coat up, but then he'd look... well, not as good, put it that way.

A cascade of hair fell over his left eye. One hand ventured out of its warm burrow to sweep away the offending intruder and returned swiftly, mission completed. More people piled onto the platform. Got to get a seat, Jamie thought. Even if I have to fight them all, I've got to get a seat. He grinned at the idea of pulling out a samurai sword and cutting down his fellow commuters with a blood-curdling scream.

Wish I'd brought my Walkman, he thought as he heard the tinny beat from someone else's headphones. Jamie turned to look at the owner of the noise, and saw a youngish man loping along the platform, a bounce in his step. He ducked and dived through the crowds, excusing himself as he pushed past others with a manic grin on his face. The man, in his early twenties Jamie guessed, was singing along to the tape - well, if you could call it singing. Jamie thought it was more like a loud, incoherent, slurred cry of pain. Oh well, he thought, it takes all sorts...

Jamie smiled as the man swung past him, and kept watching as he took up a position further up the platform. The young man had long dark hair, tied back with a leather thong. His clothes were grubby, as if the man had spent the day cleaning an old house. He had a fairly lived-in look - jeans that were barely still black, an old grey jumper that was just starting to show signs of going baggy, and scuffed boots, laced halfway up the man's shins with red laces.

The man's body kept moving, swaying close to the edge of the platform with the beat of the music. He now had a peaceful smile on his face, looking as carefree as a small child in the arms of its mother.

Jamie heard the oncoming train and glanced down the tunnel. Steeling himself for battle, Jamie glanced back at the man, to see what he was doing. As the train pulled up, the man looked straight at Jamie, his head still bobbing to the music, and winked.

Then he stepped straight in front of the train.

Jamie
I couldn't believe it. This guy just walked straight in front of the bloody tube train! One minute he was walking along the platform, Walkman blaring out, the next he looks straight at me, winks - yeah, I know - winks at me, and steps in front of the train. Bam! Adios, muchachos....
It was the scariest thing I've ever seen, the look on his face. It was so calm, so... God, I don't know. It's almost like he thought he wouldn't be hurt. Why would anyone do that? Yeah, I know we all get a bit fed up every now and then, but that didn't seem to be his problem at all. He looked really happy.

Weird, isn't it? Pretty much screwed up the trains for the rest of the day by the sounds of it. Not that any of us got out of the station very quickly, what with the Police and Ambulance there. Yeah, I know it's selfish, but all I wanted to do was get out of there and have a drink. All those bloody questions. "No, I didn't know him", "No, no one pushed him." How was I to know he was going to top himself? He wasn't exactly holding up a bit of paper saying, "I'm going to kill myself".

I still can't believe that's what he wanted to do. It's all so bloody weird, if you ask me. How could anyone do that? I suppose if you were stoned out of your skull, but still....

Jamie stood at the entrance to the tube station, looking deflated. It was two hours since the incident, and Jamie was tired. He'd been talking to the police for the last hour, trying to explain to them what had happened. Not that he could explain it. He couldn't seem to get his brain around it.

A few more of the commuters pushed past Jamie, laughing and trying to get cabs. He felt as if he were wrapped in cotton wool. He knew it was cold, but he didn't feel it. His mind was too active, too concerned with what had happened to be able to communicate with his body. He felt numb. Shaking himself slightly, Jamie decided he needed a drink.

Looking up, he saw a few people push through the doors of a pub over the road, spilling out onto the pavement. He headed towards the orange lights of the Old Speckled Hen.

Inside, the place was heaving. Jamie fought his way to the bar through clouds of smoke, and waited to catch the attention of one of the bar staff. One girl, about Jamie's age, looked up and said, "Be with you in a minute." Jamie smiled back and mumbled something incoherent. The girl was about five foot four, long blonde hair with a bright red streak down the left hand side, and wore plenty of silver and amber jewellery with her pub T-shirt. Her plastic badge proclaimed her name to be Charity.

Eventually, Charity got around to serving Jamie. "What can I get you?" she asked with a jangle of bangles. Jamie looked around him, as if he had been asked the most difficult question on the planet. "Um.... I don't know...." The girl tried not to look impatient. "Shall I come back to you? There's people waiting...."

"No, it's alright," Jamie decided. "Wine, please." "Wine? Red or white?"

"Um.... White, please. Medium dry. New World if you've got one."

Charity turned around to pour Jamie a glass of wine. "Australian Chardonnay do you okay?" she asked with a tinge of sarcasm.

"Yeah, great. Actually, could I have a whole bottle, please?"

"How many glasses do you want with that?"

Jamie looked confused again. He didn't realise there would be so many questions. "Um, just the one please."

Strange man, thought Charity, as she pulled a bottle from the fridge and uncorked it. Placing the bottle into a cooler, she handed it to Jamie with a glass. Jamie fumbled in his pockets, and pulled out a twenty pound note. Waiting for his change, Jamie stared at his reflection in the mirror at the back of the bar. He looked like he'd aged twenty years in one evening. Charity handed Jamie his change with a concerned grin. "If you need any help with that wine, give me a shout," she said. Jamie half grinned back, suddenly aware of the fact that there was an attractive girl in front of him. He grabbed his wine, and scurried off to find a quiet table somewhere.

Charity
And there was me thinking it was going to be a quiet night. How wrong can a girl be? One minute I was scrabbling around for empties, the next it's busier than New Year's Eve. I'm still not too sure what's happened. Something over at the tube station I think. Some driver's gone psycho and killed a passenger, or something.... Welcome to London, everybody!
What's that? Oh somebody jumped in front of the tube, is that it? Great, another nutter. Hope it's all sorted by twelve, I want to get home quickly.

Funny how stuff gets turned around isn't it? Bit of a difference between a serial killer tube driver and a jumper, isn't there? Well, not to the person that clears it up - and I thought the loos in here were bad enough!

The strange thing is that guy over there.... Comes in here, looking like it's his own brother that got killed. He's just sitting there, staring into space, drinking that bottle of wine.... Debbie says the guy saw it all - nah, I don't think he pushed him. It would be on camera, right? The police wouldn't have let him go that easily if he had pushed him - it'd be murder, wouldn't it?

If it gets quieter later on I might go and talk to him. He's kind of interesting - in a weird way. How many blokes do you know would come into a pub and order a whole bottle of wine?

"I hear you saw the whole thing," Charity said, sitting herself down opposite Jamie.

"What?" said Jamie, returning from another planet.

"The accident. Must have been terrible. You didn't know him, did you?"

"No," said Jamie. "No, I.... Sorry. It's all shaken me up a bit, I suppose." He ran a hand through his brown hair, and managed a wan smile. "So, do you want some of this wine, or what?" He gestured to the bottle with his half-empty glass.

"I thought you'd never ask," said Charity, with a dazzling smile. She produced a glass from under the table which Jamie filled. Jamie raised his glass. "To life. May we all enjoy it to the best of our abilities."

"I'll drink to that," said Charity, chiming her glass next to Jamie's.