Chapter 32 — Meeting Anna

As the months wore on into the next year, I began to fall back into my old lifestyle of chaos, chess, drink, and university, not necessarily in that order. I was minus nearly all of my senses, but I was still living, and that was the main point. I did have an opportunity for the hospital to operate on the obstruction on my brain, which prevented the sensory messages from getting through to the mind, and to stop the tinnitus, too, but luckily on a job out in Hull, I'd heard how the neighbour of the house we were working on had just died during such an operation, and that intelligence convinced me to forget about such hapless remedies.

The year was 1996, and the final year of university was here. I'd just packed in a wretched job in the Victoria Quarter at some restaurant, where I used to wash up pots and eat as much as I could get away with, and where the owner, an equally wretched creature, thought it appropriate to piss in the sink upstairs. September meant grant, and that I didn't have to work any longer, and could once again lead the life I was enjoying.

It was nearing the end of September, and I know that as my birthday is on the last of that labouring month. It was customary of me to go out on my own in town, as I always met up with someone, or got in with a crowd, as I was a chatty individual, and I didn't have trouble tiptoeing into conversations at a table or bar and latching on to them. One such Saturday, however, I don't think I'd had much luck, as I'd ended up pissed at some ungodly hour in a grim nightclub above a bar, Big Lil’s near the Three Legs pub, and I was stood staring through eyes struggling with stale alcohol when I dropped a cigarette from the packet I was holding.

I smoked way back then and will come anon as to how I stopped. Anyway, this cig fell to the nightclub floor, and as I looked stubbornly around for it, a small, blonde-haired woman handed it back to me. I'm not recalling this, as I can't remember the event, but was told this is what happened on that night.

I do remember the following morning, though, because as I was emptying my trouser pockets to put into the wash, a small slip of paper fell out. 'Fione,' or 'Anna,' as I couldn't make out whether I'd written the end as an 'e' or 'a', followed by a Leeds phone number. I stared at it for a while, and then put it on the windowsill, and I didn't really give it much more thought until the Wednesday, when washing the plates up, I once again saw this small slip of paper with a phone number on it.

Give it a ring, Karl. Why not? I thought. So I rang the number, and a woman's voice answered.

'Hiya, it's Karl, and I found your number...'

'Oh, so you've decided to ring have you, or have you just sobered up?' and she let out a genuine laugh.

'Do you want to go out for a drink on Saturday, as Monday is my birthday, but I'm celebrating it on Saturday, and you can buy me a drink?'

'Okay. Do you remember me, though?'

'No, not really,' as I really didn't, but I hoped she was 'a bit of alright.'

'Well, I'm not doing anything else, so why not. I'll meet you outside the Gas shop at the Merrion Centre for 7, and you better let me know if you can't make it. Look forward to seeing you, Karl,' and the woman hung up the phone.

A date was set for Saturday with a woman who I'd met but didn't have a clue what she looked like.

Saturday arrived, and I had to travel to Scarborough in the afternoon to play chess there in the Yorkshire League, and it must have been well after 7.15 when I approached the Merrion Centre. Mobile phones were new then, and I couldn't let the woman know I was running late, and thought she'd have gone by the time I arrived. However, luck was in, and she was just on the point of leaving when I finally got there and made my excuses.

A friend had dropped her off but had decided to wait in case I didn't show or turned up pissed or something, and she chatted a little to her friend before the latter drove off.

I was pleasantly surprised by Anna. She was a little older than me and was petite with blonde hair and very buxom to say the least for such a diminutive woman. We exchanged a few pleasantries and headed off to a bar in the Merrion Centre. It was a great night, and we both enjoyed the evening thoroughly, and within the week, we were seeing each other regularly.

Anna was a single mum. Her daughter, Rebecca, was a tiny child of four years. Mum and daughter lived on the estate of Halton Moor, a council estate infested with a great many mindless idiots and not unlike many estates in Leeds at that time. Anna and Rebecca lived in a small street, and behind the back garden and beyond the facing houses, there was a big roundabout where all the mindless idiots used to race, screech, and smash some poor bloke's stolen car.

The final fate of such a vehicle was to be burnt out, and deep into the early hours of a morning, you could hear these cars being punished and smashed, and police helicopters in the air, blue lights shining trying to prevent the chaos. In the morning, walking round to the shop, there'd always be at least one burnt-out wreck of a car, and on one occasion there were even four.

I was still living at 255, and had been seeing Anna for nearly a year. I never moved in, and Anna never invited me to, and we enjoyed what we had.