In the Underground City

Note: this is based on a true story. I was walking through Montréal's La Ville Souterraine (The Underground City) during a very cold winter. A woman approached me from a side tunnel and asked me to walk with her because she had been threatened by someone following her. I was only in there because of the weather, and I had my doubts that she was telling the truth...until I saw the man. For the challenge, we are supposed to write our story from another point of view. I will try to enter the head of the one who was following her.

Yes, it gets dark.

- K.D.

*

I see you. I see you.

Lady, lady, lady...you walked away so fast from me after all I did was ask you so innocently if you were free (free for me). No one else to talk to in that darkness and you just there, looking so beautiful in your heavy coat, just like a cocoon before the butterfly comes out. My butterfly... My lady.

Lady, lady, lady...

You were so fast that I almost had to run, but it was just one tunnel until you had to make a choice and turn. One way: that was right back to the offices and a quick step outside. The other way: the metro through that whole big space. Coloured glass and plenty of events if you can join in...

Not for me, of course. No one wants me. No one to talk to. So, I saw you...

Lady, lady, lady...

You had a guy right next to you. Did you even know such a guy? Much better to be with someone than to be alone. That's what I say. That is what I was going to say to you. So, why didn't you just stay with me? Why didn't you give me a chance?

Why did he look at me like that?

It was only a quick look. I was looking at him looking at me. And we were both waiting for something. I think I remember a movie like that. Two cowboys were staring each other down in some dirty town on a dirty road where a crowd waited for one of them to take out their gun. They waited, and waited, and waited...

They waited for someone to die.

And I just stood there.

I could not move.

You both began to walk down the tunnel, you with your arm in his, he looking back, like he was daring me to do something. Like he wanted me to...do what?

He was taking my lady.

My lady, lady, lady...

You both disappeared and I did not know what to do. You seemed happy to be arm and arm with him; he seemed to be happy not to be near me or that corner. You both left me, like so many others have. I stayed and I stared.

Will I see you again? You are still my lady, and the winter season will be back one day. You may not always have another kind soul like me to hang on to if you are walking home in the dim tunnels and find yourself distracted by all that modern art and the search for the right direction to all the destinations I know so well (my expertise is there for you). But I feel like you owe me...

Lady, lady, lady...

You owe me. You left me all alone and embarrassed when I saw that there were others in the tunnel and others who could see me in the city without a kind soul on my arm. You owe me...you owe me...

And I intend to collect.

Lady, lady, lady...

*

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You can find more poems, stories, and articles by Kendall Defoe on my Vocal profile. I complain, argue, provoke and create...just like everybody else.

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