didn’t have more than a 20 pound note so as long as I canceled them the guy wouldn’t have gotten away with anything valuable, apart from my comfort feeling of walking on the streets.
Lisa comforted me a while after I got out of the shower. I had called the police and then called the bank to cancel my cards. We had a cup of tea in silence. I couldn’t shake the horrible memories of it, like it had etched itself into my brain, never to go away. I felt sick to my stomach.
After a while we both needed to go to bed. Lisa looked at me with kind eyes.
“Maybe we should take a self defence class?”
“That sounds really good actually. Let’s do a class soon OK?”
She agreed nodding her head as she gave me a big hug. The thought of being able to defend myself by kicking his ass felt good. I imagined myself doing all kinds of moves, which I probably would never manage to learn, but it was helping my mind deal with what had happened.
I walked into my bedroom and glanced over at the painting of Peter.
“Why can’t you be here instead?” I whispered to it. His eyes seemed to find mine. I had done a technically good job of those. His skin had a slight tan, like a couple of weeks after summer has ended, the memory of sun kissed skin getting ready to leave.
I got into bed, curled myself in a fetal position and stared at Peter until my eye lids grew too heavy, and I fell asleep.