AMY

AMY

I saw her first on a cold December day.  I was walking down Main, head bowed against the wind when an inside out umbrella came bouncing by me.
“Get it!” I heard someone scream nearby.  “Please?”  I spun on my heel and went after it.  I ran, but somehow it always seemed to be just ahead of me, cartwheeling merrily towards the harbour.  Just as I was about to give up, I saw it halt its progress, a single spoke tangled in a display of homespun knitted goods outside the yarn store.
“Gotcha!” I cried as I untangled the spoke, lifting the escaped thing aloft like an Olympic torch.
“Thank you!” The woman hurried towards me, tottering a little on too-high heels.
“Not a problem.” I smiled as I handed the umbrella back.  “You must not be from around here.  Any native knows you never use an umbrella in Wellington!” 
“Good advice,” she said, nodding as she rolled the umbrella back up, snapping the strap on with a loud click.  “Thank you so much for rescuing it.”
“All in a day’s work, m’lady.”  I grinned and gave a little, mocking bow.  “Now, I shall be on my way…”


Three days later I was at my sister’s house.  She was having a party to celebrate something or other.  Maybe someone opened an envelope somewhere.  Maggie doesn’t need any excuse to throw a party; she’s one of those girls that people are just drawn to.  In any crowd, she’s the one people notice first.  I don’t know what it is.  She’s not beautiful exactly, but you can’t take your eyes off her.  She’s tiny, only about 5”1 but nobody ever thinks she’s short. She has messy black hair that never goes in the direction she wants it, and huge blue eyes.  She says she hates those eyes, says she thinks she looks like a Manga character.  I disagree.

“Jeff!” she called as soon as I walked in the door.  How she knew I was there is beyond me.  There were at least forty people in the room, and she had her back to me.  But that’s Maggie for you.  “There’s someone I want you to meet!”
“Aw… Mags!” I whined.  “I asked you not to set me up with anyone else.  I can find my own dates, you know!”
She raised an eyebrow, hands on her hips as she regarded me. “Can you?  When was your last date, Casanova?”  She had a point.  I hadn’t been out with anyone since the disastrous blind date my best friend Brian and his wife set me up with.  And that was more than three months ago.
“Okay.  So who is she?”

It took Maggie about a millisecond to find the woman she was looking for in the crowded room. Before I could even glance in that direction, she had me by the wrist and was dragging me through the throng. 
“Amy!” she cried as we neared a small cluster of people by the fireplace.  “I want you to meet my brother, Jeff.  Jeff, this is Amy.  She just started working at Carpaccio with me.”
“Uh… Hi” I managed, barely looking up from the floor.  Amy wore very high-heeled shoes, red patent leather with intricate black stitching across the toe.  I studied her ankles, her calves, the red and black striped tights laddering up her legs until they disappeared beneath the hem of her skirt.
“Hello, Jeff.”  The voice was somehow familiar.  I abandoned my study of her lower limbs and glanced upwards, surprised to see the woman whose umbrella I’d rescued.
“My knight!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together in a way that was both absurdly childish and delightful.  “Maggie!  You never told me your brother was so gallant.”
“Gallant?” Maggie looked quizzically at us both, eyebrows raised.  “You’re talking about Jeff?”
“Uh….  Would you like a drink?” Amy’s hands were empty and I didn’t feel like standing by while she described my saving her umbrella.
“Definitely!”  Amy winked at me.  “Bubbly.”

I downed a flute of my own while standing at the makeshift bar in the kitchen, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself.  My heart was beating wildly and I felt flushed.  I picked up two full glasses and carried them carefully back towards the fireplace.  The condensation felt cool against my sweaty palm, and I was grateful for it.  As I thrust a glass at Amy, Maggie sidled away, moving easily through the crowd that seemed to have doubled in size since I’d left the room.
“Thanks!” Amy accepted the glass and took a sip, leaving a scarlet lip-print on the rim of the glass.  For some reason that set my insides quivering, made my hands shake so that I had to slurp my drink to keep it from spilling on the floor.

“So,” Amy began, chocolate brown eyes assessing me from head to foot.  “You’re Maggie’s brother.  I wouldn’t have picked it.”
“No,” I agreed.  “Nobody ever does.  She’s…..  Well….  She’s…”
“She’s Maggie,” Amy finished for me.  “You don’t need to explain.  The girl’s incredible!  I’ve never met anyone like her.  It’s like she’s a force field or something.  Get too close and you’re drawn in.  What was it like growing up with her?”
“You don’t want to know,” I laughed.
“Oh, but I do!”  Amy’s eyes were wide.  “Why don’t we get out of here?  It’s too loud to really talk.  There’s a great bar just down the block.”
“Seriously?” I stared at her. There was nothing I wanted more than to be alone with this woman.
“Sure.”  She grabbed my arm and guided me through the sea of bodies.  By the front door she paused, digging through a pile of coats until she found hers, red of course.  We pushed through the door, surprised to discover it was now raining,
“We’re covered!” Amy laughed, brandishing the battered, black umbrella.
We hadn’t walked three steps before the wind tore it from her hands, sending it cartwheeling into the darkness.

999 words