The Underpass

The underpass.

By Isaac Marrero-Guillamón.

I looked at the bike. It was a strange bike. It had double suspension, an aluminium frame, and big red letters that read ‘Typhoon’. It was the first time I was using it. We needed refuse bags and I didn’t feel like walking half an hour to the supermarket to get them. So I borrowed it from my flatmate.

I looked at the sky. Dark clouds were approaching. It had been a nice, sunny day. But it was now getting cloudy.

I remembered I had forgotten my backpack, so I entered the house again and picked it up. I picked up a hoody, too, just in case.

As I reached the first corner it started to rain. A few drops, only. The bike felt awkward, it bounced. But it was cool to be riding. It was the same route I walked everyday, the same long and boring route. But it looked different, better. I was going fast.

When I got to the old railway path, now a bike lane, it had already started to rain hard. It was getting very windy too. I passed a woman that walked. I accelerated. It was pouring down. I went through the underpass and a few seconds after it started to hail. I hesitated for a moment and then decided to make a u-turn and look for shelter in the underpass. I had walked through it many times. I didn’t like it. It was full of racist graffiti that had been painted, erased, and painted again. But I wasn’t reading it now. I was just looking at the ice balls falling from the sky.

Suddenly a girl entered the underpass. She came out of nowhere. She was drenched and wearing just a t-shirt. She entered in a rush, looked at me, and said ‘Damn!’. She smiled. She even laughed a little when she looked at wet clothes and broken umbrella.

‘I can’t believe it, it was sunny ten minutes ago’ – I said.

‘Yeah, I know’ – she agreed.

I looked at her. She was young and skinny. I noticed her white and pink sneakers matched her umbrella. She seemed to be trembling.

‘You must be freezing’

‘I am’

‘I’m freezing myself and I’ve got this’ – I pointed at my hoody. And then I took off the hood.

We stayed at a distance, both of us looking outside. It wasn’t hailing anymore, but it was still pissing down. It was getting colder too.

I saw the woman I had passed approaching the tunnel. I didn’t want her to stop with us. I thought about it and then said: ‘You can have my hoody if you want’. She smiled and said: ‘No thanks’. I insisted: ‘Seriously, you can have one of these, I mean, till I’m gone or something’.

The woman entered the underpass and carried walking. She didn’t even look at us. She was drenched.

The girl muttered something I didn’t understand and then said: ‘Here it is’. It was a thin black cardigan she’d found in her purse. She put it on. I looked at her. She looked younger now. I wondered whether the rain would ruin her eye makeup like it’d ruined the umbrella. I got off the bike and placed it against the wall.

‘You’re going far?’ – She asked me.

‘No, just to Lidl’

‘What?’

‘I’m going to Lidl, the supermarket’

‘Oh, Lidl’

***

‘Do you live nearby?’ – I asked her.

‘Sorry?’

‘Do you live nearby?’

‘Yes, I live in __’

‘I don’t know it’

‘Well, it’s where all the shops are. You know __?’

‘Yes’

‘Near that’

‘Ok’

‘You know Thicket av. and Briar way?’

‘Yes’

‘I live ‘round there’

***

‘Do you know some cool place around here? A pub or something. I’ve just moved in and haven’t found anything interesting’ – I said.

‘I don’t know. I hate Fishponds. It’s boring.’

‘So I guess you just go to the centre’

‘Yeah. Where were you living before?’

‘In Barcelona’

‘And why the hell did you come to England?!’

‘I don’t know, I came to study at UWE, for four months. St Matthias. What do you do here?’

‘I’m still at school. Studying __’

‘How is it going?’

‘It’s boring. We have this vacation now and I’ll have to study all through it. I’m so behind’

It had stopped raining almost completely.

‘It’s getting better’ – I said.

‘Yeah. Maybe the sun goes out again’

‘You think so? Look at the sky, I don’t think so’

We both looked at the sky. It was black. Then we looked at each other. It had stopped raining altogether, but I was determined not to leave before she did. So I kept looking out and thinking about what to say next, in case I had to.

***

 

‘Well, I guess I better get going’ – She said.

‘Yeah, me too’

She headed in one direction. I got on my bike and headed the other way. The path was swamped. Next exit was mine. Maybe I’d buy some beers too.

Bristol, 2006.

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