The long walk ahead
By Amrita Dhingra

WHEN you regained your senses you wished you hadn’t. As your eyes fluttered open you saw the face of the girl with the yellow hair as she knelt over you.

"Come on wake up!" She was urging you much as one would urge an unreasonable mule who refused to budge from the centre of the road. "Goodness me what a ninny to fall of the bike!" This was said as an aside because she still didn’t know you had come to.

"I am not ninny,"you managed to protest if only feebly.

"Could have fooled me," she shot back, not blinking an eyelid but helping you to sit up all the same.

"Well hullo what have we here?" she said, touching the technicolour bruise on your forehead.

"Ouch!"

"Should have thought of it before you went leaping off the bike like that!"

"Idid not leap off that blasted bike!"you wished she’d stop making it sound as if you had done it all for fun, "All of this wouldn’t have happened if you’d not been driving like a lunatic!"

"Driving like a lunatic!"

"You heard me," you said trying to get to your feet, "infact I am surprised you’re still alive?" Here you looked at her in genuine disbelief for if memory served you correctly, when you had last seen this girl both she and the bike had been hurtling towards a tree at a speed close to that of sound.

"Ha that!" She stood beside you nonchalantly dusting her skirt off, "I put the bike into a spin at the last minute."

"You what?"

"I do it all the time," she said, "easiest trick in the book." As you shook your head in bafflement she continued, slight regret touching her voice for an instant, "only trouble is the bike did not come out of it as well as I did... it got err... ummm slightly damaged."

As you looked at the burnt rubber marks and the nearly totalled motorbike you couldn’t help admire this girl’s penchant for understating things.

"Say where did you learn to do that," now that you were conscious you hoped to trap her into telling you a little about herself.

"At the race track where else?" She was already walking ahead as she threw the answer casually over her shoulder.

"Where,"you said trailing after her, "are we going?"

"To the place where I parked my car. The bike won’t move. Come on before Dunstable and Perkins catch up with us."

"I doubt the devil himself could catch up with you the way you drive!" you retorted for your ribs hurt and walking wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

"Are you," she asked, turning around to give you her full attention, "complaining?"

"Complaining? Who me?" You paused to address the wreck of the motorbike, "Of course I’m not complaining! Did you hear me complaining?I just had the most wonderful experience of my adult life and you expect me to complain! I mean life is just great, It’s wonderful. In fact I’ve never felt better!"

"With a shrug that seemed to say she expected no less from you she moved on and you had no option but to tag along.

"I say," you shouted presently, "who are you? I mean even a fool can see you’re not a regular maid."

"No,"she said, "I’m moonlighting."

"Really," you said having had it up to here with her stone walling tactics,"and what is your day job? Let me guess you rob banks, lend a helping hand in jailbreaks and set fire to the odd offending piece of architecture you happen to dislike."

"You forgot the extortion calls and" here she burst out laughing making you madder than ever before.

"Women,"you said, "Gah!"

"Poor guy," she said coming to a halt and giving you a chance to catch up with her, "I’m really beginning to think you’d have been happier had I left you alone!"

A sobering thought if ever there was one for when all was said and done you did owe this girl, as noxious as she was, your freedom. You were about to thank her when the thought of the girl who had caused you to loose your liberty and very nearly loose your life came to you. And like the tidal wave that sweeps everything away this thought swept all other thoughts from your head. It was Amanda who caused you to say again, at the risk of repeating yourself, "Women! Gah!"

And you never really knew how it happened but very soon you got talking to the girl in the maid’s uniform and it was no big surprise that you should end up talking about Amanda Spence.

"I mean she is the single most irritating person I’ve ever meet. I mean she is..." you stopped to grope for the right word.

"....Aggravating." supplied the girl.

"Exactly! And terribly..."

"Domineering, acerbic and extremely exasperating!"

"Right! You looked at her with surprise. It was really gratifying to find that the maid shared your opinion of Amanda. "I’ll bet she gave you a tough time when she was staying at Cromley’s lodge!"

"What a time!" here the maid nodded in heartfelt agreement.

"I mean I would like her well enough if only she’d stop behaving as if I were her biggest enemy! And so far I haven’t done much to justify that idea and believe me there have been times when I have been provoked. Seriously provoked!"

"I’ll bet!"

"And when she isn’t treating me like enemy number one she goes out of her way to make me look like a bungling fool who must be saved from himself. Condescending! That’s what her attitude is. Really sometimes I wish I could lay my hands on her."

"Yes?"

"And give her a piece of my mind! After all why must she always be looking to catch me on the wrong foot. Heaven knows it’s not doing anyone much good all this bickering and quarrelling!"

"I see what you mean, well yes one must admit that she doesn’t leave many avenues open for one to bicker or quarrel. Mostly she just does whatever she has to do and then I’m left wondering what I’ll die off — heart failure or brain seizure."

"Doesn’t really seem like worth sticking on to this job. I’m sure there’d be many companies willing to take you on and at your terms too. Surely you don’t have to stay on with this aggravation!"

"Oh no! I couldn’t leave. Loyalties to the old man and all that,"you said. "And you know even when all is said and done things aren’t that bad. As unpalatable as Miss Spence is, she does keep me on my toes and I’ve forgotten what life was before she joined the company. A sea change, eh?"

You wondered briefly at the wisdom of talking about such a private matter with a complete stranger and then got reassurance from the very fact that she was a perfect stranger. And a maid at that. Once you reached her car no doubt she would drop you off at the nearest centre of civilisation and there you would part ways.

So, relieved to find a patient and completely harmless listener, you carried on in much the same way. Thinking aloud, musing and in general wondering what made Amanda Spence tick.

"I know for a fact that she isn’t really like this with everybody. Just me. I have a feeling if she had her way she’d make me fill in for a dartboard and practice dart throwing at me." "Well yes now that you mention it she really is rather kind when she wants to be. Gave me her jacket before she left. Iron hand in velvet glove I’d say," the maid turned to show you the designer label of the jacket.

So that was why the maid had on the jacket. A simple explanation. You felt a little foolish about all your suspicions.

"I wonder how a girl who looks like her could turn out the way she is. Freeze anyone off at 20 paces with just one look. And then I mustn’t forget that she is the one who stole Cromley’s blasted pig and then siced it on me resulting in the inauguration of my career at the wrong side of the law!"

"She didn’t?"

"Yes, she did. And I’m glad I got away with as little as I did. I mean this girl seems to have made it her ambition in life to have my hair turn prematurely grey! Sometimes I am heartily sick of her!

"Despicable!"

"What with her and then Frank Gulley trying to kill me because I got engaged to Carrie, which was a mistake in the first place, and Tom pulling all kinds of hair raising stunts I haven’t had a moment’s peace, not even in the cooler!"

"Terrible!"

"And then you came,"here you had to be careful for etiquette demands that one be as complimentary to one’s rescuer as possible, "and there was all that......."

"......Chaos and anarchy reigning supreme?" she finished for you.

......"Excitement. I was goin to say excitement," you protested.

"Sure, anything you say," she smiled at you in that disbelieving waywhich reminded you of Amanda, "tell me when did you get engaged to Carrie?"

"A couple of days back and I’ve had no peace since. There is the little matter about emulating the feat of Jack Dawson in the sinking of the Titanic we don’t agree on, among very possibly a million other things!"

"Well," she said, "you sure seem to know how to tie yourself into knots."

"All because of Amanda," you said stung by this sudden criticism, "my life was great before she breezed in and since then all sense, all sanity and all my luck seem to have breezed out!"

You had been walking for quite a long while. And given the condition of your ribs and your aching head you had been longing for your destination a good deal. The girl, still strolling on in her three inch stilettos, seemed to have no inclination to stop or even show the slightest sign of fatigue.

"Say,"you asked as casually as possible, "where is your car?"

"Oh just a couple of minutes," she walked ahead, "infact I think it’s just around the next bend."

"Well I shall be jolly glad when we reach it!" You rubbed an injured shin and hobbled along.

Only when you reached the car you weren’t as glad as you’d thought you’d be. For one thing the first thing you noticed about the car was that it was an Aston-Martin speedster. They must be paying maids in gold these days. And that half-baked thought was left dangling in your mind because you saw Tom Spence standing next to the car, jumping up and down in impatience.

"Aw, come on Amanda what took you so long?"he demanded of the girl the yellow hair and the maid’s uniform.

With a double take you realised you couldn’t be hearing things right. He wasn’t really calling her Amanda, was he? But he was carrying on.

"And where’s your bike? and why did you take two hours more that you said you would? And Dad rang while you were gone and said "tell Amanda to call me when she gets back." Hullo!" he turned to address you, "happened to you?"

And he well may have enquired because the knowledge that the girl with the yellow hair was Amanda had staggered you. Clutching at the bonnet of the Aston Martin you gasped for breath.

"Amandaaa?" you asked of the girl. "You’re Amanda!"

She proceeded to remove the wig and throw away the glasses and sure enough there she was with her chic hairstyle and startling grey eyes. And as wonderful as they were their effect was rather lost on you.

"Why?" Your mind boggled at the insanity of her escapade.

Someone had to rescue you," she kept it simple.

You had had enough. Your system had sustained enough shocks to make a strong man quail. Coming on top of the lump on the head and the battering you had received because of the fall from the motorbike, this jolt was too much to take. You began to answer her but never really got round to completing your sentence for your legs gave way and you slipped into the peaceful haven of darkness.