Darkness Comes to Woodford Bridge Ch. 01

'So that's why you're in Woodford Bridge?' said Natalie. She now had her legs tucked up on the chair and was hugging her knees to her chest as she listened to me.

'Our apartment was sold and I had some money, not much but just a little. I needed to get away from everything that had gone before me so I moved out here. My intention was to stay maybe six months, perhaps a year at most, and then make a break for the West Coast. But I fell in love with the house, and the place, and here I am.' I finished my beer and wished that I had another. 'Anyway, I'm talking too much.'

'That's okay. I'm a pretty good listener.'

'You are. But what about you? It's great to have someone round for dinner, especially a girl.' She smiled at that, warm and genuine, and it felt good to see it. 'But if I was going on vacation I'd be heading for the ocean and a beach, not a sleepy hollow like this.'

'I suppose. But it's like I told you before, I just need to relax and unwind. My life has been pretty crazy over the last twelve months, it's good to be able to breathe for a while.'

'Must be difficult to get any privacy, being a famous actress.'

She grinned and looked up quizzically. 'I didn't think you'd recognized me?'

I returned the grin. 'I didn't, not at first. Your face was familiar but I didn't truthfully guess who you were until we were eating.' And that was the truth, I hadn't worked out that the beautiful girl sitting at my table and eating my salad was Natalie Portman until just a few minutes ago. I think if I had recognized her as soon as we'd met I'd probably felt awkward and embarrassed, well at least more than usual anyway. But in the last hour or so I'd got to know her, and really like her, it didn't seem a problem. 'I thought you appreciate it if I didn't make a big deal out of it.'

'I do,' she replied, and put her hand on my forearm. Her touch was soft. 'You ever wish you could just go someplace where no-one knew you, and for a little while you could be whatever you wanted to be?'

'I'm sorry I ruined that for you.'

'You didn't. You actually made it better.' She gave my arm a gentle squeeze, and didn't move her hand away as we continued to talk on while the sun began it's slow summer decent towards the horizon and the shadows lengthened around us. I talked a little more about myself and my family, and Natalie told me about her friends in New York and gave me some brief details about a relationship that had finished in the spring with an actor I had only vaguely heard of. She didn't talk about her work or fame and I never asked, not that I wasn't interested, because I was, but because it was obvious she needed a break from that part of her life. I found myself relaxing back into my chair, and I was laughing and making her laugh, and that was something I thought I'd forgotten I could do. Once her hand left my arm for her beer, but she returned it and this time I felt her fingers wrap themselves around my own. I brushed my thumb in her palm as we casually held hands.

Natalie asked if she could use the bathroom, and after I'd shown her where it was I took the chance to clear the dishes from outside and dump them in the sink, then took the bottle of wine from the fridge and two glasses back to the table. It was still humid and not yet dark, and I was surprised when I saw the time was after Nine. We'd been talking for hours yet it had seemed like minutes. The music had long since finished and I flipped the tape for side B and got David Bowie. Ziggy was playing guitar and telling me about the Spiders From Mars when Natalie reappeared. When she got to the table she didn't sit down but stretched her arms above her head and yawned, then apologized.

'You okay?' I said. 'Tired?'

She stifled another yawn with the back of her hand. 'Yeah, pretty much.'

'Do you want to go home?'

'Not really, unless you want me to?'

'No, of course I don't'

She smiled. 'Good. I won't have anything else to drink though, or you'll be carrying me home,' she said, pointing at the bottle on the table. 'Wine knocks me out faster than anything. Save it for another day.'

'Take it back with you. I hate drinking on my own.' I shrugged. 'Well, at least nowadays I do.'

Natalie reached down and grabbed my hand, pulled me out of the chair and to my feet. 'You won't have to,' she replied. I wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that but it sounded pretty good. Before I had a chance to ask she spoke again. 'Show me the rest of your place.'

The lawn was cool on my bare feet as we crossed the grass and headed for the far end of the garden. A long hedge ran down the right hand side, the side separating me from the Edgecombe house, and the left had a long line of pines and willows like the one I'd been sleeping under that afternoon. The garden was well-maintained when I'd arrived, which was just as well as groundwork was the last thing I was interested in. A lush green lawn and mature trees meant I was happy and had no reason to change it. We reached the fence at the bottom of the garden and looked out over the fields that lay beyond. I was in a good position where no other properties overlooked me, just acres of pasture land that got no busier than a tractor working them. A main road was perhaps a mile away across the valley, but it was far enough that you had to strain to hear traffic, even in the day.

'This is really beautiful you know,' Natalie said. 'You're lucky to live here.' She still had her hand in mine, just as it had been as we'd wandered down to the fence.

'I know I am,' I said, and meant it. The sky was now a deep purple with the sun a golden memory behind the far-off hills, and a light wind tickled my skin and played with the foliage of the trees. Away to my right a dog let out a quick volley of barks and then was silent. I could still just make out the music playing back up towards the house.

We stood and watched the world in silence for a couple of minutes, but my attention was diverted from a sight I'd seen many times to one that I'd only recently discovered. I looked at Natalie out of the corner of my eye; at the edge of her jawline, her slender neck, ringlets of hair around a small ear. A tiny mole on her cheek. For the second time that day she caught me looking at her, and turned to face me fully.

'I'm glad you decided to take a trip here, and nowhere else,' I said. My heart was beating just that little bit faster in my chest. She didn't answer, just continued to look up at me, her mouth slightly parted, her fingers gripping my own.

'I really want to kiss you,' I continued, 'but I'm just not sure how you'd feel about it.'

Her hand slid up to my forearm, and even though her face was in shadow I saw her delicately bite her lip. 'I think I feel okay about it,' she whispered.

I leant down, feeling my eyes close automatically as I did so, felt the edge of my nose graze against hers, then my mouth touch against her. A small pressure, her mouth slightly open as our lips came together. Her sweet taste and her freshness on me as we kissed slowly and carefully with the excitement and trepidation that a first kiss brings. And then we were apart again, and when I opened my eyes Natalie was looking back at me. She hadn't moved away and I took that as I sign that what we'd just done could be repeated. God, she was beautiful.

For the next few minutes we continued to kiss and to touch and hold one another. I slid my hands across the small of her back while she rested her fingers on my hips, then lifted her arms and placed them around my neck. I leant back slightly and pulled her close, and her body felt soft and warm against me. When I kissed her ear she shuddered, and her breasts pushed against me. She moved her mouth against my throat and spotted little kisses against my adam's apple, up over my chin and then back to my lips, and this time I felt her tongue on mine as our kiss became more stronger, more intimate. And then I felt her shudder again, only this time it wasn't just from my touch. A sharp blast of wind, a rarity in the last few weeks, chose to hit us, and I felt Natalie shiver under my hands. It broke the small spell we'd just created, and also broke our kiss.

'You alright?' I said.

'Yeah, just gone cold that's all.' She shivered again, and hugged herself against me. 'I'm not really wearing all that much.'

'Do you want to go inside?'

She kissed my cheek and nodded, and I took her hand and we walked back down towards the house. The wind blew again, this time strong enough to move the branches on the trees and toss a strand of Natalie's hair across her face. I took a look back over my shoulder at the horizon, wondering if we were finally about to get the storm that would break the heat, but the dark skies were still free of cloud and littered with stars.

Inside the house was still warm, and we moved into my small and simply decorated living room. My furniture was shapes in the gloom, illuminated only by the streetlight that stood at the end of my driveway and shone a weak and hazy yellow light through the window. I reached for the lamp near the TV but Natalie stopped me, took my arm and pulled me down onto the couch. We sank into the cushions and she hugged herself up against me. Her skin felt cold and I wrapped my arms around her, buried my face in her sweet hair and then moved to kiss her once more. She responded, moving with me as slouched down on the couch and half-pulled her onto me. Her hand rubbed against the cotton on my shirt and tickled bare skin on my stomach, in return I traced my fingers down her back and over the swell of her butt and back up over her ribs as our lips stayed locked together. Natalie rubbed her leg up over my thigh and in the dark I could imagine her legs parted and me pushing between them. I felt myself grow quickly hard and didn't make an attempt to disguise it. Lying on my chest I could feel her breasts against me, nipples stiff, and from the smooth feel of her back I knew she wasn't wearing a bra. I moved my hand around to her side, felt the gentle swell of her breasts, then her body shift slightly to allow my thumb to stroke her. I moved it in circles, felt it catch against a hard bump and tasted her hot breath in my mouth as she gasped. I pressed harder, kissed her deeper, my erection a solid lump in my pants and her hand still on my abdomen, not far away. I wanted to touch and kiss every part of her, lose myself in her, make love to her. And then her kissing stopped.

'Just give me a minute,' She whispered with no hint of anger in her voice. Her face was a dark shadow above me, and then at that moment there was the purr of a passing vehicle and an arc of light swept across the room, and for a second Natalie was in brightness, and I saw her brown eyes shining and a smile on her face. Her cheeks were flushed, and I wondered if I looked the same. Or though to be honest, I don't think anything had ever looked as good as she did in that moment.

'Is everything okay?' I said, running my hand along her jawline. 'Something I've done?'

'No, of course not.' She was back in darkness now, but I knew she was still smiling. 'Nothing you've done at all. I just can't... I can't go this fast with you.' She paused but made no attempt to move off me, still had her hand on my skin, her legs wrapped around mine. 'It's not that I don't want to do this, I do. You believe me don't you?'

'Yes, of course I do.'

'But if we sleep together tonight, I'll regret it. I rushed into something once before and it went so horribly wrong. I don't want that to happen with us.' She giggled quietly. 'What would you think if I jumped your bones on our first date?'

I had to mull that over in my mind for a second. 'If I'm honest with you, part of me thinks that would be amazing.' She laughed again, and brushed the hair from around my face. 'Although I feel so nervous that another part of me would probably only disappoint you.'

She turned and looked down at my body, and although we were in the gloom my erection must still have been visible. 'I think you'd have been all right,' she said, and then I was thankful for the darkness as my face was flushing red. 'I just wouldn't want you to think I was all about some sex.'

'I wouldn't. I don't.'

'Truth is Dave I came here to be alone and relax. I've got stress in my life at the moment and I want to get away from it. I need to get away from it. The last thing I planned on was some kind of holiday romance.'

'Well, look. If you want to stop this right now I'll-'

She interrupted me with a kiss that was long and lingering. 'I don't. I said I didn't plan a romance, but that doesn't mean I don't want one. I like you a lot. You're funny and sweet and slightly strange and I can tell you've got some deep sadness about something that I'd like to know about, maybe help with if I can. But if we're going to do it, I want to do it properly. D'you understand?'

I raised my head and kissed her, hoped that she would be able to realize that I was into more than quick sex too, no matter how good it would have been. 'We can just take it slow,' I said. 'It'll be good just to spend some time together over the next few days. If that's want you want?'

'It is, I'd like that very much,' she replied, and we kissed again. This time I kept my hands in all the neutral places as we spent the next few minutes making out on the couch. Eventually our kissing slowed and we held each other close, started talking quietly. After a while that too slowed, until we were virtually laying there silently in the warm darkness of the summer night. I was just starting to think how sleepy I was feeling when Natalie yawned. I stroked her hair.

'You tired?'

She lifted her head from my chest and nodded. 'Exhausted. It's been a long day.'

'Me too. Come on, I'll take you home. Otherwise we'll both wake up here in the morning.'

We stood up and I turned the lamp on. In the light Natalie looked incredible, even with her hair slightly messed up and her dress a little creased, and the way she watched me as I pulled on my old sneakers made me feel lightheaded. We left my house by the front door and with her arm through mine we walked down my driveway to the street and around to her rental house. As we walked I promised to show her around the little village that was Woodford Bridge the next day, not that it would take that long.

'That's a deal,' she said, as we stood on her front porch under a bell-shaped night light that I could remember Jim Edgecome fixing up two winters ago. 'As long as you let me cook you breakfast first.'

'How can I refuse that. What time do you want me?'

'Say around eight-thirty.' She kissed me on the tip of my nose. 'Give me time for a lie in.'

'Okay. Thanks for a great day, Natalie.'

'No, I should thankyou. For everything.'

Our hands slipped apart as I started to step of the porch and she moved into the house. We said goodnight and I started to turn away down the whitewashed front steps.

'David?'

I turned back and she was right by me, her hands on my face and her lips pressed to mine. Her breath was as fresh as the ocean as she kissed me, before spinning around and going back through the open front door, closing it behind her without looking back. I watched her shadowy figure move through the frosted glass, saw it move up the staircase, and then the hallway was in darkness as she killed the light.

I walked slowly back to my house, stopping and looking up and down the mainstreet that my place was built. At the best of times the road was quiet, but at eleven-thirty on a Tuesday night it was deserted. A cat ran from behind the huge oak that dominated the far side of the street and dashed across the blacktop, safe in the knowledge that nothing was coming. I could hear crickets, and the dog that had barked earlier gave it another go, but without much meaning. High in the sky away to the East the moon hung like a silver medallion. When it was quiet the world was a beautiful place to be, although I suspected that my sudden inner peace and harmony had a lot to do with the girl who I had just said goodnight to.

Back indoors I shut the lights off and fetched the things that Natalie and I had left outside on the table, dumped the dishes in the sink and then locked the backdoor and drew the blinds. I threw my keys into a little china dish that I kept ontop of the fridge and went upstairs, yawning loudly as I did so. I debated a shower and couldn't be bothered, just brushed my teeth, threw my clothes into the washbasket and climbed between the cool sheets.

I lay on my back looking up at the ceiling, but in reality I was looking into the memories of my mind, and all I kept seeing was Natalie, and how she looked the first time I'd seen her that afternoon, walking without a care through the garden and smiling at me when she knew I was staring at her. My life hadn't been that good for the last couple of years. It wasn't a disaster zone, but nothing had really happened that I'd remember for a long time. But now, who knew? Although the thought was already in the back of my mind that in two weeks she'd be back in New York, the next few days held real promise with someone who I already knew I had feelings for. It was exciting, and I wanted to lay awake for as long as possible to enjoy it. And with that, I promptly fell into a deep sleep.

***************

I'm what you'd call a morning person, always have been ever since I was a kid. It's rare that I need and alarm to wake me, usually only if I'm stopping in a foreign country where the time difference has screwed up my internal mechanisms. Even then after a day or two I'm back to normal. My habit of waking up with the dawn used to cause havoc when I lived with Cassandra. With my early morning cheer and her early morning misery arguments often ensued, usually culminating in her throwing objects and abuse at me in equal measure. She stated this as one of the main reasons for packing her stuff one evening and walking out of my life. I stated that the main reason was that she was fucking someone else, a statement that I soon discovered to be one hundred percent accurate.

I like getting on with my day before others are moving. In the summer I'll occasionally rise around five and get my boots on before trawling for a couple of miles through the meadows that surround the village. I'll kick patterns through the fresh dew and take in good lungfuls of air, clear my thoughts for the day ahead. I find it particularly useful if I'm struggling for inspiration on a new design project, and often walking by the river back to my house the ideas will come. I'll eat breakfast at my drawing board or at the PC, dropping toast crumbs around me as I work. Starting early keeps my mind fresh, and that hopefully transfers to fresh ideas on the job I'm doing.

That morning was different. The first thing I became aware of as I rolled into consciousness was a nagging pain in my left thigh which felt like the knot of a cramped muscle. I rubbed the area hard and opened my eyes as I did so, closing them again as the bright sunlight came through the open drapes and hit my starved pupils. What time was it? I stretched my arm out from the protective womb of the sheet and found my watch. Almost eight. I should have been up well before that. I wanted to get myself cleaned up and needed to iron a shirt before breakfast with Natalie, and that was only a half-hour away.

I swung my legs out of bed and into my tattered sweatpants. The pain was still there and I stood, flexed my thigh a few times and felt the knot disappear, but the ache remained as I went to the bathroom and peed. I washed my face in cold water and scrubbed my teeth, then took a slightly disappointing look at my reflection and frowned at my unkempt hair and the dark circles under my slightly bloodshot eyes. It looked like I'd drunk a hell of a lot more than the three bottles of beer that I'd had. My head felt musty, reminding me of hangovers from the past that I hoped would never resurface.