Jacqueline Brocker's Blog, page 13

A Night in a Year: 12. Banter

“I’m friends with flakey people who think that I don’t mind waiting alone for half an hour in the human equivalent of a tropical fish tank.” He eyes the neon light skirting the ceiling. “Bit plastic for me.” “There’s no water,” she says. “Not really much of a tank without it.” He holds up his [...]

A Night in a Year: 11. Approach

He raises his eyebrows, and regards the chair by tilting his head back, as if to say ‘oh yes? What do you expect me to do now?’ To that, she just shrugs, nonchalant, and looks away to the bar itself, taking great interest in reading the labels of the liquors and liqueurs. Tia Maria, Midori, [...]

A Night in a Year: 10. Examination

So, if this wouldn’t be his usual place, why then? She rest her chin on her fist. Meeting someone, most likely. A friend? Male or female? Someone more intimate? It’s a night most He doesn’t look at his watch. Or he hasn’t yet. He’s still casually looking about, a little… perplexed, but not wanting to [...]

A Night in a Year: 9. Sighting

There are enough men present in the bar. More women, but enough men to watch, and assess. Her eyes cast from group to group. The most appealing, for their edges towards urbane, are the men in suits, but they are preoccupied with themselves and a conversation that appears to be about work. She alights on [...]

A Night in a Year: 8. Drink

She peruses the cocktail menu. Each drink has a helpful photograph next to it; muted browns, opaque ice, streetlight yellow, aquamarine blue. Chemical experimentations, lab produced, or happy accidents that drunken willingness to try just about anything could concoct. Just what she liked to drink to start the night. She knew they were dismissed as [...]

A Night in a Year: 7. Bar

The bar she enters is new. Off the market square, down a tiny Cambridge passage way. It is the perfect place to start the evening. The bar and tables are chrome. The high bar stools are backed with loops like metal oyster shells. Thick lines of neon green and purple lights wraps the ceiling, and [...]

A Night in a Year: 6. Walk

The centre of town is ten minutes walk from her apartment. She takes small steps, trying not to mince, nor stride, nor hobble. Confident, at ease, yet provocative too. She passes the Mill Road shops – the hairdressers, the Arabic and Korean groceries, Subway and wine merchants. There are a few glances from men, but [...]

6th January 2013: Week in Review

Well, Happy New Year for 2013! The first week of the new year is nearly gone. How has it been for everyone? For me, it’s meant being back at work, on both fronts; the day job (though only two days this week) and also more back into writing. I had a very good Christmas break, [...]

A Night in a Year: 5. Shoes

The shoes will of course be heels. She kneels carefully by her bed, under which her collection lives. A range of colours and heights and styles. Sling backs, kitten heels, pointed, rounded. Ruby reds and emerald greens, sequins lined and leather strapped. Wearing black, she can select almost anything. She purses her lips, and thinks. [...]

A Night in a Year: 4. Hair and Make-Up

At her vanity, she experiments with her hair. Up or down, up or down. She eventually decides on a simply clipping two sides up a little, to give it some height. The rest falls down her neck, just above the line of her dress. The clips are two tiny dragon flies, studded with blue jewels. [...]