Szegedi László The Sad Eyed Girl And The Bomb "I don't really care about what you're saying" the sad eyed girl said into the phone. She was sitting next to me on a bench in the schoolyard. There was hardly enough space for our stuff since most of the people from around the block were there. The situation seemed to be kind of usual: a bomb was found on a construction site, deep in the ground. The whole city is full of old, rusty mines and bombs since the second world war, you can find one of them at almost every big construction site. The procedure is always the same: the whole area is emptied, and people from the neighbourhood are transferred to a safety zone, to a theatre or a school, until the bomb squad dismantles the detonator. "I don't know, really" the girl continued. Her voice was really soothing, I could have listened to her forever. "You're always telling me the same thing. We'll spend more time together, everything will be okay, and stuff like that. Do you even believe all that? Did you ever think about it? We don't even speak to each other anymore. I don't know your plans, your dreams. Do you even have any? What?" I heard a voice from the other end of the line, but I didn't understand any of the words. Maybe he was trying to prove something - I know I would do the same for a girl like that. I watched her cheek as she listened to the phone. The skin around her eye was glistening in the scorching sunlight. "I do know how long we've been together. Don't you think it meant something for me, too? But is this enough? Do we really want to stay stuck in the past and paddle in the good old memories?" He said something, but the girl didn't bother with it. "It's not enough for me" she said. "I want to do other things, serious things... I don't know!" she cried. A policeman who was handing out cool water to the people around heard the girl, looked at her but said nothing. "How so? Seriously? You didn't know about this? I've been telling you about this for months! But all you did was to go to the lake to drink with your friends when I really needed you. And that wasn't the first time, you always do it. Do you even love me?" I heard the same voice again from the phone but it was a lot lower this time. I could clearly hear the pauses between the sentences. She put the phone in her other hand, and her blonde hair fell into her face. "I think I'm done" said the girl, waited a bit, but there was no answer from the phone. "I think it's over" she said. She waited silently for a while, then turned her phone off. After a huge sigh, she started to cry a bit. I wish I had had the courage to lend her a handkerchief or a glass of water. Maybe a hug. But all I could do was just sit there and watch her cry. When the policeman said that the danger had passed, the bomb was overridden, and we could go home or back to work, she hardly understood it but stood up anyway and walked away. And I just watched her leave. I tried to get her number from the guard but he told me something about secrecy and citizen rights. I told him she left something there and I wanted to give it back to her, so eventually he gave it to me. So now I'm stuck here with a number and a beautiful face in my mind. The problem is serious. Is it a mistake calling her because I overheard her at the phone? Wouldn't she think I was using her vulnerability? Do I really want to get a girl who is in trouble with her boyfriend? Am I really some kind of bastard? To be honest, I don't really care any more. I want to talk to her and make her laugh. I will call her, I definitely will. And I hope she likes flowers. ******************************** The Sad Eyed Girl And The Bomb Written by Szegedi László szegedilaci@gmail.com 4th of December, 2008. Debrecen, Hungary, Europe ********************************