Ready or Not? (ebook)

Argumento de Ready or Not? (ebook)

There were many mysteries that summer. One of them was why four people who had so much to share had seldom felt so alone. They were all ready for love, but they wanted it to happen in a certain way, and so they didnt notice its tender though enigmatic entreaties. They were also unwilling to admit that what they believed they wanted might have altered, that life was guiding them towards deeper and more enduring affections. Certainly Tom Armstrongs thoughts on love had radically altered since he took the photograph. And yet, when he looked at that young girl running towards her lover, the memories came flooding back to him, fresh and bright and new.

Looking back, it seems like I was waiting for her outside the National College of Art and Design, though I couldnt have known she would appear. When she ran towards him I lifted my camera and click the image was captured. My hands were steady but my heart was pounding, just like hers must have been. I hadnt known the force of love until that moment how it can change and free you, set you alight with its wonderful, crazy conviction. I hadnt known that it can make a pretty face beautiful. And she is beautiful, the woman in my photograph.

Id seen her around college, but wed never met. She usually sat with a group of friends in the canteen. Sometimes they were serious, and sometimes they laughed so hard they almost fell off their chairs. They looked so wild and confident I wouldnt have dared to approach them. I could have spoken to her if she was alone, but she never was.

I was a photography student, and Dublin still felt new but was becoming familiar. Even the aroma of freshly ground coffee in Grafton Street no longer seemed so exotic. Capital cities creep up on you. When you first arrive, you might as well be in Marrakech; and then one day you belong, and its the place youve left that seems strange.

I somehow feel the woman in my photograph would understand that. Theres something about her a freshness, an innocence that seems to come from another place. I felt this about her even when she was spluttering at some joke with her friends over coffee. I sensed that she had left somewhere so that she might know the secret longings of her heart. And she found them. You can see it in her eyes, her smile, the blur of her feet on the pavement.

The minute she stepped out of the college that evening, she started looking. Her face was tight with anxiety. Would he be there? Had they missed each other? Her cotton dress was light yellow and covered in tiny pink flowers. Id only seen her in jeans before. She stood on tiptoe, trying to see over the crowds. She bit her lower lip and peered down the busy street. Then she started to fiddle with a silver bracelet on her arm, as if embarrassed. She lowered her head in disappointment. And then she looked up and saw him.

He was tall and still and standing at the other side of the street. Her face lit up. I didnt know a face could just light up like that, grow so luminous and certain. He must have smiled, because she smiled back and waved. Her feet danced with impatience as she waited to cross the street. He was hungry for her. You could see it in the way he stood. Then the sun burst out from behind the clouds and they were both ablaze with waiting.

She walked at first, slowly and steadily. Her eyes grew bright and excited as she began to run, headlong and sure, without a seconds hesitation. Her dress billowed around her legs and her long hair flew wildly in the breeze. And suddenly there was this smile on her lips. The smile of an unexpected and huge happiness.

I knew the moment. Sensed it as the shutter clicked.

It was just before she reached him.

Thought-provoking, original and hugely enjoyable.

A lively story woven round the lives of four creative Dubliners and the tangled mess they have made of their love lives…the humour leaps off the page and ping-pongs like rapid fire between the characters. When they’re not jibbing with each other, they’re tearing each other’s clothes off!0