On Chasing Brad Through Purgatory Read Online Free PDF

to flaunt our sexuality but we had never been ones to feel ashamed of it either.
    â€œI’m so dreadfully sorry,” said the wife—Esther. “Really so dreadfully sorry.”
    â€œThank you. In fact I shouldn’t be letting myself use that past tense. I feel he still is my closest friend. And always will be. Don’t just feel it either; actually know it!”
    â€œThat’s certainly a good way to look at it,” she said—after a short but distinctly awkward silence. Her husband nodded gravely.
    I helped myself to sugar and I saw them notice my hands: the fact that they were well looked after. I hoped this did something further to counteract the effect of my very weird apparel.
    â€œHe had his son with him didn’t he Rob?” The woman turned back to me. “At least that’s what we thought but clearly you’d know better than us.”
    â€œNo, Brad hadn’t got a son, just a daughter.” I glanced up again at the electric clock. Twenty to ten or thereabouts.
    Naturally we couldn’t see him all that well. A young man something like yourself. Same sort of colouring. Face a bit smashed up. Oh dear. But they said he had a chance—the paramedics.”
    It was then that I heard about the treatment I’d received at the roadside; it made me feel both grateful and a bit shifty.
    â€œThey were really brilliant, those two, so very calm and capable, I don’t know how they do it. It was Rob of course who got them here in the first place—well no I mean it was the police who did that but it was Rob who …” She seemed to be getting confused and Rob reached across and mutely took her hand. “Oh it was dreadful,” she said. Her eyes began to swim. “You feel so absolutely helpless.”
    â€œThere was nothing you could do sweetheart. And it didn’t take long before we heard the siren. It just seemed like for ever. And they always say … well that you should never disturb anything. You see”—Rob was now speaking to me—“she so much wanted to do something but I wouldn’t let her and I felt really mean about that.”
    â€œYet I’m certain you were right,” I murmured; though more to her than to him. “Broken bones et cetera. But it must be very hard.”
    â€œAnd at least we didn’t just walk away from it,” said Rob. “Not like that precious toff in his fancy evening suit!”
    Rufus was sniffing round my ankles. My hand had been halfway towards him; I’d been meaning to stroke him on the top of his head.
    â€œI’m sorry?”
    â€œThis man we saw.” It was Esther who answered. “He was standing at the next bend in the road. Only twenty yards or so from where the thing had happened. Looking back; hesitant; definitely unsure about something. He stood full in the moonlight so we got a good view of him. Even though he turned and walked away almost immediately.”
    â€œBut you say … you say he was wearing a dinner jacket?”
    â€œAnd what I also say—,” interjected Rob.
    Yet for the moment his wife was concentrating more on me and maybe unwittingly cut across him. “Yes. Just like the two in the car were. It’s right what they always claim, you know. About truth being stranger than fiction.”
    â€œAnd what I also say,” repeated Rob, “is that it must have been him who caused the accident.”
    â€œOh no you don’t know that,” protested his wife forcefully. “You really don’t know that.”
    â€œWhy else should the car have swerved so suddenly? Because that fellow crossed the road without a second’s warning and of course the driver did his best to avoid him. But he wasn’t worth trying to save if you ask me. A man who can just walk away from an accident—any accident that’s unattended but especially one for which you yourself have been responsible! I told the police,