Island HIdeaway 53 (of 53) - Final words​

I remembered Eddie''s warning, once she left I could never see Mo again. Mo was disappearing from the face of the Earth, I would never hear from her, or even about her, she would become like a myth, only one of the myths that nobody talks about anymore, one of the forgotten gods that promised too little and asked too much. ​

​But when it came to say the final goodbye I couldn't find words. I can spit out 10,000 words of meaningless copy about any subject under the sun in a matter of hours, all in the house style and to an exact word count. And yet at the most important moment of my life, or at least so it seemed, I had no words at all.​

​"Take care of yourself, Terrence," Mo said.​

"And you," I said.​

​We paused, both struggling for lines, like actors that have suddenly forgotten the script.​

​"Thanks for everything," she said, and we hugged for what seemed forever, but rationally must have been no more than a minute as Eddie was watch watching.​

​"Good luck in your new life," I said. "I hope it goes well with Brad Pitt and everything."​

​And she was gone. Eddie bundled her on board, then when he was satisfied that she was securely hidden away he returned to say goodbye to me.​

"Thanks for everything Terrence," he said.​

​"Not a problem," I said. "Any time you want to dump a coma patient on me."​

​"There are others," he said.  "Doing similar work to Mo's. If any of them need to get hide away can they come here?"​

​​"I don't see why not. There isn't a better place to hide, the island's not even on maps."​​

​​"You wouldn't mind people coming here? Strangers."​​

​​"I do get lonely you know."​​

​​After a pause, he said. "I'll probably see you then."​​

​​"Yeah, well, I won't be going anywhere."​​

​​"Don't write about this," he said, as if as an afterthought.​​

​​"I write fiction," I said, which is not really true. Nobody writes fiction, not really, lies perhaps, but it's impossible to really make anything up completely, whether it's lesbian dating in Acapulco or my latest doggie blog, it's mostly made of truth, you can't keep reality out prose, words demand honesty.​​

​I watched the boat leave. Mo was leaving my life for ever.​

​​I stood there looking out to sea for a long time.​​

​​This wasn't the end, I realised. It was the beginning. Though what it was the beginning of I had no idea.​​

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