A Donkey Brayed

          A hammer was beating down on a judicial bench.

            Over and over.

            Bang bang bang bang.

            I was being sentenced for crimes committed against fidelity.

            A room came swirling into view and my dream faded. The banging continued. I was lying on a sofa, arm trailed over the edge onto the floor. I was in some kind of hotel room. My tongue was thick from dehydration and my brain muddled and confused.

            Ed came rushing into the room through an open door. “Quick! Get the hell up Evans, we’ve got to get out of here!”

            “Stephanie! Bethany! If I find out you’re in there… and God forgive me if I find either of you Englishmen…” the shouting came from outside the main door. Ed looked at the door nervously. It was shaking under the pummelling from the American’s fist.

            “What’s going on?” I asked.

            “Don’t you remember?”

            I looked about me. Steph and Beth suddenly poked their heads around the corner from next door. “Get out!” they whispered, hoarsely, across the room.

            Ed opened the window and looked outside. “Come on!” he said, jumping out. He disappeared down below the window, making no sound. I paused. I still couldn’t get it all straight. What was this room? How did we get here? Didn’t someone need to pay for it? Did Ed just jump to his death?

            I walked over to the window, the girls waving me away frantically out of the corner of my eye. I looked outside and saw Ed on a lower roof about ten feet below the window. He was beckoning me down.

            “Sod it.” I said, and jumped after him before giving myself a chance to think through the consequences. I landed fine and we ran off across the roof and around the corner of the building.

           

*

 

            “Good night eh?” Ed said, once we were safely back at ground level a distance from the hotel.

            “Not bad,” I allowed.

            He turned and smiled at me, slapping me on the back. “I tell you,” he said, “it was worth it! She’s a wild one that Beth!”

            “Really?” I said, raising an eyebrow. I can’t quite place it, but something about the way he said it to me gave the lie to it. I’ve known him a long time and it’s just not something he’d say. He’d be more lurid, explicitly descriptive. “Maybe we should go find them again tonight then? Sneak them out from under their dad’s nose!”

            Ed stopped in the street and looked at me. A boy cycled past with a dusty carpet draped over his shoulder. A donkey brayed. “I’m surprised at you, Tom. We’re in enough trouble already and you want to re-enter the fray. You’ve been pretty bold the last few days I must admit. You’re almost a man.”

            “So? Shall we do it?”

            “No. Not this time. I’ve made my conquest; it’s time to move on.”

            “I see,” I said, understanding quite fully enough.