Days of Birthday Present: A Fast Fiction Challenge for @budgie_uk

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Title: Stranger and Stranger
Word: set
Challenger: @budgie_uk
Length: 200 words exactly


I am always on the look out for interesting places: buildings, streets alleyways that just don’t fit the neighbourhood. It’s a hobby that I developed when I had very little money to spend and time on my hands.
As I walked back and forth from interview to job centre, or indeed anywhere and everywhere – transport was a luxury in those days – I entertained myself by uncovering the nooks and crannies of the City. Believe me when I tell you that twenty-odd years later, though I am better placed, I have yet to run out of places to explore.
So it was that one summer day in the oppressive and ever-present heat I was making my hopeful way to an appointment, I noticed the building. I’d been that way dozens of times before, but never noticed it. I was not the only one standing bemused: it was one of those ancient Tudor buildings that pepper the City, crammed untidily between the modern towers. I had often pondered their survival, set between the steel and glass monsters.
And then I understood my and others’ bewilderment. Yesterday this had been empty space. The old building had simply moved in like a hermit crab.

© Bryan Lea, 2010

(Cross posted to mine own LJ)