Someone Like Helena

A lonely life can stop being lonely if you find someone to share it with. A problem shared is after all a problem solved. Or is it....?

When Brian first met Helena, it had been an odd experience.  She seemed to smile at him without warning, in a way that might have unnerved him had it been anyone else, but with her it didn’t. It made him smile back.

Helena was pretty, she was clever, and she was all of the things which Brian perceived himself not be. Not perfect Brian felt sure, but certainly perfect for him.

 

The very first moment they saw each other; that had been a weird little encounter. The busiest of places, a market. Surrounded by people, people shouting, walking, bartering and being. Their eyes had met across a long distance in that more than cliché manner that Brian had often read about. The usual fear which accompanied Brian’s every interaction with another person (particularly women) had been oddly absent that day. That day Brian had a voice, and Helena heard it.

 

The words had seemed to come easily. No tawdry attempts at chat up lines, no embarrassing silences or awkward pauses. No for once it had seemed as if Brian, contrary to form, had known exactly what to say. It was to Brian’s immense delight that after this uncharacteristically confident how do you, Helena had agreed to see Brian again.

 

One of the many ways in which Brian found Helena so refreshing was the way in which she bucked convention and modern trends. She had no mobile phone, not even a house phone in fact. She wasn’t active on social media and so there was no ‘liking’ or ‘friending’ to be done. No. No this, this was very simple, it was straight forward. Something Brian liked.

 

The arrangement was an uncomplicated one. They’d meet once a day, every day, at a mutually agreed location. Like Brian, Helena was a shy, subdued sort of girl. So the meeting places were never too specific or precarious. The library, quiet little cafes, the park, the supermarket, or even that same market where they had first met. Wherever, it didn’t really matter. They were always pleased to see each other.

Sometimes, on days where it rained perhaps and they had agreed to meet at an outdoor location, Brian had been worried. With no way to contact Helena, how would he now which indoor place they’d be meeting at? No fear. They were so alike these two, that be it library, café, be it anywhere at all in fact, they always seemed to end up in the very same place. This gladdened Brian’s heart, to say nothing of the fact that it was very useful. Brian took it very much as an omen. A sign from somewhere or other that some people are as they say ‘meant to be together.’ This Brian believed was him and Helena; literally inseparable.

 

And inseparable was the way they stayed. It was naturally just a matter of time until Helena moved in with Brian. His small one bedroom flat wasn’t much, but it was a home. A home that Brian was only too happy to share with Helena…  Company wasn’t something he got much of, company of females even more so. Brian had never visited Helena’s home; she was withdrawn on the matter. Apparently living with her parents, this wasn’t a subject Helena seemed to want to dwell on with Brian. Not that this bothered him in the least, they had after all a million other things to discuss.

 

 

 

 

And so it was that Helena took up residency with Brian that summer in that cluttered little flat. She hadn’t many belongings and only the most basic in the way of clothing. So it was a simple business.

 

Brian and Helena were the happiest of living companions. Each perfectly content to share what little space they had with the other. Certainly Brian never found Helena’s constant presence even the slightest bit over bearing or suffocating. In fact it gave him nothing but comfort. A sure and steady stability, an anchor for him in life. When Brian left for work in the morning Helena was there, and there she was still when he returned. It was pleasant, it was nice, and it was reassuring actually. This one wonderful human being seemed to want nothing more than to spend her time with Brian.

 

Helena did not have a job as such; she was an artist and was able to busy herself with this. This meant Helena brought no financial offerings to the home, but it scarcely mattered to Brian. He had always managed to get by and he still could now, quite happily. Besides, he was of the old school belief that it is a man’s job to provide. So provide is just what he did with what he could. Helena was not demanding in this regard, and so little was her burden upon the home, one might not have even known she was there at all.

 

As time wore on, as weeks became months, Brian decided that such was his successful union with Helena that he wanted to share it, to make it known. Not that there were many to share it with of course; Brian was no social butterfly.

 

 

The only people he had in the world who cared were those who had brought him into it in the first place; Mum and Dad. Brian simply couldn’t believe that not only had he met and got a date with someone like Helena, but he had managed to cultivate a successful relationship with her. He simply had to introduce Helena to Mum and Dad, they’d be so thrilled!

 

Helena was somewhat reserved about the whole thing when Brian had broached it with her. She was only interested in him. Neither of them had any friends, or even what might have been known as acquaintances. They were each of them a solitary soul who was solitary no longer thanks to their love. They had no need of social circles and were perfectly content with that status quo. Helena seemed to see this prospect as a threat to that.

 

But this was different, this was Mum and Dad. This was the two people Brian trusted more than anyone save Helena herself. He knew they’d love her and he tried fervently to reassure Helena of this. Despite his efforts her anxiety remained resolute.

 

The whole prospect became something of a cat and mouse affair quite quickly. Brian would take Helena to a public place and arrange for Mum and Dad to meet them there. But just before they arrived, Helena would excuse herself and disappear into the toilets or similar excuse, but then failing to return by the time they arrived.

 

 

 

 

On another occasion, Brian took Helena to Mum and Dad’s home. He remembered how she had stood there hesitantly in the hallway outside the living room. Helena then insisted that Brain go inside first and say hello, then come back out to introduce her into the room. He had duly complied, but when he had re-emerged full of excitement, Helena have gone. Apparently having run off once again. Leaving poor Brian crestfallen and more than a little embarrassed.

 

Only one viable solution remained open to Brian as far as he could see. He would arrange for Mum and Dad to visit his flat and not tell Helena. This would solve it. By hook or by crook, he would make this momentous introduction come to pass. He would unite the family unit.

 

It had been a Saturday. A thoroughly ordinary sort of day, with ordinary weather, ordinary news, ordinary goings on; just as generally ordinary as you like. However, Brian had been excited that day, because this day (ordinary or not) had been the day. He felt a pang of guilt for having to keep something from Helena, but he felt sure that it was all for the good. Mum and Dad, Helena, he wanted to bring these two disparate but equally important parts of his life together. He wanted to make his life and consequently himself whole. This was the way to do it.

 

Not wishing Helena to suspect anything was up; Brian had spent the morning and afternoon that day with his love. They’d enjoyed a walk in the park, and Brian had marvelled at that spectacular way that the sunlight had caught Helena’s eyes. Her entire face bathed in the warm illuminating glow of this day, how truly beautiful she had been then, how truly lucky he was he had thought.

 

Six PM. That was the time, that was the moment, that was the arrival. Mum and Dad were coming to tea... Brian still saw the look in Helena’s eyes the moment that the door bell had rang every single day when he closed his own. Pure dread was the best way he had to describe it. A look that seemed to say ‘all is lost and now it’s over.’ Brian hadn’t stopped to reassure Helena this time. He had headed straight for the door, it was now or never. Helena seemed to try and let out a shriek of some sort, but instead just a quiet, shrill, other worldly sound issued forth from her. Brian had no concerns. All was well, and whatever temporary pain this event held for Helena, he knew it would be fine. Like ripping off a plaster he had thought…

 

In walked Mum and Dad, faces beaming, Brian beamed back, he was so happy to see them, he always was. “Mum, Dad” Brian had proudly announced “meet Helena!”

 

The beams which mere seconds before had adorned Mum and Dad’s faces had evaporated. No trace of a smile now lay upon their features. Their faces were blank, confused. Turning to Brian they had asked where Helena was, had she run off again, like that time at the house? Brian felt sure that couldn’t have happened again, where would she run to? How could she get away so quickly? He had turned to check for himself; there she sat. She was there alright. Those same gorgeous features framed in the early evening sunlight. The light again catching in those eyes, eyes which now were wet with tears, and seemed to have taken on an apologetic expression. An expression of hopelessness, now rapidly gathering in Brian’s own eyes, mirroring Helena’s.

 

 

 

Brian turned back to the uncomprehending faces of his mother and father. He repeated again in a hoarse and desperate tone of voice “This is Helena.” Mum and Dad looked frightened now, worried and concerned. Because in that corner of the room where the shafts of sunlight lay and the embers of dust coating this lonely abode floated illuminated in the air. Brian’s mother and father saw nobody. Absolutely nobody at all.

 

Brian had always had an active imagination since childhood. His mother and father had observed throughout his life how their often lonely, isolated son could conjure amusements to ease his solitude. This it seemed was the apotheosis of their child’s imaginative capabilities.

 

Helena did not exist.

 

Author's Note

Thank you for reading, any thoughts appreciated.