surrealism

Had badminton as usual today. That's not so surreal in itself, but forgetting to actually go to work this morning because I'd convinced myself that I had the day off perhaps was. There were 9 people at badminton. Most of the older players had left by about 11pm so for the last hour or so I played Anushka, a very good player, at singles. At the end of one game, we heard giggling and shrieking coming from down the hallway, and we both stopped and looked at each other in what can only be described as total bewilderment. We took the chance to get some water from the kitchen, and heard the same noises, but closer this time.

Finally, a girl our age appeared from around a blind corner, but I only saw her out the corner of my eye as I turned my back on her, pretending not to notice she was there. Then a bald man with green eyes appeared, and asked if we were staying much longer. We said that we should be done playing by midnight, and he replied, "Oh good, I just have to make the church hall secure, there are some young girls sleeping over here tonight."

As if that passed for a reasonable explanation of why anyone in their right mind would want to sleep in a cold church while it was still freezing outside, he disappeared down the hallway he came from. We began to play our last game, and halfway through, this soft tapping noise came from behind the radiator in the room. We stopped, perplexed, and the noise duly stopped. I shrugged my shoulders and resumed the game. Not ten seconds later, the tapping noise started again. "This is some weird shit," I muttered. We stopped for a second time. The noise stopped yet again. "Right," I said, full of shaky confidence, "let's keep playing." The noise started a third time, but we chose to ignore it.

Finally, we finished that game and packed the badminton equipment away. We put the dry glasses back in the cupboard, locked the door and turned the lights off. On our way out, Anushka cracked a joke about how his car was right by the pavement, so he could just drive off if he wanted. Because of the ice, I had left my car in the church car park. Which wasn't so bad, except that it was immediately next to the dimly lit hallway where the girls and bald man had appeared from. I dismissed these swirling stupid thoughts and marched around the corner to my car. I unlocked it and started scraping the freshly formed frost off the windscreen while the engine ran. But something didn't feel right.

I turned around, and got the shock of my life to find the bald man watching me from behind a curtain. I hastily finished scraping the frost off, threw myself into the car, and slammed and locked all the doors. I flashed my wide beam across the car park. Anushka must have seen it because he pulled up outside the entrance seconds later. I floored it from where the car was parked. He must have got the message, as he turned right and sped away. I followed suit, thinking that the road was gritted, so there would be a reasonable amount of grip. What a totally bizarre and frightening evening...