Stranger to Me

“Mum?”

Muriel called out through the house.

She peered around the corner of the hallway but all it revealed was a sitting room. Dark and empty. The floral couch cushions were fluffed and pristine. No one had sat on them for some time.

“Where has she gone now?” she mused to herself.

Her mother had wanted her to do something, she was sure of it. But for the life of her she could not recall. Did the laundry need to be done? Or was it dinner that she needed to prepare? 

If she couldn’t figure out what her mother had actually wanted her to do, she would undoubtedly get in trouble. This wasn’t the first time something like this had slipped her mind. Last time she had forgotten to buy chicken from the butchers and they ended up with jam sandwiches for dinner instead. Her father had not been very pleased.

Muriel was wracking her brains when she heard a sharp rap at the door. Her head shot up and she frowned. They were not expecting any company. A shadow bobbed from behind the frosted glass. If she did not know any better she would say that someone was trying to peer in.

Cautiously, she shuffled over to the door. The peep hole was slightly too high and she had to reach up onto her toes to glance through it. She could just make out the face of a man. Middle aged, with laugh lines and greying temples. He scanned from left to right, trying to catch a glimpse inside.

A stranger. Muriel did not recognise the man. 

She mustered up the courage to open the door fully. The stranger smiled warmly, his eyes held a kind of urging expectation.  

“Hello Mu-” he started.

“Are you one of my dad’s friends?” Muriel cut him off.

The stranger’s face fell and a flash of something flew across his face. It was gone before Muriel could read more into it. Replaced once more by that warm smile. Except this time it looked a little more pained.

“Er, no I’m not,” he coughed.

“Oh, are you here for Mum?” She inferred the only other logical conclusion. “I think she might have gone out.”

The stranger's eyes lit up at her words. “Yes, I saw your Mum at the store. Uh...We’re old friends and she wanted to catch up. She told me to come straight here and wait for her to finish her shopping.”

Oh so that’s where her mother was. That explained why she wasn’t answering her.

“Can I come in and wait for her?” He asked, hopeful.

Muriel knew to be wary of strangers. But there was something about this one that made him feel trustworthy. He had a kind smile and a handsome face. There was also something familiar about him that she could not quite put her finger on. But it was there nevertheless.

And he was her mother’s friend. She would be very annoyed if she found out that Muriel was rude to him.

Muriel pulled her cardigan tighter around her “You might as well come in. You’re letting all the warm air out.”

The man smirked as if she had said something hilarious and followed her inside. “You know that it’s summer, right?”

“Tell that to the cold you’re bringing in,” she muttered.

The man laughed and moved towards the kitchen without any direction from her. His steps were confident and unfaltering. As if he already knew his way around.

The sight made her brow furrow. 

“Would you like a cup of tea?” she asked. 

Her mother had taught her well enough so she always knew to offer tea. The tea bags were always kept in the cabinet to the right, along with her father’s coffee. But when she opened the door she only found plates, bowls and glasses.

Had her mother rearranged everything without telling her? 

“Allow me,” The man said.

He moved through the kitchen with expert ease. Collecting the teabags from a separate cabinet, opening the sugar jar on the counter, finding the mugs. He even picked out her mug. The one that she and only she ever used.

How did he know his way around better than her?

Has he been here before?

Muriel eyed him skeptically and took the tea he offered with tentative hands. She took a small sip and sighed. Not too strong, just a dash of milk and two sugars. Perfect, just the way she liked it. 

‘At least this man knows how to make a decent cup of tea,’ she thought to herself. That boosted him up in her opinion and she briefly forgot why she had been so concerned.

“What’s your name?” she asked around a sip.

That same something flashed across his face once more. But this time it was more of a wince. “My name is James.”

“James!” she smiled despite herself “I love the name James. I’m going to name my first child James, if I have a boy.”

“I’m sure you will,” He chuckled.

This James person seemed alright. It was a little suspicious that he knew his way around but there was undoubtedly a reasonable explanation. There was something about him that she could not put her finger on. Something important. It was a persistent itch at the back of her mind. She tried to pinpoint what it was but the thought would dissolve into smoke when she got too close.

Muriel took a deeper gulp of her drink and turned towards the window. The garden outside was a little overgrown. With ivy climbing up the fences and the grass reaching the top of your ankles. An old wooden loveseat lay towards the back. The wood mottled and discoloured. Something about it irked her.

She was forgetting something. She could not shake that feeling. It had followed her all day.  Something that sat weighted to the back of her head. Too heavy and leaden to push to the front. Like Sisyphus and his rock.

It felt like she was seeing the world through a distorted sheen of glass. Everything felt slightly off kilter and wrong. There was a thick fog in her mind. Each thought had to swim through thick syrup to reach her.

A profound feeling of wrongness hung over her.

Something was-

She needed to-

“Mum? Mum?” A voice broke through.

A hand lay comfortingly on her shoulder. He gave her a quick shake to break her from her reverie and she blinked up at him. 

“Are you okay Mum?” James asked, concern laced through his voice.

Light shone through the fog for the briefest moment and she finally remembered. The clouds retreated to reveal the face of James. Her son. Never a stranger after all.

He stared down at her and she couldn’t help but smile up at him.

“Oh James darling, I didn’t realise you were coming down today. What brings you here?”

James’ eyes crinkled, a true smile. “Do I need an excuse to visit the best mum in the world?”

“Oh shush you,” Muriel slapped him on the arm. “Now would you like a cup of tea?”

James surreptitiously hid a cup behind his back and nodded to her. “I would love one mum.”