5.

The early evening is dull, and darkness is well on its way to settling in for the night. Sitting alone in her bedroom, Judy stares outside her window. Down the end of the back yard a sparrow comes to land on a branch high up on the only tree in the yard. The moment is such that if it were any later, then it most likely would be all too dark to clearly observe that sparrow.

'Hey there ... you, are you as lonely as I am? Do you see the world as I do? Maybe we aren't all that different, you and I. Maybe we are destined to live this way. We could be friends if you like; would you like to be my friend?'

A second sparrow comes to rest beside the first and before long they both take to the skies, together, flying away more or less in sync. Judy follows them with her eyes for as long as she can, and a tear soon rolls down her left cheek.

'Guess you already have friends of your own, huh? Lucky you, maybe we aren't the same after all. If only friendship comes that easily. For me it really does look like opportunity just gets up and flies away.'

The front door opens and closes, loud enough for Judy to be able to hear it from where she is.

'You home?' mum calls out as she hangs up her Jacket on a rack just inside the hallway and past the living room door.

'Up here' is the reply as Judy wipes away her tears.

Mum begins to make her way upstairs and Judy begins to worry as to if there is something wrong for her mum to come to her straight away. There are no electrics on, no lights, no music, no nothing though it is not yet so dark that movement could be all that badly hindered. Judy sits right next the window and that library book lays open and face down beside her.

'Hey honey, everything alright?'

'Sure, why wouldn't it be?'

'What's that there?'

'Oh, just a book I picked up at school, something to keep me company.'

'It will happen, you know ... new place, new everything ... I promise, just give it time.'

'I know mom', Judy may have spoken these words but it more than clear that she does not believe them.

There is a young girl in the yard next door who had not been there a moment ago. When this girl notices Judy, a wave is thrown up towards her. Judy returns the wave.

'See, moms know best.'

A smile and a brief hug are shared, and mum begins to head back downstairs. For a moment Judy can't help but wonder as to if mum had some other news to share but perhaps decided not to share it. That thought is soon dismissed and Judy heads back to staring out her window. A locker top lamp is turned on and Judy reaches for her book.

This new town I have come to be in may be different to what I am used to though it is not so unlike any other town in existence, it has its good and it has its bad and it has a Steve, doesn't every town have a Steve? I can get by here; I can more than just get by out here. It's just a matter of time.

6.

A gatekeeper, a librarian, no, I was neither and I was both. Say what you want, think what you will but back then I was just a boy, just an ordinary boy lost in the midst's of an extraordinary time in an extraordinary yet ordinary world. Before-hand, did I know of what was to come? No, I didn't, how could I have? Though once in, I could not walk away. Looking back, I am glad I did not walk away.

Looking back, would I change anything? That is indeed a question, one I have always had an answer to. That answer has always been the same now as it was then, and it always will remain the same.

I have always had a place in all this, sure fate or whatever it is had the control, if there was any control at all, and it ensured that I would be there from the beginning, from at least Judy's beginning. Fate or God or whatever it is which intervened, shone a light through that library on that somewhat odd day. I knew when I first met Judy that my future, my fate was ... well maybe not so much sealed as in some way settled or organised.

This all might sound as if it were a When Oliver Met Judy story though as I have said before this is not my story, it is her story. I am no more than a sidekick, an extra, a supporting character, a friend and hopefully a good friend at that. Sure, good friends do what's right, right? Whether or not I done right then, I need to do right now.

You may think it strange or odd that a character within a story has consciousness or thought outside a story, but it should not be so odd or strange especially when this is a story that I am telling, a story within a story, in essence, reality and fiction mingling and intertwining and all that jazz. I am, or was, after all, a story keeper.

Her story, it all has already occurred, it has come to an end in the most unfavourable of circumstances, still I must believe it can change for I connect stories, I adjust stories, and I assign stories. I am much more equipped for it now than ever before. Within it then and now I speak it out loud, write it all down and keep track of it for my own sake, my own sanity. I am more than just a character. If I write it down, I can change the outcome. There was a part for me to play and my heart was in it from the very beginning ... more or less. I'm not done yet.

You know, thinking about it now, a lot of what came before I met Judy only really began to make sense after Judy went to that other place. All I went through, these things that happened to me happened for a reason. It all lead to that moment in the library, and then to everything else that came after ... well my place and part within it more than just seemed to fit. My place and part in it all felt, no it more than just felt, my part was tailor made for me, written for me perhaps by someone else other than me.

This story is indeed not mine, it is Judy's, but to get back to her I need to expand and divert a little, explain a little of what came before Judy did so come with me if you will ... take things for what they can be and perhaps the end of her story might become something a little different ...