Ken McClure - Chameleon

As an attractive woman she was used to having men stare at her on occasions but as a rule, eye contact was always broken when she decided to indicate that she was aware of being watched. She steeled herself to try again and looked directly at the man with a contrived cold, blank expression. To her discomfort the man just stared back and what was worse it was not difficult to understand what he was thinking. The look on his face was one of pure hatred.

Sue felt a slight tremor in her hand as she put down the garment she was holding and looked away. She was breathing a little unevenly and something akin to real fear was starting to threaten her. She could feel the blood pounding at her temples and a slight unsteadiness in her legs. This is ridiculous, she told herself. It wasn't as if she were walking through a lonely park on a dark night for goodness' sake. She was in the middle of a crowded shop and it was eleven o'clock in the morning. There were people all around her.

She turned her back on the counter and walked away, taking comfort from the number of people she had to squeeze past as she headed for the ladies' clothing section. She wanted to turn round to check if the man had followed her but something prevented her from doing this. It was as if she feared that this act in itself might precipitate the man's presence.

In the end, her subconscious made her do it surreptitiously. She had to know. She found a coat rack and pretended to examine the garments, using this as a pretext to half turn. As she pulled out the hem of one of the coats to feel the material a hand touched her back and she took in breath with a gasp and felt her body go rigid. 'Excuse me dear, could I get past?' said a little old woman. She was wearing a flower pot hat and a slightly puzzled look at Sue's rather dramatic reaction. Sue smiled to hide her embarrassment and let the woman past then she went on pretending to examine the coats. Her head was bent forward but her eyes were kept up to look around her. There was no sign of the man. She let out her breath in a long slow sigh, unaware until then that she had been holding it.

Could that look on the man's face have been her imagination? she wondered as she went on with her browse through the store but try as she might, she could not rid herself of the latent image. Maybe the man had suffered from some medical condition, she reasoned. Something that affected the muscles in his face, giving him no control over his expression? Bell's palsy or something like that. She sought distraction in a row of nightdresses but had to remind herself that her shape would be changing soon and not in the appropriate direction for these nightdresses. Might as well look at the 'tents' while I'm here, she thought and moved to the maternity section. She discovered a line in long, flowing gowns which she thought attractive or more correctly, the least unattractive and idly checked the labels for one her size. As she parted the gowns to extract an appropriate one she suddenly froze in terror. The man was standing on the other side of the rack, looking through the gap. He was less than a metre away from her and his eyes, behind small circular glasses, burned with loathing.

Sue took an involuntary step backwards and put her hand to her throat to combat a momentary inability to breathe. She found herself trapped against the wall. Sheer terror made her speak although she had difficulty getting the words out. 'What… do you want?' she stammered, trying to look out of the corner of her eye at the same time for the best escape route.

'Revenge,' hissed the man without hesitation. It was as if he had been waiting for Sue to ask.

'What… are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life. There must be some mistake…'

'You belong to him and I am going to take you away. See how he likes it when it happens.'

The man made a move towards Sue and she lost all self control and screamed out loud closing her eyes and her fists in a defensive gesture.

'Madam! Madam! Whatever's the matter,' asked a solicitous voice in Sue's ear. Sue opened her eyes to find an assistant with her hand on her arm. All around people were staring at her and talking in quiet voices.

'There was a man,' spluttered Sue.

The assistant looked around and so did Sue. There was no man.

'He was just there,' sobbed Sue. 'He said he wanted revenge.' The words sounded silly and Sue looked at the assistant to see if disbelief would register in her eyes.

'Revenge Madam? Revenge for what?'

'I don't know,' confessed Sue helplessly.

'Perhaps a nice cup of tea would help,' said the assistant gently.

'No, no tea,' said Sue, painfully aware that people all round were speaking about her. She wanted desperately to be out of the store. 'Perhaps you could call me a taxi?'

'Of course. Why don't you come through here for a moment?'

The assistant led Sue through on of the doors marked STAFF ONLY and sat her down at a desk to wait while she called a taxi. Sue was glad to be out of the public gaze and her breathing started to subside as she regained control of her emotions.

'There will be a taxi here in five to ten minutes,' said the assistant putting down the phone. 'Are you sure you re all right?'

Sue managed a nod and a smile and thanked the assistant for her kindness.

'There are some weird people about these days,' said the assistant. 'I don't know what the country is coming to.'

Sue nodded. She needed no reminding of the fact.

The world had suddenly become a much more hostile place. Sue began to worry about crossing the pavement from the door of the store to the door of the taxi when it arrived. It arrived within three minutes.

'That was quick,' said the assistant. 'If I were you I would have a stiff drink when I got home,' she smiled as the cab pulled up outside, its diesel engine ticking over loudly.

Sue thanked the assistant for her kindness and hurried to the taxi. She slammed the door behind her and took comfort in the solid thunk it made. 'Kerr Memorial Hospital,' she said and settled back into her seat. Almost subconsciously she checked that the windows were closed.

The cab pulled away from the kerb and started to head for the hospital. Sue looked out at the streets but did not see much for she was still too upset to concentrate on anything for long. She could not recall ever having been so frightened before and her heart was pounding even now. Gradually she became aware of normality in the streets they were driving through. People were shopping, men were working, children were playing. She embraced the sights greedily and started to calm down.

As the minutes passed, Sue opened her handbag and took out her purse. She knew that she had enough money for the cab fare but nerves were making her check all the same. She glanced at the meter and her gaze froze on it as she realised that it wasn't running. She was mesmerised by the digits; they were stuck on zero. Could the store have paid for the taxi in advance? Then she remembered that she had not seen anyone pay the driver. Apart from that, no one at the store had asked her where she was going.

Inside her head, the store assistant repeated over and over again, 'That was quick… That was quick.' Sue faced the awful truth. This cab had not responded to the store's telephone call at all. It had appeared at the door for quite a different reason. Her eyes moved slowly up to look at the driver's mirror. Two burning eyes behind small, round glasses stared back at her.

Panic exploded inside Sue's head and she screamed. 'What do you want with me?' she demanded, banging her fists on the glass partition. The driver did not react. The cab sped on.

The cab was moving too quickly for Sue to attempt to get out but she clawed at the window winder with one hand while continuing to bang on the glass with the other as she tried to attract outside attention to her plight. The world seemed determined to ignore her. No one looked. No one cared.