Sinister: Looking For Isabelle

[Krister Bladh]

Sebastian was lonely. Belle was gone. He couldn’t remember exactly what had happened and he was quite confounded by the whole matter. 1995 seemed a long ways back now. Maybe he was just getting old and sentimental? He had left his hometown for studies at the University, if you can believe that. This city made him feel like a lost ten-year-old. But that wasn’t all bad, was it? Come to think of it, there ought to be an Isabelle in every city. His troubled face had brightened up at that thought. You might say he’d had a vision. He could picture her walking down any street in town – particularly in the suburbs. Because that was where she would live. The rebel daughter of some upper middle-class family. She would walk down the street with her head held high and a spring in her step, pretending she didn’t feel the burn of all those glaring eyes, disapprovingly peering out from behind the safety of their triple-layer windows. Sebastian felt sorry for her.

So he started walking the streets (for some reason the buses around here didn’t get along with him) putting up posters in inventive places. On an old out-of-use bus stop where people could be alone with their brooding thoughts: “Have you seen Isabelle? If you have, or if you ARE her, please let me know.” He was going to sign each one with places you might find him. The old bus stop for instance. But it was freezing outside, so the bulk of them ended up with just a scribbled ‘Sebastian’. If you didn’t recognize his handwriting, it’d take a scientist to make it out. A couple of days later, when his hands were properly thawed out, he got himself a pair of mittens. With renewed vigour, he went about putting up enquires about his old dog on wheels. Because he had had to give up the fox when he moved. Now he had no one. There may be much to say for the warmth of mittens, but people they are not.

But help would come from an unexpected direction. Sebastian was studying musicology. You know, Stravinsky, the old chap Beethoven, and the like. It was the only subject he thought he good bear. At least they were all odd personages (artists that is), like him, so he wouldn’t feel too out of place in their company. Or that was what he figured anyways. Now, also studying musicology was Lisa. Funny thing is, Sebastian couldn’t remember having met her. Which he ought to have, seeing as he had written songs about her. One was called “Lisa and Chelsea”. Lisa reminded Sebastian of Belle, and he would sometimes confuse their names. Lisa tried to correct him. She even kicked his shin once, but it didn’t do any good. So eventually, she gave in. Sebastian had found Isabelle, you might say.

Isabelle and Sebastian talked a lot. When people scowled at them during lectures they would write notes instead. She taught him about bands, he taught her about foxes and squirrels. Sebastian had written a song about Isabelle, called “Schoolgirl Action”. She was not to know this however. Sebastian had never known much about girls. But then again, Isabelle never was like other girls. That much Sebastian had learned.

xx
Sebastian

ps. hopefully making up for my abusive post yesterday.
pps. I wrote this last year but finally decided to post it as my fanzine plans seem to be going nowhere (but the bin possibly). the ending almost makes me cry now, because in real life it turned it out just so much worse. I suppose there'll have to be a sequel, setting things write.
ppps. she won't be reading this, right?
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