ZEMBLANITY

By Jane Goodhew

ZEMBLANITY is the inevitable discovery of what we would rather not know. “As she pushed open the door, she knew that she would discover him in flagrante and herself in zemblanity.”  William Boyd

In a world full of information, it seems strange not to have heard the word Zemblanity before being asked to write a story about it.  The opposite serendipity is popular for the way it sings from the tongue and conjures up all that is beautiful and wondrous to life.  Now try to imagine the very opposite an event which brings misery and gloom, disaster, distress but instead of turning away, you embrace it as if it were serendipity!

That is exactly what we all did and each in turn laid bare our soul as we recounted the tale of our very own Zemblanity moment.  For me it was just the other day, the weather had been bizarre, to say the least, one moment hot sun and the next torrential rain, hailstones, wind that would knock you off your feet and so cold but nothing could have stopped me that day, not even the weather as it was my fate, I  had seen it in the stars and in a dream and I needed to know if it would be fulfilled of if I could alter destiny.

The skies grew darker and anyone with sense had remained indoors but with a bright yellow raincoat and shocking pink wellington boots looking more like something out of a candy store than a geriatric perhaps I should have worn purple, I put my best foot forward and left the house into the oncoming storm.  My heart was beating so fast I thought it would leap out of my chest or come to a sudden halt before the allotted hour.   Then hot tears began to stream down my face as I realised that this could be my final walk not just along this road, the last time I would see my neighbours not that I knew many of them.  I put my head up, wiped away the tears that had become intermingled with the raindrops and a strange smile crossed my face as I imagined it was a beautiful summers day which as it were August it should have been and as I turned I realised too late that I should have looked right instead of left before stepping off the kerb into the road straight under the wheels of the oncoming bus.  The driver would not have had time to see me and certainly not to stop, the sheer horror on his face filled me with guilt, what had I done to him let alone myself?

People rushed out of their houses as they heard the sickening thud and screech of tyres, but nothing could be done.

 

Zemblanity therefore was true.  When people entered my home, they would have found an envelope and in it this story which one of you has kindly read out for me, you see I thought I could defy the gods and if only I had looked right, I could have.

Copyright Jane Goodhew