Early morning coffee with a dull view of a rainy sky, and a desolate Symonds Street from Callum’s flat – where I stayed after a night in town, with old classmates I considered to be my brothers, and tryin’ to clutch Callum’s relationship with Madeleine – his ex, and “good-friend”, for now.
Callum and I walked down to an Asian convience-store across the road from his place shortly after I finished my coffee. We made some small talk on the walk down about last night but I made sure to avoid bringing up anything about Madeleine.
In my efforts to keep conversation going; I took some off-brand potato-chips from the shelf and showed it to him.
“Have you tried this?” I asked.
“Uh…Nah”
“You gotta try it, man. It’s actually really good”
Callum didn’t reply to me, he just turned away and stared blankly at the store’s fridge instead. He seemed really detached from making conversation with me, but I understood where he was coming from, so I just kept quiet and stopped forcing a conversation.
A couple minutes passed of us quietly walking up and down the snacks-and-drinks isle, with empty looks on our faces, before the store owner approached us and asked if everything was alright. Callum snapped out of his disengaged state for a moment to answer the store owner; he took a can of V soon after and walked over to the cashier to pay for it.
“Huh, can you believe this is $3 now?” he commented.
I laughed and shrugged. “Yeah. What the fuck, right?”
We walked back out into the downcast and woeful streets of Auckland’s CBD, and made our way to his car so we could go home. The ride back with him was rather sombre, but it was nostalgic too. Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why” played on the radio as we drove through the waterfront of St. Heliers and Mission Bay, the song felt like it really captured our moods perfectly. I thought about the times I spent on this side of the city last year: the late night walks, the drunk driving, and the existential-crisis conversations. Callum stared off towards the area’s shops and beach whenever there was a red traffic-light. I assume he was thinkin’ bout all his dates with Madeleine there – he used to always tell our friends and I about those dates, with an enthusiastic tone in his voice, when we drove around the area.
I always thought the lyrics for Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why” were “I don’t know why I didn’t call”. I only found out I was wrong when I started writing this tonight. It’s actually “I don’t know why I didn’t come“, but when I was driving back home with Callum this morning, the song resonated much more strongly for us, and the ambiance of the city, with the ring of “I don’t know why I didn’t call“ ; that’s how I’d like to remember it.
ATCVU 