.2. I Will Find Him
"Noooo!"
"Gee, have you been drunk or what?! Alien sky, some weird... moons, oh, maybe five or more, and those machines shooting people, and then the earthquake, everybody has seen that!" Veena used her elbow to pare another attack on the fragment of bar the friends had annexed. Olympic Games on the television drew in the men, who were trying to push their way closer to the 60 inch plasma screen. "Tell'er, Mookie."
"News said it was all just another hoax" Donna shouted, trying to be heard in the pub's racket. One of the needy viewers leaned against her arm. Donna swirled on her bar chair; hands on hips, teasing look in her eyes. "Oi, watch what you grab, mate! Terrorists and hallucinogens."
"Wha...?" The man tried to jump back into the crowd. "What terrorists?"
"Am I talking to you?!" yelled Donna. "Now, look at me! Do I look, like I'm talking to you?! It's a private conversation, so back off, prawn! News at Ten said terrorists put hallucinogens into the water supply."
"All over the world?" doubtfully said Alice, shaking ice cubes at the bottom of her glass. "At the exact same moment?"
"So maybe they let it into the air. Just like the ATMOS; remember how it screwed us then?"
"Now, you've been on Skye then, Mook, so how many cars they've got there in total?" teased Veena.
Donna turned towards her, quizzical look on her face.
"ATMOS? Something happened to ATMOS?"
"Donna, have you been drunk all year?!"
"Why are we discussing this rubbish anyway?" Shaking the thick, ginger hair off her shoulder Donna stood up and yelled at the barman: "Same thing but with cranberry! And peanuts! You want peanuts? No decent guys in this pub, I swear. In all Chiswick! All the world!"
"The one you've just yelled at wasn't that bad" noticed Alice.
"Which one?" Donna looked around, but could not find him in the crowd.
"Long gone. You scared him. But what about that one?" Alice turned her chin towards the young man starring into the screen.
"Too fat."
"Too... too fat?! Are you bunkers, Donna? He's a twig!"
"Dunno..." The barman served the drinks and peanuts, so Donna twisted in her chair, turning her gaze towards the pub's interior. "Don't like him, that's all."
"You are so weird recently, you know. Picky. This one no, 'cause of blue eyes. That one no, 'cause of the hair loss. Hair loss?! What hair loss, he had great hair! Another one is too stupid, or has a weird nose. You won't meet Brad Pitt in The Plough and Pheasant, that's for sure. You know what? Beggars can't be choosers. Take Nerys..."
"I am not a beggar, Mookie!" said Donna shaking her fiery hair. "I can be picky if I want to. I will find him in the end."
"Find whom?"
Donna opened her mouth, breathed in, freezing with her eyes starring into space. She blinked, distractedly moved a strand of hair from her cheek and finally breathed out.
"I don't know" she said. "I just don't know."
Taking advantage of her moment of pensiveness, behind Donna's back her friends exchanged telling glances.