In Boomtown, everybody’s business is everybody’s business and its difficult to escape the feeling you’re being watched – hell, you are being watched….all the time. In People Watching Pt 5, I wrote about Boomtown’s seldom-explored coast and how some people seem to strike lucky and escape the urban sprawl to make a quiet life for themselves out on the bay.
Needless to say, people watching is a completely different proposition on the coast. In the city, no one cares if they’re drawing a little too much attention. No one worries if the CCTV cameras track them down the long sodium-lit streets, but among the more reclusive denizens of the coast, people watching can be far more challenging.
I remember one late autumnal day, catching a glimpse of a woman stood in her window at the end of a terrace of old fisherman cottages. Although the setting sun was casting a deep amber glow across the entire landscape, looking at her was like looking at a black and white photograph. She had no colour in her face, in her clothes…in her life. As she sighed at the prospect of yet another evening alone, her swirling breath fogged the cool glass and in that instant, the story of her life seemed to open up before me.
Although today, you’d quickly lose her in any crowd, in her younger days she’d been a Boomtown debutante – a silly pretty thing that used to sparkle and shine for the boys in the bright suits. She could be seen at all the best parties and delighted in the men she got to know. Men that with painful predictability, would each eventually wave goodbye. In that moment, it felt as if her sadness was reaching out to me across the windswept space that separated us. Just as I acknowledged the loss she felt for each of her departed lovers, I saw a tear fall, briefly flashing in the last of the sunlight.
The wind dropped for a moment and I could hear music playing from inside the house, perhaps a worn-out tape of her favourite songs – the ones that could still make her smile. It was then that she saw me watching. I felt uncomfortable for having intruded on her world and she offered me an embarrassed smile – embarrassed because she was aware that briefly, inexplicably, I’d been able to share her inner sadness. For a moment, her smile made her face shine…only for that glimpse of her former beauty to fade away as she lowered her eyes and pulled the curtains to shut out the night.
Thanks both...It's strange this...sort of taking on a life of its own. I write for a living but technical reports - this is the only thing I do that's creative.
The idea when I set out was to populate Boomtown with the people and places from the songs - sort of dovetails with the idea of a Boomtown Sim City.
I was determined to cover all the albums (Mondo Bongo's proving difficult but I'm working on that!). What's strange is that the songs I've taken from the later albums (V Deep and ITLG) have taken me away from the city and out to the coast.......read into that what you will.
I think I need to get People Watching back to Boomtown!
Lovely.. Beautifully written... One of my Boomtown favourites.. 💚
Are you sure you'r not a writer ? More more please