Flat Of Angles (Pt.2) - Benedict Cumberbatch

[00:00.540]And now for the second part of the fourth part late night tale stories
[00:03.890]Flat of Angles
[00:05.010]Written by Simon Cleary
[00:06.760]And read by me Benedict Cumberbatch
[00:10.250]Is there any more drink around here?
[00:11.820]Do you have any?
[00:13.470]Its alright, I haven’t been to bed yet
[00:14.810]I’m not drinking in the morning!
[00:17.670]I swear I had a couple of…
[00:20.250]No I think I had them before I headed out last night.
[00:25.250]I sometimes feel like I am in the 1980s
[00:27.950]Or perhaps it's part of my mom's fault watching Esatenders
[00:30.950]With my family lying back on the green velour sofa
[00:33.610]Looking out at the sodium lights of the A505
[00:36.710]Hands fiddling with the glass on the tarnished aluminium of
[00:39.900]The Secondary double glazing thinking imagining romantic futures
[00:44.870]Set out for me by songs
[00:47.100]From top of the pops Twisted by lyrics of Genesis
[00:50.350]Starry starry nights
[00:53.100]Paint your pallid blue and grey
[00:55.690]Red and gold
[00:57.980]Are royal colors
[00:59.330]Yeah, yeah
[01:00.440]Industrial state
[01:03.960]Instead
[01:06.740]Anyway, like I say, it was great
[01:08.440]I was waiting in the corridor, to go to the toilet,
[01:09.990]Standing right in front of the door.
[01:11.190]It opened, and this girl was standing there.
[01:14.080]I was a little shocked, hadn’t expected it, and jumped a little.
[01:17.530]She did the same thing a second later, smiling.
[01:21.300]I tilted my head left, about to speak, and look sympathetic,
[01:24.670]And she tilted her head right.
[01:26.210]I raised my right hand, she raised her left.
[01:27.920]I put it back by my side, straightened my head,
[01:30.540]And she did the same.
[01:33.390]“I’ll be your mirror.” she said.
[01:37.280]Nothing else existed for a second there, I felt calm, and wanted no more.
[01:46.230]Then some chump who had slunk up the corridor goes
[01:51.280]“Awww, that is so cute!”
[01:53.720]I barged past her and slammed the door,
[01:55.380]Shot the lock across,the handle fell off.
[02:00.650]This can’t actually have happened.
[02:03.110]She is only 28.Only.
[02:09.170]What are we doing with our lives?
[02:11.640]Why are we carrying on like this?
[02:13.890]For God’s sake, why don’t we grow up?
[02:17.140]Pretending we are hip,
[02:18.690]Throwing our bodies around the room,around the town,
[02:21.120]Projected on cheap MDMA and ciders with ice, our shadows are long.
[02:28.760]They slip over the horizon, grow thinner,
[02:30.940]And disappear only the all-encompassing shadow of night takes over.
[02:36.700]That is greater than any of us.
[02:41.280]Then morning comes, and it goes away.
[02:45.460]It peels the film from eyes,
[02:47.650]Sparks cells into action,
[02:49.860]And eventually resurrects those who have avoided it.
[02:53.080]It says here is a day
[02:56.190]Do with it as you will.
[02:59.310]I am back, but she…
[03:10.030]I’m well up for keeping the session going
[03:13.680]Why did I even come back here?
[03:15.520]God knows.
[03:17.020]I’ll give her a call,
[03:17.820]See what she’s up to.
[03:18.380]We could swing down the Talbot for a few cures.
[03:20.460]Its ringing.
[03:21.140]Oh nooo… What happened?
[03:21.930]I think that…
[03:22.870]Hey! Where did you get to last night?
[03:25.240]Fancy a Bloody Mary at The Talbot?
[03:26.620]Give us a call when you get this!
[03:29.370]No. She wouldn’t move.
[03:34.380]I think I lied next to her.
[03:38.650]I lied.
[03:41.700]We had that methlathyl-whatever when I got out of the toilet.
[03:45.340]She had given that bloke the heave-ho.
[03:47.670]I can’t even remember her face.
[03:50.450]Just the strange flock texture on the wallpaper behind her in the corridor,
[03:53.470]The magnolia paintwork,
[03:54.920]The sick yellow light from a bare bulb,
[03:57.050]And decades of greasy black hand marks by the top of the stairs.
[04:04.280]Her eyes were…
[04:07.430]Black.
[04:09.300]