Yellow by Edmund Buckley
He checks his watch as he enters the 24-hour Spar. 00.45. He lets out a sigh of exhaustion, followed by exasperation. He knows too well how he will be left waiting another hour if he doesn't reach Trinity College at one o'clock. It's a twenty-minute walk. His double shift was mayhem, having no cigarettes always is. As he passes the fridge he denies himself the luxury of a bottle of Snapple, as he is sure it will make his journey home awkward and uncomfortable. Instead he marches right up to the checkout and demands 'twenty Marlboro lights and a lighter.' He charmingly absolves himself by saying thank you in Cantonese.   On every corner he tends to increase the pace of his stride, he checks his watch once more, while snatching a cigarette from his fresh pack and lighting it without stopping. 00.56. His Nokia headphone set is tuned into Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds, a Pink Floyd tribute. Dunne is easing his way through a segmented biography of the tragic early contributing member Syd Barrett and how he became the inspiration for a number of their hits. Things begin to look up when he introduces a live version of 'Great Gig in the Sky', but soon plunge as he realises that he has a ten-minute walk ahead.   He remembers a route described by one of the students from the kitchen, and in a rash decision makes his way down a side street that should get him home in half the time. The high pitch wailing on the track begins to fade, but the screaming sounds as if it has just begun. He freezes where he stands until, in the blackness he can barely make out a commotion of strong men of various heights. They are forming a rough circle centred by a frantic young woman who is wriggling and wailing, her four limbs desperate to break their hold. The men are giving orders to each other and appear to have a system of hierarchy. The tallest, free from the struggle is directing the men to a pile of rubbish in a dark end of the alley. The girl desperately protests but is shown no leniency. Dave clenches his fist but instead of intervening, moves to where he cannot be seen, behind a row of bins.   The girl has seemed to give up any hope of escaping this situation as they stuff a ragged sock in her mouth. She begins to go into convulsions as the shaven head ringleader begins to loosen his Nazi memorabilia belt. Dave searches the ground for any means of defending her. If only he had bought that bottle of Snapple. He notices a small rock on the ground, then it hits him; that damned day at the age of eleven when he lunged that fate-determining rock. He remembers having to visit the victim in hospital, trying to play snap while his open mouth drooled down onto the card table. He couldn't face those consequences again. In an act of inexcusable cowardice he takes out his phone dismantles the headset and switches his phone off in case his fiancée calls. He fixes his petrified gaze back at the situation. For a moment he thinks the girl has realised he is there. He looks back down at the ground, then back at her. Her eyes are penetrating through the darkness, pleading with his to intervene. He looks hard at her tear stained eyes, but does nothing. She kicks her legs free of their grip and lets out a muffled scream. One of the assailants makes a despicable jibe and grabs a hold of her again. During this commotion she manages to get her tongue behind the sock, clench it in her teeth and spit it out of her mouth. She lets out a screeching cry from the pit of her stomach. A few minutes later a crowd can be heard emerging from the adjoining street. The commotion however alerts the gang of skinheads who have enough time at hand to flee.   The inconsolable young girl lies helpless and exhausted with her garments torn on a rubbish heap in a dark corner of the alleyway. Dave climbs out from his hiding place and rushes to her side. As he approaches her, the moonlight now illuminating her yellow complexion he begins to recognise her. His memory is flooded with the time they met and how she had travelled half the world from Eastern Asia to be his wife.