The Scratch Cad

The Scratch Cad

Mark Curran walked out of the cafeteria with a confident air, looking
striking in his jazzy blue shirt and denim trousers. Despite the ten
long years since I last set eyes on him I recognized him immediately.
The hand in the pocket the famous scratch, oh! how we used to laugh and
giggle about "The Scratch Cad". His style was dated -more Jeremy
Clarkson than Brad Pitt - still there was something about him that made
people take notice of him. He had not changed his other strange habit,
the quaint way of folding the paper napkin again and again into tiny
folds almost like squeezing the life out of it.

My mind raced back all those years when Janet had introduced him to me.
To begin with we laughed more at his awful habit of scratching and our
nickname made it funnier every time we had a few drinks. The cad was
added on as people who knew him talked of his not pleasant character.
But he was charismatic in his own way. Things changed when Janet fell
madly in love with him, her eyes shone as she looked at him, she hung
on to every word he said. Mark was charming, funny and seemed good with
her. He was into computing sciences and was very ambitious, with his
career all mapped out. It was a summer to remember, me with my Tony and
Janet with her Mark, life was great as a foursome with not a care in
the world except our university exams and a bright future. As teenagers
we dreamed of getting a first, having a fabulous career, and settling
down and having a lovely family. All that seemed possible, "the world's
your oyster" we were told repeatedly and we believed it. Janet was
bright, reading languages and wanted to work in the United Nations
.Somehow we became oblivious to his strange habits.

First year at the University was a breeze we had a fabulous social life
interspersed with a lot of assignments that we somehow managed to
complete on time .Young love was exciting and the days flew by. Janet
was getting more serious with Mark and decided to move in with him.
Though her parents disapproved, she felt it was the right thing to do.
I soon noticed a change, her work was suffering, she was missing
lectures and she was not her cheery self. Mark seemed to take over her
life; she was even blocking me out, her closest friend. I could not
convince her that she was totally obsessed with Mark. Few weeks later,
the bombshell, she dropped out of her course so she could keep house
for him and make sure that he got all the help towards a good degree.
What about her plans? She was ruining her own future. Occasionally she
let slip that Mark had become increasingly jealous, would not let her
talk to friends and expected her to pander to his every whim. She also
recounted his harrowing childhood, abused by his father, let down by
his alcoholic mum but always admired his single minded determination to
rise above all that to get on in life. I sympathized with her, but
started to feel uneasy that Mark was using her for his own ends.

Mark and Janet got married as soon as he finished his degree and got a
job. I was busy with my own life and apart from Christmas cards and the
occasional drink with them I was concentrating on my difficult career
as a criminal lawyer. Then, unexpectedly, a desperate knock on the door
and there was Janet in tears begging me to let her stay the
night.

Mark had been abusing her for a long time and she had completely lost
confidence and did not know where to turn. She was five months pregnant
and wanted help as Mark had hit her on the stomach as his dinner was
not ready on time. Frightened that he might hurt the unborn baby she
fled, she hoped he would not be able to find her. The nervous habits
now made sense, the confident Mark that we saw was a sham, and he was a
deeply disturbed person and took it out on Janet, the only person who
loved him unreservedly. Janet explained the numerous occasions he had
abused her and how each time she forgave him hoping she would find the
loving man she married. Now it was at a stage that she could not put up
with anymore. She could not turn to her parents who had never approved
of him anyway.

I looked at my friend reduced to this quivering, unhappy mess of a
human being soon to be responsible for an infant. I felt anger, sorrow
and deep hatred for Mark. But the first thing was to look after Janet
and make some arrangements to get her life back to normality. I swung
into action, got through to women's aid and got her safe place to stay
and a police injunction against Mark. Janet made a life of sorts, a
single mother,fighting to survive and give of her best to the child.
Her dreams of a bright future shattered with each thump she received
from Mark's aggression.

The days of dot com companies booming were over and many had folded up
overnight. Months later our firm was dealing with a case of
embezzlement. To my utter amazement and joy the person found guilty was
Mark Curran; he was sentenced to 2 years in prison for fraud and
embezzling huge amount of money from the company.

I understood why he was at the college now, after release from prison;
he must have found it difficult to get a decent job. Perhaps he was
trying to update his IT skills. I looked away; I did not want to see
him again. "The Scratch Cad", a nickname given in jest - ;
unfortunately he had lived up to it .

Leela Soma
(994 words)