Tuesday 11 August 2009

"Running to...Chapter 6:Xx or not?"

Chapter 6: Xx or not?!

I wake up. Every last idiotic notion of being mature and making my own decisions moshing in my head. I’m somewhere in London and I’ve spent the night in the apartment of a man whose last name I don’t know. Despite the mockingly blatant cliché, whilst bathed in the cold light of day (Jake had forgotten to draw the blinds the night before) I finally became aware that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Desperate to regain some sense of familiarity in this abstract new position, I fumbled through my rucksack for my sunflower seeds. I knew that I had to try and make them last because my money was already dwindling and I still hadn’t come any closer to deciding whether or not I’d be going home any time soon. Shoving a handful of the huge Greek sunflowers into my mouth, I closed my eyes and for the first time since waking, I let myself relax, but not for long. I can already hear Jake thumping around upstairs; he’ll be coming down soon. Hurriedly, I swallow the last bit of sunflower seed pulp in my mouth and stuff the rest of the bag back into the section of my rucksack in which they’ve been keeping my dairy company. My diary. I’ve been neglecting it recently, I shall have to shed some more light on Jake at some point but as for now, my priorities take a different form. Onto the page which I’ve just torn from my diary, I scrawl my mobile number followed by, “Thank you, call me. Xx” I wasn’t sure whether the x’s were appropriate, wasn’t this the kind of message reminiscent of a one night stand?! I puzzled but then remembered that I had to get going. I scraped back my unruly hair in a half-decent ponytail, all the time wishing that I’d had the foresight to have tied it back the night before to spare me from the frizz which was now attacking. My battered converse, once again greeted the soft cotton of my lucky socks and as they did so, I wondered to myself, were lucky socks as efficient when they hadn’t been washed in a couple of day?

The shut Jake’s front door behind me as softly as I could. The bang which emitted from the door being shut was enough to send the pigeons spying on me from their perched in the sycamore not far from Jake’s house flying off at a high speed, no doubt home to their loved ones to gossip about Jake’s lady friend. Great. I could practically see their tiny beaks working a mile a minute...

“Who, who?”

“You know, Jake, Jake, he lives opposite us.”

“Oh him, what about him?”

“He’s got himself a new lady in his life?”

“Ooh, has he now?”

“Yes he has now!”

“Ooh-er.”

“Ooh-er indeed. She even spent the night.”

“Well I never-“

Was I going mad? Imagining pigeons having a good natter about you, Joey? You’re bonkers. I narrow my eyes at the one remaining pigeon, determined not to admit defeat...from a pigeon and then I get going. Holding tightly onto the straps of my rucksack; I head off out. To where, I’m not exactly certain so for good measure, I take a good look around, absorbing as much as I could remember about Jake’s place in case I ever found good reason to return. The terraced houses, identical gardens , (I say gardens, perhaps “yards” would be more fitting) the massive sycamore, the pigeons.

Although I’d been thinking of myself as ever so grown up only minutes ago, I realised that upon reaching the end of the street I was really rather hungry. Maybe I’d have been more grown up to have stayed for breakfast. However, remembering the lack of money left in my pocket, I force my hunger away and strive onwards.

If I’m going to make a real something of myself here in London, I’m really going to have to make some kind of income. At this I remember the horror stories I’d heard upon the news about young girls, not unlike myself, forced into prostitution just to stop them from going hungry. It made me feel sick. What some people are made to go through in this life. Innocent people suffering from the cruelty of others.

I was never a princess so I gave up on the hope of a fairytale a long time ago but only now could I really comprehend what a horrid reality ours is.


this is a short one but I hope you've liked it :)

Peace and love

xxxx

2 comments:

  1. :O yey! c'est returned! blogger has lightened up!

    coolio! i love the way you get us to really get inside your characters head so we can see all those crazy thoughts that would naturally be there. its awesome! :D

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  2. there are some terrible grammar and spelling issues in this thing but i lurved writing it...i tried starting the other day but i wrote 187 words and hated it so I deleted it and began again...anyways...
    someone said it was kinda pointless, and yeah, on the surface it doens't look as if it's going anywhere but it's a really important transition!!

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