I woke to the soft sound of birds chirping. As I slowly rose from my bed, I opened the curtains. Orange sunlight poured in which caused me to squint. As my eyes adjusted I looked over the horizon to see half a sun rise, causing it to give off a warm orange colour. I felt particularly good today as I was going to meet an old school friend that I had managed to keep in contact with. After a refreshing shower I ate some hot toast with a generous amount of golden Essex honey. I sat in the kitchen wearing my dressing gown and savoured the taste of the golden syrupy goodness. I then checked my emails and packed my small rucksack with a couple of bananas, a few ham sandwiches and a red bull energy drink before setting off.
I drove without really concentrating, as I passed familiar shops, trees, roads and those ninety degree bends that liked to be taken quickly with the right car. Not this one though. The old Land Rover lent over like a boat, undignified, rather like watching an old pensioner run to catch a bus. I was meeting my friend at Norsey Woods, where we used to play as children. I arrived, excited to see my old friend again. I looked around for my friend’s old Volvo 240. Sure enough there it was. There was rust on the bonnet of the car where it had caught fire in Cornwall, and the bad paint job that had simply come off on the first wash. No mistaking that car. I got out of my car and slung my rucksack over my shoulder and went over to meet him. I remember Jim as if it were yesterday, he hadn’t changed a bit. The same short haircut that made him look almost bald. Jim was a lean, tall man. He had the same pale skin that he had endured in his school days. The kind of skin that burnt easily in the sun and went red the same evening, pink the next, and white the day after that. His dark green eyes would slowly observe his environment with no change in his expression, not looking like he might crack a smile and laugh. Just the same dour look on his face. I knew there must be a torrent of thoughts going through his mind, but he never let it show. Not at school, even when he was threw in a pond by the older kids he showed no emotion. He would just stare at the biggest kid that had just been kicking him and tell him that he was memorising his face. This was the sort of thing that creeped out the bullies and they eventually left him.
Gary was in the car routing through a small rucksack and beamed a smile when he saw me and said “Hi, Joel!” in the same instant he could not be heard through the glass. I watched him struggle to open the window without success, and fumbled with the door in an attempt to escape the confines of the old brown car. He stuttered a greeting, and tried to laugh, shake my hand and apologise all at the same time. Gary had been a bully at school. Honestly I was a bit reluctant to even see him again, but Jim was insistent that he had changed since going to Afganistan with the army. I was truly shocked at how different Gary was. He looked much the same as he had done eight years ago when we left school, but this wasn’t the confident, arrogant, lout that used to shower the other pupils with fear, and made dinner times hell with his disgusting trick of sneezing on our freshly served lunch trays. Seeing Gary struggle to get out of the car, his stuttering, smiling uncertain face just made me smile, partly with relief and partly with amusement.
The three of us made our war to the old seven trunked tree where we had built our old den, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that I actually used to be scared of Gary at school and how he appeared completely harmless now. He was a full four inches shorter than me and a few good stones heavier.
Jim had gone ahead to look for his old path he used to take to the pond. I took the opportunity to say to Gary “You’re very different now from how you used to be at school” Gary replied “Yeah, I used to be a bit of a bully, but the army changed all that. You see, we had a sergeant who used to bully us, but he got his dues. When we were in a bit of a scrap with the Taliban he got out of his trench in front of us, and I sort of shot him”. My body was instantly flooded with fear and my gut moved. I looked at him not sure what to do, and said “Are you serious?!” I immediately started to think about what I should do. Gary looking anxious said “Yeah. There ain’t a living soul outside of my squad knows about this. The report says that the enemy shot him in the back of the head, but couldn’t have because he ran towards them. No… I done it. Blew the top of his head clean off! You’re not gonna tell anyone are you?” I stood frozen in fear, too scared to say anything. Gary continued “I did tell my corporal, but when he said he would have to report me he sort of got shot aswell” I knew what he meant, I just prayed he wouldn’t kill me. “I did tell the lads in the squad about you… they know where you live… promise me you will be quiet?...” I came to the dreadful conclusion that there was no way out.
The silence broke as Jim beckoned us to where he had found our old den. Gary gave me a worried and uncertain look before he turned around to find Jim. I stood by myself and watched Gary walk off. My was mind filled with questions, I had no idea what to do. I started to follow Gary, but stopped. With fear and uncertainty taken over my mind, I sent a text to Jim to warn him about what Gary had told me.
The rest of the day went quickly. My mind occupied with the thoughts on what had happened. From that day forth I never heard anything about Gary ever again. I never spoke to Jim about it either. It seemed as if Gary ceased to exist. That was the last time I ever heard about it. The last time I ever thought about it.
Topic: A Short Story - (Read 1098 times)