A Name, Of Course

A man's walk home from a day at work, simple apart from his name, is a name just a name or is a name more related to how you feel about yourself, does it carry more importance than just... a name?

       Heavy footsteps carried the tired working man home, his pace was fairly ferocious given how "drained" he felt. That was the word he had chosen to use, 'on way home, picked up choc and dinner, walking home feel drained, love Mike x'

And although he did feel drained, his feet couldn't help but stomp. "Mike, you should buy more comfortable shoes, those dont look very supportive..." the concerned and slightly over bearing voice of his mother rang to him from his memories, irritating him. He knew she said these things out of love for her son and because of this his irritation was always accompanied by guilt. The funny thing was, it wasn't his mother that bothered him, what bothered him was when everyone used that tone of voice. It made him feel like a child, which of course he didn't like, it returned him to the indignant, short sighted state of mind from childhood.

       "Miike... The convincing, almost pleadingly guilt-trippy way in which his sister had adopted the tone, "Miike, you'know you gotta pick me up." One of his sisters phone calls of 'i need help.' He'd forgotten how many times he had saved his sister Mary from the middle of no where on her own. He had tried many times, but the term "Miike" was a term he just could not say no too.

       The song in Mike's ears faded to a halt, he scrolled through the music on his ipod, looking for an artist which jumped out. After a few moments, he selected 'black eyed boy' by Texas, the music faded in, the beating of the drums pounding pleasantly in his ear, then the guiters strummed in. He smiled as the soothing voice of Sharleen Spiteri poured out of his headphones. He slowed his pace to steady stroll, the fast paced music in his ears fulfilling the impulse, the need, to run ahead.

The need to run ahead.

What was it that gave him this urge? To get back to his other half, to get back home? Of course but that didn't explain why he was so often running somewhere... Or away from?

Mike walked along, somehow he even found his own name boring. Mike walked, quietly annoyed by the bizarre way in which his mind worked. Crossing the road he looked up, he didn't notice the road, partly because there was no traffic, instead of checking for oncoming traffic he saw a poster hung on the rusted iron fencing of a church. It was an old poster of a theatre show, the title was 'MIKEY!!' The background was black, with a blue spot of light in the middle, a blonde haired man, presumably Mikey was in the centre, with a group of faces leaning into the light their bodies in darkness. It was an interesting poster, creepy at first but then, when you looked at it a second time, you couldn't help but smile to yourself.

       He walked along pleasantly smiling away to himself, he looked at the world differently, sort of like the green plants and the trees after a thorough rain. It's the same world but all the leaves, bushes and flowers shine a little brighter. Thinking about 'Mikey' the name, he smiled, Mikey sounded like such a nice, happy name, a bouncy, lively name. Deep down, for Mike, the name Mikey was a fresh name unbound by the feelings of his past, his old emotions that he couldn't shake off and try as he had he couldn't put them down either. He crossed over another road, thinking it was silly to prefer the name Mikey over Mike but mike had too much negativity attached to it. He turned the 3G of his phone on and five minutes later he was on his facebook page, because the 3G on his phone wasn't very good. A few more minutes and his name was Mikey Turner, it was a small change, but to him it made a significant diffrence.

       He had reached his street and was reaching into his pocket to fish out his keys, a couple of moments later and he was inside up to surprisingly steep stairs to his flat. He had had quite a long shift and it was his first day back after two weeks, his body had turned a little sluggish and relaxed. He had aches and pains throughout most of his body but he tried to put that to the back of his mind, so he and his girlfriend Louise, whom he shared the flat with, could have a nice relaxing evening. Not too deep down he could feel those aches and pains of the day, but Louise, Louise wouldn't enjoy a night of Mikey whining, constantly groaning about how depressing his day had been. Depressing conversations gives rise to a low mood, as they say.

       He took a deep breathe, reminded himself that Mikey wouldn't cling to the annoyances of the past and so... He unlocked the door, however he wasn't prepared for what lay inside... "Hello lovely" the happy voice of his calm girlfriend of... Almost one and a half years, she was the one with the memory. Following this a much smaller, 'meeuw' floated out from within his flat, "Err hello?" He said caustiouly walking in to see Louise picking up a small black cat with patches of white on its front paws and its mouth, "i found her, Louise said, her breath short from the excitement of the story, "I think she's a girl, all my cats have been little girls" Louise spoke excitedly,

"Well she certainly seems like a girl to me, how'd you meet her?" Mikey asked lovingly,

"Well i was walking home from town, and you know the pub, the crown? Mikey nodded, "she came out from the beer garden, meowing and mewwing, i stopped to stroke her and... And she was so affectionate, i think she just wanted some company so i asked inside and they said that a cat had had a litter of kittens. The Rspca had collected the cat and her kittens, but this little one got left behind. I tried to leave, but she was meewing and she followed me, i couldn't just leave her behind. She stopped to breath, it had clearly been quite an experience for her, as it would've been for anyone. As Mikey was about to open his mouth, "I'm going to put signs up, and check in the pub." The short excited breath of desire was present in her voice, "Well i think she looks lovely, does she have a name or do we need a new one??"