Start

A Story by bradleypym

This is the start to a story I am currently writing.

Chapter one - The City

June. 23 degrees.

I woke up to the brightest morning I had ever seen. The sun must have been directly in the gap of the curtains. I shuffled out of bed and slipped my feet into my warm slippers and stood up. I looked around the room for some clothes. I found a pair of trousers and a shirt so I put them on and slowly walked down the stairs. There wasn't any need for lights as the sun was bright enough to light up the entire house.

I walked into the kitchen where I made a cup of coffee. I enjoyed my morning coffee in the garden. The birds of the summer where singing to me. There must have been at least five different specie of bird. All singing together. It was beautiful. Just to sit, completely relaxed with a cup of coffee.

When I reached the end of my coffee I got up and went inside. The post had just come through the door as did the newspaper. I sat in the lounge and gazed at the newspaper.

'Man missing after house fire kills family.' I did not often read the news as it was always bad news. Never did you see anything good on the front page unless its somebody getting put in prison for something that was bad.

I took a cold shower. Got dressed and went out into the city. I was dressed in navy blue. I had a casual suit on. No tie. Finished off with brown slippers. I liked to dress up. I stepped out of my door and lit a cigarette. There is something satisfying about the first cigarette of the day.

There was a coffee shop, just down the road that I went to most weekends. It was called 'Ol' Italy coffee shop'

It was my favourite place to go to because they played the best music and had the best sofas of all the coffee shops. I met a friend. Charlie. We ordered our drinks and took a seat at a table near to the window.

''How have you been?'' He seemed ever so different. Something was wrong. He had glasses on and a hat both of which he did not take off whilst we drank our coffee.

''I have been fine, How about you Charlie? What is with the glasses and hat? What have you done?'' I said this as a joke and it was clear but he did not seem to find it humorous. Not at all.

'' I have done something terrible, Harry.'' He spoke quietly and his voice trembled.

''You can tell me, I know people, I can help.''

He went on to tell me about the fire. The one that I had read about in the newspaper just this morning. Was it possible that me dear friend of 10 years had killed his family in a tragic house fire. He told me how he had nothing to do with the fire and that he was in shock. He was in fact the man that was missing. His family had been killed in that fire but he had not started it. He simply came home from work to a house full of burning family corpses.

''I ran, I did not phone for emergency services. I simply ran. That was the worst thing anyone could have done. It is all my fault. I could have saved them.'' His eyes filled with tears and he went red. He did not say any more. I don’t think there was anything else he could have said.