Barry Hannigan - Dreamer

Chapter 1 - AWOL (Actively Wanting Out of Life).

Tenacious Mark Turner 

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand what someone said?

08 December 10:55 · Like · Comment

He'd spent the morning making his way from office to office, receiving stern telling offs and advice on how to improve his life. He checked his watch, 10:56, as good as lunch time. He strolled through the hangar, barely noticing the 4 Merlin helicopters that littered the stain covered floor. Just as he reached the large, slightly ajar, hangar doors a voice called out 'Hey, Barry, wait up'. He turned reluctantly, hiding his distaste for being disturbed as he watched the rotund figure of his fellow weapon technician Lee Clark jog awkwardly toward him. 'You heading off for some lunch'?

'Yeah, may as well. I'm not really hungry but I could do with the hour away from this s**t hole'. Lee nodded knowingly, though Barry was pretty sure most people just said they hated it because everyone else said it.

'So what did all those officers want to talk to you about'? Nosey b*****d, Barry thought.

'I've failed my fitness test three times, so I've only got one more chance or they'll kick me out. They all just wanted to tell me how unacceptable that was, before telling me how much I want this job. Stuck up c***s the lot of 'em'. He had no intention of passing his fitness test, he wanted out of the Royal Air Force and this was the quickest way. Lee uttered something uninteresting about the situation before announcing 'I'm off to get changed out of these overalls, I'll meet you outside the bay'. The bay was originally just a room with a television and an x-box in it. An unofficial hide away for the weapon technicians, who quite frankly earned a lot more than they deserved. Now it was the hub of their operations. Everything from general purpose machine gun mounts to the entirety of Gavin and Stacey.

'Sure'. Barry walked through the gap in the large doors, out in to the bitterly cold breeze of the winter air. A frozen mist hung loosely around everything and the colour grey was everywhere. At least the snow had finally stopped. He walked across to the next hangar, past a few disgruntled civilian contractors and some gutted out Merlin aircraft, to his locker located half way down the heated hangar.

Author's Note

Rough draft for visual observation.

Reviews

[Cheryl J. Turner]

I'm excited about this one - but then I know where it goes from here.