SHORT STORY: The two friends of old

The two friends of old

'Curry?'
'Oh. Yeah.'
'Extra chilli? Peppers?'
'You know what?'
'What?'
'You know me far too well for your own good...I will have those chillis.'

Luke sat down in on of the wicker chairs, playing with a small fork as he did,rolling it around his fingers and leaning back as he lifted his feet.
'Don't make me strike you down...' Jay warned quietly from the window into the kitchen, looking with eyebrows raised at Luke as he was about to put his feet up on the table.
Luke gave him the eye, the arched eyebrow with the grin.
'I was just kidding...' Luke said, his trainers not even touching the polished table top.
'Har har har, you goon.' Jay said, bringing out Luke's curry, extra hot with his own dairylea sandwich with ham. 'You can have a pillow you know.'
Luke looked at the small plump white pillow which dotted the other wicker chairs.
'I like my tough mattress back home. Oh...OH what is that??'
He let out a chuckle, smirking as he eyed Jay's sandwich with a laugh on the edge of his lips. '
'You know me...' Jay said, sitting down opposite his long time friend, looking out over the sea which today sparkled blue and bright with the pure sun shining down upon it. 'Nothing like a simple meal after a long hard day...'

After a moment and a brief smile of content, Luke looked over the sea as well.
Jay's house could have been said to have either sat upon the edge of the world or above it, and the view of his back porch far into the ocean. Both hypnotised by the deep blue, and the life within it.
Then Luke got to his meal. Luke had always been a quick eater, and he loved his messy foods.
'Comeon then...' He said. 'Eat up. You got a big meal there.'
Jay smiled, and his smile of contentment was much like Lukes a matter of moments before.
'You of all people should know to savour your food...'
'Like you said. One rule for work, an one rule for food.' Luke replied, a bit of half chewed chicken still behind his teeth when he spoke.

'Dont talk with your mouth full.' Jay said.
'My mouth isn't full. Look! See! FOOD!' Luke said, opening his mouth wide and showing J the chewed chickin. Jay sniggered, shaking his head.
'Fine. Dont chew with food in your mouth.'
'Moving the goalposts are we?' Luke jibed back, sarcasm permeating his next words. 'Well thats just not new at all...'
'Oit.' Jay said pointedly. 'My house, my rules. For example...'

Jay used his weight to swivel his chair. Then he drew one of the other wicker chairs closer with his bare foot.
'I can put my feet up on my chairs.' Jay said, putting his feet up on the pillows, stretching his arms out and putting on an exaggerated smile of pleasure. 'You cant though. I don't like you you see.'
'I figured.' Luke said flicking a piece of rice at Jay, who let the little bead nestle in his hair without much care. 'I did a whizz on that chair you know.'
'See now you aren't allowed to talk.'
'Oh-'
'ZZZZZZZZip.'
'M-'
'Zip'
Luke fell quiet for a moment, watching Jay as he ate his food. Then munching a pepper as he did, he looked around the porch.
There were pictures on the white walls. Mosaics made up of thousands of faces, combined to make a picture of a familiar planet. Continents, water, ice, snow...
Luke looked at this beautiful picture, and he looked around the rest of J's house with a little bit of envy.

'You are such a git.' Luke eventually said when the silent treatment had run its course.
'Only to you.' Jay replied. 'I'm nice to everyone else.'
They both had a little chuckle at that.
A while later Luke watched Jay pop the last morsel of bread into his mouth. He threw it in the air, waiting for a few seconds for the bread to drop into his mouth.
'You have had too long to practice that.' Luke said laughing. 'Sad sod.'
'And yet you want to be able to do it.' Jay said.
From inside the house came a sudden wailing cry. The cry of a babe, just woken up in the dark.
'Ah.' Jay said, getting up and taking both cleaned up plates. 'Do you wanna go for a walk? Might as well take baby Jay out.'

-------

Falmouth wasn't quite so sunny as it was back at Jay's house.
Murky clouds stained the sky overhead, although not so much that it looked like it would rain. The market was in town square as usual, striped and chequered tents selling local clothes, necklaces and foods among other things.
'Amazing what people can do eh?' Jay said, glancing over some cheeses he liked the look of. 'Ooh, marmite cheese, one for you that.'
Luke made a careless gesture, twiddling his fork in his fingers again. 'Its not about what you do, its the mistakes you undo. Noones undone the travesty of marmite cheese for example...'
'You are lucky the poor girl didn't hear that.' Jay replied, looking briefly over at the girl running the store, chatting enthusiatically with a balding man, his beer belly far too evident beneath the tight shirt.
'Well she'll have to learn it sooner or later!' Luke protested, Jay chuckling.
'You are such a goon...'

Jay was looking down at his kid.
The tiny boy nestled in white blankets, sleeping again now he was in the fresh air. Jay watched him fondly, squatting down simply to find himself closer to the child in the pram. Stroking the kids head, strands of hair growing outward.
'Want to hear a baby joke?'
'Want to be kicked right back to where you came?' Jay said, and this time, he was not impressed.
'And there was me thinking you were open minded...' Luke grumbled.
'There's a line Luke, not that you would know much of it.' Jay said pointedly.
'Chill, ok?'

Jay and Luke eyed each other at that moment, as the people wandered around them, buying their cheeses, their breads, their clothes and their necklaces.
Yet in that town centre they were very much alone.
'Do you ever think we shouldn't talk?' Luke asked. 'We're not exactly red apple and red apple are we?'
Jay took a moment to answer. There was no anger, or annoyance or hatred in his eyes.
Rather, there was a disappointment there.

Luke had left a very long time ago, but Jay would have been happy to bring Luke back into his flat back then, in spite of the rows. Jay still did wonder if Luke might return.
But more and more Jay knew that would never be so. Luke had grown to enjoy his new home, his new 'friends', and Jay doubted he would ever come back.
But a moment later, that was past, and he cracked a smile.
'Nope.' He said. 'It's refreshing hanging out with a complete scumbag like you.'
Luke chuckled, and smiled.
'Lets go somewhere else. I need to visit someone.'

-------

If anyone were to see the house in which Jay and Luke now sat, most people would think it was just a typical house. In the living room there were sofas, a television, a sky box along with childrens toys cluttering the fake wood flooring. The kitchen was messy, food stacked or scattered, a microwave, an oven, a dishwasher. Upstairs, there were childrens bedrooms tailored to their loves in life.
But Jay and Luke were there, and they could feel what was wrong, as well as knowing.
Death stalked this house.
In the parents room, a husband lay asleep. Attached to various machines monitoring his well being. Across the room, a small camp bed was set up, which at the moment Jay and Luke sat on.
'Do you know what it is?' Luke asked, penetrating the silence that had enveloped the room for the past few minutes. Even then, it was a few more moments before Jay answered.
'I dont know. It's killing him though.'
Jay had grown pale. His eyes were locked upon the mans closed eyes, which were wrinkled far too much for a man that age.

'You are getting hung up.' Luke said quietly, watching Jay stare. 'It's just one guy. You know yourself how many of these people die everyday.'
'Just one guy...' Jay muttered, growling the words like a curse. '...and just his family, and just the people around them. You know this.'
'I...I was just trying to cheer you up.' Luke said. '...You cant help him at all?'
Jay shook his head. There were very few he could help, and he certainly couldn't help this man. Whatever disease it was, it was destroying his nervous system, piece by piece.
'There is no way back for him.' Jay said. 'Once you let loose the dove there is no telling what will happen and all that.'
'Yeah...' Luke said.

The man groaned in his sleep, wrestling with the pain while trying to have peaceful rest, and failing. Briefly, he opened his eyes, seeing his wifes camper bed. For a brief moment he may have seen a bright and grey light, sitting together upon that bed. But then there was nothing, and the man fell back into his painkiller induced sleep.

'It's okay...' Jay said. 'He'll be fine in the end, if he repents...'
'Things were better in the old days...' Luke said, doing an old man impression.
Jay didn't laugh.
'I...I was different back then.'
'As long as you are happy.' Luke said. 'That said, this guy has had an affair. Twice.'
'He's only human.' Jay said sadly. 'The world changes, and reason changes with it.'
'And he'll be forgiven, bla bla bla...'
'Don't.' Jay said, sharply.
Luke fell silent.
'He'll find his way to me.' Jay said. 'And if I am wrong...if he is not worthy...I'll send him down to you wont I?'
Luke raised a cold eyebrow.
'What was that?'
'A simple statement.' Jay said.
Both sat in silence again.

A child came to the door. About 8 years old, stood at the door with a blonde mop covering his eyes.
He was afraid to step into the room. That line between the landing and his parents room, he wouldn't cross. Or maybe he was waiting hopefully for his father to sit up, renewed, and take the kids in his arms.
As minutes went by, the child's head dropped.
Eventually, he sniffed, wiped his cheek, and walked away from the room again.

'You don't care do you?' Jay said.
'We have had this argument before.' Luke said. 'I say people are inherently flawed and you saw they have boundless potential, dont-' He stopped Jay, as he opened his mouth. 'We have had this argument before like I say... Surprised you stopped there actually.'
Luke smiled, almost crazily considering the situation. Jay said nothing.
'But...' Luke continued, looking back at the door, his smile fading. 'I can understand. Watching for the light, when its never coming...'
'You can always come back you know.'
'I cant.'
'Why?'

Luke met Jay's steely gaze with a cool, rueful look. They weren't so different. They were both stubborn, for one thing. But in who they were, and what they did...
Luke simply had to say. 'Because I have my task, and you have yours.'
And Jay could say little. Luke would never come back from the darkness to where he fell. He had become that dark - Jay knew that Luke had abhorred the pit, and its fires, but rather then escape Luke had grown rather, more used to it. And his view had changed little. Jay had the heart for the life he watched below, the heart to care...
Luke no longer cared for that life below. And Jay wondered if he ever had.

'Oh, look at the time.' Luke said, looking with a grin at his bare wrist. 'See I still like some things about your people.'
'Yeah. The crap things.'
'Aww. But I must go.'
Jay nodded.
'Some time soon.'
Luke stood up from his chair. 'You leaving?'
'...Not quite.'
Jay stood up from his chair too. He looked over at the husband, and he considered.
He walked over to the man, who had murmured all the time they were there, the pain agonizing.
Jay reached out a hand and brushed his scalp.
The man stopped murmuring. He fell into quiet sleep, a whimper the last of his pains.
Jay looked over at Luke, who shrugged.
'Small mercies, eh?'
'Yeah...small mercies...'
-------

Words: 2089

Hope you enjoyed that. It was written off the top of my head so it is probably going to be flawed, but oh well. It also taken me 4/5 hours, which is...wow.

There is something about keeping discipline when writing that I've yet to master to be entirely honest. I'm also doing a novel at the moment, a novel I've said I'll do 1750 words of a day for a month. The day before last I have scribbled on that date: 0 – must do better.

There is a lot to distract the average writer and everyone has their own endurance levels – that is how much they can write in a day before negative attitude and thoughts creep into your fortress of writing and you either slug on or stop altogether and play on football manager or some other procrastinating-tastic thing. The advice I have been given, by books mostly is to designate a certain time when you have nothing else but to write, and its a nice theory except you wont always have those hours free. It sounds stupid, and it sounds like excuses but its true – you are going to have things disrupt your day whether its shop, wash clothes or kick the cat.

One solution which I'm going to try is thus – the wifi zone.
Inevitably these will be scattered around if you are near a town and if not, take a bus into town with your laptop/pendrive, go to a cafe, pay for wifi/power and type. In theory the fact that Im paying for this time should propel me to write (it certainly did today) but, and its a big but, its nice in theory but in practice there is lots of stuff on the internet to get drawn to.

Its worth a shot I think, at least a few days a week when there's no football to distract. In the meantime I shall say goodbye because I have other things to do today besides sit in a bar writing this blog (however fun it has been) and plus, I haven't had lunch.

So cheerio till next time, when hopefully I'll write a blog on some coming and going in football.
From Crash.

And a PS for you: For you writers aspiring, buy The writers and publishers yearbook 2010. It will teach you so, so, so much. I guarantee it.