My Short Story Page 4

He turned back to his parents but they were both busy with their usual morning routines.  His mum was making sure that they all got a good breakfast and his dad was picking his horses slyly while pretending to read the sports news.  What amused Alan was that his mum knew what his dad did each morning and she still pretended she didn’t.  Alan had asked her once why she pretended and she had said with a knowing wink

‘He likes to think he has still got his little secrets, bless him and who am I to shatter his delusions’

Alan took one last glance at the amusing scene and then picking up his cup of tea proceeded into the living room.  He checked his watch.  8.20 which meant he still had over an hour before his dad’s lift into town so he dropped into one of the two armchairs that the room contained.  Tyson was pretending to be asleep in the other aware that soon he would be ousted as he wasn’t allowed on the furniture.

Alan turned the TV on and proceeded to parade through the various programs that were rife at this time of the morning, from repeats of eighties dramas on GOLD to early morning breakfast programs on the usual channels.  He decided to check out the news channel to see if there were any sport results from the night before.  He knew his team had been playing but had been so worked up that he hadn’t bothered to check the results before going to sleep preferring instead to act out the game on his xbox console.

He saw the sports headlines at the bottom of the screen but it was the images above that caught his eye and he turned up the volume to listen to the headlines.  The first headline was about a man who had murdered his wife and three kids, the second headline was about a fire that had killed six and hospitalized another twelve, the third headline was about a man who had been charged with sexual and physical abuse of an eight year old girl.  He turned over, his stomach churning

‘what the fuck is wrong with this world?’

He stood and slammed the remote down on the chair making Tyson jump in the process.

‘Its ok girl.  I aren’t shouting at you’ He knelt down and started fussing the placated animal.  ‘You don’t know anything do you, just lie, eat, play and walk, you don’t know the half of it girl’  With one final stroke of the dogs ears he went back to his seat, his mood calming slightly and without putting the TV back on used the Cable remote to change channels.  When he was sure that the channel was changed to the sports news channel he switched the TV back on. 

Twenty minutes later and he had found out all he wanted to know.  His team had won and this had lightened his mood and even made him smile, but it didn’t last long.

‘Looks like there was trouble down the Klimpton Estate last night, police raid, three arrested for drug trafficking and one DOA from an overdose.  I am telling you this area is going downhill fast’ stated his dad entering the room and shooing Tyson of the chair and into her own bed.

‘its going to fucking shit fast’  Alan angrily replied, any calmness gone.

‘Hey no need for that language’ and lowering his voice ‘better not let your mother hear swearing, you know how she hates it’

‘Well its true, the TV is just as bad, murder, abuse, fires.  I mean for f….’  he paused ‘I mean for gods sake what has happened to good news, has it been privatised or something?’

‘Yes I know what you mean son, but there isn’t much we can do’

‘Well give me the chance and I would……….i would…..well I don’t know but I would do something’

His father sighed  ‘well  I am leaving in about thirty minutes so if you want to make yourself smell any more like a woman than you already do I suggest you go to it’

Alan smirked and as he walked past his dad’s chair, punched him in the arm.

‘hey what was that for?’ joked his father rubbing his arm a lot more than the punch merited.

‘Just keeping you on your toes old man, and anyway this fragrance is expensive stuff’ he said wafting it in the direction of his dad.

Alan had almost left the room when he heard his dad exclaim ‘well a hundred bluebottles cant be wrong’ and this was followed by chuckles that Alan could still hear when he reached the top of the stairs.

As he got to his door he heard Joanne talking on her phone and though he tried to get in his room and close the door before the appeared he failed.

Joanne who had been smiling when she opened her door now put on a scowl as she spied her brother.

‘Yes ok, no problem, right I will see you at school, bye’  She thumbed her phone shut and stomped past him and started down the stairs. 

As Alan recalled the news stories he had just heard he knew how fragile life was and something inside him made him apologise.

‘Hey Joanne, sorry for what I said earlier, didn’t mean to make you mad, just this interview is playing on my nerves’ He waited.

Three steps down and she backtracked, she turned suddenly, the beginnings of a smile on her face.

‘Yeah well he isn’t ok’

He smiled back and the smile which had started turned into a full grin.

‘friends again I hope?’ enquired Alan

‘No’ stated Joanne ‘brother and sister’.  She started back down the stairs but added ‘oh and when you get this job you can buy your favourite sister something, Justin’s new cd comes out next month’  Without waiting for a reply she continued on her way whistling as she went.

‘Oh man how did I get talked into that’ He asked no-one in particular