fachunka

Unfinished Story

I wrote this sometime last year. I am yet to finish it. It is called “Flatmate”.


Thomas awoke to a loud crash coming from downstairs.

He rushed down to find his friend and flatmate laid on the kitchen floor with several packets of meat strewn about him, while frantically attempting to right himself.
“Jesus Henry!” Thomas exclaimed as he helped him up. “Just ask if you need help! Look, I’ll sort this out, you go and clean yourself up”. Henry shook himself and trounced off. Thomas switched on the stove, and started to pick up the various packets of food. As he started to cook, he thought about Henry, and started to feel a pang of guilt.

Henry had just moved here from the marshlands of Florida and was endlessly quiet. Thomas had  - reading Henry’s notes - discovered that before his move to Britain he had been something of a feral type, having been caught a few times rummaging through bins and even stealing farm animals to eat, before ending up in Miami. He had a something that suggested he was a beast of enormous power, which he was unable of sharing with Thomas, or even hint at. Thomas decided that he would try harder to draw him out, and invite him on his journey into town today. He suspected Henry enjoyed joining him on his trips, although he didn’t seem to show it.

Wonderful fumes of flavour rose from the stove as Henry re-entered the room. Thomas had cooked up bacon and eggs for himself, and a trout for Henry who had seemed to have taken a liking for it, even at breakfast time. Henry was rumbling with anticipation as the food was being served. He had an enormous appetite, one which matched his huge stocky body. He snapped open his mouth and started eating. Over food, Thomas brought up that he was heading into town and insisted that Henry should join him. Henry seemed uninterested but Thomas knew he would come. He always came. They finished up and Thomas headed for the bathroom to get ready.

Still in a complative mood, Thomas stood, gazing into the bathroom mirror, he studied his familiar features in detail. His pockmarked skin and misshapen nose divided his face from the bare cheeks of the right and the scarred and skin grafted left. His milky green eyes stared out from behind the red marks of his burns, underlining the expanse of dull grey skin which stretched up to the red-brown mass of hair at the summit.
This face which gave him so much pain, and so much loneliness, tormented him daily with memories and loss. Submerged in anxiety, he tried to come back to the surface before he went any deeper. The memories had not seemed to become easier to carry, despite the constant reassurance that it would by various friends and family members, and he was still visited by nightmares regularly. He could not believe a year had passed since that night, the night he had lost his essence. The essence he was slowly regaining. The essence Henry gave him. 
He opened the cupboard and reached for the toothbrush. The face reappeared. He had always been confused and surprised by the amount of attention and disgust people would subject him to. He was no stranger to hostilities. As he finished brushing his teeth and walking back into the kitchen, he motioned Henry toward the door.

The bus halted in front of them and Thomas put a foot on board.
“Woah woah woah woah”  The bus driver said while shaking his head.
“What?”  replied Thomas.
“You know what, you ain’t getting on.”
“Why Exactly?!”
“Look mate there’s children on this bus, just fuck off out of it OK?” 
“I will report you.”
“Feel free.”
Thomas, slightly annoyed, stepped back off the bus and watched as it drove away.
“Fancy a walk?”  He glanced at Henry, and Henry grinned back.

It was a wintery morn in the town of Swin. The sky seemed an almost luminous blue, as if it was trying to draw attention to just how fresh the day felt. The grass was covered in a felt-like texture of ice, breathing mist into the air. Thomas watched as Henry shuffled along the path, trying to avoid the patches of frost and ice as he made his way forward, his skin glistening like leather in the warming sunlight.

They passed a man who seemed to speed up and keep his head down while passing.

This is now a music Blog.