"The Caged Lion"

The boy stood up and released the black dual shock controller onto the bed where he had been laying down. He walked around the room picking up each of his clothes one at a time almost as if he was trying to be as slow as possible, as if he didn’t want to do it. He sluggishly put on his gray suit and blue shirt. He was tired and grumpy and the movement of his hand made it seem as if he had been laying on it all night, there were groves on his hand which were the same as the seams of his top.

“Time to get up Leon!” his mother shouted up to him, as if he wasn’t already awake.

Leon didn’t reply but grabbed his asthma inhaler and took two massive breaths in of the spray and held it for, as close to, ten seconds as he possibly could, then stood up in his bedroom, grabbed his money and slipped it into his right hand pocket along with his locker key, and his wallet into his left hand suit pocket. He walked downstairs to speak to his mother.

“Good morning Leon.” His mother said to him. Leon didn’t reply, not out of spit but out of complete and utter tiredness. “You not talking to me?”

Leon turned and looked at his mother; she was lying down on her electric motorized bed and pressed a button to slowly move herself into a sitting position so that she could see past her little table which stood next to her head. Leon’s mother had Multiple Sclerosis, and has had it for the past three years, meaning she’d been in and out of hospital for a long time. The room in which his mother had been living in for the past year and a half was very small; it had blue and yellow walls with a white band in the middle to separate the two colors.

“So are you going to talk to me?” his mother asked again.

“Good morning, though I’ve already said it.” Leon replied.

“No you didn’t.”

“Yes I did!” Leon’s voice began to rise as his irritation increased.

“Okay, you did. I don’t want an argument.” his mother replied almost afraid of Leon becoming angry and at the same time trying to avoid further confrontation. “Your dad rang last night.”

“I know.” the reply came from the bathroom as Leon continued to brush his teeth.

“Why didn’t you pick the phone up then?”

“I didn’t want to speak to him.”

“Why not?”

“I just didn’t want to, okay?”

Leon turned around and looked at his mother who was now looking quite hurt as she had just had her head bitten off by her own son.

“I’m sorry mum, look I’ll talk to you later, okay? I’m going to be late for school.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” Replied Leon as he walked down the short hallway which had a box of twenty four cans of coca cola, a black bike which had rust all over the gears and chains and a pair of tartan slippers in it.

He reached the door and grabbed his school tie. As he went to open the front door he noticed that it was stuck hard and he would have to use both hands to open it. Leon dropped his bag next to the door and pulled it open, called good bye to his mother and walked off to the bus stop. As he walked down the road Leon saw a man with his dog across the road playing fetch. The dog jumped up and down excitably preparing for his master to throw his toy across the small green. When the man finally stopped tormenting the dog, he decided to throw the red toy through the air. The dog immediately turned around and chased after it at full speed, like a big black and white blur, reached down with its gaping jaw and grabbed it, then turned around and ran back to his masters feet where he backed off expectantly, preparing to go again. Leon smiled and continued walking across the road, which was called crownfield, and continued until he was directly in front of the bus stop. As he waited he looked around and saw what else was around at this early time of twenty to eight in the morning. He saw a man walking across the road, he was wearing a green and yellow anorak and was walking, to what seemed to be, the shops. He was also walking next to an old man who had considerably shorter steps and a walking stick, which seemed to be propping him up. As he was watching the two men Leon saw his bus in the distance coming closer. The bus had a sign on it which read:



1 Town Centre via

Station



He got on and used some of his money to buy a bus ticket allowing him to have unlimited travel for 7 days. Leon took a seat on the left hand side of the bus as near to the front as possible with any of the inhabitants who lurked at the back of the bus for their prey. It didn’t work.

“Hey it’s Leo!” one of the girls called, she was chewing gun at the time. The rest of the people at the back laughed and Leon’s head fell into his hands slowly.

He endured the continuous mockery from the rest of the bus until he reached the bus stop outside of his school. As he stepped off he met up with one of his few friends and immediately cheered up, as he felt as though, for only a few seconds, he wasn’t going to be made fun of. He walked into the cafeteria alongside his friend talking about life. Leon took out forty pence from his right jacket pocket and slowly slotted the change into the coffee machine and pressed the buttons five and four and eagerly awaited the hot chocolate. Leon continued to watch as the hot chocolate splashed into the gutter which gathered excess liquid. Leon hit the machine with his fist causing a loud booming sound that echoed through the place. He turned around and saw one of the many teachers who roamed the school hallways before classes standing in front of him in place of his friend, who seemed to have left him to his fate. Leon felt more down than ever now.

“Leo!!!” the teacher shouted.

“Oh my god! My name is Leon! Get it right!” Leon shouted back in reply at the teacher, being drawn to his rather large eyebrows.

The teacher stared back at him with a piercing glare which made Leon quiver and his hair rise at the back of his neck. The mans face went red in a matter of seconds. He glared back at his cold eyes almost challenging him. The teacher was building up for something and he could see it

“Detention after school for a week!”

Leon looked back at the teacher’s face which now looked like an apple with two hairy caterpillars eating it and said almost proudly

“No.”

He looked at him and moved closer to Leon’s face and began to shout at it like a drill instructor. Leon was getting angry. He could feel his hands wanting to hit something. He was fighting it back. He had to. He had to do the only thing he knew how to do, walk away. Leon turned and walked towards the corridor which led into a small outside play area. The corridor was well lit, three lights were in a row leading down the hallway each an exact measurement of three short paces. The floor was white and had black marks on it where kids, who thought they were smart, had slid their feet along it to appeal to their friends. The walls however were quite clean and there were only posters which hung on the wall advertising old plays which the school had performed. The posters advertised:



Guys and Dolls

£7.00 per Ticket Tell your parents

Tuesday 18th December



Leon read this quickly as he walked past it; he looked down just in time to see a set of stage steps in the way and dodged smoothly past them. He could still hear the booming voice of the teacher behind him; he seemed to be following him. Leon saw that ahead of him were some of the boys that always made fun of him. He quickly thought to duck into the toilets, to safety. He knew the teacher would follow him and continue to shout at him, but he had no choice.

He turned into the toilets and walked up to the sink where he proceeded to splash water on his face. He looked in the mirror and saw his reflection. The same person looking back, he could imagine an opposite life, and how great it would be. The teacher suddenly appeared next to him, and continued his shouting spree next to Leon’s face. He could feel the spit from the teacher’s mouth hit the side of his head. He could feel the anger welling up inside himself. He knew he had to do something. He raised his fist and shot it forwards, right into the mirror. He saw the pieces of glass flying through the air. Leon’ head shot around. The teacher face jumped back in amazement, as if he didn’t expect it.

Leon walked out of the schools front entrance towards the bus stop and boarded the bus at exactly eight twenty nine and arrived in towns twenty minutes later. As he walked through the long empty high street he saw fifteen people and each one gave him a funny look. The town was littered with the Christmas lights from previous years Christmas celebrations. The morning was dark, gray and there was a chill in the air from the previous night. He could feel rain drops falling on his hand where he had punched the glass in school. He looked down at his hand and saw three shards of glass of mirror in it. He couldn’t feel it but he knew it was bad. He continued to walk faster, and got back on his bus to singleton at eight forty five. The bus was comfy at the back. It was relatively empty as it was still early. Leon sat at the back as if to hide his hand and the growing pain from everyone else. The ceiling was white and the floor red, made more so by the blood from his hand which was making a small pool on the floor. As he watched the pieces of glass in his hand he thought to pull them out. He grabbed onto the piece of glass which had imbedded itself between Leon’s index finger and his middle finger at an angle. He started to pull it out grimacing with pain as he did so, this could be seen in the reflection of the glass. The pain was excruciating and he began to release his hold on the piece of mirror when suddenly the bus shook. This moved his hand sharply, causing his hand to jerk and the glass to break leaving some of it deep in his hand. Leon let out a pained scream which made all of the other passengers turn around and look at him in a funny like you would if you saw a dog stealing from a bin. His discomfort was masked by the throbbing pain in his hand. He looked down and saw that his gray suit was covered with blood, and yet the only thing going through his head was

“How am I going to clean this?”

As the bus drove down the many twists and turns, on the journey back to his home, he saw average men and women rushing themselves about or driving themselves to their own destinations. His journey was long and painful, made even more so by the constant drip of blood onto the floor of the bus. This felt time was slowed down and made a booming sound inside his head. As the bus continued its many twists and turns on its journey, he watched as the other twelve members of his bus gang left at each stop of his painful quest home. As he approached his home he began to stand up, feeling light headed and dizzy. He pressed the bell, and off he went. He stepped off the bus and said his thanks to the bus driver for a safe ride. He walked to the red door of his house and pressed the buzzer on the intercom system. A voice came through from the other side

“Hello?” Leon’s mother asked.

“Let me in.” Leon replied almost interrupting her.

The buzzing of the door rung in his head like an alarm bell. He stepped through the door and passed a box of twenty four cans of coca cola, a bike with a rusted set of gears and chain and a pair of tartan slippers. He walked into his mother’s room, which was blue and yellow and heard the bed squeak and creak as it rose up to allow her to have a direct line of sight to his now grimacing face.

“What’s wrong?!” his mother asked, she was now panicking slightly.

He was feeling drowsy and to stop himself from falling over he leant on the door frame revealing the glass in his hand as he grabbed the door

“How’d you do that?!” she looked shocked “I’m calling the doctor!”

He turned and began to take the thirteen steps up the stairs to the second floor of the house. Each step made him drowsier. He reached the kitchen stepped in. He ran the tap and reached for the blue and white checked towel which was sitting next to him. Leon continued to dab the multiple wounds on his hand when he caught a glimpse of a man across the road with his dog playing fetch. The dog jumped up and down excitably preparing for his master to throw his toy across the small green. When the man finally stopped tormenting the dog, he decided to throw the red toy through the air. The dog immediately turned around and chased after it at full speed, like a big black and white blur, reached down with its gaping jaw and grabbed it, then turned around and ran back to his masters feet where he backed off expectantly, preparing to go again. Leon watched this and noticed something, nothing will change.



The End

Tuesday 12th February 2005

5: 43 pm