Journeys

Journeys



He sat there - staring out of a window.  Rain flowed in rivulets down a pane, wind moved a lone birch, its leaves discoloured yellow; tinged with autumn’s death.  He sighed heavily, uncaring who could hear him.  School.  Six years of it…no, more than that.  Primary schools forgotten in their innocence and idleness.  Now the last year, the last stretch.  The last chance?  That’s what they told him.  He smiled; he didn’t need another chance.



He turned his head from the windows. His dark green eyes flitted this way and that not dissimilar to a cat’s, watching and waiting for something…anything.  The back row of the class was cramped; wobbly, scarred desks, ripped bags strewn carelessly, slouched friends; the same disinterested look on their faces.  He smiled, rolled up a torn piece of paper and flicked it at a freckled boy.  Scrawny and topped with red hair, the boy smiled briefly then did the same, pretending to keep his eyes on the wheezing teacher at all times.  They both smiled quickly – the attack more in brotherly friendship than dislike for each other; to let each other know that this lesson was a complete waste of their obvious precious time. 



There were four of them.  The first assailant, tall with messed brown hair sitting deep in his chair.  A second sat with him but thinner and shorter, a sharper look, but with equally a blunt interest.  The third sat upright, leaned over, not in attention to the lesson but to his folder which he continually wrote on.  Spotted and with deep set brown eyes continually twitching or moving – restless in the depressing classroom.  Then the fourth - the ginger boy. His eyes gleamed with intelligence, a smile always playing on his thin lips an insult or sharp wit ready to bite. A group of friends?  No, more like brothers.



The green eyed one tapped his foot restlessly. He turned and bent his neck to look at the clock.  Twenty five minutes!  He shook his head and still slouched further.  For fuck’s sake feels like it’s been an hour. He yawned again and again and turned to face the window.  Rain still fell and wind still moved.  Cars sloshed through the road that ran around the school.  They stopped briefly at towering traffic lights; their eyes commanding the flow of the road. Stopped.  Stopped from doing what they wanted, stopped from carrying on their journey, stopped from leaving the cold rain and rough wind.  They began to move again; a long stream of bland colours.  Soon I’ll be out, soon.



The teacher paused to gain some breath.  Her fat face was red.  Her grey hair beginning to stick to her, her mauve clothes following suit.  I’ll never be like that.  Old. Crippled; crippled by time, crippled by uselessness, crippled by weakness.  No I’ll never be like that.  Never.  Left to rot by your family in a cold home.  Left to have time rip away at your skin, crushing your bones and eventually breaking your soul.  Never.  He didn’t know how he just knew he wouldn’t – he didn’t care about the correctness of the thought he just knew he wasn’t going to be like that.  She turned, fully knowing what they were thinking.  Green Eyes made a face, grimacing as she reached to pull the blackboard down.  Sharp laughed – too loud.  She turned with surprising speed.  The back row fell quiet – oblivious to the laughter.  Again she turned and Green Eyes made another face but to his friend, widening eyes and shaking his head.  They smiled again briefly.



He turned back to the window.  They were lucky.  They had some direction to their lives.  They were strong in areas.  They knew their course in life.  Brown Eyes: engineering.

Ginger: architecture. Sharp: Sports.  Green Eyes didn’t have a clue.  He was intelligent – they all were.  He would go to university but to study courses that he had no interest in.  He sighed again tapping his thumb against the edge of the desk to ‘No Woman No Cry’:



“Good friends we have, oh, good friends we’ve lost

Along the way.

In this great future, you can’t forget your past;

So dry your tears, I say.”



Good friends? He glanced quickly over to them.  Yeah – the best, not going to lose them…can’t.  He’d be lost.  Some people say that you never make true friends.  He knew better.  A great future?  Tch so you think Bob,…





A knock at the door, quick and skittish, wrecking his woeful thoughts and a woeful lesson.  A girl…the lessons paused as the teacher wobbled to the door.  Brown and Green Eyes simultaneously groaned louder so that others turned.  The four disregarded their looks.  Ginger started “Jesus!  You see when-” but hello was interrupted when Sharp hit Green Eyes on the shoulder.  She came in to the centre just in front of a blackboard.  She was in the same year as them.  Blonde hair, thin and quick to smile.  Ginger spoke most of the classroom’s thoughts.



“She is SO fit, I would so-” stopping sharply as she gave a quick glance over.

Green Eyes laughed, “Man that was slick.”  The others laughed.

“Yeah but she was so looking for me though.  Unlucky boys,” Sharp’s voice causing rolling eyes and quick smiles.

“Yeah ‘cos you’re just God’s gift.”  The others laughed at Ginger’s comment. Sharp didn’t.  “Prick!  Well she definitely wasn’t-”

“Shut it,” Green Eyes drawled.

“Still, she is fit.”

Green Eyes shrugged and turned his nose.  “Maybe.”

“Just cause you’re screwing your girl doesn’t mean that she isn’t fit, ya gayboy!” Ginger started.

“Fuck you – I’m not screwing her!”

“Ooooo sorry ‘making love!’” the others laughed.

“Tch I’m not doing that either.  Damn it’s been a week!  Even I’m not that good!”

“I am!” Sharp laughed as she left.  Blonde disappeared, her golden shafts of hair jumping loosely up as she walked.  She turned once and flung a second glance at the back corner.  Green Eyes caught it – she smiled.

“See.  What did I tell ya boys!”  Sharp exclaimed.

The teacher returned.  “Now that is FIT!” Brown Eyes whispered under his breath.

“Awwwww, no need man.  Fuck sake.”  Again they laughed.



They were still laughing when the bell split the dust and the seemingly dirty, lingering smell of younger years.  They quickly grabbed their bags stuffing paper in crunched bundles into their bags.  They left the fat teacher behind staring after them.  They jostled and shoved their way past the younger pupils until they left the stairs.  Then the four of them moved back out into the cold rain and the rough wind, Bob Marley still ringing in Green Eyes’ ears:



“But while I’m gone, I mean:

Everything’s gonna be all right!

Everything’s gonna be all right!

Everything’s gonna be all right!

Everything’s gonna be all right!”



Will it?  Don’t know – nobody really knows…He wanted riches.  Wanted a place where he could be safe with no worries about a future that might not even happen.  He believed that you could buy happiness – well…to an extent.  Buy happiness yes – love?  No…  Love!!!  Too young for love….maybe?   



Green Eyes thought of the blonde once more.  The thoughts disappeared. Replaced by raven hair, long legs, a glittering smile and a soft kiss.  Haunted for weeks by this girl, not even the blond compared.  No-one did.  Too young for love?  Maybe not.  He looked up at the falling rain; his hair shoved and jostled by the wind. 



“No woman no cry”?  He’d sooner take the tears…