Home

The coach slowly pulled into the brightly lit station and came to a smooth stop. A few passengers were waiting under the shelter to board the coach, their faces blank at the prospect of the long journey ahead of them. Even though the hour was early and the sky dark, there were still several commuters either waiting in the shelters or taking advantage of the 24 hour café.

As the coach came to a halt, passengers who were disembarking were already gathering their bags and pulling on their coats. The weather outside was cold and wet. Snow had been falling on the hills as the coach had travelled towards its next stop.

Jake Sinclair sat seemingly oblivious to the movements of his fellow travellers. During the past two years he had sat on many coaches, stopped at countless stations and merged into the crowds of travellers as though he had been born to it. His job as an investigative reporter had took him across the country as well as to various other countries. Now his job was done and it was time for him to return home.

The coach door opened with a smooth swishing sound and the driver turned on the interior lights so that the passengers could ensure that they had everything before disembarking. Jake waited until they had left before gathering his backpack and holdall and heading towards the front of the coach. Descending the steps he entered the shelter and walked through it. Some of his fellow passengers were being greeted by friends and loved ones. Arms enfolded weary travellers as voices eagerly announced their delight over the reunion.

Jake paid them scant attention as he walked through the station. There would be no one waiting to welcome him home. His departure two years ago had been full of anger and harsh words that had stretched his relationship with those close to him to breaking point. If he was honest with himself he wondered whether or not the relationship had survived his departure and long absence.

Outside the station, a line of black cabs sat waiting in the drizzle. Jake headed over towards the first one and nodded to the driver before opening the back door and climbing inside.

“Where to, guv?” the cabbie asked as he folded his newspaper and started the engine.

“Madden Farms,” Jake replied as he sat down and fastened his seat belt.

“Sure thing.” The driver switched on his meter and slowly pulled out of the car park.

Jake stared out of the window, watching the tightly packed town buildings slowly begin to spread out and change as they headed into the countryside. He watched without seeing as the sky began to lighten as dawn broke heralding the start of a new day.

He had always wanted to be a reporter. At school he had joined the school newspaper and had penned several hard hitting, incisive articles that had brought him to the attention of the Head of the English department who had contacts with the local newspapers. One of those contacts had offered him a junior reporter’s job to help support him through college and so his ascendance up the ranks of the journalistic world had begun. The local newspaper that had given him his first job had soon lost him to a bigger newspaper in town. A city paper had seen his work and offered him a promotion and that had soon been followed by one of the national papers offering him a prized role as an investigative reporter. He had taken that job without a backward glance and flung himself wholeheartedly into exposing the bad guys and their scams that would harm the innocents in the world. Until he’d met Laura.

He rubbed his hand tiredly over his face as her image came to mind. She had been a teacher at a school he was investigating after allegations of drug and child abuse. Initially, he had taken advantage of her interest in him to dig deeper into the workings of the school. When things had changed between them he didn’t know. He only knew that when his story had broken, and the wrongdoers arrested, he had stayed in that small town. His desire to be a world class reporter had been overwhelmed by a new longing to stay with Laura, have a family, settle down.

So, they had married on a bright summer’s day in the local church. She had worn a white satin and lace dress that had made her look like a princess in his eyes. He had worn a tuxedo that had made his neck itch in the heat of the sun. It had been the perfect day and the start to their life together. He had taken a job with the local newspaper and she had continued to work at the school that he had investigated months earlier, repairing the damage that a few greedy individuals had caused with their illegal activities. They had had two children and life had seemed perfect apart from that little niggle. That reminder of what he had once been, what his goals had been so long ago, his desire to be one of the greatest investigative reporters of all time.

That little niggle had grown and grown until he had found himself staring at the national newspapers with their glaring headlines, wishing that it was his name on the byline. Job vacancies screamed at him, tempting him into wondering what would happen if he accepted one. Would he achieve his goals, his dreams, if he pursued those jobs? Gradually it had started to interfere with his relationship with Laura. The sound of arguments could be heard throughout a house where only laughter and harmony had filled the rooms. His job and his family had become shackles holding him back from what he believed he wanted.

Things had come to a head when an old friend had contacted him and asked if he wanted to join him in a big story that he was doing into a link between drug cartels, the army and possible terrorist groups. Despite the fact that it was likely to be extremely dangerous and could possible result in his death, he had agreed to take the job. Laura had been terrified and angry and they had had a blazing row that had ended with him storming out of the house and meeting his friend in London to begin his new job. As he had travelled down to the capital his mind had been full of the job at hand and he had cast Laura and his family to the back of his mind. If she could not be happy for what he was doing and what he would achieve then they obviously had nothing more in common.

That belief had sustained him for the first few weeks as he had flung himself wholeheartedly into carrying out interviews, tracking down new leads and working long into the night to put everything together for his articles. They had travelled all over the country as well as visiting other countries in their search for the truth and the promise of what it could reap for them.

His partner had been married and divorced three times during working life. Marriage and journalism don’t go together, he would often tell him. At first he had believed him but then he had started to miss Laura and the children. The burning desire to be the number one journalist had started to fade against the need to see his family. He often found himself wishing that he could go to their house in the village, walk up the stone path to the oak front door, enter the house and find that harmony he had once lived in. But he had been too afraid. Their parting had been so angry and bitter that he had doubted if he could ever go back and reclaim what he had so foolishly thrown away.

“Whereabouts do you want dropping, guv?”

The cabbie’s voice interrupted his thoughts, jolting him back to the present. He looked out of the window and saw that they had reached the village of Madden Farms. The rain was coming down more heavily now, washing the country lanes clean. Strangely, Jake felt that the rain was washing him clean as well, cleansing his soul from all the self doubts that had plagued him ever since he had decided that this was where he wanted to be.

“Corner of High Street and Church Lane will do, thanks,” Jake replied. He reached into his jacket for his wallet and pulled out enough notes to cover the cost of the journey and to give the driver a healthy tip. He wondered whether or not she would be awake yet. He knew that they still lived in the cottage but he didn’t know whether she lived there alone with the children or whether someone else had stepped forward to take his place.

He closed his eyes against the anguish that rose inside him at the thought of someone else sharing her life. He knew that he had no right to demand that she remain faithful to him after their parting but the thought that he might have lost her just when he knew what he wanted seemed too painful to bear.

The taxi came to a halt at the end of High Street. Jake paid the driver and climbed out onto the wet pavement. He lifted his backpack onto his shoulder, picked up the holdall and started to walk up the lane. He could see the white cottage at the end of the lane with its dry stone wall boundary. He felt terrified, more afraid now than when he had interviewed notorious crime lords, yet his step never faltered as he neared the wrought iron gate.

The sound of a young dog barking and children laughing reached him as he arrived at the cottage. Two children were playing chase with a young German Shepherd who barked excitedly as they ran around. Their brightly coloured jackets were decorated with muddy paw prints, testament that they had been playing for a while.

A woman stood on the patio nursing a hot drink. Like the children, her coat was decorated with paw prints and she was smiling as she watched the children race around. Jake paused for a moment, absorbing the scene before him, feeling the harmony that he sought just out of reach. He could not lose everything now, not when he was so close. He opened the gate and stepped into the garden.

“Daddy!” the little girl’s voice seemed to fill the silence of the early morning. Jake put his bags down on the path as he caught his daughter. Despite the bitterness of his split with Laura, he had kept in contact with his children and now he was rewarded by them rushing straight into his arms whilst the dog raced around barking.

He hugged the children tightly before releasing them and walking over to where Laura stood frozen. His eyes roamed over her face, noting the paleness, the tightness of her mouth, the betraying tremble of her chin, before travelling up to meet her eyes. Those sapphire blue eyes that had always revealed what she had been thinking and feeling. It was here that he would find out whether or not he was welcome back in her home, her heart.

The flare of emotion that lit up her eyes gave him hope. There was no anger there, no bitterness, only love. His name was a whisper on her lips as she flew into his arms. Wrapping his arms around her, Jake closed his eyes against the wave of emotion. He had travelled around the world searching for what he believed was his dream but when he had achieved it he had found that it wasn’t what he wanted. His true dream had been here, waiting for him to come home and accept it.



Word Count: 1998