We left the clinic early that evening, feeling elated. I was nearly drunk from the excitement. I walked into the house with a grin.
“I assume things went well?” my father asked as soon as he saw me.
“Dad, the song is almost perfect. Now, Geraldine said she is going to organise some kind of show, get the publics’ feelings then we are going to record it and send it to the sponsors, see if we can get piece of the action.’ I said excitedly.
My mother came in and asked
School has always been the most exciting part of the day, there are so many things to do and things to see. Best part of my school is the uniform. No need to spend hours in front of the closet, trying to figure out what to wear. School uniform is straight forward, grey trousers, white button up shirt, and then the blue blazer, worn with or without the navy blue woollen pull over. Oh, and the tie! Predominantly blue with the white stripes across it, the school emblem sitting proudly at the bottom of the tie.Simple and easy.That is the mornings. Half way through the day I would normally put a finger between the knot and the top but
I worked at a bar called Illuminate. It was in the centre of the nightlife district. There was another bar up the street about two blocks off but it was nowhere as busy as Illuminate. The streets were always bustling with life, be it cars, people and a sight that was becoming a bigger problem for us, police. Lucky for us, there was a parking lot behind the building where most of our regulars stopped, and a side street that had a gate at the end, marked “Private Property”. On the other side was a dimly lit alley, patrolled by the bouncer that stood guard in the darkness. Illuminate used to be an old brewery and a lot of the old architecture was still visible, including the raw brick wall, b
I woke up the next afternoon with a headache from hell. I barely remember what happened after midnight. I know we almost brought the bar down with our music. I lay in bed and kept my eyes closed, knowing for a fact if I open them, I might start to hurl.“Oi August! Your mom’s outside!” Someone yelled at me in my room.I finally got the courage to open my eyes slightly. My mom was not outside; she was in fact, in my room, glaring down at me. I held the vomit in while I stared at the imposing figure that was my mother. The pale look
It was the first time in living memory that I was home before my parents. I thanked Claude and watched him drive off. I walked into my apartment and decided on a shower before anything else. When I was comfortable in my track suit I picked up my acoustic guitar and put a country music DVD on. I played along with the songs that I knew and made a point of learning the songs I didn’t know.I entertained myself in that manner or another hour or so until I saw car lights pull up into the driveway. I could hear my parents laugh rather tipsy while Gwen sounded completely drunk. I chuckled and put my guitar down.
The weekend passed by in a drunken haze. I was barely sober when I woke Monday morning to go to school. The first thing on the schedule was English but I decided to skip class. I went to the library instead, put my head phones on and listened to rap music at top volume. The librarian gave me a stern look but I ignored her until the headmaster showed up and tapped on the maths handbook I was working on.“What’s your problem?” I said rudely as I ripped my headphones off.“Aren’t you supposed to be in Miss Sheldon’s
I kept the bar open until sunrise the next morning. I barely had anything to drink; I was mostly entertaining the patrons with all kinds of CCR songs, and some improvised songs and sometimes just doing stupid songs like The Rattling Bog.My folks were really annoyed when I turned up at around seven am, but pleasantly surprised when I grinned at them and joined them for breakfast on the veranda.“Good to see you sober at this time of day.” My mother said to me.
It was terribly hard to wake up Monday morning. But my father threw a rock through my bedroom window and that made me get the hell away from Dodge.I didn’t drive with music. I still felt sick from Saturday night’s party. I parked in my usual spot but the silence in my car brought curious looks, but I ignored them and put my headphones on my head. There was no music playing at all, I just wanted to lessen the noise level and keep people away.People gave me odd looks but it was only when I walked through the quad that the stares really s
Next time I came to was in the darkened hospital room, with only the light from the machines. I was alone in the room. I tried to think back to how I had gotten there but really couldn’t recall. The door to my room opened and the silhouette of my father entered. He had his jacket thrown over his shoulders. He took a seat in the chair next to my bed and placed his big hand on mine.I squeezed his hand to let him know I was awake. He looked up and saw me looking at him. For the first time I saw my father cry.“I thought we lost you! And th