500 words a day

548 words 16th august 2009

‘Do you remember that Old Man on the news, crying and asking if anyone had seen his wife,’ said Fergus.


‘Jesus, don’t,’ said Gus.


‘I’m just saying, you know, how daft that seems now.’


‘What do you mean?’ said Harriet waking up and poking her head out of the tent.


‘So much of it, the news, the TV, the idea that there was a chance that he would find her.’


‘He might of!’ said Gus.


‘I mean now,’ said Fergus. ‘All those things now, what, less than a year later, seem absurd. Obviously we don’t have news, or TV and we’ve all lost so many people now its pointless trying to find them. There’s so few of us that we know, don’t we?’


‘Jesus, good morning to you too you depressing little shit,’ said Harriet.


‘Sorry Harry, it just hits me sometimes, you know, how much things have changed.’


‘Well, yeah. But if you don’t get that fire started soon something else is gonna “just hit you”, said Harriet.


Gus laughed.


Fergus held up a hand and wandered to the woods to collect more firewood.


‘He’ll be the first of us to crack up you know,’ said Gus.


‘Christ Harry, don’t you say that,’ said Gus.


‘I’ve seen it before, its just the scale of things. It’s a bit like as a kid when your Dad starts to tell you about the universe being infinite, its too much to take in.’


Fergus appeared again with a sack over his shoulder full of wood.


‘What’s too much?’ he said.


Harry just waved his question away.


‘Just get the fire going. How much water is left Gus?’ she said.


‘Not much, but enough for a cup each.’


‘Shall we use a tea bag? said Harry.’


‘D’you think?’ said Fergus. ‘How many are left?’


‘About ten,’ said Gus.


‘Sod it,’ said Harry. ‘I think we could do with a good old English cup of tea.’


‘Instead of making 3 weak cups, I vote we just make one decent strong proper cup of tea and share it,’ said Fergus.


They agreed. Ten minutes later they had it in front of them.


‘Who’s first then?’ said Fergus.


‘You, said Harry,’ Gus nodded.


‘Me? I don’t know, you sure?’


They both nodded at him.


‘You got the wood,’ said Harry.


‘Oh my God, thanks guys. Ok, here goes.’


‘One mouthful, then pass it on,’ said Gus.


He nodded then slowly raised the cup to his lips. He took a big slurping hot mouthful.


‘Oh my God, oh my god!’ he said passing it to Gus. ‘That is just amazing.’


There was enough for two mouthfuls each. When they’d finished, they sat around the fire quietly. In the distance there was gunfire again but no one moved. On the horizon, if they’d looked over they would have seen smoke from the remains of the town they’d passed through 2 days ago. They had to keep moving but they couldn’t bring themselves to stop what they were doing, thinking bout the past, wondering about people. Tears were rolling silently down all their cheeks. Harry was the first to stand up and go into the tent where she started to pack. The others soon followed; they’d seen the smoke now and knew they had very little time.





 











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Steve Wybourn





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