Clocks

Clocks

Gerry

Office Man

Gerry Saunders was the kind of man that was constantly tripping on his own shoe lace. A quick purchase and two crumpled tickets later he would find himself falling onto the platform at Hounslow for the Waterloo line, however it would be 1.00 pm already and he would have to wait another half an hour for the next train. Gerry would try to shrug off the embarrassment yet his bright red face and scruffy suit suggested otherwise.

This was life for Gerry, always missing trains, always being late for meetings and always disappointing people, including himself. He had always dreamt of being a successful business man like his father, Harry, who was an incredibly passionate and wise guy. The man created his own business empire from scratch and knew London’s finance game like the back of his hand. But Gerry could never be his dad. He was his best friend and gave him all kinds of helpful tips but it didn’t change the fact that Gerry would always be a disorganised mess. Although he'd always been a dreamer and wished to succeed, it just seemed like too many obstacles stood in his way.

To really know the man it's important to know the problems that arose for him several years prior, one being his beautiful wife Ava. She like many others had given up and decided she couldn’t wait anymore. They had been in love since university and he always promised her that he would never let her down, but he continued to disappoint for 10 years.

One evening when the moon was looming and the crystal white snow was settling softly on the dusty streets of London, Ava waited, it was her 30th birthday at the time. There she sat in an elegant reception gazing out from a window view seat on a table for two. She noted the buildings extending far and wide across the bustling city and how they gleamed in colours of red and gold under a blanket of stars. Yet surrounded by people, she felt small and alone. On a table for two there was only one, and to further her embarrassment the waiter anxiously buzzed about asking if she would ‘like more wine before Mr Saunders arrived?’. She threw back a glass of Prosecco and apologetically declined his request, instead asking for the bill. Hair askew, Gerry arrived 45 minutes later to find an empty table and no Ava.

That night not only had he lost the love of his life but ruined his relationship with Thomas, his little boy who was only 2 at the time and would grow up to always question why his daddy had never turned up that night and why his mum had given up.

His father became very ill. He had lung cancer and was to proud to ‘become an old geezer’ and see a doctor. He knew at 65 with his schedule business would have to suggest early retirement. Gerry had been so caught up with work and making sure Thomas was ok that he hadn’t given his father much time at all. When his dad made the faithful call he had done what he always did panicked and backed out, he forgot to urge his proud father to get checked out and instead made a lame excuse. Gerry broke down, he lay hunched over on his dirty kitchen floor and wept as though an ocean would fall out of his eyes. He couldn’t move an inch, he just wanted to give up.

Time Flies

It had been three months since Harry Saunders had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and now it was spreading rapidly. His cough was as loud as a dog’s bark and his wife Linda could always notice the turning of heads as she ushered him out of a store.

Gerry was on his way to the office. There had been an egg related disaster at home and he accidently left the gas on setting all the alarms off; his dogs had barked the neighbourhood down and Gerry had had to apologize to his elderly neighbour for ‘giving her the biggest shock of her life.’ He was approximately 20 minutes late for work and his boss Danny was going to castrate him as today was ‘The Big Meeting’ with the Dallas clients.

Gerry looked at the women beside him on the tube, she was wearing brightly coloured accessories and seemed happy as Larry chewing her gum and listening to people screaming horrifically down her ear phones. He wished he could be so carefree. He knew life hadn’t always been this stressful, at university he had been the funny man that every one wanted to hang out with. That’s how he won Ava over, she thought he made the most hilarious one liners she’d ever heard. Despite his wild hair; his wit and kindness bagged him the brunette senorita that had all the other boys gagging.

The tube shook to a halt, Marylebone platform 1, only two stops to go. A shifty looking man got on that immediately caught his eye. He was skinny with blonde scraggily hair hidden under a black hoodie. The Caucasian guy sat down nervously opposite Gerry and kept playing with the pocket of his rucksack, he wore his hood up and seemed to jump every time someone moved an inch around him. He had a phone in his hand which he kept glancing at, it buzzed and the man lit up. His face became pale and ghoulish. For a split second he caught Gerry’s eye, the stare turned to daggers. Gerry felt disturbed and quickly looked away. Just as the train began to bumble away from the station, it suddenly pulled to a stop and a commotion started tearing up the platform. Three police officers wearing full gear including bomb jackets with guns and barricades jumped aboard the carriage shouting furiously as though they were two leopards ready to spring on their prey. A lady screamed and the women beside Gerry tugged on her ear phones and gasped. Gerry stood up and backed away towards a door on his right. More police officers suited and booted sprung aboard. They too were yelling angrily.

“Nobody move an inch; a muscle you hear me!”

“You sir get back!”

The shifty looking guy had some how managed to usher his way down the carriage and was now shoulder to shoulder with Gerry.

“Move,” he whispered aggressively to a man and his girlfriend.

The large man turned with a look of pure disgust, “Excuse me mate, do you fucking mind? You think you’re the only one that wants to get off this fucking train! My wife here’s pregnant, you think its alright to barge your way in front of a pregnant lady, you make me fucking sick!” He continued to ramble on and the mysterious man looked completely taken a back and seemingly lost now. Gerry buried himself into the corner of the wall between Mr shifty and the pug faced couple as if he was trying to completely disappear from view. Why today of all days did this need to happen?

Suddenly some of the officers turned and seemed to scan the entire carriage.

“Martin make sure all the doors stay shut!”

Three of the officers began to speedily lung towards Gerry, he thought they were coming right for him and could feel another panic attack coming on.

Instead they faced the man with the rucksack who was now fiddling away with the side of his bag. He grabbed something shiny that seemed to reflect off the light in such a way it burnt Gerry’s eyes. The man kept the small object clutched tightly in his grip. Gerry's sight had never been very good so for a moment he felt completed blinded, he sat on the ground cradling himself.

“He looks familiar. Very familiar.” Whispered one of the larger officers to his female co-worker.

The female officer, who now stood behind the guy, patted him on the shoulder.

“Sir could you pass me your rucksack?”

He looked nervous, a glob of sweat ran down his neck and he turned to Gerry with a look that seemed to plead for help.

“Sir I said could you give me your rucksack!”

All was quiet as everyone waited with baited breath to see what would happen next. The large man beamed trying to hold back laughter. The man now panicking turned his head, as to take in his whereabouts. Suddenly the silence was broken, he swung under the officer’s arm and darted to the other side of the carriage but the other officers were there waiting for him and as he tried to fend them off one lunged on him. An alarm started going off and all along the platform people gathered around the tube watching the action. People were screaming and yelling in what sounded like muffled cries. The officers had managed to haul him onto the ground. The female officer yanked his rucksack off and unzipped the bottom pocket, others held guns.

She shook her head, but Gerry remembered the shiny object he’d been holding. He looked at his hand and saw something glimmering, his thumb now clenched ready to shove hard on some kind of detonator?

He froze, what felt like an hour became minutes, seconds even, he couldn’t breathe and his head rang with weird voices giving him an awful headache; but it wasn’t real, it didn’t seem real. He was completely stuck yet somehow managed to get out a few words.

“But he's got a…”

“What are you on about mate?” Said the large lad next to him, still huffed about his exchange with the shifty guy. Gerry tried again.

“He has a...”

“Sorry?”

Gerry thought about all the times he’d messed up but now he had the chance to finally redeem himself and he could barely open his mouth. He was having a breakdown at the worst possible time. Something hit him, a deep feeling. Maybe it was possible to change, maybe he could be the person he once was if he really tried. It wouldn’t be too hard, sure he’d have to make more of an effort but it would change his life.

Suddenly feeling better and in some way of recovery he leaped in the air and yelled.

“He has a detonator in his hand!”

Everyone halted, and he heard lots of confused voices.

“A detonator did he say?” “What?”

In one motion everyone ran to the doors and tried shoving them open. People shunted others out of the way and yelled for help. An elderly women lay on the ground in pain crying yet no one helped her.

The police officers looked anxious now.

“Do not move or we will shoot. Place your hands behind your back and drop the weapon.” The man did nothing, “Place your hands behind your back and drop the weapon!”

The man just lay there pathetically shaking, his hand clenching more. He was really going to do it. Gerry had, had enough.

“Don’t do it!” He cried, “I know sometimes it seems like your doing the right thing, like the worlds against you. But you can’t just give up because honestly however cliché it sounds life is worth fighting for. Who am I to tell you that right, I’ve hurt people, probably messed up my son’s life, I’ve been unhappy for Bloody years. But I’m learning, we all face hard times mate, but we learn to recover.” “So please, don’t destroy all these peoples lives for the sake of anger or revenge, use it as a tool to be better.” Gerry was now pale white, his hands were sweating and shaking, he looked like a man on the edge.

The guy looked up at him very slowly, he had clearly taken in all Gerry said. But instead he shook his head tears bubbling in his beady little eyes.

“But you don’t get it; this is about more than a few lives.”

He pressed his thumb down and the police fired, but it seemed they were too late. A strange ticking noise sounded and no one moved an inch. The sound seemed to reverberate about the walls of the tube. Gerry felt frozen in time, he looked to the ground as though to shield his eyes from the scene and retched. Along the floor ran blood dripping from the empty shell of a dead man.