the one before me - mr harrigan's phone

1 - church girl

❝ I'd sell my own bones for sapphire stones, 'cause blue is your favourite colour. ❞

- meteor shower by cavetown
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CRAIG'S POV

"Let's give you a handle," I suggested, glancing down at my phone as I relaxed back into the armchair I've sat on for the past 5 years, 3 times a week.

"Handle?" Mr. Harrigan questioned, looking up at me in perplexion.

"No uh," I leaned forwards, getting closer to him so he'd be able to hear me, his hearing had been poor lately, sometimes I'd have to speak much louder for him to understand what I was reading, "A handle's like, a nickname. So when you call me or text me, that's the name that pops up on my phone," I explained.

"You want me to give me a nickname?"

"Maybe it could be something other people call you," I stretched out to hand him my phone, "Here," He grabbed it, a small grin on his face which made me unconsciously smile as well.

"Newspapers used to call me this, which made one of my-" He paused, making me look back up from the ground to look at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"... Your?" I said, trying to get him to tell me what he'd stopped himself from telling me. It wasn't that I really wanted to get information out of him, he was just so secretive all the time. It was nice to know something not many others do.

"My..." He hesitated, not sure how to describe what this person meant to him, "She was the person who read for me before you did," I looked back to the ground, realising that someone was here before me. Someone had sat in this chair for hours on end, reading to him before I had.

"What was her name?" I asked silently, careful not to make him feel pressured and eventually back out of the question.

"Matilda King, sweet one, really," He had a small comforting smile, full of admiration, but his eyes had pure sorrow in them; regret, "Anyway," He continued, typing away the nickname in question.

The rest of my time at Mr. Harrigan's went by like a blur, my mind fixated on the girl he'd mentioned. Her last name felt so familiar to me. I couldn't grasp it, it was as if there was this image of her in my mind amongst many others, and I just couldn't pick the right one. I was sitting at the nearest bus stop to Mr. Harrigan's manor, hoping to have a chat with my father about the girl.

I eventually got onto a bus and headed home, the presence of my mother's scent still lingering around the house. I unlocked the door with the spare keys I owned, swinging my bag off my shoulders and hanging it on one of the hooks that were installed on the wall in front of the entrance door.

"Hey, dad," I greeted him as he was cooking up our dinner.

"Hey, son. Good day?" He asked.

"Yeah," I murmured. It was quiet for a while before I built up the courage to ask him about the thing that had been troubling me for the past 3 hours, "Dad, who's Matilda King?" My dad turned around to face me, the edge of his eyebrows wrinkling as he gave me his signature upside-down smirk.

"You don't know? She's the granddaughter of Stephen King, remember?" My dad told me, no recognition of the name dawning upon me. I shrugged my shoulders and signalled for him to elaborate, "The old man who lives near the church in Trailer Park, he's that writer of numerous horror stories too. I thought we had a copy of his book somewhere in here?" My dad stared at the filled bookshelf beside our tv, the horror section right below the several romance books my mother had purchased. My dad barely read any of the books, whereas I had read basically every single book on that shelf. I never remembered them though, it was a long time ago.

I walked to the shelf, scanning through the spines of books, finding a book titled 'The Green Mile' with the words 'Stephen King' printed in white beside it. I removed the book from the shelf and flipped to the 'dedications' page.

To my lovely granddaughter, Matilda King.
I wish to cherish you for life, give your old man a hug, will you?

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words: 794

A/N:
currently very very very obsessed to the point where I've devoted my life to this book. i'm not even done with tow yet and i'm spending all my time on this. let's just hope people actually read this. give me tips and feedback please!! i love it and always work on them. - Raven

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