Bad News

Part 10

Chapter Fourteen

The sun hung low in the sky as Lincoln rose early on Monday morning. Lincoln had woken up before Connor which must have been a first. The whole house was quiet and you could have heard a pin drop. Lincoln sat on the edge of his bed gazing out on the beautiful morning scene. There were some benefits to living out in the sticks.

He looked to Connor; the rise and fall of his chest as he slept. He found it strange now that he had never known his brothers and sisters before. Strange that they had been living this life in parallel with his but that they had never known each other. They would have passed each other in the street and not recognised one another. There were some similarities between Connor and Lincoln, in that they both had features of their fathers, though Connor had the fair colouring of his mother.

When he had been growing up, his mother had told him that he had a father and twin siblings. She would always say that they lived too far away and that was why he could not see them. As he got older and realised there was no excuse, she became more reluctant to talk about it. One night when she had been drunk, she had told him everything. He was the result of an affair. A true bastard. His mum had been working as an administrator at the Architects firm where Sam was a junior architect. They had had an affair for almost a year before Debs had found out. The twins were only a few months old and she had thrown Sam out. At the same time, Sophia found out she was pregnant. Sam moved in with Sophia but ended up going back and forth between the two women, finally leaving Sophia and moving permanently back in with his wife when Lincoln was six months old. He had seen Lincoln every now and then for a few years before they moved out of London and back to his home town of Hartley. After that communication was only one letter a year at Christmas. Lincoln had been burning the letters without opening them every since he found out. He had hated his father. What kind of man cheats on his pregnant wife and then gets another woman pregnant and abandons her? What kind of father can't be bothered to see his own child?

Debs has been very kind to him since he arrived but he did find her looking at him strangely sometimes. He must be a reminder of what happened. Of what Sam was capable of. A reminder of Sophia. He wondered how long her Good Samaritan act would last. She couldn't really want him here.

Lincoln's thoughts were interrupted by a yawn from Connor.

"Morning Bro" said Linc, grinning "You are up late"

Connor glanced at the clock. "It is only five to 7. What the hell are you doing up now? It is a mission to get you out of bed by 8!"

Linc threw a pillow at him. "Ha ha"

Lincoln turned his attention back to the fields outside. The sun was beginning to peek through the fluffy clouds. Surely a day like today can only be good, thought Lincoln. He could never be more wrong.

The last bell of the day rang loud and clear. The students of Hartley Comp breathed a sigh of relief as they filled the hallways and headed out of the school. Half an hour later, Lincoln strolled out of the school gates by himself. On the school steps, he stopped to light a cigarette. The day had gone quite well, with only a short detention that he had earned last week. He started walking. He was meeting Dale at the woodland.