The following diary is no ordinary diary, but the mental diary kept by Jack Homley:
1st December 1899
Dear Diary
Its' the first of December! My favourite time of year has come again! Snow is already falling from the heavens like a glittering gift from god himself to celebrate his son's birth. I know that this year, that on Christmas day, my wish will finally be brought to life. It's already in motion I'm sure of that. Father got a job fixing the chapel roof and mother won ten guineas in a cooking contest. She said that we might even have enough for a turkey, or maybe even a Christmas tree. In all my life I've never ever seen one in our house. But my wish ain't for any dinner, nor is it for a tree, my wish will change my life forever and my family's. Finally, we will all get what we deserve.
***
Jack finished his mental diary early that morning, for his mental trance had been broken by the shrill call of a woman.
"I'm coming mother!" Jack called to the woman as he rolled out of bed.
Jack Homley was a young boy at the age of ten; though his scrawny appearance made him look younger still. But there was something much stranger about Jack Homley; He had the most perfected memory in existence. Most ten year olds had forgotten most of their lives as infants, but Jack could remember everything since the beginning of his first birthday. He could perfectly recall, learning to walk and talk and all the other things he had done. Most people thought it strange, that it was an abnormality, but for Jack it was a gift, a gift from the most putrid thing in the whole of London. The river Thames.
Jack could recall and more or less relive that day if he focused his mind enough. At the age of one, on his first birthday Jack could walk. He remembered how he had walked everywhere wanting to explore his home at a new height. On his birthday his older brother and sister had left the house to go and buy a loaf of bread for their mother, who was cleaning the upstairs, and they had left open the front door.
Being a curious infant, Jack went outside the house to explore the outdoors for what would be the first time in his life. He was amazed at the outside world. The hustle and bustle of the streets as people ran past. None of them wore rags like his parents, Jack remembered the man he saw wearing a fancy top hat and tailcoat and a woman in a bright pink dress.
He watched, in awe as the horses and carriages rode past him. Perhaps it was because he was too small to notice or because everyone was simply too busy to notice him; but Jack went unnoticed by the crowds.
A labouring man carrying an assortment of tools knocked little Jack over and when the tiny infant got to his feet he saw what he thought was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.
Behind his home he saw a huge black body of a thick murky liquid. Jack wanted to go closer to touch it and being a curious young baby that was precisely what he did. So, Jack ran back towards his dilapidated home and went round to the back garden where he found the back gate open and the black liquid was mere metres away. Jack ran forwards and ended up on a path that went beside the liquid and the path was completely deserted except for two lovers kissing passionately on a nearby bench.
Jack ran to the edge of the path and saw his reflection in the black liquid; he wanted to see if it really was him staring back at him. So, being the curious young infant that he was, he leaned forwards to touch it.
SPLASH!
There was a loud splash as Jack fell from the side of the path and into the swamp like liquid. It was extremely thick, rife with all of the rubbish that people had tossed into it. Being so small Jack was able to float at the surface, which he did so and he laughed and splashed around.
The two lovers who had been kissing one another broke apart and they looked in horror as they saw Jack in the Thames.
"Oh, my goodness," the woman screamed. "Arthur, get someone to help!"
Jack may have been light, but eventually the Thames noticed him and slowly, pulled him under the surface of the water.
Even as he sank and could not breathe Jack played with the putrid liquid, completely unaware that he was drowning. Then he opened his mouth to laugh and swallowed the black liquid. It was the most revolting thing that he had ever tasted and as he tried to spit it out more came in and he panicked.
Jack wasn't sure what was happening but he heard a loud splash from above and a sudden hand clasped around his shoulder. When Jack reached the surface he saw the handsome face of the man whom had been kissing his lover on the path.
"Here James!" James's lover yelled. "Is he alright? Did he survive?"
Jack wasn't crying. He was just still and his eyes were open, but he was not dead. He was just silent.
"Here Ella," James called. "Take him."
The woman called Ella took him. She was a kindly looking woman with yellow hair and a radiant rosy face. Her touch was gentle and she handled James with great care as though he were her own. Pulled himself out of the Thames's clutches and as the three of them stood there, there was a silence. One thing that Jack could never remember was how long that silence had lasted. It felt like minutes, hours or days, James couldn't be sure. But one thing was certain; the silence was shattered by the shrill, fearful yell of a woman.
"Jack! Oh, my goodness! What happened, he fell in the river, oh my, is he alright!"
Mrs Homley was in a deep state of panic. Her face was pale as snow with panic and worry; even her lips were drained of colour. She took her son in her eyes and held him close to her breast to keep him warm.
"He's fine ma'am," said James tipping his hat to her. "Just fell in the river, but we got him out of there before any harm came to him."
Mrs Homley smiled and hugged both James and Ella, before kissing her own son's soggy head.
"Thank you ever so much!" she exclaimed with great joy and relief. "I only left him for a minute to clean up; Paul and Sarah need to learn to keep that front door shut! But thank you, thank you ever so much, if I were much richer I'd invite you all round to dinner!"
The lovers beamed at Mrs Homley.
"Really, there's no need," said Ella. "We were just simply in the right place at the right time."
Mrs Homley beamed back, James opened his mouth to speak but only a fit of coughs came out.
"Come on love," Ella said to him. "We need to get home, goodbye miss?"
"Jane, Homley, goodbye then. And thank you!"
