Christ it's hot in here. This place is hermetically sealed with no doors or windows. I heard once that the average person gives off the same heat as a two bar fire and with the amount of us kicking around the stifling climate comes as no surprise. To be honest, like all things, you get used to it after a while. Most of us have adopted the same attitude, none of us want to be here but we have little choice in the matter and as time passes you become more resigned to the situation. Some still rant and rave but about the injustice of it all but at the end of day what's the point? It doesn't change anything and you just end up winding yourself up. I say that most people here are the same but not all. There is one who is exception.
Alison is always smiling. She has to do the same mundane tasks as the rest of us but she does them all with a cheery disposition. She is polite to all of her fellow inmates, no matter how nefarious they might be and the woman never stops singing. To make matters worse she isn't really supposed to be here, you think that that would make you at least a little bit pissed off but not Alison. Honestly, it's like working with Mary Poppins.
I first got to know Alison back in the day, more by proxy really. I used to teach her kid history at the local upper school. I also got to know him much later but in a very different capacity. Jamie was a good lad. He was bright and good looking in a roughish kind of way although he was no child genius he just, well shone. The thing about Jamie was that he listened to people and he didn't judge. He didn't care if you were one of the cool kids or not he would talk to you just the same and more importantly he would listen to your responses. That's rare in kids and even rarer in adults. What made him that way? I know it's a bit of a cliché but I blame the parents, or in this case the parent.
Alison was an exceptional mother. She was always there at the school gate every morning making sure that he had his books and his lunch and that he was ready for his day. It's kind of unusual for a mum to do that with a boy of his age or for that matter even the younger kids. We live in a time where making lunch normally consists of: "here's two pounds for McDonalds". Other kids would occasionally give him grief about their closeness but he would just tell them where to go. In truth I think that some of the other kids were just jealous and that both parties knew it but Jamie would never throw it back in their face, like I say, he was a good kid. Once Alison had dropped Jamie off she would then go off to her day job. She was a part time legal secretary in a law firm. At night she studied law and she was making good progress to the point that she was about to take the bar exam. All of her studies and aspirations were driven by the prospect of a better future. Not for her but for her son. After school she was always the first to appear at the school gates. Early to make sure that she wouldn't miss him. Or perhaps the reason why she was early because she did miss him. When he wasn't there she missed him oh so much.
Jamie and Alison had a special relationship, as well as being mother and son they were also best friends. Parents and kids usually spa, I used to watch it all the time. Alison and Jamie never did and the reason why was clear. Alison was a single mother, her husband died during childbirth. It's unusual that it should happen that way round but it did. Alison went into an early labour whilst her husband was making his way back from Iraq. On the way to the airport his troop carrier drove over an AT mine, the poor bastard didn't stand a chance. Alison didn't get the news until a few days later and she was understandably devastated but left in his place was this small beautifully formed life. I suppose her utter devotion started there.
It's not common knowledge but it's the fact of the matter that not everyone takes to their kid straight away and some people never do at all. You are led to believe that the second you clap eyes on your child a wave of unconditional love engulfs you and from that moment onwards you are tied through an unbreakable bond. Not true. When I held my child for the first time I felt bemused. To be honest I didn't know what to do with her. The nurses asked me if I wanted to cut the umbilical cord and I thought 'Why? Isn't that your job? I'm not qualified'. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I couldn't wait to give her back to the nurses so that I could get back to sitting on the plastic chair in the corner, out of the way. The one with the hole cut out of the back so your bum doesn't sweat, just like the ones we have in the school. That made sense to me, I was comfortable there. If I am totally honest what I was really waiting for was for my wife and child to be moved to a bed in a ward for the night so that I could go out and 'wet the baby's head'. I never said I was a model husband but at least I am honest about it.
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On that Bombshell
Short StoryA series of very short, short stories all with a bit of twist or something unusual about them.
