Ace

Ace - Chapter One

"Are you travelling to see the sights, honey?" I look up to see the kind faced, elderly lady sitting on the cramped plane seat next to me smiling, which snaps me quickly out of my daze. I'm actually not sure how long I was staring into space for.

"Oh." I clear my throat from the stuffy cabin air, "No. I'm actually travelling home."

"I thought you may have been British, sweetie! You have that look." She winks. That look? What does that mean? While it may have come across as slightly rude from anyone else, this sweet old girl's eyes grinned in a warming way and made me feel at ease, giving me the familiar feeling of chatting to my Nana – rest her soul.

"Right... I'll take that as a compliment, shall I?" I grin.

"Oh, honey, please do! You British boys always look so handsome!"

"You've not seen a lot of British boys, have you?" I ask, said grin stretching ever so slightly wider on my face, the still nameless lady bats my arm and laughs.

"I'm Mabel, by the way. My grandson must be about your age, you know! He's into all sorts of silly things, needs to grow up if you ask me," she sighed, "But who am I to comment... oh, well never mind about that!" She flicks her hand in the air as if waving the thought of her unruly grandchild away. "What's your name sweetie?"

"It's lovely to meet you Mabel. I'm Ace."

"Ace!" Mabel raised an eyebrow, "Well that's definitely the first I've heard that one; and manners too! You will make some lovely lady lucky one day." Mabel nods at my hand on my lap, I guess she's acknowledging the fact I'm not donning any jewellery, a ring to be exact.

I let out a short laugh, "One day, maybe. It's short for Alexander... but I don't tell many people that, you must be special Mabel."

"Oh, that is unusual..." She ponders and I can tell she's wondering why Ace, why not Alex or even Al – they all do, which is precisely why I never normally get into it. However, I find myself sitting on a plane next to a lovely old lady wanting a chat, and anything that will help take my mind off the impending shit storm I have ahead of me is a welcome reprieve.

"My Dad started it all when I was a little too young to remember and I guess it just stuck." I shrug, noticing my fingers are now absent mindedly fiddling with the edge of the seat's arm rest.

"That's nice, dear. It's good to have special nicknames, it shows love y'know." Mabel nods, "Are you going home to visit your father?"

"Uh, sort of..." I shrug, as nice as Mabel seems, I don't want to hand out my life story to a stranger, especially when it's all still so fresh and sore. "What is it your grandson does?" I ask, swiftly trying to move the subject of conversation off of myself.

"Don't even get me started!" Mabel's hand flies into the air again in a wave of annoyance, "He's a grown adult playing with toys! He's on his video game all night long and at some toy figure and comic book store all day long. He stays in the dark so much I'm absolutely certain his skin is becoming transparent, you know. It's just awful." She shakes her head, and lets out a short sigh. "What were you doing in Portland, Ace?"

"I've lived here for a couple of years. I did some travelling, met a friend a few years back and I've just been crashing with him since. He owns a gym and I do a little bit of boxing in my spare time, work in a brewery – it's an easy life." An easy life I took in a rush when I graduated to avoid dealing with things, it seems to be ingrained in me, but not this time – this time I won't run away.

"Do you miss home?"

Do I... I take in a short breath and look out of the plane window across the aisle. "Yeah, I guess looking at it now I wish I'd actually gone home to visit a bit more, I've only been back a few times in eight years, my family did come and meet me in different places a few times... but video chat isn't really the same thing." Too little, too late. My heart actually feels like bits of it are crumbling away every so often; less so now than before, but it's still there. The lump in my throat is ever present and the pit of my stomach feels ready to swallow me hole.