Broken Words

Chapter 6- 19/9/16

Gently, Simon's hands slid across the keys and halted, the delicate sound of the piano fading to nothing. He turned to face his mother, an expectant look on his face.

A trail of smoke left his mother's mouth as she began smiling. The cigarette tip glowed and ash drifted from the tip as she clapped her hands.

"You're getting better Si. You really are," She congratulated him.

"Thanks mom," He replied, checking the clock.

It was half ten, he really needed to go to bed. He had a maths test in the morning and he needed to maintain his record.

Simon actually wasn't bad at school, most of the time he got As and Bs. On the other hand, his mother had struggled at school, she'd thought that it was easy and had just messed around a lot. Often times she told him that that was the biggest mistake of her life and she didn't want him to go down the same route as her.

"I'm gonna go up to bed," He said, planting a kiss on his mother's head.

"Night darling," She smiled.

***

Simon woke coughing as the burning smoke filled his nose and his mouth. Thin trails of smoke were seeping in under the door, clouding the ceiling like murky clouds in the sky.

"Shit, shit!" He yelled. "Mom!"

There was no reply, just the roaring and crackling sounds as the flames clawed at the door. His mother was no idiot, maybe she'd already gotten out. Covering his mouth and nose, he crawled to the window and opened it.

People were gathering around the house, which acted as a brilliant burning beacon in the dark night. Agitated and unnerved cries for help and for water were hidden underneath the fire's roar.

"There's someone there!" Someone exclaimed, pointing up at Simon's huddled figure on the windowsill.

Everyone was sent into a further panic, rushing for water and ladders and demanding to know why the fire brigade wasn't there yet. Meanwhile Simon was perched on the windowsill, his heart fluttering like a little bird trapped in a cage. He peered around desperately for his mother, praying to god that she was okay. But everyone looked like ants, he couldn't make out any faces through the towering pillar of smoke.

All of a sudden, there was a loud crash as the floor of his bedroom collapsed. One thing echoed in his head. His mother's scream.

"Simon!"

She yelled once and was instantly silent.

"Mom!" Simon screamed, attempting to climb back in through the window.

Someone latched onto his wrist and Simon spun around to see his neighbour, Mr Green, standing on the top rung of a ladder.

"But my mom... I have to help her," Simon choked as smoke began to flow out of the window.

"Your mother will be ok, we need to get you down," Mr Green said, tugging on Simon's wrist. "Please Simon, you're mom has probably already gotten out of the house."

That unlikely event is what snapped Simon out of it. The small amount of hope that what Mr Green said was right and that his mother was waiting for him on the ground, voice too hoarse from all the smoke she breathed in to call for him.

As they began to clamber down the ladder, Simon heard Mr Green yell for him to hurry up. He began to scamper down the ladder quickly, not knowing what was going on but sensing from the urgency in his neighbour's words and the burning alarm in his stomach, that whatever it was, wasn't good.

A loud bang, loudly followed by a crash, sounded as the upstairs of the house exploded. With nothing left to lean on, the ladder began to fall back towards the pavement.

"Simon, jump!"

Both Simon and Mr Green leapt from the ladder and crashed to the pavement. After landing, Simon rolled a few feet and just lay there for a moment.

The constant wail of the fire trucks got closer, though they were drowned out by the exclamations and screams from the passers by who had seen the scene of devastation.

"Simon, can you hear me?"

It was Mr Green, standing over him, clutching his arm close to his chest. Simon nodded and began to push himself up, wincing as blood trickled into his eye.

"The ambulance is here, they'll fix that cut up," He said as he helped Simon up with his good arm.

"Sir, sir, is anyone in the house?" A fireman asked as he ran over.

"My mom is," Simon replied before having a long coughing fit, he must have inhaled more smoke than he thought.

***

The fire had finally been put out and people were beginning to lose interest. The people from a few streets down had disappeared as the night went on and the fire weakened. Though the people who knew Simon and his mother stayed, offering as much support and sympathy to Simon as they could. But, his thankful mask was beginning to crack and break as his mother was nowhere to be seen.

The ambulance had fixed up his cut and given him an oxygen mask. It had taken a few painful stitches, but he was physically okay again now. Mentally, it was a whole different story.

Mr Green had broken his arm in the fall, he'd been a lot higher up the ladder than Simon, and that lead to Simon apologising profusely.

"Stop apologising, I'd rather have broken my arm than have you end up dead," He had told Simon every time he muttered an apology.

They sat in the doorway of the ambulance in silence, Mr Green's arm slung over Simon's shoulders in support.

Eventually, the firemen began to leave the house, solemn looks on their faces and Simon's heart plummeted. Four of them carried a large bag, a body bag.

While they laid the bag on the floor, one of the men came over to Simon.

"I'm so sorry..." He began.

But Simon didn't hear the rest of it. He stared at the bag. That wasn't his mother. That couldn't be his mother.

He didn't want his last memories of her to be like this. He wanted to remember her teaching him to play piano, or playing hide and seek with him, or taking trips around the park after feeding the ducks and dropping his ice cream.

Instead, the only image of her that filled his mind was the image of what she probably looked like inside the bag. Burns covering her skin, her hair all gone, nothing like the mother he knew.

"We think that it was caused by a cigarette, your mother did smoke didn't she."

Simon snapped out of his trance and nodded. Tears threatened to roll down his cheeks and he turned away.

"Where's he going to stay?" Mr Green asked.

"Well, where's your dad?" The fireman asked.

"In Costa Rica with his chemical engineering student," Simon replied, standing up and shrugging off the blanket that they'd given him for shock.

He began walking down the road, ignoring their cries for him to come back.

His phone was in his back pocket, that was where he kept his credit card. He had enough money to pay for a hotel for maybe a week, by then he'd have been paid and would be able to pay for a little longer. After a while, he'd maybe even be able to afford a house, though that was a bit of a long shot.

Footsteps began pounding up the road after him and Simon started sprinting, tears flowing down his cheeks as the wind stung his eyes and cheeks.

He just wanted to be alone, to be able to get used to it because there was one thing that he knew from now on.

He was always going to be alone. And it had to stay that way so that no one else got hurt.

***

Happy New Year everyone!!!