The John Hughes Club

Chapter Eleven

Chas

Feelings are a strange thing
A Weird Science indeed
They can make you silly
Make you cry and bleed

She's only been gone a while
A while too long for me
Some Kind Of Wonderful
That's Mindy Diaz, you see

She has fifteen years of a story
A story I want to know
I want to be at her next birthday
Watching the Sixteen Candles she'll blow

This girl's really something else
Thoughts of her keep me company when I'm Home Alone
Only The Lonely will know my meaning
When I say how with her, I feel right at home

She's becoming my Curly Sue
My Maid In Manhattan to Chris
In the shortest amount of time
Everything about her, I constantly miss

I'm thinking about her often
She's in everything I think
Like how she's fond of wearing black
But I bet she'd look so Pretty In Pink

In her amazing company
Every day is a Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Yeah, she really is that amazing
The Breakfast Club amazing, made from the same cool cloth

The 80s, my quiff and my smile
Are things I often hide behind
Yet she makes me want to open
All that I keep in my heart and mind

I know there's more to Mindy Diaz
Just like there's more to me
Together, I know we'll eventually discover
There's more to what the other's can see

Biting down on my lower lip, my head's swaying from side to side with a disbelieving small smile; disbelieving because of the words that have just poured out of me onto the page of my notebook. Clearly, I'm missing Mindy's company. It's times like this, that I wish I could succumb to having a mobile phone, just so I could text her. As it is, I have no intention of getting a mobile, so I've never bothered asking for her number. Yeah, I've missed her this weekend. I've missed our conversations about everything and nothing. A mobile would certainly help with that, but I'll not push aside my strong personal beliefs because of it. Mobile phones are aiding social media and the press in causing a sickness within our society. I don't want to be a part of the Smartphone generation. If and when I need a mobile in the future for when I'm a working man, I'll only have a mobile that I can call out on and take calls from. I'm not even a huge fan of computers, as they're yet another tool for the growth of that sick society. I only use them for my schoolwork and for occasionally promoting The John Hughes Club on the Archleigh High student web page. I know there's a place for modern technology, I know that, I just think we've taken its usage too far. Only the other day, I was telling Mindy about how we're forgetting to be human, because technology is doing everything for us. We have access to far too many things. For decades, we've been taking and taking from the Earth, not giving enough back in return. At some point, the Earth will say 'enough is enough'. Life is already too complicated, I'm not interested in posting cool statuses, collecting followers and being drip fed damaging or misleading information; instead, I choose to keep my life simple—I have my collection of DVD's to watch and enjoy, a stereo to play my CD's on, I have pens, paper and notebooks to get my words all down on, and I have all the tools I need to make my wood carvings with—yeah, those things all keep me sane in this often insane world.

"Chas! Come down here, I've bought us some fish and chips!" Dad's shouting up the stairs, he's yet another reason why I try to keep my life simple; dad's anything but that.

"Coming!" I shout back, slamming my notebook shut, not wanting fatherly eyes to ever see what I am writing.

Dad and I don't share an easy relationship. Don't get me wrong, he works hard. He's worked really hard at growing his commercial and domestic electrician company up from nothing. He managed to keep it afloat even after the death of my mum and finding himself being a lone parent. That's something I can respect. What I can't respect, is how he'll turn to drink during the times when life gets a little too much for him. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, he'll leave a trail of emotional and physical devastation behind him. I was seven when my dad became a man driven by his anger over losing my mum, driven to sometimes finding comfort at the bottom of an empty bottle of brandy. Mum died whilst being a passenger in her parent's car. In just one afternoon, my seven year old self lost my mum, my grandparents and the dad I used to have. If it hadn't been for my other granddad, I don't know whether I could have faced carrying on in my life. He himself, had to watch his son changing before his elderly eyes. Grandpa looked out for me during the times when dad wasn't. He gave me somewhere to run to, when I needed to run from my father. Sadly, dad can sometimes lose his way. During those times, I try to keep out of his way; steering clear of his anger and his aggression. He will yell. Smash and punch things. There have been rare times, when I've become one of those smashed and punched things. During those rare times, grandpa would step in, tell his son to sort himself out or he'd never see me again. Dad would listen, sort himself out, until the next time that life decided to kick him in the teeth. It's become an unpredictable cycle. It's been a cycle I've always handled with grandpa in my life, but when he suddenly died four months ago, I'm now alone with the unpredictability of my father. When grandpa's heart gave up on this world, I thought about giving up too. Without him, I didn't think I'd cope being left in this world all by myself with my dad, but day by day I am doing it. For now, my father seems to be in a good place. Grandpa left behind a substantial amount of money, his old coastal cottage and his carpentry workshop.

"When I'm gone, I'll still be taking care of you." Is something my grandpa always told me. He wanted me to be financially secure, so if I ever needed to escape my father, I could.

The coastal cottage has now been sold and the money has been split between us. The workshop, is mine alone. The solicitor acting upon my grandfather's wishes, has ensured that once I'm sixteen years of age, I have everything that my grandfather wanted me to have. So yeah, my beloved grandpa's death has eased all financial burdens for my dad. I'm hoping this will keep away whatever monsters lurk inside of my father's mind. I'm hoping he'll use the financial freedom to help him with his emotional freedom, as well. So far so good. He hasn't drank for about eighteen months. I think he's even been dating someone, judging by the amount of designer aftershave he's been wearing just lately.
For now, he's doing okay.
For now, he's come home with fish and chips.