Defying Gravity
Chapter 2
Heavy rain clouds hung over the city skyline, like a dark omen for the coming day. Police sirens screeched in the early hours of the morning, as gunshots rang on into the dawn. Over the other side of the city however, the dawn chorus upheld their reputation of being able to sing in the new day, whatever the weather. Then ever so slowly, tiny rain droplets began to fall, decorating the earth below with tiny spots of damp, the smell of rainwater hanging delightfully in the air; the cool atmosphere washing away the nights gross humidity.
In the far east of the city, small raindrops began to fall lightly against the window pane of a small inner city flat, wiping away the dust and grime that lay there. The dull pattering formed a slow, yet natural rhythm, breaking the flats’ only inhabitant slowly away from a dreamless sleep.
Gerard’s eyelids hung heavily over his eyes, refusing to open, and like every other morning, Gerard woke to find his body feeling lifeless and slow. He rolled onto the other side of his mattress, pulling his arms up round his head for support, sighing feebly as the dull light that filtered through the curtains caught his still sleep filled eyes. At least it was Saturday, and he was free to laze around, and lie in bed as much as he wanted. Thank god for weekends.
He gazed up at the small window across the room, and admired the raindrops as they fell, then watching them as they slowly rolled down the windowpane, leaving trails as they went. Turning onto his back to face the ceiling, Gerard smiled half-heartedly to himself, it may have been the weekend, but to him all that meant was that in two days time he would have to go back to work, and the cycle would being all over again.
“Ah well, better enjoy the weekend while it’s here.” He grumbled to himself, lifting his heavy frame out of bed. Gerard hauled himself to his feet and looked around the room, it was still in the horrid mess that it had been the night before. Gerard laughed to himself,
“Damn cleaning fairies, they’re so not getting paid this week.” He laughed again, but with a thick layer of sarcasm present in his voice. He slowly trudged over to the bathroom, and upon entering he realised that this room was also in need of a brisk cleaning session. Gerard made his way over to the far right of the room and leaned over the small bathroom sink, he then proceeded to turn on the cold tap, cupping some water in his hands he began to splash his face repetitively. It was one of the very few ways in which Gerard could properly wake himself up. He stood up slowly and looked at his wet face in the mirror, it looked the same as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that; it was the familiar zombified face that met his sight in the mirror every morning, and he was beginning to grow tired of it.
Upon re-entering his room, Gerard found himself at a loss with what to do. His gaze slowly fell to the dirty window pane on the far side in the room, he continued to watch as small tracks of grime were washed away by the tears of the clouds outside, and like him the clouds yearned for a reason to be happy, but found nothing but an empty and cold hearted city, to which they were nothing. Well in Gerard’s opinion anyway,
“I really do think too deeply about things.” He mumbled absentmindedly, continuing to stare out the window, before casting another sweeping glance around the room. It dawned on him, that the most likely outcome of the day, would be that he would have to spend the whole day at home doing odd jobs at home, this thought filled him with a sense of dread. It was all just another version of work for him, and he didn’t know why this grubby little flat was so hard to maintain, and Gerard was almost certainly convinced that while he was at work a large group of people, or maybe a stampede had run riot through all the rooms.
“Great, another weekend of the rest of my life.” Gerard grumbled, walking slowly into the front room, he was once again, met with even more of a mess than before, “Shock horror, and this room’s even worse. Maybe I should-.” He cut off and looked around, frowning slightly. “Who the hell am I talking to?” Mentally noting the fact that talking to ones self was not a normal thing to do, Gerard proceeded to pull out his ‘day planner’ just to check just in case he had something planned which he’d magically forgotten about. He picked up the small black, tattered planner off the floor; how it had gotten there he hadn’t a clue, probably that large group of people again. Gerard laughed as he flipped through the empty pages, until he finally got to this weeks plans. Saturday 2nd June, he laughed again as he noticed the fact that he had previously scrawled the words “Fuck all” across the entire weeks plan.
After flopping down onto the rather cluttered sofa, he proceeded to launch the planner across the room in a fit of despair. He casually propped his head up against the back of the chair, and stared emptily at the ceiling, looking at the tiny little patterns that had been unintentionally moulded into the plaster. He frowned again, a tiny speck of realisation hitting him, he grinned and looked over to where he had lobbed his planner,
“Well at least I now know how it got there.” He proceeded to laugh, louder and louder, until he no longer new what he was laughing at, and eventually tears of hysteria rolled down his cheeks. Abrupt silence shortly followed, in which Gerard stared hollowly at the far wall, which was stained by damp in some places, and dirt in others.
“I really need to get out more.” He mumbled effortlessly. For minutes after, all that could be heard was the soft pattering of the rain on the windows of the flat, interrupted occasionally by cars in the street outside. These familiar noises were of no disturbance to Gerard, and he continued to stare, thinking and not particularly feeling anything. Gerard’s deep, meditation like state was snapped by the high pitched screaming of the phone. Gerard jumped into motion and made a quick grab for the phone, snatching it up after only the third ring.
“Hello?” He spoke rather quietly, as loud noises really weren’t the best thing for early morning, in his opinion.
“What?” The voice down the other end of the phone belted.
“Hello?” Gerard shouted back just as loud as the voice on the other end, he then walked back over to the sofa and crouched on it.
“Gerard is that you? It’s me.” The voice called.
“Oh hello there me. No Gerard isn’t in at the moment he’s just gone to school. Can I take a message? Or do you think you could maybe, oh I don’t know, stop shouting for a minute? Unless you want to make my ears bleed.” Gerard replied cynically, with a rather large smirk spreading across his face.
“Oh ha ha, very funny. Yes anyway, it’s me, Frank.” The phone crackled slightly in-between words, and Gerard guessed that once again, Frank was phoning whilst driving.
“It is? Oh well, you had me fooled; I thought you were my mum. Oh yea and it’s never a good idea to drive and phone, you know? I don’t want you crashing and making a nasty mess of that nice car of yours.” Gerard chuckled, this conversation was very predictable for him, as it seemed most of his calls went this way. Always with the sarcastic comments.
“ Well then, there was me thinking you cared. Bastard. And what do you mean, nice car? This thing is a piece of trash, and you know that.” Frank replied in an almost hurt tone. This amused Gerard, as Frank had always been a terrible actor at school, and it showed.
“ Care? What me? You must have me confused with someone else. Anyway what do you want Frankie darling?” sarcasm literally dripping off the last word.
“Oh yea, right. Me and the others were wondering if maybe, if you’re not too busy that maybe we could-.” Gerard cut Frank off awkwardly,
“You know I’d love to Frankie, but you know I have a lot of-.” Frank replied by cutting Gerard off just as quickly.
“Yea I know, let me guess? More work?” Gerard sighed at the realism of Frank’s words, as frustrating as it was, he was right. Gerard mumbled in response, only to get interrupted by Frank. “Okay I get the picture Gee, well how about you ring me when you’re free, and we arrange something? Sound good?” Frank asked questioningly, and somewhat patronisingly, but Gerard doubted that he meant it to be, Frank just cared, that was all.
“Yea okay Frank. Well I’ll talk to you later then.” Gerard grumbled,
“Yea, see you later Gee. Bye” There was a light clicking noise, followed by silence from the other end of the phone, and slowly Gerard removed the phone away from his ear and stared down at it.
“Bye.”
Slowly Gerard made his way to his room, and flopped heavily back onto his bed, even though it was barely even midday. He lay facing the ceiling, his thoughts trailing happily through the past he remembered so well. Effortlessly he reached under the bed and began to fumble around for something, until he grasped a hold on an old shoebox, slowly lifting it up and placing it on the bed next to him. Gerard began to rummage through the contents of the box, to anyone looking in, they would have seen a box full of old photos and bits of paper, and maybe even the occasional item, but to Gerard the box was where he kept all of his past memories, a place where he could hide his previous life from his current self. And on solitary days like this one, he would rifle through its contents to remind himself of what life once was, but only ever on slow days, when there was nothing better to do.
After a lot of fiddling, Gerard finally removed a small photograph, and a rather fancy pen. He looked at them both and smiled, an empty reminiscent smile, laced with the thoughts and dreams of the past. The photo was that of him and all his friends on his 18th birthday, his parents in the background grinning at their son, happiness present in everyone’s eyes, even the sky looked happy to be there. Gerard’s eyes then trailed to the pen in his hand, light blue, with black patterns etched all over it, the pen was a heavy thing, it’s high price more than obvious, and although the ink had long since run out, it still held a much finer matter, that would only ever mean something to Gerard.
The day continued to flutter by aimlessly, with minutes turning to long hours, and overall the day ended slowly. But ironically, no amount of cleaning or work was ever done.
In the far east of the city, small raindrops began to fall lightly against the window pane of a small inner city flat, wiping away the dust and grime that lay there. The dull pattering formed a slow, yet natural rhythm, breaking the flats’ only inhabitant slowly away from a dreamless sleep.
Gerard’s eyelids hung heavily over his eyes, refusing to open, and like every other morning, Gerard woke to find his body feeling lifeless and slow. He rolled onto the other side of his mattress, pulling his arms up round his head for support, sighing feebly as the dull light that filtered through the curtains caught his still sleep filled eyes. At least it was Saturday, and he was free to laze around, and lie in bed as much as he wanted. Thank god for weekends.
He gazed up at the small window across the room, and admired the raindrops as they fell, then watching them as they slowly rolled down the windowpane, leaving trails as they went. Turning onto his back to face the ceiling, Gerard smiled half-heartedly to himself, it may have been the weekend, but to him all that meant was that in two days time he would have to go back to work, and the cycle would being all over again.
“Ah well, better enjoy the weekend while it’s here.” He grumbled to himself, lifting his heavy frame out of bed. Gerard hauled himself to his feet and looked around the room, it was still in the horrid mess that it had been the night before. Gerard laughed to himself,
“Damn cleaning fairies, they’re so not getting paid this week.” He laughed again, but with a thick layer of sarcasm present in his voice. He slowly trudged over to the bathroom, and upon entering he realised that this room was also in need of a brisk cleaning session. Gerard made his way over to the far right of the room and leaned over the small bathroom sink, he then proceeded to turn on the cold tap, cupping some water in his hands he began to splash his face repetitively. It was one of the very few ways in which Gerard could properly wake himself up. He stood up slowly and looked at his wet face in the mirror, it looked the same as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that; it was the familiar zombified face that met his sight in the mirror every morning, and he was beginning to grow tired of it.
Upon re-entering his room, Gerard found himself at a loss with what to do. His gaze slowly fell to the dirty window pane on the far side in the room, he continued to watch as small tracks of grime were washed away by the tears of the clouds outside, and like him the clouds yearned for a reason to be happy, but found nothing but an empty and cold hearted city, to which they were nothing. Well in Gerard’s opinion anyway,
“I really do think too deeply about things.” He mumbled absentmindedly, continuing to stare out the window, before casting another sweeping glance around the room. It dawned on him, that the most likely outcome of the day, would be that he would have to spend the whole day at home doing odd jobs at home, this thought filled him with a sense of dread. It was all just another version of work for him, and he didn’t know why this grubby little flat was so hard to maintain, and Gerard was almost certainly convinced that while he was at work a large group of people, or maybe a stampede had run riot through all the rooms.
“Great, another weekend of the rest of my life.” Gerard grumbled, walking slowly into the front room, he was once again, met with even more of a mess than before, “Shock horror, and this room’s even worse. Maybe I should-.” He cut off and looked around, frowning slightly. “Who the hell am I talking to?” Mentally noting the fact that talking to ones self was not a normal thing to do, Gerard proceeded to pull out his ‘day planner’ just to check just in case he had something planned which he’d magically forgotten about. He picked up the small black, tattered planner off the floor; how it had gotten there he hadn’t a clue, probably that large group of people again. Gerard laughed as he flipped through the empty pages, until he finally got to this weeks plans. Saturday 2nd June, he laughed again as he noticed the fact that he had previously scrawled the words “Fuck all” across the entire weeks plan.
After flopping down onto the rather cluttered sofa, he proceeded to launch the planner across the room in a fit of despair. He casually propped his head up against the back of the chair, and stared emptily at the ceiling, looking at the tiny little patterns that had been unintentionally moulded into the plaster. He frowned again, a tiny speck of realisation hitting him, he grinned and looked over to where he had lobbed his planner,
“Well at least I now know how it got there.” He proceeded to laugh, louder and louder, until he no longer new what he was laughing at, and eventually tears of hysteria rolled down his cheeks. Abrupt silence shortly followed, in which Gerard stared hollowly at the far wall, which was stained by damp in some places, and dirt in others.
“I really need to get out more.” He mumbled effortlessly. For minutes after, all that could be heard was the soft pattering of the rain on the windows of the flat, interrupted occasionally by cars in the street outside. These familiar noises were of no disturbance to Gerard, and he continued to stare, thinking and not particularly feeling anything. Gerard’s deep, meditation like state was snapped by the high pitched screaming of the phone. Gerard jumped into motion and made a quick grab for the phone, snatching it up after only the third ring.
“Hello?” He spoke rather quietly, as loud noises really weren’t the best thing for early morning, in his opinion.
“What?” The voice down the other end of the phone belted.
“Hello?” Gerard shouted back just as loud as the voice on the other end, he then walked back over to the sofa and crouched on it.
“Gerard is that you? It’s me.” The voice called.
“Oh hello there me. No Gerard isn’t in at the moment he’s just gone to school. Can I take a message? Or do you think you could maybe, oh I don’t know, stop shouting for a minute? Unless you want to make my ears bleed.” Gerard replied cynically, with a rather large smirk spreading across his face.
“Oh ha ha, very funny. Yes anyway, it’s me, Frank.” The phone crackled slightly in-between words, and Gerard guessed that once again, Frank was phoning whilst driving.
“It is? Oh well, you had me fooled; I thought you were my mum. Oh yea and it’s never a good idea to drive and phone, you know? I don’t want you crashing and making a nasty mess of that nice car of yours.” Gerard chuckled, this conversation was very predictable for him, as it seemed most of his calls went this way. Always with the sarcastic comments.
“ Well then, there was me thinking you cared. Bastard. And what do you mean, nice car? This thing is a piece of trash, and you know that.” Frank replied in an almost hurt tone. This amused Gerard, as Frank had always been a terrible actor at school, and it showed.
“ Care? What me? You must have me confused with someone else. Anyway what do you want Frankie darling?” sarcasm literally dripping off the last word.
“Oh yea, right. Me and the others were wondering if maybe, if you’re not too busy that maybe we could-.” Gerard cut Frank off awkwardly,
“You know I’d love to Frankie, but you know I have a lot of-.” Frank replied by cutting Gerard off just as quickly.
“Yea I know, let me guess? More work?” Gerard sighed at the realism of Frank’s words, as frustrating as it was, he was right. Gerard mumbled in response, only to get interrupted by Frank. “Okay I get the picture Gee, well how about you ring me when you’re free, and we arrange something? Sound good?” Frank asked questioningly, and somewhat patronisingly, but Gerard doubted that he meant it to be, Frank just cared, that was all.
“Yea okay Frank. Well I’ll talk to you later then.” Gerard grumbled,
“Yea, see you later Gee. Bye” There was a light clicking noise, followed by silence from the other end of the phone, and slowly Gerard removed the phone away from his ear and stared down at it.
“Bye.”
Slowly Gerard made his way to his room, and flopped heavily back onto his bed, even though it was barely even midday. He lay facing the ceiling, his thoughts trailing happily through the past he remembered so well. Effortlessly he reached under the bed and began to fumble around for something, until he grasped a hold on an old shoebox, slowly lifting it up and placing it on the bed next to him. Gerard began to rummage through the contents of the box, to anyone looking in, they would have seen a box full of old photos and bits of paper, and maybe even the occasional item, but to Gerard the box was where he kept all of his past memories, a place where he could hide his previous life from his current self. And on solitary days like this one, he would rifle through its contents to remind himself of what life once was, but only ever on slow days, when there was nothing better to do.
After a lot of fiddling, Gerard finally removed a small photograph, and a rather fancy pen. He looked at them both and smiled, an empty reminiscent smile, laced with the thoughts and dreams of the past. The photo was that of him and all his friends on his 18th birthday, his parents in the background grinning at their son, happiness present in everyone’s eyes, even the sky looked happy to be there. Gerard’s eyes then trailed to the pen in his hand, light blue, with black patterns etched all over it, the pen was a heavy thing, it’s high price more than obvious, and although the ink had long since run out, it still held a much finer matter, that would only ever mean something to Gerard.
The day continued to flutter by aimlessly, with minutes turning to long hours, and overall the day ended slowly. But ironically, no amount of cleaning or work was ever done.