PRESENT DAY (December. 1999)

It was another bitterly cold, December afternoon in late 1999. There was a lean,, dirty-looking, belligerent, male. He had an unfriendly face and looked no younger than 63. He wore an old, faded greyed black, double breasted suit with a classic worn-in, English man‘s black, top hat. To any young person passing, he would have looked like he was in some form of fancy dress.

He walked with a heavy weight emphasised on his right leg. Not many people knew that his limp had been caused many years ago, when there was nothing that could have been done, to correct the problem. He always refused to walk with the much needed cane, he had laying dormant in his living room. He was a very proud man, who never let on to any pain he may have felt, instead opting for a longer than intended walk, to wherever he fancied that day. [+300 words]

To be continued…

There stood a shadow six foot six, dressed in dark clothes and soaking wet. The rain was rushing down heavy and cold. The man was hiding in the shadows aware of each person passing. No one would look in his direction in fear of what was there.  

There was a mother with her two little children on her way back from the supermarket and a teenager on his way home from a friend’s house unaware of what was near. They would go on to recount how they scurried past and did not look him in the eye. This image struck fear into the street that night. Something as glinting in the darkness from the reflection of the street lights. No one dared to walk too close in fear of attack. There was something shifty and dangerous about the man in black.

This was not the regular look to the area. In the summer it was a street filled with children’s laughter and tears as they played kiss chase and hopscotch in the warm filled bright evenings. The teenagers booming their music too late for a school night and the mothers and fathers sat with their cold drinks talking over the fences and walls between neighbours. It was a happy time, and a happy place normally. [500+ words]

To be continued…