Unwanted

Red Sky At Morning

James clerk emerged from the small end terrace house where he still lived with his mother. He pulled a packet of cigarettes from his pockets and lit up. It had snowed all weekend, and was still falling.

James had been unemployed since leaving school six years ago, but the good old days of enjoying on the dole were over James now had to work full time for his dole because the new government was cracking down on the long term unemployed. He had been given a work as a council gardener at the city museum, just a ten minute walk from his house. He had wanted to stop home this morning like everyone else, but he had heard nothing from the office that the work was counseled. His mother had said if he did not show up, his dole would be stopped and he had to find somewhere else to live.

There was bang on the front window and his mother’s face “full of anger” appeared. He gave her the fingers and set off up the hill.

Four pretty teenage girls were coming towards him. They were thinin their high school dress, they chatted away excitedly in their high class accents about how they had been turned away from school swiping at their iPhones, the signature white headphone wired swinging against skirt pockets. They crowded the sidewalks and didn’t part when James reached them, so he was forced to stop down off the roadside into a slush. He felt icy water seep into his new trainers and shot them a dirty look but they were too absorbed in their gossip, screaming with laughter.

James turned right into a residential street which ran parallel to the iron railings of the museum grounds. As he reached its summit, he stopped for a moment to catch his breath. Snow flew into his eyes, scratchy and cold. On a fine day you could see London spread out from here. But today thick white cloud had descended and James could only see sprawl of the over-hill housing estate on the hill opposite.

The small gate with iron railings was locked. The wind was now blazing horizontally and he shivered in his trackies. An old foolish was in charge of the gardening crew James was supposed to wait for him to show up and let him in but the street was empty. Then he took a thin pathway between tall evergreen hedges.

Sheltered from the wind, the world around him fell silent. The snowfall was fast and rapidly refilled his footprints as he made his way through the street.

The museum and its grounds covered seventeen acres and the sheds for gardening and maintenance were set right at the back.