Friday 14 December 2018

One of Seven


A man sat in a caravan. He looked at his phone, it was stuck on the same image of his daughter, 
her cute face was red and tears were streaming down her face. He tried to get his phone to work 
so he could call his wife or find out where he was but it was just a static photo.


Next  he looked at the 3 clocks, they had a read 6 o'clock for hours. Then he looked outside the 
musty caravan he found himself in; the sky was every shade of bruise, it also hadn’t changed in 
hours. The sound of the wind comforted him at first but he soon realised the roar was continuous 
so it was unnatural and it just added to the sick feeling in his stomach that he wasn’t on holiday.


He was a permanently bored man so it didn’t take him long to count everything in the damp 
smelling caravan. The kitchen cupboards were covered in an old fashioned rose design and there were 3 blooms on the 3 doors. He counted the windows and there were 3. The curtains match the kitchen cupboards and there were 7 blooms on on each one.


Out of desperation he followed a tea stain on the table with his finger and he had a strange 
compulsion to count 21 circles.


Just as he’d counted everything and the image on his phone no longer had any emotional impact he tried to get out but he felt dizzy for a minute and he was thrown back into the same seat staring at his phone.


The door opened. A large woman came first. The man was relieved, another human was
something to do.


“What the hell....”


Then the man felt a cold cloud of dread come over him,


“My wife was right, hell does exist, am I here forever., if only..”


“You hadn’t texted through mass”


Said the round, motherly looking woman in a robotic tone


“ All will be explained, come on sinners”


The man took in the sight and contradictions of this woman. She was round in every way, her skirt was billowing and her top was a mass of pale blue fabric but she spoke like Seri.


6 sinners walked in and sat down on the plastic benches, they all had a stone in front of them 
apart from the man.


“Do you remember your name.....”


Asked the woman in the tone of his sat nav.


The man suddenly realised he’d forgotten his own name.


He shook his head and the feeling in his stomach became alarming.


“That’s because you’re Greed for now, you’ll remember your name when you’ve detached yourself from your many sins.”


“What are the stones for”


Asked Greed.


“He who is without sin can cast the first stone, so if anyone gets angry at what you say and throws a stone they go to hell. We’re New Testament here you see.”


“So I’m not already in Hell”


“Nope, you’re too boring for that, you’re where most humans end up, Purgatory, most humans commit sins out of addiction or despair, they’re seedy little acts that build up and hurt god, but more importantly the people closest to them. All these sinners are just grubby little people, take a look at them. “


Lust was a rather striking woman but her attractiveness was dampened by a look of shame. Pride looked out of place in the rundown caravan in a suit so flashy you would guess his soul would have to be cheap. Envy had artificial green eyes that darted around at everything as if on the hunt for something she already had, gluttony had a face so fat it was circular and his mouth faded into the mass of his face. Wrath was a small women with mousy hair but an expression that scared Greed and sloth had long, unkempt hair and a grubby tee shirt but Greed could tell this wasn’t a grunge fashion statement but horrible self neglect.


“What a sad bunch, they’re people with intelligence and potential but their grubby little sins ruined everything, they rebelled against God and let down everyone around them. Today is the day, Greed you hate your sin. Look at your phone now”


Greed looked at the screen, there was now a video of his daughter, she was singing. The roar of the fake storm stopped and a deeply annoying tinny tune started Greed noticed how beautiful his daughter was with eyes so big and blue and with neat face and a button nose. How did Greed only notice he had a lovely daughter when he died? His daughter was singing Karaoke at a holiday camp. The tune  got louder when everyone heard a child singing with clarity and emotion.


“Who is that” asked Envy


“It’s Greed's daughter. And Greed, what were you doing when your daughter was singing?”


A projection appeared on the wall, it was a tweet.


“ Bloody hell not this tune again #Let it Go”


Under the tweet there was a score, he had 100 retweets and 200 loves.


“So you were so busy needing love from your thousands of followers you didn’t notice you daughter has a lovely voice, given by god to make people happy”


Wrath looked furious, she played with the stone on front of her.


“He’s not worth it, remember Hell is eternity”


Wrath nodded with a defeated look on her face.


"Look at your phone again."


Said the robotic voice.


Greed looked down and saw a home movie in sickly, advertisement like colours, his wife and child looked thrilled, they bounced on a big bed. This caravan was clean and luxurious. Geed shuddered.


"Oh god."


Exclaimed Greed, what did I do?".


The robot smiled.


"This shouldn't take too long now, I can see the sadness."


"Do you want to pass your phone around and share with the group..."


Reluctantly Greed passed around his phone.


"Do tell"


Said the robotic voice.


"This is the caravan we could have got, if I hadn't spent some of our savings on the tablet."


The film carried on, his daughter and wife ate ice cream and giggled. The sinners gave Greed dirty looks.


"And who do I look like?"


Said the woman.


Greed thought, pictures of his life flickered through his mind.


"You look like the councillor woman."


"The one you refused to see because your life was perfect."


Greed felt an unfamiliar tear slide down his cheek.


"My life wasn't perfect, was it."


Greed wept the words.


"And now it's too late. Oh look the film changed."


Greed looked at a horrifying film of his own death, he was holding his phone grinning on the edge of a cliff, he stepped back and a massive force of wind made him tumble down the cliff face”.


"Your family were gutted for a while but they moved on, your lovely Catholic wife married again and your daughter is at music school, she  was so proud to get in."


The man's phone disappeared and it was replaced by an old fashioned phone. Greed looked  at the contraption in disgust.


"Greed this is the only thing you can talk to your family on, you can say sorry."


"What the Hell"


Shouted Greed  


Anger went to pick up her flickering, virtual rock.


“So you’re going to send this woman’s soul to Hell because you can’t talk on an old school phone, seriously?”


Greed picked up the phone, everyone could hear the crackling call.


“Hello”


Choked Greed.


“Dad, why weren’t you there, that bloody phone.”


“I’m Sorry, I heard you got married, is he good for you?”


“Yes”


Replied his daughter.


“And the best thing is he doesn’t own a moby, he hates technology, so I know he’ll always look our kids in the eye.”


“Well grandad was there for me, I didn't have him for long though, and then you, with your stupid bloody selfies….”


“By the way, where are you? How the hell are you on. the phone to me?, you fell off that stupid cliff, showing off as ever.”


Greed had tears streaming down his face.


The crackles overtook the voices


“If only I has Skype”


He sobbed.


“Nothing would show, we only exist to each other.”


Greed shuddered, he could speak to his daughter but not give her a hug.


“So do you want to hand me your phone?”


Greed looked at the phone, the picture had changed to a woman, his daughter and she now had a smile on her face, she was next to a bearded man who would always look her in the eye.


The woman handed Greed a polaroid picture of his daughter.


“Now hand me the phone..”


Greed loved the smoothness of the object and the lurid, digital colours, but the picture of his daughter faded and he slowly let go.


The roar of the weather faded into birdsong, the clock showed 7 an and the sun began to rise. Greed smiled.


“Not so fast Greed, Sloth, now it’s your turn.”








Saturday 20 January 2018

Princess

I’ll be your broken princess,
At the bottom of the toy box
Because I want to see the sun.
So be my codependent
My better half.

Because I want to be fixed,
I want to be a full grown princess
I want the glass slipper
Because I get sick
Of leaky trainers.

And I fix everything myself
With plasters and cheap glue
But the cracks are showing.
Losing my temper
At tiny things
While I fix the biggest leaks.

Another rainy day
Can’t you take a princess to Spain
And you can be Ken on a horse
With messed up Barbie
By your side.