Year 1: Blissful Ignorance - Claire Fraser

Hey everyone, this an extract from one of my pieces involving two guys having a normal working day at the morgue, when one of the men has one of those 'what is life?' moments. Because the piece was so long I took my favourite bits from the piece and put them together as best I could. Hope you like :3

Barry and Henry

The room was dingy, tiles of a dirty green-grey colour reflected the clinical white walls lined with, what look like filing cabinets or cupboards. The fluorescent lights shone on the grey metal cupboards, giving the surroundings a greyish dreary tint.

A door at the far end of the room clangs as it is opened.

“Hey Barry” A man says as he walks in, taking off his coat and placing it on a hook, out of the way of the drawers.

“Hello Henry, how’s the wife?”

“Shelley’s good, just got a new job at the school down the road” Henry walks into the centre of the room with a grin on his face as he puts on some transparent plastic gloves.

“Ah, good for her, tell her well done from me” He says as he smiles at Henry. He then turns back to the metal drawers that lay before him.

“We’ve got a new one” States Barry, pointing to one of drawers.

Henry notices that Barry seems a little distant and places one hand on his shoulder.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing, just thinking about work” Barry says, slipping out of Henry’s friendly hold.

“Nah, come on man, what’s up?” Henry walks towards Barry with concerned eyes.

“Have you ever just looked at the cold chambers and felt like there’s a thousand stories in there that just ended, and you’ll never know them?”

“I try not to think about it too much to be honest” He pats Barry on the back and then walks across the narrow room, leaving Barry to get his head straight.

“Seriously though, when you think about it, they’re all here with years and years of experience and stories that won’t go on any further. They’re just numbers now, I don’t even know their names”

“Of course we do, we have it on our database, I have number 6’s name right here… Mr. Goldwin” says Henry, gesturing to the piece of paper with his name on it.

“That’s my point! ‘Number 6’s name’” Barry mocks Henry, with a sarcastic tone.

“Oh, you know what I meant!” Henry sulks.

“Seriously though, look at him and tell me that you’re fine with calling him ‘number 6’ ”Barry walks over to drawer number 6 and pulls it open.

On the metal slab lay a man, in his mid-thirties. His eyes and mouth are closed yet his face seems distorted, as if his death was horrific enough to mould it into a petrified look, the last expression he’ll ever make.

Mr. Goldwin – number 6

“Daddy, will you play football with me?” These words soared through Mr. Goldwin’s head as he remembered his son, Danny.

After his funeral last week, seeing a miniature sized coffin lowered into the ground, Mr. Goldwin had finally been broken. All of his life he had carried on, no matter what life hit him with. He worked his way up in his job, now a well-respected business man, but in doing so he neglected to realise that his wife was sick of him. A year ago they had divorced, but still Mr. Goldwin brought in more and more money from his business, giving a large amount to his ex-wife so that his son would lead a happy life, without worry.

That ended one month ago when Danny, at the age of seven and a half, ran in front of the car of a distracted driver. Danny did not leave this earth because of any heroic action, as he always said he would when he had convinced himself that he would be a fire fighter, he died because someone wasn’t looking.

Mr. Goldwin mulled this over, his sons voice in his head happily chirping “When I die daddy, I will die because I will be saving people from buildings, I’ll die a hero!” to which Mr. Goldwin said to him “When you become a fire fighter, nothing will stop you Danny boy, you’re not dying for years and years! That means that we can play football every weekend for however long you want”. Mr. Goldwin regretted these words every time he remembered them.

As these words suffocated his mind he felt the icy cold breeze slap his face. He looked down at the street sprawled out before him, people the size of ants walking around below him going on with their daily lives. He looked ahead of him, examining the horizon where the sun was now setting below the tops of tall buildings, and then he jumped.

Barry and Henry

“Close the drawer, you’re creeping me out!” Henry walks to the other side of the room.

“I wonder how he died, he looked so… so… worried” Barry twiddled his fingers, now regretting looking at the dead corpse judgingly when he was only meant to look after it until someone came to take it away.

“Yeah, I don’t know, he looked like he was happy when he died to me. His face seemed worried but his mouth was almost wrinkled into a sort of… smile” curiosity had now overtaken Henry as it had done with Barry at the beginning.

“Let’s get number 9 sorted, Barry” Henry opens the drawer of number 9.

“She’d look like a younger version of Charlotte, if she wasn’t so burnt” Barry says looking down at the young girl in her 20s.

“Your new bird?” Henry nudges Barry with his elbow.

“Yes Henry, my girlfriend, the one that I’ve been dating for four months”

“Details. Let’s get this one sorted” Henry says as he starts to move her.

Rosie – number 9

Ben and Rosie, walking side by side while holding hands, headed off to the train station after a weekend of cinema, restaurants and shopping.

“So, did you have a nice weekend?” Ben asked with a huge grin on his face.

“Nah, your bathroom is disgusting, I didn’t want to go to the toilet the whole time I was at your house” Rosie joked sarcastically, although the comment about the bathroom was true.

“Very funny, I’ll try and sort that out when I get back home but the plumber keeps cancelling on me”

A bell starts ringing to warn people that a train is about to pull up into the station.

“This is my train, I had a great time, hopefully I’ll see you in two weeks, love you” Rosie wraps her arms around Bens neck, his warm body shielding her from the winters cold, making her feel safe.

“Love you too, message me when you get home so that I know that you’re safe” Ben returned the hug, intimate at first, but before they finally let go he ended with a big bear hug.

Rosie looked back and waved at him as she stepped onto the train, she then purposely sat in a seat by the window so that she could look out and see Ben.

The clock turned to quarter past four. Again the bell rang, indicating that the train was now about to leave the station.

As the train started rolling away, Ben with a smile on his face, waved goodbye to Rosie’s train.

In the next instant Bens face, and everyone else’s that was in the station, had a second of shock that swept across it which slowly turned into horrific realisation. Everyone on the platform stood, mouths slightly open and eyebrows turned up in a concerned frown, not yet able to cry but their hearts feeling as shredded as they had ever felt. Looking into the distance, across the tracks, they had just witnessed the train that was only just in sight turn into a ball of flames in the space of two seconds, their ears still ringing from the mighty sound of the explosion. The warmth from the red and orange spectacle slowly reaching their cold, ridged bodies.

Ben stood, his hand still in the air from waving goodbye.