poetical-verse
Category:
Action/Thriller
Type: Fiction
Living his life on a permanent downer, Sam Twiddle doesn’t even know his problems exist. When an angel takes him to heaven to show him the error of his ways, they encounter a problem. Someone has stolen his body.
Enlisting the help of Wilson, the old man in the wheelchair who’s not quite who he seems, and the over eccentric Otis who’s a few pebbles short of a beach, Sam has to discover the hidden secrets to his
This is a work in progress, which has been on hold for some time due to my daughters birth 3 years ago. Somehow I just havent found the time to get back to it, but I will soon, as its nearly finished.
Below is a teaser chapter for you to read, please let me know what you think of it and leave your views for me below.
Excerpt
The Beginning
It was the height of summer time and the year was nineteen ninety. It was hot, sticky and very sunny. It was almost midday and the sun was at its highest in the sky. Sam Twiddle was standing at the edge of the cliff top, about to jump. Since his mother and father had died, almost a year ago to the day, Sam had felt sad, lonely and depressed. They had been killed you see. It was an accident though, a freak driving accident. Sam had been playing in his school concert, and they had been driving across town to watch him when it happened. He hadn’t even heard about it until the concert had finished. When he had come back out on stage for the final bow and saw they still weren’t there, his face had dipped low, tears in his eyes. It had shocked him when he was told, more so than anyone could have ever anticipated. He was only fifteen back then, young and broken. Now nearing his sixteenth birthday, he felt even more alone.
He had long since stopped his driving lessons, he had been too scared to even get inside a car, let alone drive one after that day. You could almost say he had developed a phobia of cars. He had never been allowed to see them, to mourn for them, or to say good bye to them.
He had moved out of his parents home when it was sold off to pay for the funeral and the other bills they had left behind. He had no other family to go to, no one to care for him, no one who even cared enough to take him into their home. He had no one at all. He had refused to live in a foster home, and had ran away from so many families that no one even wanted to have him any more. People would now rather go away without a child than go home with him. He had terorised the foster home, and no matter how much they tried to help him, he just wouldn’t let go of the anger and pain. He now lived in a tiny, dirty caravan. The kind of wooden ones that sat wherever they were placed and never moved. A static one.
On this particular day, His sixteenth birthday, Sam had had enough of it all. The growing pain inside him could not escape. He had no one to turn to for help. He had no friends to reel his tales of woe to, not even a shoulder to cry on. Sure there was Helen Adams, but she was always running off with every bloke in town. She had no time for her newborn son, let alone time for him. Ever since they were in school together, they had been friends, but when she started dating, they grew apart, then when her son was born, their friendship went out the window altogether.
Today was the day, today he was going to fling his life to nature and evade the pain once and for all. Today, he would finally cease the anguish and end the loneliness; at least that was his plan.
He stood up on the cliff top in the woods behind the park where his home sat, equally alone and falling apart. The trees towered up high above his head, blocking out all but the tiniest sparkle of sunlight. Down below him was the softly ebbing tide as it splashed gently against the jagged rocks with silence and ease. He was standing right at the edge, his feet dangling off the side, his arms outstretched like the wings of a bird soaring through the sky. He held a picture of his parents in one hand and a piece of scraggly paper in the other. On the paper he had written his thoughts. Every single thought and feeling that he held inside himself. Some of them were happy, but mostly they were sad, some were good, but mostly they were bad.
Glancing firstly at the picture he smiled, not the kind of smile you would give to a stranger as you passed them in the street, more the kind of smile you would give to someone who came bearing a gift you really hated, but told them you loved it anyway. A kind of false smile.
Glancing then towards the piece of paper, his half-hearted false smile turned to a frown. A frown so sad that his chin began to twitch as his muscles tensed up around the jaw.
He edged a little closer to the end of the cliff now, his toes dangling off the grassy edge. Now staring straight ahead into the clear blue sky that bared the smallest of cloud that was drifting along by itself, he screamed out.
“I hate my life,” he shouted.
“Why do you hate your life?” A voice came back to him across the warm air. A soft and gentle voice, a female voice, a voice filled with concern.
Without turning around, or even concerned who it was, he remained fixed on the horizon like a statue.
He ignored the voice, and just continued to stare out into the distance.
“Why do you hate your life?” the voice asked again.
“What’s it to you anyway?” He snapped.
“Why do you hate your life?” She repeated, in the same calm tone.
“Why do you think? I have no family, my best friend doesn’t even notice me anymore, I’m useless at everything I do, and I’m alone.”
“Your not alone Sam, there are people all around you who are willing to help you and be there for you, all you have to do is ask them.”
“Ask who?” He went to turn around, but his footing slipped and he began to fall. The picture fell from his hand and fell heavily to the water where it sunk instantly. As Sam too began to tumble backwards towards the watery grave, the woman stopped him. Grabbing at his shirt, she pulled him back to the safety of the cliff top. As the picture had done, the letter too now fell from his grasp. But unlike the heavy picture frame, the letter did not sink. Instead it just floated softly back and forth in the breeze. Slowly getting lower and lower until it landed softly and silently on the water before it soaked through and vanished from sight.
“Your not useless either Sam, you just need to believe in yourself.”
“What would you know?”
“I know plenty of things Sam, and I know you don’t really want to die today.”
“And what makes you think I don’t want to die?”
“You don’t want to die, you just want to end the pain. There’s a difference.”
Sam stood on the safety of the land, looking over the edge. As he peered over, he leaned too far and struggled to stop himself falling over a second time. Grabbing at him again, the woman stopped him tumbling over the edge again and pulled him further inland.
Suddenly realizing how close he was to death, he suddenly became scared of it, and he no longer wanted to jump off after all. Ok so he had lost his family, and friends, and he had nothing to live for, but he also had no reason to die. He was young, he had his whole life ahead of him to grow and expand. He could get through this, of course he could, he could live.
“Thank you, you saved my life,” he said as he turned around to face his savior.
“Twice actually.”
“What’s your name?”
“Tamara.”
“Thank you so much.” He smiled
Without any warning, she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. A warm and gentle kiss. A kiss of feeling.
“Thank you,” he repeated.
When he looked back to the edge from where he had so nearly tumbled to his death, he was glad she had pulled him back to reality. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t know what he wanted really, but he knew he didn’t want to die.
Turning back to the lady who had saved him from making the mistake of a lifetime, he found she had gone. It was as though she had vanished into thin air. He stood alone, alive, but alone once more.
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