The Street

November morning 6.00am. There’s a dampness in the air that causes the milkman to cough and spit something green onto the pavement. The long narrow road is dark. Street lamps stopped working months ago, smashed by local kids with nothing else to do. Council can’t be bothered to replace them. They’ll only get smashed again. Only a handful of house lights are on. Most have nothing to get up for. Old Mrs Jennings cat is scratching at the door, too fat to get through the flap. She over feeds it. Yet wears three jumpers to keep out the cold. She says she can’t afford to put the heating on. Next door Julie Stevens stands outside in just her dressing gown shivering on the doorstep. First fag of the day. She lives with her uncle who hates the smell of cigarette smoke. Both her parents taken by lung cancer last year. She’s never had a proper job since she left school five years ago, just does a bit of cleaning at the local pub. Pay’s a pittance but it keeps her in fags and bingo. At number 54 Mrs Patel is already up and cleaning her windows, the house is lit up like a Belisha beacon as she scurries around from room to room. The kids are still in bed but she’ll get them up soon so that her mini cab driving husband can give them a lift to school before he gets a few well deserved hours of sleep. Two doors down the house is boarded up. Steel shutters on all the windows and doors. Been that way for years now since the Taylor family were evicted for non- payment of rent. They took their revenge by taking every light switch, ceiling rose, tap, radiator, even the floorboards. Number 78 has an old ford Cortina in the front garden just rotting away. Mr Clarke says he’s going to restore it but it’s been there since the eighties. The two Staffordshire bull terriers in the garden of number 90 have been barking all night. No one complains. No one dares.

The house on the corner is in darkness, as it has been for weeks. Old Mr Wells must have gone to stay with his son who lives somewhere up north, cos no one’s seen him for a while. Silly old sod must have also forgotten to cancel the milk…