On A Park Bench Near Brixton

Jack walked into the park about the same time every day . Nine o-clock .
He always carried the same brown paper bag . It concealed his bottle of Gin from public view .
Jack always took his regular place on the park bench overlooking the oval .
The bench was close enough to the gate and the gate was close enough to the traffic lights that stopped the busy flow of cars and buses on the main road to Brixton and beyond . Across the road was the off license liquor store .
An oasis in the desert of despair .
Jack enjoyed a bottle of gin in the desert and took to the street like a camel
in easy walking distance to the oasis .

Usually one bottle of gin was enough for him to cross the desert .
There were no statues in the park . Just a path around an oval where people walked their dogs .Nobody noticed Jack there on the bench . He was one of the invisible things in life . Like school kids who had already been through the park on their morning parade .
Jack liked being invisible and he never wanted to be seen again by anybody unless they were invisible as well .
Jack had a few invisible friends who called in to the park .

As he twisted the top from the bottle he very slowly lifted the neck of the bottle to his lips . He dreaded dropping the bottle with his shaking hands . With dry lips he sipped a mouthful and slowly brought the bottle back down by his side and as he did he felt another hand grab the bottle from him . Jack jumped up in fear and screamed .

“Hey you stop that .“

The thug took a swig from the bottle and laughed .
Jack could see it was Grub . Another of the invisible characters who dropped by from time to time .
Grub was different than most . He stood there in these big black heavy boots and was drowned in his big oversized army pants with a floppy flap jacket .
His red coloured hair was heavily gelled and shot out in spikes from one side of his head . The other side of his head was shaved bald . He had most of his teeth missing and when he laughed you could hear this slurping sucking kind of sound . Jack reached out his hand and Grub passed back the bottle .

“How’s the bus ?”
Said Jack who stood up .

The punk threw his arms around Jack and said ,

“The bus is fine you know , it’s home from home .“
Said Grub and sat down on the bench .

“Hey Jacko how’s things with you ?”

“Yeah , great nothing ever changes round here .”

He slowly raised the bottle to his lips and drank another mouthful of gin .
Jack passed the bottle of gin over to Grub . Three men came in the front gate of the park and made their way directly to the bench . Before Jack could say a word of warning the three men attacked them where they sat .

When Jack opened his eyes he saw Grub leaning over him with a look of concern .’

“Are you ok Jacko ?”

Jack couldn’t talk or move .

“Can you point where it hurts Jack .“
Said Grub .
Jack couldn’t . All he could do was echo this deep grunt sound .

Grub said ,
“I know who did this . Their day will come .”

“How is your friend Mister .“
A school kid passing by asked .

“I don’t know . Can you get an ambulance . I don’t want to leave him ?”
Grub said .

“Sure , just wait and I’ll get some help .“
Shortly the sound of a siren was heard .

Everything was happening . People started to gather around .
Jack was taken away from the park and rushed to nearby Guys hospital .
The doctor and nurse came over to meet the ambulance .
Jack was drifting in and out of consciousness .

That evening Grub called to the hospital to see if Jack was comfortable .
The nursing staff were happy to see somebody who knew Jack as he had no identification on him .
Grub passed on some information and the nurses took some notes .
Jack lay was receiving intensive care and looked in a bad way .
Being over six foot Jack’s feet were sticking our from the bottom of the bed but they didn’t seem to be moving at all .

“Can you tell me what happened ?“
The nurse asked .
As Grub began to talk Jacks eyes suddenly opened up and glanced around in the direction of Grubs voice .

“Stand here where he can see you “
The nurse said to grub .

“Well we were just sitting on a park bench and three men came over and started punching and kicking us .“

“Did you recognise any of the men who attacked you ?”
Grub looked away and said ,
“ Ah no . “

Suddenly the news came on the TV .
When the news footage about three men holding a group of people hostage came on Grub looked up .

The broadcaster of the news continued to give a report of the hostage drama .

“After the police exchanged the money for the hostages they entered the building from the rooftop . The gun battle that followed was over in two minutes . The three armed men who were killed are said to be bus drivers . The reason behind this incident is unclear and police are asking anyone who has any information about the three to contact them on this special .”

The police number came up on the TV Screen . The nurses were too busy with what they were doing to see hoe interested Grub was with the news report .

Suddenly there was a loud beeping from some of the equipment .
Jacks heart had stopped and there was a frantic effort to save his life .

Grub was asked to leave and wait outside where he watched .
After a short time one of the doctors came to tell Grub that Jack had died .

Grub was the only person who knew Jack and as far as it was known there was no next of kin .

A mellow kind of light shone down the corridor of the hospital as the two figures walked off out the door . One man holding a brown bag and the other seemed to has a set of wings .
But that couldn’t be .
Men don’t have wings , do they ?

The End

By Paul McCann