Escaping Hackney

Chapter 1 - Friday 7th September

7:30pm

'Happy Birthday to you, Happy Bithday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Grandad, Happy Birthday to you!' It's Grandad Pauls 90th birthday and we're having a chinese to celebrate. He's partially deaf, has cataracts in both eyes and he's dying, so if that means singing to a deaf man (well almost)and eating fortune cookies till we're blue in the face then that's what we'll do. It's not like I have a choice, even if I didn't want to be here I'm grounded. House Arrest. Not even allowed out for a magazine. 14-years-old and stuck in the house.

8:30pm

Everyone has finished their meal except Grandad who insists on using chopsticks. Mum kindly offers to get him a knife and fork but he refuses so while we wait for him to finish Mum orders some fortune cookies. A young chinese boy serves us and had this not been Grandads birthday dinner I would've got his number. I watch him walk back into the kitchen and when i turn around Grandad has finished and is tucking into the largest fortune cookie, Mum has picked up hers and in the middle of the silver platter lies my fortune. I know what you're thinking 'It's just a damn cookie and fortunes aren't real!' But hey, I can dream. I crack open the cookie and place the fortune card on the table. I put the cookie in my mouth, it's dry and they really should add more sugar to this recipe. I wash it down with a glass of cold coke and I'm thinking of complaining just to get that cute waiter over here again. Just as I go to wave him over Mum announces that it's time to hit the road. I sigh, grab my jacket and pick up my fortune. Sounds weird when you say it like that, almost as if you could change your own fortune and it's about time my fortune changed.

9:05pm

The drive home is uneventful apart from the sound of Grandad snoring on the front passenger seat. He's living with us until he dies, Mum says that it's the least we can do. And it's not like we don't have the room. Me and Mum live in a 5 bedroom victorian house in London. It has 2 en-suites, 2 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms and a massive kitchen. My Mum is the infamous Lynne Moore, she's an artist. She uses one of the reception rooms nfor her exhibitions and one of the bedrooms as her office/drawing room. So with the other reception room being used as our front room we have a spare one which has become Grandads bedroom for the duration of his stay.

Mum has sent me straight to bed as part of my punishment for throwing a party which wrecked the house. I was sentanced to 1 month of house arrest (parents translation - grounded) and having my curfew dropped by 3 hours to 5pm. My life sucks and like I said it's about time my fortune changed. I open my window to air my room. I take off my jacket and hang it up in the wardrobe. Then I take the fortune out of my jeans pocket. The wind is picking up, so with the fortune in my left hand I go to shut the window. As I go to pull it shut a sudden gust of wind whips the fortune out of my hand but not before I got a glimpse of the card. And it read;

'You take things for granted
and all that is about to change.
Be prepared to have your world turned upside down
while there's nothing that YOU can do!'

I go to bed thinking about what the card could mean but quickly forget about it as i think about what to but with my savings. I drift into a sleep filled of Gucci and walk-in-wardrobes.