Andrew, the examiner who had just been contradicted by his 'supposedly' amusing joke had now started listening to the tape. It all went quiet, only the sound of Andrew nodding his head and humming could be heard.
'Ah Ha,' Said Andrew at regular intervals.
'What... What?'
Though Agent smith eagerly asked Andrew to tell him what he had found, he carried on examining the tape, until finally removing the headphones with a contented look on his face. Eventually, he broke through the barrier of his pleased ego and said something.
'Well, I think 'I' am getting somewhere Mr Smith.'
'What do you mean 'YOU’RE' getting somewhere, I found the blasted tape, now tell me what the hell you have found,' Said Agent Smith furiously.
Andrew had found an imperative piece of evidence. The tape, luckily, wasn’t just a music one. It had the deep, rough voice of the killer on it. Further more, it didn’t sound like the voice had been altered...'What an amateur.'
'Great! Rewind it; let me listen,' Agent Smith said impatiently.
Once rewound agent smith took the headphones off Andrew and began to listen enthusiastically. Whilst he was listening Agent Jones, one of the more ‘clumsy’ of the investigation units team came into the van.
'Hey! Jones, watch out for the wire on the floor,' shouted Andrew.
'Huh?'
It was a most amusing sight, Agent Jones, who had now proven just how clumsy he really is tripped over the blatantly obvious wire and went soaring through the small space of the van knocking all the donuts on the floor. He got up.
'You Idiot, everyone shouted.'
He headed for the exit of the van, not noticing that the wire had tangled around his foot. I watched as the wire got tighter and tighter, tenser and tenser, until, ‘pop,’ the headphone lead came out of the socket.
The voice on the tape boomed out across the street as if an old V2 rocket had hit the city.
'I WILL KILL ALL OF THEM!'
I woke up. It was all a dream. It was over... or was it?
I got up from the comfort of my bed, the heat drained away, the day was as cold as ice. I turned to see the clock.
'Awww Sh*t.'
I was late for school by more than an hour, I’m sure to be in for it today, it’s been 3 times now. That stupid form teacher will tell me to go see Mrs Cotton.
After quickly getting dressed, I went down stairs to greet my mother, she had already left.
'Why didn’t she wake me up?' I wondered.
I grabbed my school bag that was more than three years old; we never could afford anything new or with a brand name. I opened the door, it reminded me of the weather in the dream; dark and dismal, though Vatican City usually is like this in the winter.
As I walked to school I couldn’t help thinking about the dream, the way I’d have it every night, always a different person getting killed, it’s like I get to watch a different blockbuster murder movie everyday. However, it was horrible, I do have a bit of decency in me.
Time passed by whilst I was thinking, and in an instant I was standing before the old, iron gates which the paint peeling off from. They were no longer intimidating.
I walked towards class to inform the teacher to why I was late; they were never nice to me.
'Errr, excuse me Miss?' I said quietly.
The gates may not be intimidating, but the teacher sure are.
'Oh, late again are we David,' she replied loudly. A few giggles came from the back of the room.
'Well? Sit at the back now!' she said.
I made my way to the back of the room to the few remaining seats, people looked at me with a patronising stare. I sat down.
'Right class, before we were rudely interrupted, you should know I was talking about some new pupils in school, therefore I would like you to welcome three new students. Matthew Parker, Andrew Pickles and James Pearce,' said Mrs Bark.
They looked like a conniving lot, probably the type that will make my life more of a misery than it already is!
The teacher pointed to the back of the room, where I was sitting.
'You can all sit over there boys,' she exclaimed.
The three boys came to where I was, two sat down next to me.
'Excuse me Mrs Bark? There are no seats left,' shouted the newly started student James Pearce.
Adam Reed stood up, he was one of the notorious bullies in school, one of mine.
'It’s ok Miss, Just take David’s seat away from him, it can be his punishment for being late,' stated Adam with a conniving smile on his face.
I stood up and handed my seat to Pearce and sat in the corner of the room, a tear dripped down my face, it hurt inside.
Later that day, after school, it was like the roads were made out of pure ice, and small puffs of snow slowly came down from the cloudy but blue sky. Winter had always been like this, Kids played in the deep white snow and sledged down the frosty streets, the songs were right, it is a winter wonderland.
I made my way up ‘School Avenue’ passing the more sensible of children, it was all calm and peaceful, until my eyes set on Adam Reed and his gang. All happiness seeped away, where there’s pleasure, there’s always pain.
He came closer.
'Oooh, look what the cat dragged in,' said Adam to his gang. They all laughed.
I never could get to grasps with why Adam could never come out with a good joke, it was always something stupid and petty, but it wasn’t intelligence that mattered to him, it was power, and he had it.
'Hey! Look at me when I talk to you Abdico!'
Abdico was Latin for ‘reject,’ it was a kind of nick name for me around here. Though Latin is not widely spoken as much as it used to be, Adam’s Gang would talk to each other in it sometimes, though, of course not fluently.
'Abdico! You dare ignore me! I’ll break your legs if you don’t answer!'
'Just leave me alone Adam, I’ve had enough,' I said, wishing I never had.
I tuned and walked away. I closed my eyes as I walked, waiting for the painful blow.
It came.
'Arrgh,' I screamed.
Adam hit me in the kidney. I keeled over in pain and terror, staring at him with my bloodshot eyes. I crawled away from him, struggling to regain my breath, he’d knocked it clean out of me.
'Come back David, don’t walk away? or should I say crawl, we were just starting to make friends.'
I carried on, little by little gaining distance...
... all went black.
I woke up in the schools medical wing, the nurse peered over from her desk.
'Are you okay now David?' she said softly.
'I think so, I’ve just been having a terrible dream.'
'I’m not surprised! After what’s happened to you, you’ve been unconscious for an hour.' she said in a concerned voice.
I sat up and leant my head against the comfort of the pillow. Again I was safe, but for how long?
For now I would put that out of my mind, and enjoy my time away from Adam.
'Tell me David? What’s this dream about?' she asked seeming worried.
I explained briefly what had been happening in my dream, she sat for about five minutes thinking, then stood up.
'I think I have something you might want to read.'
She opened the drawer on her desk. It was cluttered with mail from parents writing excuses to why there child was not at school, most of them all cheap imitations. She came to my bedside.
'Here, read this, I think it may help.' she said whilst handing the book over.
She paused for a moment. And seemed apprehensive.
'Remember David, you’re an intelligent young boy, what the book says about your dream is not necessarily true.'
I opened the book and turned to the index. There were lots of parts to the book, I scanned down the list.
'Dad...Day...Defining...Ah! Death!'
I turned to the page and examined the text.
‘When a person dreams about death, or someone being murdered for example, it usually means that there is a high amount of stress in that persons life. The stress could be caused by several things, these include the following. Divorce situations, death of a family member or close friend or even bullying.’
I stopped right there. ‘Bullying.’ That’s exactly what happens to me at school. So Adams the source of these, these horrible dreams. He’s the source of all my stress! There’s got to be a way of calming myself down.
I jumped out of my bed and returned the book to the nurse.
'Was the book any help?' she asked.
'Yes, yes it was actually, thank you Mrs Giles.'
I made my way out of the medical wing just in time for the bell to go signalling the end of school. My face lit up with happiness. We were going on holiday today, to Africa to stay at my Grandmas house. Finally, I’d get to have a taste of my Gran’s home made cookies again.
I caught the bus home, I didn’t want to be late for the departure at my house. Me and my mum are both going down to the Airport to catch the Plane and I didn’t want to make us miss it like last year.
After a pleasant journey I got home and within a few minute finished packing all I needed. My Grandma always insisted that she do all the catering, she liked to look after the guests as much as possible.
A few hours later, we were on the plane journeying to Africa. It usually takes about two hours to get there so the two in plane movies were just enough to keep me from going insane.
'Can I get you anything Darling,' Mum asked with a smile on her face.
She always was happy when we would go to Grandmas, she hardly ever sees her.
'Oh yes please Mum, I’m dying of thirst.'
The air hostess came and handed out the drinks, which were free luckily as we didn’t have any money to spend anyway. My Mum always said ‘You don’t need luxuries at those prices.’ If they did cost anything then she’d probably make me go to the bathroom tap to get a drink.
I’d better make the most of what’s on offer whilst I can!
The sky outside got darker and darker, until my eyes drooped, and I was fast asleep.
I was suddenly woken up by the screeching of the wheels on the Runways tarmac landing, we were there.
We made our way to the door once the Plane came to a stop, as we all stepped outside we were nearly struck down by the intense heat of Cairo.
'Hey mum look, there’s Grandma!' I shouted excitedly.
We headed over to Grandma where she stood with a large cooler bag, smiling.
'Anyone want a drink,' said Gran.
'Yes please,' I said eagerly.
She handed me a ‘Dop-Pop’ this probably was a new drink name in Africa. It may have had a weird name but the taste was exactly that of a Doctor Pepper.
Once the greeting was over, Gran took us to her Mercedes Benz Family car, she could buy anything my Gran!
'Gran? Do you still have that nice garden that looks over the village?' I asked.
'Of course I do silly, D’ya think ’ad get rid’ff that? You always enjoyed the view when ya were little,' she replied happily.
Great, I always loved hanging around there looking at all the flowers and the view.
As soon as we got to the house I went straight to the Garden and sat on my favourite bench near the ‘Public Walkway.’
I admired the view for a while and smelt the luscious flowers before being interrupted from pure harmony by a man I’d never seen before in my life.
'I don’t mean to be rude there young lad, but your standing on a very rare and beautiful ‘Monotropa Uniflora plant.
'I’m standing on a what?' I said surprised.
'Monotropa Uniflora,' he replied.
'Hmmm what does that mean then?' I asked the man.
'It means a flower with one single capturing part, you know? like on a Venus Fly Trap and the Uniflora means it only flowers once.' 'See? Easy isn’t it?'
'That’s a weird name for a plant Mr.'
'Please, Please call me Dr Donny or Don for short.'
'Okay then Don? What are you doing in these areas.' I said with confidence.
He explained to me how he liked to explore the environment around him and study all things about nature, plants, animals...birds preferably.
'Are you around here often then.....' he paused.
'Oh...David’s the name' I explained 'And, no I’m just on holiday with my grandma.'
'Mrs Perkins? The woman in the villa?' he said anxiously.
'Yes, yes, do you know her'
'Of course I know her, I look after her House and Garden,' Don said.
'So you’re the cleaner then?'
'I prefer the term ‘Preliminary Aspect Attendant’ if you don’t mind'
'Cool! so you clean... err I mean... Attend to the garden and house,' I stuttered.
'Absolutely right David, and If you want you can help me some days, and I’ll teach you a little about the area, how’s that Old Boy?'
'Great! Anyway I’ll most likely see you tomorrow, I’ve got to go home now, It’s getting late... Oh! and watch you don’t step on the Monotropa Uniflora Don!' I said pleased with my pronunciation of the weird plant.
'Of course David, I won’t, Bye now' he said whilst waving goodbye.
Today, I said to myself, I think I experienced friendship. I liked it.
I slept as snug as a bug all night, the warm humid air kept me from tossing and turning like I usually did at home, and by the time it was morning I felt like a newly blossomed flower, ready to take on anything the day has to offer.
After breakfast and two of Grandmas freshly baked chocolate cookies I went outside to see if Don was doing any ‘preliminary’ work in the garden, luckily he was. It meant I didn’t have to wonder around the village looking for him all day.
'Hi Don,' I said with a smile.
'Dag,' he replied.
What does dag mean I thought, It must be Afrikaans or something.
'Doc? What does Dag mean.'
'You don’t know what dag means? Why its Afrikaans of course!,' he said stunned.
'Yes...but what does it mean.'
'It means hello, what else do you think I would say to you when you say hello to me?'
I walked closer to where he was working, It looked like he was pruning some colourful plants.
'Nice Plants,' I commented.
'Yes, Aren’t they? There called African Violets, not such silly words this time my friend,' he said and giggled quietly.