The Way Home | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: The Way Home | Previous Challenge Entry
By glennys williams
08/21/07
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The Way Home

The rain fell heavily, a gust of wind pushed the man along the pavement. He glanced up at the black clouds filling the sky. When he had first begun his walk, the autumn day had been cool yet sunny. Now, winter had muscled its way in and he had been caught unexpectedly, with out a raincoat or his umbrella for protection.
A car stopped beside him.
‘Would you like a lift?’ asked a pleasant looking young man.
The man looked at him and glanced around the empty street. He was cold and wet and there was no shelter nearby.
‘Yes, thank you,’ he replied and walked over to the car. He stepped inside, settled himself and put on his seat belt.
‘Thank you, I wasn’t expecting this downpour.’
The car started up.
‘Where are you headed? Asked the driver.
‘I’m going to North Fremantle.’
‘That’s an hour’s drive away.’ He exclaimed.
‘I was waiting for a bus, but it didn’t turn up so I decided to walk’ the man explained.
‘Buses are few and far between on Sundays aren’t they?’ said the young man, as he turned his car in the direction of North Fremantle. It was a long way, but he enjoyed driving his new car and this stranger certainly appeared to be in need of a lift.
‘I’m Colin.’ He introduced himself to his passenger.
The man was staring ahead looking through the windscreen at the relentless rain outside. Leaves and papers on the side of the road were scattering as the wind blew them forward.
Colin glanced at him, the man hadn’t replied. He appeared not to have heard him.
‘Do you live at North Fremantle?’
The man glanced up. ‘Yes I was born there. It’s my birthday today and I want to get home. My name is Harry by the way.’ As he spoke, memories flooded his mind. He began talking animatedly.
‘My mother raised seven sons in our house. It was only small, two bedrooms for us boys and one for Mum and Dad.’
‘It must have been fun to have so many siblings. I’m an only child and would love to have just one brother or sister.’ Responded Colin.
Harry smiled.
‘Oh we had lots of adventures. Our house is on top of a hill. We raced down that hill in carts, made of old wooden boxes and wheels from the rubbish tip. We thought we were invincible, kings of the hill. Until we got home and found an angry Mum waiting for us.
Harry continued in this vein for some time, talking about his happy family life and the exploits he and his seven brothers were involved in.
Finally, as though his conversation had made him tired, the man became silent, lost in his reverie. There was a comfortable silence in the car, Colin reflected on the man’s stories. They way he spoke in his resonant voice made them come alive, the events he described could have occurred yesterday.
Finally they turned into North Fremantle and Colin found the street and number 36 at the top of a hill. To his amazement there were four newly built Town Houses on the block.
The man leaned forward, his mouth open, making no sound.
He gazed incredulously at the place where his childhood home had once stood.
‘I don’t understand.’
His eyes fell on the small cottage next door where an elderly woman was entering the gate.
‘There’s my neighbour, Mrs Adams.’
He opened the car door and calling out her name he approached her with Colin bemusedly walking behind. Mrs Adams met them, she looked at Harry and then at Colin.
‘He said he lived here.’ Colin stuttered, ‘he must have made a mistake.’
‘He lived here fifty years ago. His house was right here until they pulled it down and built these Town Houses.
I know him well, we used to play together,’ she explained, reaching out to take the man’s hand.
‘But he spoke as if he still lived here in his old house’
Mrs Adams smiled sadly. ‘In his mind he still does. He forgets things you see.’
She turned and said quietly to the man. ‘Come inside Harry. I’ll make you a cup of tea.’ Turning to Colin she thanked him for his kindness to a stranger.
‘Thank you for bringing him here. I will phone his wife and she will take him back to the Nursing home.

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