Fence Key - Jed was expecting a difficult week, but it turned out worse than he thought.

One

Jed wasn’t expecting to have a good day. He hoped he could get through it and make the end of the week and maybe things would improve. But it was only Wednesday and the end of the week would be Saturday night.

He looked in the mirror and saw red-rimmed eyes and a sallow complexion. Is this me? Is this what I’ve become? I‘ve got to change, he thought.

Two days earlier, on Monday morning, Jed had gone down the hill to the shops, as usual. He had been careful to put on his beanie before he left and when he got to Tesco’s he bought the Daily Star and some rolls. Everything seemed normal, only normal for Jed wasn’t what he wanted. The pain behind his eyes was like an old friend who whispered ‘larger… lots of lager.’

‘Par for the course,’ he thought and then got angry, that’s such an annoying little cliché why can’t I get it out of my mind? Ever since the idiot psychiatrist Dr. Kelly said ‘par for the course,’ during his last clinic appointment, it had bounced around in Jed’s head. What made matters worse was that Jed couldn’t take Dr. Kelly seriously any more, not after he revealed he was a flowery font. ‘He thinks I’m mad,’ Jed said to himself, ‘but what he doesn’t realise is that I can read his thoughts and they are inconsistent and ridden with guilt and self-loathing.’

Jed was clear about one thing - Dr. Kelly has a crush him.


More tomorrow