A couple of weeks ago, Lady Laura and I were walking back from the shop when we heard this obnoxious screeching.
Imagine a train braking at a station, now multiply it by 10…
It was that bad.
Anyway, it got louder and louder to the point I didn’t know whether a bomb had been sent from Russia with love, or worse still, that tinnitus was finally claiming my hearing.
As the noise reached fever pitch, I spun around and couldn’t quite believe my eyes.
A big navy rust bucket of a van whizzed past us.
I’ve never heard a vehicle make sounds like it.
Sounds awful, but if any woman or child were reported missing, that would be the first vehicle I’d pull over as a cop.
Thankfully, it turned a corner, and we could finally hear ourselves think again.
Hallelujah, right?
Not so fast, Legionnaire.
As we approached the street we live on…
I heard it again.
“No,” I gasp. “It can’t be.”
I spin around, looking left, right, behind… yet I cannot see it.
Was my mind playing games?
Were the resident parakeets parroting a new sound?
Lo and behold — further down the street — there it was again.
I figured they had to be delivery people or something, even though they didn’t carry the look of ones. Jamming our fingers into our ears, we scorned them as they drove by, until finally, for the second time, they drove off to terrorise other poor souls.
But that’s not all, folks.
Fast forward a fortnight, while slurping our morning coffees and distracting Master Liam with toys long enough to say, “That was a rough night, wasn’t it?”…
There it was. The screech.
“Lord no,” I said under my breath.
I looked out the window, and you guessed it, that rust bucket on wheels was limping down our street. Whatever their business is, I honestly don’t care anymore, so long as it ends soon or else I’ll have to fake a call to the police and claim they are stealing people’s cats.
Which isn’t entirely unreasonable.
What I do know is there is no way this van passed its annual MOT test without a dodgy mechanic being involved.
#JustSayin’
For all things whole and sacred, I hope the thing wheezes out its last breath soon, or they take it to the scapyard themselves.
But going by their unbothered faces?
I’ll have better luck convincing them to paint the van pink before they ever part ways with it.
Stubbornness is one hell of a curse.
Kind of like Dillian from The Divided Region in some ways.
Like many “spares” who will never sit on the throne, that doesn’t stop him from stubbornly dreaming about it — of secretly coveting it from the safety of his mind.
Still, though, it changes little.
He’ll always remain the spare while his older brother, Darius, will inherit the crown when it's time.
Unless, of course…
Something tragic happens to his older sibling. 😈
Curious to learn more?
Then you’ll find the ebook, audiobook, and paperback of the series over at my Storehouse. However, rest assured, unlike that blasted van, the audiobook will not hurt your ears as Ryan — a listener — attests:
"Great story! I enjoyed listening to it and the narration was fantastic."
Here’s where to go:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/TDR-Bundle
DJJW