The Sweet Forest
By Daniel Mark Brown
© Daniel Mark Brown 2012
All Rights Reserved
www.danielmarkbrown.com
To the people who trust, love, believe in and endure me!
The people, places and scenarios within this work are purely fictional and any similarity to real world places and events is purely coincidental.
The Sweet Forest
Spring
Why is this life the life that it is?
Jack awoke with the usual jump that his phones aggressive alarm always caused. Stretching a lazy hand to his bedside table he clumsily hit the screen to stop the din, peace and quiet was his main concern, his head already ached and the tell tale nausea had instantly kicked in, this was the reason that he didn’t go out round town at night much these days. It was not that he had been drunk, he didn’t drink, never quite being able to face the taste of alcohol. Instead he was tired, his friends had persuaded him to stay out just a little longer until four in the morning had been and gone and panic about getting up for work replaced the evenings joy.
Today was not however a day for staying in bed lamenting a late night, there was much to do. As the weeks toward his parents moving away dwindled down he had been dragging his feet as to figuring out exactly what his plans were. Age twenty-four he had never experienced life away from the family home, not going to university he had stayed put and instead got himself a simple straightforward job at a supermarket, the simple life was the life for him.
He paid his way and didn’t get into too much mischief which ensured an extended live at home life until recently when his father had managed to secure a promotion at the animal feed company he worked for. The job would bring many benefits and an almost life changing salary, yet it came at the cost of having to relocate from a sleepy Shropshire town on the Welsh borders to a much larger town hundreds of miles away down south near the company’s head quarters. It had taken his father a month to accept the job as he knew the relocation would likely be the catalyst that finally saw the family separate from its single home, but after assurance that the family would always be together in spirit he had finally taken the promotion.
Getting out of bed Jack slowly moved to the wardrobe, he always had a small feeling of dread in the mornings before work. Today however this was coming second to the dizziness which persisted, grabbing his work clothes he headed out to the bathroom. He took only moments to get dressed then set about the cabinet to find some headache tablets, hopefully the solution to his pounding forehead, now he just needed a hearty breakfast he thought. Three slices of toast, two eggs and a glass of milk later he was feeling much better, and not a moment too soon either, sitting back and switching on the TV he was welcomed by the news signalling to him that he was running late for work. Dreading the idea of having to stay on later to make up the time he quickly grabbed his shoes and scurried off to work.
Nine hours later Jack returned home, it had been one of those days that dragged on forever. He had just managed to arrive on time and had immediately been put to work as usual filling up the milk. Working in a supermarket in such a small town meant that he knew an awful lot of the regular shoppers, or maybe it was more of a case of them knowing him, either way it made the days that little bit more pleasant to have unexpected conversations with cheery people at random intervals.
Once the milk was topped up he had spent the day working through the stock of hundreds, no, thousands of yoghurts and juices, every type and flavour he could think of was represented on the shelves as were many flavours he could have never conjured up in a million years. It was a quiet day so he could get on with the job relatively quickly but with fewer customers he had little mental stimulation and so the hours had dragged on.
Just another day in his life he thought, not great but not bad at all, certainly not as bad as it could be. He would do this ritual four to five times a week and spend his days off out on his bike or weather permitting camping for a night or two somewhere. He had often thought of himself as having a nice simple life, no stressful job or high flying career, just a quiet job to match a quiet person, it gave him time to enjoy the world around him and enjoy it he did, always on his bike or out walking he was considered as the epitome of an outdoors person, and as such had become the first port of call to his friends or family when they had a question about anything relating to the outdoors. Of course he almost never knew the answer and the whole thing had turned into a running joke.
One such occurrence had happened on his dinner hour during the day, Jack was just leaving the shop to head into town and finally enquire about somewhere to rent when he had bumped into his aunty, she was apparently looking to buy a new sleeping bag and wanted to pick his brain. It was going to be difficult enough to give any advice on sleeping bags but when she revealed she only wanted it to act as a blanket for when the cold nights come at the end of the year he had a silent chuckle to himself. What could he say to that? Holding back the urge to advise her to just buy a blanket he managed to cobble together an answer on the suitability of seasonal sleeping bags, he wasn’t even sure that he was making sense but it seemed to satisfy her quest for advice, so he hastily said his goodbyes and headed to the estate agents.
He quickly rattled off a list of properties that he had seen on the internet and the estate agent obliged with a stack of paper detailing the properties and terms of rent in more detail, he engaged in a brief conversation on the various elements of excitement and fear in moving into his own place for the first time and then headed back to work to put in the last few hours.
After this he was back home with his papers in hand the whole idea seemed to be leaning far more towards something to be feared than to be excited about. The plan was that him and a work colleague would rent a small flat or even small house depending on prices and their general combined financial situation. Looking over the details here Jack was having difficulty in coming to terms with the obligation of coming up with this sort of money every month in order to pay for what seemed like very little living space, especially considering he would not be the sole occupant.
Later on during the evening while sat down with his mother planning out different potential expenses and generally having a chat about the things involved in keeping a household running smoothly there had been a few moments of silence when the conversation had slowed, it was at this point his mother stood up and moved behind his chair hugging him and giving him a kiss on the head. The hug lasted for only a few seconds and no words had been said, yet somehow Jack knew that it was one of those moments where things had changed, he was no longer the son living with his parents, he was the grown up looking at places to live. Growing up, In appearance he was an adult it was true, but at what point does a person really grow up? Jack felt terrified that it might have just happened to him in the blink of an eye.
The next few weeks seemed to pass in a blur, as his current home was packed up in boxes ready for his family to move away and for Jack to move a few streets nearer to town everything seemed to be falling into place, or falling apart depending on what mood he woke up in. Plans had been made and a hefty deposit put down on the flat that he and Ian from work would soon be the official tenants of. 19a Middleton Avenue, a road populated by a few small houses and a several three story flats. Glamourous stuff, Jack thought, knowing that really it was the most sensible way to start a life away from the family home.
Jack sat back in what he now referred to as his chair. The room around him buzzed with the general party atmosphere that loud music and flashing lights seem to induce. His friends milled around talking, with the occasional slightly intoxicated idea to start a little dance here or there. This was hardly the best party he had been to but it was c
ertainly the most important, it was the housewarming party that Ian had insisted they hold. On only the second night of their official tenancy Jack had thought it a little soon to start disturbing the neighbours but had been overruled by the general consensus at work, maybe he did need to lighten up.
Yesterday in one of those strange ways that fate seems to work was not only the day that he and Ian moved in together but also the day that his parents moved away. The morning had been spent putting the last of Jacks possessions into the car and dropping them off at the flat, the majority of his things had been moved during the week so the place was already pretty well organised and ready to live in. After a long series of goodbyes and farewells, tears, laughs and promises, Jack and his mum and dad finally parted. Jack was almost overcome by the crushing sense of terror as his parents drove away ready to lead their friends who were helping them move in a convoy of household items to their new home.
He felt sick knowing that tonight was the first night he would go to sleep in his home and know that his parents were hundreds of miles away, not just a moment away. Maybe he needed to grow up he thought, was he being too dramatic? For an hour or so afterwards he had felt like phoning them up to come and collect him. It was only the arrival of Ian with his last few things that acted as a big enough distraction to allow him to calm down again. The day had passed with what Ian called “make yourself at home” activities. He had done this all before and his ease and confidence with the situation had done Jack the world of good, Jack didn’t want to even think of what would have happened if he had been left to his own devices that day, the idea of his parents having to pick him up and take them with him was already starting to seem ridiculous despite how desperately he had wanted it only the day before.
These were the thoughts that Jack held in his mind as the room around him enjoyed the party, he was brought back to the present when the music changed to one of his favourite songs. He did not realise just how much of a daydream he had been in until this moment even having to unblur his eyes and pick himself up out of an extremely slouched position on the chair. He smiled at a passing guest, a work colleague, one of the checkout girls. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.
The night passed and Jack awoke to find himself sprawled across the sofa, Ian was nowhere to be seen but in a not too surprising revelation there were still a few guests left, no longer partying but fast asleep in different positions. Jack looked at his watch, Seven O’Clock exactly, he had not had much sleep and even the lack of a hangover wasn’t going to make up for this fact. He started quietly attempting to clean the place up, it was a long boring job as the others were showing no signs of waking up anytime soon. After an hour or so he felt that he had done what he could without getting the vacuum cleaner out and chasing away all the party goers from the previous night, it was still only half-past-Eight.
After sitting down for a while watching morning television with the volume as low as it would go Jack thought he would head outside and see if he could wake up a bit more with some fresh air in his lungs, the morning was unexpectedly chilly and a very slight mist hung in the air. He set out walking around town and found it to be rather pleasant in the empty streets, the occasional dog walker and deliveryman along with the morning commuters rushing on their way to work. After he had meandered through town Jack thought it would be a nice little walk to head out of town to the fields on the outskirts that rose up the side of what was known as “The Hill.” This was one of his favourite places to go and he had spent many hours walking around finding gaps in the hedgerows to look down on the town at all times of the day. Sometimes at night or early morning the place took on a kind of otherworldly feeling with everything becoming silent, almost as if he was watching the world through a sheet of glass. Even in the middle of the day going up to the fields and enjoying the view made the town seem like a much quieter calmer place which was almost a therapeutic exercise that Jack had been doing now for a few years.
Just behind the fields and further up the hill was a large section of woodland, nobody really knew it by its real name, but over the last century it had come to instead be know universally by its nickname, The Sweet Forest. Jack liked to contemplate the possible Willy Wonka style woodland the name implied and often found his mind heading off on its own musings as he walked round the area. He had a certain route that he liked to walk quite regularly that led up through the fields into the woods then to the ultimate view of the town from the top of the hill and then back down again through the fields. People always found it a little odd or unbelievable that somebody could spend so much time in the same places repeating the same walk through the local countryside and no matter how much Jack tried to explain that there was just something inherently enjoyable about it he felt that they never really understood or grasped exactly what he was saying. He felt many times like asking them how they could think what he did was repetitive when they lived their lives with near identical days everyday of the week. If it was a choice between wandering the hills or waiting for the soaps to come on the television at night, Jack had made up his mind many years ago, he liked to think it was the right choice.
Summer
If other people did not tell you, what would be important?
Life in the new house settled down to the generally unremarkable routine that Jack had expected it to be. He went to work, came home and had something to eat and then pottered around the house until he went to bed. Ian was a keen gamer which helped out an awful lot when it came to occupying time for both of them, grabbing a controller each was a sure sign that an evening would be over in what seemed like no time. On days off Jack would sort out any household chores that might have built up, catch the bus into one of the nearby bigger towns for a look round or head out to the forest for a walk. With the responsibility of looking after the house he found that he wished he spent less time at work so that he could see to the house and still keep plenty of free time with no odd jobs hanging over him, maybe he was just being lazy though he thought.
A few weeks after moving in Jack’s friends invited him to go on another one of their camping trips, this time they were heading to the Lake District so it would be a completely new experience for all of them, they had covered a lot of ground in Scotland on their previous escapades so Jack jumped at the chance to have a week of camping in completely new surroundings. After a meet up to discuss the various details of the holiday it was decided that they would leave in a months time for a week, this time they would focus less on the walking aspect and do more of the touristy kind of things and generally have a good time.
As the date approached and Jack sorted out his two small bags of clothes and his little tunnel tent and sleeping bag he began to grow slightly worried about leaving the house with Ian for a week. There was no reason for this that sprung to his mind immediately, he was just not used to leaving the wellbeing of almost everything he had in the hands of one of his peers rather than a parent or some other slight figure of authority. When the excitement and anticipation really kicked in after he had finished his last day of work before leaving he soon forgot his worries and fears for the house.
The week passed with an alarming speed, seven nights in a tent had once again been Jack’s highlight of the year so far and the variety of things they had got up to had made it a very enjoyable week. The plan of not being focussed too much on walking had not gone well, as soon as he and his friends had started to take in the scenery they knew there would not be enough time in a week to walk everywhere they suddenly wanted to go. Despite this they had still managed to do all the classic holiday things, hiring a row boat on Lake Windermere, visiting the various places of historical interest and much to their amusement getting themselves the last few seats on an open topped double decker bus for a tour of some of the local villages and scenery. During the week many memories had been made and many more adventures had been plotted.
Jack returned to find that there had been nothing to worry about all along, the house was fine, everything w
as intact and Ian was in good spirits. After unpacking his things and having a long awaited shower it was nearly time for tea, Ian was already taking care of that placing some jacket potatoes in the oven, so after a week away Jack had the usual feeling of calm and relief at sitting down at his own table on an actual chair rather than a rock and ready to eat with real cutlery. It was during this sit down that Ian dropped a bombshell, he would be moving out in three weeks time.
This came as quite a shock and Jack was not sure what to say, Ian explained that even though they had only been living together for a short time he felt that he could not cope financially with the current arrangement, paying the initial deposit had been the problem and had left him very little room for anything other than the monthly rent, Jack had noticed that he had been buying the majority of the food for the house but had not really considered it a sign of just how stretched Ian was. His plan was to move back with his parents for a while and thus claim back his half of the deposit and then start saving up so he could be better prepared in the future. Although this was true Jack couldn’t help feeling that Ian was also somehow saying that living with him was not something he wanted to do for any great length of time.
The mood of the house became slightly quieter and more sedate as the next weeks passed, especially as Jack struggled to come up with anybody else to move in with him. He asked a few people that he trusted but found no interest and realised he was going to have to find someone no matter what, there were a few potential housemates but they were notorious partiers or people that he just didn’t feel quite comfortable with. He tried to come up with a plan to work more hours but found any way he calculated that he would be unable to afford to live. The landlord at least agreed he did not want Jack to make up the other half of the deposit which took a huge pressure off him but did not solve his housemate predicament.
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