To School

An old friend of mine told me this story about a nightmare he had, he dreamt it was the end of the world. It started when he looked out of his bedroom window and found himself staring at mushroom clouds and a strange orange coloured sky. He at once ran down the stairs out of the front door to find cover. The only place he could think of was behind our school gym, which was about a five minute run from his house. He then remembers running across the main road, nearly getting knocked down, jumping over the school fence towards the gym. He then remembers turning around just before he reaches the gym, looks out across the school field to see that the whole of our estate had been obliterated. In a state of panic he ran behind the gym and curled up in a ball. He woke up aching with cuts and blood all over his feet, not in his bed but huddled up behind the gym. I always entered the school between the fence and bush, over the field and through the playground, I wasn't aware until years later what the strange gang of lads that hung around at the bottom of our field were doing. We threw things at them just to get a chase.