Church

Jon came round in his car after work and gave me two beeps. He'd invited me over for a smoke and I was quite keen to get out of the house.

Jon could walk to work because it's just the other side of the High Street, but he prefers to take his car. Jon lives near me, so I could've quite easily walked over to Jon's house, but he came to pick me up anyway. He said we had to meet his dealer, who lives just around the corner from me, but we were going to meet him down by the church just around the corner from Jon.

The church is a good place to do this kind of business because nobody ever goes there.

I left the house and saw Jon waiting in the car. It always surprises me to see Jon wearing a suit. Quite a sharp one as well, with a tie and everything. Jon works in the local building society.

I opened the door and said hello. Jon slapped his hand on the seat and brushed all the rubbish and bits of paper off it in one swipe. Jon's car is old and dirty. Dirty inside. The plastic interior is dusty and rattles, and all the upholstery has been thoroughly smoked through.

We drove round to the church and took the lane that runs along the graveyard. There are just one or two houses on the other side and they are set back from the street and have big gates in front. We parked up and sat there for a few minutes. I suggested we sit on the wall and wait.

'What?' Jon said.

'have a cig' I added.

Jon shrugged his shoulders and we got out. He pulled out his cigarette pack and threw me one, knowing full well that I wouldn't have any myself.

We sat on the wall and I looked over to the church. Standard looking church, just like any other. The graveyard was overgrown and quite a few of the gravestones were lop-sided and old looking. The church didn't look old though. It looked quite new really, for a church.

Then I remembered my old history teacher saying that there used to be a really old church here that was built in the time of William the Conqueror, but the only part left is a bit of wall. He said it was the centre of the village back then. Funny the things we remember.

I swung my legs over to the other side facing the church and looked along the wall from where I was sitting. Suddenly saw a small part further along and lower down, which had big chunky, jagged stones rather than the square blocks that made up the rest. So that was it then.

A car pulled in and Jon looked over and gave it a little wave.

Jon's dealer got out and walked over to us. His name's Phil. He was a year below us at school.

'Alright boys' he said and pulled a cigarette out from behind his ear.

'ohh fucking hell look at you' he added, admiring Jon's suit.

Phil has long hair which is always tucked behing his ears. He always looks hunched over and sly, but is actually quite chatty.

He'd seen me looking down into the graveyard.

'any of 'em moving?' he asked, and then flipped the cigarette into his mouth with a sharp flick of the wrist.

'Actually there's a bit of wall there that's almost a thousand years old' I said pointing down at it,

'Well I fucking never' he said and pulled out a small bag of bright green skunk weed.

'Have a whiff of that' he said holding it up to Jon's nose. 'You won't find better than that'.

Jon nodded and reached for his wallet.

-

Later that night I left Jon's place and walked back home. We'd smoked quite a bit of weed while playing video games and Jon had cooked us an oven pizza.

I passed by the Church on my way back and decided to go down the lane and have another look at the wall. I know it's just an old bit of wall, but I liked it somehow.

The lane was dead quiet. I mean really dead quiet because the only things there were gravestones. It was dark as well. Having smoked plenty of weed, I have to admit I was a bit spooked.

I got to the old part of the wall and squatted down to have a look. These stones are old I thought and ran my hand along them. I stood back up and tried to imagine the old village. There must have been animals and old market stalls, and wonky houses made of wood. I tried to imagine some Normans walking around, wearing armour and swords. I could see it quite well actually. I imagined peasant girls with baskets of fruit, and a horse with a cart full of hay.

I had a really good image of what it looked like for a few seconds, and then I lost it. Suddenly all I saw was the boring looking church again.

I started to feel a bit stupid standing there so I wandered off back out of the lane and onto the main road. As I walked beside the traffic I looked at the rows of houses and tried to imagine fields but it didn't work. I was bored of thinking about that and started thinking about the whipping I'd given Jon on the boxing game instead. Nice.

Still, an interesting adventure.

Enclosure

I was watching a documentary the other night. I didn't plan to, it just came on after something else. It was about farming. Sounds boring doesn't it. It was really, but then the presenter spoke about something called the 'enclosure movement' and that made me think.

Apparently, a couple of hundred years ago, most of the land around England was common ground. So people could go wherever they wanted. They could graze their sheep, hang out or whatever. Then a load of people became land owners, put up fences and kept it all to themselves. All the other people couldn't use it anymore and even had to take different routes to get places.

To get from my place to the High Street. I used to cut through a car park that runs behind some shops, over a bit of wasteland and then through a little alley leading on to the High Street. I can't do that any more because there's a new housing development where the old wasteland used to be. There's a couple of new houses sitting right on it, and a big wooden fence surrounding it.

The documentary said that a lot of people were pissed off when the government gave all the land away. I can understand why.

-

I woke up the next morning at around the usual time and quickly started thinking about the housing development again. I even got quite angry. That housing development adds at least five, maybe ten minutes to my journey to the High Street. Not to mention the station, which to be fair I rarely use as I'm unemployed, but would be very annoying in the morning if I wasn't.

Sometimes people have to make a stand.

I decided to get up, get dressed, have some toast, a cup of tea, and then take my old route to the High Street, even if I had to climb over the fence and through the housing development to get there.

I left the house at around 1pm and walked down towards the High Street. As I got to the bottom of the hill I took a left into the car park behind the shops and cut across diagonally, slipping through the cars. I could see the new fence where the wasteland used to be on the other side. It doesn't fit in really because the car park itself is old and weathered and there are pot holes and weeds everywhere. The new fence is made of rows of bright wood.

-

I remember the climbing wall at primary school. It was multi-couloured and sat at the end of the playground. Most of my friends conquered that wall long before I did. Years before perhaps. When they'd got to the top they pulled faces at me and made noises. In fact, I think I only finally made it to the top at the very end of the last year, just before moving up to secondary.

Anyway, I got to the fence and looked for a foothold. The slats were vertical so it wasn't easy. I stretched up to the top and the wood felt rough on my hands. I pulled up and thrust both my trainers into the slats to get some grip. I managed to drag myself on top so that I was flopped over with the thin fence cutting into my belly. I swung a leg up and managed to turn myself around and drop down.

I had a look around. The old wasteland was still there partly, because they hadn't put the gardens in yet. The houses were finished though. Two of them. They were pretty standard looking houses. Red brick sides. Sloping roof. Double-glazing. I wonder why nobody ever wants a more interesting house.

There was one practical problem- the two houses were joined together by a double garage. In order to carry on straight and follow my path, I'd have to get over the garage as well. Mind you, it was only one storey.

This time I found a plank of wood and propped it against the garage wall. this gave me a foothold and I was able to lift myself up onto the garage roof. The roof was black and sticky. As I got to my feet I noticed that I had a pretty good view down onto the High Street. I stood and watched the cars pass for a while, being careful not to be seen. I had to duck down at one point as a guy walked out of the betting shop.

It was pretty cloudy, but for a couple of seconds a little bit of sun poked through and lit up some of the shop roofs.

It felt pretty good, beating the system.

-

I ripped my jacket as I came down the other side. Thankfully there was a gate on the High Street side fence and it was easy to climb over. I had to wait a couple of minutes though as there was someone standing by the window of the nail salon having a cigarette. Once she went back in I jumped over and walked out onto the High Street.

I looked at my watch. I have to say it's not really quicker anymore. And, let's be honest, when people move into those houses it'll be a whole different ballgame. I think I've made my point though.

I looked up and down the High Street, thinking if there was anywhere I wanted to go or anything I wanted to look at. There wasn't, so I went home. A nice little adventure.