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.