Brownsville Tales, Jayden, 5

“Come on, Jayden. If you don't stir your bones you're going to miss the bus and don't think I'll be taking you into town if you do. You can walk, all the way. There's no time for breakfast, you've already missed that. Get out of bed!”

“Ah, poo.” Jayden rolled over and his eyes focussed on the bedside clock. “Whoah, damm!” Two minutes to eight, he was late again.

He crawled out of bed and staggered through to the bathroom to do the business. No time for a shower, but he was used to that. He hated mornings. Back in his room, he pulled on his school clothes, grabbed his bag and left.

As he walked through the kitchen, he took the wedge of pie from his granddad's outstretched hand and walked out into the morning sunshine. He stood at the bus stop at the side of the road, eating his pie while he waited. He'd just about decided that he could've had a few minutes more sleep when the bus hove into view.

He threw the remains of the pie away. What the birds didn't eat, the rats would.

The driver pulled up next to him, he got in and flopped in the first empty seat. “Hey, Jayden. Sleep in again?” His seatmate greeted him.

“Hey, Mella. I did not. I'm here, aren't I?”

“Only just by the look of you. And isn't it a lovely day?”

“Shut it. I'm still waking up.” He slumped down and shut his eyes. Mella shrugged and went back to her phone.

There was no time to go back to sleep, worse luck. They'd lived here for a few years now, but he still hated it. It was just far enough out of town to be annoying. It was all right for his parents and older brothers, they all had cars. He didn't, so he was stuck with riding the bus and bludging rides when he could. It was too bloody far to walk into town, by the time he got there it'd be time to start for home again. It was much better when they used to live in town.

He still didn't see why they had to pack-up and move out into the country when they had a perfectly good house in town. Well, they did have a house, before it burnt down. Who knew how that happened?

There was no-one there at the time, they were all away on holiday and there was no house to come home to. That was an awful time and they had to live in cabins at the motorcamp for months while the insurance company dicked around. By the time they finally paid out the old place had been completely demolished and the section cleared, but the parents decided not to rebuild and they bought a place out of town instead.

It was a nice house, he couldn't deny that. It wasn't new but it'd been well looked after and it was big. It was huge, in fact. How many houses have 6 bedrooms? Not many.

Also, it was sitting on 10 acres of, mostly regenerating, scrub and native bush. There were some great little private areas, especially down in the gully by the creek, but it was too far out of town. Town was where the life was and where the people were and Jayden was a very sociable kid. He liked people and people liked him.

Well, mostly he did – just not first thing in the mornings. He was not a morning person.

The bus trip didn't take long. Even with several stops and starts it was only just over half an hour. He didn't live far out of town, about 10k's from the south end, which is not far in a car, or in a slow old schoolbus either.

So, even though he'd like to, there was no time to catch-up on sleep. Also, there was the sunshine.

The sun shone down from a clear blue sky and did its best to dazzle him as he cringed in his seat on the wrong side of the bus. Too late to change now, they were nearly there.

The bus stopped outside the school, everyone dragged themselves off it with the usual lack of enthusiasm and another day began. Still not talking any more than he had to, Jayden went through the locker-room routine and sorted the books and gear he needed for the day. He walked outside, into the sunlit quadrangle and was struck by lightning.