Sixty Seconds Read Online Free PDF

Shaking fingers held a cigarette to her lips and the
lighter took a couple of tries to produce flame but finally, she
inhaled.
    The
smoke tasted ashy at first, made her cough. Then it was a beautiful
nicotine rush. Two years off them yet they still managed to produce
the same euphoric feeling. Perfect with a cuppa. She stopped
thinking about Jamie and relaxed.
    Proud of
herself for staying off the fags for so long, but sometimes you
needed one. Just one. To make it through a bad day. Better than the
drink, or so she always thought. Easier to think through. Helped
her search for an answer. Even if the questions were impossible.
Even if the answers didn’t exist. There was no helping Jamie. She
could drag him to school but she couldn’t make him learn, she
herself learned that lesson the hard way. Jamie had to figure it
out for himself. That was the answer the nicotine brought to
her.
    She gave
an appreciative glance to the cigarette and was distracted by the
lines of her hands. She wasn’t as old as her hands looked. Years of
cleaning and hard graft had been hard on them. Time itself had been
bad enough to her. Pregnant straight out of school, desperate for a
husband when her mother died. Nothing good had come of it even if
the baby had been that something to love, that little person who
loved her back. Now it wasn’t enough. She idolised Jamie but she
knew he would have been better off elsewhere. Better off with a
father, better off with a mother who didn’t have to work seventy
hours a week just to keep their heads above water.
    Jean
smoothed out the skin on the back of her hand with her finger and
thumb and remembered what it was like to feel young. Like Gemma,
she had been naive – too willing to believe anything, too desperate
for love. Maybe Jamie was like his father after all. Maybe it was
in the blood, that careless, irresponsible, mean streak that left
broken women and fatherless children in its wake.
    A heavy
knock on the door made her jump to her feet. Her heart pounding in
her chest, she hesitated, not wanting to see uniforms. Cold sweat
down her back, her fingers trembled as she turned the lock, opening
the door a few inches only. Two men stood on her doorstep. No
uniforms. No bad news. Not yet.
    “ Jamie here?” The one who spoke sounded gruff and puffed out
his chest, accentuating his height. He wanted her to be afraid, she
could tell. The other one though, he really did intimidate her with
his blank eyes and dark soul. She could feel it, evil, like her
mother used to warn her about. She thought she felt her mother’s
spirit beside her, chided herself inwardly for her morbid thoughts
and shook her head in answer to the men.
    The
silent man held her gaze but didn’t speak. The other stepped toward
her and leaned his arm on the doorway, forcing her to look up at
him.
    “ You sure about that?”
    “ He hasn’t been home in days. You see him, you tell him he’s
wanted, you hear?” Anxiety made her snap at him, something told her
not to be timid in front of that man.
    He
paused, looked at his companion and nodded. “Alright. He comes
back, let him know Graeme is looking for him, alright
love?”
    Jean
nodded and retreated back into her home, shutting her door
carefully. She thought for a second, holding her fingers to her
lips, smelling the nicotine that never washed away. She secured the
chain – jumped when one of the men kicked the door. One of them
laughed but they moved on, leaving her grateful she kept that
second cigarette.
    She
curled up on her sofa and prayed for her son. This time, she hoped
he never came back.
     

 
I Win

    Shane
fell through the doorway when she opened it for him.
    “ Silly cow, you did that on purpose,” he said, spittle flying
in her face.
    “ I didn’t. I heard you trying to . . . . “
    “ Oh, just shut up, Mags. Jesus. I’m only in the door and you’re
starting.” He pushed her aside and kicked off his boots, leaving
them in the hallway. Mags picked them up