Down the line

2 - Ash

I shut the photo album after having a quick flick through. I wanted to study every picture and read every caption in detail.

"Are you ready for Monday?" I ask my uncle as I tuck the album underneath my arm.

"Fuck no, but its just something I'll have to get over and done with. Are you ready?" He sighs.

"Nope. I'd prefer not to go but you know what its like." I admit. I would prefer it if my dad was alive and well. I didn't want to bury him.

"I understand. You best be getting back to your mom, you know what she's like." He gives me a sympathetic smile.

Danny wasn't exactly the easiest person in the world to talk to he had that 'asshole vibe' radiating off of him the entire time. We only talked slightly when I were younger and that was about it. When I was a teenager I would go to his house just to chat or just to get away from my brother. I couldn't stand to be around him for too long.

Lee had always been a terrible person even as a kid he would pick on me and just ultimately be horrible. The fact he beat up his own uncle made my stomach hurt. I don't even see how he could ever do that?

"Hey Lewis" Hendrix says as he sits up on the desk at reception also known as the Wellington community jail now. Formerly my childhood home.

"Hey Jim." I try my best not to ignore him and hopefully he won't notice the fact I was walking up the stairs.

"Where are you going? I was told that area was out of bounds." Hendrix shouts up the stairs.

"I'm the one that gave you them orders. My dad did actually and if you haven't seen the newsflash you'll know he isn't actually around anymore. Therefore them rules no longer apply. I can go up here, nobody else. You understand?" I shout back down the stairs to a pale faced Hendrix at the bottom. He gulps and I hold back any emotion. I wanted to cry at the mention of my dad but I don't think I had it in me anymore.

I went upstairs. The place that hadn't been touched since the fire. Dad forbid that anyone go up here but I had to recover some things. I had to, for me and for mom. She deserved to keep some memories.

I pick the the lock the only way I knew how. Our door was dodgy and there was a certain way you could open it without needing a key. Lee taught me when I was younger. I finally open the door after a couple of minutes and push it.

I look down at the burnt carpet. The room smelt charky and damp. Looking around the room I spot something disgusting. A charred human corpse. Was that?

"Fucking hell." I gagged at the sight and attempted to ignore it. It was most certainly Jamie and I no longer wanted to look.

I walk over to dads infamous book shelf. From the classics to the newest ones he could find, the shelf nearly had everything. Burnt from the bottom to the top. The books at the top had minimal damage, however the ones at the bottom had no chance of recovery.

I turn my head and see my moms photo frames. There was that one time that Luke had gotten us a Polaroid camera for one Christmas and we took pictures as often as we could from that point until we eventually ran out of the refillable paper and ink.

I picked up one of the frames. It surprisingly hadn't been damaged. I study the photograph.

It was the one taken on Christmas day when I was younger. Even Lee was smiling. It just made us look like one big happy family which in reality we weren't. They were the times where even dad was his happiest, wearing the Santa hat. I sit down on the floor ignoring the fact that Jamie's burnt body was only a metre or so away from me.

I sat and cried tears onto the photograph as I ran my fingers against the frame. I missed these people, the way they used to be before everything got out of hand. I use my thumb to cover my pre-puberty face. I had a cheesy grin formed on my cheeks.

I put the photo to one since and picked up the other photograph on the side. A picture of mom and dad that I think Luke had taken. My dad had lifted her up in his arms, yet again another happy photograph. I didn't know whether I should take them back to mom. She probably miss them but would she want to see them?

I stand up and find a plastic undamaged toy boy in my old bedroom. I pour the toys out of it and use the plastic box to put all of the salvageable items in. I put the photo album that Danny had given me in the box followed by the two photographs.

I hunt around the room and find nothing more but singed items. I grab my moms favourite ornaments and head into my parents old bedroom. I place the box onto the bed and look inside the closet.

My dads suit jackets sat nicely inside. Surprisingly not burned by the fire as he had first assumed. I take one out and measure it to my body. I wonder if he'd mind if I took one for the funeral? I put the jacket in the box as well. I'm sure he wouldn't care.

I look inside his bedside drawer and surprisingly I didn't find a mass amount of pornography. There was a few sheets of paper and most importantly a little piece of paper stuck to the inside of the drawer.

I peel it off and study the four numbers.

0 5 0 9

My mom and dads anniversary. They had gotten together in May 2009, I remember him telling me once even though he felt like it had been a lot longer.

But the date! What could it possibly be for? Surely he wouldn't forget his anniversary? I begin to search around the room for some sort of safe. Perhaps it wasn't in the room?

I walk out and begin to think. Dad never said anything about a safe. The more I think about it I know it was probably nothing, it was most likely that code that Brittany uses to access the medical storage. But why would she use them numbers?

As I step over Jamie's body I grab a pen, I was going to write down all of the possible things this code could be for. Maybe it was nothing? But I don't understand why dad would keep it otherwise.

I go back into the bedroom but clumsily drop the pen and it rolls underneath the bed.

"Shit" I mumble before laying on the floor and reaching under the bed. I couldn't feel it so I decided to look underneath the bed.

Then it caught my eye. A medium sized silver box. It looked like metal. I dismissed the pen and reached straight for the box and pulled it out.

On the front of the box was a combination lock. I attempted to turn it in order of the numbers. Then suddenly the lock clicked and I pulled open the lid.