Flowers from 1970

1.1

George was at the window, staring into the empty streets. It was raining and all George could focus on was the little droplets fall smoothly off the window. Rough wind came through the small crack in the window, messing up George's fluffy dark brown hair. 

He moved away from the window, he had gotten cold sitting near the window. He walked up the stairs of his house, he had his keys in his hands and his bag of shopping he had left by his door yesterday.

It had been quiet for a while, the neighbour next door didn't seem to be home, they used to have parties every night but from George's perspective, they haven't been in for 2 weeks now. It's always been quiet where George lives, it used to be loud with cars driving past all day and pavements filled with people but you're lucky enough to even see a person walk along the road

The quieter the environment was, the louder his thoughts got. It was quiet, really quiet, you could hear a pin drop

He placed his brown paper bag of groceries on the kitchen counter and dragged his feet to his room, opened the door and laid on his bed. 

Suddenly, he heard a loud ring come from the other side of the room, it wasn't coming from his cellphone, but it came from a vintage telephone, sitting on the wall that was there way before he moved in.

He thought it was broken because it never seemed to ring, he even tried to ring it from his cell, but it never rang, it didn't look like it was touched for years, it had dust particles sitting on the top of it.

He sprinted to the phone, dying to know who called for the first time in years, and answered "Hello?"

"Hey, Sapnap, can you believe that Governor Schlatt died today?" A man on the other line mumbled

"I'm sorry- you must have the wrong number- wait today?" George asked, confused

"oh well sorry then, but yeah today" the voice answered not bothering to end the call

"wait- are we talking about the Governor Schlatt of Florida?" George raised an eyebrow

"yeah, he had a heart attack, it's all over the papers"

"Schlatt died like fifty years ago though?" George was convinced that this man was living in the past but living in the present at the same time

The man laughed historically "I don't know about you, but I definitely don't remember Schlatt dying in 1920"

George couldn't believe what he was hearing, he was shocked, he was now convinced that the man couldn't do maths

"Everyone knows it happened in 1970, then his right-hand man, Jack, almost got assassinated the next day," George told the man

"Jack? Everyone loves Jack though, he's a great guy! and he's perfectly fine, he's safe and sound in his home right now giving a speech to a TV presenter" 

The phone sounded like it was moving and put up against a radio

"This tragic loss devastated for his wife who had to discover him" It sounded like Jack

George was convinced that he was being pranked. He hung up the phone, he didn't believe the convocation he had. He went back over to his bed and thought about the phone call for no longer than 3 minutes before falling to sleep