The End Of The F***ing World (TEOTFW Novel Adaptation)

Episode Five.

11 years earlier

Mum stood in the kitchen. I sat at the table. Dad approached in his suit and tie, ready for work. He put his arm around her waist. 

"How ya feeling?" He asked. "Better?"

Mum smiled weakly.

He smiled back. "Good. What are you two doing today, then?"

"Can we go feed the ducks?" I asked enthusiastically.

"Ah, ducks! Sounds good!" Dad said.

"No, James, I said. Not today." Mum turned around, coldly.

"Come on, you can manage ducks, can't you?" Dad looked at her kindly. "It'd be good for you to get out."

"Please." I said from the table.

"Okay." She fake-smiled. Dad kissed her on the cheek as she sat opposite me at the table. "Ducks."

As soon as Dad left for work, we set off for the pond. I was allowed to sit in the front seat of the car for a change, but we were driving for quite a while. We weren't going to the normal duck pond. The car bumped over uneven road.

She parked quietly, and after I realised she wasn't going to get out first, I opened the door. Mum stopped me before I got a chance to stand up. "I want to tell you something. I love you."

I blinked at her. She gave me a tight hug.

"I need to feed them." I had always liked feeding the ducks. This was before my proper facination with animals, though.

Mum didn't get out, instead staring at me. I hesitantly got out and shut the car door before heading towards the pond. There weren't any ducks in the water. I stood there, quietly. Mum hadn't got out of the car yet.

Just as I turned to look at the trees that whistled like ghosts in the wind, I heard a loud splash in the pond behind me. I looked back as our car drove into the water, going vertically up in the air before sinking with my mum inside. Bubbles spat out of the windows. I dropped the bread.

Mum had died. She killed herself. And I had been... Right there.

Now

I sat in the police station with blood dribbling down my face, scabbing heavily on my nose.

"Thanks for coming in, son." The receptionist officer said. "Shall I...? Have a..?"

"Yeah." I said.

"Sorry about the wait." He said. "I'm D.C Onslow. They told me you... You've come in to report a murder. Is that right?"

In the cold light of day, that suddenly didn't seem right at all. I made a noise and nodded.

D.C Onslow nodded back. "Right, so, I'm going to need you to come with-"

"It was my mum." I interrupted him. 

"Yeah, you just need to wait-" He said awkwardly, looking around the empty waiting room.

"She killed herself." I said.

"Right..." He sat uncomfortably next to me. "Okay... So, umm, do you want to tell me what happened? Did you find the body, your mum?" 

I had never spoken about it before. "I was there when she did it."

He paused and paled. "Right. Well, umm... So when did this happen? Last night?"

"Eleven years ago." I said. 

D.C Onslow looked up at another officer across the room. "Okay. So here's the thing... It's not... Technically a murder. Suicide, it's a whole different wheelhouse... Really. I mean, suicide's not even a crime. Which is... Mad. Isn't it?"