Bad Dreams

Part 1

I push open the staff door and step out into the magnificent afternoon. I feel the warm sun and a gentle breeze on my face. Before me the busy car park spreads out and beyond that I can see the tall buildings of the city centre.

At home my wife, Alice, and our baby daughter, Claire, are waiting for me. This morning I let Alice take the car to go shopping and I'm glad I did. It would be a shame to be stuck in rush hour traffic on a day as nice as this.

My name is William and I am twenty-nine years old. I work as a stock picker for Express Couriers Global. It is not a glamorous job but the hours are reasonable and it provides well enough for me, Alice and the little one. I suppose that when we decide to have more children I'll need to find something better paying. For now though, its more than enough.

Outside of the car park a long straight road seems to stretch into infinity. Cars race up and down heedless of the speed limit. I step aside to let a young woman with a push chair pass. She doesn't even acknowledge me, let alone thank me for risking my life by stepping into the road for her. I get back on the pavement and continue walking.

Home is a little two-bed on the other side of Wreathing. It's a bad part of the city, the place you always see on television when they're talking about drugs and prostitution. We've been very fortunate and never had so much as a broken window but I still worry about leaving Alice and Claire alone there all day.

I stop at the corner shop to buy a drink, a packet of cigarettes and some chocolate buttons for baby Claire. We hadn't planned to give her sweets until she was a little bit older but her grandmother introduced her to chocolate and now she can't get enough of it. I suppose they are bad for her teeth but I am a man with plenty of vices and there are a lot worse things in the world than a few chocolate buttons on a Friday afternoon.

I pay the shopkeeper, a smiling Asian man withan extensive range of pornography, and leave with smile of my own. I open mycan and take a mouthful of cola. There are few things better on a hot day thanan ice cold drink and a cigarette. I take one out of the packet, light it andinhale deeply.