For The Love Of Chéri (CHAPTERS 1-112 REWRITTEN)

Chapter 1 : Enter, Lennon Adamski

The United Kingdom, around the start of the fall season.

It was cold and had been raining heavily in between short periods of sunshine. This was supposed to be an easy contract. Fly into Heathrow, pick up a truck in London and drive it to Birmingham for a drop-off, and then take on another consignment. If necessary, he would take on a second job which would necessitate crossing the channel and driving through France to deliver the new haul of goods to the Southern region.

Lennon was listening to the radio while driving the large, British right-hand drive heavy goods vehicle on a dual carriageway, after having just come off the motorway.

It usually only took a short while to acclimatise to being on the other side of the road, but he enjoyed these long trips as the lifestyle afforded him many benefits. He didn't need to answer to someone every day and didn't even need to be in any one place at any given time. He also loved the flexibility of the work and the fact that he was largely left to his own devices. This was time alone, and he could be himself.

In his life, he was methodical in his behaviour like clockwork and found himself always falling into the same organised patterns, putting his keys and wallet on the same spot near the corn or of the table, and he'd fold his clothes, in the same way every night. He was a simple man who never felt the need to buy expensive clothes or seek an extravagant lifestyle. He would simply wear the same practical and reliable set of clothes for trips like these, as it was more important that he be in something functional and comfortable than attempt anything fashionable.

He always felt the most comfortable in plain cargo trousers with a lumberjack shirt over a thick vest, and a very heavy parka. This was practical as he was sitting for long periods and often exposed to extremes of weather

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Lennon hadn't started out as a heavy goods driver. He was, at one point in his dim and distant past, a teacher in the fields of science. But, with the recent world events, the crippled economy was forcing people out of the area. He was bitterly disappointed that there just weren't the job opportunities, in the state his parents lived in and in his job now, he was very dissimilar in nature to the gruff drivers he would mingle with at stops, but he blended in well.

Being a long haul driver paid well and there was always a demand for it, not to mention the potential for an exciting European adventure. He now no longer had anything to keep him in his home town anyway and there was a lot to escape.

He always had an affinity for Europe. Lennon was born in Idaho to a French mother and an American father, and they lived in Quebec for a while due to the insistence of his mother who wanted some semblance of recognisable surroundings. Then circumstances dictated that the family move to quiet Tennessee, where his father was from.

At the time, the move meant new surroundings, a new school, new friends and sometimes even a new language, which was not great for the socially shy man. In Nashville, Lennon immediately stood out due to his soft Canadianesque accent.

Though nowadays, many wouldn't even approach him simply for the way he looked, but in truth the imposing and tough exterior he presented certainly didn't match his gentle personality.

Not exactly being standard Tennessee fare, Lennon was a gentle giant of six-four with a slim athletic and exceptionally lean muscular build. He was largely covered in very elaborate tattoos, save for his face, which gave him an unduly hostile appearance, with several visible piercings in his ears, eyebrow and tongue.

He had writing in beautiful italics, across his collarbones and back, and was covered in portraits, biblical paragraphs and two large thickly outlined stars which sat on each of his prominent pelvic bones. High around his left thigh, he had a garter tattoo and another large paragraph of scripture on the front of his right thigh.