4.08 pm

A bar in Chelmsford.

‘So then come on X where did you get your nickname from?’ asked Inston.

Bunder gave a little laugh, put his glass of beer down and looked to X, who was sat next to him.

‘I got it from my x-rated activities in the sack, Inston. And if you play your cards right, you might find out exactly what that means!’ She then leaned across the bar table and looked deeply and invitingly into Inston’s eyes.

‘What about me, X? Don’t I get a chance to taste the delights of your x-rated acts?’ exclaimed Bunder.

‘Well, I suppose I could take two lovers on such a night as this!’ and with this she flung both her hands in the air, waved them and screamed aloud.

Customers in the pub looked towards the table with the two men and a woman disapprovingly.

X and her two male colleagues had been drinking for over an hour now. Their behaviour had become increasingly loud and boisterous. Although they were already somewhat intoxicated, they still drank, and made merry with their moods.

4.08 pm

A house in Chelmsford.

‘You must be delighted, Mary to have such a pair of wonderful children, and how happy they are!’

‘I’ve never been happier, Elaine. And to think I had nothing over 5 years ago, no husband, no house, no children. And now look at me! I can’t believe it, sometimes I think it’s like a beautiful dream!’

‘I’ve known you all my life, Mary, and I’ve never seen you as happy as this. I’m so glad for; you really deserve it for all the happiness you’ve given to others,’ spoke Elaine. ‘What time will Peter be back home?’

‘I’m setting off with the two children at about 6,45. Peter has to complete the roof he started the other day, and I’m hoping he gets home for 7 o’ clock. He’ll have a quick shower and meet us at my sister’s house, and then we’ll get to your house for about 7.15 for the party, if that’s ok?’

‘Of course it is. I can’t wait for tonight. I think it’s going to be the best party I’ve had!’

The two friends giggled and exchanged joyous thoughts together, whilst Mary’s little children, Maria aged 3, and Jordan aged 4, played happily with their toys on the living room floor.
6.35 pm

A bar in Chelmsford.

The three friends had been drinking now for over three hours, and all were drunk. Inston was perhaps the more overcome. His speech was slurred, and his eyes assumed a somewhat droopy look, due to his encroaching tiredness. Bunder giggled at the most inane matter, and laughed out aloud at anything Xtra said. Extra was very loud and animated. Most people in the pub had noticed her.

‘Life is shyte! Life is shyte! Life is shyte! without drugs, life is shyte!’ she yelled.

This was the last straw for the landlord. He purposefully strode over to the table the three were sat at, deftly removed the three glasses, and sternly declared, ‘You won’t be served with any more beer, and therefore get your belongings and leave!’

The landlord was not a man to argue with, and both Bunder and Inston, although drunk, were not yet drunk enough to argue with such a mountain of a man. Xtras, availing herself of her female side, boldly answered back, ‘I don’t see why we have to leave, if I want to stay, then I’ll stay!’ and she slapped both hands down on the bar table.’

The landlord leant his powerful stature close enough to them, so that all three could hear him, and hissed, ‘If you don’t go now, lady, these two here, will know about it. You you understand, cause I think they do?’ and he pointed to Bunder and Inston on either side of him with his thumbs.

Inston and Bunder raised themselves to their feet, as quickly as their drunkeness allowed them, and staggered somewhat over to the door and disappeared.

Extras looked around and felt that further remonstration was pointless, and she too got to her feet and made her way to the door, pushed it open, and before leaving screamed back, ‘Fuckking jerk!’

‘Fuckkhim, Extra! Wankjnker!’ slurred Bunder.

‘Right, where are we off now?’ stamped Xtras. ‘Who’s got some drugs?’

‘I’ve got some back home,’ Inston answered drunkenly. ‘Do you think it’s ok for me to drive though?’

‘Yea, fuckkem all!’ screamed Xtra’s. ‘Where’s your car parked?’

‘You’ll be ok, Inston,’ Bunder echoed.

‘It’s over here,’ Inston answered.

All three then made their merry way over to the car, got inside. Inston struck upon the engine, gave it a few revs with his foot and set off.

‘Seat belts, ladies and gentlemen!’ Inston bellowed, ‘I don’t want to be stopped because we lovely people are not wearing seat belts!’

‘Could I get a bath, Inston at your place? I feel as sticky asfuck.’

‘Only if I can we can wash your back, Xtras?’ Bunder gamefully enquired.

‘I thought you’d both would never ask!’ replied Xtras. ‘It won’t be the first time I’ve had two blokes!’

All three burst into a roaring laugh. Inston hit the music button and the laugh and hysteria grew more mounted, whilst the car increased its speed almost unnoticed.

6.55 pm

A house in Chelmsford.

‘Come on children,’ called Mary. ‘We’re setting off!’

Jordan and Maria came leaping into the kitchen.

‘Don’t you both look a picture! Maria your lilac shoes shoes are so cooooooo!’ and Mary gently and lovingly ruffled her daughte’s hair.

‘Will David be there, mama?’ asked Jordan.

‘And Abi, will she be there?’ added little Maria.

‘Yes, all your friends will be there! As many friends as stars in the night sky!’ And all mother and her children laughed.

Mary placed Maria’s lilac shoes on, and fitted the safety strap to both Maria and Jordan, so that they could walk with her, but not wander more than a couple of feet from her. She then made a final check that she hadn’t left anything behind, opened the front door, and made her way out, and then locked it.

A light rain had fallen.

‘Be careful now, Jordan and Maria, don’t run around too much, it might be a bit slippy,’ warned their mother.

The children, as was their custom, carried on regardless of their mother’s warning, and ran around, in front and behind their mother. Owing to the safety strap, however could not go very far without feeling the harness.

At exactly 7.03 pm Mother and her children turned to walk down Shetland Avenue.

At exactly 7.03 pm a car carrying Inston, Xtras, and Bunder turned down Shetland Avenue and quickly accelerated beyond the legal speed limit. Extras sat on the back seat of the car, and shouted above the loud music, ‘Look at this, Inston and Bunder! This is what you’ll both be getting, when we get back to your flat!’ And she made an obscene gesture with her mouth and hand. Inston flung his head back to watch, that was when the tyre of the car gently clipped the edge of the pavement.

The bounced violently and easily mounted the pavement. Inston slammed down hard on the brakes, but the car had already raced onto the wet grass, and the brakes had limited effect.

At precisely 7.04 pm the car hit the two children, little Maria and Jordan, and ploughed through a garden wall behind them. The bumper of the car was the same height as Maria’s head, and Jordan’s chest. Both were a little in front of their mother, who avoided being hit. Maria’s head took the full force of the impact. It gave way completely between the bumper and the stone wall. No face or features of the small girl were recognisable. Mary stood totally dumb, unable to move, and yet horrifyingly conscious of what she beheld. She saw her little daughter’s lilac shoes convulse, twitch and then fall deadly still. She heard a groan, and remembered Jordan. The little boy’s chest had suffered to be crushed. He lay on the floor gasping for air, and dying. His mother’s instincts temporarily snapped the numbness of horror she felt, and she leapt over the broken stone, and held the head of her dying son. Jordan’s eyes were so wide, so open, and his eyes looked upon his mother so questioningly, as if to say, ‘What’s happening, mama? What’ happening?’ He struggled with death for a few seconds, before his little heart too burst with the crush. His eyes rolled back and parted from his mother’s gaze, and he died there in her arms.

Meanwhile, seconds after the impact, both driver’s door, and the passenger driver’s door opened. Inston emerged first, and then Bunder. They cast a quick look at each other, before Bunder began to walk quickly away from the scene of the accident. Inston made his escape in a different direction.

Xtras remained in the back seat of the car, unable to move, in shock, at what had happened.

The police were quickly on the scene, and retrieved the ‘shocked’ woman from the back of the car.


The funeral took place a week after the crash. The dead children’s father had become somewhat delicate of mind after the death of his beloved children. He insisted that they both share the same coffin, declaring, that he wanted to carry on his own their little souls to heaven; but the funeral directors instructed otherwise, and a compromise was struck. They would have separate coffins, but be placed in another bigger coffin that would house them both.


The trial proceeded without much ado for the three defendents. Inston and Bunder declared that the were both too traumatised by the crash, and that was why they left the scene of the accident. Inston was given a four year jail sentence for driving under the influence of drink, and dangerous driving. He got out 18 months later for good behaviour. Bunder was given 12 months; he got out in 6 months; and Xtras didn’t even have to attend court.

Peter couldn’t come to terms with the verdict and cracked completely. He became distant with Mary, who in turn tackled her own grief. He gradually sank deeper and deeper into alcohol, lost his job, and began to spend more and more time away from home. Payments on the mortgage lapsed, and they sold house and took up cheaper accommodation in a flat. The relationship cracked also, and became irrecoverably lost. They lost their house

8 months after the accident, on New Year’s Eve Bunder and Xtras danced to a delightful delirium in a New Year’s party in Bath. They had become an ‘item’ in their words, and moved out of Chelmsford, though many said, they’d ‘sneaked’ out of Chelmsford.

‘Do you love me, Bunder?’ laughed Xtras.

‘Of course I do, Xtras! I don’t know what I’d do without you. You are my life, my everything!’

‘Kiss me, Bunder, I feel so happy!’

Bunder wrapped his arms around Xtras and kissed her hard on the lips.

‘Inston will get out in a few months, Xtras. I had a letter from him, and he wants us to throw the biggest party for him this side of China!’

‘Oh! We will, Bunder, I can’t wait!’

The pair danced, smiled, and laughed at their happiness.

Meanwhile, in a cheap flat in Chelmsford, a woman, looking more than ten years older than she was, clicked on a cd player and placed a cd in the drawer:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z8O29uErf2Y

into the system.

She moved slowly over to an old armchair, placed a half finished bottle of gin and a bottle of tablets on a table next to the armchair. She then sat down.

In her hand she held two photos and a letter. She opened the letter and read out aloud the matter within.

‘My dearest, Mary,

I don’t know how to say this, or even attempt to write want my heart cannot say; and therefore, I’ll just say it: I’m leaving you, Mary.

I woke up this morning in a unit, too drunk to remember where I passed out, or where I’d been. Since that dreadful day, I cannot look up to you and gaze in love at your eyes. All I see are my dead children, and I’m too weak to fight the image of that.

I hope you understand, I’m not strong enough to even support myself, let alone you.

If I stay, I know my heart will break, and I’ll do something I’m too terrified to think of.

I love you, Mary, I will always carry you and our children in my heart.

Peter
x’

Mary kissed the letter, attached a photo of her husband to it, and placed the letter on her knees. She then lifted the picture of her two children to her hurting eyes and kissed them; then stretched out her right arm and gently lifted the bottle of pills resting on the table.

The music played on and in the distance a town clock struck twelve, and another year was ended.