Home Sweet Home, Adrian Sturgess [accelerated reader books TXT] 📗

indeed this very quickly turned out to be thecase. It had soon become clear that he and Josie were mutuallybesotted and in every way they seemed so well matched. They wereboth calm, considerate and level headed. He was an Architect with acareer that was just beginning to take off and Josie; well Josiecould be whatever she wanted to be. She was gifted in so many ways,but had yet to discover what she really wanted to do.

When theengagement was announced and the wedding date set, Mrs Smith was inher element. She took on the planning alongside Josie and togetherthey organised the wedding that her little Josie deserved.

Mrs Smith’sexpression had been wistful but now her eyes moistened and tearsbegan to stream down her cheeks. She was choked with sadness; Howhad she thought that she could live without her dear, dear Josie.Her life was merely mechanical now. Her body carried on living asif it was some soulless robot, but inside, her spirit was dead. Sheneeded her Jodie back. Somehow she had to find a way to reuniteherself with her little Josie. There was a way, she felt sure,there was a way that they could be together and she couldobliterate her torment once and for all.

Mrs Smithswallowed the little tablets one by one, seemingly not in anyparticular hurry. She then retrieved a half bottle of whisky fromher coat pocket and shakily unscrewed the cap before raising theburning fluid to her lips and gulping it down as though itcontained within it the power to restore her youth and happiness.For a few moments more, she sat gently rocking on the swing andthen she mumbled almost incoherently, “Josie my beloved, my perfectlittle Josie, Mummy is coming for you.” A few seconds later allconsciousness seeped from her body and she tumbled backwards offthe swing and lay silently on her back, eyes staring sightlessly upinto the foliage of the tree that had been the focus of so manyhappy memories for her over the years.

*****

Finally Ben’sHammering blows on the front door were answered. He could hear thesecurity bolt being pulled back and then the front door swung openand he staggered wearily to his feet, relief that his ordeal was atan end flooding through his body. He looked straight into thefriendly and familiar face of his mother, he had missed her soprofoundly and he so needed the comfort that only his mother couldbring to him, that he began to sob hysterically and flung himselfinto her arms. But rather than receiving the warm hug that he sodesperately needed, instead, he felt an overwhelming sense of panicand disorientation as he passed straight through the point at whichshe had just been standing without touching her at all.

His momentumsent him stumbling through into the hall where he lost his balanceand fell heavily to the floor. He lay completely still for severalseconds, stunned by what had just happened, but then the immediacyof his predicament got him scrambling to his feet in a frenzy. Thehallway was enveloped in a thick pall of smoke which had alreadydescended to within a couple of feet of the floor and he could seethat he had little time left to get out of the house. The frontdoor was shut and he lunged at it in desperation, alternatelykicking at it and tugging at it, until his breath finally gave outand he had to drop back to his knees in search of the small amountof breathable air still left at ground level.

He had no ideawhat to do next and so he crawled back a few feet along the halluntil he found himself at the door to the front room. The door wasopen and as he peered into the room he could dimly see through thesmoke, what appeared to be, a body lying motionless on the floor.He scrambled across the floor on hands and knees and throughstreaming eyes he made out the form of young woman laying on herside. Her face seemed unnaturally pale, her eyes were closed andher long dark hair cascaded across the carpet, giving moreimpression of life that any other part of her.

He shook herand shouted at her but he couldn’t rouse her. He held his faceclose to her mouth and tried to feel her breath on his cheek but tono avail. He needed to get her out of the house but he hadn’t thestrength to move her. The smoke was so thick that he couldn’t seethe walls of the room nor could he see the door. He didn’t evenknow in which direction the door lay any more. He was sure the girlwas merely unconscious and he just had to wake her, it wasunthinkable to leave her here to die in this burning house.

He rememberedsomething that he had learnt at school and pinching her nostrilstogether, he blew firmly into her mouth and then he pressed downonto her chest. He repeated this many times, although he coughedand fought for each breath and in this way at least, shebreathed.

He wouldn’tgive up now, it was just a matter of time until she regainedconsciousness, he would just have to keep on going; there were noother choices. Meanwhile the thick and all engulfing smoke layacross them like a deadly blanket. It swirled and it settled, everdenser and ever closer, cloying and suffocating, hungry andhungering to bring to them the intimacy of its final embrace.

Then, in aninstant, just as sunlight breaks from behind a cloud, her eyesopened and she smiled up at him. His former panic melted into ablissful calm. She was alive; he had known all along that she hadjust been sleeping. Her adoring smile dazzled him, left him quitebreathless and dazed. He could sense the rhythmic rise and fall ofher chest and feel the soft pulse of each breath against his faceand it was clear to him that in saving her, he had also savedhimself.

As shebreathed, so each breath pushed gently against the dense smog thathung all about them. He watched mesmerised as, each time sheexhaled, the pressure of her breath sent ripples cascading throughthe smoke, turning it away from them like an ebbing