24 [Episode 2]

-It’s bullshit, I’m sure of it! No way in hell someone would phone me to say that he’s planning to pull off a terrorist attack or something. But still I wonder who the hell did that stupid joke.
-Honey, who are you talking with?
-Sorry mum, I was just talking with myself. What’s up?
-I need you to go out and grab some groceries, I’m not in the mood to get out of the house today. Here’s the list and the money, of course there’s a little extra for yourself just to motivate you to go.
-Awesome... Ya, okay, I will go.
His mother went back to bed and opened the TV. “10.000 Christians screamed their souls out against jews in our contru exactly 115 years ago at this very same hour and in this very same place. This didn’t happen because of religion but more because of the fact that the jews were living a much better, carefree life and while some say the people were driven by pure envy, a few consider that racism was a cause as well. Nevertheless 115 years ago, our country had a dark day which is today commemorated by just a few jews, relatives of the ones that lost their lives that day.” Even thou David heard these words they went right through him without bringing anything to life in his mind. For all he knew, this was just another useless story made by a reporter that had nothing else to talk about.
David got dressed real fast but before walking out the door he went back in his bedroom and took a pair of gloves.
-David, I hope you don’t have your shoes on!
-No mum, I don’t! Then he took a look at his feet and admired his Adidas snickers.
-Okay, hurry up then, I need to prepare supper before your dad gets home from work!
-Ya, ya, ya. I’ll be right back!
Then he opened the door and a strange cold hit his face making him lose his breath for a moment. David froze for a few moments but then closed the door and started climbing down the stairs. When he reached ground level he realized the source of the cold air that just took his breath: the front door had been left open by someone and the -5 degrees outside were slowly going inside the staircase. A strange feeling of going back inside the house embraced his heart. “God, I hate winters so much!”. But he pressed on and walked out. The weather was cloudy, moody and sad, it felt as if nobody would want to go out on a time like this.
David hated winters a lot. The negative temperatures obviously forced him to put on a lot of clothes and the ones thing that he was never able to do was to buy winter clothes. So he was just dressing with all his other clothes: 1 t-shirt, 2 sweaters, 1 blouse and a not so very warmy jacket that he loved to wear during spring or autumn. Summer on the other hand was his favorite time of the year. The days were long and beautiful, warm and full of life. Nights were a little bit colder but he loved to feel chills on his skin as he enjoyed a cold bear with his t-shirt on his shoulders outside with his friends. During summer he used to skip sleeping just to enjoy life. Only 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night were more than enough to get his batteries full so he was going to bed at around 4 in the morning and waking up early at around 8. Then he did his regular stuff like coffee, reading news while waiting for his other friends to wake up. David never really understood why some people loved sleeping so much. First of all one can never have full control over his dreams while asleep and even if David had a lot of nightmares and strange dreams this wasn’t the main reason. He was having just a few hours of sleep because he considered that life shouldn’t be spent in bed, life is meant to be lived and to live it at maximum you need to be awake. Of course, dreaming was another thing he loved at summer. When he was going to the country side or just for a short picnic in the forest he used to separate from the others, find a place with lots of green grass and he used to lay there looking at the sky, dreaming. Dreaming of another life, dreaming of another family, dreaming of money, of love, of superpowers; he loved to lose himself in a fantasy world where everything was more or less perfect. Then the first shout coming from his friends “David, let’s go back home, it’s getting late!” was bringing him back to reality, was hitting him just like a punch in the stomach. He used to take a deep breath, nodded in silence, smiled a bit and got up starting to walk back to the car. All of these things weren’t possible during the winter, one can’t even take a walk during winter without getting his ass frozen. Nevertheless he had a long walk in front of him right now and he was sure that his ass will be frozen when he’ll be back. Moreover even if the temperatures were negative since a few days ago, no snow fell so far so even the dirt felt like concrete when he stepped over it.
A quick look at the watch revealed him how many hours from the day passed: 11:24. “Aw, damn it, it’s almost noon and I haven’t done anything yet! I’d better hurry up!”

To be continued...