In limbo

Foggy weather was reigning all over the city. It was cold, but somehow fresh and agreeable. The drizzle was joyfully washing away the dust of the daily triviality. Here and there you could see some errant  dogs howling and whining from beneath the dirty obsolete cars. However, no sign of sun rays was accessible to the citizens of Bukstone.

A normal boring day that was differentiable from the former one only by the heavenly raindrops.

 Julian woke up at 5.50 and rushed out for school, as usually. The buss came with delay; a repugnant stench of carrion was soaring in it; the people were intimately pushed one against the other, almost hugging each other (but no, no hugs were given by the cheerful citizens. No hugs but intimate groping...). 

Julian reluctantly introduced himself into the orgy and, squeezed between a huge, giant, stinky drunkman, who willingly embraced him, and the cold, wet door, he travelled forty minutes up to his school. Forty minutes where he was apparted from his body, fleeing spiritually from the filthy reality. "Acoustic funeral for love in limbo" was playing in his ears and he was dreaming away, away out of this reality...

7.50 - the buss stopped in front of hir school. He managed to emerge from within the bodies in the buss and ran into his classroom.

- Good morning! - said the teacher with a voice of professionally  concealed grief. 

What followed were six hours of fatuousness. Meanwhile, Julian and his classmates were trying to save the rest of their intelligence and good manners, which was a tough task since the ambiance was so full of pointlessness. They couldn't. Neither the children nor the teachers. Chaos, boredom and implied control, the formula of the decay. Dreams were the only escape, safe and saint, for the children, but anyway their territory were inaccessible in the context of the present tortures. 

The end. As if a flush of contaminated water, the students ran out of the school and breathed the freshness of the freedom. Just an illusion, but anyway, they had something like two or three hours to pretend they were free while they were walking on foot on their way home. Smiling and joking, they were just enjoying themselves, happily sharing their dreams (because now, under the black sky, they were already temporary accessible, permitted) and making together some bizarre plans for the future (that they were perfectly conscious they would never fulfil...).

- Ok, guys, I'll catch the buss from here! - Julian said to his friends. - See ya!

He waved goodbye and prepared herself to freeze to death on the station while he was waiting for the buss. Music was playing in his mind, he was innerly at home, whenever that was, safe and sound, hugged on a sofa and listening to his favorite disc. The night was starry and calm, at home it was warm, calm, cozy.

- Да ти еба майката, нещастен кретен! - the swear harshly interrupted his dreams. 

He felt himself wet to the bones - the buss he'd been waiting for for (as he found out) thirty minutes had passed by the station at full speed (obviously it was the end of the driver's relay and he was rushing towards the garage) sousing with the water of the nearer puddle all the waiting people...

Coldness and wet. Julian closed his eyes again - he was freezing... Now it was hard to imagine he was at home, he was not supposed to feel bad there! He drew out his mobile and checked the hour - fuckin' 15 minutes until the arrival of the new buss! Impatient, he started to walk up and down the pavement. Nervousness conquered his thoughts. Another boy passed by his side, obviously in hurry because of the cold, jostling against his showder. Julian sweared in his mind.

The buss came - the familiar stench embraced the young man, intoxicating all his senses. It was good he went high by the aroma, it served him as an anaesthetic against the harsh jostling and groping in there. After all, fifty minutes travelling in the traffic jams is so damn tedious!

 A spare seat shined among the mob - Julian rushed towards it, fighting his way between the orgy. Satisfied, he won the battle against one old lady and tiredly cosed his eyes, relaxing on the seat. The lady he had defeated looked at him disappointedly and muttered something about the young people nowadays, but he didn't bother himself to pay attention to her words - she was just an annoying subject to interrupt his rest.

Ten minutes later he went off the buss and walked home. He was tired, craving for some tranquillity. Dammit, somebody had left the key in the lock ! Furious, he rang the bell. 

About fifteen minutes later his sister opened the door. Julian was mad at her! 

They started to argue. She seemed nervous too, so she was no near less aggressive in her verbal attacks. Julian got tired. All he wanted was some space to dream freely and instead he was leading a pointless row with his equally tired sister. He gave up and shut the door of the bathroom - the only place he could stay alone for some time. 

- Ok, leave me alone now! - he shouted back to his sister and sat on the floor. 

She muttered something quietly and hided herself in the kitchen.  

Peace... A tear ran down his eye.

The very next moment his mother came home and the screams started again. 

Peace! Peace, for GOD's sake! 

Julian cleaned up the tears off his face and composed himself. It was time to play his role - the only man, however son, in the family. He opened the door to face his mother's and sister's histeria. Tough as a rock, he stayed calm, bore without showing his emotions the madness of the women. After all, somebody should be the man in that family.