Our story of the week is a story about fatherhood from the writer Lee Wright.
Lee Wright was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in 1980. He is a writer of fiction, non-fiction and reviews. Lee has studied under Man Booker winner Alison Moore and he is currently taking an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester.
Lee began writing a weekly sports column for the Hinckley Times newspaper in 2008. He has published one of his novellas, Forget What You’ve Heard, on Amazon Kindle. Lee’s short story, Seeking Lover, Lonely Mother, was also published by HeadStuff. He has book reviews and author interviews published online by www.everybodysreviewing.blogspot.co.uk.
In We’ll Have You There by Noon, a man who is soon to become a father takes a train journey to see his own dying father, reflecting on his difficult upbringing along the way.
Enjoy!
‘I walk about the platform, the early morning beginning to warm around me. The barriers come down but I can’t see the train coming.
Tiffany takes my hand. ‘It’ll be alright,’ she says, ‘You wait and see.’
‘Ever notice how long it takes the train to get here, after the barriers come down?’ I say.
Tiffany has come out of the house without having washed her hair, so it doesn’t shine how it usually does.
She sits me down, pulls my head forward, an ear against her swollen belly. Tiffany once bit off part of my left earlobe during an orgasm. She’s never forgiven herself.
‘He’s kicking,’ she says. ‘Can you feel him?’
I wrap my arms around her, put both hands on her backside and nod as my unborn son kicks me in the head.
‘I wonder what he’ll look like.’
‘Here comes the train,’ she says.
I look up and notice her smile has slipped.
She hands me my overnight bag and this morning’s newspaper that I know I won’t read. I’ll spend tonight at my father’s, water his garden, sleep on the sofa, keep out of the bedrooms. Tiffany gives me a kiss. Her lips are dry.’