Chapter 1

John was woken up by the padder of little feet. It sounded like mice running across the celing. He didn't mind the mice as much as the cockroaches though, and the smell and grease from the kebab shop below didn't exactly make it a desirable room either. He really needed to do something to get out of that place. But after he had paid the excessive rent and minimal bills for the room he called home he only just had enough to cover his monthly intake of oats, water and baked beans on toast.It seemed another lifetime that he had lived in Brent Road in a nice 4 bedroom house with garden, and a new car in the drive. It was no more than 7 months ago.He shook the cockroaches out of his slippers before he walked across the room to wash in the kitchen zink. The one advantage of living a minimalist lifestyle like this; cold water really wakes you up. He put on his jeans and a T-shirt and walked out into the world. Past the kebabshop, past the groceryshop where the cheap foreign cigarettes came from underneath the counter, past the phoneboxes with shattered windows and down the stairs to the tube. The gates where still broken so he could walk straight on to the platform. Someone had left the Daily Express on the seat, John picked it up and studied the front page. "House prices: Biggest fall in 10 years". It was like reading fiction, a different world. He looke around at the other passangers on the train. Where they worried about the dropping house prices? John used to worry himself silly over frontpages like this one, but somehow it didn't seem to be important anymore. 7 months ago he had learned that no matter how much you ae worth, no matter how much your house, your car, you life is worth, it can all be taken away at the click of button, so to speak. John put the paper back on the seat next to him. He didn't want to think about the past, and all the signs he had missed. She had seemed like such a nice girl. She had been a nice girl, when they first met. Another lifetime. John got off at Piccadilly Circus, slipping through the gate while the guard was discussing the need for a ticket with a couple of lippy teenagers. John liked walking through central London. It made him feel, if only for a short time, that everything was normal, whatever that meant. He could forget about his greek landlord running the kebab shop downstairs, the mice and the cockroaches, though he could never quite shake of the smell of old kebab fat. He sat down on a bench in Green park and watched a girl playing with a couple of toddlers. His mind wandering back to childhood memories of sunshine, fairgrounds, icecream and his younger sister, with candyfloss in her hair. He smiled at the memory. Louise had been the sweetest innocent little girl. Always smiling or laughing at something. Not afraid of anything or anyone. Come to think of it, he hadn't been much different himself. Always seeing the best in people, always finding the positive angle. When he met Joshephine, she had reminded him of Louise, and he had fallen for her refreshing spirit right away. Josephine didn't have a care in the world, she took each day as it came, so when she one day turned up with her suitcase and announched she where moving in, he got swept away with the wirlwind and was extatic abou the idea. Little did he know that she would move out of his life as easily and, without a care, let him fall flat on his face.