Luke Francis

On Monday morning I got dropped off home early in the morning by my friend. I was content, and happy and didn't have a care in the world. My parents opened the door to me and I sat down to have breakfast with my Mummy before she dashed off to work. She had the news on and she was reading... I don't understand quite how she expects to take either in, but whatever. I heard brief outlines of the accident that had happened Sunday morning, a boy had fallen off his bike and died due to the head injuries. They mentioned his name, "Luke Francis", I stopped what I was doing, "What!?"
My Mum didn't really know what to do, I was screaming at the tv. Especially when they showed the picture of him, "NO!"
Over and over again, all I could say was 'no'.

I calmed slightly, phoned up Rosie, she had been asleep. Had she heard? No. I told her. She was in as much shock as I was. My parents left for work, I cleaned up my breakfast stuff and went back to bed. When I woke up there were a few moments of clarity when I forgot what had happened, what I had found out. And then it sunk back in and seemed to hit me even harder than before.
The day was just a long procession of things to keep me distracted and to prevent me from sitting around looking and feeling miserable. When I was standing at the train station to Chichester I felt the burning eyes of people looking at me, clearly looking a little distressed, every now and then seeming as though I might burst into tears. I wanted to tell everyone I passed what had happened, maybe then they'd understand. What I wanted them to understand, I don't know, but it was killing me that people were going about their ordinary lives without a care. And why shouldn't they? But it was driving me insane.
Since I found out I've been over thinking again, like before, it can dangerous to linger in it for too long though. My Mum's worried about me already, I can tell.
I went round to my friend's house, Dom, in the evening and we just sat around watching crap and talking about all the memories we had of him and everything about back then. Reminiscing was nice. But then, the only memories I have of Luke are good ones, clearly my memory's being kind. But to be honest, Luke was amazing. He was funny and energetic and insane and everyone thought he would live forever; all the stupid things he'd done before, we thought he was invincible.


Sunday 23rd November 2008 - RIP Luke Francis.