Sue BRAITHWAITE

A LONELY HEART

A LONELY HEART by SUE J BRAITHWAITE It was turning out to be a long and extremely cold winter. Christopher, Charlie and Maurice’s mum could only afford to put the heating on in one room at a time otherwise she would fall behind with other bills. The lads didn’t mind that much as they understood their predicament, and to be honest, their ability to adjust to varying temperatures was an easy and comfortable transition. Their birthdays were days apart, a year between each, Charlie being the oldest, Chris being the youngest. The three brothers were seriously close and spent a great deal of time together living in the countryside, they loved their rambles, in rain, sun or snow. As it happened it was snowing that afternoon. The heavy snowfall had settled at around three inches high over a course of two hours and showed no sign of letting up. They finished off watching the last season of, “Girls Gone Bad,” a fictional program about four best pals in their late teens that started out as sweet and innocent law abiders, until they met Jenny and her wild, partying and fearless circle of friends. The lads could identify with Jenny and her friends because they were the influencers of their peers in the village that they lived in as well as the other two villages close by. They’d arrange meet ups with others around their ages to go for drives, drink alcohol, take drugs and do whatever else took their fancy.