Turning Corners:

a Ryan Stoker Novel

by

Marcus Coates 

Chapter 1: New Decade, Same Issues

I walked along a familiar, bland street;

On reaching the corner and the turn,

The road became a meadow track beneath my feet;

I looked toward the sun and felt it burn,

Myself glimpsed healing - body strong;

The air inhaled pure and clean,

I made to turn, hesitated … was I wrong?

Could I depart the throng and pursue my dream?

Ryan Stoker, 1981

            His brain hurt, but at least he’d produced something tangible that time around: not bad, he thought, looking at the poem one more time before chucking it to the floor beside the sofa and rubbing his temples. He looked around the room and surveyed his kingdom for inspiration and tried to describe it for future projects. What can I see? A room decorated with yesteryear wallpaper, peeling away at the joints where it met the nicotine-stained, Artex ceiling panels. Wallpaper that had evidently been thrown up in haste by a decorator with more important things on his mind – like getting down the pub for a few more jars of the golden stuff and a bag of pork scratchings - or flirting with his mum – rather than spending the time to beautify the walls of a generic council house on a generic housing estate in a generic Greater London suburb. Through what genetic lottery had he ended up living here for thirteen years in a room with lemon yellow walls and a grey ceiling? And more importantly, was there a way out?

© Marcus Coates

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