Nano: Chapter one

Because I hate you all and think you should be tortured (only kidding) here is the first chapter of my nano novel, cunningly entitled nano (cos I suck at coming up with titles).

Let me know what you think.

Will

John Mason always whistled on his way to work. As the driver of the only remaining working transporter bridge in Britain, he enjoyed his work. He didn’t even let the habitual bad weather get him down.

It was a good job that he had a head for heights, the drivers cab being on top of the gondola that transported humans and vehicles across the Tees. Then there were the special occasions, people visiting from abroad who wanted a trip across the bridge. He particularly delighted in inviting them up to the cab for the trip back, giving them a view of Middlesbrough that they would not have ordinarily have received. Giving them a special memory.

As he approached the gates, he searched his pockets for his keys. It didn’t matter how many days he had worked here, that first sight across the Tees under the bridge, gondola in the foreground, always amazed him. There were downsides, for example he didn’t get to go see Boro play as much as he might have wanted to. But even then, there was the radio. And if they were at home that week, he didn’t even need that, the sound issuing from the stadium keeping updated better than any commentary did.

Two trips across the river every fifteen minutes, traffic depending, most of the day. It wasn’t a bad life. At least he wasn’t stuck in a stuffy office. Or even worse, like his daughter, in a call centre dealing with annoying customers.

He opened the office and started up the machinery that would do all the work. He then went to the gondola to start the pre-flight checks. As he approached, he noticed a young woman laid out just about dead centre. She looked as if she was just sleeping, but it was hard to work out how she had got there in the first place. Opening the passenger gate for the gondola, he had resolved to nudge her with his boot to try and wake her up. Then he noticed two things. The first was that her sleeping position seemed to be rather uncomfortable. The second was that she didn’t seem to be breathing. He gingerly approached her and pressed two fingers to her neck, as he had seen done on TV to check for a pulse.

John just about made it back to the office before the vomiting started.