I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, so haven’t had an enormous amount of spare time to add to the journal on my websites….though I do always make sure I keep the hand-written one up to date! Anyway, the upshot of it is, I’ve spent the time writing a medium-length story instead
that I’ve chosen to call “Mauve”, though you’d have to read it to understand why.
It’s set in the “here and now” and tackles that desperately weary old topic based on the question….what would happen if Jesus Christ was alive today and living right here amongst us? The difference with my story however, is that he’s a “Hoodie” and only sixteen years old. He lives on a fictional multi-cultural council estate somewhere in North London with his mum and two younger sisters and, through no fault of his own, already has a criminal record! The family live on income support and “JC” (that’s all he’s ever called in the story) goes to a bottom-of-the-barrel Comprehensive school (when he’s not sciving off to doss around in the local park that is….Oh and he’s an Arsenal supporter….but then, nobody’s perfect!“JC” never knew his dad and his mum flatly refuses to talk about him for some strange reason, but the main elements of the story revolve around the enormous demands placed upon him, firstly by the persistently self-destructive nature of his overly-active hormones and secondly, by his total inability to deal with the inner turmoil/conflict stemming from his nagging suspicion that he’s not only somehow slightly “different” to other people, but that he’s destined to do great things! Then there are the “ups and downs” of his feelings towards the opposite sex (especially the unapproachable seventeen year-old Mary McGladdlin….Senior Siren of the Upper Sixth)! Add to that, his perpetual and, at times irrational fear of the police, together with his frequently stormy, relationship with his mum and sisters and you get a young man whose thoughts are rapidly turning towards simply running away from it all!
Then you have his mates….twelve of them in all (teenage boys and girls) and all at the same school as “JC”. Not surprisingly therefore, they’re all of similar social backgrounds and financial dispositions (apart from Pete and Judith that is, who, despite coming from slightly more privileged surroundings, have managed to get themselves kicked out of no less than seven private schools between them. The future for all of them meanwhile, seems bleak to say the least and probably set to revolve around a life governed by poverty, crime and gang violence….That is, until one day….
Hey, don’t worry, I’ll never send it to a publisher….I promise you! I never attempt to get any of my stories published! Besides, in this case, even if a publisher did happen to like it, it wouldn’t be worth all the hassle and the death-threats, etc that would inevitably come my way…. You know what some of those Anglicans are like….they seem to think they’re the frickin' IR frickin' A !
Anyway, I must admit, even I think “Mauve” is quite funny in places (and I don’t think I’ve ever thought such a thing before….self praise being no praise and all that). I suppose it’s a fairly plagiaristic “Adrian Mole meets "
The Da Vinci Code” meets “Gregory’s Girl” meets “The Vicar of Dibley” meets “Hollyoaks” kind of thing, but it’s a very sad story too and one that has positively no sex or violence….apart from the miraculous misconception scene at the bus stop and that other bit involving the school maths cupboard and Mrs Juniper’s logarhythm method!
Oh well, I know it’s cr*p really, but maybe, just maybe it’s a little bit more accessible to the kids of today than that other book written about Him….You know the one….the really big and heavy one….the one with scores of uninviting chapters (uninviting if you’re the kind of kid with a totally inhibiting social background that is)….the one with hundreds of pages covered in tiny print….and lots of “thou shalts” or, worse still, “thou shalt nots”….and absolutely no pictures!
