((Please note: I do not own Ashes to Ashes or any of the characters, but can hope I will do some day!
This is inspired by one of the worst days of my life and lovely friend Laura!))
Molly… Molly…
As Alex drifted off at her desk, that name penetrated her dreams. It was the name that meant more than the world to her, but was painfully absent from her current one.
She remembered…
There she was, sat in the front row of the school hall, waiting. She must have been more anxious than Molly… she'd do well, wouldn't she?
She clapped, beaming, as Molly came on stage. Molly also beamed, but her hands, holding the paper she had to read from, shook with nerves.
She climbed up the steps onto the stage, trying not to let her jelly-like legs fail on her. She reached the podium and again tried not to collapse as she looked out onto the sea of nearly 200 parents in the audience, all beaming at her and probably whispering: "Aw… isn't she brave? Look at her little pig tails!"
She raised the paper and placed it onto the podium, glad not to have to hold it any longer and let her shaking hands betray her nerves. She cleared her throat and kept her eyes fixed firmly on the paper, while saying in a wavering woice:
"Too busy sipping latte to save the rainforest
We have become distracted.
We are all too busy watching Big Brother or Celebrity This or That while the corporations take the rainforest down, one tree at a time.
While the polluters carry on their merry way, we are sipping our coffee, mulling over which plasma to buy.
While Gordon Brown talks green, this government is approving airports, motor ways and trying to wriggle out of green energy targets.
Yup, we have become comfortably numb to it.
The entertainment industry is keeping the masses quiet.
Keeping us from thinking too much about stuff.
It used to be opium for the masses, now it's reality TV.
Jeez, how did we get here? We are all part of the problem.
We care. But we are just too busy to say something.
The government, the corporations, the polluters must just love us.
Protest about nothing. Accept just about everything.
The Distracted Nation. 'Oh waiter, another latte please.'
(12,090 trees were cut down in the time it took to read this)"
She looked up from her page. No one clapped. The atmosphere had… changed. Some people looked shocked and were nodding, as if in agreement. The others… glared. At what? Her politics? The facts? What?
She walked away, and Alex watched her, a lump in her throat. Then Molly turned to face her… was this part of her memory?
The answer was no, it was not. Molly changed… into the clown. That clown which haunted her days and her nights. She jumped up and backed away.
The clown followed.
She began to ran.
The clown ran faster.
It was almost on top of her. She screamed in terror, paralysed to that spot—
BANG.
"You want to sleep on the job, join the fire brigade!" Came the voice of the man she called her boss- DCI Gene Hunt.
She sighed in exasperation but inwardly thanked him for waking her, her heart still beating a mile a minute… he walked away.
She watched him go…
As much as it pains me to admit it, I need you. Why else would you be here? Unless… Do I…? Is it love?!
As the thought rose in her mind, she blushed.
NO! I can't let that happen… Tyler did… and look what happened to him…
But then the world of paperwork intruded… and the thought was forced to lie in wait… until tomorrow.
