Second Chance
an excerpt

Second Chance
by James Atkinson

One

7:25am and Jerry Allison lies sleeping in his bed the covers pulled up almost over his head. He slumbers wholly unaware of the world moving around him. The duvet that covers him is a light shade of red, almost pink. Jerry hates the color but Nichole picked it and Jerry gave up fighting over the little things with Nichole years ago. A tasteful black headboard hangs over Jerry’s head as he snores lightly. As with everything in the bedroom it is spotlessly clean. Nichole’s job affords them the luxury of being able to hire a house cleaner and she does an excellent job. 7:30am and the alarm goes off for the third time. Jerry’s arm snakes out of the cover and bangs down the snooze button. The alarm sits on a tasteful end-table that is pressed between the bed and the light beige wall. On the wall hangs an Ansel Adams print, a black-and-white mountain scene, once again very tasteful. The whole room is tasteful in its blandness. Jerry vaguely hates it all. Jerry wants action, adventure, he is tired of his life; unaware that he is about to have more excitement then he can handle.
7:40am and again Jerry’s arm snakes out of the covers and fumbles with the alarm. The snooze button is pressed and Jerry quickly falls back into sleep. As with most mornings he’s not even really aware of what he’s doing yet, it’ll be another 20 minutes before he really wakes up. The sounds of someone moving around the kitchen downstairs drifts up into the bedroom, the clinking of plates, the jingling of cutlery; Jerry hears none of it he’s still sleeping deeply. Jerry’s wife, Nichole Barker-Allison, it took Jerry much cajoling to even get her to hyphenate the name, has always been an early riser. She’s up at 6:00am every morning, even on weekends.
Jerry and Nichole met while they were both under-graduate students at the local university. Jerry was your typical nerd taking computer science courses and Nichole was having computer troubles. They weren’t right for each other but Nichole was tired of the men she had been dating and Jerry was just good looking enough for her to give him a chance. Jerry fell in love with Nichole quickly since he’d never really had a girl friend, the feelings were foreign to him and he just rolled with it. After four years of school Jerry was graduated and Nichole was going into law school, he asked her to marry him and she said yes. The passion of their early relationship quickly died away as Jerry entered the work force and Nichole attended school. Long hours for both of them drove what little love that was there out of the marriage. Now, as Nichole sits on the cusp of her thirties and Jerry slides over that line they have drifted far apart.
7:50am and the alarm goes off again.
“99-3 the Buzz and you’re listening to the Dog and Pony morning show!” the morning radio host seems to shout directly into Jerry’s ear. He slaps the alarm with extra fervor and slowly sits up in bed.
“uggg…” Jerry sighs and rubs his face. He blinks and looks over in the full length mirror that hangs on the back of the bedroom door. Jerry isn’t a bad looking guy, just ordinary. He needs a shave and his belly is hanging out farther then it used to and he has given up any attempt to cover up his thinning hair. He simply buzz cuts it and leaves it at that. Jerry rubs him hands over his balding head and pats his ample gut.
“Another day huh?” he asks his reflection.
“Will it be any more exciting then the last?” he inquires thinking he knows the answer. The truth is today is going to be one of the last normal days of Jerry Allison’s life for some time to come.