So bellow is a rough draft of a short story of mine I am revamping
Jake sits at home staring at the TV, watching show after show, he doesn’t even know or care what he is watching. He just numbly sits and watches. Slowly the boredom creeps in, each passing hour worse than the last. Jake mumbles “I’m Bored” right in the middle of a lengthy blockbuster action sequence. The memories and voices from his childhood echo in his mind. His parent’s voices screaming “get up and go do something then….”, “you’re bored? great here do this….”, many more come to mind, as Jake stumbles upright and puts his jacket on trying to shut out the guilty memories from his past. Walking out the door Jake decides that something interesting must be going on, somewhere.
He walks for hours taking random turns here and there, passing through alleys and streets he never knew existed, even after 20 years of living in the same place after college. Jake is shocked to see the lives that go on within a few blocks of his apartment. He watches neighbors ignoring each other, too busy to care, each desperate for a friend, but none would ever go any farther than the slightest nod or “hello”. Jake’s stomach begins to make its presence and annoyance known, growling and churning in on itself. Jake looks at his watch and mumbles that he will miss the season opener for his new favorite show “scurvy”, So he begins to look for a place to eat since he is hours from his apartment. He sees a small café which looks a little empty but the open sign is still lit, so he trudges toward the door. As Jake gets up to the door a guy with a massive beard bursts out carrying backpack, quickly Jake, who is forever lazy, takes advantage of the door being open he starts to duck in, but stops halfway frozen in place by screams of fear and panic from the street behind him. Then another guy who is clean shaven with a larger backpack backpedals out of the café and into the stationary Jake. As Jake stumbles and tries to catch himself on the door, the clean shaven guy stumbles past Jake out into the street. Simultaneously a pair of gunshots rings out, Jake slumps to the ground.
Joe one of the local Policemen called to the scene of a robbery in progress, rounds the second to last corner before the café, he is greeted by the sound of a pair of gunshots. Instinctively he quickly brings his car to a stop, and reports shots fired and calls for backup. At the call of the radio saying there are civilians injured Joe leaps out of his car gun drawn, in silent communication with other policemen responding to the same call. Quickly and efficiently they work their way towards the café, a strange silence coming from the cafe. Through the café windows they can see people looking out at the three bodies out front. One is slumped by the front door of the café, the second is sprawled on the sidewalk and third body is laying in a heap on the edge of the street, half hanging out into the now still traffic. Joe signals the policemen to move in, he heads for the body by the door, as he gets closer it starts moving. Joe carefully gets closer to Jake’s body; Jake looks up dazed and confused. Some of the other policemen call out that two guns have been found by the two bodies by the street. Some of the other policemen go inside the café and ask the bystanders what happened. Joe overhears that the two dead men were the perpetrators of the robbery and when the clean shaven man stumbled passed Jake he fell into the path of the bearded man’s gun as he fired at the café to scare the occupants away from the windows. But when the clean shaven man’s hand hit the ground, the gun went off hitting the bearded man. Joe quickly assesses Jake condition, checking to see that he is ok. Then Joe pointedly asks the bleary eyed Jake “What were you doing here”, Jake blankly states “I was bored”.