Everything to Nothing by Mark Henthorne

kitchen and grabbed an apple and a
banana, not having anything more substantial for breakfast as his
boss always brought the Saturday workers something fatty and
filling for their first meal of the day. After putting on his work
boots and getting his keys, David exited his house and entered his
car. It started with a mighty roar, mainly due to the large muffler
attached to the exhaust system rather than having anything to do
with the power of his old Ford Fiesta. He expertly reversed the car
off the driveway, sped down the street and raced his way to the
garage.
    While he was
driving he had passed the entrance to an estate that he always
slowed down to look at when he had time. He could not see anything
through the main gate, but after he turned onto a smaller road that
wound up and onto the brow of a hill, it gave him a view over the
whole of the estate. He pulled over to the side of the road and
munched quietly on the fruit while he thought about the lucky
people who lived in such a place. He had no idea who lived there,
but he imagined they were of course very rich, with garages full of
expensive cars. From this position he viewed the house down on an
angle so he could see the front and also one side of the expansive
mansion. Surprised, he noted that one of the windows was showing a
light. ‘Didn’t think people that rich would have to get up this
early!’ he commented to himself out loud. Shaking his head in
bewilderment as to how anybody could be that rich and still have to
get up at six in the morning, he started the car again and
continued his drive to the garage.
    David arrived
at his place of work not too long after his viewing of the estate.
He parked round the back, tucking his car out of the way in a
corner of the courtyard. Briefly he went up to the office,
rearranged the furniture to how it was and washed the cups so no
questions would be asked as to who he had had in the office. After
flicking a switch that turned on the lights in courtyard he left
the office and went down to the truck that was carrying Sally’s
car. He switched the truck on and then lowered the ramps at the
rear of the truck. Pressing some buttons on the side of the truck
released the cables that were attached to the car and it slowly
rolled back. When the car was fully off the vehicle David
unattached the cables and then moved the truck away to its
appropriate parking space. He then returned to the car and studied
it.
    First of all he
realized that he would have to face the gross task of cleaning the
inside. He returned to the office and rooted around in there until
he found some gloves. Also, he filled up a bucket of water adding
lots of soap, grabbed some old rags along with a few copies of a
newspaper. Going back to the car he pulled on the gloves and laid
out one of the newspapers open on the tarmac yard. He then flung
open the driver’s door and simply scooped up the faeces in his
hands and dumped it on one of the papers. He wrapped up the paper
and coolly walked over to a skip and threw it all in it. It was
only then that he let himself feel a little nauseous but he quickly
shoved that aside as he returned to the car to remove the fluid
that was around the steering wheel and which had also dripped onto
the floor of the car. Taking one of the rags that had been soaking
in the soapy water, he wiped away all the ‘egg white’ and when it
was all removed he calmly again walked over to the skip and threw
away the rag. Nausea again threatened to overwhelm him but after a
few moments he composed himself and started to feel happy now that
the gruesome task was out of the way.
    Returning to
the car he started to scrub the driver’s seat trying to get rid of
all traces of the excreta. As he worked he pressed the power button
on the radio and was happy when it came to life. Humming and
sometimes singing along to a popular love song, while the song was
reaching its end he thought and thought of the previous night, how
beautiful she looked