One Among the sleepless, a novel written and performed for podcast by Mike Bennett. This novel is intended for an adult

audience. Episode 8

Chapter Chapter 6

Dusty awoke beneath the canopy of shrubs in the cemetery gardens, the collapsed cardboard boxes that he'd slept upon were

damp with the morning dew and he was cold. He decided to rise early. He crawled out

from under the shrubs and emptied his bladder against the cemetery

wall. The stream of yellow liquid steamed in the chill morning air. Dusty inched his penis this way and that, enjoying the pattern that

the urine made as it splashed against the brickwork. When he was finished, he zipped himself up and wondered how best to proceed in his attempts to win over the jittery apprehension of the one.

He emerged from the trees and shrubs and walked out into the cemetery.

He noticed the council gardeners were here to cut the grass.

He reasoned that it must be a Friday.

They came every other Friday, first thing in the morning, therefore it must be

about 730 a.m. He sat on a gravestone and watched the man as they unloaded mowers and

strimmers from their van. Their cheery banter carried over the stillness of

the cemetery. A few moments later, the small engines sputtered into life, and the men began to mow and cut.

As the distant sound reached him, Dusty had an idea, he smiled. He turned and headed for the hole in the railings on the far side of the cemetery,

which served him as a personal entrance and exit.

Ten minutes later, he was walking slowly around one of the housing estates on the edge of town. As he walked around the rim of a recreation ground, he soon saw exactly what he was looking for.

A number of cars were parked erratically on the edge of the grass.

People without parking spaces last night had just dumped their cars where they figured

no one would care.

He eyed them with the shrewd eye of a buyer, not guided so much by his own tastes, but rather he tried to shop with the eye of the one.

...