It was a day like any other.  Leroy sat staring into his black coffee his fingers unable to rub away the concerns etched into his troubled brow.  His last meal, some chips that he'd scavenged from a bin, thrown away leftovers from person unknown, felt a long time ago. Hunger aches. Cold bites. The damp of his room, it's faded pale curtains agonist discoloured walls all added to the  depths of his low mood and anxiety.  He needed to get out; this flat was bad for his asthma but the stay or leave decision was now out of his hands.  A month behind on the rent and no money to pay  it, he knew the landlord would have him out. 

The music in the room above blared out.  If he knocked on the ceiling, nine times out of ten, they cranked it up louder. He left the empty cup on the table, put on his beanie and went out into the street. 

He walked out over the grey pavement slabs.  Somehow the mood of the place was oppressive today. Shabby terraced houses, blank windows an abandoned fridge with its door hanging off. He spotted Sharky and some of his cronies.

'Hey Leroy, you want a little something to make yea happy... a little smack or skunk, I gotta a little job for you if you want it.'   He knew they were laughing at him.  Leroy had been in and out of prisons since the age of seventeen.   Not for the sort of crimes that Sharky and his pals were into, mostly petty crime born out of desperation. He had stolen cars, burgled a house or two but it had never got him very far.  He had tried going straight but that hadn't got him anywhere either. 

Leroy answered, 'Not today...thanks', and moved a little quicker up the street. 

Although Leroy had got himself into a few tangles over the years, he prided himself on never using a shooter, he didn't even carry a knife.  Maybe that's why he'd made it into his late forties.  Anyway, Leroy's mother had said, 'Do what you have to do as long as it doesn't hurt another body.' And he was going to stay true to the only person who had ever loved him.  It would have broken her heart, were she alive, if he'd ever used a weapon or even been stopped and searched and found carrying one.

At the junction he hopped on a tram.  At lest they were free and he had spent long days just travelling about the city, using up time, wasting time which ever way you wanted to see it.  He rode to the south side.  Sometimes he could pick up an odd job from the rich folks in the big houses up there although' he had been less lucky in the last couple of years.  He realised he didn't look too good.  His clothes faded and worn;  but maybe some gardening or odd jobs.  He didn't have his own tools but he could put up a shelf, hose down patios.... that kinda thing, maybe he could.... he just needed something. 

After an hour of seeing hardly anyone and walking past high locked electric gates, Leroy felt more dejected, low and frustrated than ever.  At 42 Laburnum  Avenue  Leroy noticed that the gate wasn't closed properly.  Quick glances up and down the street, all clear, and Leroy squeezed through.  He hid behind the evergreens just inside the walled gardens, watching for movement and a way to get closer. 

Skirting around  the edges of the manicured lawn Leroy dodged closer to the house. House? Mansion more like.  Leroy often wondered how some people had so much whilst many had so little.  He stopped to catch his breath.  His anxiety levels were high but still he knew he had to go through with this slim chance despite the risks.  Maybe some money or some jewellery to sell even a raid on the fridge would be something. 

Leroy looked through the window of the conservatory.  Plush furniture, tall palm plants, he tried the door.  It opened.  Quietly he gained entry.  Very gingerly Leroy went further into the room, aware that he was surrounded by windows on all sides.  He reached the next set of doors and tried them but this time found them locked.  Leroy spun around and spotted a trowel. Picking it up, he wedged it between the fastened doors and gave  it a sharp shove, splitting the timber frame apart and giving him access to the main part of the house. 

This was a sitting room, there was a huge telly on the wall that was about the length of his flat.  Fine paintings covered some of the walls, a set of family photos on a side table, a bust of Nero or some other emperor chap perched on a stand near an open door into the rest of the house. 

Leroy walked through and found himself peering into a huge hallway with a beautiful staircase that looked like it should have Mae West descending down it.  Leroy curved his thoughts and brought himself back to reality.  The job at hand.  Which room was the kitchen, could be a purse or wallet in there and maybe something in the fridge.   Leroy made a guess and as silently as he could, made his way to a door and listened.  Trying the handle he cautiously turned it and opened it a crack. He felt a sense of relief, an empty kitchen.  He walked in, picking up an apple but it was artificial so he put it down again.  There was a box,  nothing in it except an ear plug.  He pocketed it ... maybe it would help against the loud music from his neighbour but he doubted he'd be living there much longer anyway. 

Leroy spotted a handbag, just as he hoped, sitting on the work surface.  Leroy grabbed it and started rifling through it, emptying a purse onto a granite table top.  Only seven pounds and some pennies, lots of plastic but not what he needed.  Leroy became nervous, not enough money to risk prison for and he didn't want to climb those stairs. 

It was then that he heard voices, Leroy turned looking for a way out but his elbow knocked a cereal bowl that shattered onto the floor. He tried the black door, it was locked, the voices coming nearer now.  Leroy turned the key drew back a bolt and ran for the gate, puffing hard so hard his chest aches. Just as he was squeezing through the gate he was aware of the dog barking, getting closer, he felt it's bite on his calf. He pushed, pushed hard forcing the gate shut.  The dog barking ferociously the other side.  As Leroy hobbled off he caught the movement of a security camera from the corner of his eye, partially hidden in a tree.  He thought, 'they'll have me for sure'.

Leroy was edgy on the return tram journey.  He knew people were looking at him and his trouser leg glistened with a patch of blood.  His only option was to get back, grab his belongings and make himself scarce. Maybe he could hide in another city where no one knew him, he was used to being anonymous.  He would have to join the homeless, find out where the soup kitchens were.

As he got to the corner of his street he saw two police cars draw up outside his lodgings.  He turned back, now desperate for a way out of this.  Another police car was going past but it screeched to a halt near him.  They must have spotted him, they had a nose for suspicious movements, a taste for soaking up the dregs. 

Leroy scuttled down an alley but he knew the game was up.  He stopped, his chest ached and he could hardly catch his breath.  His leg throbbed with pain. 

'Stay where you are, do not move, take your hands out of your pockets where we can see them', bellowed a policeman; two more policemen behind him.

Leroy had been absentmindedly turning the ear plug between his fingers in his pocket.  He removed his hand with the ear plug in it, spreading both his hands against the dirty rough red brick walls of the alley.  His finger tip touched a tiny hole.  Sometimes we do the strangest things, maybe it was a distraction, maybe trying to keep his mind off the inevitable but Leroy poked the ear plug into the hole.

It fitted perfectly, there was a small glow, a brick door swung in.  Leroy saw in a glance a rolling meadow of flowers, a stream, peach trees laden with fruit, apple trees ripe for picking, blue skies.  The warmth seemed to soothe his leg and he felt a surge of happiness that he hadn't felt in years. The sounds of birds singing filled his heart. Some people working in a field looked up and gave Leroy a wave in greeting.  Without hesitation Leroy slipped through and the door closed behind him. 

In a box for @naomimrshl I carefully place a full set of dentures, a musical box and a pogo stick