It was March 1st 2023
Joe plays for the Highbury Colts Under 13’s. Top goalscorer, best captain in the whole Colt’s history. What he didn’t know was that he was being scouted by Arsenal FC. It could have gone anyway. Good or bad. The scout writes in his notebook, I’m anxiously looking over to the man in black. Cap, black tracksuit, black Air Force 1’s, sunglasses but the weather was miserable. Currently, the Colts are comfortably first in Division A and this was a cup match in the Round of 16. Just before the end, Joe smashes the ball top corner and he doesn’t seem to care. Full Time, The Colts won 6-2 against their rivals, Corinthians. He scored 3, assisted 1. Joe was never a cocky person. Always seemingly humble when I was always take him to games all across the part of London on Sundays. I was always there for him even if he lost, got sent off or couldn’t keep a cool head. I was given a card, by the time this happened, I never knew a scout came to look at my boy. It’s amazing how much potential he had. Days later, he got a letter telling him he got into Arsenal’s academy. He was buzzing, packed his bags early and was very eager to start. The trial wouldn’t come until April 3rd.
It came, April 3rd. He was very excited. He couldn’t sleep, it really came down to this. All or Nothing. The kit man gave him Number 23. First few days, he seemed to impress the coaches and ended up getting an extension. Days flew by and he got better, being probably one of the top academy products in the country. It all started to change at one drink in the pub. It came to a certain moment where he got into fights in the pub, kept getting fined and thrown in jail for a few days. He eventually joined a gang in the city located near Ashburton. I was never told about this but now I do. This did mean that he did get released from the academy as they did find him on the news and his behavior change in general now. Before he went on murder spree, he was writing a note saying. “I’m sorry Mum and Dad, it’s not your fault. It’s my mess I must clean up.”
The paper note was folded quite nicely. But this is not the son I raised. Days later, I kept getting phone calls from the police relating to Joe, he killed 13 women and 2 men in Bromley, burnt a house down in Kensington killing 4 people and causing havoc on the Public Transport. Clearly, he was something up to no good and could have been on heroin and cocaine. He was arrested eventually, and I did not want to see my own disgusting son get sentenced but eventually I did get told he would get 34 years in prison in a Maximum Security Prison where there was no way out. Hope he had learnt his lesson now.