A short short story

Regular readers may be aware that I have been deeply impressed by Dave Eggers' short short stories each week in the Guardian. I haven't been seeking to try the form myself but then something drifted into mind and presented itself best as something short - less than 250 words. Do let me know what you think.

Voices

Jerome sits on a bench in his suit outside the court room alongside his mother who is humming Amazing Grace, as she does when she is nervous. Only, Jerome cannot hear her because the voices are singing louder; not very loud, but loud enough for him not to work out the tune. She is thumbing through her scrapbook of his newspaper cuttings.

He thinks he sees his doctor talking on her mobile at the foot of the stairs on the otherside of the Victorian court house. He likes her, she listens to him, and is trying to read her lips, trying to take his mind off the voices. He gets distracted though by the late afternoon light shining onto the wall above her.

Jerome is unaware that she has been asked by his lawyer to tell the court why he stole the batteries from the petrol station. He cannot read lips so does not realise that she is asking a friend, another lawyer, if there is anyway she can ask the court to provide him with batteries for his walkman to stop the voices.

But the court won't be able to help because its his fifth offence. And in two hours Jerome's mother and the doctor will sit near each other on the bus home, unaware of each other's presence, both wondering why - however good he was - he chose to be a boxer and not an athlete.