August 3rd. 6:03am. The tranquil summer’s morning was shattered by the desperate screams of Thomas’ mother echoing down the near deserted suburban street. The few people milling about outside getting ready for their daily business had said they couldn’t make out what the cries were about when they were interviewed. Not initially. Not until Anne, a pretty woman in her early thirties with shoulder length blonde hair, spilled out onto the street wearing nothing more than her dressing gown and slippers anxiously calling out for her five year old son, Thomas, to come out from wherever he was hiding. Eye witnesses reported Anne was closely followed by her husband Bill - a professional, clean-shaven man in his late thirties with dark, short hair - half dressed for work in his suit trousers and unbuttoned white shirt, and that he too looked just as frantic as the mother did. The year was 2003; the year Thomas disappeared from his home without a trace. * * * * * August 3rd. 6:03am. A young, fragile looking hand knocked confidently on the white PVC of the front door to number twenty-two. The hand belonged to a smartly dressed, skinny fourteen year old, fresh-faced boy. Whilst waiting for an answer to his knocking he slid a brown leather satchel off his shoulder down onto the floor as though the weight was too much for him to bear any more. He went to knock again but stopped himself when he heard the sound of footsteps from the other side of the door as the freshly woken homeowner came to answer his initial knocking. There was the slightest of pauses as keys were twisted in locks before the door opened as much as the strong, gold, security chain would permit it to. “Can I help you?” asked the homeowner, a frail looking woman in her late sixties. “Where’s my mum?” asked the boy. The year was 2012; the year Thomas came home. * * * * * From Matt Shaw the author of 'The Cabin', 'Happy Ever After' and 'Smile' comes the heartbreaking tale of Thomas Pritchard, the little boy who came home only to find he wasn't the only one to have changed.
Author
Biography MATT SHAW was born, quite by accident (his mother tripped, he shot out) September 30th 1980 in Winchester hospital where he was immediately placed on the baby ward and EBay. Some twelve years later (wandering the corridors of the hospital and playing with road kill when he was on day release), the listing closed and he remained unsold, he was booted out of the hospital to start his life as a writer and hobbit – beginning with writing screenplays and short stories for his own amusement before finally getting published when he was twenty-seven years and forty-five seconds old. Once Published weekly in a lad's magazine with his photography work, Matt Shaw is also a published author and cartoonist. Has to be said, can be a bit of a flirt and definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, somewhat of a klutz. Favourite books "Roald Dahl's Collection of Short Stories" Tim Burton's Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy Anything, really, written by himself. Because he is that good.
