The Bleep

There it went again, that dreaded bleep, he wondered whether he had the willpower to stay away from it this time. The only problem was that the pull of that tiny sound was just too hard for him to resist. Each time he heard it he fought the impulse for as long as possible, to date he had managed to last about five minutes and that had been hard, he had felt as if he was fighting the completion of a puzzle, as though a part of him was missing.

As he sat there resisting the urge to have a look he thought back to life without that dreadful noise, and realised just how much easier it had been. Of course it wasn’t as exhilarating as the life he was now leading but nowadays that bleeping was just too much, he could stay away for only so long, it seemed to play on his mind and it always seemed to get the better of him in the end. He had begun to neglect so many of his duties. He had even gone to the point of totally forgetting about his daughter's wedding and turning up after the ceremony had finished, which had not put him in good standing with his ex-wife and new son-in-law not to mention how distressed his daughter had been. It had all been because of that frightful noise and of course no one had understood, they had all looked at him in disgust, not realising what he had gone through to have even got to the reception. Even then he hadn't realised that if he wanted to keep his family and friends then he had to get rid of it.

That had been three weeks ago and he was still hooked, but had now realised just how much it was costing him. Especially as he had not heard from his daughter since the wedding, no postcard from the honeymoon, not even an invitation to go round for coffee when she had got back from her week in Paris.

He had been warned of course. There were always ample warnings being given for addictions, be they on the television, radio, newspaper, he had even seen people standing in the street handing out newsletters relating to the severity of this one. But that was the problem wasn’t it, you always thought you could look after yourself and deal with whatever life threw at you in your own way but of course things hardly ever worked out like that. At first he had thought it was a ploy to keep him away from his new found pleasure, that everyone else seemed to have found quite a while ago and had kept from him. They had been right of course, and tried to steer him away for his own safety, but it was to late, he was now hooked and could not see any way of breaking out of the spell which he was under.

He now realised that the noise was becoming even more persistent, and he felt as though it was draining the life out of him with each and every bleep. He had tried to turn the volume down in the hope that if he could not hear the noise then he would be able to complete everything else. This of course had not been the case, in fact it had made everything much worse as he had spent his time running back and forth every couple of seconds to check that it was still working.

He knew he couldn’t go on like this and that if he continued he would end up collapsing of exhaustion through lack of sleep and nourishment. The more he thought about it the more he realised the need to escape its clutches. It called him from his sleep and once he had started he seemed to lose all desires. The most he had eaten in the last few days was cornflakes and soup. He had only managed these, as they had been quick and easy to prepare. He had not slept for longer that a couple of hours at a time. He longed for a relaxing bath and a quick pint in the company of real people but every time he managed to work up the courage to go through with it that bleep came back and he was once more hooked.

That was when he made the decision. First thing in the morning he was going to make the call and arrange for it to be removed forever. He realised, of course that these decisions were easy to make in the dark of night, whether he could go through with it in the harsh light of the day was another thing entirely. With that thought in mind he decided to try to catch some sleep.

It had proved to be a long restless night, during which he had tossed and turned and questioned his decision relentlessly. He had awoken feeling drained and pessimistic about his strength to see it through.

As he had showered and dressed he knew without question that what he was about to do was for the best. Not only for his sake but for his daughter's as well, it would hopefully stop her worrying about him so much, especially as she now had her life with Peter to consider. He hoped against hope that he could muster up the courage to go through with the call.

Once he was ready he sat with a cup of tea contemplating what he was about to do and how to go about it. The bleeping had been persistent all morning and he knew that if he was to succeed then he would have to be quick and resist the temptation to look, for once he did that he knew that all would be lost.

He picked up the receiver and dialled the number. It seemed to be taking an awfully long time to connect. All of a sudden he was hearing a voice saying that all lines were currently busy and he was being put in a queuing system. He hoped it would not take long for him be connected as he feared that he would loose his nerve altogether if they weren't quick.

Just at that moment he heard a voice say "Account number please?" He blurted it out "R7590B". A couple of second's wait and the voice was back. "Mr Byrne you're speaking to Joan how may I help?" It took a while for him to get the words out but finally he managed to say it. "I'd like to have my account closed, please, I'll be on to my bank later this morning to cancel the direct debit and would appreciate it if you could stop the account from now". There was a brief pause and the voice said "Certainly Mr Byrne can I ask why you wish to close your account?" He hesitated unsure of how to respond, finally he felt able to say it "No, no problem I just feel that having an Email account is something that I can live without, thanks for your help"