Читать книгу Searching Fifty Shades Of Grey - Audrey Ellis - Страница 10

It was only after James carried Peters limp body in his arms) rushed through Mrs. N.’s front door that he began kicking and giggling loudly, missing a slap on the leg for that realistic play-acting! It hadn’t been long after this that he was taken to Harold Wood hospital, first to get a crayon removed from his left nostril and then, only weeks later, a saucepan from off his head. Esther, not excluded from childhood pranks, returned from the shops with wet sudsy hair and an empty bottle of shampoo saying simply;

“I wanted to and I felt like washing my hair in the rain, Mummy!” Their parents didn't appear to be phased by any of the fun that their kids got involved with.

Such as her younger brother hiding his vinyl ball in the oven and then wondering where his ball had gone. Their daddy forced to conceal his amusement and dismay whilst scraping the mess from the oven away.

Rarely though had Esther been as excited as the day she returned from infant school to find a fluffy ginger and white kitten dangling from the sitting room curtains, squealing for release, being able to move neither up nor down.

It must have been quite funny seeing cat and dog accompanying them on their walks each evening. Life seemed almost the same, but there were small differences, when their daddy no longer joining them on walks, but lay instead in bed. She had visited Coventry with her daddy aware he wasn't very happy with her. She had gone into the stream; near to her school. A boy from her class had thrown in her plimsoll bag. Aware her father wouldn’t be happy if he knew what she had been up to wouldn’t have been impressed. This was the reason why she remained quiet on returning home from the stream she had stuffed her soggy skirt to the bottom of their cane laundry basket. She prayed not to be found out but........

“But…but, Daddy. There wasn’t enough water there. It was only a little stream”.

He hadn’t stayed angry for long though when he did find out. She had been extremely close to her father. Always following his shadow; hanging onto every word she heard. She would peep behind the living room curtains of 8, the Close; patiently awaiting his return.

She hadn't forgotten how, only a few days before, she'd walked to the doctor’s surgery. Her daddy was very quiet and so didn’t listen to her pleas for an ice cream from a nearby Mr. Whippy van.

“Have a lovely time in Coventry with your Grandmother”, shouted the kindly doctor’s receptionist, “and take care that that case doesn’t burst open again, won’t you!”

She had already assisted Esther with stuffing the motley assortment of overnight clothes and her dad’s shaver back into the case that had burst open in the doctor’s waiting room. Once on the train, having reached Liverpool Street, it wasn’t a long journey. She skipped brightly along beside her father. Him always insisting she held his hand tightly on the underground. They made their way to the main station where there seemed to be a high ceiling. Esther was never afraid of the crowds. She noticed barrows and men selling newspapers whilst busy women stuffed their bags with all sorts of things.

She noticed a man yelling at a lady for losing her handbag. Whilst the steam filled station concealed the activities on the next platform. A lady talked into the air and everyone stopped to listen to her. Something about a cancellation; whatever that was! Not for one moment did it enter her child’s mind, running beside her father, how soon everything would alter. His thin white stick tapped in quite a comforting way. Most people stepped to one side but some didn’t bother.

“Bloody ignorant or lazy muttered her father, whilst forcing his way through, nothing seemed to stop him until…..

“Daddy is resting in bed again; he is tired and has pains in his legs that the doctors are still trying to help to get better. Dr. Feldman at the practice has prescribed strong medicine” their mum had said as they walked together that night.

It had only been a couple of weeks earlier that Esther remembered her father taking himself off to his vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden, following a huge row about bringing....... home. As a peace-keeper he had returned clutching a huge cauliflower which he had given to her mum and she had cried and said,

“I really don’t know what to do about this, James”.

If they argued about anything it was about..... There would easily be two less people living on this planet if her mum hadn’t been such a skilled mediator.

Mrs. Franks would no longer bring her husband round for a cup of tea. Esther noticed how he had legs like two sticks of rhubarb but that didn’t stop him from wearing the most garish of shorts in summertime.

Not for one moment did it enter her child’s mind that life could ever change.