by Adele Abbott
“What does your grandmother think the woman is up to?”
“It appears she’s trying to unseat Grandma from her position as chairman.”
“Your grandmother won’t like that.”
“Tell me about it. I just wish they could sort it out between themselves, and not involve me.”
“When is it?”
“Next Tuesday. At least it’s not another beetle drive.”
“Isn’t that the game where they drive beetles around a racing track?”
Give me strength!
***
By the time we got to Kathy’s house, the removal van had already arrived.
“You’ve made an early start!” Jack shouted.
“The removal men were here at seven.” Kathy came down the drive to meet us. “They haven’t taken the kettle yet, so I can make you both a brew if you fancy one?”
“That’s okay. We thought we might call somewhere on the way to the park, and pick up some breakfast,” I said.
“What Jill means,” Jack chipped in. “Is that she wants breakfast. I had muesli before we set off.”
“Hey, you two.” Peter came out of the house, clutching something in his hands. “Look what I’ve got.”
“They’re not interested in your silly seeds.” Kathy sighed.
She had that at least fifty percent right.
“Where did you get those?” Jack, AKA the other fifty percent, enquired.
“A guy came to the door selling them last night. They were an absolute bargain.”
“He’s more excited about those stupid seeds than he is about the new house.” Kathy rolled her eyes.
“Auntie Jill!” Lizzie came charging out of the house. “Uncle Jack!”
“Hello there, beautiful.” I gave her a hug.
“Can we have a ride on the train?” Mikey had followed her outside. He clearly thought he was too old now for hugs and the like.
“We certainly can,” Jack said. “The man in charge of the train lives near to us.”
“Do you think he’ll let me drive it?” Mikey said.
“No he won’t!” Kathy stepped in. “Children aren’t allowed to drive it.”
“Aww!” Mikey scuffed his foot on the ground in protest. “That’s not fair.”
“Come on, everyone.” I led Lizzie to the car. “Your mummy and daddy have lots to do. Let’s go and get some breakfast.”
While the kids and I tucked into pancakes, Jack pretended not to be hungry.
“Would you like a bite?” I waved one under his nose.
“No, thanks. I’m still full from the muesli.”
“If you say so. Hey, kids, who’s excited about sleeping in their new house tonight?”
“Me!” Lizzie screamed.
“What about you, Mikey?”
He shrugged. “I’d rather have a go-kart.”
“Your new bedroom is much bigger, though, isn’t it?”
He shrugged. “Ryan in my class has got a go-kart. It’s wicked.”
I hadn’t been sure how many people would attend the model railway rally. If I’m honest, I’d half-expected it to be just a dozen or so men, dressed in anoraks.
Boy, was I wrong.
The rally had only been open for twenty minutes when we arrived, but already it was crowded, with queues at every turnstile.
“I didn’t realise this would be so big.” Jack looked out over the numerous marquees.
“When can we have a ride on the train, Auntie Jill?” Lizzie tugged at my hand.
“We’d better go and find it first.”
In the centre of the park, surrounded by the marquees, were Mr Hosey and Bessie.
“Look at that queue,” Jack said. “We’ll be waiting for ages.”
“Why don’t I get in the queue and keep our place while you take the kids around the marquees?” I offered.
How selfless of me, I hear you say. Much as I’d like you to believe that, the truth was that I’d much rather stand in line, messing around on my phone, than have to look around a dozen marquees full of boring model trains. Plus, it was a beautiful day, so I had absolutely no desire to be inside those stuffy tents.
“Don’t you mind, Jill?”
“Of course not. It’s better than the kids having to spend hours in the queue. They’ll get bored.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
“Listen out for your phone. I’ll text you when I’m near the front.”
“Okay.” He gave me a kiss, and then led the kids over to the nearest marquee.
Mr Hosey drove Bessie around the perimeter of the park, tooting his horn as he went. Each ride took approximately ten minutes. The cost of the ride was included in the admission price of the rally, so there was no shortage of customers queuing to go on Bessie.
Just over an hour later, I figured that I would be on the next ride. Thankfully, Jack had been monitoring his phone, so when I texted him, the three of them came hurrying to join me.
“What have you got there?” I pointed to the large box that Jack was holding under his arm.
“I treated myself to a model railway.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I thought they looked like fun.”
“Where are you going to put it?”
“There’s plenty of room in the spare bedroom.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Since you shrank my furniture and gave it to Lizzie. When I’ve put it together, you can have a go on it if you like.”
“Gee, thanks. I can hardly wait.”
Mr Hosey was personally supervising the passengers as they climbed into the carriages. He’d started at the back of the train and was slowly working his way to the front.
“I want to drive it!” Mikey shouted.
“Don’t be silly,” I said. “You can’t drive it.”
We were almost at the front of the queue, and by my calculations, we would get seated in the front carriage.
“Stop!” Mr Hosey shouted. “You can’t go in there!”
I turned around to see who he was shouting at, and to my horror, I saw Mikey climbing into the driver’s cab.
“Mikey!” I yelled. “Get out of there, right now!”
To my horror, the engine sprang into life, and the train began to move away.
“Look, Auntie Jill.” He leaned out of the cab window. “I’m driving it!”
“Stop it! Right now!”
I wasn’t sure if he was ignoring me or he didn’t know how. Either way, the train was headed down the park towards a line of trees. The kids onboard appeared to be enjoying the ride, but I could tell from the parents’ expressions that they realised something was very wrong.
To make matters worse, the train was going much faster than when Mr Hosey had been driving it. At that pace, it would crash into the trees in less than a minute. I had to stop it.
But how?
I’d promised not to use magic in public, but this was an emergency if ever there was one. After casting the ‘faster’ spell, I set off in pursuit of the train, but I feared I’d left it too late. Even with the help of magic, I didn’t think I would make it in time to prevent it crashing into the trees. A lot of people, including Mikey, were bound to be hurt. And then, Kathy would kill me.
With the train only yards from the trees, I closed my eyes and braced myself for the worst.
But nothing happened.
I’d expected a huge crash, but there was nothing. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the train had pulled up just short of the trees. Everyone was climbing out of the carriages: the parents wearing looks of relief, the kids whooping at the fun of it all.
Mikey was still seated in the driver’s cabin.
“You!” I screamed at him. “Get out here! Now!”
“Sorry, Auntie Jill.” He couldn’t meet my eyes. “I didn’t mean to do it. My foot caught the lever.”
“Come here.” I gave him a huge hug, out of sheer relief. “Thank goodness you managed to stop it.”
“I didn’t stop it. I d
idn’t know how to.”
“Oh?”
“Is everyone okay?” Mr Hosey came hurrying towards us. Jack and Lizzie were a few paces behind him.
“I think so. It’s lucky the train stopped when it did though. It must have got caught up in the mud.”
“No, that was me.” Mr Hosey held out a small metal box. “I had this remote control made for just such emergencies.”
“It was you who stopped it?”
“In the nick of time by the look of it.”
“You need to put some kind of lock on the driver’s cabin.”
“Good suggestion, Jill. I’ll get onto that.”
While Mr Hosey went over to check on Bessie, Jack gave me a hug. “Are you okay?”
“Just about. I’m sorry about—err—you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“I had to use magic,” I whispered. “I thought it would help me to catch the train.”
“Don’t be silly. You had no other choice. I thought for a moment there that Mikey was a goner. We really ought to punish him for being so stupid.”
“I know, but I’m just glad he’s okay.”
We spent another couple of hours (which felt more like two days) looking around the rally. By then, even the kids had had more than enough, and were ready to go home.
“We still have one marquee to look around,” Jack said.
“I don’t care. The kids have had enough, and I certainly have. Let’s take them home.”
“Okay. I suppose that’ll give me time to make a start on my railway layout tonight.”
“Whatever floats your boat. And don’t forget you need to drive us to the new house.”
By the time we arrived, the removal men had left, but Kathy and Peter still had a ton of unpacking to do.
“How was it, kids?” Kathy said.
“I drove a train.” Mikey bounced into the house.
Kathy gave me a puzzled look.
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it another day.”
“What about you, Pumpkin.” Kathy ruffled Lizzie’s hair. “Did you have fun?”
“It was okay, but it would have been better if there had been dolls. It was just boring trains. I had a nice pancake, though. Can I go and see my new bedroom, Mummy?”
“Of course you can. Off you go.” She turned to us. “Thanks, Jill, and you, Jack. I don’t know how we would have managed if the kids had been under our feet.”
“Where’s Peter?” Jack asked.
“In the kitchen. He’s making cocktails.”
“Cocktails?”
“When we were unpacking, he found his old cocktail shaker. It hasn’t been used for ten years to my knowledge. Why don’t you go through? You’ll be ready for a drink.”
“Why not?” I figured I deserved one after the day I’d had.
“I’m driving,” Jack frowned. “But I’ll take a cola if you have one.”
“Hey, you two.” Peter was shaking the cocktail maker. “You’re just in time for one of my specials. I call it the Pete Powerball.”
“Sounds great.”
“Look!” Kathy pointed to the glasses on the table. “We even found some old cocktail umbrellas.”
Hmm. That had given me an idea.
Chapter 14
It was Sunday morning, and although I planned to work for part of the day, I’d assumed we would both enjoy a nice long lie-in.
Jack clearly had other ideas because when I opened my eyes at just after seven, I was all alone in the bed. I thought maybe he’d nipped to the bathroom, or he’d decided to treat me to breakfast in bed. Fifteen minutes later when he was still a no-show, I reluctantly climbed out from under the covers and went in search of him. I’d no sooner stepped onto the landing than I heard noises coming from the spare bedroom.
“Jack?”
“Morning. I thought I’d make an early start.”
The floor was covered in small pieces of railway track.
“What time did you get up?”
“About six.”
“You haven’t made much progress.”
“This stuff is more complicated than it looks. It’s the signals which have me confused.”
“I thought you’d got up to make me breakfast in bed.”
“I would have, but I didn’t want to wake you.”
Yeah, right.
“I wouldn’t say no to a coffee, though.” He held a piece of track in each hand. “Would you say these look the same length?”
“It’s no good asking me. My eyes can barely focus yet. I’ll go and make coffee.”
“A couple of slices of toast wouldn’t go amiss.” He gave me that smile of his—the one he thinks I can’t resist.
The trouble is, he’s right. More’s the pity.
I sat on the windowsill in the spare bedroom, sipping coffee, and watching Jack trying to figure out which piece of track went where.
“You look like you need help.”
“No, I don’t. I’ve almost got it figured out.”
“If you say so. I told you I’m going to be working part of today, didn’t I?”
“Yes!” He punched the air. “That’s one of the signals done. Sorry, what did you say?”
“Never mind. I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
I’d just about got used to the idea of being a ten-pin bowling widow, and a ukulele widow, but it seemed I was now a model train widow too. I really needed to get a hobby of my own. Something I could throw myself into with the same amount of enthusiasm that Jack did.
***
I was going to pay a visit to the two couples who had been at the caravan park at the same time as the Bells, but first I called in at The Corner Shop.
Little Jack was back behind the counter, and he seemed to have something of a spring in his step.
“Morning, Jill, what do you think of my new stilts? They have built-in springs which give me more bounce.”
“Ah, that explains the spring in your step. They’re very good, but don’t they make it a little more difficult to get around?”
“Not now I’m used to them. I hope you aren’t here to claim your steak and kidney pie. I’m afraid I’ve been cleared out of them.”
“What went wrong with the scratch cards?”
“It was my own fault. I ordered them online, and it turned out the supplier was a bit dodgy. That’ll teach me not to check the reviews first. If I had, I’d have seen he’d done the same thing before. I was lucky that it was only steak and kidney pies. One poor guy got a batch of cards where every one of the pictures was a bottle of champagne. It ended up costing him a small fortune.”
“I assume you’ve stopped selling them now.”
“Yes, lesson learned. What can I do for you today, Jill?”
“Actually, I have a rather unusual request.”
“Fire away. I enjoy a challenge.”
I explained to Little Jack what I needed, and although he was rather surprised, he seemed confident he’d be able to get hold of them by the following morning.
“Thanks, Jack. I’ll call in tomorrow to collect them.”
***
As my husband was likely to be occupied with his toy train for most of the day, I decided I’d take a leisurely drive rather than use magic. First stop was Mansfield, home of Paul and Sandra Nightingale. Their bungalow was in a cul-de-sac of identical properties.
Sandra was a fussy woman, who had a penchant for frogs. Not real ones, thankfully. The house was full of frog ornaments of all shapes and sizes.
“Wherever we go, I always buy a frog.” Sandra handed me a cup of tea. “Interestingly, it all started at Filey, didn’t it, Paul?”
“Mmm.” He nodded.
“That’s when Paul bought the first.” She picked up a glass frog from the sideboard. “This is the one that started it all.”
If Paul’s expression was anything to go by, he regretted ever making that first purchase.
“Thank you for talking to me today. I wante
d to ask you about the Bells. I believe you were in the next pitch to them?”
“That’s right.” It was clear that Sandra did most of the talking in that house. “A nice couple, weren’t they, Paul?”
He nodded. A man of few words was Paul Nightingale.
“Did you get the chance to talk to the Bells much during your stay?”
“Yes, they were both very chatty, weren’t they, Paul?” She didn’t wait for him to reply before continuing. “In fact, we spent a couple of days together—the four of us.”
“Doing what?”
“Nothing very exciting. We went for a walk and grabbed lunch one day. And on the day that they left, we’d been out for a drive. We offered to go in our car, but they insisted we take theirs, didn’t they, Paul?”
Another nod.
“Did they act any differently on that last day?”
“Not really. They were pretty much the same as always. We went for a drive to Driffield, looked around for an hour or so, grabbed lunch at Wetherspoons, and then went back to the caravan park. Mind you, I didn’t think that we were going to make it back.”
“Why’s that? Did the car break down?”
“No, but the petrol light was on most of the way back. I thought Walt would pull in and get some fuel, but he drove past three or four petrol stations. I was beginning to think he hadn’t noticed the warning light, but when I pointed it out, he just laughed, and said that there was plenty of fuel left, and that he never took any notice of the red light. It turned out he was right because we made it back to the park okay.”
“Presumably you said your goodbyes to them then?”
“Actually, no, but only because we had no idea that they planned to leave that night. They’d told us that they were going to stay the weekend and leave on Sunday night, so we were surprised when we got up on Saturday to find they’d left during the night.”
“Didn’t you hear them leave?”
“No, but then Paul is a very deep sleeper, and I always wear earplugs because of Paul’s snoring.”
When I left the Nightingales, both Sandra and Paul saw me to the door.