by Ali Gardner
In reality, Dad had arranged for the wooden frame with monkey bars, a rope swing and a small climbing wall to be built before they arrived, to help the girls settle in. It did the trick, as Libby and Janey played outside for the next hour whilst the removal men worked hard to transfer all the boxes and furniture from the lorry into the house. Grandad helped by sorting out the kitchen and making drinks once the kettle and biscuit tin had been retrieved from one of the many boxes. As Grandad watched the girls from the kitchen window, he tried to shake off his own feelings of sadness and loss – both for himself, as he would be returning home far away from them, but more so for their mother, his daughter, who would miss out on this next stage and every other stage of the girls’ lives.
“Grandad, Grandad, watch me, watch me!” shouted Janey as she worked her way across the monkey bars, smiling at Grandad with pride. Grandad gave a big thumbs-up and clapped his hands as Janey jumped off the last bar and turned to give Grandad an over-theatrical bow.
Janey suddenly remembered that she had not seen her new bedroom. She knew that Libby would ‘bagsy’ the biggest and best room first if she could, so she just pretended she was going inside for a drink. Once inside, she raced upstairs to look at the rooms and found the biggest one, deciding that this would be the best choice. Dad came into the room a few minutes later and asked Janey if she liked his room.
“Your room?” queried Janey. “No, I have chosen this room. You had the biggest room in the last house, Dad, so it’s my turn to have the big room this time.”
Dad laughed and said that grown-ups always have the biggest room, but offered to let her see the other three rooms so that she could choose. They were all the same size; smaller than Dad’s, but big enough for her bed and furniture. Janey chose the room at the back that looked out onto the garden and their new climbing frame. Janey climbed on top of two boxes and knocked on the window to Libby, indicating that she had found her bedroom and giving Libby a thumbs-up sign. Janey knew that this would annoy Libby, who was sat on the top of the climbing frame taking a rest after finally mastering the climbing wall for the first time. She jumped down as quickly as she could, raced into the house and ran upstairs. It was such a rare occasion for Janey to think through something like this and end up getting the better option or the first choice; usually, Libby seemed to be one step ahead of her younger sister and would always secure the best, whether it was being the first to the front seat of the car or the first to choose the biggest dessert. Janey was so pleased with herself as she listened to Dad catching Libby at the top of the stairs and working through her protest of it being “totally unfair” that Janey had chosen the best room. Dad calmed Libby down and helped her to choose the front room next to his bedroom, noting the many benefits, such as seeing who was in the street or coming to the house, and that she would be the nearest to the bathroom so that she could get there first in the morning. Libby eventually accepted it, but said she would be getting first choice on everything else that day.
Finally, the removal men finished and it was nearly 10pm. Dad and Libby made all the beds together, whilst Grandad and Janey found the overnight suitcase that had been packed with their pyjamas, wash bags and clothes for the following day. Janey knew that she would not be able to sleep. It was a mixture of excitement and exhaustion, and the little mice that sometimes ran around inside her head were starting to stir. She knew that Dad was tired, so instead, she crept into Grandad’s room and snuggled up to him without a word. Grandad pretended to be fast asleep with his fake snoring, as secretly he also had a few mice running around in his head. They both woke up early to the bright sunlight that shone through the windows.
“Curtains; that’s what we need to sort today, Janey,” said Grandad.
Chapter 7 - Neighbours and Nachos
Grandad was the first up and in the kitchen, preparing one of his usual unhealthy, but very tasty breakfasts. Dad and the girls came downstairs to the smell of bacon and coffee. Grandad had managed to find enough cutlery, plates and pans to prepare and serve up breakfast for everyone. For the first time, they sat as a family at their old table in the new house, which felt very strange. Dad promised the girls that he would get the bikes out after breakfast, so that they could ride around the street and see if there were any more children here. Janey and Libby were keen to get outside, as they had noticed a couple of children about their age riding past the house the day before, probably trying to find out who the new neighbours were. Yesterday, the girls had been slightly disappointed to discover that their immediate neighbours were two boys of a similar age, but with very dissimilar interests. From the top of the climbing frame, Libby and Janey had watched Graham and Robert in the garden next door, playing endlessly with some plastic soldier figures that were placed with military precision in lines set to battle. The setting up of the figures seemed to last for most of the afternoon.
The silence of this activity had finally been broken by the older brother, Graham, announcing, “Let battle commence!”
At this point, one might have believed that World War 3 had erupted as the boys knocked down all the plastic figures, supported by war-like sound effects, the favourite being the sound of a machine gun followed by cries of horror and pain as each soldier fell to his death. As Janey and Libby watched, mesmerised by the proceedings, it was completely unclear to either of them what was actually going on and who had won the game. Once all the figures had been killed, Graham and Robert seemed to continue their own battle as they wrestled on the garden for fifteen minutes until Graham pinned Robert to the floor by sitting on him. Robert seemed to be getting genuinely upset, and was becoming redder and redder in the face and beginning to cry and gasp at the same time. Eventually, their mum, Pam, came outside and shouted for Graham to get off his younger brother and get inside.
As she marshalled them into the house, Janey and Libby heard her saying, “Boys, you are a disgrace! What must our new neighbours think of us?
About ten minutes later, Pam had popped round to the house to introduce herself and apologise for the boys’ behaviour. She had brought some lovely chocolate brownies as a welcome gift. Janey was the first to tuck into the chocolate brownies and was pleased, as even though the boys were a bit strange, Pam seemed really nice. Libby, always a little less comfortable with people giving or doing things for the family, refused a brownie, and when Pam had left, she grumbled, “Oh no, not another member of the Casserole Brigade.”
Dad reassured Libby that Pam was just making an effort to welcome them to the road, but silently reminded himself that a new start in which the family were not going to be seen as the picture of pity was important. He resolved that there would be no Casserole Brigade in their new life.
After breakfast, the girls set off on their bikes. Dad had said that they must stay on the street – which was a cul-de-sac, so quite safe, but they would still need to watch out for cars.
“Let’s play a game, Libby,” Janey suggested. Janey explained the rules, which involved taking turns to cycle around the whole cul-de-sac on the pavement whilst looking into all the gardens and houses, looking for clues that might suggest whether children lived there and how old they might be.
The girls did this for well over an hour, and compared notes. They agreed that there were definitely four houses in which children lived, and another possible two. They decided to take a closer look at one of the houses that looked the most promising. It was tucked away right in the corner of the cul-de-sac, and from the road, the girls could see the garage with two bikes outside, a pair of roller blades – and if they took a couple of steps up the drive, they could see the top of what looked like a trampoline in the back garden. There didn’t seem to be anyone at home, even though the bikes were outside. Janey announced that she was going to have a look through the window for more clues. She jumped off her bike, which she left on the driveway, and ran up to the front window. Libby was begging her to come back and half turning back herself whe
n she heard the friendly honking of a car horn. As she turned, she came face to face with a family of four trying to get into the driveway, but prevented from doing so because Janey’s bike was lying across it.
Janey, oblivious to the commotion, was calling for Libby to come and see. “It’s definitely a girl or maybe two, “she cried. “I can see a friendship bracelet kit and a Girl’s World, and there are no plastic soldiers!”
“Yes, that’s right. Two girls, Grace and Hope. Why don’t you say hello?” A shocked and embarrassed Janey turned to find a woman and two girls standing by her side smiling.
Janey tried to apologise and moved towards her bike. “Sorry, sorry, we have just moved in and we were trying to see if there were any other children in the street.” At this point, Janey had become quite tearful, and was desperately looking for Libby to come to her rescue. Libby was behind the car, holding onto the two bikes. The woman laughed gently and reassured Janey that it was not a problem, inviting the girls into the garden to play on the trampoline. Janey, relieved but still a little embarrassed, said she would need to check with her dad first.
Soon, the four girls had explored each other ’s gardens and houses, and were playing hide and seek on the street.
Grandad made the biggest bowl of nachos that the girls had ever seen, covered in gooey cheese and tomatoes. The girls had turned the garden into an assault course with the climbing frame and some of the empty boxes from the move. They timed each other making their way around the course. Eventually, they managed to get themselves and the huge bowl of nachos to the top of the climbing frame and sat, ate and laughed a lot as they tried to speak in each other ’s accents. Janey and Libby had not even considered that they had an accent, or that anyone would find the way they talked funny.
That day was an important one for Janey and Libby, as they found out about their new home and the school they would be starting at the end of the summer holiday. Grace and Libby would be in the same class.
The girls agreed that they would walk to school together. At teatime, Dad was so pleased to see the girls with so much enthusiasm for their new life as they recounted all their stories of the street. In their excitement, the girls gave a very complicated and fast-paced run-down of all the neighbours. Even though Dad and Grandad found it nearly impossible to follow the descriptions, they just smiled as the girls explained who was who. First, Libby started with Roger and Sophie who gardened all day long, Elma and Dave with the posh car, and Whiskey the cat who was so cute. Elma used to live with Jim, but Jim went to live with Mandy, Dave’s ex-wife, so then Dave came to live with Elma.
“Oh, and what about grumpy Reg? Tell Dad about grumpy Reg,” chirped Janey as Libby was finishing her last story.
“Yes, Reg plays the piano with the window open, but he doesn’t like children shouting in the street.” Without pausing for breath, Libby continued with the next exciting instalment. “And Graham and Robert, the boys next door, have their own Doctor Who TARDIS in the garden with lots of buttons to press and special effects. Apparently they don’t let girls in though, but Grace said she’s been in once.”
Desperate to tell the next story, Janey stood up and, raising her voice, shouted, “And guess who lives in the end house? Only our new headmaster, Mr Payne! And one day, some children threw eggs and flour at his windows and Mr Payne chased them with a brush. Hope said he is a bit of a pain. Do you get it, Dad, Mr Payne is a bit of a pain!” Janey laughed and sat back down in her chair. The girls told Dad and Grandad about the street party that takes place each year with an obstacle course, and explained that the children get to stay up late whilst the adults drink wine and sing.
Soon, Dad became friendly with Grace
and Hope’s dad, Dan, and they discovered that they shared an interest in sailing. Dad had always loved sailing and had a boat of his own before Mum had died, but he hadn’t had the time to keep it up in recent years.
Dan took Dad out sailing in his boat whilst all four girls played at the sailing clubhouse. It was a great venue for hide and seek or Sardines, which Libby and Janey introduced to Grace and Hope.
“You’ve never played Sardines?!” Libby said in disbelief. “One person hides and the others count to 50, then everyone looks for the person who had hidden – but when you find them, you have to keep really quiet and hide with them until the last person finds them.”
Janey explained that it was called Sardines because sometimes you had to squash up in small hiding places, like sardines squeezed into a tin. This proved to be great fun in the sailing clubhouse as the girls managed to find the most obscure places to hide, including inside sails that had been neatly folded and stored, under boats in the yard and in the drying room on the top shelf, which was lovely and warm and felt like a sauna. This was made even more exciting by the fact that most of the hiding places they found were out of bounds, so they had to be especially secretive.
After a few weeks, Dad decided to buy a small sailing boat and said he would teach the girls how to sail. The boat that Dad bought was red and black, and called Waves. Dad said the boat was nice, but it needed a makeover and a new name, so Dad and the girls painted the boat pale blue and Dad suggested that they called her Kittiwake. Dad thought this would be a good name, as it would remind the girls of their old home. Dad explained that a kittiwake was a type of seagull which was most commonly spotted in the North East, where they had lived. Dad told the girls that their mum had loved to go to the beach in the evening and listen to the raucous cry of the kittiwake.
“She always said, ‘Loud enough to keep Kitty awake’.” Dad explained that this was just daft, as the real reason for it being called a kittiwake was because, if you listened carefully to its call, it sounded like it was calling “Kitti-waak, Kitti-waak”. At this point of the story, Dad was standing up at the side of the boat pretending to be a kittiwake, flapping his wings and making the “Kitti-waak” call. In full swing of his act, he had not noticed a couple walking by with their dog. To make this funnier, the girls could see the couple, but also realised that the couple would only be able to see Dad and the boat as they were still crouched down painting on the other side.
“Do the noise again,” whispered Janey, and as Dad was quite enjoying his routine, he obliged – circling the boat, arms out wide, impersonating a kittiwake as the girls continued to giggle. Eventually, Libby pointed out what was so funny as Dad watched the couple pick up speed and move away from this man behaving in a rather bizarre manner. The girls loved it when Dad told them funny stories about their mum, but today’s story had been made even funnier as Dad had been made to look such a fool in the process. After laughing for some time, they all continued painting the boat.
“We could call her Kitty for short, and that way, we would always remember our lovely childminder Kitty too,” suggested Libby.
“That’s a great idea, Libby,” said Dad. “And that reminds me; we need to start looking for another childminder for you.”
At that point, Libby abruptly announced that she was bored of painting and wanted to go home. She swiftly put down her paintbrush and said that she would wait in the car. Dad regretted introducing the idea to Libby when they had been having such a fun time. Sometimes Dad went into practical mode, and this was one such occasion; the word ‘childminder ’ had been mentioned and this was something on his ‘to do’ list. “Why couldn’t I be a bit more sensitive?” he wondered.
Chapter 8 - Candidates and Confusion
Dad let the conversation about the childminder wait for a few more days. Grandad was due to go home, and he knew that the girls would struggle with that goodbye.
Instead, Dad organised a couple of adverts to be posted online and in the local shops with basic details about the job. The advert read:
Single dad requires child-minder for two lively fun girls aged 8 and 10. Hours to include afterschool, five days a week for 3 hours in child-minders own home. Must be good with kids, cook
, and have a sense of fun!
Unfortunately for Dad, in preparing the advert, he had written and discarded a couple of early drafts that Libby found crumpled in the bin. Libby’s inquisitive and slightly suspicious mind had led her to retrieve the pieces of paper that had been thrown into the waste paper bin next to Dad’s desk. Once Libby had angrily confronted Dad and repeated her insistence that she did not need a childminder, she explained that she had known that Dad was being secretive, as he only ever crumpled up paper into such a small ball if he had something to hide. The timing wasn’t great as Grandad was due to leave later that day, and after lots of tears and shouting – mainly between Dad and Libby – Dad and the girls had to take Grandad to the train station and wave goodbye. Libby was still quite angry, which somehow distracted her from being too upset about Grandad leaving. Janey, on the other hand, was beside herself and could not contain the tears.
At the train station, Janey had held on to Grandad’s hand and eventually, after lots of coaxing and promises from Grandad that he would be back soon, Dad had to peel Janey’s hands from Grandad’s trousers, which she had grabbed and twisted around her wrist in an attempt to make him stay. Finally, Grandad got on the train, and Dad apologised to him and reassured him that things would be OK and that he shouldn’t worry. That was one of the hardest days for Dad. He knew that goodbyes would be hard for the girls after their mum had died, but he also knew the love that Grandad had for the girls. Not once had Grandad questioned his decision to move, but deep down Dad knew that it would break Grandad’s heart. He had lost his only child, and was now facing the loss of having his grandchildren close by. Dad felt terrible, but showing his pain was not an option. He had to be strong and make it work. Walking back to the car, Dad gave Janey a piggyback and tried to place a hand on Libby’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off and walked ahead to the car. Dad told himself that things would get better.