Little Bit of Me , livre ebook

Title Page
A LITTLE BIT OF ME
Short Stories and Other Scribbles
By
Angela Gascoigne



Publisher Information
A Little Bit of Me
Published in 2015 by Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
The right of Angela Gascoigne to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
Copyright © 2015 Angela Gascoigne
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.



Sons
With pain and love
I brought you into the world
We are bound together
By invisible cords
No matter the distance between us
With bonds unbreakable
We remain
Connected for eternity



The School Run
For Robbie
The alarm goes off in darkness. I’m grumpy. I could lie another hour.
Clicks of kettles, smoke from toast, crisply ironed school clothes and a bag full of knowledge.
We’re on the move now, my teenage son and I, negotiating the traffic ahead: horse boxes, cattle trucks, tractors!
We’re late. Again.
The man on the bike wobbles perilously in front of us. On his head a woolly hat. His thin cotton jacket unzipped, billows in the wind.
I want to shout from the window, to inform him that the parachute effect will only slow him down and use up more energy. But the moment is gone. The electric window glides back up. I turn up the heat and shudder at the thought of how cold bike man must be.
It’s bedlam at the school gate. Cars squeeze in and out. Boys and girls weave their way between vehicles.
My son is delivered in one piece. My duties are done, albeit until home time.
Arrival at the school car park must be prompt, or risk not squeezing in at all.
I slide my seat back, turn off the radio and retrieve my book from the glove compartment. With twenty minutes to spare, I resume where I left off yesterday.
I don’t get far.
A mini bus pulls up in front of my car. A group of teenage school boys unload sports bags from the rear of the bus. I put down my book and watch their antics as they kick bags under the bus and lock one another in the luggage compartment.
Boys will be boys.
They make it into school just in time to miss the heavy downpour of rain which now batters on the roof of my car. I’m like a sardine waiting to be cut out of a tin.
Golden leaves fall from the trees like wet confetti before settling on the grass below. Some are morphed into a brown mush on the wet road and pavement.
A buzzer sounds. Children like an ocean of grey and burgundy flood from the school doors. They’re a colony of ants, heading in various directions.
Puppy rouses from her slumber on the back seat. These people seem familiar to her, yet they’re not quite what she’s looking for.
There it is! The face we know and love, approaching among the masses, and looking serious.
His frown turns into a smile. Master and puppy are reunited once again amid a flurry of wet licks and wagging tail.
We’re on the road, negotiating our way through the chaos again. I don’t see the mammoth accumulation of rain water at the side of the road.
The man on the bike shakes his fists at me in anger. That’s the best example of ‘look no hands’ that I’ve ever seen.
I wind down the window and shout, “So sorry... Headmaster.”
Detention tomorrow, I think.
I close the window and turn up the heat.



The Brightest Star In The Sky
My eyes flicker between my dream world and reality. My head aches. Exhausted, I strain my ears.
I hear it again. I can’t mistake the quiet whimpers which seep under her bedroom door and reach my heart, gripping tight with bloody talons.
Another nightmare, I realise as consciousness washes over me and I stare up at the roof window to a sky which is inky black and punctuated by a multitude of stars.
I switch on the bedside lamp. My magnolia walls are bathed in the looming shadows of inanimate objects which furnish my sad and empty room.
Emily’s face is damp and flushed.
I bundle my tiny daughter up in my arms and carry her to my bed. We cuddle up under the cosy patchwork quilt, the colourful illustrations of her favourite book our source of conversation.
“I need Daddy!” she blurts out before the tears come again.
“Me too,” is my only reply since strangled sobs stick in my throat and render me silent.
I take a moment before saying, “Do you see that star?”
She cranes her neck towards the window above her head. “Which one?” she asks me.
I point towards the brightest star in the sky twinkling and flashing like an entity all its own. I’m certain it’s only purpose is to bring us comfort, my daughter and me.
“Oh yes,” she says after blowing her nose on her Peter Rabbit handkerchief. “It’s beautiful.”
“That’s where Daddy lives now,” I tell Emily. Her bare arms are cold so I wrap my woolly cardigan around her. “Every night he watches over us from his special place in the sky. He’d be upset if he knew we were so sad.”
“Is he in the sky, Mummy?” She hasn’t taken her eyes off the star for a moment.
“Yes,” I reassure her. “And he’ll never go away again.”
Emily’s eyes are heavy. She falls asleep next to me. After turning off the lamp I smother my face in the pillow and let go of the tears I’ve been holding onto for so long. “I love you, James,” I sob into my pillow.
I blow my nose and wipe my burning eyes, then turn onto my back and stare at the brightest star in the sky, convincing myself it’s growing brighter and bigger before my eyes.
The room is engulfed in a blinding silver light, and he is standing right beside me looking just as he did before the accident.
“I love you too,” he says as I reach out to touch him, and then he’s gone, in the brightest flash of light I have ever seen.
I drift into a peaceful sleep, my curiosity satisfied, my heart and mind at peace.



Appetite For Destruction
The atmosphere inside the glass tank echoed that of a parched dessert. Perry wondered how any creature could stand living in those conditions, but the previous owner assured him that this was the ideal environment for a tropical pet such as this one.
The lizard, sporting a wonderful array of greens all over his skin, did his best to conceal himself behind an artificial plant. But with the harsh light from the ultraviolet bulb above him shining down like a floodlight, it was an impossible task.
“He’s brilliant, Dad!” Arthur bounced up and down on the settee, a wide grin lit up his face. “Can I hold him?” The small boy jumped down from his makeshift trampoline before reaching out to slide open the door at the front of the tank.
“Now hold on a minute,” Perry said with a nervous laugh as he guided his young son’s hand away from the door. “I think we should just leave him alone for a while and let him settle in before we go shoving our hands in and scaring him.”
Perry knew how destructive Arthur could be if left to his own devices. “Best turn his light off and let him sleep now.”
“Alright, Dad.” Arthur stomped across the living room floor, his face glum and each step of his bare feet slapping against the cold laminate floor. “When, Dad?” he called back over his shoulder, before throwing himself down on the settee.
“Soon, I promise.”
Perry gazed at his five-year-old son who was busy rubbing his red-rimmed eyes as he fought sleep. Arthur was upset when his mother had left for America. He’d gone off his food, cried all the time and became clingy. Maybe Arthur and this little lizard would become great friends. He needed someone to take his mind off missing his mother.
It had only been a few weeks and already Perry and Arthur were falling to pieces without Vikki. It hadn’t been such a good idea, her going away for a whole year. Perry understood the importance of this final year in university and what a great opportunity it was for her to go to America to complete it. He would never have stood in her way.
He’d always supported his wife in the things she wanted to achieve in life. And with him out of work, he was always there to be a full-time dad to Arthur. He’d always known once Vikki qualified as an architect, all their lives would be a lot better. But now, he was having major doubts about the whole idea. He’d never imagined things would be so hard, that she’d be missed so badly. What if it did more harm than good, and this year destroyed their happy family?
“What kind of lizard is he?” Arthur asked, snapping his dad out of his deepest thoughts. Arthur’s eyes were closing now as he rolled the belt of his dressing gown hypnotically around the thumb of his left hand.
Perry hoisted the small boy up from the settee, his body hung limp over his dad’s shoulder. “An Iguana,” he replied as he headed up the stairs, his legs feeling like lead weights. “That’s what the man said when I went to collect him. He’s three years old.”
“Can we call him Fergus, Dad?” Arthur’s voice was little more than a whisper.
“That’s a great choice, son.” Perry agreed while tucking the quilt up around Arthur, who had finally given in to sleep. Then after turning the bedside lamp off and heading for the bedroom door, he hesitated. Arthur might wake up, afraid in the dark.
Cr