Thirty-eight

I love the school holidays! It’s half-term and the weather has been lovely! So, I’ve been playing out in the garden a lot and we even had a barbecue on Sunday. Mum fussed a bit, she’s all hot and bothered because the baby is getting big now. Dad says she’s got hormones running all around her body and that’s why she cries for no reason sometimes. This week she cried because the sausages got burned on the barbecue. We told her that sausages are supposed to be burned, but it didn’t help.

The best bit of the holidays, so far, was last night. Maya came over to stay. We took sleeping bags up into the attic and some cushions and books and torches. It was just like camping. When we lay under the skylight, we could look up and see the stars. It was lovely.

We didn’t go to sleep until really late. We lay on our backs, looking up at the night, and we talked. Maya and I told each other our deepest darkest secrets – which, of course, I can’t write here because then they wouldn’t be secret. But, she did say something that wasn’t a secret. She told me about what she really, really wants – she said she wants her mum to be well and for all three of them to be lying on a sandy beach under palm trees, drinking pink drinks with umbrellas in them, without anything to worry about.
It sounded lovely.
I was planning an adventure for them – canoeing down rapids, or driving huskies across the Arctic. But, of course, they don’t want that kind of adventure. They just want to feel safe and happy together.

I wonder if I can make that happen for them?