Missing

We have discovered, to our astonished horror, that Oliver is supposed to be going back to school next Tuesday.

I had thought he was at home for another two weeks, and was completely astounded when I turned over the next page in the desk diary to write something, and discovered that we had only got his presence for another couple of days.

I was very sad about this. It is always sad when the children depart, and our nest is peacefully chick-free. I was also thrown into a frantic flap because I had not at all thought about replacing outgrown things, or refilling his tuck box.

I flapped about and asked questions about whether or not his shoes still fitted, which fortunately they did. His trousers don’t fit any more, but it is the summer term, he will just have to pretend they are shorts. He was not remotely surprised, and explained that this was why he had been in a rush to finish his homework.

I had not noticed him finishing his homework because he is on the third floor and I can never be bothered with the extra stairs.

We will miss him when he has gone.

Probably not as much as we would if he lived on the second floor.

The visiting dog has also gone. This was after a rather abrupt and not very civil conversation with its owner’s cousin this morning. She rang me up wondering who I was, because of some elderly-person telephone incompetence which had led her to find my number on her cousin’s phone. I told her rather sharply who I was and filled her ear in about neglected dogs and abuse.

I also warned her, with grim satisfaction, that the dog, and therefore by definition probably its owners, who were staying with her, had been crawling with fleas.

Hence this afternoon a vaguely related chap, whom I know as being an enthusiastic local drinker, turned up this afternoon and said he had come to collect it.

I filled his ear in as well. Then I showed him how to treat its ears and eyes, and warned him of terrible consequences if it was neglected again, and he took it away. I was not entirely sorry. You can’t cast an enchantment without getting tangled up in it yourself, and whilst we have been teaching the dog to like us, we have, inevitably, come to like it. It has become a reasonably nice little dog now it has been taught how to be civilised, but still, I reminded myself as it departed, it does not come to heel and has to be endlessly supervised on walks, and also I had become weary of Roger Poopy’s non-stop growling at it.

Still, we will miss it. I am going to write to the RSPCA when I have finished this, so that hopefully they will pay its owners a visit when they get back.

I had left it behind today anyway. Whilst it was snoring in its basket this morning I took our own dogs, who know how to behave on walks, and we tiptoed away. We walked for miles and miles, over the two fells, and the heavens opened with great fat raindrops that were almost snow. We got drenched, not to mention so cold that my teeth ached and my head felt as though I had swallowed an ice cream too quickly, but we were all so pleased to be out and free again that we did not care. We squelched through the mud and I thought about stories, and the world was a lovely place for a couple of hours.

When we got back I had to remove practically all my clothes and start again, because I was completely soaked. My coat and boots are still steaming by the fire even as I write. The visiting dog was still snoring. It did not seem even to have noticed that we had gone, and woke up with a start when Rosie shook cold water and mud all over it.

After that, newly energised and buzzing with ideas, I filled my beautiful teapot with fresh leaf tea, and sat down at my desk to write my story, and to my great joy it just seemed to write itself. I have been struggling with it for days now, writing bits here and there and then running out of steam, and it just felt as though I had shaken my thoughts free and they had all straightened out, like washing on the line on a windy day.

I am feeling very contented with my world.

I am two thousand words closer to being JK Rowling.