Childhood Story

I was at my Nanna’s. It was just like every other day at my Nan’s, I was colouring a clown from my ‘JUMBO COLOURING BOOK’, not so much colouring, more like scribbling. The concept of staying in the lines was not yet known to me.

  “Little Miss Muppet,” Nan had affectionately called me that since I could remember along with Chatterbox and Goldilocks, “Your teddies and cheese are ready”. Tiny teddies and cheese were my desired afternoon tea. After chomping off only one teddy’s head, I heard the gravel crunch on the driveway.

  I was disappointed and didn’t move at first, the teddies were beckoning me. But Nan called out from her bedroom, “Jaye, go see who it is”. There was a certain urgency in her voice which startled me, so I stood and went to greet the visitor.

  I walked through the familiar carpeted kitchen and found myself staring at a magnet on the fridge. On it was an old ship. My aunty and I had made it for my Pop one night when I had stayed there, she always did fun things with me. I continued walking and heard my Nan behind me.

“Who is it Jaye” Nan seemed falsely curious.

I s stepped outside just before my Nan and greeted the visitor, who turned out to be my whole family. My Mum was standing against the back car door looking down at me, my Dad was sitting in the driver’s seat… I couldn’t see his face and, my brother, Brody was sitting in the front passenger seat. There was a feeling of awkwardness surrounding everyone.

“Mum, I didn’t know you were coming, I was eating my teddies, Mummmm I don’t wannnnnaaa goooooooo”.

“Come on Jaye.” My Mum displayed the same urgency as my Nan had before, so I warily kissed my Nanna goodbye and climbed into the backseat with mum.

Excited that Mum was in the back with me, I kissed her on the cheek, she replied with a light smile after returning to her frown. I now realize that she sat with me for comfort, not that I needed any. I could tell there was something wrong by the silence, which was usually laughing and constant chatter. I suddenly heard faint sobs, which became heavier and I realized my brother was crying. “What’s a matta Bro?” I was answered with more tears. Mum patted Brody’s arm and we continued the drive, so I began to think of reasons why he might be crying… maybe he’d caught mum and dad fighting, that happened often lately, or maybe he wasn’t allowed to go to that birthday party he’d been going on and on about. So I stared out the window so I could play what I called, the counting game. So I chose and item and counted how many I could see. I chose children.

“One… Two… Threeee… Fo…”

That was when I realized, I didn’t recognize any of the house or the street. I felt the car turn sharply, or maybe it just felt that way because I didn’t expect it.

We were at a house, it was a red brick with a green roof, it was much smaller than our house but it had a nicer garden. As I stepped forward I saw a lizard scurry hurriedly into the bushes. I looked across the road to a row of shops, which I came to call the ‘top shops’ Where were we? Why were we here?

“Mum”, I asked inquiringly “Whose house is this?” My mum turned to me and Brody, and I noticed my dad hadn’t gotten out of the car with us, “It’s ours”.