TheNeverEndingStory

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Our Stories & Poems

By Famous Faces

Non-Fiction

TheNeverEndingRecipe Book Volume 1
by Susan Galvin

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Don't Look Back

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It was after Jamie brought Dandy home that Ruth decided it was time to move house.

The children had been after having a puppy for ages.  When, one Friday afternoon, she arrived back with two-year-old Millie in one arm and bags of supermarket shopping in the other,  and Jamie opened the door to her wearing that special mock innocent expression that reminded her so sharply of his father, she knew immediately something was up. 

‘Mum, can we have a dog?’ he asked straightaway. 

She sighed impatiently ‘Oh, don’t start that now, please.  Can’t you see I need help with the…?’ But he interrupted.
‘Well, actually, Mum, I’ve got one.  He’s in the kitchen.’

The dog rose from a puddle on the floor, shook himself and wagged his tail hopefully.  He was a cute little thing,  Jack Russellish, Ruth guessed, mixed with something definitely poodle. 

‘He’s called Dandy,’ explained Jamie, unapologetic. ‘This older girl said her dad wouldn’t let her keep him. I swapped him for my mobile phone.’ 

‘Oh, Jamie,’ cried Ruth.  ‘That was your present for starting senior school.’  

When Sam and the twins, Emily and Tessa, arrived home Dandy was greeted with shrieks of joy – even Sam threw off his fourteen-year-old’s moroseness. Ruth, following round with wads of kitchen towel, could only agree that Dandy was a positive addition to the household.  Jamie stood with folded arms and a satisfied smile as if to say, ‘See?  I told you we needed one.’

Dandy, however, quickly exhausted the possibilities of their tiny patio. ‘We must find a proper garden for him, Mummy,’ asserted Tessa, hands on hips, as Emily swept up yet another broken flower pot.

So that was how Ruth ended up viewing the house in Sarpentia Road, on the outskirts of the city.

Number 32 was a shabby 1950s box in a row of identical boxes, the front lawn neatly trimmed, but the paintwork peeling.  As she wandered the empty rooms, the airlessness and the thick dust speaking abandonment louder than the estate agent’s details’ abrupt ‘vacant possession’, she considered its advantages.

A bedroom each for everyone except the twins, who didn’t mind sharing anyway, an extra reception room for toys and hobbies – Jamie’s rats and lizards would be happy there, too.  There was one small high attic where maybe she could practise her music – a rush of joy at the thought.  And, peering through the slats of the elderly Venetian blind in the largest back bedroom, there was the really important thing – a long strip of rambling garden and, through a gate beyond, a common.  It would be Dandy’s ideal home.

Carefully locking up as ordered, she tried to ignore the disadvantages – it was near her parents and her sister, far too near now they tended to refer to her as ‘poor darling Ruth’.  And, across the road, a profusion of cars and motorbikes suggested noisy neighbours.

On balance, she concluded, 32 Sarpentia Road would be perfect.
  
Only later did she wish she’d asked why the property had been empty for so long.

Page 1

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Started by
Rachel Hore
03/09/2007 11:17:00

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Summary of the story so far

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Rachel Hore
03/09/2007 11:17:00

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