The Halstead Creative Writing Group meet every month at The Little Book Cafe. A friendly group of people who share an enjoyment for writing. Each month the group agree a theme or topic which they then use for their 'homework'. Below is a short piece written by a member of the group, Wanda Sellar. The topic for this piece of work was 'a misunderstanding'.
Grandchildren come first
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Mary reluctantly opened the front door to her daughter Elizabeth. She had agreed to look after her grandson Christopher, but things had changed. Mary braced herself for the inevitable recriminations.
“Hello Mum,” Elizabeth said as she breezed in with the three year old. He was quite the little angel with his blond hair and big blue eyes, very much like her daughter Elizabeth when she was younger. Mary hugged her daughter and kissed her grandson and hoped things wouldn’t lead to an argument, which they invariably did when Elizabeth didn’t get her own way. That was her father’s doing. Spoilt her rotten. ‘I’ve got something to tell you Mum,’ Elizabeth said still in the hallway. ‘Funny enough, I’ve got something to tell you as well,’ Mary stated. Elizabeth looked at her expectantly, but Mary couldn’t bring herself to speak Courage had failed her. ‘Let’s have a cup of tea first,’ she said, ushering her daughter and grandson into the kitchen. Mary knew making tea was a delaying tactic but she just couldn’t face the look of disappointment on Elizabeth’s face when she told her she couldn’t be a childminder after all. She opened the fridge to get the milk, whilst Elizabeth looked out of the window. ‘The garden is looking lovely mum. I see you’ve planted flowers where dad’s vegetables used to be.’ ‘You make me feel disloyal, putting it like that,’ Mary said ‘I didn’t mean it mum to, honest I didn’t. It’s just that bit by bit all traces of him are being removed.’ ‘Elizabeth! I loved your father, but it is five years now since…..We’ll it’s taken me that long to get over it. But I have to move on. I’m only sixty-five, and there are still things I want to do.’ ‘Are there?’ Elizabeth said looking at her newly manicured nails. Indeed there are Mary thought. There was the round the world trip with her new friend Jonathan. “So, what’s on your mind?” Mary asked pouring the tea. Elizabeth launched in. ‘Well you know I said I wanted you to look after little Christopher just for the mornings.’ “Yes,’ Mary said expecting the worst. She probably wanted her to look after Christopher for the whole day, or the whole week. How could she bring herself to tell her daughter she had met someone, that she was putting herself first for a change? ‘Well mum,’ Elizabeth continued. ‘I knew you were looking forward to minding Christopher, but well the new company I’m joining have fantastic crèche facilities. And now that Duncan has been promoted and there is more money coming in all round, well we can afford it, and Christopher will be with other children. That’s important don’t you think?’ Mary couldn’t have been happier. ‘So what were you going to tell me?’ Elizabeth asked ‘Oh it was nothing in particular,’ Mary said realising that her news would and should keep for another time. ‘I just wanted your opinion on a new dress I was going to order from the catalogue.’ |
We would like to say a big thank you to Wanda for allowing us to include her work on our website. If you would like to find out more about Pen Friends - The Halstead Creative Writing Group please contact us.