The conductor blew his whistle and shouted to the passengers, and then we were off. My ticket was punched and all I could hear were the distant voices of all the people chatting amongst themselves and babies squealing loudly. Hectic.
I must have drifted off to sleep, as the ticket man tapped me on the shoulder to wake me up once we had reached our destination. I was fifteen minutes late for work, this made me furious and I rushed quickly along the cobbled street. Mr Plant, my manager, was going to throttle me. I reached the Golf Club, puffing and panting, tired out from walking so fast, I suppose it couldn’t do me any harm. I found Mr Plant giving my fellow worker Barney a sharp telling off. I knew I was next. “You’re late again Robert”, he murmured as I made my way to my small, diminutive office. After I had settled in at another days work, I felt much better. I liked to be in a happy, chirpy mood, especially at work. It kept my mind off the boring golf statistics. I picked up the telephone to make a call to my beautiful daughter Tanya. She had long brown hair and beautiful eyes. I arranged to take my grand children, Ben and Mary after work. I wanted to spend a little time with them, as I hadn’t seen their cheeky faces in a while, and I was in a good mood so I thought I must make the most of it.
I carried on sorting out the papers for golf lessons and the savings for the month, when Mr Plant marched into the room. We had a friendly chat and I told him how I was seeing my grandchildren. He sighed and said “Why don’t you go home early; it’ll do you good!” There were no more golf lessons that afternoon anyway. I stood up and swiftly collected my long brown winter coat, thanked him and took a lengthy but quiet ride on the train home. I thought about the situation and it upset me a great deal. I sat and wept as I stared out of the dusty window at the countryside quickly whizzing past.
I arrived home after about an hour and creaked open my front door and was greeted by two happy smiling faces, Ben and Mary. I loved their faces, they were always so happy.
They wanted to take a walk down the beach to build sand castles. They adored building high, towering buildings with sand. They were always brilliant too. I recall one time in the summer when the buried me in the sand and thought It was hilarious. Oh the wonderful days!
We were having an amazing night. Spending time with my grandchildren always put a grin on my old haggard face. The kids demanded chocolate fudge ice-cream. It was their favourite, and I always took them to get the delicious treat whenever they came around. They couldn’t get it in their town. I had no money, but didn’t want to see their small faces turn glum. Reaching into my pocket to look for some coins, I yanked out a receipt from the local jewellery store, which was no good. Then I pulled out my house key and I finally came across five pounds on loose change at the bottom of all the useless junk. I handed the kids the money and they scuttled off like crabs to the ice-cream store where there were machines and tubs full of tasty ice-cream waiting for the next child to come through the shop doors. They laughed loudly, skipping and tripping on the way.
The fun went on, the laughs, the smiles and the cherishable moments until it turned to dusk. We sat under the velvet sky pointing at starts and discussing space. It was getting late and everyone’s face was drained. We slowly walked home at about nine thirty. Grandma soon heard about everything that we had got up to. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Tanya came to collect the children but I had already crawled into bed at this point because I was extremely tired and exhausted. Terrible sharp pains shot up my side and I just didn’t feel right at all. I let my mind wander and fell into a deep sleep. At around 2.30am I was awoken with shooting pains right the way up my spine. I thumped my back scared and worried. I tried hard to clamber out of bed, but I felt horribly crippled. I knew it. The time was finally growing near. I managed to slide out of my warm bed where I could stay, hassle free. I made my way down the green carpeted stairs on the way to kitchen. I flicked on the light and it spread across the room, illuminating the way. I turned on the tap and drank the icy cold water. I came over all weak and collapsed onto the mucky lino. “Thud”.
Morning came slowly; Sheila fled into the kitchen and shrieked loudly. She dragged me to my feet, I gasped, wondering what had happened. It was all too quick. Sheila took me to bed and made me something to eat; she was too much of a fuss. I couldn’t consume the smelly eggs on toast, food didn’t seem important at this moment in time.
Sheila brought up the mail and newspaper, to try and take my mind off things. I browsed interested through the news, nothing new really. The usual. Now for the mail. A letter and a post card from my other daughter Philippi, I grinned. Her husband had got a job in Spain and they lived there with their two children. They were living there for a while now. It seemed to have flown by. The post card said the familiar things, the kids were having fun whilst at school and Arnold was still involved with his well paid job. This brought a warm feeling all over me, just knowing that my daughter was making the most of her life. I opened the crumpled letter; it was photographs of them all and just a small letter from Phillipa. The pictures were wonderful; they made me glow and warmed me inside. The children were playing happily on the beach. At least they were still happy. They didn’t realise the news yet.
I needed my sleep, so I shut my wrinkled eyes and was soon asleep. All I felt like doing nowadays was sleeping all the time. Back to the days of a teenager, it was torture. I was too ill to me moving around, I felt incapable of many things. I was awoken the loud ringing of the phone and it was shortly followed by a knock at my bedroom door. It was Ben, he came to tell me that he had achieved all A’s in his school report. I was chuffed for him. I didn’t want him to see me like this though. I had to break the sad news to him. Slowly and gently I explained what was happening to his dear old Granddad. I think he knew that this was bad news and he wept by my bedside.
Hand in hand we cried together and discussed all the good times and bad times. I could see that he was taking it badly, I felt even worse than I already did. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him. I held him in my arms and told him not to worry. He was making this all the more harder for me, but I understood he was too young to accept something like this. My sides seized up and I moaned horrifically in pain. Ben’s facial expressions showed fear. It was all too much for me now. I yelled for help. Ben panicked and he was joined by Sheila and Tanya at his side. Ben, still shaking with fear, collapsed in tears. “I love you all”. I managed to whisper, my voice was barely even there at all, and it was broken up and raspy. They broke down. Sheila grabbed the phone and called the doctor, I presumed he was now on his way. “There’s nothing you can do now”. I sighed. I was dying. We all cried, it was awful, this was it. Tanya told me how I would be remembered forever; “Dad, don’t let the memory of us fade away, we will always be there with you.” She wept as she spoke. This was so hard. I shut my eyes, I couldn’t even think now, or move. I lay there surrounded by the people I loved and cared about the most. This is how I wanted it to be. I groaned and then took my last breath. Silence.
