‘Oh, yes, I know, I’m sorry, I fell asleep.’
‘Then perhaps you should remember to take an alarm clock with you next time.’
‘Sure,’ grinned Arthur. ‘Definitely.’
‘Go on, get your self inside and cleaned up. Dinner’s ready.’
Spotting his mother sitting outside under the kitchen window, pushing his baby sister’s pram backwards and forwards, Arthur trudged off down the garden path towards them.
‘Mu-um, you’ll never guess..’
‘Shh!’ She replied, raising a finger to her lips for him to be quiet.
‘But Mum…’
‘Shh!’
‘Agh, fine!’ he said, reaching for the porch door and leaping out of the way as the family labrador, who’d evidently heard him coming, bounded past, sending a stack of empty paint tins clattering to the ground. Not about to hang around and find out who was going to get the blame for waking his sister, he vanished into the kitchen.
‘Well, well, if it isn’t our intrepid adventurer returning from a hard day’s doing nothing,’ said Aunty M, with her customary cheeky grin. ‘Is that your handiwork I can hear?’
‘All I did was open the door,’ said Arthur, trying to keep a straight face.
‘And how many times do you need to be told not to let the dog out?’
‘But I can’t see through it, can I?’
‘It’s called “being careful”,’ she replied, handing him a bowl of soup and leaving to go and help his mother.
Soup again.
It had been soup yesterday and the day before that and very likely even the day before that, too. Cutting himself some bread, he sat down at the kitchen table and gazed at it all miserably.
‘You know you’re supposed to eat it, not watch it,’ said Sasha, entering the kitchen.
‘I know, but why do we have to have it every day?’
‘Because your mum’s decided that it’s good for you,’ he said, washing his hands and splashing water over his shaven head.
‘But there must be other stuff that’s good for me.’
‘Well, then I suggest that you get yourself down to the shops and find something. And, when you’ve worked it all out, you can take over doing the cooking. I’m sure she’ll be delighted.’
Arthur pulled a face and dipped his spoon into the soup.
‘Yum,’ he said, grinning.
While they ate, they talked more about the helicopters landing in the woods and how the men in black uniforms had blocked off the road. The part about the black train, however, Arthur left out – even just thinking about it gave him with a weird feeling and he had no idea why.