Amelia's story by D. G Torrens Read Free Book Online

lovely, girly locks were gone, and I thought I looked like a boy. Mother smiled and giggled her way through the day, obviously finding it a ll very amusing. Unsurprisingly, all the other kids in our square laugh ed at me, pointing and staring, and it was just humiliating. A friend of mine told me that I still looked pretty, but I kn ew I didn’t. To top it all off, I kn ew I would have to face school on Monday morning and no doubt the pointing and laughing would start again. Over the next few days, I prayed that my hair would grow back quickly, but that was obviously not going to happen. Monday soon came a round , and I think building myself up for such a terrible time made the day a little easier. I managed to g et through that Monday morning just about , and the other children had moved on from their insults by the afternoon.

Back at home, we soon started to notice the arriva l of a man in an R.A.F uniform. H e was a very handsome and well-dressed man, always turning up at our house armed with bags of sweets a nd lots of chocolate. W e wer e told to call him Uncle Steven, and this was fine with us as he was very pleasant. More to the point, so was our mother when he was around. For Jake and I, M other being so happy was like being in heaven; we were temporarily re lieved from our miserable lives. Uncle Steven would take us all into the car park to see his green Ford Cortina; we were not used to seeing cars on our estate, at least not new ones with all the tires on! We were allowed to sit up front and beep the horn, and for that moment we were the envy of all the other kids on the estate. I had n ever felt like that as a child; for all eyes to be on Jake and I in envy has to be one of my proudest memories. Uncle Steven became a frequent visitor , and we all thought he was great . He introduced us to chocolate spread on toast . . . mmm , I loved it! He always came armed with a stack of chocolate spread, which Jake and I t hought was the best thing ever. T he chocolate jar would be almost clean by the time we finished , and most of it would be all over our faces!

Uncle Steven was on leave for a couple of days and h e was staying the night with us. T his was the only time we really liked our mother, when he was around. He seemed to bring out the best in h er for a reason we did not know, and he genuinely seemed to like us kids too , which was a plus point. We all felt so proud when he walked up t o our house on a visit. T he neighbour s ’ curtains would be twitching at the sight of this tall , handsome man in his R.A.F. uniform.
    Uncle Steven always gave our mother mon ey to pay any outstanding bills and a bit extra so she could stock up on cigarettes and vodka. He was very generous , and I thought he was a gift from God. F or a while we felt like we were a normal family whenever he was arou nd. Our mother was lovely to us and happy in his presence. W e all laughed and joked together; M other would send us out to play for a while during his visit , telling us she needed some private time with Uncle Steven. O f course we were happy to oblige and would run outside, sit next to the green Ford Cortina, and eat our sweets happily ! We watch ed over his car , protecting it against the thieves , which were rife on the estate.

When his visit ended , M other would be in a great mood for a while. S he even attempted to get up early in the morning and help us all to get ready for school. She occasionally did my hair in my favour ite princess style (my hair had grown a fair bit); I loved my hair like that. As time went on , we had totally forgotten that Uncle Steven was not our real uncle . W e had accepted him into the family whole-heartedly and wished every time that he did not have to leave. We were fascinated with his stories of the Air Force and all his worldly travels to Singapore and the like; he was fast becoming our hero. Jake wanted to grow up to be just like him. He t alked endlessly of joining the Air F orce when he