Narrow Minds by Marie Browne Read Free Book Online

reason or another by Geoff. When I mentioned that I had found one, the kids would groan and state emphatically that there was no way they were moving back onto a boat. They liked life here, they liked the huge television, the really fast internet connection, having a huge bedroom and a big bath was something they’d never been able to enjoy on our old boat. I began to realise with a sinking feeling that it was only me that was still yearning for the past.
    Christmas was quite a rowdy affair. Our oldest, Amelia, and her boyfriend Huw arrived on Christmas Eve with presents and washing. I noticed that they no longer seemed to be ‘love’s young dream’. Although there were lots of comments and jokes about getting married, Amelia seemed to snap at Huw every time she spoke to him. He didn’t bother to talk to her at all and just spent the time moaning about her to anyone that would listen. I mentioned to Geoff that I wouldn’t really want to bet on another year for them.
    Amelia has a knack for finding the present that causes Chaos and Disorder to state that she is the best sister in the world and me to threaten her with dismemberment. Last year, for Sam, it had been drumsticks that made drum sounds when you tapped them on anything, this year it was a computer game: World of Warcraft. For some time now, Charlie and Sam had been asking for this but it was an online game that had a monthly fee. We certainly hadn’t had the bandwidth to play it on the boat but here it was possible and Amelia had purchased the disk, one month’s subscription, and had presented it as a fait accompli before I could scream my objections.
    Huw spent a couple of hours on the computer with Geoff, setting it up and explaining how it all worked. My heart sank as I saw Geoff’s eyes light up, he really is still a student at heart. He had spent most of his university years playing Dragons and Dungeons and each Saturday had run about in the woods with a rubber sword doing something called LARP. This was the best game in the world to him, a complete land populated by real people from all over the world playing out their fantasies of being an elf or an evil wheelbarrow, or something similar.
    However, when it was all working he handed the computer over to the kids and let them enter this massive fantasy world, become mad characters and go off on bizarre quests. It was sure to become an instant hit and I was determined that time limits should be set from the word go. My heart sank as once again I knew I was going to have to be the demon that said ‘no’.
    In an attempt to keep Sam in bed beyond four o’clock on Christmas morning, I had decreed that everybody was to have a stocking and that included me! So at three o’clock I was creeping around putting stockings at the end of everyone’s bed, and I was looking forward to the next morning, hoping that Geoff would have purchased me a stocking full of ‘stuff’. He had been dropping heavy hints for about a fortnight that I was going to love my ‘unusual’ gifts and I had to admit to being a little excited.
    After the stocking delivery I snuggled back into bed and thought about the previous Christmas, we had been so broke but we’d still had a good time and I dropped back to sleep with happy memories of Happy Go Lucky resplendently decked out in cheap Christmas lights that had turned the surrounding mist into an ever changing coloured haze.
    Sam managed six o’clock this year and, on awaking to a loud set of giggles that emanated from his room, I rolled over with a hopeful smile at my husband. He gave me a quick kiss then, reaching under the bed, he pulled out a multi-coloured stocking bulging with exciting lumps and bumps, I really couldn’t resist a juvenile squeal.
    â€˜Now, then,’ Geoff said, holding the stocking out of the reach of my grasping hands, ‘have you been a good little girl?’
    I laughed and put on a