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attention to Goose he would have noticed him get up and launch a tightly clenched fist straight at his face. It connected, shattering Darren’s nose and causing him to bite down through his own tongue. Blood gushed out of his nostrils and from his mouth. Darren hated the sight of his own blood and started shrieking and flapping his arms. Unfortunately for Darren that was the image that stayed with all the onlookers, and from then on his nickname was Scream Queen. Screamer or Queenie for short.
    Goose put up no defence when questioned by the headmaster, and it was only several of the other students’ saying that Darren had incited the whole thing that meant Goose wasn’t permanently excluded.
    However, following that episode Goose was labelled a ‘troublemaker’ in the minds of the teaching staff and that’s how they treated him.
    *
    Goose reached the bottom of the stairs, turned left and made his way along the dark hallway to the small kitchen at the end. As he entered he saw his nan hunched over the washing machine. She was wrestling with a large turkey, trying to force it in through the door of the machine. Nan had Alzheimer’s. It’d been getting worse over the last few years, and when Goose’s mum and dad were alive his mum was becoming increasingly worried. However, before the accident Nan could still function normally most of the time. Her condition generally manifested itself in an overwhelming desire to organize and tidy. Sometimes her episodes were funny and even useful, like the time she’d arranged everything in the old kitchen by colour and size. Other times they weren’t so funny and not at all useful, like when she hung all Dad’s tropical fish on the clothes line to dry. Though it was a little funny that she had also hung out frozen fish fingers at the same time.
    Since the accident, Nan’s condition was worsening by the day and Goose didn’t know what to do. It was amazing that no one had noticed and come calling. Goose assumed they had ‘
slipped through the cracks of the system
’. That’s the sort of thing he heard on the news all the time. Though usually it was in connection with some horrible tragedy. Goose was pleased that the system was failing them. He knew Nan needed help, but what would happen to himif she left? He would be put into care, and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be allowed to keep Mutt. He knew this couldn’t go on much longer. He would work out what to do. Soon. But not today.
    â€˜What’re you doing, Nan?’ Goose asked.
    Nan gave a little startled yelp and turned to look at him. ‘Oh, Goose, you gave me a fright. Didn’t hear you come in. Morning, you two, sleep well?’
    â€˜What are you doing, Nan?’ Goose repeated.
    â€˜What do you mean, love?’ said Nan, a sweet-little-old-lady smile on her sweet-little-old-lady lips. Nan was small and white-haired, comfortably plump and rosy-cheeked. She looked like the perfect fairytale grandmother. Except Goose couldn’t remember any fairytales where the grandmother forced turkeys into washing machines.
    â€˜What’re you doing with that turkey, Nan?’ said Goose.
    Nan looked down at the bird in her hand and frowned.
What a silly question
, she thought.
    â€˜Well, it’s not going to cook itself, is it, darling?’
    â€˜That’s the washing machine, Nan,’ said Goose.
    He saw Nan’s features darken as she glanced at the washing machine, then at the turkey, then at the oven on the other side of the kitchen. He could see the moment writ large on Nan’s face when she realized her mistake. She looked horribly sad.
    â€˜Oh. Silly old fool,’ said Nan in a tiny, pathetic voice.
    Goose crossed and took the turkey from her. He laid it on the kitchen table and led Nan to a chair.
    â€˜Don’t worry, Nan, it’s only Christmas Eve,’ he said, forcing a warm and cheery tone into his