Narrow Minds Read Online Free PDF

just been confronted by a skunk.
    â€˜Mum … MUM! Arrrrgggghhhh!!’
    Leaping out of bed, I winced as my feet hit the cold floor and my poor abused gluteus maximus reminded me that I had seriously overdone it the day before. So alternately wincing, limping and muttering I rushed into Charlie’s bedroom. I found her dressed only in her pyjamas with her face pressed against the window.
    â€˜What?’ I grabbed her arm. ‘What’s the matter, are you all right?’
    Charlie whipped round and screamed at me. ‘Look at the snow, look how thick it is, can we go sledging, can we?’ She let go of my arm and rushed out of the door, I hurried after her.
    â€˜Sam, SAM!’ She grabbed his covers and pulled them, and him, off the bed and onto the floor. Sam, unused to this behaviour and woken from an obviously deep sleep became wide awake and completely incoherent for a couple of minutes. He tried to stand up but both legs gave way simultaneously and he landed face down on his deposed duvet. It was at this point his subconscious noted that, as Charlie was screaming, obviously something was very wrong, so he’d better scream as well.
    Charlie, wide-eyed and a bit overwhelmed by the sounds that her brother was making, shut up and backed away. Hiding behind me, she peered out at him from around my back.
    Sam just lay face down and screamed and screamed. Geoff, worried that his young son was being murdered, arrived wild-haired, wild-eyed and resplendent in elderly underpants.
    I laughed and picked Sam bodily up off the floor. ‘Sam!’ He carried on screaming, completely stiff and unresponsive. I placed my face right in his line of vision. ‘SAM … SAMUEL!! Look at me!’ The use of his full name usually meant that he was in big, big trouble and with a snap of teeth the screams cut off and I watched him focus on my face.
    â€˜Wha …’ He looked around at the devastation of his bed, the shocked looks on the faces of his family, then at me, his little face crumpled slightly and I could see tears beginning to glimmer in those huge amber eyes of his.
    â€˜It’s all right,’ I hurried to explain, ‘it’s just Charlie woke you up a little too quickly and I don’t think you were really with us for a while.’
    He looked at me, confused, then at Charlie as she bounced out from behind me and grabbed his arm. ‘Oh for goodness’ sake you big twit, look.’
    She dragged him, resisting all the way, over to the window, then grabbing his long and sleep mad hair she turned him physically to look out at her personal nirvana. ‘Look at THAT.’
    Sam looked blearily out of the window and I could almost hear the ‘click’ as he registered what he was seeing.
    Fifteen minutes later Geoff and I were once again face down on our bed. We were pretending to get dressed but really were stealing five peaceful moments before facing the great outdoors. We tried not to listen as Chaos and Disorder planned their day (and ours) as they rushed backward and forward, each having ideas about what they should do first. I had to smile, first a big cooked breakfast, then they were going to make a big snowman. Then they were going to come in for hot chocolate, then sledging.
    For a moment there was silence. Beside me Geoff muttered, ‘Here comes trouble. I give them to the count of 5 … 1,2,3,4,5.’
    â€˜MUM!’ Both of them came careering into the room. ‘We don’t have any sledges, what are we going to do?’
    Geoff clambered out of bed and rootled around in the pocket of his trousers, he then turned and threw his keys to Charlie. ‘Go and have a look in the van, I’m sure you can find something in there that will act like a sledge.’
    As the sound of feet faded into the distance I turned and raised my eyebrows at him, he laughed.
    â€˜I was in one of the DIY stores yesterday and they were selling sledges,