Sarah’s Writing Blog

After he got out of the bath he got dressed again, in warm clothes and said it was because the house was cold. After the bath it was tea time and Lou used another couple of Lily’s eggs to make scrambled eggs on toast with beans on the side, which Rhys wolfed down as if he was starving and then he sat and ate an apple and a pile of biscuits while he drank a mug of hot juice. He chattered incessantly about his day with Greg on the dig and eventually took himself off to bed after watching TV for a while. (more…)

Saturday found Rhys and Lou in the town library, researching the history of the church and the Black Death plague that had ravaged the town in the thirteen hundreds so that Rhys could write an account of how the plague had affected life in what had been a small market town. He sat with his head buried in a book while Lou browsed the shelves nearby. (more…)

The morning passed slowly for Rhys and he could hardly sit still but he wasn’t alone and he didn’t get noticed any more than anyone else and Mrs Hartshorn seemed to be giving them a little leeway for their excitement as long as they worked at the tasks set them. (more…)

Upstairs Rhys heard the murmur of muffled voices as the TV went on and he grinned as he pulled off his school clothes and then pulled on jeans and a t-shirt with a hooded sweatshirt over that. He left his shoes off and kept his socks on because his feet were cold. He took the stone from the shelf and held it in his hand, intending to call the Darkling to tell it about the trip on Friday but he caught himself and laid the stone gently on his pillow unused and dull. Then he ran back down the stairs to do the little bit of homework he’d had to bring home to finish off. It wasn’t regular homework just finishing off something he hadn’t done in class because he’d been talking and there wasn’t much to do. He gathered the pencils and paper that he needed and sat at the kitchen table to work. (more…)

“Rhys, time to get up.” Lou shook him gently until he opened his eyes and peered at her.

“Eh?” He mumbled. (more…)

“Oh it’s alright.” Rhys looked at it curiously and wondered who had hurt it in the past to make it react like that. “Come and look at this map I copied.” Rhys unfolded the sketch map he’d made and laid it on the edge of the desk so the Darkling could see it. “It’s from last year but some things haven’t changed for hundreds of years.” He pointed out his own house. “This is here, this house.” Then his finger moved to Andrew’s house. “This is the oldest house in my class; Andrew lives there with his Mum.” Then he tapped a space near the town centre. “This is the park where I used the stone for the first time, where you came and found me in the trees. In this park there is a really old tree that used to be on its own but it got blown over in the storms three years ago and it’s only a stump now. There’s a plaque there, a sort of sign saying how old it was when it got blown over and stuff like that. But I don’t think it’s that one.” (more…)

Lou looked up from wiping the window sill as Rhys came past on his way to the front door. She frowned. His head was down and he was walking so slowly. She was worried about him, he was so quiet and he seemed so distracted and had been like that for the past few weeks. She’d spent most of the day in town, looking round the market and local shops and she’d treated herself to a quiet drink and sandwich in the library as it was cheap and now and then everyone deserves a treat, even if it was a small one. She’d got herself a new book to read and found a book that Rhys might like too. There was a paper carrier bag on the chair where Rhys usually dropped his bag and coat before she told him to pick them up and in it was the new winter coat he’d liked. Lou had considered saving it until Christmas but it was getting properly cold in the afternoons now and he needed it now. She’d decided he could have it and wear it and she’d found him a box of lego that made a remote control car and that was secreted at the bottom of her wardrobe ready to be wrapped up for Christmas. There was also a carrier of small things including a novelty pencil sharpener in the shape of a football, a small pack of modelling clay, a tube of chocolate sweets and pencils with robots on and all of those would be wrapped to go in the felt stocking she’d bought for him as well as one for herself. (more…)

They got home; put the box of eggs in the kitchen and Rhys couldn’t resist having another look at them, not quite believing the different colours and almost wishing that the dark brown ones that looked like chocolate actually were chocolate. “That’d be cool wouldn’t it Mum?” He wondered out loud. (more…)