Blue Bedroom and Other Stories Read Online Free Page A

which meant that she wore them all the time, and very sparkly and dashing they looked.
    â€œWhat have you been doing today?”
    He pulled up a stool and sat down to tell her. He told her about Mr. Sawcombe, but she already knew. He told her about Willie making a coffin for Mr. Sawcombe. He told her about not playing with David, and he told her about Daisy’s lamb. And then he told her about Vicky and Tom.
    Granny looked delighted. “That’s the best. They’ve patched up that silly quarrel.”
    â€œDo you think they’ll fall in love and get married?”
    â€œThey might. They mightn’t.”
    â€œWere you in love when you married Grandpa?”
    â€œI think I was. It’s so long ago that sometimes I forget.”
    â€œDid you…” He hesitated, but he had to know, and Granny was a person who never minded awkward questions. “When he died … did you miss him very much?”
    â€œWhy do you ask that? Are you missing Mr. Sawcombe?”
    â€œYes. All day. All day I’ve been missing him.”
    â€œIt’ll get better. The missing bit will get better and then you’ll only remember the good times.”
    â€œIs that how it was with you and Grandpa?”
    â€œI think so. Yes.”
    â€œIs it very frightening to die?”
    â€œI don’t know.” She smiled, her familiar smile, amused and gamine, that was so surprising in that old and wrinkled face. “I’ve never done it.”
    â€œBut…” He looked intently into her eyes. Nobody could live forever. “But aren’t you frightened? ”
    Granny leaned forward to take Toby’s hand into her own. “You know,” she said, “I’ve always thought that each person’s life is like a mountain. And each person has to climb that mountain alone. To begin with, you start in the valley, and it’s warm and sunny, and there are lots of meadows and little streams, and buttercups and things. That’s when you’re a child. And then you start to climb. Slowly, the mountain becomes a little steeper and the going isn’t so easy, but if you stop every now and then and look about you, then the wonderful views are worth every bit of effort. And the very top of the mountain, the peak, where the snow and the ice glitter in the sunshine and it is all beautiful beyond belief, why, that is the summit, the great achievement, the end of the long journey.”
    She made it sound magnificent. He said, full of love for her, “I don’t want you to die.”
    Granny laughed. “Oh, my darling, don’t worry about that. I’m going to be around, being a nuisance to you all, for a long time yet. And now, why don’t we each have a peppermint cream, and then a game of clock patience? How nice that you came to see me. I was beginning to be a little tired of my own company…”
    *   *   *
    Later, he said goodnight and left her; went to clean his teeth, and then to his bedroom. He drew back the curtains. It had stopped raining and there was the beginnings of a moon climbing the sky in the east. In the half light, he could see the paddock and the dim shapes of the sheep and their lambs, gathered beneath the sheltering branches of the old pine. He took off his dressing gown and got into bed. His mother had put a hot-water bottle into it, which was a treat, and he pulled this up onto his stomach and lay wide-eyed in the soft darkness, feeling warm and thoughtful.
    He decided that today, he had learned a lot. A lot about life. He had helped at a birth, and had seen, in Vicky and Tom, the start of a new relationship. Perhaps they would get married. Perhaps not. If they did get married, then they would have babies. (He already knew how babies started because once, in the course of a manly chat about cattle breeding, Mr. Sawcombe had told him.) Which would make him, Toby, an uncle.
    And as for death … Death is a part of