Narrow Margins Read Online Free Page A

his cup. ‘OK, so we haven’t found anything suitable yet but I’m sure something will come up.’ He mooched across the sofa until, sitting almost in my lap, he put his arm round me and gave me a big hug. ‘You wouldn’t be trying to wriggle out of our ‘big adventure’ before it even starts now, would you?’
    â€˜You make me sound like Pooh,’ I grouched, disengaging his arm. ‘Of course I’m not trying to wriggle out of it. I’m just beginning to find the whole thing really scary.’ I stared into my sadly empty wine glass for a moment then looked round at the big, soft sofas, our huge collection of books, the pictures and the piano, all of which would have to go into storage. Thinking back over our disastrous visit to Devon, I found myself helplessly wondering, if – when – we finally moved out, would we ever be warm and comfortable again?

Chapter Three
The ‘Perfect’ Boat?
    O NE WEEK BEFORE THE completion date for our house and we were in a complete panic. We must have seen every stinking, dented, sinking boat in a 300-mile radius and were beginning to lose heart. Some of them probably weren’t as poor as they appeared but, surely if you are trying to sell something, don’t you make it look its best? Three days worth of washing-up laid out for us to examine, filthy toilets, strange smells, damp patches and other nastier faults. It became glaringly obvious that these were also the boats that were very poorly maintained.
    One particularly memorable vessel had the owner’s entire tool collection spread over the engine room – obviously he was in the middle of some very major and prolonged repairs. This did not bode well for the future and Geoff hustled us out as quickly as possible.
    We spent hours every night poring over increasingly vague websites advertising narrow boats for sale. One particular boat, ‘ Happy Go Lucky ’, kept coming up on various sites but had been consistently dismissed due to her slightly strange shape.
    One of a retired pair of hotel boats, she had been built to house seven cabins and two bathrooms, nothing else; her sister boat contained the kitchen, the communal lounge and the open deck space. At 70 foot, she was just the right size. However, to utilise as much space as possible, Happy’s entire length, including what would have been the front deck on any other boat, had been fully built-in; she really was the most cumbersome looking boat I had seen yet. From the pictures, she appeared to resemble nothing more than a steel box with windows, and every time she appeared on the computer screen, I made irritated huffing noises and resolutely moved on.
    Finally, after weeks of sleepless nights, eye damage and severe neck-ache, we had nothing left to view and decided to make the trip to Daventry to have a look at Happy Go Lucky .
    The day we travelled down to Daventry, I have to admit, was not one of my ‘happy disposition’, let’s-look-on-the-positive-side-of-things, ‘Pooh’ days. It was definitely more of an ‘Eeyore’ day. The whole family was irascible and prone to argue at the slightest provocation. The weather wasn’t helping matters, being overcast, airless and incredibly hot. The stress of the enforced move had finally gotten to Sam whose behaviour had taken a serious downward turn.
    We had been expecting this sort of reaction from him and had discussed how to handle any outbreaks of bad behaviour or signs of stress that were bound to come along. We were going to go by the book: be honest, forgiving and set good boundaries. Using these techniques, we felt sure that we would get through any traumas with all our familial feelings intact.
    Unfortunately when parents are also stressed, miserable, worried and under the threat of living with an in-law for the next six months, all good intentions go out of the window, along with any excellent parenting skills they may