The Secret Catamite Bk 1, The Book of Daniel Read Online Free Page A

then
come out again, looking to Simon's eyes pretty much as she had when
she went in. Simon would just get up and go out, it saved a lot of
time. But Mummy fell for it. She spent a lot of time 'getting
ready' too.
    "Well, you do it next time,"
said Mummy.
    "Thanks Mummy," said Frances,
already half way out of the dining room door.
    Simon looked at Mummy crossly.
"It's not fair," he said. "I bet she doesn't do it next time."
    "Come on, love," she coaxed,
"we'll do it together, you and me."
     
    It was the Wednesday tea time
before the Tuesday of Coronation Day when the van came to the
house.
    There was a knock at the
door.
    "Ah," said Daddy, who had come
home early for some unexplained reason. He got up, smiling broadly.
Mummy was smiling too.
    Simon and Frances exchanged
glances, they were suspicious of these parental conspiracies.
    Daddy opened the door to a man
in overalls.
    "Mr Scott?" said the man.
    "Yes," said Daddy, turning to
smile at the two puzzled and curious children behind him.
    The man in overalls went away to
return with another overall man, and they were carrying a
television!
    "Is that ours?" said
Frances.
    "Yes, princess," said Daddy.
    The men carried the television
through to the sitting room. Mummy and Daddy moved the table out of
the corner to make room.
    "Will there do?" said Daddy.
    The man looked round and then
out of the window for some reason.
    "Fine, sir," he said. "OK if we
go round the back?"
    "Of course," said Mummy.
    Simon followed to see what they
were doing.
    "Don't get in the way, love,"
called Mummy.
    "He's OK," said the man.
    They took ladders off the van
and took them round to the back garden. Then a big roll of round
wire and of course! The aerial.
    Simon watched as they climbed up
onto the roof of the house. The large 'H' shaped aerial was
strapped to the chimney and the wire fixed to the wall, in through
the window frame to the television set.
    "You're a lucky young fellow,"
said the man to Simon.
    "Why?" said Simon.
    "Why!" repeated the man. "Do you
know what the waiting list is for these things? There's going to be
a lot of disappointed people on Tuesday."
    "Will we see the Coronation on
it?" asked Simon.
    "I expect so," said the man,
laughing. "I expect it helps when your Dad works for the BBC."
    Simon knew Daddy worked for the
BBC and that this was important. Daniel thought so anyway. He said
it was because Daddy had done well in the war. But Daniel's Daddy
was a policeman and a high up one too, and Simon thought that was
pretty important.
    The two men, one up by the
aerial and the other looking at an instrument on the ground, spent
some time talking about something called alignment, then they
seemed happy.
    "What's that for?" asked
Simon.
    "The aerial's got to be lined up
with the transmitter," explained the man. Simon liked the sound of
'transmitter'. It sounded mysterious and powerful.
    Simon looked out across the
garden and the allotments to see if he could see the
transmitter.
    "No, son," said the man,
chuckling, "you won't see it from here. It's at Sutton Coldfield."
Simon had never heard of Sutton Coldfield, so he let that pass.
    The men went into the sitting
room. They connected up the wires and the plug. Time to turn it
on.
    Nothing happened at first and
then there was a noise from the set, a steady hum. The men seemed
pleased, then the picture appeared. Simon was disappointed. He
thought it would perhaps be cowboys or something interesting.
Instead it was a load of black, white and grey patterns.
    "That's the test card," said the
man to Daddy and Mummy. "It's looking good."
    "Thank you," said Daddy and went
out with the men. Simon and Frances stayed, looking at the
unchanging test card, with its thin lines, squares and the big
circle in the middle with more lines inside. But it was magic. A
picture coming through the air.
    Daddy came back in. The two
jumped up.
    "Thanks Daddy," said Frances,
and they hugged Daddy. Daddy smiled down at his children. Mummy was
smiling