Randomness!

Well, it certainly wasn’t the best of times, and she hoped it wouldn’t prove to be the worst of times, but she could possibly make the claim that it was the strangest of times. The dream holiday for her son and herself had somehow morphed from a dream come to true to a little bit of a nightmare. Not the monsters and zombies sort of nightmare, but the I can’t  believe this is happening, I’ll  wake up in a minute type.
The beautiful holiday cottage had become their safe haven, their den. A weeks holiday had now become an enforced stay, who knew for how long, but now wasn’t the time for moaning or being negative, now was the time to make preparations and an assessment of their situation.

First the cupboards, what a surprise, not exactly her idea of  nutritious ingredients but blancmange and chocolate were a start at least. If you thought about it they did cover a few of the main food groups, strawberry flavour for fruit and veg and chocolate contained dairy, that was two off the list! The fridge revealed a reason for celebration, bacon! She’d brought eggs and some baked beans from home so a veritable feast of protein,carbs, dairy and fruit lay before her.

Now, to include her son in the preparations, step one divert from the negative and look for the positives, she found the book of “Common English flowers” and together they went to look out over the sheltered garden at the back of the cottage. The hydrangeas were easy to spot and recognise, they’d been great grandma’s favourites after all. Ben was sure the other large patch of flowering beauty were camellias, she wasn’t sure but in the great scheme of things she thought botanical accuracy was less important than being together and making the best of things. Over the fence and across the fields they could see the mountains; majestic, imposing and so beautiful. They could live with waking up to this view in the morning, and going to sleep at night with them in mind.

She heard a voice and looking out towards the little lane beside the cottage she saw the farmer from across the fields, he had his trusty sheepdog with him.He held up a piece of paper, “Write a list of what you need and I’ll leave it outside the door later.” She swallowed down a sudden lump in her throat, and signed a heart with her hands, they’d be ok, they weren’t completely alone.

An afternoon of jigsaws, DVDs and a bit of art work and then suddenly it was bath time, Ben loved the huge roll top bath and spent some time luxuriating in the bubbles, a real treat as their apartment had only a shower. Leaving him eating blancmange and chocolate in front on the TV she too enjoyed a bath, a  fluffy warm towel and clean pyjamas were all that was need to settle in for a cosy evening, then, catastrophe. She could see in her mind’s eye where she’d  left the moisturiser, on the dressing table, waiting to be scooped up into the bag of toiletries. A momentary flash of irritation crossed her mind. Then she sighed, well, if that’s the only thing we’ll have to forgo it won’t  be too bad.

They made their way to their beds, warm, comfortable, fed, happy and safe. Now to wait for the resurgence of normality.
Jane