Going Home

 

Fire Engine in New York

Daddy told me the bus is going all the way to Inverness.

‘Can me and you go to Inverness, Daddy?’

‘Maybe one day, son.  But not in the winter. See, it is already getting dark.  It will be pitch black by the time you come into Perth.’

The Big Blue bus is coming.  It stops at the bus stop.  There is a funny yellow man on the side of the bus.

‘Daddy, that man is also going to Inverness, isn’t he?’

The door swings open.  Two ladies step out and then a man who is as old as Gramps, though he doesn’t walk with a stick.  Then Mummy sticks her head through the door and waves to me.

‘Alright, young man,’ says Daddy, ‘in you go.’  And he lifts me up the first step.  My rucksack is in the way.  My new jammies are in there, the ones Daddy bought me yesterday.  He’s kept the old ones, for the next time I am coming.

Then Mummy helps me up the next two steps.  The steps are really high.  I say hello to the bus driver. Mummy has a window seat for me and gives me a drink of water.  I sit down. The door of the bus closes and I haven’t said goodbye to Daddy.  He is outside the window and waves at me.  I wave back.  Mummy looks ahead.  She doesn’t look happy.

The Big Blue bus drives away from the bus stop with me and Mummy in it.  We are only going to Perth but the bus is going all the way to Inverness.