Four

Jack finished cleaning and with bucket in hand he set off down the stairs when he heard the sudden unexpected downpour of rain hitting the roof of the Wendy house.  This came as a surprise because only a moment before he was looking out of the window at the beautiful clear blue sky.  Jack paused at the top of the stairs and he thought about the gown hanging on the washing line.  He hurried down the stairs and didn’t notice the water splash over the side of the bucket. The water trickled down the stairs just faster than Jack, reaching the last step a nanosecond before Jack’s left foot and when Jack’s left foot did touch the last step he slipped.  Falling head first, he instinctively put his hands out in front of him.  The bucket, which was half full, hit the ground at the same time as Jack and bounced back up splashing water over the wall and splashing it as far as to land a little on the ruby-red sofa.  Jack’s fall, aided by the water, slid him head first into the wall and knocked him unconscious. 

***

Ellie-May, sitting behind her desk at school, listened to the teacher reading ‘Princess Petra’s Problems’ aloud to the class, a book she had chosen. She disliked the way the teacher sucked in her lips and said ‘phh’ and to solve this problem she had told the teacher that she could no longer say the letter ‘p’. Ellie-May had insisted that she have a copy of the book so she could read along with teacher to make sure she did not miss out any words.

“_rincess _etra’s problematic day worsened,” said the teacher, she paused and turned the page and held her eye-blink for a moment as she realised her error.

“_rince _eter watched in horror as the horse gallo_ed away with his sister on its back,” she continued.

“He gallo_ed after them and the,” she paused and frowned as her mind attempted to figure out how to say the next word, she glanced over at Ellie-May who was looking out of the window,

“dog,”she said as Ellie-May continued to look out the window, she returned her eyes back to the book and hoped she hadn’t noticed that she’d switched the word.

“Barked as the horse flung _rincess _etra over the wall.”

Ellie-May was no longer listening to the teacher, a smile spread across her face and she sat upright in her seat. She knew that when she got home her brother was going to be in big trouble. She knew because she felt it. Jack had messed up and this made her happy and she considered his punishment. Ellie-May had some good ideas and she thought for a second that perhaps she should return home early and surprise Jack. Ellie-May threw her head back and laughed. She decided to stay and wait for the end of the school day.

***

Jack woke, he had a searing pain at the top of his head where it had met the wall before.  He sat up, his vision was blurred he closed his eyes, rubbed them and then opened them again. The ruby-red of the sofa came into focus and he remembered where he was. He stood up fast and was hit by a wave of dizziness, he steadied himself by holding onto the hand-rail of the spiral staircase.  Once he had his balance, he looked down and saw the bucket and a puddle of water at his feet. His memories returned to him.

“The gown” he shouted.  Jack could hear the rain still falling against the Wendy house and bile hit the back of his throat has he realised the gown would now be wet through.  He ran out into the rain and grabbed the gown off the washing line, continuing his run to the kitchen. He hung the gown on the back of the chair and he watched as a puddle formed on the floor as the rain water dripped from the gown. He hurried up the stairs to his mother’s room and found her hair dryer, he felt sure his mother would not mind him borrowing it. He returned to the kitchen and plugged it and pointed it at the gown. 

Jack relaxed a little as the lighter pink of the gown started to return.  The collar of the gown was padded and was taking longer to dry so Jack held the hair dryer onto the collar. After a few seconds, he pulled the hair dryer away and looked at the collar, it hadn’t dried much so he returned the hairdryer back onto the collar. After a longer period of time, he pulled the hairdryer away, the material had bubbled and before his very eyes a hole appeared.  Jack screamed and he dropped the hair dryer, it landed on the floor just missing the puddle of rain water. Jack slumped down to the floor, his eyes widened and his head lolled forward.  The rain was unrelenting and beat against the kitchen window, the noise masked by the high pitched whirring of the hair dryer vibrating on the floor.  Jack sat there, still, except for the spit that dribbled from his open mouth down his chin, he stared forward but saw nothing.

The safety switch of the hair dryer tripped turning it off, the rain slowed, the sun broke through the clouds, and the ruined gown was now dry. The sun beamed through the window and warmed Jacks face rousing him from the shock, he blinked his eyes and stretched out his legs. Jack stood he looked at the clock and the time was twenty-past-two. He went over to the kitchen counter, he had one hour to complete the next chore. He took the jar of hundreds-and-thousands from the cupboard and poured the contents on to the counter top and using a pair of tweezers, he removed the green hundreds-and-thousands.

With the task complete, Jack used his hand to push the hundreds-of-thousands back into the jar and placed it on the counter next to the pile of green ones.  He cleared away the now smaller puddle of rain water and returned the hair dryer to his mother’s room.  Knowing he could do nothing about the dress he left it where it was, he would have to accept whatever punishment Ellie-May felt he deserved.

Jack looked at the clock and with two minutes left before Ellie-Mays return, he took the ingredients to make a chocolate fudge cake out of the fridge and placed them on the counter. He leant on the counter, his head in his hand and let out a sigh. Then he remembered, the fallen bucket in the Wendy house. Jack thumped the counter top with his fist, he pulled his hand back catching something on the counter.  The Jar of hundreds-and-thousands fell over, the jar rolled backwards and forwards and with each forward motion, came closer to the edge of the counter.  Jack reached out his hand to grab the jar but the jar found the edge of the counter and tumbled right off.  It hit the floor and the jar shattered letting the hundreds-and-thousands escape across the tiled kitchen floor.

Jack ran out of the kitchen door. He ran passed the swings and slide, he ran passed the sandpit and slipped, he sat facing the open door of the Wendy house, he could see the up-turned bucket at the bottom of the stairs. He got up and carried on running until he reached his shed.  He jumped right into his bed and pulled the covers over his head.  He lay there waiting for Ellie-May to scream his name.

Author's Note

I am interested to see if in this chapter the reader can understand the struggles of the teacher reading aloud to the class. I would really like some advice on how I should structure the dialogue of the teacher reading the book - whilst missing out the 'P'.

Thank you