The Last Train Home

Chapter Eleven

"How's that letter coming along?" Mr Goodwin asked, peering over my shoulder as I flicked through the dictionary.

"I'm going to write two and put them in the same envelope. One to Mum and then one for her to pass onto Dad for me; I want to tell Dad about all the work we've done," I said.

I shuffled my letter to Mum over a little until it was covered by the envelope, just so Mr Goodwin wouldn't read it. Although I wanted to go home, I didn't want him to think that I didn't appreciate my time with them and I knew he would get the wrong end of the stick if he read my letter. With the help of the dictionary, I had managed to stumble my way through a letter that almost begged Mum to let me go home as soon as possible. I knew how that would go down if Mr Goodwin read it.

"I'm sure he'd appreciate that."

"If I can find how to spell the word corrugated, then maybe." I thumbed through the dictionary. "I know it starts with a 'cor' but I can't find it."

"Ah, it's a tricky one. It's a double 'r' and then a 'u'. There it is." Mr Goodwin pointed to the word in the dictionary and I quickly copied it down before I lost it again.

"Thank you."

Mr Goodwin nodded and walked across the room to the kitchen where Mrs Goodwin was preparing supper. He muttered something to her and nodded his head towards me, but they were talking too quietly for me to be able to hear them. I ignored the thought of them talking about me and instead focused on finishing the letter, using the dictionary for almost every other word until I was certain I had finished it to the best of my ability.

I tucked the two letters into the envelope and stuck the back down before flipping it over and pulling Mum's letter from my pocket. She had included our address on the back of her letter so I could copy it out and make sure I got it right. The last thing I wanted was for Mum to not get my letter because I had put the wrong address on the front or I had spelt it wrong. Like Mum, I left the Goodwin's address on the back just in case I did spell something wrong and it needed to be sent back. Once again, I copied it from Mum's letter.

With the letter written, I left it on the mantle for Mrs Goodwin to find and put a stamp on the next time she went to the village. When I had mentioned that I wanted to write to Mum, she had said I could have a maximum of two stamps a week since they couldn't afford any more than that. I didn't mind, I could send a letter to Mum and Dad with just two stamps although I didn't intend on staying long enough to use more than the one stamp I needed for the letter. With any luck, Mum would read the letter and send it for me.

It had taken me all afternoon to write both letters and by the time I had written the addresses on the envelope and placed it on the mantle, it was time for supper. Much like supper at home, Mrs Goodwin required that we sit around the square table that leant against a wall. I sat across from Mrs Goodwin with Mr Goodwin sitting to my right and having the joy of facing the ageing wall in front of him. At least I had Mrs Goodwin's smiling face.

"Can you believe it's been an entire week since you moved in with us?" Mr Goodwin said, taking a sip of his water.

"A week of you two traipsing mud into the house," Mrs Goodwin muttered.

"When the weather turns, we can start to work on the house a little more. With this one, we'll have it done a lot quicker."

"My mum was obsessed with cleaning so I can help there as well," I said.

"I would expect nothing less. If you make the mess, you're the one who has to clean it up. However, I won't begrudge a little bit of help with the general housework."

"We can start with cleaning the windows, try and get a little bit more light in here if we can. That'll be tomorrow's task, if you're up for it, Sybil." Mr Goodwin turned to look at me.