Growing Old With You (Part of Those Three Little Words threequel)

Part 9

3rd January 1999
Roger's POV
"Pap! Post for you!" Emily shouted and brought the letters in for me, "I think they're just bills" she said and handed them to me and immediately I saw a letter that wasn't our bills. "It's from Dad, look" I showed her the handwriting and she looked at me with wide eyes before I tore into it and pulled the three bits of paper out. I opened up the lined piece of paper first and saw that he'd written us a nice long letter so I called the kids in to see what he'd written.

Hello my offspring! And you, Roger, hello to you.
I thought you'd want to know what's going on over here in Arizona so I'll tell you a few things.

The first day was terrible. I was so scared of everyone and I didn't know what to do but I made a friend. Her name's Amy. She's so nice and she introduced me to all her friends, Richard, Tom, Sandy, Melissa and loads more that I can't remember the names of right now. They're all such great people and they understand me, there's a few people here with the same problem as me and it's been great to know that it's not just me going through this.

The night... well, I can't rate their rooms very much. It was cold, the bed felt like I was sleeping on a concrete slab and the people next door were arguing about something. Very loudly, too. So I barely got any sleep but the next night they seemed to have worn themselves out so I got about four or five hours. It wasn't the best, still, but it was better than nothing.

I've missed you all a lot, though, it's only been a few days but I miss you all so much. I hope you're all okay there.

Jim. My best wishes go to you and your beautiful girlfriend with your new home, I would send a house-warming present but I have nowhere to get it from. I'll get you one when I get back, I promise.

Lou, I wish you all the best for this year, with your exams or with everything in general. Best of luck, my flower.

Rog... babe, you'll never know how much I miss you right now. I want to have you here, to hold you or even just see you. It's been so hard without you here but I hope that you can write back, it might feel more like you're with me then.

Anyway, I have sent this with a painting and a picture for you all to see. The painting is one I had to do for art class and, ironically enough, the theme was happiness. Have a guess what I painted.

I laughed as I opened out the folded painting and saw my own face on the paper, "silly bugger... he painted my album" I said and Jim laughed as I turned it around to show them all. I passed it around so they could all see it and took out the pictures, there was one of his room which seemed really tiny and there were loads of the gardens and a few of his friends with their names written on the back.

'Wow... he's getting on well then, these people all seem nice' I thought as I looked at all of their faces, 'they look like druggies but so was I at one point. That was bad' I looked at the kids then passed the photos around so they could all have a look.

This has taken maybe a day to write because I haven't had much time to sit down and be alone so I hope you can still read my handwriting but today there were a few things that happened.
1: there were people last night in the corridor having a fight and I don't have a clue how they got out of their rooms but they were so loud. I didn't want to watch but I saw the people this morning and they were both black and blue.
2: I hope you can send some food or something, it's horrible here. They barely have anything for vegetarians so I end up having to pick meat out of things. It's such a pain in the ass.
3: can you send some pictures of you and the kids? I miss them and I wanna put their pictures in my room, it might help a little with how homesick I've been.

Anyway, I think that's enough for now so I'll let you get on with your day. I love you all so so much, remember to do good and I'll write soon.
Lots of love and hugs,
Brian/Dad xxx

- later on that day -

I had all of the kids' letters and put them in an envelope ready and Archie decided to lay on my lap so he was keeping me nice and warm. I ran my hand through his fur as I thought of what to write then once I had an idea of how to start, I just let pen touch paper and everything came out.

Hi Brian!
We got your letter today and we really enjoyed reading about your days and all your friends. So much so that all the kids wrote you a personal letter saying... well, you'll have to read them.

So anyway, it's been rather hectic having to take care of all the kids all the time, Debbie's been helping out quite a lot and she slept in the spare room last night because Tigerlily would not go to bed no matter what we did. She's getting to be a real little tyke so you'll have some trouble when you come back home.

On the subject of Tigerlily, she's been practicing her dance routine for her dance group and she's really good. I would send you a picture but she always gets so shy when I get a camera out around her. I think she'll get used to it soon, though.
She's also been doing a lot of dressing up and modelling for us and she keeps saying to me she wants to be a model when she's older. She'd better get to like the cameras then.

Jim and Jess are doing well in their new flat, he told me they've had a few arguments but they're over it and happily living together. I haven't seen the place yet so I guess I'll have to go soon, see what kind of state our son is living in.

I will report back when I've seen the pit. I hope to god it's not a pit but I'm sure it will be.

I think you've got enough bedtime reading to do now so I'll let you go. Just remember how much I love you and if you need me, have your people call me. You know I'll be there as soon as I can if you want me.

I love you with all that I have,
Roger xx

I folded my letter up and put it in the envelope with the kids' letters then found my Polaroid camera and got the kids together for a picture. "Alright, this is for Daddy so make the silliest face you can" I said and they all pulled stupid faces as I took their picture and let it print off. I looked over at Tigs and she was still poking her tongue out so I gently tapped it, "you can put this away now, missy" I said and she giggled before she ran off to do... whatever four year olds did.

Once the picture was developed, I went up into mine and Brian's bedroom and set the camera on the dresser and got the button from Brian's drawer. I held it behind my back and got in a place where I hoped I would be completely in shot before I did a cheesy little grin and took the picture.

It printed out and I laid it down next to the camera to develop, watching it, and picked it up once it was finished. Thankfully, I was in shot and I thought it was quite a nice photo, I really liked it. I put it in Brian's envelope and had to move Archie off the top again so I just carried him with me downstairs.

I sealed the envelope and wrote the address of the hospital then let Archie go and do his thing whilst I walked to the little village and posted my letter. I hoped it got to Arizona safely, I wanted Brian to know that we were okay.

Okay hi!! This has been ages but I've finally finished this. I'm so sorry it took so long, I've had so much work with college and everything so the chapters may be more spaced out than they were but I'll get them done, I promise.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you soon! Lots of love ~ Kate