Hero the greyhound (Simon's Hero)

Hero the Greyhound (Chapter 2)

"Simon Matthew Ellis."

"Yes mum?"

"Get your body down these stairs please, time for dinner and don't forget to wash your stinky hands."

"Hey, I don't have stinky hands."

"I bet you do. Everyone knows boys are stinky and girls are perfect."

"Hey!"

"Don't you 'hey' me mister."

"I just did."

"Cheeky boy!"

Simon was 11 years old and had just started 'Big School'. The school wasn't actually much bigger than his primary school, there were a few more buildings and more people wandering around but it really wasn't that big. He soon came to realise that grown-ups liked calling it 'Big School' so it really wasn't worth an argument. He had far more interesting things to do than to talk.

"Right then sweetie, guess who has a birthday coming up?

Is it a) Father Christmas b) Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer or c) YOU?"

"Mum, you know it's me, why do you insist on giving me multiple choice answers all the time? It's boring."

"Aw, come on you old misery, I'm just having fun. Anyway, what do you want for your birthday? And before you utter those pleading words "Please May I Have A Dog?" think again and choose something sensible. You know it's not possible, sweetie."

"So, you ask me what I want for my birthday, knowing what I want more than anything in the whole wide world and THEN, you say "Don't ask me for the thing you want more than anything in the whole wide world for your birthday". What is the point in asking? You might as well just go and buy me another book about dinosaurs."

"But I thought you liked dinosaurs! I thought dinosaurs were a source of infinite interest to you, Mr Junior Palaeontologist."

"Well, they are but I'm never going to be able to see one in the flesh or own one or take one for a walk or have it snuggle up on my duvet when I go to bed so please mum, purleeeeeez, pretty pretty please with a cherry on top."

"No, I'm sorry my darling, we can't, you know I'm allergic to dogs, they make me wheeze and they make me sneeze so it's not going to happen. Now come on, eat your dinner. I've made your favourite, mashed potato with tuna fish and broccoli."

"You always make me mashed potato with tuna fish and broccoli" said Simon in his sulkiest voice

"Well, that's because you won't eat anything else and look, I've put the tuna fish and potato on the left hand side of the plate and the broccoli on the right hand side, just how you like it."

(sigh) "Thank you, Mother Dearest."

"You're welcome, Son Dearest. I feel bad, I wish I weren't allergic but I am so that's the way the cookie crumbles I'm afraid."

"You do have some very strange sayings" mumbled Simon, sucking on his mashed potato, "sometimes, it's as though you and I speak completely different languages."

"I know" said his mum, "but look how far we've come in the past seven years eh?"

Simon was a quirky boy. He didn't have any friends. He found it hard to keep a conversation going unless the other person knew lots about dinosaurs or train timetables (and so far, nobody at 'Big School' seemed that interested in either). He found making eye contact difficult and got really fed up being asked to look at people in the eye when he was talking to them, didn't they know how hard that was for someone like him? He needed to look away so he could 'see' what they were saying. If he looked at someone when they were speaking, their mouth seemed to be wandering all over their face and when he was asked to repeat what had been said, he quite simply couldn't remember because he was being forced to look and listen at the same time. He wasn't being rude, he just couldn't do things in the same way as most of the other children at his school and sometimes, he felt very alone and left out. Having a dog would make his life so much more bearable, just one dog, just one single four legged pal he could call his own. A friend who wouldn't mind listening to him talk endlessly about sauropods of the late Cretaceous period in China and Mongolia or the fastest route from London Paddington to Glasgow at the weekend. A friend who would be waiting at the front door for him, when he arrived home from school. A friend he could take for long walks through the woods. Just a friend who would accept him for who he was and love him unconditionally.

His mum was mean, she was mean and horrible, she was mean and horrible and unforgivable and nasty and yucky and ...well, actually, no, she wasn't. She was funny and helpful (especially with TDH - The Dreaded Homework) and she loved him to bits. Every night, as he lay under the duvet and Mum was folding up his uniform (which he invariably left lying on the bedroom floor) she would always ask "So, how much do I love you Simon Matthew Ellis?" and he would always answer "More than the moon, the stars, the planets, the universe, the Milky Way and all the chocolates in Thorntons" and then she would lean over and kiss him on the top of his head saying "Correct! That is exactly how much I love you. Night night, sleep tight; see you in the morning, bright and cheerful."

Simon loved his mum; despite the fact her cooking was diabolical. Thankfully, he lived on a very limited diet, certain tastes and textures made his mouth feel funny and his teeth itch so he tended to stick to the same things which made life much easier for his culinarily challenged mother. Her best friend had bought her a sign in the January sales one year which said 'I Only Have A Kitchen Because It Came With The House' and it took pride of place, right above the microwave. Mum was a vegetarian and she sometimes attempted to make herself some quite adventurous dishes, even though she made the same old mashed potato, tuna fish and broccoli for Simon every night. Her custard and gravy were the stuff of legend and he could hear her cheery voice, asking "One lump or two?" as she attempted to pour the hideous liquids out of the pan. He loved his mum very much. The only thing wrong with her was that she wouldn't let him have a dog. Oh well, there was a new book out about the Carcharadontosaurus available on Amazon, he would ask his mum to buy him that for his birthday instead. And there would definitely be chocolate cake. He loved chocolate cake, as long as it wasn't too rich and it was on its own in the middle of the plate with no ice cream or cream. He said a little prayer that it would be a shop bought cake and not homemade and then, he fell asleep.