Relatively Wet Summer

By Erik Ga Bean

Ten year old twin boys Nigel and Michael are treated to a week's holiday exploring the English waterways in a narrowboat. The rest of the family come along and make sure that the summer of 1977 will never be forgotten.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erik Ga Bean
• Release date: Jan 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310202353

Erik Ga Bean

Science fiction fan, astronomy enthusiast and IT professional Erik Ga Bean lives in the English county of Hertfordshire with his wife Helen and his growing collection of carnivorous plants. As well as being an author, he is a keen narrowboater and a leading light in the Stevenage Plus social group.

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Relatively Wet Summer

By Erik Ga Bean

Published by Erik Ga Bean at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Erik Ga Bean

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

To my wonderful wife Helen.

Chapter 1 - Before The Boat

A long time ago, before there were E-mails and Internet, even before there were mobile phones, there was a year called 1977.

In April 1977, twins Michael and Nigel were ten years old. They were not identical twins, but they did look very much alike; the same but different. They were the youngest children in their class as their birthday was right at the end of August. As well as being brothers, they were the best of friends.

Granny and Granddad came to stay for the Easter holidays in 1977, as they did every year. Michael and Nigel could never really relax when Granddad was there. Mum made them tidy the whole house before Granny and Granddad arrived. However hard they tried to make the place look neat, Granddad always looked at it as if it were not really good enough. He did this with everything. Michael and Nigel tried to keep out of the way of their grandparents by playing in their rooms or in the garden. Wherever they went, Mum would keep calling them back into the lounge to be with Granny and Granddad.

One of Granddad's favourite things to talk about was before the war. This was a magical time when all children behaved themselves, ate all of their food, washed behind their ears and did all of the other things that grownups like to nag children about. Almost all of before the war was also a time before Granny and Granddad had Mum and her sister Aunty Adele to look after.

Mum cooked an enormous roast chicken for lunch on Easter Sunday. Michael and Nigel liked roast chicken. They didn't eat as much chocolate as they could have done in the morning to save some room for lunch. When the chicken was served the boys were not able to enjoy the meal because Granddad was telling a long and boring story about when he and Granny had spent a week on a canal boat before the war. Many parts of the story were supposed to be funny but Michael and Nigel thought that Mum and Dad were only pretending to laugh to be polite. Everyone had heard the canal stories before.

When he had told all of his canal stories, and when lunch had been almost completely ruined, Granddad suggested that Mum and Dad should take the boys on the canals in the summer. Dad nodded to be polite but Michael and Nigel thought that Mum might really be meaning her nod.

Michael and Nigel didn't want to spend their summer holidays on a boat. They wanted to spend it in the countryside near their house. They had already picked out the corner of woodland where they were going to build their secret camp. Once it was complete there would be trees to climb, rabbits to catch and adventures to have. It was going to be their last summer before they started big school in September and they didn't want to waste a single day of it.

All of the grownups fell asleep in the lounge after lunch. Michael and Nigel hoped that they would forget all about the canals and dream of a summer where they decorated the spare room. Dad wasn't very good at wallpapering. Michael and Nigel helped him by keeping well out of the way. A secret woodland camp would be just the place to be when helping Dad with the summer of wallpapering.

When Mum woke up she telephoned her sister, Aunty Adele, to wish her a Happy Easter. After each of the boys had taken a turn to wish Aunty Adele a Happy Easter and thank her for the chocolate that she had sent to them, Mum started to talk about the canals.

Over tea Mum explained that Aunty Adele had also grown up hearing her parents talking about the week that Granny and Granddad spent on the canals before the war. She had volunteered to come along with the family in the summer and help with the locks. Michael and Nigel could remember seeing a canal when they were younger. It was like a straight river with a path beside it. They couldn't imagine how a canal could be locked. Nigel asked whether the canals were locked at night to stop the cats eating the fish. Granddad told him not to be so stupid.

Michael and Nigel had imagined that the summer term would have been special. It was to be their final time at the school that they had been going to since they were seven. Instead of celebrating their time at the school, they found that their days were all about the Silver Jubilee. Queen Elizabeth had been Queen for twenty-five years and she wanted everyone to celebrate. There were a lot of red, white and blue things. The buildings were decorated with bunting - a special sort of string with a line of pointy triangular flags hanging from it like big coloured teeth. Each of the children was given special 25p coin by the school.

When the Jubilee weekend finally arrived, a special street party was held close to their house. A long table was set up outside and covered in sandwiches and cakes. All the local boys and girls sat on chairs alongside the table. As soon as the eating began, so did the rain. All of the children tried to crowd under the table for shelter but the rain blew in on them from the side. Suddenly they all jumped out from under the table and ran back to their houses.

Michael and Nigel spent the rest of their Jubilee weekend watching the celebrations on the television. That way other people got wet while they stayed in the dry.

While they watched the television, Mum continued to look through her canal maps and at the brochures from the boat hire companies. She had spent part of her evening planning the canal holiday almost every day since Easter.

It was important to Mum that she find a circular route so that they could see twice as much canal. Otherwise they would be going back on themselves for the second half of the week. This part of the plan made sense to Michael and Nigel. If they were going to have to give up a week of their summer holidays to live on a boat with Mum, Dad and Aunty Adele, then they may as well be exploring.

Mum also needed to find the right boat to suit the five of them. The complicated part was