Back-on-Track--

By L. P. Donnelli

Mike is different to other children. For a start, he has a very-slightly-older twin sister, Layla, and a beloved father who is insanely-crazily-mad about trains. But also, because he carries a feeling of guilt for what happened to his mother.

Without anyone to look after Dad, who is terribly lonely and struggling to find enough money to get them by, he knows he has to do something about it. But with rotten and disgusting smells following him at every turn he feels lost when things don’t quite turn out as planned - - -

Join this warm and humorous family tale that has many detours and stop-offs along its journey and a host of colourful characters, as Mike and Layla try their best to make Dad happy again. For young and older readers alike.

A debut children’s book from L. P. Donnelli.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L. P. Donnelli
• Release date: Dec 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311672483

L. P. Donnelli

L. P. Donnelli is a children's author. He was published at the age of 12 for a national angling magazine and later won short story awards at school and University, and has published two children's books: --Back-on-Track-- and Dead Diary.He has been in the top 15 Best Sellers List on Amazon, both in the US and the UK, for Humorous Children's Literature and has been in the top 1% of the Amazon Bestsellers ranking for all Kindle books availble on Amazon.com.He lives with his super partner, his lovely Chinese/German/Mexican dog, two geckos (one extremely squeaky), and his Russian wandering tortoise. He leads a boring double life of legal and financial work when he unfortunately cannot write. He drinks far too much coconut water and loves writing different types of books, and is currently working on a fantasy and YA book along with other children's stories.For anyone who enjoys his books, he is a massively grateful for all those who leave reviews.

Book preview

--Back-on-Track--

L. P. Donnelli

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © L. P. Melling 2014

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.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Unique Names

Chapter 2: A Bouncing, Decapitated Head

Chapter 3: The Extended(-Tongued) Family

Chapter 4: New Fly in Soup

Chapter 5: Off-Track--

Chapter 6: The Plan

Chapter 7: Tea-Strainer

Chapter 8: Plan B+

Chapter 9: A Chance Meeting

Chapter 10: Truth is Out

Chapter 11: Mysterious Goings-On

Chapter 12: --Back-on-Track--

About the Author

For my mother, who will be forever missed, and my father, the real train spotter extraordinaire.

Chapter 1

Unique Names

Mike was, as you have probably already guessed as a clever reader -- even though you have only just started this book -- really named Michael. But that, Reader, was not what made him unique! I already hear you say that being unique is itself not so unique, as everyone is unique, as your parents and teachers have no doubt told you! However, Mike was more unique than others. His uniqueness or uniquity (I am not sure if that is even a word!) was down to him being a twin.

Hold on, but doesn’t that make him less unique then? Well yes, I guess it does in some ways. However, he was not an identical twin -- not in appearance anyway. This was mainly down to his twin being the opposite sex to himself, which kind of showed. Such as in the following ways:

Where he had short hair, his sister had long hair

Where she had a high voice, he had a slightly lower voice

Where he liked to wear red or green, she preferred pink or yellow.

Where he liked to get muddy outside, his sister liked to get muddy also. (Erm well, they were twins after all, so I guess they have to be similar in some ways don’t they!)

His sister was not called Mike, or even Michelle, Micha or Marabella, but Layla. She had been born before Mike, so therefore it was only right she got the letter before in the alphabet to start her name with. Mike did love Layla -- as much as a ten-year-old brother can love a sister all the time, (when they were not annoying), but he also envied her for being older, in a unique way.

The reason was he felt responsible for his mother’s death in being born last.

It was very soon after his mother gave birth to him, when he drew his first crying breath in the world, that his dear mother drew her last. He knew that it was the combined births and the very long labour that his mother had to suffer which was the true cause of her death. But he could never fully get away from the feeling that if he had not been born, and it had all stopped with Layla’s birth, she may have recovered and still be here today.

He thought he was thankful at times that he did not have a chance to actually know his mother, as surely it would have hurt more to have then lost her . . . but then he doubted this at times.

Their father made up for any loss as much as he could, however, and they both felt very lucky to have him. His father’s name was Michael, like his own. However, his father never used the shortened version. Michael just did not sound right to Mike, but as he was told by his dad and others, You may yet grow into it. Mike just fits, he would say in reply, and stops any confusion too!

Anyway, back to their father (mainly known as Dad), who kind of shared the same name and kind of shared the same dark brown coloured hair, but Mike’s was ever-slightly-lighter. The real key thing to know about Mike’s father is this: he is simply mad, and I mean MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD about trains! He is what is known as (plums in mouth now everyone) a ‘Railway Enthusiast’, which is the posh and less embarrassing way to say he is mad about trains! The taboo term that can never be spoken in their household, and I’d better whisper this quietly now, is Train Spotter (TS). Never, under any circumstances, can their beloved father be referred to as a TS, which their father regarded as a propaganda term to demonise the refined railway enthusiast (whatever that meant??).

But if Dad was merely a TS, then it might not be as bad as all that. He was not just interested in spotting them, however, but having everything possible to do with them! He had train everything: train socks, train slippers, train coasters, train cups and glasses (I am talking thousands here of each), train egg cups too, a train tea-strainer and even train trainers!

Nine out of ten times his train of thought is actually about trains! As I think you may now see, Reader, Mike and Layla’s father MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD (never enough A’s to fully