Pop up and Go

By Paula Coles and Carl Leckey

Carl Leckey is the youngest of three children. He grew up in wartime Britain and loved the excitement of having Italian prisoners of war in the area. His time as a kid was spent collecting shrapnel and clambering around the shipwrecks on the shore of the Mersey. One of his favourite places was his grandfathers allotment where old World War One comrades would meet in the garden shed to share a drink and a smoke.

Carl served on the Mersey tugs for 15 years with a break for two years National Service from the age of 19 to 21.

On returning to the tugs he rose to the rank of Mate, before being made redundant at the age of 30 in 1968 when the company was taken over. He then worked as a Leading Lock Keeper for British Waterways in Cheshire for 28 years until ill health brought premature retirement. He was a Union Steward Convenor, and Worker Representative on the Company Pension Fund Management Committee. In 1985 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to study Ports and Harbour Services on the Mississippi and Yangtze Rivers in the USA and China.

In 1995 he was awarded an MBE for services to British Waterways.

After completing a writers course with the Open College of Art Carl began writing novels on a variety of subjects publishing in New Zealand. United Kingdom and United States of America. Until failing health due mainly to arthritis Carl and his wife Rose travelled the world extensively visiting friends and family in a number of countries.

Pop up and Go is the second book the author has written for children. The story was inspired by a news item the author heard while travelling through the USA. Most of Carls books are also available as an E book. See his other books and reviews by visiting Carls website.

www.carlleckey.co.uk

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468578539

Book preview

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Dedicated to my Granddad Earl.

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What a character!

Many thanks to my wife Rose for her patience and assistance in completing this book

Other books written by Carl Leckey. M.B.E.

Children’s illustrated books by Carl Leckey.

More of Carl’s books out shortly.

Badger Sett!

Invasion!

Inquisitive kids.

Ghost aboard.

Waterloo teeth.

Imagine.

Imagine I can be anything or anyone at all.

Imagine if I had the powers to see right through a wall.

Imagine I’m a King with a castle, queen and crown.

Imagine I’m in a circus acting as a funny clown.

Imagine I’m an eagle soaring up on very high.

Imagine I’m a pilot speeding through the sky.

Imagine there’s no school and I can play all day.

Imagine there are no sprouts, to make my five a day.

Imagine a life of laughter and no-one cries at all.

Imagine I’m playing cup final soccer and I have got the ball.

Imagine there is no Mum to cuddle me at night.

Oooh! I don’t want to imagine that though.

Please turn on the light.

CHAPTER ONE

The Idea

The old man is standing by the window looking through his binoculars when he exclaims.

Hey Sue! That Rolls Royce is parked by the church again. That Vicar fella’ must be loaded owning one of those beasties. The Generals had them as staff cars in the Biggun they eat petrol like, er, like hungry hyena’s. Sue replies as she clears the breakfast dishes from the table. Maybe it’s not his Granddad. It could belong to a visitor attending one of the services. Have you thought of that? The old man snorts with disbelief.

Pah! The bloomin thing is there nearly every day parked in the same place. No Sue. I reckon it’s his alright. He hangs his binoculars on a hook by the window and takes a seat. Sue hands him the morning paper and his magnifying glass. He remarks after he reads the headlines.

You know I could do something like this without spending millions like these fella’s are going to do.

Grandpa Earl as usual had begun to comment on articles of news that interest him. This is a routine he carries out almost every day. The old man holds very odd conversations with the young woman as she fusses around the house.

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Granddad Earl has been long retired as a Captain of his own fishing trawler. The male members of the Earl family had always been fishermen as long as Granddad could remember. It has been a tradition for family members to marry into other fishing families but it looks as if Granddad will be the last of a long line.

His twelve year old Grandson Sam has other ideas about his future, and it doesn’t include going away to sea on a fishing boat. The old man and the young lad are great friends and spend a great deal of time in each other’s company. They enjoy lots of laughs and share many secrets Granddad has not shared with anyone else. Much of their time together is spent tinkering with gadgets and conducting experiments in his work shop located in the back garden.

Sam’s Mum keeps a wary eye on them and attempts to control some of their madder ideas. It appears not very successfully on a few occasions.

Granddad’s big old dog Bonzo, a cross between a Great Dane and a Dalmatian, lies close by stretched out fully occupying an old settee. They have been together for many years and are growing old together.

The parrot Fido is perched in a corner of the room. The parrot and a large garden gnome were Granddad’s unexpected inheritance from an Aunt.

A letter arrived from a lawyer stating there were some valuable articles bequeathed to Granddad by a relative, to be collected immediately from an address in the nearby town.

They were collected and delivered by Mr Eley in his van, ably assisted by Sam. Granddad had no idea what to expect.

They consisted of a large very ugly pottery garden gnome and a parrot.

To Sue’s surprise she also received two unexpected gifts from Aunt Bertha, although until that time Sue had no idea Aunt Bertha existed.

Sue was overjoyed and stated excitedly.

I have always wanted a cat and a goldfish.

Granddad muttered.

You haven’t much choice have you?

An identity disc was attached to the cat’s collar giving her the strange name of Treacle. A label on he fish tank indicated the fish was named Goldy.

The old man sniggered and said.

Fancy calling a bloomin cat Treacle, the daft old bat. Only Aunt Bertha could think up daft names for her bloomin pets.

Mr Eley agreed to deliver them around to Sue’s house later.

The parrot greeted Granddad as old Grumpy mimicking the voice of Granddad’s cousin Great Aunt Bertha.

He followed this by repeating three times.

The gnome knows! The gnome knows! The gnome knows!

Granddad shouted. Shut up Fido.

Sam asked Granddad when the items first arrived.

Hey Pops, how come the parrot has a dog’s name, and why is he going on about the gnomes nose?

Granddad reluctantly explained.

"Aunt Bertha has never been quite right in the head, in my opinion. I remember the other kids called her Barmy Bertha.

I have no idea why the bloomin bird is squawking on about the ugly things nose. It must have been something the daft old bat taught him."

The old man sits quietly for a moment staring at his inheritance, before he explains.

"When she was a kid, her Mum and Dad asked her what she wanted for her tenth birthday. She told them she wanted a pet of her very own. At the birthday party the man from the pet shop delivered her surprise present. Bertha had set her heart on having a little dog.

Barmy Bertha had already chosen the dog’s name. That’s why the parrot is called Fido. She received a dog on her eleventh birthday, would you believe she called that Pretty Polly?" He adds with a toothless grin.

She did it so as not to mix them up.

Sam burst out laughing, the others joined him.

Sam remarked with a snigger.

Just fancy taking your dog for a walk and shouting. Come here, Pretty Polly.

He looks at Bonzo and says.

I think we should change your name to Beautiful Bonzo. How would you like that old fella?

Bonzo yelped and dived into his kennel.

Granddad said seriously

"I told you she was a bit of a nut case. The parrot is as mad as she was.

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Wait until you hear some of the other things the bloomin bird says."

He groans. The last thing I wanted was her stupid squawking parrot and that plug ugly gnome. I recall she had it made at a local pottery from her own design. One of the many treats her parents showered on her, Bertha was a spoilt brat.

The old man thinks for a moment then reveals more details about his relative.

"Aunt Bertha’s parents were very well off and left her pots of money and property you know Sam.

During the war she served as a code breaker. It was all very secret stuff she was working on.

Even as a kid she was brilliant at doing crosswords and puzzles, anagrams that sort of thing. He adds thoughtfully, And she was a very good artist.

She married Horace another eccentric inventor fella.

He made loads of money with some of his crackpot ideas. Ha-ha. Most of them involved lots of bangs and crashes. All of my memories of him when I visited them were, either he had his hair and eyebrows burnt off or, he was swathed in bandages.

You know they had a beautiful old car and neither one of them could drive.

They had to have a fella driving them about. I had my first ride in it at Horace’s funeral. Scruffy kids weren’t allowed in Aunt Bertha’s posh car you know."

He thinks for a moment before adding.

Hmmm! Yes, come to think of it. Bertha’s car looked the same as that nosy Vicar’s one.

Sam began to examine the gnome in detail. Unseen by the old man he winked at his Mum and remarked.

Hey Pops, you know there is something familiar about this gnomes face? He looks at the gnome and then compares it with the old man. Granddad confesses. "That’s why I hate the bloomin thing.

Bertha reckoned it was modelled on a picture of me. It was after I upset her and called her names.

We were only kids at the time. I have to admit it was me that nick named her Barmy Bertha."

He appeals to his Granddaughter. It don’t look a bit like me does it Sue?

Sue replies hesitantly. Er, when you look into its eyes.

She got no further Granddad instructs Sam.

Stick the bloomin thing over in the corner of the garden by my shed, until I decide what to do with the horrible thing. Chuck a sheet over the ugly mutt.

Sam is about to carry out his order when Granddad changes his mind.

On second thoughts Sam, leave him there. It will scare the birds off my garden. He-he.

Sam and Sue had no idea they had another relation, especially an eccentric one.

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Sam said wistfully.

I wish I had met Bertha and Horace, they sound great fun. Granddad replied.

"He was dead before you and your Mum were even born Sam. Aunt Bertha became even weirder after Horace departed this world.

The poor old lad went out in a puff of smoke Ha-ha. Sue remarks. You have never spoken about these two before Granddad, where did they live?"

He pointed vaguely into the distance and informed her. "Oh! About ten miles away, they lived in a big house last time I visited about twenty five years ago.

I haven’t seen or heard of