Melissa and the Mobility Scooter

By Lesley Atherton

Bedtime stories for children, including 'Melissa and the Mobility Scooter'.
Stories both long and short, perfect for both reading aloud and for encouraging older children to read themselves.

"What a fantastic concept for know-it-all kids (my son!). Finish your own story... Before I read him 'Piggy in his Pocket' I told him that he had to listen really carefully because it was his job to decide the ending. Last night he decided to blow up the toy box with the toy pig in it. Tonight he told me he had a better idea. Jack and his expanding piggy must get a double bed. Next he asked if he could please have a double bed! More of these stories please" - FL

Melissa lives with her mum, dad and (temporarily) with her grandma, who is recovering from surgery, hence the mobility scooter currently residing in their hall. But all is not what it seems. The scooter has a life of its own, which the young girl discovers by accident.

This book is a collection of stories, some short and some long, to be read to children at bedtime, or to encourage them to read themselves. Melissa features in more than one story, giving continuity to the publication.

Illustrated very simply, this is a charming little book which should appeal to children from a pre-reading age right the way up to early teens. You can read this book for free on Kindle Unlimited, or purchase as a paperback, so please do support this new emerging publishing business, and a not-so-new but still definitely emerging writer.

Other Books by this Author
• Conflict Management: Novelettes For Discerning Readers
• Feet On The Table: An Enormous Book Of Tiny Stories
• Life’s a Mess... and Then You Die: Hoarding, Writing and Lost Family
• Melissa And The Mobility Scooter: And Other Bedtime Stories
• The Waggon
• Crash Test Dummy
Published by Words Are Life. Do support independent publishers!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lesley Atherton
• Release date: Jul 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005362959

Lesley Atherton

I’ve always been a writer. I was the kind of kid who would create little books of my own, and I also did quite well at school when it came to writing projects and exams.I’ll always remember my lovely English teacher, Mrs Nash, giving us an assignment. We had to read Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Blackberry Picking’ and then were told to write our own version.My resultant poem, though simple, used some strong words and brought positive and glowing reactions from Mrs Nash, both at the time and later in her literary flourish of an end of year report card in which she told me how much my writing had blossomed and would soon become wonderful. I loved that teacher so much. She was awesome, kind, creative and a little eccentric. Unfortunately, I don’t have her report anymore, and I don’t have the poem either. I just remember that it began something like this:Blackberry picking, sweet and sticky, Dum de dum de dum de dum, Like a gaping wound.Later in life, I married a writer who became a publisher and helped him out with office and business management. I loved the writing-related work that came with it too - reviews, articles, copywriting and editing, proofreading and the rest of the whole shenanigans. Yep, I loved all that.Later, when we split up and the children were a little older and more self-reliant, writing seemed to become my ‘thing’. It was what I wanted and needed to do.When I got a little braver I saw a poster on a bookshop wall. It was for a writing group, and it gave Michelle’s email as a contact. I emailed her a few breathily nervous messages, then we agreed to meet at a local café. It was a lovely and unforgettable meeting. She directed me to join a writing group and this was what I did. Joining the group expanded my new writing confidence massively.So I began publishing more. Writing a little less (temporarily). And Scott Martin Productions was born.The company became Words Are Life as I moved away from publishing fiction (I am truly appalling at selling things, and nonfiction sells itself to some extent). I carried on writing, ready to publish.So, that’s my history. Good at editing, not bad at imagination and writing skills, but bloody awful at selling stuff.​In recent years I’ve published ‘Melissa And The Mobility Scooter’, which is a gorgeous book of bedtime stories for children (not just girls!) between 5 and 8. Older children will enjoy reading ‘Melissa’ themselves.I’ve also published a collection of novelettes called ‘Conflict Management’. It’s an interesting collection of stories about good and evil twins, managing autism and long term illness, making serious life decisions, ghostwriting, revenge, and working with a male supermodel.My first novel originally came out under the name, ‘Past, Present, Tense’, then was slightly re-written under the name ‘Life’s a Mess... And Then You Die’. I love this book. It’s all about hoarding, family lost and found, dysfunctional relationships, vengeance and hope for the future.And, I've also written what might just be the largest, floppiest book of empowering short stories ever created. It is called 'Feet On The Table'; and is the result of many, many years of work.At the time of writing, I’ve just published my second novel, ‘The Waggon’. I normally don’t have much confidence in my work but I believe this to be the best thing I’ve ever written! It came about as the final assignment of a Masters Degree in Creative Writing. This was back before Covid times, and I was due to publish it, but lost a lot of creative confidence when I was given a Merit on the course. I genuinely believed the writing deserved a better grade, which is unlike me. Unsure about how to progress, I gave it to a number of beta readers for feedback. It is their feedback that’s enabled me to rewrite the book. I hope it is deserving of a Distinction grade, even if it is only in my own head! Better late than never.I have also just published short ebooks, 'Crash Test Dummy', 'Could This Be An Office Romance?', and 'Bigheart'. Also, my books, Can't Sleep, Won't Sleep - short story anthologies available here on Smashwords.So, that’s where I am at the moment. I’m publishing on a few different platforms and am concentrating on editing and writing. There aren’t enough hours in the day to write all I want to write, but it’s getting a little easier every day.

Book preview

Melissa and the Mobility Scooter

Melissa and the Mobility Scooter

and Other Bedtime Stories

Lesley Atherton

First published by

Scott Martin Productions, 2019

www.scottmartinproductions.com

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by

Scott Martin Productions

10 Chester Place,

Adlington, Chorley, PR6 9RP

[e-mail]

www.scottmartinproductions.com

Electronic and paperback versions available for purchase on Amazon.

Copyright (c) Lesley Atherton

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

Thanks so much to Morrigan Atherton-Forshaw for the use of some of her old drawings. They illustrate the book beautifully!

Melissa and the Mobility Scooter

Melissa’s face was ten years old, just like the rest of her, but every time she looked in the mirror it seemed as if she was much younger. She found that extremely frustrating.

Why couldn’t she grow up a little quicker? Her sister was only twelve and already wore make-up and shoes with heels, but every time Melissa asked mum for some, mum just laughed. She laughed first, then said a very big no - with her hands on her hips too. That type of no definitely meant no.It wasn’t just her age and how young she looked that frustrated Melissa - she was also annoyed that her mum NEVER took her seriously. Nobody did. And that meant Melissa was annoyed about a great many things.

The party dress her grandma bought her was the wrong shape and was far too babyish. Anyway, Melissa didn’t like lilac anymore, and wanted to wear short skirts and black tights, not floaty, shiny dresses trimmed with lace and ribbons.

Melissa was also annoyed that grandma was living with them now. She liked her grandma a lot, but it meant that she and mum had far less time to spend together.

Melissa was also annoyed about custard creams. She liked biscuits very much, and particularly enjoyed custard creams. They were Dad’s favourites too, so Mum had always made sure that they’d be there every time Melissa opened the beagle-shaped biscuit barrel.

Delicious custard creams. Melissa would bite off the top layer then lick away the creamy custard, and lastly would crunch on the smeared lower layer. It could take quite some time to eat even one biscuit, and that was one of the things she really, really liked about them.

Now the biscuit barrel was empty - and it was all because her mum was on what she called a ‘health kick’. She confided in Melissa that she was trying to lose a little weight to look good in her bikini on their summer holiday. ‘France without Flab,’ mum said, over and over again.

Mum wasn’t just worried about her own weight though - that would have been alright - she was also trying to make the whole family eat ‘healthy’ food. That meant no cakes and no crisps. It also meant NO CUSTARD CREAMS.

Add all that to the disappointment about grandma’s choice of party dress, and the fact that Melissa wasn’t growing up as quickly as she’d like… Melissa reckoned she was a pretty unhappy girl. Perhaps not unhappy enough to run away from home, but unhappy enough for her to think about it. As we probably all know, a great many children do think about it, then calm down and realise they are definitely better off staying where it is safe and warm and where they are surrounded by people who love them. That’s exactly what had been going on inside Melissa’s mind.

Thinking not very seriously about running away was what Melissa did to fill the time when usually she’d be carefully licking the custard from her favourite biscuits. She thought about where she’d go on her running-away-journey and what she’d take with her. When things got really bad she wrote her goodbye letter in her head.

‘Mum and dad,’ it would begin. She wouldn’t use the word ‘Dear’ to begin her letter as she obviously wanted them to know how cross she was. ‘Mum and dad. I am running away. I am taking some of my things like my hand-built bear and my rucksack and my saved-up spending money. I have made five peanut butter sandwiches and have taken a bottle of water. I would have taken biscuits too but there are none to take. That is one of the reasons why I am running away. I will get a job tomorrow and will come back to see you when I am a grown-up with a big car. Goodbye. From Melissa’

It wasn’t a letter she had ever actually written, mainly because she was never very good at literacy and didn’t know how to spell some of the words. She didn’t want anyone to laugh at her spelling even if she wasn’t there to hear it.

One word she really wanted to learn how to spell was ‘mobility’. Perhaps that was an odd word for a girl like Melissa to learn, but there was a reason. Melissa wasn’t planning to actually run away on her own two feet (that would be too much like hard work and would take her ages and ages)... No.

She had transport - her gran’s mobility scooter!

Of course, Melissa knew she shouldn’t take it, but she made it OK in her own head by saying it was gran’s fault for buying her a rubbish dress. Melissa was good at transforming excuses into logical reasons. Adults call it ‘justifying’ - but Melissa just called it ‘making things fair’.

When it came to the mobility scooter, Melissa was practically an expert. She knew where the keys were kept and, more importantly, she knew how to drive it. Or