Friday 22 May 2015
At 04:40 the sky is overcast. It is much the same at 06:53.
Not long before 07:45, a boy is descending past the Efords’ driveway and then past the upper part of the school-house garden. I notice the pale-green and the pale-blue horizontal stripe on his dark anorak, and I suddenly realise he is Josh Wheeler. Maud and Mrs Wheeler are following, at a distance of some yards.
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Thursday 21 May 2015
In the early-morning school-run, I don’t see Mrs Vest or her children, but I do see Grandma Vest’s black Plum depart in the direction of George Street, from where it was parked alongside the Trimots’ house and the house adjoining.
Three women ascend alongside the school: Mrs PP inboard, Mrs FW outboard, and a vaguely-familiar brunette between them. I see them continue as far as the Ports’ house. Mrs PP isn’t being garrulous, but seems to be doing most of the talking. She is wearing a knee-length black dress with a rounded neckline, and a cream or pale-fawn cardigan with only the bottom two buttons fastened. The brunette doesn’t seem to be saying anything.
Mrs PP’s car must be parked beyond the CJs’ house. It departs, in haste, up Acacia Grove.
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Wednesday 20 May 2015
It has been quite a cool night for this time of year, and there is a breeze when I go out to the car at about 07:15.
When Mrs Wheeler returns to her car after taking the children into school, she already looks tired. The car is parked alongside number 35. Mrs Wheeler is perhaps in her early forties.
Mrs Vest parks alongside the junction-box. When Rufus has got out via the nrd, he stands on the pavement by the nearside of the car’s bonnet, and gestures diagonally uphill towards the far pavement — no doubt at a schoolmate. He is also pulling faces a bit.
Mr Tanbrit walks past Vinnie’s driveway, holding Thomas’s left hand in his own right hand. Tessa is walking behind them. Thomas, who is wearing his usual red anorak, is having to run to keep pace with his father. When the Tanbrits are crossing the street, towards the Efords’ driveway, Mr Tanbrit is holding Tessa’s right hand as well as Thomas’s left hand. Tessa is having to half-run.
Mrs CM returns to her car, which is parked nose downhill alongside the Trimots’ house and the house adjoining.
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Tuesday 19 May 2015
During the afternoon school-run, the time is approaching 15:15. Mrs Wobbly is ascending past the school precinct, with Mrs Mustard inboard of her. They are chatting, so clearly they are still on good terms.
Master Mustard is in the push-chair, reclining at an angle with his head to the left side of the push-chair and his feet to the right. Miss Mustard is wearing a sleeveless pale-yellow uniform dress, without a cardigan. She is walking backwards, just ahead of and just in front of the nearside front corner of the push-chair.
The Wobblys part company with the Mustards when they reach their car, which is parked by the lowest part of the school-house garden.
When the Mustards are alongside the upper part of the school-house garden, Miss Mustard veers off very briefly into the grass, though she doesn’t encroach more than a couple of foot. Then she returns, and again walks ahead of the push-chair.
Mrs Mustard is wearing her shades, and her dark-brown suede-look coat or jacket with the black fur collar. She looks wan; perhaps she is unwell, or has been unwell.
The Mustards walk past Vinnie’s house. Another mother and daughter are accompanying them, and there is some interaction between Miss Mustard (who is inboard of Mrs Mustard) and the other girl. The Mustards continue past number 6 — the other family is no longer with them — then cross the street diagonally. Either their car is parked somewhere out-of-view, or they have not come by car.
Monday 18 May 2015
My journey to Peakville is largely a wet one.
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Saturday 9 May 2015
From about 08:50 the sun is trying to break through.
I set off for Naomi’s house not long after 10:00. After I have spent some time trimming the hedge, I hear noises from somewhere at the side of the house — and Naomi makes an appearance, on her way to the shops.
I do some more trimming, then get into my car and listen to Radio 3. Eventually Naomi returns, and we go indoors.
Naomi shows me some DVDs she has recently bought, including Rififi. She then expounds her view that Christianity in its traditional form is a myth invented by St Paul. (I don’t mention a political myth that she has swallowed — namely, that being opposed to a nanny state means being opposed to a welfare state.)
Naomi tells me that the mother of her friend Jen was a music-teacher; so Jen can read music, which Naomi cannot.
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Friday 8 May 2015
I have a quick lunch of toast, then I mow the front three lawns. When I am just starting to mow the area of the front lawn that used to be a rockery, I feel a few drops of rain. Not until I am half-way through mowing the side lawn does it properly begin to rain. I finish mowing at 13:48.
Shortly after the start of the afternoon school-run, it is raining harder, and audibly.
Mrs Vest has parked her car alongside Vinnie’s short hedge, with the car’s tail overlapping the garden-gates by about eighteen inches. Some minutes later, a woman who may be Mrs Vest is crossing the street towards the Efords’ driveway, under an umbrella. By her side is a little boy under his own umbrella. I notice that Mrs Vest’s car is slightly downhill of where it was, and a big boxy dark-blue MPV has taken its former place.
Mr Tanbrit descends past the school precinct. He is dressed as usual. Inboard of Mr Tanbrit and just to the rear of him is Thomas, who is wearing a red anorak and grey trousers; his umbrella has alternate segments of plain dark-grey and patterned pink.
Parents and children start to stream upslope from the middle entrance of the school. I see Mr Tanbrit, then Mrs Vest ahead of him. Leah Vest’s umbrella has alternate segments of pink and white; Rufus Vest’s umbrella has alternate segments of white and patterned red. Master PP has an umbrella with alternate segments of grey and of another colour, but not identical to any other umbrella seen on this school-run; his anorak is open at the front. His mother is bare-headed, and has no umbrella. The rain has eased off.
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Thursday 7 May 2015
As the time approaches 07:50, Mrs Maroon parks her MPV alongside the upper part of the school-house garden. Her two daughters get out via the ord, both wearing red anoraks. The younger girl, who is perhaps six or seven years old, is munching on a white-bread sandwich. She turns clockwise, and walks downhill with the others to the upper entrance of the school.
Thirty-five minutes later, Mrs Oldgreen has parked her car alongside number 35.
Mr Tanbrit descends past Vinnie’s house, with Tessa and Thomas. Tessa, who is about eight years old, looks purposeful and mature. She is wearing medium-grey trousers, and with her right hand she is holding the handle of a schoolbag. When they have crossed to the far pavement, Mr Tanbrit keeps hold of Thomas’s left hand, but Tessa walks free behind her father and brother. Mr Tanbrit is also walking, but Thomas is half-running so as to keep pace with him.
When Mrs Oldgreen drives off towards George Street, Mrs CM has just crossed the street towards her car, which is parked approximately opposite the lower entrance of the school. Facing uphill, she takes a step outboard from her car, then quickly steps back — with a smile — as the Oldgreen car approaches. Mrs Oldgreen, who is travelling at a moderate pace, or a little faster than that, momentarily brakes but then continues towards George Street.
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Wednesday 6 May 2015
As the time approaches 15:15, two women are standing and chatting near the boundary between the Efords’ house and the house adjoining. One of the women is wearing an anorak with the hood up; the other is bare-headed. The latter woman is tall and slim; I have seen her on my recent visits.
The conversation is soon brought to an end, when the tall slim woman’s daughter says something to her which makes her grimace wryly — the woman is in front left-hand profile, and bent forward a little towards her daughter. Mother and daughter then run upslope to the white Rubin which is parked nose-in on the driveway of the house next to the Kingdoms’ house. They reach the nrd of the Rubin.
A minute later, the Rubin is heading in the direction of George Street, where it turns left. I recognise the car’s registration-number; the driver must be Mrs Zebex. Why did I not realise that this tall slim woman was her?
After my parents had returned from a holiday in Florida sometime in the 1990s, the Old Man puzzled me by saying that he and my mother had been to the Mikado. This turned out to be the Mercado.
