Because I said So

“Oh thank goodness they have all gone” he thought.

The house was peaceful. The only sound to be heard was the creaking as old Billy trod the floorboards on his well-worn pads. He slid along as he rounded the corner, the surface too slippery for him as he headed for the comfy old couch in the corner of the room.

A shaft of light pierced through the window and tumbling down from top to bottom, tiny flecks of dust danced and flipped around until they landed on the shiny wooden floorboards, exhausted from the journey.

A black and white bird flew into the glass with a loud thud and Billie raised his head slowly to see where the noise had come from – disinterested he put it down again. His excitement at seeing birds or cats was over and he was content to leave it to younger and more energetic dogs. With a cross between a snuffle and a snore he shut his eyes.

Outside time seemed to stand still in the street. The children were at school and Mr and Mrs. Johnston were at work, and of course Billy was inside. The dog loved this time of day after the early morning mayhem– children yelling and arguing, Mr. Johnson complaining that he could only find one ironed shirt and his wife telling him in a raised voice, “I’m not your maid you know. You can always do your own ironing!”

The only upside to the morning madness was when one of the children threw food to him under the table, the long table cloth hiding him from view. “This toast is dry and horrible” Jack would tell his mother, and would slowly slide his hand down beneath the table top and drop the big piece of toast for Billy to eat. Billy tried to be as quiet as he could whilst savouring the buttery toast but it wasn’t easy when you had so many teeth missing.

This morning had been an extra special morning because Lucy, who was always dieting, threw her honeyed crumpet to him – of course it landed sticky side down but he made sure that every last morsel was licked up. He waited for any other food to drop, concealed by the floral cloth hanging down all around him.

 Mr Johnson was less agitated after gulping down his first coffee for the day and Mrs Johnson settled down after finding the mascara that Millie had borrowed at the weekend. Jack quickly finished the assignment that had been due in last week, (discovering it unfinished in the bottom of his school bag twenty minutes before the bus was due) and Lucy stopped arguing with her mother about how much lunch she had in her lunch box. Millie stacked the dishwasher (not before yelling that it wasn’t her turn this week) before the front door had slammed shut behind the last person, and could Billie relax!

His first job after they all went was hoovering the kitchen floor – by mouth of course – bread crumbs, some cornflakes and hopefully a piece of the night before’s pizza! When he was in his prime Billie could jump up onto the table and then onto the sideboard where a dog could find enough titbits to keep going til lunch time but not anymore. He was old and arthritis had plagued him for quite a while.

Mrs Johnson felt tired. Life was so busy with full time work and three children. She knew this was what she had ‘signed up’ for and she didn’t usually feel down but at the moment with two teenagers and an ‘almost’ teenager life was tedious. Sometimes it felt like she was going through a tunnel, a dark one with voices yelling at her - getting louder as she neared the open end. “Where are my footy socks? Why can’t I go to the party? I hate fish pie and you always make me eat it. It’s not my turn for the dishwasher. Lucy’s taken my toothbrush – that’s totally disgusting! I’m hungry. Why does he get to watch what he wants on the television? I’m not going to Uncle Kevin’s birthday lunch – so boring! Blah blah blah….yelling, screaming”….Hands over ears she just wanted to see light at the end of the tunnel where the voices couldn’t be heard. She opened her eyes which had been tightly clenched and looked at her desk piled high with paperwork which she yet had to finish. Rubbing her eyes she let out a huge sigh and took a deep breath.

“I know what I’ll do” she said aloud to herself. We’ve both got leave owing to us; it’s only a few weeks until the school holidays so I’m going to book a holiday, a wonderful family time, somewhere nice and relaxing. The thought of it excited her. They hadn’t been on a family holiday for quite some time – it was long overdue. Last year she had thrown the idea open for discussion one evening at home, but it had been met with negative responses. Her husband didn’t have time because they were so busy at work, Millie didn’t want to miss her sixteenth birthday with all of her friends, Lucy really wanted to go with the netball team for the long weekend camp and Jack simply said “I’m not going away with those two” pointing to his sisters with such a look of disgust on his face that his mother wondered where she had gone wrong.

She decided this time not to tell the family until it was all booked. I’ll surprise them, and they will have to come if it’s booked and paid for. I’d better give Jack enough time to cancel his work at the supermarket for a couple of weeks in the school holidays. “I don’t think he’ll mind that, he’s always moaning about it!”

Billie squeezed through the dog flap feeling like too much sausage meat struggling to get into its skin. His hind legs followed the bulk of him through and with a final big push he was propelled out onto the ground. “Nobody seems to notice that I’m struggling to get through there – I’ll wait until someone is near me one of these days and I’ll deliberately get stuck – then they’ll have to put in a bigger one. He waddled over to his favourite bush and right next to it ‘did his business’. Looking around he realised that Jack hadn’t done his job from last week – a poop scoop! “Oh well there will be trouble afoot if he doesn’t do it soon”.

He found a clear space on the grass and lay in the warming sun. A small bird whistled a tune from high above, piercing and loud and then some more friends joined in and formed a chorus. The branches of the trees surrounding the garden were still, no fluttering of leaves or rustling of bushes. The air was warm and still, peaceful and calm. He heard some bees buzzing around the lavender bush and the postman delivering the mail on his motorbike out the front and then he drifted off. Billie liked to make the most of his afternoon either in the garden or on the couch before the noise started in the house again. He knew it began between four and four thirty – the time Jack and Lucy got home from school. Millie got in later and that’s when it went up a notch or two. He preferred to be in his own bed in the laundry when they first came home - a couple of times he had been in the firing line of a school bag or a school shoe that had been thrown at someone. It was scary! He wondered if it was like this in most houses that had children and decided that it probably was and that the Johnston family were nothing out of the ordinary.

Mary Johnston finished work a little bit earlier than usual so she could make it to the travel agent before it closed. She was on a mission to book a holiday and when she was on a mission there was no stopping her!

“That sounds perfect” she told the woman behind the desk, whose head seemed to be surrounded by clear aqua water as her chair almost touched the huge poster behind her. If she reached backwards she could touch the brightly coloured fish and coral that shone and sparkled as the light from the sun passed through the water.

“I wouldn’t mind going there” Mary told the woman pointing to the poster on the wall, imagining herself lying on the golden sand, the aqua water lapping her toes while her husband and children were enjoying themselves along the beach somewhere.

“Oh you’d need a bit more than ten days to have a holiday at the Great Barrier Reef I’m afraid. You’d spend half of it travelling!”

“Oh that’s a shame” sighed Mary “But maybe another holiday. Still, a week on our coast here will be just terrific” she said “Especially when there’s no cooking or taking kids here, there and everywhere!” (And hopefully the kids don’t fight and argue all day long) she thought.

Usually by the time Mr and Mrs Johnston got home from work, the children has settled down, after having something to eat, sorting out the argument as to who had made the mess on the side board and who would clean it up before Mum got home and then going into their rooms to start homework.

Homework to Jack was a mixture of playing games on his iPad, sending messages to his mates and then eventually opening his school books. Millie needed to firstly find out, by phone what gossip she had missed by not being on the same school bus home as a lot of her friends, and Lucy liked to lay down with Billie on the couch, pat and chat to him for a while and then start her homework. So by five to five thirty the house was reasonably calm.

“You look happy Mum” Jack said walking through the kitchen. “Did you get your payrise?”

“No not yet, but yes I do feel happy actually” she replied. He stood looking at her and waiting for her to tell him the reason for the big smile on her face and the buoyancy in her actions as she prepared dinner. She was usually quite grumpy at the end of the day and most of the family tried to keep out of her way. It was only when they were all seated at the dinner table and she had a glass of wine in her hand that she mellowed.

Jack couldn’t be bothered waiting for his mum to tell him so he turned and walked back to his bedroom thinking as he went that he didn’t really care why she was happy, just that she was!

Dinner was the usual noisy affair. There hadn’t been a night in quite a while that all six people liked what Mary had prepared – when they were all small she quite often made toasted sandwiches when they were tired and hungry, there was never a complaint but now there was always at least one whining voice….too many vegetable, too bland, too salty or just ‘I hate something on the plate’. Sometimes Mary felt like telling them to all cook for themselves but the picture in her mind of what her kitchen would look like was enough for her to think that a few complaints each night was nothing!

Everyone had finished their dinner so Mary had a captive audience. Just as she was about to tell the family what was in store for them Millie stood up “I’ve got lots of study tonight” she told them all pulling out her chair.

“Hang on a minute” Mary began “I have something I want to tell you all. I think you will like it”

“Oh what?” came the chorus. “Hurry up please” Jack said sounding exasperated “I told Charlie I would call him about this week’s game”.

“Well, I’ve organised something special - for all of us to do. We can relax, spend time together as a family and recharge our batteries” she continued, hoping to see inquisitive faces looking at her, but instead finding mostly screwed up faces, saying “What?”

“What have you done love?” Mr Johnson enquired, not quite understanding.

“I’ve booked a holiday for the next school break. On the coast, by the sea, in a lovely little stay, near shops and cafes….” She waited for a response from at least one person.

“I’m not coming” Millie said

“I have work. I can’t just not turn up you know!” from Jack, and

“Do they have a pool? Cause if not, I’m not coming either” said Lucy trying to sound brave.

It was only Mr Johnson who gave Mary the right response. “Sounds like just what we all need Love”.

Billy slinked off the couch and into his basket in the laundry. He didn’t like the sound of things and knew there would be more to come. “I’m better off in here – the further away from that lot the better”.

“Well I’m sorry to have to tell you but you are ALL going on this holiday” said Mary her voice rising slightly. “Jack I have given you enough notice that you can tell the bakery tomorrow and they will just have to get on with you being away. Lucy, there is no pool but a few metres away is hundreds of kilometres of water – it’s called the ocean and that will have to do….AND Millie, you are coming!”

Millie wasn’t going to acquiesce to anything. She had her mother’s stubbornness - great for certain situations but not this one.

“Why do I have to? I’m not a baby any more. I can stay at home on my own these holidays and I want to see my friends. I see my family all the time!” she protested.

The other two looked at her, thinking her rather brave to take her mother on in this way. Jack and Lucy knew they could only say so much in protest and then they gave in, to a greater force, their mother.

“You will be coming with us Millie. It’s a family holiday, which means the whole family goes together. We’ll have a great time, you’ll see” Mary was trying to stay as composed as she could but could feel the pressure mounting. “Why is she always so damn awkward” she muttered under her breath.

“But you haven’t given me one valid reason why I have to come” carried on Millie, pushing the boundaries to the edge of the cliff.

I’ll give you a good reason then young lady” snarled Mary the last of her patience blowing out of her mouth loudly.

Mr. Johnson, Jack and Lucy sat back in their chairs as if to get out of the firing line and Billie put his head under his pillow.

The room was silent and then it exploded with a nose comparable to the voice of a Sergeant Major discipline his troops.

‘BECAUSE I SAID SO’…

The room was silent. Nobody moved. All of a sudden Millie’s small voice could be heard “Oh ok then I’ll come”.