Moira Conway

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

A small girl battled against the wind and rain. She was wearing a double breasted raincoat black wellies and thick socks which had belonged to her brother. On her head she had a velour brimmed hat which she had inherited from her girl cousin. It kept her hair dry but water dripped off the brim onto her shoulders and the driving rain eventually soaked through her coat at the front.

Running down the hill she saw the street lights of the village, she didn’t have far to go. She was heading for the little wooden hut – it had a glow coming from the window showing there was someone inside. She lifted the latch on the door with the three feathers sign on it and went inside. It smelled of plimsolls – this was the scout hut where boys played British bulldog and swore to be true to God and Country and keep the Cub Scout Law. But for two hours once a fortnight they pulled back the curtains hiding the bookshelves and transformed it into the library. A visiting librarian sat at a table with her drawer of library cards and rubber stamps. Handing back “Five On Kirrin Island Again” she got the little cardboard envelope with her name on it and joined the huddle of boys and girls in the children’s corner. Squeezing through the other children she went up on her tip toes, reached up and took down “Five Go To The Seaside”.

At the librarian’s table she got the magic stamp and had the book to herself for a whole two weeks. Before stepping back out into the rain she tucked “The Famous Five”, Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy, under her coat to protect them from the rain, pulled up her raincoat collar, put on the gloves hanging from the elastic round her neck and headed off back up the hill for home.

Sitting by the side of the fire warming her toes she made a list of the chapters and divided them by fourteen. She could read two chapters a day and three on Sunday.

Advertisement