Doughnut Man

Paul Kelly

Description

A surreal story for children. Joe Osborne was an orphan. He waseleven years of age and could not wait to grow up quickly enough. Hewanted to be a man, not tomorrow or the day after. He wanted to be aman, NOW and his wish was granted when he met BERTIE, who solddoughnuts outside the football ground where Joe wanted to watch thematch, but a bad storm broke out that day and the doughnut stall was adisaster. Joe helped the old man to resurrect his stall under shelter,only to discover that he was seven-hundred and forty-two years old ...(well, give or take a decade or two . . but nobody was counting. . .)Bertie was able to tell Joe how life was in the reigns of older kingsand queens of the past and relates interesting tales of those pasttimes. He also knew how to become invisible at times, as nobody wouldexpect anyone to live to that ripe old age unless he could get awayfrom himself sometimes. Would they?Joe longed to live like a man and Bertie just wanted to die as one...and couldn't. But there was a secret that would release the oldman from his toil worn life ... and another secret that would grantJoe the wish he wanted..

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 10 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849899789
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page

THE DOUGHNUT MAN

A Fiction Novel For Children




By
Paul Kelly




Publisher Information

The Doughnut Man published in 2011 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening.

Copyright © Paul Kelly

The right of Paul Kelly to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.




Synopsis

This is the story of a little boy who wanted to become a man . . . Only a simple wish, you might think, but when you are impatient for something to happen and time goes ever so slowly. . it seems as though you will never ever get what you want. Joe Osborne was this little boy and this is his story as he remembers it . . . and as it was told to me.



Chapter One

London, 1954

“I wish I was six foot tall . . . I wish I was a millionaire . . . . I just wish I was a man, instead of . . . .”
Freddie studied himself in the long mirror in the hall, twisting his face to see the freckles and his hated ginger hair. It wasn’t the image he wanted at all, but he knew there was absolutely nothing he could do about it as he sighed and put out his tongue at the face that stared back at him.
“I wish I was just different . . . that’s all,” he complained.
“That you talkin’ to yourself again, Freddie? Often wonder what you get to talk about. I dunno.” Uncle Joe took his cap from the hallstand and smiled as he passed his nephew on the way out to his all night shift at Frankham’s. It was nearly eight o’clock and he was already late in starting. “It’ll soon be your birthday, Freddie . . . won’t it? Got any ideas what you’d like me to get you? Well, your aunt Maggie and me, that is . . .?”
Freddie looked away from the mirror and hung his head in shame. He hated anyone looking at him for the way he was. He hated ginger people. . he hated freckles. . and he just hated everything. That was the mood he was in as he answered his uncle’s question.
“There’s so much . . . that I haven’t got Joe . . . but maybe when I get to be a bit older an’ bigger . . . perhaps . . .I’ll be able to think clearer ‘bout birthdays and things. Maybe when I grow up an’ get a job. . an’ that, eh?” Joe smiled.
“Oh dear! It’s so difficult being nearly ten, isn’t it Freddie,” he added as he pulled his scarf around his neck.
“Well, it’s just impossible . . . I’m neither one thing nor the other, am I? Wish I was a man.”
“You’re wishing your life away, young ‘un. Wish I was ten again . . . wish I. . . There now, you’ve got me at it.”
Freddie laughed and felt better, as Joe pulled his cap down around his ears.
“Wait till I get home in the morning and we’ll have a good talk about it, eh? Meanwhile, think what you’d like for your birthday. It’s on Tuesday, isn’t it?”
“Yes Joe . . . wish it was all over.”
Joe slapped his nephew playfully on the shoulder with his cap.
“There . . . you’re at it again. Just try to be what you are, at this moment. You’ll grow up soon enough, I can tell you. You ask your auntie Maggie an’ she’ll tell you the same,” he said, but Freddie scoffed and looked annoyed.
“I bet she wouldn’t want to be ten again,” he snarled as he looked into the mirror . . . but there was no change and auntie Maggie came strolling through the lounge. “Would she?” he added quickly, dodging a second slap from his uncle as he went through the front door and out into the garden.
“You ask her at supper and you might get a big surprise, old chap,” he called out as he closed the door quietly behind him. It was a fine evening and the reddening skies blazed across the horizon as Joe Osborne started to whistle contentedly on his way to work and shoved his cap into his coat pocket... but he remembered. Oh! yes, he remembered alright. . only too well. . the occasion of his own tenth birthday when that thing had happened to him. Would he ever forget it??
He clocked in at the factory gate as the day shift was coming out.
“Evenin’ Joe. Missus O.K?”
Sam Goodright passed him as he clocked out.
“Yes Sam . . . we’re fine. Yours O.K?”
Sam grinned, showing his two front buck teeth. “I’d be better if they gave me a rise, that’s for sure. Wish they would. . you see, Bertha an’ me. . well we’re expecting another little one soon an’ I could do with a few more hours’ overtime, if I could get it.”
Joe sighed . . Another one wishing his life away, he thought, but his sympathies were with his friend who already had four kids. Sam had a nice wife and a lovely family, so what more did he want from life? Well a few bob more might help thought Joe but he knew he was being petulant. He and Maggie had wanted a family from the earliest days of their married life, but they had been unsuccessful and it was something that Maggie very much regretted as she loved children.
Joe got into his overalls and stuffed his lunch bag into the steel locker with his works number scrawled across the door in red paint and marched into the factory floor to his post at the bolts machine. He never ever really understood what great contribution he made to the factory or to the vast giants of Frankham’s motors since he only put a few bolts into sheets of metal and got to wear a mask to do a bit of welding. That was the extent of Joe’s working life, but it paid well enough and kept the wolf from the door, so he was reasonably content. Not a lot in the bank though, he thought as he lifted a box of bolts onto the work bench . . but then, who had these days? Well, that is if you worked for Frankham’s.
He smiled as he thought of young Freddie again. The boy had been orphaned from the time he was two and Maggie had taken him into their home because Freddie’s mother had been Maggie’s younger sister and they always had something between them, ever since they were at school. It was something more special than most sisters shared, until Clare had been killed in an accident after her husband had been reported missing in the desert. He had fought in the battle of El Alamein. Freddie had been an only child and Maggie and Joe loved him as they would have done, had he been their own little boy. Freddie was the apple of their eye.




Chapter Two

Freddie sat at the table eating his supper of baked beans on toast. He always had a good appetite, despite the many other ‘deficiencies’ in his young life and Maggie looked at him with total devotion as he ate; her chubby arms folded across her ample bosom and her round pink face beaming proudly. Maggie was no debutante and she knew it, but neither did she have any regrets on that score. Joe was her second husband since number one had taken off only a few weeks after their marriage and nobody ever knew where he went or what had happened to him . . He just went without a bye your leave . . . .is how Maggie described his parting, when asked. She was a little on the plump side, perhaps. Wholesome as Joe described it. He had always maintained that he liked a lady who was substantial . . . and not one of ‘them skinny, skeleton types . .’ They had been married for just over three years, when they adopted Freddie, who was nearly five by that time and Joe was then a handsome young stripling of . . . well, she was never quite sure of his age, only that he said he was a little younger than her. They never argued about that subject, but Maggie was convinced that Joe was ten years older than he professed to be. . . for reasons that confused her at times, for Joe wasn’t the least bit vain and certainly not about such a trivial matter as his age. He said he was twenty four when they had got married, since he thought he was twenty-four then and Maggie never disputed that . . even when she saw his birth certificate one day in a drawer in the bedroom, under the drawer lining. But that was another story . . and Maggie’s only regret was that she had no children of her own. . . . . .
“Will you have ice cream for ‘afters’, Love. It’s your favourite flavour . . or would you prefer a nice slice of lemon meringue pie?” Maggie smiled at her little soldier. “Oooh! watch it Love, you’ve just spilled some beans on the carpet, look! Never mind. It won’t show when I’ve washed it off, will it? Oh look, there’s some more on the table, near your plate.”
Freddie scooped the beans back onto his plate and murmured his choice of ‘afters’ with his mouth full of toast, before he sat back complacently and folded his arms, as Maggie strolled into the kitchen in her usual carefree manner to get her pride and joy the banana flavour ice cream that he liked. Freddie watched her carefully as she returned to the table; unfolded his arms and toyed playfully with his fork..

“Would you like to be back at school again, Maggie? . . I mean, . . well, would you like to be young again?” he spluttered and Maggie beamed with a broad smile as she plunked the dessert down before her dream-boy.
“Well now . . I’m not ancient exactly, am I? I’m only . . twenty-something “ She said quietly, raising her eyes to heaven for forgiveness and blushed as she thought of Joe when she said that, “And you wouldn’t call that old now, would you?”
Freddie licked the ice cream from his spoon before he answered.
“ I wou