The Green Book Part 1

When I was a child I loved reading. In fact, I loved everything about books. I still do. I like picking up a new book. It has a wonderful smell. When you finish reading it, you put it away on the shelf. But it doesn’t stay there long. Soon you want to read the story again. The next time you read the book though, it doesn’t just tell you one story. It tell you two stories, because it reminds you of the time you last read it. You remember how you were feeling and what you were doing at that time. It tells you your own story. It brings everything back. It’s magical. A book is like an old friend. My favourite book at that time was ‘The Railway Children.’ I don’t know how many times I read it.

Now I’m no longer a child, but I take The Railway Children off the shelf again, after so many years. I open it and the book begins to tell me another story. A story that takes me back to when I was twelve years old. This story starts in the living room of my house in London, and I am speaking to my father.

‘Dad, can I ask you something?’ I said one day. Dad put down his newspaper. He had his angry face. He didn’t like being interrupted.

‘What Michael?’

‘Have you ever read a book?’ I asked.

‘Yes I read one once.’

This was interesting. ‘Really! What book was it? What was it like?’

‘I don’t remember. It was a long time ago.’

‘Don’t you remember anything?’ I insisted.

‘Well, it was green.’

‘What do you mean green? Was it about animals and plants, and things like that?’

‘No, the colour of the book, the cover, it was green,’ he said. And after saying this he went back to his newspaper.

Now this was a mystery. Dad had read a book. I had never seen him with a book. What book could it be?

‘Dad is always so silent,’ I thought. ‘Since mum left he never seems to enjoy anything.’ Dad and I did many things together. We cooked, we cleaned the house and we went shopping. And we had learnt a lot of things:

Things we learnt:

1 If you leave your clothes on the floor they stay there.

2 Toilet roll and toothpaste don’t buy themselves.

3 Chips for dinner every day sounds good. But it isn’t.

4 If you don’t open the window sometimes, the house smells like the dog.

5 Cups and plates have to be washed if you want to use them again.

Yes, we did a lot of things together. But one thing we never seemed to do was talk. Talk about real things. Important things. He seemed far away when I was with him. He just sat in the living room, watching TV. He didn’t want to speak to anyone. Whenever I tried to speak to him I could see that it made him angry.

The next day I tried to get some more information. ‘Dad, can you remember anything about that book?’

‘No son I can’t. Can’t you see I’m trying to rest after a hard day’s work? Look, I didn’t even finish reading it.’

Dad was so sad. But I was sad too. I missed Mum just as much as him. The house was so quiet. The only sound you could hear was the television. It was on even when nobody was watching it.