One morning as
usual I got ready for school. Dad had to go to work and we had a quick
breakfast. Usually we ate in silence, but that morning he said to me,
‘Michael, at the
weekend I’m cleaning out the garage. There’s too much stuff in there and it’s
time to sort it out. Have a look in there before the weekend. I don’t want to
throw away anything you might need.’
‘Ok Dad,’ I said. I was happy. It wasn’t much. But at least he
had spoken to me about something.
That afternoon
when I finished school, I went into the garage. It was dark, and cold and
dirty. That’s why I never went in there. I looked around. The garage was full
of boxes. Each box had a name written on it. I saw my boxes, and I picked one
of them up. But then I saw another box. It had the name John written on it.
John was my grandfather. I knew that I had to look at my boxes, but first I
wanted to look inside my Grandfather’s box. I was curious. I didn’t know much
about him. He had died before I was born.
I opened the box
and started to look at his things. Each object told a story. I was fascinated.
There was an old bus pass, and a wallet. I also found a pipe, a watch, and some
playing cards. I looked at each thing carefully. I was really enjoying myself.
They were things that came from another time. And then, just as I was about to
stop and put the things back in the box, I saw it. At the bottom of the box,
there it was. A Green Book.
I lifted the book
carefully out of the box. It was very dusty. I cleaned it a little bit, and
then I looked at the title. ‘The Railway
Children’ I couldn’t believe it. My favourite book was Dad’s green book!