Lifesaving for Beginners

let’s face it, we all know how good I can be at that.
    ‘Verrucas, corns, bunions and all.’ That’s what Minnie says. It’s not easy showing someone your bunions. They’re not pretty. But that is what I am trying to do, nonetheless. It’s pretty exhausting but then, when I get an email from Faith that says, in the subject box, ‘SOMETHING AMAZING JUST HAPPENED!!!’ in capitals and exclamation marks, it’s worth it. It really is. She tells me about Rob. About the band. The tour. The conflict with Rob about the band and the tour. She hasn’t got it worked out yet but I have. I haven’t told her. I’ll wait till nearer the summer, when things are a bit safer between us. But I have a tour of my own planned. For Milo. Some time in Scotland with his little brother and his dad. And then some time here with his uncle Ed. In the top bunk. They have taken to writing to each other. Proper letters with stamps and what have you.
    So tonight, I’m tired. It might not seem like much but that’s a lot of activity for a writer with writer’s block who is moving on and learning one new thing every day.
    I lie on my couch and work my way through a bowl of Funky Banana – Milo gave me the exact recipe – and that’s when it happens. That’s when the idea comes.
    It’s not like my usual ideas, which are more like fragments of ideas. This one is more than that. It is fully formed. I can see the beginning of it. The end. Even the middle.
    I move to my desk. Quietly. As though the idea is like a wisp of cloud that will blow away at the merest sound.
    I sit down. Open a notebook. The one Ed gave me for my fortieth, even though I don’t use notebooks. But this idea seems somehow too fragile for the laptop. Oddly, I find myself thinking – believing – that this story needs the gentle scratch of a pencil against the page.
    ‘Jesus wept.’ That’s what Minnie would say to that.
    I pick up the pencil.
    I begin.

 
    13 March 2012; Brighton
    Mr Edward Kavanagh
    24 Howth Road
    Raheny
    Dublin 5
    Ireland
    Europe
    The World!
    The Universe!!
    The Galaxy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     
    Dear Ed,
    Thanks for the football for Christian. I gave it to him when he visited us last weekend. Celia took the batteries out of the puppy that I bought him. I don’t think she liked the barking or the song. She likes peace and quiet. I don’t know why she got a baby because babies are pretty noisy, most of the time.
    I’m sort of supporting Chelsea now too. You’re right. That penalty shouldn’t have been allowed. Damo says the ref should have gone to Specsavers, ha ha!
    No, I’m pretty sure the Valentine’s card wasn’t from Carla. She didn’t go red or anything when I showed it to her. And she said it was slushy. Maybe it was Lorraine. She’s always talking about love and stuff and the other day, during break, she kept chasing me even when she wasn’t it. Faith said I should keep it because it’s my first card, but I put it in the bin in the library when me and Carla were there, helping Miss Rintoole.
    I think the jump you’re talking about is the straddle jump. It’s when you jump into the pool and try not to let your head go under the water. I can’t believe you and Kat are learning that already. We didn’t do that one for ages. Coach has arranged for the intermediate class to visit the Brighton lifeguard station next Saturday. I can’t wait. They’re going to bring us out in the lifeboat if the conditions are calm.
    Faith told me about the plans for the Easter holidays. That’s legend. I’ll bring my goggles and my togs and maybe we could go to the pool and practise lifesaving. And you can come to Brighton to visit me and Faith sometime. You could meet Damo and Carla and we could go to the Funky Banana. Jack owns it now but he says I can bring my friends anytime. Even Damo, so long as he promises not to touch anything again, or talk to any of the customers.
    Have to go now. Faith and me are cooking fajitas tonight, which happen to be one of my all-time favourite dinners.
    Ant and Adrian are coming home at the weekend. Ant is bringing a girl and I think she’s his girlfriend. Her name is Julia but Ant calls her ‘Mouse’. I don’t know why. Maybe she’s really small. Or quiet. Rob said he will come to our house and cook something special for all of us when Ant and Adrian and Julia/Mouse get here. He says he’ll bring dessert too, which will probably be Mars bars even though Faith says Mars bars are not dessert. Rob is mad