The Mysteries of Brambly Hollow

door first, George thrust his key in the lock, elbows like metal brackets as he blocked David’s access so he was first inside. Following behind them at a more sedate pace, Meli cleared the passageway of her childrens slovenliness with her usual expertise - booting four scruffy upended shoes into corners with a well aimed toe while scooping up discarded lunch boxes and disowned school bags and their spewed contents from where they littered the floor. One day she would carry out her threat to toss the whole lot out into the garden in the pouring rain. Only it probably wouldn’t teach them anything, she accepted with a resigned sigh, as she struggled through the living room, their belongings wedged in her arms from her waist to chin high. It would undoubtedly be good old mum who would buckle first and end up bringing them in, cleaning them up and drying them out. Why was it that they never abandoned anything that she could make an example of? She sighed again, another sign of acceptance, this time that despite their tender years, and apparent innocence, her sons were far too clever for her.
    Reaching the kitchen, she spewed the boys’ belongings across the table and then dutifully began sorting through them, dropping soiled P.E. kits onto the floor in front of the washing machine, and re-packing things like gym shoes and pencil cases. When the bags were sorted, she turned her attention to the lunch boxes. It was no surprise to her to find that the carefully prepared sandwiches looked like they’d been through a wringer, and that from the bruises on the skins of the apples, they looked like they’d been used in a football match. Resignedly, she consigned them all to the bin with a silent prayer for restraint.
    At five o ’clock Meli set about cooking burgers and chips for the twins, and put a vegetarian lasagne into the oven for Cass. Cass had announced six months ago that she wasn’t going to eat meat any more. At first Meli had tried to be the perfect mum, and had made the effort to cook vegetarian meals from scratch, but had soon learned two things. One, was that her daughter was unappreciative about her Herculean efforts to accommodate this latest craze, and the other was that for all the thanks she got it was simpler and just as rewarding to buy a ready meal from the frozen section of the local supermarket, as the morose Cassie never commented one way or the other, just eating whatever happened to be put in front of her in her usual crabby silence. She stared out the kitchen window for a moment, gazing absently at the sky where a small cloud, shaped like a baby rhinoceros with a pot-belly, an overlarge mouth and a long tapered tongue, was grazing its way along the hilltop. Where had she gone wrong, she wondered?
    The boys arrived back with minutes to spare, filling the lodge with the none too savoury fragrance of Eau de cologne of Hot Sweaty Bodies, and a trail of mud across the floor.
    Thrusting her hands on her hips, Meli complained. “Just look at the mess you’ve made. How many times must I tell you to take your trainers off outside when they’re muddy?”
    “ But it wasn’t us,” David denied the accusation, flicking his large blue eyes at her incredulously. Lowering her gaze, Meli cast her eyes along the fall-out of dirt that started in the hallway and ended by David’s and George’s footwear. Before she could say anything, David bent down and removed the incriminating evidence from his feet, his brother following suit. Treading all over the dirt, grinding it to a fine powder under their socked feet, they took the offending trainers into the hallway. Out of her sight, she heard them tumbling along the floor. She caught a flash of blue tee shirts and jeans zip from the hall and fly up the stairs. Stomping to the cupboard, she manhandled the uncooperative hoover from where it clung to its bosom buddies, the broom and the ironing board, and then sucked up the mess.
    Standing at the bottom of the stairs moments later, she called up. “I’m just dishing up. I hope you’ve changed, and washed your hands.”
    Cass was late, but Meli wasn ’t going to let the boys’ dinner ruin waiting for their sister; the burgers were already looking a little dark-eyed around the edges. Their plates were set out ready on the table when they reappeared, Cass’ was sitting in the microwave. Making herself a cup of tea, Meli joined them at the table and exchange idle chatter with them. She knew that it would be