discussing how to get Tom better

1st August 2022

Bimbo here, letting you know the latest on Tom.

I was very sick myself with The Virus a couple of years ago, so I know what it can be like.

Jenny phoned yesterday, and I wasn’t entirely happy with the news.

We decided to raise the matter at the Zoom Book Club Meeting.

Ellie always chairs the meetings.

finding something for Tom to look forward to

14th August 2022

Yes yes, hello hello.

Jenny here. I’m at Tom’s house.

But I can’t talk now. I’m in a terrible rush.

I’d better just let you know that Tom’s condition is stable.

He doesn’t have many actual Covid symptoms any more, but he’s tired and sad.

I’m spending every morning at his house, trying to cheer him up.

Of course I muffle my drum, and try to play soothingly.

Strawberry was supplying him with produce and posies.

But she’s not getting much produce at the moment, because of the Great Drought.

It’s hard for her to carry enough water to keep even one courgette plant going.

And all the flowers in her garden have died, so she gives Tom paper flowers now.

With the courgettes that she brings, I make nourishing green soup for Tom.

The reason that I’m in a rush is that Bimbo suggested we need to think of something for Tom to look forward to.

Tom’s asleep just now, so I have a little time to make a plan.

I realised that what would be sure to cheer Tom up, even if it didn’t cure him, would be to see The Baby again.

Tom rescued the Baby and its mother Um a couple of years ago. They’d come across the Channel, or possibly the North Sea, on a small boat, and he found them cold and hungry on a beach.

He brought them home and looked after them.

The Baby was quite a handful, but Tom adored it.

Eventually, the Stork decided that Um and the Baby really needed specialist advice with their Asylum application and Resettlement.

He took them off somewhere where they would get the appropriate help.

Tom has been expecting the Stork to come back and let him know how Um and the Baby are getting on.

I think he had a secret hope that he would bring them back to visit.

Actually, there was some suggestion that they had dropped by during Tom’s party a little while ago, but that no one had heard them knocking on the window, so they’d gone away again.

The next morning Tom found what he was sure was a stork feather outside the window.

But nothing has been heard of them since.

I know that if I could get the Stork to bring the Baby to Tom’s house, just for a little visit, it would cheer him up no end.

But we don’t know where the Stork is.

It’s no good putting ads in shop windows, or in the papers, because of the Stork not speaking English.

So I need to find someone who can communicate with The Stork in his own language.

There’s a castle in the heart of the Sussex Weald, which has a large portfolio of chimney-pots suitable for storks to nest on.

I believe that a number of stork families are happily established there.

But the Sussex Weald is a long way to go.

And even if I could get there, I doubt if I could climb up to the rooftop to talk to the storks.

Little Strawberry’s paper flower reminds me that I used to know how to make paper storks.

I’m not sure that I remember how to do it.

But I do have some very pretty origami paper. That should work, if anything will.

I’ll practise with a bit of ordinary paper first, to see if I can remember the folds.

DING DONG!

Oh, there’s someone at the door. I hope the doorbell didn’t wake Tom.

Oh, my goodness! Look who’s here!

It’s the tardigrade!

While Tom’s asleep. I’ll get on with this paper stork.

I’m not sure if I’ve got that last fold quite right.

Or the one before that.