darkness, pain, and confusion (but fortunately also some friendliness and hope)

Oh dear oh dear.

Where am I?

What’s been going on?

It’s very dark here.

I suppose I must be back in the cupboard.

But I don’t feel bright and lively and ready for the spring.

It can’t be time to wake up yet.

I’d better try to get back to sleep.

Oh! My bicycle! Those big lorry wheels!

I hope that was just a nightmare.

I usually have nice peaceful dreams when I’m in the cupboard.

Is it spring? Is it time to get up?

It doesn’t feel quite the same as usual, waking up in my own cosy cupboard.

Ouch, that hurts. What’s happened to my arm? It’s very painful. I’ll just lie still a bit longer.

This is very puzzling.

Now I come to think of it, I haven’t been in my cupboard since the beginning of The Virus. I remember now. It was in the spring of twenty… twenty-something.

I jumped out of the cupboard, as I do every spring, and there was a letter from the Prime Minister waiting for me on my doormat.

That was a memorable memory. I don’t often get letters from Prime Ministers. Though I’m not sure that that person really counted as a Prime Minister.

The letter was about The Virus.

I remember now.

I telephoned Ruffy to invite him round for a cup of tea, and he explained that we weren’t allowed to meet.

Ruffy’s good at explaining things clearly.

That was the start of quite a difficult time.

We all had to learn to bake bread, and meet our friends on Zoom and Skype, and keep ourselves busy with good works and new hobbies.

But why am I going back over all that? Wasn’t that quite a while ago?

Yes, of course. Ruffy was arrested. And hasn’t been seen since.

We’ve all been worrying about him.

Didn’t I… Wasn’t I… Yes, I was going to try to find him.

I was on my bicycle.

I’d dropped Cousin Peter off at his house, and then I went on to meet a very interesting American person.

I’d been given their address by a pirate parrot recently released from prison.

Yes, it’s all getting clearer now.

I’m always a bit muzzy when I wake up after a good long winter.

But I don’t usually have such a horrible headache. I generally wake up feeling pleasantly refreshed.

Now I feel as though I’d been played with by a very careless child with hard boots on.

Anyway, the American person couldn’t have been more helpful.

I met him by Bin 179.

His name is Wile E. I suppose that’s an American version of Will.

He’s been in and out of prison all his life.

It seems his main offence was Breach of the Peace. Which was very unfair, because it’s not his fault that whenever anyone sees him they hear the same tune.

Of course people get tired of it, but that’s no reason to lock a person up.

Anyway, he’s trying to go straight, and build a new life for himself.

He helps with rubbish collections.

The refuse operatives let him eat leftover food from the Food Waste Caddies.

While he was in prison, his cell-mate taught him to read.

So now he’s able to read the ingredients and the sell-by dates on the packets that he fishes out of the bins.

Just now I don’t seem to be able to remember what he told me about Ruffy.

I expect it will come back to me when this headache wears off.

But why have I got a headache?

What’s going on?

You know, I don’t think this is my cupboard.

It’s an unfamiliar sort of darkness.

And my cupboard isn’t luxurious, but it’s comfortable enough. This place is NOT comfortable enough.

OW!

I tried to persuade the kind nameless person, but they were adamant that they preferred the familiar to the unfamiliar.

So when the children were in bed, and the dog had stopped yapping, we ventured out of the box.

My friend helped me to climb down, which wasn’t easy with only one working arm.

Luckily the children had left a light-sabre switched on.

By its light we reached the door, and my nameless friend pointed me in the direction of the Dolls Hospital.

I feel wide awake again now that I’m out here in the fresh air, after that rather stuffy toy-box.

I think there must have been football boots in there, and possibly some old food that a child had wanted to avoid eating.

I wonder how long I was there?

Brrrr. This air is fresh, but also cold.

I hope I find Ruffy quickly, and then we can go home to bed.