Until The Last Page

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

ALEX HOLLIDAY WAS A SERIOUSLY BUSY MAN. He was in the middle of a crucial week for his small business. They made kids’ placemats and coasters and he had a number of important meetings in the next couple of days which would hopefully result in contracts being signed with some big stores. This would change his small business to a medium-sized one overnight. This would mean that Mr Holliday might actually be able to afford the money and time to take the Holliday family on an actual holiday at the end of the summer.

                   However, if he didn’t get the deals he needed, it would probably mean his small business would turn into a none-at-all business.

                   It all depended on whether or not this week went well.

                   It was looking like the brakes had been put on things this Wednesday morning. The home help, Janey, who minded Tom in the school holidays, was off sick with a nasty case of measles.

                   Alex stood at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, shovelling down some toast with one hand and texting with the other. He washed the toast down with some coffee, almost spilling it down his tie. Muttering under his breath, he put the mobile phone down and forced himself to take a bit more time.

                   His wife Charlotte came in. ‘I’ve spoken to Kelly Sanders. She says she’s no problem with having Tom around her house all day.’

                   ‘Who’s Kelly Sanders?’

                   Charlotte rolled her eyes at her husband. ‘Kelly is Jack’s mum – Tom’s friend on Embers Avenue? She says she has a few errands to run, but Tom and Jack will be fine.’

                   ‘Fine?’Alex’s brow furrowed. ‘What if Tom has an accident? What if he falls out of his chair when she’s off shopping or having a coffee with some other mums? Does she know the first thing about looking after someone in a wheelchair?’

                   Charlotte approached Alex, took his cup off him, and started straightening his tie and the lapels of his jacket. ‘Kelly doesn’t need to know anything about wheelchair-bound boys because our lovely son is eleven years old and can look after himself.’

                   ‘He can’t, Charlie – what if he takes a tumble?’

                   ‘Then he’ll do what he always does: pull himself up and get back in the chair. Jack will help him.’

                   ‘She won’t be watching him all day. What if she lets them out and the chair gets stuck somewhere? What if it malfunctions in the middle of a road?’

                   ‘Alex, he’s had Dodge for two years.’ That was what Tom called this particular wheelchair. ‘When has it ever malfunctioned?’

                   ‘There is always a first time.’

                   ‘Alex, really? Aren’t you worrying about all the wrong things here?’

                   ‘What about a ramp in and out of the house? Does she even have a downstairs toilet?’