Chapter Text
“MUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuum!! Michael’s been sick!”
Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Gross. Jane couldn’t stand the sight or the smell or the anything of vomit. The stuff was vile and if she didn’t get out of the room, she was bound to meet the same fate as her brother. Which is why she was the first to arrive at her parent’s bedroom to give them the news. However, she did rather like the fact that they probably assumed she was looking out for her little brother. Sure. Let them believe that. She needed some fresh air.
Winifred and George were quick to see to Michael, and amidst the chaos, Jane took the opportunity to head out onto the balcony on the floor below. The cool, crisp night was just what she needed, and she savoured every moment as she took a deep breath. She didn’t exactly like being awoken in the middle of the night, but she had to admit, the sky was pretty. And it was nice to see the world so quiet and empty. That was something she hadn’t really been able to experience at all over the past few weeks.
Recently, her father had decided that Jane was getting too old to be sharing a bedroom with her brother, and that it was high time she got some privacy. The plan was to put her in the first guest room, which meant it was going to need to be refurbished, as it had become rather in need of a new carpet and wallpaper. This had prompted George to want to redo much of the house, and he was finally able to do so thanks to becoming a senior partner, after the whole Wooden-Leg-Named-Smith incident, and he’d been setting aside more money each month to put towards the task. He’d already planned the whole fiasco. On top of refurbishing each room, Jane would be going into the room with the balcony, Michael would eventually move into the second guest room while the attic would be used for storage, rather than the basement, which had a terrible habit of flooding.
All this meant that the house had been turned upside down, with each room having sheets covering furniture in preparation for painting, carpets had been lifted to reveal the wooden slats beneath, and half the house was packed into several boxes that were being moved all over the place to make room for the workers that had been hired. And yet despite the spring cleaning that all this work was prompting, her father still insisted on keeping the piano. Honestly, nobody was ever going to play it. It made no sense for them to keep the thing.
However, that hadn’t been the issue. With all the work going on, Jane and Michael had been encouraged to play outside all day everyday so they wouldn’t wind up bothering the workers. Of course, this was fine at first; there had been a heatwave and the Banks children didn’t exactly need to be told twice to go out when they were boiling alive indoors. However, after getting caught in a particularly bad summer storm, Michael had come down with some kind of bug and was spending most of his time in bed. So, Jane had two problems: she’d lost her playmate, and she had to deal with him vomiting every day. God, she wished he’d get better soon. He’d, for some reason, been getting sick at about 3am every single night for the past three days, as if his body was on a timer. It was honestly disgusting, and Jane was starting to consider sleeping somewhere else. The guest rooms were a tip, so maybe she’d be allowed to sleep downstairs on the couch?
The 11-year-old sighed as she heard her father rushing downstairs to fetch a mop while her mother set about getting fresh sheets. The smell would linger. It always did. And after each incident, it seemed to hang around even longer, as if the smell was gradually working its way into the mattress itself. The thought alone made her gag. Yeah, she was definitely going to sleep on the couch. Sneaking back into the nursery, Jane managed to grab her pillow and a blanket without being noticed, as her father was busy cleaning the mess and her mother was cleaning up Michael. With her bedding in hand, she wandered back down to the living room to set up. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep through all the commotion they were making if she was in her own bed. And since Mrs. Brill had retired and Ellen was away while the house was being refurbished, the whole kerfuffle would last twice as long without the best cleaners in the house.
Burrowing her head against her pillow, she wished her parents would be a little quieter. It wasn’t like Michael was particularly upset about having been sick. He was 9, for goodness sake! He didn’t cry over vomiting any more. And after the last few days, he’d certainly got more used to it than most. Yet, every single time, there was a huge fuss made, and Jane found herself trailing down to sleep on the couch before she got too cranky. And she was cranky. Last night, she had gotten so painfully close to shouting at her father to ‘shut up’. Thankfully, she had been able to hold her tongue and avoid a late-night-lecture on her attitude.
But it was so irritating when the one person you had to keep you company was ill and waking you up every night. Oh, yes, because her other friends were all away. With it being the summer holiday and a weekend, all of her friends were spending at least the weekend outside of London. Daisy and her family left to visit family on Friday, Austin and his family had gone to Paris for a week, Kate had gone to Brighton for the weekend, and her bestest friend, Flo, had gone to New York for the whole summer! She was soooo lucky. Her uncle was insanely rich, so they went every year. But she had to admit, she’d been a bit worried about her sailing on the Olympic, when the Titanic had sunk only a few months prior. But she seemed confident, and, well, it hadn’t sunk yet. So that was good enough.
But being left like this meant she had nothing to do all day. With nobody to see, she’d spent most of her time reading in the back garden. But she’s finished her collection and the books her parents had didn’t really appeal, and she was going to lose her mind if she had to rerererereread another one of her books for the fifty bajillionth time. She was actually going to go insane. Honestly, she didn’t know if she even wanted to read another book for a while. She’d read enough to satisfy her for months. So, what was she supposed to do?
She had considered asking her mother to teach her to sew. But she had been quite busy for a while with her work as a suffragette, taking on extra hours for the next few weeks and was tired when she got home. She had considered teaching herself to play the piano, too, and finally give the family a reason to even own the thing at all (seriously though, who had even bought it in the first place?), but considering none of the family could play, she’d have to teach herself, which she was quite certain would be irritating for the workers to have to listen to all day while they tried to do their job. And of course, she wasn’t in the mood to read again, so a trip to the library was out of the question. She wished she was better able to entertain herself. Michael was a huge fan of art, and had he been in Jane’s position, he would have probably taken a stack of paper and pencils into the back garden and spent all day drawing until he was a master. Unfortunately for Jane, she couldn’t draw like he could, and she was really interested in art anyway.
WHY WAS THERE NOTHING TO DO?!
Jane threw her arms out at either side of her, one to dangle over the edge of the coach and the other to just hit the back. She found herself counting exactly two thousand two hundred and twenty-four seconds before the clock chimed for 4am. Thankfully, the admiral didn’t set off his canon between 7pm and 7am, so that families could have an undisturbed evening and a restful sleep. But despite this, here she was, wide awake. At least by this point, things had gone quiet again upstairs. But she had no intention of returning to bed, not when the room probably still reeked of bile.
Failing to fall asleep, Jane’s mind continued to wander, searching for ideas for when the sun rose again. Why couldn’t Mary Poppins come back? She’d know what to do. She’d make the most mundane things into an adventure. Like when they tidied the nursery, or visited Uncle Albert, or went to the park. She could take them into a whole new world…
A new world…
THAT’S IT!
She could go exploring! With mother out on her rallies, Michael being bedbound and her father being busy with the workmen, nobody would notice if she went a bit further than normal when she was playing outside. It would be just like when they all explored the rooftops. She could go all over the city so long as she was back in time for dinner. There was literally nothing to stop her. Happy with her decision, Jane found it much easier to put a stop to her racing thoughts, and, soon enough, actually managed to get a few more hours of sleep before the morning canon blast woke the entire street again. All except for Jane, who could be quite a heavy sleeper at times. Winifred was the one who had the pleasure of waking her daughter.
“Jane, what on earth are you doing sleeping on the couch? You should be up in your own bed.” Feeling slightly groggy from being so suddenly woken, Jane rubbed her eyes,
“I came down while you were sorting out Michael and fell asleep. And anyway, it probably stinks up there anyway.” Being in quite a rush, Winifred felt less inclined to argue with her daughter and simply said,
“Alright then. You can sleep down here if he wakes you up again. But don’t be making a habit out of this. You’ll be staying in your own bed when he’s better.” This was rather a pointless reminder for Jane, as she didn’t particularly enjoy sleeping on the couch and would have never left her own bed without good reason. But of course, it’s one of every mothers’ jobs to remind their children of things they already know, moreso as a way to remind themselves over anything else. So, Jane nodded along and left her mother to get ready for work.
With the morning hustle and bustle well under way, she checked on her brother, as she had been doing ever since he got sick, to see if he was feeling better so she could have some company again. But, as she had expected, he was still not feeling up to it. So, she was on her own again. Just as usual, Winifred was out the door at 8 o’clock and George was downstairs only minutes later. Having booked time off work to oversee the renovations, he had been left as the only one to make breakfast, which was quite entertaining. He was always a fan of having a full English, but being so accustomed to having someone else cook for him (whether that be an actual cook or just another woman), he found himself a little out of his depth. He had played it safe for the last few days by only making cereal or toast or even a sandwich if he was really hungry, but today he seemed to be feeling confident. However, despite his confidence, the meal ended up being mostly burnt and even if it wasn’t, he had prepared far too much considering he and Jane were the only ones who would be eating it. In the end, most of it went to waste, apart from a few sausages that were still edible.
Luckily, Jane wasn’t feeling particularly hungry anyway, as she was too focussed on her plan. And just as expected, the workers arrived to start at 10 o’clock, and once the house was filled with drilling, hammering and sawing, she told her father she was going outside, to which he responded with a rather distracted “alright, have fun.”
She stayed on the street for a little while, just to test her theory. She was sure he wouldn’t notice her going so far, but she still wanted to check. But after 15 minutes of being completely out of view of the house, she was satisfied that he wouldn’t come looking for her, and she set out on her adventure.
Jane had no idea where she would go. But that was the fun part. Maybe she’d go to Big Ben or Parliament or have a wander down to the Thames. Who could say? But wherever she went, she’d find something to get involved with, just like if she was with Mary Poppins again.
She would make it the best day of her life!