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“Nicky, this is Charlie Spring, Charlie is going to be starting nursery on Tuesday and will be here every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the same as you and I have told his mummy and daddy what a kind little boy you are and that I know you would love to look after Charlie and help him settle in… isn’t that so.”
When Miss Gemma had called Nicky into the office, he had been worried he had done something wrong but there had been no need to be afraid. In addition to Miss Gemma, the office contained two other grownups, a man with short dark wavy hair and a severe looking woman who smiled when she saw him, which lit up her face. Standing shyly between the two grownups was a boy, maybe a year younger than Nicky, maybe a bit more, hiding slightly behind the man. Nicky guesses they must be his parents.
Nicholas Nelson looks at the small, slight little boy in front of him, he has beautiful deep blue eyes and really interesting hair.
“Lo, Charlie.”
The boy doesn’t answer, Nicky moves a little closer, and says, curiously.
“Your hair looks really springy, like your name.”
The boy doesn’t reply, he isn’t sure about this at all.
“Can I touch it.”
Charlie looks doubtful but then nods. Nicky stretches out a hand and lifts one curl very gently before letting if fall back into place.
“It’s not like a spring at all, it is really soft and curly. I like it.”
The new boy still doesn’t say anything and Nicky wonders if he has done something wrong. He brings his lower lip under the upper one a tell that he is anxious. He needs to make his peace with the boy.
“Would you like to touch mine?”
A small arm tentatively reaches out and touches Nicky’s fringe.
The two boys seem to have reached an impasse, but then Nicky has an idea.
“I drew a picture of a dinosaur; would you like to see it?”
Charlie nods again and then as if realising something more is required manages to say, “yes please.”
He looks at his mum who gives a slight nod.
Nicky sees the permission too. He takes the new little boy by the hand and leads him out of the office and into the big hall, to the table where he had been painting earlier and shows Charlie a picture of a lime green dinosaur which might be a brontosaurus, or might be some hitherto unknown genus of dinosaur discovered recently by a four year old boy living in North Kent.
“Do you like it?” Nicky asks nervously, for some reason he really wants this quiet little boy to like his picture.
Charlie studies the picture thoughtfully and then says, “It’s cool.”
Nicky feels his body go quite floppy as his shoulders relax.
“You can take it home with you if you like.”
The little boy beams and Nicky notices that his cheeks go in at the side of his mouth. It looks cute. “And on Tuesday I will show you how to paint one of your own.”
******
Jane and Julio are relieved after the visit to the Little Folks Nursery. They know the set up there, it has been Victoria, their eldest, nursery for almost a year, but although Tori is also a quiet, studious child, she is made of sterner stuff than her brother, and she is more than capable of standing up for herself. Of course, Tori will look out for Charlie, but Jane, and Julio to a lesser extent, are keen to improve Charlie’s socialisation and increase his confidence, before he starts big school in eighteen months’ time. They had mentioned this to Gemma Harding the nursery manager, who comes up with the suggestion of asking one of the older children to look out for Charlie. They trust her judgement, and certainly the stocky, solid Nicholas Nelson is a hit with Charlie. He hasn’t stopped talking about his new friend all the way home. Charlie is quite the chatterbox with people he knows and trusts.
The picture of the dinosaur is now in pride of place on Charlie’s bedroom wall, where he says goodnight to it every evening before bed. By the time Tuesday morning comes, he is thoroughly excited to spend the day with his new friend, impatient to be off to nursery, Jane can hardly keep Charlie still long enough to get him to eat his breakfast. Tori merely rolls her eyes and sips on her apple juice. Finally, they are ready to leave, Charlie clutching in his small sticky hand a present for his friend, a green plastic approximation of a diplodocus which came out of a Christmas cracker last year.
Jane experiences a wave of fear that the boy will have forgotten about Charlie, or decided not to care, five days is a long time when you are four.
Jane needn’t have worried; Nicky is equally eager and is waiting by the coats in the hallway when Charlie arrives. Charlie gives a little wave, and Nicky beams, reaching out to take Charlie’s hand only to discover it is already full of something hard and plastic. Charlie makes a show of presenting the little dinosaur to his new friend. Nicky is delighted and places the gift carefully in the pocket of his shorts, to store with his ‘treasures’ when he gets home. Now that Charlie’s hand is free, he takes hold of it and says,
“Come with me.”
Jane breathes a sigh of relief, kisses both her children and reminds Charlie to say thank you to Nicky before heading off to work.
******
From then on, Nicky is rarely seen without his shadow. If Charlie is in the sandpit, then Nicky is there supervising the building project like a clerk of works. If Nicky is in the craft room, then Charlie is there, cutting and sticking along side him. They sit together during story time and after lunch they snuggle down beside each other on the same mat, whispering with their eyes closed when they should be napping.
When Nick falls in the playground and scrapes his knee, it is Charlie who runs to fetch Miss Katie and hovers anxiously while she cleans his owie and places a plaster (a special one with dinosaurs on it) over the offending graze… and if Charlie kisses it better after she has gone, then no-one need know.
When Charlie has a little accident of his own, it is Nick who shields the younger boy from prying eyes and dries his tears while Miss Sally finds him a clean pair of shorts to put on.
They are inseparable.
So much so that Jane and Julio are a little concerned, Nicky is over a year older than Charlie and in September will be off to big school, while Charlie will be in nursery every day. Sarah tries to tell them not to worry, she and Nicky have got to know the whole Spring family over the past few months, there have been picnics in the park and trips to the seaside. The boys have survived being separated, when Nicky goes with Papa to see Grand-mère and Tante Louise, Charlie when the whole Spring family visits his Abuelo and Lita. Although nothing has been decided, once Nicky starts school, Sarah is going back to work full time. David will stay at the after school club at St Teresa’s, but Nicky, like Tori, will be coming back to nursery for two hours every evening until Sarah can collect him. It seems wise to prepare for every eventuality.
Miss Gemma has another plan of action. She speaks to Charlie confidentially about a little boy his age who will be starting at the nursery in September, he will be there every day until two o’clock while his mummy works in the local library.
“You see,” Miss Gemma tells Charlie, “now that you are a big boy and you have been at nursery for four months, you can help Isaac settle in, just like Nicky helped you.”
Charlie takes his new responsibilities very seriously, he shows Isaac around the nursery, the play area, the swings and slide, the sandpit and the soft play. Isaac is mostly interested in the reading corner, with its squashy beanbags and colourful cushions. Isaac’s reading age is above Charlie’s, something that gives Charlie an incentive to improve. Isaac is happy to spend all his time in the reading corner, but when Miss Katie or Miss Sally tell him to go outside and play, he will take his book and go and keep Charlie company in the sandpit for a while until he reckons that the nursery nurses have forgotten about him, and he can creep back inside.
Charlie tells the time by Isaac’s presence. He is always at nursery before Charlie, his mother starts work earlier than Jane, but she comes to collect him promptly at two. After he has waved goodbye to Isaac, Charlie goes and sits on a beanbag in the reading corner, the red one which has the best view of the clock on the wall. Sometimes he reads, sometimes he naps, but mostly he daydreams, one eye on the clock because he knows that when the little hand is on the three and the big hand is on the four, then Nicky will arrive to spend the next two hours and ten minutes with Charlie before they both go home.
******
Every year the nursery holds a Christmas party for its charges. All those who attend the nursery are invited, even those like Isaac who are part time, and Nicky who only comes to after school club. Nicky has never met Isaac and feels a little jealous of his friend’s new friend until he learns that Isaac has never been to Charlie’s house. The party is a great affair, there are little sandwiches and sausages, sticks of carrot, and fairy cakes and jelly and ice cream, crackers for the table, Santa comes with a gift for all the children, and once they a full of sugar and excitement, the children sit round for the entertainment, this year it is a magician.
Miss Gemma and the nursery nurses supervise the proceedings, checking that sandwiches are eaten before the cake, and helping the smaller children to pull their crackers and unfold the paper hats without tearing them and arbitrating squabbles as to which child which cheap plastic toy belongs to. Nicky is a little disappointed with his toy, a ring in gold coloured metal with a blue glass bead, he would rather have had a whistle like Charlie’s sister Tori.
Once as much of the food that is going to be eaten is eaten, and every child has had their photo taken with Santa (apart from the two who screamed the place down when it was suggested), they gather round in the reading corner to watch the Magnificent Lorenzo, the manager of the local leisure centre who performs at children’s parties as a side hustle.
Nicholas is wary around magicians; he saw one once in Paris with his papa and it frightened him. He doesn’t want to confess as much to Charlie, but some how the younger boy knows. He moves slightly closer to his friend until their knees are touching and links their little fingers together, Nicky gives Charlie a smile that warms his heart.
The Magnificent Lorenzo is actually great fun. Yes, there are bangs and puffs of coloured smoke, but he produces a bunch of flowers from nowhere which he presents with a great flourish to Miss Katie. He makes Miss Sally’s watch disappear and brings it back again. He tears a ten pound note into pieces, the children watch aghast, until he unfolds it, and it is somehow whole again. He makes a handkerchief float in mid-air with no means of support, and produces a playing card from Isaac’s ear, and then for his finale takes his top hat, and with much tapping of his wand and incantations produces a white rabbit from out of its depths.
All the children are amazed.
******
One by one parents arrive and children are collected. Nicky and Charlie are amongst the last, hovering around the reading room, watching Miss Katie help the Magnificent Lorenzo pack up his props. Nicky is creeping forward, Charlie close behind, they can hear little snuffling noises from a cage behind the table and they are intrigued. Even at three, Charlie is so in tune with his best friend that he can tell that Nicky desperately wants to see the bunny, he is positively vibrating with longing.
Charlie, brave on behalf of his friend, catches the sleeve of the magician’s robe to attract his attention.
“Please Mister, can my friend hold your rabbit?”
Larry from the leisure centre hesitates, he is usually very strict with revealing the tricks of his trade, but everyone has more or less gone, and this little mite with his big blue eyes and hopeful expression asking not for himself but his friend softens his heart.
“Okay, just for a couple of minutes, he needs to wind down after a performance.”
It is a lot of bunny for a small boy and even Nicky with his strong arms, struggles to contain the rabbit within them. The rabbit is so, so soft and furry, it’s little nose twitches up and down. Charlie watches as Nicky’s face lights up with pleasure, before he buries it in the rabbits fur. The Magnificent Lorenzo watches Charlie watching Nicky and thinks that he is witnessing something very special. He speaks to Charlie and produces a pound coin from the boy’s ear which he gives to him. Charlie stares at it in disbelief.
“That’s all now boys.” Miss Katie says, “It is time for Harvey to go back to his dressing room.” The joke goes over Nicky and Charlie’s heads but Larry smiles. “Go and find your coats, your parents will be here any minute.”
Nicky reluctantly returns Harvey to the Magnificent Lorenzo with a final kiss to the bunny’s nose, takes Charlie’s hand and they go out to the corridor where they hang their coats. Miss Sally helps Charlie with his, and then they sit on the bench with the other remaining children, to wait for Sarah and Jane or Julio.
Nicky sits quietly, thinking about what his friend just did for him, talking to the scary magician so that Nicky could hold the rabbit. His right hand is turning the cracker ring over and over again in his pocket. He knows that when you love a person very much you give them a ring. His mummy has one, although she doesn’t seem to wear it so much these days. But his Aunty Diane has a ring that her friend Richard gave her and now, she is en-gaged, and going to move out of Grandma and Gramps house and live in the same house as her friend Richard, which is exactly what he would like to do with Charlie.
Nicky turns the ring over again, he suspects it isn’t real gold, but it is very pretty, and he thinks Charlie would like it if he gave it to him. He slips the ring out of his pocket and nudges Charlie.
“I want you to have this.”
“Your ring from the cracker?” Charlie asks, confused.
“Yes.” Nick says quite definitely.
“Why?”
“Because that is what people do when they love someone very much and they want to live in the same house as them forever and get a dog and grow old.”
Charlie thinks he likes the sound of that.
“Okay.”
The ring has the kind of back that can be squeezed together to make it fit. It has to be squeezed quite tight to fit Charlie’s slender fingers, but Nicky manages it. They pause to admire his handywork.
“So when will we live in the house, with the dog and grow old?”
Nicky stops to think, he needs to be practical, “perhaps not yet, we’ll need to get a job and earn some money first… maybe when we are twelve?”
Charlie counts on his fingers, the stone in his ring twinkling in the light, twelve seems a long way off but he can wait. To live with Nicky for ever and ever will be worth it.
“When we are twelve, you promise?”
“Yeah.” Nick replies, “I promise.”
******
“… and so, for those of you who greeted the announcement that Nick and I were getting married this year with the words ‘about bloody time too’. Not mentioning any names… Tao Xu… just watch my eyes…”
“Ruuuuuuude!”
A ripple of laughter goes round the room. Charlie allows it to abate before reaching his punchline.
“You now know that Nick and I have been engaged for considerably longer than anyone ever imagined!”