Level Three. Are you happy?
Level Three – Are you happy?
By Michelle Lloyd.
Happy was something that R V knew well. He loved meeting up with his friends after school, he was interested in having one on one time with his parents when they would keep up with an individual chosen hobby and he was known to give the odd bit of tutoring to students who needed it, all these activities made him very happy.
Happiness was something that R V took for granted because he knew whenever he could do the things that he loved that same feeling would overtake him and happy he would be. Happy had been a way of life for R V for so long that it was difficult for him to understand why people got sad when they didn’t seem to have any need to be. When he saw people who were sad he often thought someone should suggest to them that they should do something that they liked to do and soon enough they would be happy again, but his mum told him that this was not such a good idea. He understood a little about how someone could be saddened about something but he never thought it too much of a problem because after doing something else he would forget about the thing that had first made him sad. Sadness and difficulty was not a feeling that R V had experienced for too long in his life and when he got called out from school one day and found Mrs. Clay waiting for him he did start to feel anxious. All sorts of thoughts when through his head. Why had he been called out to see Mrs. Clay? She was the school receptionist and she would only see students if they had to be informed about something. Had he forgotten something? That was why she regularly saw students. No, he could not think of anything that he had forgotten and so as he approached Mrs. Clay he feared the worst. Something had to be wrong for him to have been called out of class as he had been.
Mrs. Clay waited patiently as R V came up to stand in front of her, she overshadowed him in height and nervous energy started to build. R V could see on Mrs. Clay’s face that she did not look happy. That was a bad sign. R V felt himself blurt out the question before he could stop himself, because the answer was so vital to him…when his dad did not look happy that meant he had done something wrong and he would generally find out about it through a telling off or being banned from doing something he liked to do for a while, when his mum did not look happy it could mean the same result for him. He did not like those scenarios at all and so he had to ask if Mrs. Clay was happy?
Mrs. Clay looked slightly taken aback by the question but after a few seconds she said that yes she was fine and that she had some news for R V. Fine was not the answer that R V had hoped for and it did not tell him anything. This fine response meant that the news she spoke of could not be good. He breathed in, looked her straight in the eye and said that she should get it over and done with as soon as she could, at least that way he could try and get over the bad news.
R V listened with his chest full of weird, odd fluttery sensations and when Mrs. Clay had finished telling him that there was news to do with his mum who had not been well he nearly collapsed on the floor. He knew it. The news was bad, fine did not bode well at all. Happy was what he needed from people and now he couldn’t be happy either. It was a sorry state of affairs. R V tried to listen as he was told that his dad was going to take him from school to see his mum and that there they would explain to him what had happened in full.
The ride to see mum was not a happy one. R V kept looking at his dad who looked tense and he heard himself ask that question again. Was his dad happy? His dad looked at him in a not so happy way but he said that yes he was fine and everything was going to be fine. That DID it! R V burst into uncontrollable tears. When his dad asked him what was wrong, he stated in no uncertain a term that fine was not a good sign to him, it meant things were very bad and he was most definitely not happy himself. R V’s dad tried to calm him down and explained that his mum had not been well, they had thought it could be something to do with the brother or sister he would be having and they had been right because there was a surprise waiting for him at home. R V looked at his dad suspiciously and asked was it a good surprise or a bad one? To this his dad responded it was most definitely a good one.
R V had concerns as they opened the door to their home, he had to keep himself from running in the no running hallway and then when he finally got to the stairs they felt like they would never end. He had been told that his mum was waiting for him upstairs and that there was someone with her who would like to meet him. R V knew that whoever it was he would like to meet them too because they had been the reason for all this not being happy and fine scenario. It all seemed very odd to him and he was not sure that he liked it.
On getting to his parents bedroom R V pushed open the door and with wide eyes took in the scene. Not only was his mum sat up in bed looking well there was no other way to put it but happy, there was also a tiny wrapped in a blanket bundle that was cradled in her arms.
R V was called over to sit with them on the bed and it was then that he looked at the small face of the newest addition to their family, his brother. R V felt a lot of emotions, relief, nerves, excitement…it was as he looked at his mum that he smiled because he knew the answer to his question this time and he didn’t even need to ask if she was happy.