Level Three.

LEVEL THREE.

R V, New One and the Visitor.

R V and New One had been friends for a while.  New One would invite R V over to his house for playtime.  Regularly the two would play, share toys and enjoy their day.

One morning R V and his Mother turned up at New One’s house.  They knocked on the door.  Having been let in R V was left to talk with his friend, New One.  The Mothers went off to chat.  Inside the house there was a lot of noise and New One did not seem himself.  On letting R V into the playroom New One explained that things had been busy for his Mother, she had been doings things all over the house, cleaning had been done, tidying had put away his favoured toys and the most odd thing of all was that stuff was being taken out of the bedroom no one used.  That never happened!

R V and New One continued to set about their play.  The odd knocks on the landing above them, the drill noises on the wall did upset their game of school.  You didn’t need a drill going off while you were teaching your pretend PE class how to leap over the assembled teddy mountain!  New One told R V that his Mother had been on the phone, he had woken up and heard her say that someone was coming to stay.  R V asked who it could be?  New One said he did not know but his Mother had said the word Nanny…

R V had heard of Nannies.  They were people who would come to look after you while your parents were away.  Strangers who would keep you out of your house and push you to go out to the park for the fresh air or something, or say they were looking after you when they were secretly plotting something nasty for people and he was sure he had heard of them keeping you away from your parents.  R V had seen Nanny Mcphee.  Telling this to New One was not such a good idea.  New One had visions of a Nanny turning up to his house to look after him.  Gone would be his playtime, gone would be his toys and gone would be any time with his Mum and Dad.

New One looked at R V as they heard a sharp knock at the door.  The Mothers’ voices stopped in the other room.  There was the sound of footsteps down the hall, the noise of the door opening and people saying something.  New One and R V ran out to the hall where they saw something that confirmed their worst fears.  There were two suitcases left in the hall and voices coming from the other room.  Nannies always had suitcases, R V explained, they always had them if they were going to stay.

Together New One and R V followed the voices into the other room.  New One’s Mother turned to him.  No he was not having it.  New One piped up with his reasons why he did not want a nanny to keep him away from his parents.  He did not need a nanny.  He was not going to have a nanny under any…New One stopped as his Mother stepped aside and no one other than his loved Granny came into view.

After the hugs were over, New One’s Mother explained that Nannies were nothing like what he had thought them to be and the word nanny could also be another term for Granny or Grandmother.  New One’s Granny was to stay for a while and that was why they had been getting the house ready.  Granny was going to stay in the spare bedroom and New One could not have been happier.

Sometimes it is easier to be sure of what the news is before you fear what you think may be the worst.