Read Online Papa Georgio by Annie Murray - Free Book Online Page A

this time - on to the others, to be stitched when we heard a Bang and Thump!
    ‘Right-ho Janey – come along. I’m going to need your help!’
    Grandpa erupted through the caravan door, his blue and white striped shirt billowing outside the faded old trousers, his eyes alight with excitement.
    ‘I’m going to unhitch the car and you and I have got a little job to do. And I’ll need the feather bed – bring it out will you please?
    ‘George?’ Brenda followed us to the car as I dragged the feather bed across. She still had her sewing in her hand. ‘What are you up to?’ She sounded a bit annoyed, but mostly hurt that he kept doing things without telling her.
    Grandpa had already unhitched the car from the tow-pin on the front of the caravan.
    ‘Just a little something I’ve found. Janey can give me a hand – jump in girl! We’ll be back soon!’
    I hung on to the door as the Landrover lurched over thick tussocks of grass to the road.
    ‘Thing about this part of the country,’ Grandpa yelled over the rattle and roar. ‘They do a lot of stone carving – splendid stuff!’
    Quite soon we reached a big yard with a ramshackle wooden fence round it. The yard was full, as far as you could see, with stone shapes the colour of pumice: figures of boys and girls, cherubs and angels, vases, pots and obelisks and lots and lots of animals.
    A man with a dark stubbly face, who Grandpa called Ernesto, led us through the yard.
    ‘Here we are!’ Grandpa pointed with a flourish. ‘These are our little fellows. Marvellous, aren’t they?’
    Side by side sat two stone dogs, ears pricked up, their noses almost touching. Each was carved so that they sat on a square base. They were big enough to reach up to my waist and they were elegant. Setters or gun dogs, Grandpa said. They had intelligent, friendly faces, each one with its face cocked a little to one side. I rubbed a hand over their rough, cold heads, then looked at Grandpa, puzzled.
    ‘Are they yours?’
    ‘Yes, yes. Signed and sealed. We just need to get them into the car.’
    ‘But …What? You mean they’re coming with us?’ If he filled up the back of the car with dogs, where on earth was I going to go?
    ‘Plenty of room, ‘Grandpa said with his usual breezy optimism. ‘We’ll manage.’
    With the help of stubbly Ernesto, we fitted the dogs in through the back of the Landrover and they snuggled up, head to tail. Grandpa was in luck, because they just fitted into the base of the car, with space for his mysterious box wedged beside them. One was sticking up a bit more than the other though.
    ‘Now, we just need to pop the feather bed on top and you won’t notice they’re there,’ Grandpa said. ‘There – you hop in and try it out.’
    I climbed on to the grey covered feather bed and the bodies of stone dogs. The bed moulded itself around the bumps and gaps and after wriggling about a bit I found I could get comfortable.
    ‘All right?’ Grandpa beamed at me.
    I grinned back. ‘Yes.’
    ‘That’s a girl.’
    ‘ DOGS? ’ Brenda peered suspiciously into the back of the Landrover. ‘Where?’
    I lifted a corner of the feather bed and Brenda stared, blinking, at the sight of a dog’s bottom and tail.
    ‘You mean….’ Her voice was quiet. The kind of quiet that comes before a big explosion. ‘That you’re expecting us to take them with us? All the way through Italy and back? George – have you gone mad ?’
    From the look in Brenda’s eyes behind her glasses, I could see she was really upset. Grandpa and I stood like children being told off by the head teacher. But I felt sorry for Brenda. Grandpa never thought to ask her opinion about things like this. She started to move away, tears in her voice.
    ‘It’s bad enough having to travel like this…. Like gypsies , instead of going to a nice little hotel, something civilized and decent … But I thought we could at least do it with a little bit of decorum. Honestly …’ She pulled a hanky from