Page 40 - Julie Thorley Nine Lives book

A Walk in the Park
there.’ And of course I was right.
James declared he was ne, so we set off towards the play
area. He started to dget, but Claire just said: ‘Don’t play with your winky, sweetie. It’s not nice to do that in public.’
James took no notice and kept twiddling. ‘I need a pee-pee.’ ‘Nonsense,’ said Claire. ‘You just think you do.’
We walked on a bit further until we got to the shade of the
trees around the lake.
By now, James was de nitely agitated.
‘Pee-pee, Mummy. Pee-pee! It’s coming!’
Claire was not impressed: ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake.’ She
picked him up, ran to the nearest tree and whipped down his pants just in time. He was right: pee-pee was indeed coming.
Claire left James to do what he had to do and walked back over to me.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I don’t have a tissue for him. Have you got one I could use?’
I rummaged in my bag. When I looked up again, over Claire’s shoulder I could see that James had moved on apace. He was now squatting and delivering a little something extra.
My face must have given me away, because Claire’s expression changed from being slightly put out to lled with dread. She turned back to look at her little treasure.
It was like watching a slow-mo scene from a lm. She stretched out her hands and screamed ‘N-o-o-o-o-!’ as she ran forwards, her tiny bag bouncing on her perfect hips.
James was very pleased with himself and greeted his now not-so-perfect mum with: ‘I did a doo-doo!’
Daisy was disgusted: ‘That’s nasty, Mummy. He should have gone before, like I did.’
I fought the urge to laugh and said: ‘Well, sometimes little boys don’t know what’s happening until it’s too late.’
Claire was beside herself. ‘Oh, how could you, James?’ She began to cry.
James began to cry.
I tried not to gloat as I reached into my bag again: ‘Wet
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