The next man who walked through our door

It was surreal. As I stood with my mum and brothers at Wellingborough station waiting for mum's penfriend to arrive I felt nothing. Then I caught a glimpse of the steam train thundering toward us.Carriage doors flung open and strangers stepped carefully down onto the platform. There was quite a gap to negotiate but mum's penfriend would be safe; after all he had his alsation guide dog to take care of him. Then, there he was, this small man with silvery hair. My first reaction was one of shock. He looked very old in comparison to mum. It was my job to tap this strangers shoulder, to let him know we were there, which I nervously did. My brothers and me stood there waiting and staring at this long term intruder-unaware how our lives were to change.

Although this would have been the first meeting, conversation rolled, as if they were friends with a long history and so much to catch up on. They talked about how long his journey had taken him from Durham. How his son, then in his late teens, was taking care of his house and that he would be fine. That he'd just managed to get his connection at Leicester station. Mum just listened and we just looked. Rather it was me who listened whilst my younger brothers kicked a can along giggling and squabbling as they ran. A marble fell from Michaels pocket  and rolled into the gutter.

 It was only about six months later that we were heading to the Roman Catholic church sitting on the upper deck of a United Counties bus which snaked its way along the busy Saturday morning traffic. We ought to have caught the earlier bus but we'd just missed it as I'd trip over my shoelaces and grazed my knee as we'd run along the street. We were cutting it fine as we ran down Eastfield Road. Mum and the man who was supposed to be our kind stepfather had gone in a taxi to the church. Tiny fingers pushed against the church doors and they were there; standing together with the priest waving incense in the air. We sat at the back; unaware of the significance of this service, and waited impatiently for the long service to end .