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he did so good afternoon sir said grandad very formally he had been wearing a flat cap which he now took off and held in his hands is it mr gilbert by any chance i hope you will be able to help us we are looking for a young man who we believe to be a neighbour of ours who went missing a few weeks ago the man smiled and shook grandad s hand energetically why yes yes indeed if you mean arthur nesbitt who was lodging with us but has now moved on to better things aye that s him young arthur we didn t know where he d got to and his mother s fair mythered about him len thought grandad sounded very odd but the gentleman clearly didn t but at least this was a lot easier than they had expected so far a very clever chap young arthur very talented making quite a name for himself in the iron foundry iron foundry grandad was obviously puzzled why yes he has found himself employment at the effingham ironworks of messrs samuel and henry walker and is doing very well for himself even in the few weeks he has been here he stepped out of the door closed it behind him and said with another wide smile i can take you to him if you like or at least set you on the way as i am going in that direction myself before grandad could say yes or no mr gilbert linked his arm and set off with the two boys trailing behind them mr gilbert was chatting away at grandad who didn t seem to be able to get a word in and the boys dawdled a little looking around them at the town that looked both strange and familiar at the same time for one thing it smelled smoky and not all that clean there was a lot of rubbish in the gutters at the side of the road and no proper pavements there were no cars or street lights plenty of horses and people mostly rather grubby and downtrodden looking going about their lives len wondered how they would react if they found out that there were time travellers walking along the street beside them categories uncategorized a stitch in time part 7 published on september 22 2021 by magratscraft leave a comment part 7 back but not too far they didn t need to discuss it very much it was clear to len and his grandparents that they were going to have to come clean to neil so they did unbelievable though their story seemed he had the evidence of the tape to prove it as they drank their tea with a couple of chocolate biscuits of course they talked about their next move both boys wanted to go back meet up with norman and reclaim the time machine taken by mr nesbitt but grandma and grandad were not too sure taking len was maybe ok because he was their grandson and they were used to looking after him some of the time but they really didn t ought to take neil without his mum and dad s permission which was tricky as they weren t too keen about telling anyone else about the time machine neil declared that he was sure his mum and dad wouldn t mind at all but he looked a bit sheepish when grandad offered to phone his parents there and then in the end they decided to sleep on it and decide what to do the following morning neil stayed for tea of sausage chips and beans which happened to be one of his favourites and len s too and the two boys spent a happy couple of hours speculating about their next adventure neither of them had any doubts at all that there would be an adventure they just weren t sure when and in fact it wasn t for several weeks that they could try out the latest version of the stitch as len s parents turned up the following morning to take him home for the next six weeks len and neil kept in touch by message and phone and although they were disappointed that it was delayed they knew they had something great to look forward to since as far as his parents were concerned len s stay with his grandparents had been a success there was no objection raised when grandma suggested he could come and stay with them for a week or two in the summer what len didn t know was that grandma and grandad had told his parents the whole story because it seemed very wrong indeed to them to keep secrets like that from his parents len had barely arrived back in yorkshire when neil turned up at the door and the two boys ran out onto the back garden together gabbling away to each other as if they hadn t spoken in months when in fact they had been texting all the time len was in the car on his way there his mum and dad unpacked the car as they were staying a few days before leaving len for at least a week and then they all got together after tea and had a happy evening bringing each other up to date len found it a bit hard not being able to talk about stitch because he thought his parents didn t know but he went to bed happily enough having arranged for neil to come round the following afternoon to join the whole family for a picnic they spent the following morning preparing for the picnic even by grandma s standards there seemed to be a lot of food paper cups and plates bottles of pop and fruit the first surprise was when neil arrived not only with his gran but with his mum and dad too who were all coming on the picnic grandma had been very busy on the phone after len had gone to bed the next surprise was when they all went out onto the back garden and there were two stitch machines on the picnic table as well as a box full of minis len stared at his mum and dad you knew he couldn t believe it then he saw neil looking at his mum and dad too the two boys looked at each other both of them slightly miffed that the secret was out and then it finally dawned on them they were all going they were all going on a picnic back in time there were so many questions will we see norman are we going after mr nesbitt and the stolen stitch what was the plan eventually when they had calmed down a bit grandma explained the plan was simple grandma and grandad had been really unhappy about taking the boys without permission and they had been pretty sure that both sets of parents would say it was a mad idea and put their foot s down and say no so she had come up with the idea of the time travel picnic together to show the parents that it was safe they had spent the last six weeks perfecting the new improved stitch machines and making enough minis to go round plus a few spares just in case grandad cleared his throat to get their attention now then he said here s the plan jessie that was grandma s real name will be in charges of one stitch and i ll have the other you will each have a mini in case there is an emergency and we need to get back he was handing them one each as he said this you only use it if you must and it will bring you straight back here however long we are out this afternoon that is how much time will have passed here too so if anyone gets back on their own they just have to wait for the rest of us to arrive whatever happens we meet back here at seven o clock tonight at the latest has everyone got a watch on there was a bit of chat and getting organised with each person carrying a rucksack full of food drinks first aid kits and spare clothes on their backs but eventually grandma mum gran and lizzie neil s mum were standing holding onto one stitch and grandad dad neil len and richard neil s dad were holding on to the other grandad had added extra handles to make it easier everyone closed their eyes the boys were all a bit giddy and yelled the countdown 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 go grandma and grandad pressed the red buttons nothing happened so everyone opened their eyes there were gasps as the grown ups realised that the house shed picnic table had all disappeared and they were standing in a beautiful if slightly neglected looking park grandad had decided to bring them back to 1976 because the big house was not lived in at that time so no one would see them and it had been a fabulously hot summer that year so they wouldn t get rained off and they had a wonderful afternoon the big old potting shed where they had first met norman was still there although it was definitely falling to pieces they managed to push the door open and put the two stitch machines inside grandad had fitted safety catches to the red buttons so no one could accidentally press them and end up going further back in time by accident he and grandma had placed a couple of little flags like you get for sand castles at the seaside in the ground when they first arrived so they would know exactly where to stand when they were ready to go back no one knew what would happen if you arrived in a place where there was a wall or a river and they didn t want to find out the first thing was to go up to the old house and have a look round it was empty run down and a little bit sad of course norman was not there which was a bit of a disappointment to the boys but explaining to him would have complicated things so they had decided to leave coming back to see him for another day they wandered off in two s and threes exploring the old house it wasn t hard to get in through a broken window and although it was obviously neglected it seemed structurally sound and no one had any nasty accidents the two boys were half hoping to find ghosts secret passages or treasure but the house was virtually empty it hadn t been lived in since a couple of years after the second world war when it had been used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers it had finally closed in the early 1950 s and it was hard to imagine it ever being a home again they all got back together when they heard mum and grandma calling from the garden where they had set up the picnic on the front lawn len and neil washed their hands with wipes and were told to do them again because they were so scruffy from rooting about in all the dusty old corners in the house by the time they were clean enough to please their mothers everyone else was back too and they were all starving there were sandwiches and sausage rolls of course carrot sticks cucumber and baby tomatoes bacon and egg pie pork pie and cheese and onion pasties sausages scotch eggs and cubes of cheese there were scones and chocolate buns and fruit cake plus flasks of tea cans of pop and plenty of fruit juice too len looked around and then declared grandly let the feast begin they all tucked in and it was pretty quiet for quite a while apart from all the munching and the occasional subdued burp eventually they slowed down just nibbling on grapes or the odd spare sausage all in all everyone agreed that it had been a fabulous feast by now it was very hot and they were grateful to be in the shade of the huge old yew trees that surrounded the lawn neil s gran said thoughtfully didn t there used to be a stream running across the other side of the park richard didn t you and mick used to play there as kids that was just what the boys needed mum and dad lizzie and richard len and neil went off to explore while the older generation started to pack up the picnic being very careful not to leave any l itter behind for a couple of hours there was blissful peace until the sound of running feet could be heard racing across the grass accompanied by squeals and laughter grandad opened one eye neil and len were running as fast as they could being chased by their fathers who were carrying what looked like large cans full of water the boys threw themselves down behind their grandparents hoping it would protect them with a huge yell both dads threw the cans up in the air and a cascade of cold water drenched them all gran grandma and grandad were on their feet laughing and shouting at the two men mum and lizzie were leaning on each other breathless and weak with laughter it was the perfect end to a perfect day and they all walked back to the potting shed to get the stitch machines nothing had disturbed them and everyone gathered together at the place where they had put the little seaside flags the machines were reset to go home everyone closed their eyes held on tight and counted down 5 4 3 2 1 go grandma and grandad pressed the red buttons categories uncategorized a stitch in time part 6 published on august 18 2021 by magratscraft leave a comment part 6 a voice from the past the following day was a very busy one for all three of them len got up to the smell of bacon drifting up the stairs and hurriedly got dressed in the kitchen grandma was waiting with a bacon sandwich in one hand and a cup of tea in the other she nodded for him to go and sit at the table where grandad was already tucking in to his he was munching away happily and len didn t like to tell him he had ketchup in his beard len drank his juice as grandma put his breakfast on the table in front of him she was back in a trice with her own plate and the three of them sat and ate in silence apart from the sound of munching and grandad s occasional slurp from his mug of tea they cleared the table and washed up together and then len and grandad headed out to the shed by the time grandma joined them about half an hour later grandad and len had set up three work stations so they could work without getting in each other s way grandma had brought out a giant carrier bag which she placed on the floor just inside the door it was huge both len and grandad knew what it was refreshments for later it looked enough to feed the entire street and they grinned happily and then they set to work grandad had drawn up simple diagrams showing how to put the mini s together and all the bits were neatly placed in boxes one for len and one for grandma there were one or two questions but it didn t look too complicated so they got going pretty quickly for quite some time there wasn t a sound apart from the occasional dammit from grandad when something didn t quite go to plan and then something awful happened grandad farted it made the most horrible noise but worse than that it smelled very very very bad grandma and len made a dash for the door they stood outside taking great big gulps of fresh air oh stop making such a fuss said grandad from the doorway it s not that bad open the windows stewart or i m not coming back in there said grandma sharply he looked as if he was about to argue but changed his mind when he saw the expression on her face load of fuss about nothing he muttered but he did as he was told across the garden was a picnic table with an umbrella and chairs grandma held her nose with one hand and leaned into the shed to pull out the giant bag of food carried it over to the table and took out a flask and some plastic mugs as far as she was concerned a cup of tea made everything better even grandad s bad smells the three of them sat together drinking tea and crunching biscuits they discussed progress so far and were happy to realise that grandad had finished the second stitch and len and grandma had both completed a mini and were well on the way to another one each suddenly grandad held up his hand what s that noise they listened carefully it was a voice calling out from down the side of the house len len are you there it was neil and len ran down to fetch him he didn t need grandad...