6 A few years later and the front door bell rings Penelope can see the blurry outline of Sarah and Craig and hear the excited giggles of Matty and Molly, their small twins she opens the door, they pile in, the children jumping up at her, Humperdinck jumping up at everyone, Sarah pecking her on the cheek, Craig gives her his usual Australian hug he works in cinematic sound production, met Sarah at a premiere where he was in control of the acoustics and she was chaperoning a newly-signed starlet for lunch Penelope has made a crusty pizza piled high with pastrami, tomatoes, cheese (no olives or peppers, which the little ones hate) and a green salad, which they won't touch either (nor will she) she loves it when Sarah and her gang arrive, for the duration of their visit she forgets all her usual self-pitying (be honest, Pen) preoccupations after lunch, the children become even more rumbustious as carbohydrates turn into sugar and they start racing around her living room Craig, whose father was a mine geologist, grew up running barefoot in Queensland with his aboriginal friends, believes children should be raised as free spirits, including in her lounge, apparently, where they knock over a cup of coffee, throw cushions at each other, jump on to the window ledge to
try and swing from the curtains and it's only when Molly almost plugs a finger into an electrical socket that Craig bellows at her to get away from there, Molly! Sarah smiles apologetically at her mother, but doesn't tell them off for fear of being called a spoilsport by Craig her grandchildren need a few slaps when they get out of control, which Penelope is quite willing to administer – it's child abuse, according to Craig instead she cajoles them on to the sofa by holding two lollipops in her hands and once they've fallen for it, snuggles them under an arm each (without obviously throttling them), and proceeds to read them a story about a talking train Sarah's gang live in a second-floor flat in Brixton, which Penelope only visits when it's unavoidable, such as the twins' (unfortunately annual) birthday party the white walls are covered with the children's cave drawings and the furnishings are stained with their paints, felt-tip pens and remnants of food, regurgitated or otherwise, including squashed peas and melted chocolate Penelope tries to sit on the edge of her seat while avoiding touching anything as she ends up with sticky or, more worryingly, wet hands once Penelope has lulled the twins to sleep with her special soporific storytelling voice, and they're dozing off under an armpit each, Sarah decides to tell her, because there never will be a right time for this, Mum, that they're moving to Sydney where Craig has been offered a job to head Dolby Audio Penelope's response is immediate, emotional, extreme and uncontrollable soon after, she's face down on her double bed, hears her bedroom door creak open and Sarah's voice urging the twins to go on, go on their warm (and heavy) little bodies are soon crawling all over her, digging their knees into her back, sitting on her head, wiping her wet cheeks with their sticky little paws s'all right, grammy, s'all right, don't be sad, grammy one of them decides it's more fun to blow raspberries down her ear, while the other treats her ample posterior as a trampoline
it dawns on her how much she's going to miss seeing these two little monkeys grow up.
Chapter Four Megan/Morgan