Greg is not the main character of the book but I had problems with this chapter so I am interested in hearing your comments. Thank you.
Gregg’s Story
Greg set his alarm for 6 a.m., two hours before he needed to be at work, donned his track pants, running vest and shoes and headed for the front door picking up a water bottle from the kitchen on the way. Running cleared his head as well as keeping his body fit and in shape. The steady rhythm he managed to maintain for the three miles along the road down the hill and then back along the canal was conducive to calm retrospection, and he liked to have everything filed in his mind in the correct manor before the heavy work load of the new day began. By the time he turned the key in his door twenty two minutes later the traffic was already building to the full pitch of the London rush hour but Greg had time to shower, eat breakfast and be in his own car by 6.55 a.m. He liked to be at the surgery early to ensure all his paperwork was dealt with before the first patient stepped into his consulting room. From that moment on there would barely be enough time for a lunchtime sandwich. Between patients, home visits, team meetings and his sessions at the clinic in the local general hospital his week days provided a tapestry of interesting projects and puzzles that left him tired but exhilarated by the end of the week.
This evening like most Tuesday evenings, he was visiting his parents for dinner. His father was usually home from work by 6pm and dinner was on the table by 6.30pm but Greg didn’t finish his surgery before 7pm. He knew his parents didn’t mind, they looked forward to seeing him and would happily have eaten at midnight rather than turn him away. He also knew that his mother made a special effort over the Tuesday evening meals cooking a casserole or roast followed by a fruit pie or chocolate pudding rather than the beef burger and baked beans that she served up when he wasn’t there. Daniel always used to be there for the meal too, but his new job meant that he had to take his turn with evening deliveries and sometimes he didn’t get home until late in the evening. They didn’t wait for him to eat, but Greg did make sure that he was still their when his little brother got home. At twenty three years old Daniel was a good looking young man with a fine strong body that caught the eye of many girls, but once they started chatting to him his reserved manner and sluggish wit usually made them quickly lose interest. He occupied his sisters’ old bedroom as it was the biggest of the upstairs rooms, where, being shy and uncomfortable in crowds, he spent much of his time playing computer games and music. Greg knew that many hours of his parents’ time was spent worrying about what the future might hold for their youngest son, and the three oldest children all agreed that the family home should go to Daniel when Sonia and Eric died, along with any savings that they might have managed to scrape together. Consequently there were few luxuries for the older generation.
Since childhood Greg had formed a strong bond with both his sisters and he loved seeing Joss so happy with her husband and young family. Gawky bespectacled Joss who never looked totally comfortable, almost as though she had put on the wrong body that didn’t quite fit. She was not ugly, just very unsure of herself and she hid behind a long curtain of hair and large glasses, her thin body all angular and slightly hunched in an attempt to camouflage her height, which at five feet ten inches in the term she sat her GCSE’s was much taller than any of the other girls in her year at school. When Joss had met Chris in her last year at university it was like the chrysalis had cracked open at last and the whole Joss had blossomed. She was still not a beauty but next to her husband who stood considerably over six feet she could stand up tall and proud. Her glasses were replaced with contact lenses and her new hair cut allowed her face to see the full light of day.
Greg knew that Katrina wanted to settle down too, and perhaps Michael might be the one. Greg liked Michael from the moment that Katrina first brought him around for Sunday lunch three years ago. He had not liked all her boyfriends but he could see that she was infatuated in a way that Greg had never seen her before and they looked good together.
What ever happened he would support his big sisters decision, just as she had always been there for him. When they had all lived at home it was always Kat’s bed that he had padded to at night, teddy firmly under his arm, thumb secured comfortably in his mouth, when thunder or a bad dream disturbed him. When Joss was born Greg was ousted from the nursery with its star spangled night sky and brightly painted rockets, and temporarily placed in the big bedroom with his four year old sister. Greg was delighted with this new arrangement and protested loudly when three years later he was returned to the nursery and Joss was given the bed in with Kat. He cheered up a little when he discovered that the cot had been replaced with a small bed the shape of a train – a tribute to his father’s skills as a carpenter – and a new carpet printed with railway tracks and roads had been laid. Nevertheless, when their parents came to find them in the morning Greg was rarely in his own bed, having made his way to the girls’ room during the night.
As the children became older they helped each other with homework, discussed their fears, hopes and romantic adventures, and as the only boy between two sisters he grew to understand the anxieties they felt were not so different to his own, he was calmed by their cheerful chatter and listened to their concerns about what life held for them all. Greg accepted the mothering they offered with few objections – quietly enjoying the attention – and in return he was always there beside them if trouble brewed inside the house or out. He drew strength from their companionship and willingly gave back all that he could.
Greg had been given the guest room to himself when Daniel was born as the age gap with his brother was too great, and Daniel was too disruptive to be around during all those years of exams, but he still spent many waking hours in his sisters’ bedroom listening to music, talking about who to ask to a party and even helping the girls choose what outfit to wear. When Kat went off to university there was a big gap in his life for a while, and he and Joss counted the weeks to the Christmas holidays and her return home.
He felt a little bit sorry for his baby brother, nine years his junior. The age gap between Daniel and his brother and sisters meant he was too immature for sharing the grown up secrets of the three teenagers. None the less all three loved their little brother and his learning difficulty had only made them close ranks around him and become even more caring. Always too young to join in with their games or to appreciate the talk of young romance, or the stress of exams, but Daniel always tried to fit in, tried to understand what his beloved older siblings found so interesting or worrying, and cuddled them when they were sad or troubled. And Greg loved him unquestioningly, his protective instinct only becoming stronger as he realised that Daniel’s brain would never be able to function in quite the same way as his own or his sisters’.
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