Mrs Priss was sitting at the information desk, wondering to herself why she had volunteered to help in the first place The Ottery St. Catchpole annual fête was hardly huge , all the stalls were in the same place they had been for the last 20 years, everybody who was here had come for the last 20 years. Nobody ever bothered the information desk. She glanced at her watch, only an hour to go. She picked up her paperback again, Poirot had gathered everybody into one room and was explaining the events of the 10th November, leading up to the murder.
Then a small voice came from nowhere. She looked down to see a young boy, grinning at her, a smile from ear to ear and shoving his hands into the front pocket of his dungarees and swinging from side to side. But the most vivid feature of him was his hair changing for blue to purple. It must have been some kind of wig with lights you can buy, they can do anything nowadays. It looked amazing real. She slid her bifocals off her nose and up onto her head. ( They were only good for distances and reading purposes)
" So, who my you be?" she asked, looking around for the boys parents.
"Theadore Remus lupin" the child chimed at the top of his voice, singing while swinging from side to side.
"Have you lost your parents in the crowd?" she asked, not seeing anybody looking for him.
He shook his head " Gran says they've gone to a better place" he said and then waved for her to get closer and whispered into her ear " But it means people feel sorry for me, and I get even more presents" and smiled at her.
" Who did you come with? Do you want me to call them over the loudspeaker?" she asked, hoping to be helpful. This little guy had a lot of what her mother would call "character".
He nodded " My uncle Harry and auntie Ginny took me to see the parade, and I got lost" he stated matter of factly. He had no fear, just a certainty that everything would be OK, he wasn't phased like the other lost children she'd seen, crying for their mothers. She wasn't sure whether to love or hate him. She put a call over the loud speaker saying that there was a lost child at the information desk answering to the name of Theodore and looking for his Uncle Harry and Auntie Ginny. She didn't include a description as she didn't know what colour hair he had. When she turned back he was sat on the floor in front of her chair, pulling up blades of grass. " Auntie Ginny's got a big tummy because there's a baby growing in there" he stated matter of factly. "Uncle Harry says they're going to be my special brother or sister, but I want a brother because girls smell" he stated and wrinkled his noise as if there was some offensive smell invading his nostrils.
She tried to cover her mouth, she hadn't been around children in a long time and had forgotten their honesty. It was funny to see him so brutally honest.
Just before she could laugh, her attention was grabbed by a man's voice shouting "Teddy" from across the field. A man with dark unruly hair was running across the field, just behind him was a petite red-headed lady, with a very pregnant stomach. The little boy stood up and ran over to meet them. " Uncle Harry" he shouted as he ran towards the two he ran into the man's arms. He picked him up, although the child was getting a little to big for that! Perhaps it was a possessive thing, so he didn't get lost again.
"I told you to hold my hand when we watched the parade didn't I? Something really bad might of happened Teddy. You are going to do as I say in future aren't you?"
The young boy nodded and smiled, she doubted anybody could get him to do anything he didn't want to.
" Say thank you to the nice lady" said the lady, pointing at Mrs Priss. " Thank you" he said, sticking his hand out to to be shook, he'd obviously seen adults do that.
She shook it back, " Now Teddy, be a good boy and listen to your Uncle Harry. It could have been very dangerous" she said, reiterating what the dark haired man (Uncle Harry) had said.
"Thank you" the red haired lady said, looking at her. " we were so worried" she said, ruffling the little boys hair, who was rubbing noses with the dark haired man
"It was not a problem" Mrs Priss said. They all waved as they walked off, the little boy on the man's shoulders, It was only then that she remembered she had forgotten to ask where they brought the little boys wig from.