Prompter: DominusTempori

Prompt: I can quite easily picture ol' Granddad John telling his [...} grandkids either stories about "back in the old days" or embarrassing the heck out of Davey and Wynn with "you know, when your mum and dad were YOUR age..."

Originally posted: 10 September 2016

Notes: 1354 words; takes place September 3, 1984; features the return appearance of Miss Waterfield, Davey and Wynn's Year One teacher

The thing about being cousins so close in age, Teddy and Ozzie found, was that they did everything together, even if they technically did it alone. Whatever Teddy was doing, Ozzie was not far behind, either in his ability or his physically running to catch up. It didn't matter that they looked very little alike—they were one another's best defense from nutso older sisters and Ozzie's clingy little sister. She was so clingy that she couldn't even wait a whole year before being born and was always toddling around after them. She was why, although both boys had their doubts to whether or not school would be fun, they were both still walking down the street with Granddad, placidly going to school for the first time.

"Are you two excited?" Granddad asked while they waited at a crosswalk. Gran was going to come along, but Granddave was sick again, meaning it was only Granddad as they walked towards the school. Penny was going to a different school this year, and Rita and Liz were old enough to walk to school on their own, meaning it was just the two boys that morning.

"Kinda," Ozzie admitted. "It's where Bill can't go yet, so she can't follow us."

"Now that's not a nice way to treat your sister—you have to take care of your sisters, because they take care of you," Granddad said. The light turned and he gently pulled his grandsons along.

"How do you know?" Teddy wondered. "Liz and Rita ignore us, and Penny's too busy with secondary school now."

"I had a sister, about the same age difference between Penny and Ozzie to be honest, and she was the best, even when she wasn't around."

"I thought Great-Auntie Sarah Jane didn't know you were alive for almost twenty years," Ozzie said.

"Now who ever told you a thing like that?!"

"Auntie Gwen," the boy replied simply. He paused for a moment before looking up at his grandfather, old and bent, and tilted his head. "Granddad?"

"Yes?"

"What did you and Great-Auntie Sarah Jane do when you were little?" he asked. "Did you eat crisps while watching Inspector Spacetime?"

"Yeah!" Teddy gasped. "Did she read you bedtime stories and make sure there were no robots in the cupboard before you went to bed?"

"Did you have cousins like me and Teddy?!"

"Hold on, hold on," Granddad chuckled. He stopped walking and checked his wristwatch. "Questions later—school's right there."

"I don't want to go to school very much anymore," Ozzie frowned.

"You'll be fine once you're there," Granddad assured him. He led them up to the teacher standing by the doorway, who greeted them with a smile. "Two down, one to go, Miss Waterfield."

"…and then I can finally retire," the teacher laughed. She bent at the waist to come down closer to the boys and chuckled. "Let me guess: you are Treasach Smith and you are Oswald Pink." The boys' eyes went wide, for she had them pegged without ever meeting them even once… now that was scary. "What do you want me to call you?"

"Teddy and Ozzie," Granddad said once he realized the boys were frozen in fear. "I'll pick them up after class."

"Thank you; give my regards to Mrs. Smith," the teacher replied. At that, Granddad walked away, leaving the two little cousins in the care of the strange lady who knew them without knowing them. Things were gonna be scary.

As class started, Teddy and Ozzie stuck together better than paste on, well, anything. They picked their seats so they sat next to each other, and ate together at lunch, and ran about on the playground together as well. Eventually, Miss Waterfield made the class sit down on a rug in the corner of the room and took a book off the shelf for storytime. The cousins tried to lay down towards the back of the rug instead, but she made sure they sat up instead.

"Alright kids, it's time to read a book before we go home for the day," she said. "Now tell me: can anyone here read yet? It's okay if you can or cannot." Ozzie and Teddy both raised their hands, and they were the only ones who did. "Do either of you want to read the book with me?"

"No thank you, Miss," Teddy muttered. Ozzie shook his head as well—not gonna do it.

"Okay then; time for one of my favorites… 'A Visit at the Seaside'."

"Hey, that's one of Daddy's books," Teddy whispered to his cousin. "It says 'the Doctor' on the front."

"I don't think it is," Ozzie frowned. He put his hand up, which paused Miss Waterfield before she said a word.

"Yes?"

"When is the copyright?"

The entire rest of the class turned around to stare at Ozzie, because that was the biggest word they had heard all day. He shrank back, embarrassed, though the teacher helped him.

"That is a good question: class, the copyright date of a book is the year it was first sold," she said, knowing she was glossing over plenty of details. "It means that the book needs permission from the author, or the author's family, to be printed. Some books are so old that they have an original copyright, but that when you buy a copy, none of the money goes to the author's family because they died long ago."

"Then what is the copyblight?" a student asked.

"Copyright, and it says," Miss Waterfield glanced on the front page, "1947. How old does that make this book?"

"Ancient," a kid replied. Most of the class giggled, though the teacher held her own.

"Thirty-seven, meaning it's as old, or even older, than some of your parents."

"If it's so old, Miss, then why do you read it?"

"Because some things are fun even when they are very old; now, 'Here is Sarah and John, getting ready for a day at the seaside…'"

"It's older than Uncle Davey," Ozzie whispered. "That means Granddad made it.

"Do you think Sarah and John are him and his sister?" Teddy mused. He could see the large illustration from there, with the older sister helping her brother prepare for their trip. "It doesn't look like them…"

"Hush," Miss Waterfield said. She continued on with the story, detailing how big of a help Sarah was to John, and how when Sarah was met with a spider, the bug she disliked the most, John was nice and threw it out the bus window for her. The book was only halfway done when the bell rang to let the kids go, and so the teacher said she would continue it tomorrow.

Very quickly, Teddy and Ozzie went to get their backpacks and ran outside to meet Granddad. He was standing by the schoolyard gate, playing with the lock that was dangling from a chain.

"Ah, there's my boys," he grinned when he saw them. "Rita and Liz find you yet?"

"At lunch, but they didn't want to talk," Teddy explained. He and Ozzie each took a hand from Granddad and they began walking back towards Grynden Road. "Uh, Granddad?"

"Yes?"

"Did you and Great-Auntie Sarah Jane like to go to the seaside as kids?"

Granddad blinked at that, slightly confused. "Now where did that idea come up?"

"Miss Waterfield was reading one of your books, and we know it was one of yours because the copyright was before Uncle Davey was born!" Ozzie explained. "It was about Sarah and John! That's the two of you, yeah?"

"It was, yes," he chuckled. "That was how we had fun when we were small—going to the seaside. There was no Inspector Spacetime back then."

"What did you watch at teatime on the telly though?" Teddy wondered.

"There was no telly—only the wireless, and even that wasn't always there," Granddad said. His grandsons marveled at him, not sure what to say. "How about we get home to Gran, Billie, and Granddave, and I can tell you about it over tea?"

Yes, they knew they would like that very much.