Here's a nice big helping of fluff!

Chapter Eleven

William wasn't at all put out to discover, on waking, that Daddy had disappeared during the night. He was quite accustomed to this happening as it had so frequently in the past, though not so much these days. Freddie wasn't concerned either, as he knew that Daddy loved 'the Work' almost as much as he loved his family. And he always came home, eventually. Violet, however, was different kettle of fish entirely.

Having slept right through Sherlock's sudden departure in the early hours of the morning, when Violet awoke to find that Daddy was not in the bed with Mummy, she insisted on searching the entire suite of rooms occupied by the Hooper-Holmes contingent, looking under the beds and inside the wardrobes and chests of drawers, despite Molly – and her brothers – repeated assurances that Daddy was not there because he had 'gone to work'.

'No!' Violet insisted, 'Daddy no wort today. Daddy stay. Daddy pyay. No wort.'

Having searched both of the bedrooms, she demanded to be let out onto the landing to search all the other rooms in the house but Molly drew a line at that.

'Daddy's not here, Violet. He borrowed a car and went away because there was something he needed to do that couldn't wait. But he'll be back, just as soon as he's done whatever it is that needs doing,' she explained, in as simple terms as she could think of.

'When Daddy tum bat?' Violet demanded, tears beginning to pool in her lower lids.

'As soon as he can,' Molly replied, trying to reassure her daughter.

But that was just not good enough for Violet. She needed something specific and concrete, something she could quantify. And so, a meltdown was inevitable.

'No! No!' she yelled. 'Want Daddy bat now!' She threw herself on the bedroom floor, screaming at the top of her voice in sheer frustration.

William put his hands over his ears and stared at his sister, utterly shocked, this being only the second time he had witnessed one of Violet's tantrums and only the first time from such close proximity. His brain began whirring, searching frantically for a solution to this situation but there was only one thing that came to mind

Suddenly, and without warning, William threw himself down on the floor, right next to Violet, and screamed at the top of his voice.

There was a moment of complete silence in the room as everyone – including Violet herself – froze in stunned surprise. Molly, standing in the doorway to the Jack and Jill bathroom that separated the boys' room from the one that she, Sherlock and Violet occupied, had been weighing up which was the better option - to try to pick Violet up and remove her to their own room or send the boys out of the way and weather the storm in here – but was now faced with the prospect of having to deal with two hysterical children at the same time, one of whom was nearly as tall as she was. It threw her, for a moment.

Freddie, too, was momentarily taken aback by his brother's completely out of character behaviour but, far from being concerned, he found it highly amusing and began to laugh like a drain.

As soon as Freddie started laughing, William rolled over on his side to face his sister and began laughing, too, and Violet, confronted by such an unexpected turn of events, completely forgot how much she wanted Daddy and, after a moment of wide-eyed surprise, broke into a fit of delighted giggles. She threw herself on top of William, who wrapped his arms around her, hugging her to his chest and Freddie, not to be left out, dived into the scrum so that all three siblings could roll around on the rug, guffawing gleefully.

Such was the spectacle that greeted Arthur when he came flying through the bedroom door to offer, he thought, assistance to Molly, having heard both sets of screams from his and Mycroft's bedroom on the floor above. He skidded to a halt, staring at the tangle of arms and legs, then turned to Molly who was still open-mouthed at the strange behaviour of her eldest child, trying to process what exactly just happened. She and Arthur exchanged mystified looks then both creased up and Molly bent over, hugging her midriff, shaking with helpless mirth. Arthur had no idea what had occurred but, whatever it was, everything seemed fine now.

Over breakfast, which all the family attended in their PJs and dressing gowns, as per the newest Colbert House tradition, it was decided that, in Sherlock's absence, they would take the people carrier to the Play Barn, so they could all travel in one car. That particular vehicle was normally used for transporting wedding guests to and from the railway station, when the 'big house' was performing its alternative role as a wedding venue, and could easily accommodate eight souls. Mycroft would drive, with Molly in the front passenger seat. Katy and Violet would occupy the middle row of seats, with Arthur in between them. And the three boys would sit in the back seat, facing rearward.

When breakfast concluded, they all returned to their private quarters to shower and dress – with Mrs Willis giving Molly a hand with her brood – and reassembled in the front hall at ten thirty to load up the car and be on their way. It was only a fifteen minute drive to the Play Barn and, on arrival, Molly and Mycroft established 'base camp' on the edge of the Toddler Area – where it was moderately quieter and less rowdy than the main play area – leaving Arthur as the designated child wrangler, supervising the older children as they climbed and jumped, swung and slid, ran, rolled and crawled their way around the Jungle Gym.

Violet was slightly put out that she couldn't join the other children in the main area but when Molly pointed out the ball pool, she was placated. There were already a couple of children, about Violet's age, sampling the pleasures that particular attraction could provide and, before too long, they were all frolicking together, giving Molly and Mycroft a few moments of relaxation and an opportunity for a chat.

'I'm so sorry about this morning,' Molly began. 'Sherlock doesn't have much awareness of time when he's on a case.'

'Oh, please don't apologise for my brother's lack of social skills, Molly dear,' Mycroft insisted. 'I had hoped that marriage and parenthood might have worked some magic charm but he really wouldn't be my brother, then, would he?'

'Not the Sherlock that we know and love?' teased Molly, with a smile.

'Quite.'

ooOoo

Over in the main play area, William was deep in thought. The many elements of the Play Barn presented him with a new challenge – to complete the whole circuit in the shortest time possible which meant being creative and taking a few risks. But most of all, it required a hypothesis, a method and a conclusion. And in order to achieve all that, he needed a well-thought-out game plan.

Getting from the ground floor to the highest of the four levels could be achieved either by climbing the soft play steps, scrambling up the cargo netting or shimmying up a knotted rope. William dismissed the steps immediately, leaving that route to Freddie and his cousins. The cargo net was quite busy, with a number of older children racing each other to the top so William opted for the knotted rope. Watching a couple of children try and fail to master the rope climb, William already had a strategy. He'd seen enough wildlife documentaries to know how best this could be achieved.

Reaching as high up the rope as he could, he grasped it with both hands, just above a knot, and hung on tight whilst drawing up his knees and placing his feet either side of the next knot down from his hands. Then, he reached up with one hand at a time to the highest point again, grasped above the knot and repeated the process. In no time at all, he was on the top level of the barn, only slightly out of breath and more than a little sweaty, but ready for the next challenge – to cross the abyss.

Naturally, there were options. He could cross via the rope bridge, use the horizontal ladder or try the rope swing. The rope swing had more jeopardy. If he misjudged it, he could end up on the next level down. Deciding this was a risk not worth taking and noting that the rope bridge was clogged with children anyway, his choice had to be the horizontal ladder. But rather than crawl across on hands and knees or arm swing across, like a gibbon, he chose the 'tightrope' alternative. Balancing on one of the supporting beams, he ran lightly from one end to the other, ignoring all the mayhem around him as other children pursued their own goals.

Now it was downhill all the way. There were slides and drops and tubes and ropes and even a fireman's pole. William intended to sample them all in order to determine which combination was the quickest – if not the most direct – route back to Ground Zero.

'What are you doing?'

William turned his head in the direction of the voice, wondering if they were addressing him or someone else. The girl was looking directly at him so that cleared that up. She was about his height and, he assumed, about his age, with short, spikey, red hair and rather intense green eye. He didn't recognise her so he assumed she didn't live in Colbert St Mary's, unless she'd moved there in the last six months, which was entirely possible. But, anyway, she clearly was expecting an answer to her question so William replied,

'I'm conducting some research.'

'Into what?'

'At the moment, I'm trying to establish which is the quickest way down to the bottom from here.'

'Mmm,' she said, 'What's your best guess?'

William had an inherent dislike of the word 'guess', courtesy of his father, but he chose to humour her.

'Slide, drop, fireman's pole,' he answered succinctly.

'Really?' she replied, pursing her lips. 'What about tube, rope, fireman's pole?'

William considered that option but wasn't convinced.

'No, I'm happy with my first choice.'

'Ok. So why don't we put it to the test? I'll race you.'

William was happy to accept the challenge and opened his mouth to agree but…

'Three, two, one, GO!' she yelled and was off, racing for the first obstacle on her list – the tube. William, caught out by this manoeuvre, was slow off the mark but determined to make up for that.

He dived for the slide, propelling himself downwards with both hands then, as he approached the bottom, launched himself off and leapt for the drop, landing in a heap on the next level down, but was quickly on his feet and running for the fireman's pole. He could see his opponent had just completed her descent via the rope so it was a matter of who could get to the fireman's pole first and she was closest. She made it by a whisker, jumped for the pole and slid to the bottom level, where she landed on her feet and stepped back because William was descending immediately behind her.

'I won,' she announced, with a grin.

'You cheated,' William replied. 'But let's call it a draw.'

'Mmm, OK,' she conceded. 'It was very close. How about Best of Three?'

'We haven't completed the circuit, yet. We need to get back up to the top level to do that.'

The girl nodded in agreement.

'OK. Three, two, one, GO!' yelled William, gleefully, racing off towards the rope climb.

When William reached the top of the climbing rope, he flopped down on the soft play mat and rolled onto his back, where he lay panting for breath whilst watching, from the corner of his eye, as the girl scrambled up the cargo net. By the time she made the top and came to join him on the mat, he had got his breath back.

'You cheated!' she exclaimed, but they were both laughing.

'Shall we call that a draw, too?' asked William, though not seriously. The rope climb was definitely the quickest route up but also the trickiest.

'What's your name?' the girl asked.

'William Hooper-Holmes,' he replied. 'What's yours?'

'Sky,' she said.

'How do you do, Sky?' he asked, offering his hand, politely.

'Very well, thank you,' she replied, taking his hand and shaking it.

The formalities complete, the pair got down to the serious business of the second round of their challenge.

'We should test each other's routes,' Sky suggested. 'You do tube, rope, fireman's pole and I'll do slide, drop, fireman's pole.'

'We need an alternative to fireman's pole,' said William, 'because whoever gets there first is bound to win, so we're only testing tube, rope versus slide, drop.'

'That's true,' agreed Sky. She looked around for what might be a suitable alternative. 'How about…vertical ladder?'

William looked down at the ladder that ran from Level One to Ground Level. It had possibilities.

'Alright, let's say tube, rope, fireman's pole versus slide, drop, vertical ladder, yes?'

'OK. Then, next time, we could do tube, rope, ladder versus slide, drop, fireman's pole.'

'Agreed!' said William, and they shook hands again. 'And no cheating, OK?'

'No cheating,' Sky confirmed. 'Let's count down together. Ready?'

'Hang on, though. What about Abyss?' said William.

Sky pursed her lips in thought then said,

'I'll take rope swing.'

'Brave choice,' said William. 'I'll take horizontal ladder. Ready?'

Sky nodded and they both stood up, poised, awaiting the metaphoric starting pistol.

'Three, two, one, GO!' they yelled in unison and off they went, in opposite directions, each heading for the first element in their chosen route.

William approached the horizontal ladder and, as in his first run, tightrope-walked across one of the supporting beams then, running full pelt, leapt feet first into the tube. Luckily for him, there wasn't another hapless child already inside that particular element and he slid gracefully down to the next level, where upon he jumped to his feet and raced for the next obstacle, taking a flying leap and catching, momentarily, onto the rope before releasing his grasp and dropping down to the crash mat below. Scrambling off that, he made a bee line for the vertical ladder and, this time, remembered to check that no one else was already using it. Luckily, it was free of obstructions. Grasping the top rail, he swung his legs over and placed one foot each on the vertical rails that supported the rungs. Then, grasping the same rails with his hands, he slid all the way down to the bottom, landing on both feet and looking round, to see where Sky had got to. He was just in time to see her land at the bottom of the fireman's pole. So, he had won, by mere milliseconds.

'William?'

It was Uncle Arthur calling him. He looked across to where his uncle was standing, just outside the play area.

'Do you want a drink?' Arthur enquired, making a drinking sign with his hand, to make the message clear.

'Yes, please!' William called back, as Sky came over to join him.

'Come on, then.' Arthur beckoned for William to come and join the rest of the family at 'base camp'.

'Who's that?' she asked.

'He's my uncle,' William replied.

'Does your friend want a drink, too?' Arthur called, having spotted William and Sky playing together, earlier.

'Do you?' asked William.

'Yes, please,' Sky called back to Arthur, missing out the middle man for the sake of brevity.

'Come on then,' said William, leading the way towards to Exit.

'Is that who you're here with, your Uncle?' asked Sky.

'Yes, both my uncles,' William explained. 'And Mummy and my cousins and my brother and sister.'

'That's quite a lot of people,' Sky observed.

'What about you? Who are you here with?' asked William.

'Just my mum. She works in the kiosk. Which is good, in a way, because I get to come here every day…when I'm not at school, obviously…and play on the equipment all day for free.'

William nodded his approval, although he thought coming here every day could get a bit repetitive and, consequently, rather boring.

'So, you could say I had an unfair advantage in our competition because I know all the routes backwards,' Sky added, looking a little contrite.

'Not at all,' William assured her. 'Your local knowledge has made the competition all the more interesting.'

'Do you always talk like that?' Sky asked.

'Like what,' William replied.

'Like an old person,' said Sky.

William thought about it.

'Yes, I suppose I do,' he replied and they both laughed.

By this time, they had reached the table on the edge of the Toddler Area, where the family were all assembled, enjoying drinks and snacks obtained from the kiosk.

'Everybody, this is Sky,' said William, not forgetting his manners. 'Sky, this is…everybody,' he added.

'Help yourselves to whatever you fancy,' said Arthur, indicating the selection of drinks cartons and snack packets piled in the middle of the table. 'There's plenty to go around.'

William and Sky took a drink and a snack each and retired to the next table, since the main one was already full.

'Your uncle talks funny,' Sky observed. 'He's not from around here, is he?'

'No, he's from Lancashire,' William replied. 'You're not from around here, either,' he added. He had detected a very slight accent when Sky first spoke to him but hadn't liked to mention it. But since she had brought up the subject…

'No, we're from Poland, me and my mum,' Sky explained. 'We came here when I was three so I don't really remember it but my mum is always talking about 'home'.'

William sucked at his drinking straw whilst processing that information.

'Uncle Arthur does that, too…talks about 'home' when he means Lancashire. It's odd, isn't it?'

'Where's your home?' asked Sky.

'We live in London,' he replied, adding, 'East Smithfield, to be exact,' since London was a very big place.

'Hmm,' Sky replied, 'sounds nice.'

'It is,' William agreed.

Having pretty much exhausted that line of conversation, the two new friends sipped their drinks and munched on their snacks until, break over, it was time to head back to the play area and continue their challenge, testing every combination of assents and descents they could think of, until Uncle Arthur intervened again to tell William it was time to leave.

'Well, goodbye, Sky,' William said, feeling rather sad. 'It's been great fun playing with you.'

'Maybe you'll come here next time you visit your uncle,' Sky smiled, looking a little sad, too. 'I expect I'll still be here,' she added, with a shrug.

William turned to walk away and then turned back.

'Would you like to email me?' he asked. 'And I could email you back?'

Sky considered that suggestion.

'Yes, why not!' she exclaimed. 'What's your email address?'

'Just wait here,' said William. 'I'll go and write it down.'

He ran back to 'base camp', where everyone else in the party was getting ready to depart.

'Mummy, can I borrow a pen, please? And have you got some paper?'

Molly glanced across at Sky, hovering by the entrance to the main play area, and gave a little smile. It was so nice to see William making new friends. She sometimes worried that he was too reserved and socially awkward but, clearly, not when the right person came along.

'Here you are, darling,' she said, handing over a biro and an old till receipt she'd found at the bottom of her capacious hand bag. William carefully wrote his school email address – it was the only one he had - on the back of the receipt and trotted back over to Sky.

'Here,' he said, handing it over. 'You can write to me there.'

'Don't you want to write down my email address, too?' Sky asked.

'No,' replied William. 'Just tell it to me. I'll remember it.'

Sky looked sceptical.

'I will, honestly. I've got an eidetic memory,' William assured her.

'What's one of those?' she giggled.

'I remember everything,' William replied, simply.

Still a little sceptical, Sky recited her email address and William repeated it back to her.

'Well, that's easy, now,' she said. 'I just told it to you.'

'OK, I'll prove it. I'll email you tonight. Scouts honour.'

'Honestly, you are funny!' Sky giggled, again. 'But in a nice way. 'Bye, William.'

She turned and skipped off, back into the play area. William watched her go, then returned to join his family.

'She seems nice,' said Molly.

'Yes, very nice,' said William.

ooOoo

It occurred to me that William didn't appear to have any friends so I decided it was high time he found one. :)