The unmentioned family

When Mummy took us home from school, Daddy was there waiting. He said we were going on holiday to Italy! We did Italy when we did the Romans in class. It's in the south of Europe, and it looks like one of Mummy's big shoes.

Sophie (she's my twin sister!) and me packed all our pretty clothes in a big bag to go to Italy with… but then Mummy took them all out just to put them back in again! She's silly!

The car journey to the plane-place was very long, and me and Sophie started getting tired, but Mummy gave us sweeties! Daddy said Mummy shouldn't give us sweeties, but that's just silly. We weren't going to be bad or anything! The sweeties kept us awake for the rest of the car ride, but they made me need to go to the toilet. I told Daddy, and he made me do it at the side of the road. Mummy had to get out and help. I used tissues to wipe my bottom and hid them under a bush. Mummy said it was okay to leave them there, because they would go away by themselves. Did you know tissues were magic?

Daddy stopped the car in a reeeally big car park, and we all got out. Mummy and Daddy took the big bags (Daddy called them soot cases) and we went to the plane place. It's called an airport. In the airport, the soot cases went through a curtain. Sophie wanted to go through the curtain too, but she wasn't allowed. Daddy said only naughty boys and girls go through the curtain, then Mummy told Daddy off for scaring us, but I wasn't scared. I wanted to go through the curtain too!

Next we had to have our pictures looked at in the little red books Daddy kept in his pocket. I wanted to look at my picture, but Daddy said no. Sophie couldn't look at her picture neither. After that we all had to walk through a doorway with no door in it. It looked silly just standing there! Mummy said it was to see if we were taking bad things on the plane. I told her I still had one of my sweeties from the car, but she said it was okay.

The doorway made a loud beepy noise when Daddy went through, so he had to take off his belt and his watch and take his keys out of his pocket, and try again. It didn't beep that time, so he could put his things back on. I asked the lady what would have happened if it beeped again, and she said they would have to take Daddy away to look for metal things in his clothes and stuff.

After the doorway we went to a very big room with lots of chairs in it. Mummy sat down with me and Sophie and Daddy went to get him and Mummy drinks. Mummy said we had to wait for the plane to be ready for us to go on, because it needed to get all filled up with everybody's bags before they let anyone on. I said what about the person who drives it, and Mummy said she didn't know. Silly Mummy!

When Daddy got back with his and Mummy's drinks, me and Sophie played explorers. We had to stay where we could see Mummy or Daddy though, so we couldn't explore very far. One of the walls of the big room was all windows, and I could see the planes through it. There was one very close up. It was reeeally big! Sophie and me went back to Mummy and Daddy to show them the big plane, but Daddy didn't want to come because he had his newspaper. Mummy came with us and we showed her all the big planes. She said we were going in one with a orange tail-thing, but I couldn't see any. Mummy said that was because it was still getting filled all up with people's bags.

When we went on the plane, we had to go through a big tunnel, like on the train, but we were walking, and it wasn't so dark. The plane looked like a train too, with all the seats in rows. Mummy and me sat on one side of the plane and Sophie and Daddy sat on the other side. Mummy made me put my seatbelt on, but I could look out the window. We were really high up in the air still, but Mummy said soon we'd go even higher!

The plane started and it was really fast. It felt like it was pushing me into my seat. I looked out of the little window when we were going up, and it looked funny! All the buildings and cars and roads got really really small, and then we went up through the clouds and we were flying in the sky! It was bright above the clouds, and I could see the sun, but Mummy said I shouldn't look right at it, because it would hurt my eyes, so I didn't. The ride on the plane was a bit boring, but Mummy gave me more sweeties, so that was okay.

When we got off the plane, we had to get our soot cases from a big merry-go-round, but Sophie and me weren't allowed on that neither, like the place behind the curtain. Daddy said we were in Italy now, but it looked just like home, but all the signs were funny and didn't make sense.

From the merry-go-round we went to a car Daddy had borrowed from a man. It was big and black, and very shiny! Not like Daddy's normal car, that's small and blue, and you can write in the dust on it.

When we were in the car Daddy said we were going to a big fair in a place called Volterra. It was about a man who scared away all the vampires! He must have been really scary to do that, Sophie said.

We were in the big shiny black car for a long time, because lots of people wanted to go to the fair, and there were lots of cars in the way. A man came up and tapped on Daddy's window. Daddy put the window down and the man said something funny. He didn't make any sense. Daddy said something, and then he started talking properly, but with a funny voice. He said we had to get out of the car if we wanted to go to the fair, because lots of people wanted to go, and there wasn't any room for any more cars.

Daddy drove the car onto grass next to the road and we all got out. We were walking for ages and ages, and then we met a nice lady. She was very pretty and she said she'd take us through a short-cut to the fair. There was a nice lady and a nice man with her, but they weren't as pretty. We all walked together to the fair, but the lady said she would take us to see something really interesting. Sophie and me wanted to stay with all the other people, but Mummy and Daddy said we should go with the lady.

I don't want to talk any more now.