Watching Over Us

A small boy sits at his kitchen table. He's between 10 and 11 and sits quietly eating toast, drinking milk and swinging his feet happily.
"Ok mum I'll do it" he says. There is no sign of his mum in the room the boy is talking to himself. He gets up, walks across the kitchen and puts the empty milk carton in the bin. He takes his empty plate and washes it in the sink and puts it back on the side. There's the sound of a TV in the distance. The boy looks in that direction but decides to turn in the opposite direction and go into his playroom. He opens a toy box and gets out a large box of building blocks and empties it on the floor. He sits and begins to build. Once 3 houses are created he opens another box containing action figures and takes them out.

In front of the largest house he sits a soldier and begins to talk to him.
"Hey Rodney what's cooking?" the boy asks the soldier.
After a pause he continues "Oh Shepherds pie that's my favourite my mum used to make it me all the time"
Another pause as the boy listens.
"She's gone now but I see her all the time. She's a face in my head always watching me. Can you see her?"
The boy smiles "You can! She's pretty right? Is she in black and white to you too?" The boy continues to play only stopping to quickly wipe a tear from his cheek.

A short time later the boy looks over at Rodney as if he's been asked a question "what's that Rodney?" he asks.
"Oh my grandparents are gone too. They are down at the bottom of the garden playing near the greenhouse. Patsy my dog is down there with them too. She was old when she died but she looks young now like a puppy"
There's a pause and the boy smiles.
"Yes they are all having fun and waiting for me. The sun is always shining down there it looks beautiful, they are always laughing" The boy doesn't look sad he's happily playing with the other toys.

An hour later the boy stands up and walks to the door. He stops as he gets to the door as if he is listening to someone.
"Ok mum I'll do it" he says and with this he goes back to all his toys and packs them away neatly.

The boy keeps Rodney out though and carries him out of the room and walks in the direction of the TV sound. He walks into the room where his dad is sat watching TV and sits on the sofa with him. The boy doesn't care what the program is he's happy to be sat with his dad on the same sofa. The boy's father puts a big strong arm around him and smiles.

An hour later the boy's father is asleep and he is rubbing his eyes. He looks around for Rodney and picks him up.
"Ok mum I'm going to bed" The boy stands up gives his sleeping father a kiss and heads up stairs to his room.

"Yes mum I'm going to brush my teeth" the boy walks back out of his room and into the bathroom. He places Rodney on the basin whilst he washes his face and brushes his teeth.

Walking sleepily into his room he puts Rodney on the pillow and then gets into bed. He turns the night-light off and shuffles to get comfortable.
"Night mum, love you" he says as he begins to drift to sleep.
"Night Rodney" the boy pats the small soldier on the head.
The boy opens one sleepy eye.
"Ok Rodney 1 question what is it?" the boy asks barely awake.
He listens to the question and begins to smile.
"That's a good question, I don't know why" he smiles and rolls over.

Before he falls to sleep the boy says quietly "Mum you don't need to watch over me you can go down to the garden and play with Grandma, Granddad and Patsy I'll come and visit you soon. It looks much more colorful down there for you"