“We have to go on the ferry,” Mum said, as she put sticky tape on the present she was wrapping in horrible pink paper with silly booties all over it.
Now this made Sunday’s trip sounded more promising. “A real ferry?” I asked suspiciously.
“Of course it’s a real ferry,” Mum laughed, attaching a big pink thing made of ribbons onto the wrapped present. “What other sort of ferry would it be? Now, what do you think?” She held the finished present out to me.
“Good job it’s for a girl,” was all I could say. I couldn’t wait to let Jake about the ferry trip.
“Ace Toby,” he yelled across the noisy playground. “One time I went on a ferry and there was a cinema and we saw How to Train your Dragon and our Sarah puked all over the toddlers’ play area and Mum used all the wet wipes to clear it up and we ate burgers in a restaurant and we slept in bunk beds, under the sea, with the lorries on top of us and I slept in the top cos our Sarah was too wee and she would’ve fallen out and Daddy slept on the other top bunk and it was ace.”
I wanted to sleep in a top bunk under the lorries too. I couldn’t wait for the Christening.
“Maybe this dress will be too small. I hear she’s quite a big baby,” Mum was saying to Dad as we drove towards the ferry. Dad was ignoring her. He normally does when she talks about boring things like clothes. He likes to talk about babies mind you, that’s when Mum starts ignoring him. I just played with my DS. I wish we’d hurry up and reach the ferry.
“Here we are,” said Dad, pulling into a car park. “And it looks like our boat’s about to dock.” I craned my neck but could see nothing moving but a small looking boat with an odd shaped front and a few cars on board. Oh no! That can’t be our ferry! There isn’t room for a cinema on that! But Jake had said the bunks were under the lorries, so maybe the cinema was under the cars, in the bottom of the boat. I cheered up.
We walked onto the boat across a rattly ramp over the water. I pointed out towards the sea. “Do we go all the way down there Dad?” I asked.
“No son, that’s Strangford Lough. We’re going over there, to Portaferry. Look, you can see the steeple of the church.”
I followed his finger and could see houses and shops on the other side of the water. It was so close I could’ve swum across. I’d just got my 200 metres badge. Some ferry ride this was turning out to be.
With a roar of its engine, the ferry started to move and Dad, Mum and I stood by a railing and watched the town he called Strangford get smaller and smaller and the town called Portaferry get bigger and bigger.
“There’s an aquarium at Portaferry,” said Dad. “They have sharks and all sorts of fish and you can even touch them.”
“Can we go there Dad, please?” I pleaded. “Please?”
“Sorry Toby, by the time the church service is over and we have the meal it’ll be time to come home. Your Mum and I have to work tomorrow. Maybe we’ll go some time we’re not working.”
“You’re always working.” I was feeling very grumpy now. We were already pulling into Portaferry. The ferry ride was over. Now there was just the boring church bit. I was really fed up with Aunty Rosemary and Uncle John for having a baby and inviting us to this stupid Christening. Jake’s mum was having a baby soon too, so was Timmy’s. Everyone was having babies. Except us.
I knew the church service would take forever. The only good bit was when the minister put too much water on the baby’s head and Great Uncle Joe gave Aunty Rosemary a dirty looking hanky to dry it up and then the baby spewed all over the minister. That was good. But when I started to laugh, Mum went ‘Shush!” and gave me a really cross look.
We went to a restaurant afterwards, but there weren’t any burgers, just horrible mash and some sort of brown meat covered in gravy that looked like poo. And they expected me to eat cabbage. I hate cabbage! Mum got cross because I wouldn’t eat and said why couldn’t I be a good boy like Michael. Michael is eight, so he is a year older than me, but I’m just as big as him. I’d met him one other time before, so I guess that made us friends.
I was just eating my ice-cream which was really good when Michael came over. “Wanna go to the harbour?” he asked.
“Mum, can I go to the harbour?”
“No, you’re too wee.”
“Michael’s going, and I’m as big as him,” I pointed out. “And you don’t think I’m too wee to eat cabbage!”
Mum ignored my reference to the cabbage. “If Michael’s mummy and daddy said he can go, that’s up to them, but I don’t want you out there by yourself. You’d have to cross that busy road to get to the beach.”
“I’ll be careful Mum, I promise,” I said in my best good boy voice.
Suddenly Dad spoke up. He had a cream coloured moustache, which made me giggle. He was just starting his third big glass of that black drink with the foam on top which looked like whipped cream. “Let the boy go Doreen, he’ll be sensible. And Michael knows his way around here. He’ll look after you.”
Michael and I darted out before Mum could say another word, and were standing on the harbour – not too close to the edge – throwing stones into the water when I saw Mum walking out of the restaurant. She couldn’t see me at first, and stood, shading her eyes from the sun, looking for me, her pretty blue dress all floaty in the breeze. She looks like a princess, my Mum. I really love her.
“Mummy!” I shouted and she smiled as she walked over to us. “Have you finished your dinner?”
“I’ve had far too much to eat,” she said, patting her tummy. “And I wanted to see what you were up to. I don’t want my best boy falling into the sea, do I?
I rolled my eyes. “We’re okay Mum, if you want to go back in and talk to your friends.”
But Mum sat and watched us throwing stones, and then she even joined in.
“Fancy going for a walk along the shore to look for more stones?” Mum asked.
“Yeah. You comin’ Michael?”
“Naw, I don’t like walking. I’m staying here,” said Michael.
I held Mum’s hand as we clambered over rocks beside the sea, although I knew now this was not the real sea, just a lough. She sat on a big rock and held my shoes and socks as I paddled in some rock pools and searched for crabs and other creatures. She didn’t even get cross when one of my trouser legs rolled down and got a bit wet. I found a patch of wet sand between some rocks and began to dig a hole with my hands, watching as it instantly filled up again. How did that happen?
“Remember we used to come to the beach lots Toby,” she said.
“We were at the beach nearly every day, and you used to lie and sunbathe and I built loads of sandcastles.” Of course I remembered. “I build one as high as a house and then those two big children came and knocked it down.”
“And you cried and cried and the only way I could calm you was to take you for an ice-cream at Grahams on the way home,” smiled Mum. “I’m surprised you remember that. You were only about three.”
“That was before you went back to work Mum. Now we never come to the beach and I have to stay at Jane’s every day after school.”
“True.” Mum stood up and started to walk back to the harbour. She reached out her hand and I held it tight.
“Were going to have to see if I can get Doreen and Toby a lift up the peninsula and back down to Strangford,” Dad was saying to Uncle John. “I’ll just wait here. Then Doreen can pick up our car, drive back here, get me and we can head home.”
“It’ll take hours,” said Uncle John. “Sure, stay the night.”
“We can’t. We both have to be in work early.”
After the walk, we had gone back to the restaurant for a while, but when we came back out, we found something weird had happened. Everything was white! Dad said it was a sea mist. It was fantastic, I could hardly see anything at all. And when I looked out across the lough, I could have been in the middle of the hugest ocean.
But it meant the ferry couldn’t sail. And that meant we were stuck because our car was on the other side. I didn’t care. Maybe I’d get tomorrow off school.
Then an old man wearing a sailor cap appeared and said he would take all the people who were waiting to get to Strangford on his boat. It was really exciting because it was a wooden boat and there was only a little hut for the captain to sit in. Everyone else had to sit on a wooden bench around the outside of the deck. It had no roof and stank of fish! I snuggled up to Mum as we sat waiting for all the people to get on. She had put on a soft jumper and I hid my face in it. The mist was so damp and clammy. I felt sleepy. The boat began to move. I closed my eyes.
“Ahoy there, young shipmate!” a loud voice shouted. I opened my eyes with a start and there in front of me stood a pirate. He had an eye patch and a hat with the skull and crossbones on it and he was wearing a stripy teeshirt and short trousers and Reebok trainers. I wondered where the pirate had bought his Reebok trainers.
I blinked, sure I was dreaming, but when I opened my eyes again, he was still there. And he was waving a sword. At my Mum! Behind him were other pirates. And probably lots more too, hidden in the mist.
“Eh Jim lad!” the pirate yelled in a strange voice. It must be the rum, I thought. All pirates drink rum. It’s like that black stuff Dad was drinking. Makes them talk funny.
“And what ‘ave we here, a pretty princess?” said the man, pointing his sword at Mum.
“Don’t touch my mummy, you horrible pirate!” I shouted, jumping up in front of my Mum. “You have to fight me first.” I lifted my arms up the way I do at karate. “And I’ve got a yellow belt,” I told him.
He bent over and put his face close to mine. I could smell the rum off him. I wondered if they had tied the captain up.
“We could use a brave lad like you on the high seas, eh Jim lad,” the pirate said.
“My name’s not Jim, it’s Toby, and I don’t want to be a pirate. I’m staying here, with my Mummy and Daddy. You can’t touch us.” I was beginning to feel a bit afraid. “Dad!” I shouted. I knew he was sitting beside my Mum, protecting her. I didn’t want to take my eye off the evil pirate, but I wanted to make sure they were alright. So I looked round, and to my surprise they were both smiling.
Then another pirate walked up behind the evil pirate and put his arm round him. “Don’t be scaring the lad now, he might do you some damage,” he said. Then he looked at my Mum and Dad. “That’s some brave young man you have there. Don’t mind Davey here, we’re on our way to Downpatrick for his stag do. The pirates of Portaferry, that’s us.”
Dad and Mum and everyone else laughed and joked with the evil pirate and his pirate friends, and then we were at the harbour in Strangford and back in our car.
As we drove away, the mist disappeared, but it was beginning to grow dark. I pulled Dad’s fleece over me and hugged Goliath, my gorilla. I liked to have him in the car with me. He was soft and cuddly and listened to all my stories. It was warm in the car, and I shut my eyes and thought about the day.
It had been a great ferry trip after all. The rock pools with Mum, the mist and, best of all, real pirates who took over our ship so they could go to the town and do something with stags. I knew what stags were. Bambi’s daddy was a stag. I couldn’t wait to tell Jake all about it.
In front, Mum and Dad were talking in quiet voices. “I’ve been thinking,” Mum was saying. “Maybe I should be going part-time again. Maybe it’s time to think about giving Toby a little brother or sister…”
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