Chriss stirred with a jolt and sudden realisation hit her, where she was and how she was now, in the present. The sound of the intruding telephone had jolted her into reality once again. Rubbing her eyes she rose from the bed and reached out towards the telephone. It was the school yet again! When waking that morning, she had not felt very well and had slumped back into the comfortable pillow on her bed and promptly fell fast asleep again. She did not like thinking about the recent past, but it was always there ready to emerge and she had no control over its actions in her mind.

The 'new' school as she called it had just recently been purchased with the help of the bank of course, through which she had purchased the previous school in Cobham, Surrey. After two years of mind bending consultation, she had managed to find a serious buyer for the business and all the legal work had gone through without a hitch and the school was sold and paid for within a few months. The months before the sale of the school were extremely stressful for Chriss, late nights working at the computer, talking with parents on the telephone and checking that all the staff were happy and progressing and that the children were safe in their capable hands. The work at the Cobham School was another long, long story and Chriss was exhausted by her efforts in holding everything and everyone together.

Now the 'new' school in Norfolk was proving to be just as stressful and demanding, if not more so, with more staff and more children and obnoxious parents who were finding it very difficult to accept her and her Montessori ways. Someone had recently made the comment that Norfolk people found change difficult, but no one commented on how cruel and utterly nasty they could be. Of course not all Norfolk are like that, but Chriss had hit against some very cruel and blinkered people after buying the school, and she regretted it immensely.

Her energy was draining away so quickly in front of her very eyes and every day was an effort and a survival process. It seemed to her that the only people who really enjoyed her efforts were the children and the staff and a very small number of parents, who were completely new to the area and the school. There were times when arriving, she would walk into the entrance to the school and the 'nasties' as she came to name them, were standing in the hallway, waiting impatiently for their children. 'Good morning' she greeted them with a smile. In return, a blank hard glare and total ignorance of her existence resounded back towards her eager self. She felt hurt but she was determined not to show it and shrugged off the negative energy, entering the main door with a brave smile on her face only to be greeted by disgruntled staff who had 'had enough' of the rudeness of the parents.

Whenever she arrived at the school, she put on a brave and cheerful face, but inside felt afraid and nervous as she approached the main door to the building. She would never quite assess the mood of the staff, but the wonderful children were always the same. They adored her and were always greeting her with great affection and loving the fact that she had arrived at last.

Now the deputy manager of this school was on the phone, begging her to come in as quickly as she could. A member of staff was in tears and a disgruntled Ofsted inspector had arrived at 8.0am that morning and was asking for her. 'Oh what do they want now' Chriss had said with a tiring lilt to her voice. 'Some parent has complained about the mouse traps in the kitchen' Lizzie had replied. Chriss spoke with the Ofsted inspector on the telephone, and reassured her that the mice were being dealt with and that Rentokil had been over to the nursery and that an enormous sum had been paid out to them, for their services. The children were not in the kitchen ever and the door to the kitchen was always locked and sealed safely behind a child gate.
Chriss sighed in exasperation and wished that she had never bought the blasted business.
Maxie had complained about wasps in the nursery again and Chriss asked Lizzie if the staff were ensuring that the insect nets were up at the windows. 'No' replied Lizzie, 'they are just hanging loosely and no one is checking that they are covering the windows properly'. Chriss replied rather bitterly 'well, perhaps they should, because wasps and flies will get into the rooms if they don't' a deep sigh rather irritatingly, passed from her lips ' I will be in shortly' she added 'same time as ever'. Lizzie replied 'thanks, see you soon' and placed down the phone.

Chriss thought about happier times when the pressure and strain from Ofsted and the possibility of complaining about the simplest small thing was generally non existant. All the children were safe and looked after so well, none had been stung by a wasp or eaten by a blackfly or whatever Ofsted and the complaining parent were expecting 'man eating mice, maybe' Chriss muttered.
'Oh god, here we go again' she exclaimed and prepared herself to fly down the lovely country lanes towards the school, whereupon entering the gates to the converted barns caused a nervous jolt in the bottom of her stomach and a deeply unhappy feeling that just would not go away. She was nervous and agitated as if she was about to face an entourage of angry faces and voices which she was ill prepared to deal with. A nasty, negative energy was lurking and she felt it so vividly every time she walked through that doorway.

Arrival

Six weeks later the journey away from Devon was nightmarish. Chriss felt she was the lucky one having only George with her in the old green car. It was nerve wracking nonetheless. She drove quietly past the old Montessori school with its beautiful Wisteria creeping now like an endless
brown twisted web of wood, no flowers now and no life around. The day was damp and cold, the sky grey and dank. It was December after all and school was closed for Christmas holidays.

Chriss felt an excitement well up inside her, she was going home and taking two new members of the family with her, William and Maria. Both William and Maria were in the car with Peter and following a mobile call Chriss discovered that Maria was screaming most of the time; but Peter was more able to tackle that kind of thing and she knew Maria was safe with him. Her motherly instinct came through nonetheless realising that if she was in the car with Maria she would be stopping every mile or so, giving Maria a cuddle and feeding her and trying to keep her happy. Peter commented later that Maria had screamed virtually all the way to Surrey, falling asleep finally with sheer exhaustion. The whole trip would only have served to upset her in an extreme fashion if she was in the car with a poor and screaming baby.

After 50 miles or so, Chriss started to feel tired, her eyes slowly giving in to that awful heavy feeling, fluttering and slowly closing. She began to feel strangely relaxed, thankfully George was behaving so well and talking excitedly to her as they travelled along the endless roads.
Stopping now along a wide country lane, she opened the door of the car and stepped out bravely facing the brisk wind and wetness. 'Will I ever get there?' she thought to herself knowing full well there was another 150 miles to go and a little panic began to set in. She looked into the back window at George who was now fast asleep, his head sweetly to one side, he looked so peaceful. 'Right, must get on', she said to herself and stepped back into the car switched on the engine and then away again into the pelting rain.

She wondered how Peter was doing, he must have been at least one hour ahead of her. They had started to drive the long roads to Surrey in convey, had stopped because Chriss felt tired, and after some discussion on some open country lane they had decided to let him drive ahead as he was already an hour or so behind schedule for the collection of the keys to the rented home in Surrey.

Chriss watched longingly as Peter drove off, she hated being left and did not relish the lonely drive of 150 miles or so on her own, with George. She felt concerned and nervous, as this was the first time she was left to cope with a long drive by herself. To cheer herself she started to wonder what the house looked like, she remembered the area well and how to get there, but she had not ever seen the house. Peter's colleague had seen it and had chosen it for them, and told them that it was very suitable so she knew it would be fine, but still she wondered - it kept her entertained. Then before she realised it, she was on the motorway driving towards London - still a long way off and along unknown roads in the darkness.

The motorway was very busy the closer Chriss approached the London end. She became rather nervous with all the traffic as she had only been driving a few years now and hated busy roads.
She decided to pull into the next services and she recognised them straight away 'oh good, something familiar' she muttered remembering driving into the same services with Peter on one of his many business trips down to London. The whole journey seemed to be taking forever, a lot longer than if Peter was driving. Chriss and George quickly enjoyed a little snack and drink at the services, refreshed themselves together and then returned to the car. It was getting dark and a sense of urgency had descended upon her.

Further along the motorway she accidentally took the wrong slip road off the motorway and found herself in dark unknown territory. It was raining outside and really dark now and she was finding it difficult to see clearly through the moonless night and worse still she was noticing some fog descending. 'Gotta try to get there quickly' she murmered to herself and although she was panicking inside, she tried to make it seem fun for George who was asking now, every moment it seemed, 'are we nearly there, mummy?'
'Not yet George' she replied gently.

By some miracle, she found herself travelling down the long road, fortunately fully lit by mid island lamposts, towards Heathrow airport. This she instantly recognised, but had no idea how to get out of the maze of rush hour traffic she had found herself in, in the midst of a foggy, rainy and moonless evening. Following signs she felt were pointing in the right direction and going around roundabouts she felt were taking her somewhere significant, she miraculously ended up at Hampton Court. How she and George got there, she does not know, perhaps by instinct, but now she really did know where she was and happily knew how to get to Cobham on the A3. This area was home territory to her and she was pleased to be surrounded by familiar landmarks and somehow, familiar drivers and familar cars. Finally reaching the A3, coming off the slip road, she drove down the crowded A3 full of fast moving traffic, going home for the weekend. As she passed over the M25 and turned left into Effingham Lane, the fog came down with a vengeance. Chriss could hardly see 3 feet ahead and being an inexperienced driver in fog she became quite nervous and the road became unfamiliar to her. All she could see as she gazed out of the windscreen in front of her was a roundish gap in the dark fog and the faint white lines on the road in front of her, merely 3 feet of it. She strained her eyes to see clearly and felt surrounded by an encompassing heavy darkness. It was not a pleasant feeling in unfamiliar territory and in the middle of absolutely nowhere but somewhere in Surrey. George was even commenting on the thick fog and she spent most of her time reassuring him and telling him everything was fine.

A fast driver behind her became impatient with her slow 20 mph speed and hooted and honked annoying her beyond belief. However, she did not speed up and the rude driver revved past her at high speed into the thick ominous fog in front of them. 'Well' she sighed wishing she could do the same thing and speed up into the dark fog ahead of her. Eventually, in thick fog, and darkness, hardly seeing clearly ahead, she found the road in Surrey where her new home was to be, quite miraculously and by accident finding the name of the road on a sign ahead of her.

Peter had been waiting in the next door neighbours house, he had arrived just in time to collect the keys from the agent waiting in the rented house for them both to appear. The neighbour had walked over after noticing the two small children and Peter on his own in the driveway and kindly invited them in for a cup of tea and biscuits. Chriss finally arrived several hours later, with George in tow and both felt relieved to have reached their destination. Peter was relieved to know that everyone was safe and warm and together again at last. The journey had been quite a nightmare for Chriss!

Chriss of course, loved the house. It was large enough for them all and the front garden was lovely with a huge, long and steep drive. It was to be the place where the family spent most of their time, when outside as there was a slope leading down to the house and the boys in particular loved riding their pedal cars down the slope, crashing into each other in the process.

After leaving the neighbours house, and very late at night, the whole family finally and peacefully fell asleep in their sleeping bags on the floor. It felt exciting to be in their new home, after arriving safely and being able to join up together again. They were back in Surrey and they felt that they were home.