Chapter Text
Sunday morning: Shropshire, England
“Elliott, come on, the taxi will be here in a minute!” Penelope shouts up the stairs to her 5 year old son.
She is standing in the hallway of their house; a smart 1930s detached on the edge of a small market town in Shropshire. Penelope has always loved this house, she purchased it BE (before Elliott) and lovingly updated much of the interior, stripping floorboards by hand, selecting tiles for the kitchen, painting every bit of woodwork herself. The house has cost her blood, sweat and tears; but it is absolutely ‘home’, and she can’t imagine bringing Elliott up anywhere else.
Today, Penelope is wearing a casual summer dress, trainers and holding a denim jacket over her arm. Her long red hair tumbles over her shoulders and down her back in a series of waves and loose curls. Between her and the front door, there’s a slightly battered black suitcase, her brown leather backpack and cross body bags, and a dinosaur themed backpack which is currently unzipped.
“Coming Mummy, I just wanted to get my fact cards for the train journey” Elliott replies, bounding down the stairs and holding the cards aloft.
Elliott is dressed in a classic ‘him’ outfit; green camo shorts, a t-shirt with a labelled image of a dinosaur and the slogan ‘Palaeontologist in Training’, and a pair of brightly coloured Skechers. His dark brown curly hair is covered by a baseball cap and his forearm has a perfectly applied (well done Penelope, bonus mum points!) dinosaur tattoo. As Penelope looks at him, she can’t help but be amazed that this beautiful boy is hers; even after 5 years of being his Mummy she is still in awe of him. She leans down, wraps her arms around him and breathes him in; he smells like coconut and raspberries thanks to his shower first thing this morning. It is a scent that Penelope considers to be entirely belonging to Elliott. She swears she knows every millimetre of his face, both by sight and touch, and she has spent countless hours just sitting and watching him play, rest and sleep over the last 5 years.
Penelope and Elliott against the world; then, now and always.
As her thoughts drift back through memories, she hears a car horn honk outside and she is brought back to the here and now.
“Ooh the taxi is here…stick the cards in your backpack, and then you go out and I’ll lock up and bring the suitcase” smiles Penelope, releasing her son from her arms as she opens the front door and Elliott bounds out.
“London…here we come!!!” bellows Elliott into the air, as he skips down the driveway towards the taxi and Penelope locks the front door. “Indeed…London here we come!” sighed Penelope, already feeling exhausted by her son’s boundless energy as she made her way to their taxi to the station.
She quickly hands their suitcase to the driver who places it in the boot, and then she straps Elliott into the car seat the company has provided. She ensures that the straps are correctly placed, the headrest lowered to his needs and pulls the harness to ensure a secure fit for the journey. She climbs into the other side of the back of the vehicle, places her smaller bags safely at her feet, and does her own seatbelt up.
“Right…let’s go!” she says, and Elliott releases a sound that is half squeal, half roar as the driver starts the engine.
This could end up being quite a long day!