Free Lettuces and Cream by John Evans

it. We’ve managed without ever since we’ve been here.’ Mike and Jan weren’t missing the television at all, nor had the kids during their holidays. But know they were back in school they couldn’t keep up with the latest ‘news’ without it.
    ‘We want to watch the cartoons and things.’
    The television was a small black and white portable, which had been adequate in their little sitting room at home, but it was going to look a bit silly in a big room. Mike dusted off the screen and found the only socket in the room-something else that was needed, more power points, and switched on. After much waving about of the indoor aerial he found he could get BBC one and two at one end of the room, but had to move the whole paraphernalia to the other end of the room for HTV the commercial channel.
    ‘Cor thanks dad, we can watch ‘Catweazle,’ oh, and, ‘On The Buses,’ and other things as well.’ David was a huge telly addict, Mandy was less bothered but liked being first with any news.
    ‘Mum, mum, come and look, the telly’s back on.’ Mandy called to Jan, who was as usual still in the kitchen, but dutifully trotted in at her daughters request.
    ‘Oh, yes, very nice sweetheart, not a very good picture though, is it?’
    ‘Well, no, but it’s not like back home. We’re probably a long way from a transmitter here, and the hills don’t help either. I think we need an aerial on the chimney. We’ll just have to keep moving it from one end of the room to the other, to get all the stations.’
    ‘Well, it doesn’t, matter, Mike, the kids are happy enough with it.’
    ‘Yeah, suppose so. Anyway, I’ve decided to make a start on cleaning off the woodwork on the stairs, get it back to natural wood. What do you think? It would save us having to paint again.’
    ‘Chris and Keith have done the same it looks lovely - except for the lilac paint.’ Mentioning Chris, gave Jan a stab of her old familiar guilt about her clandestine bedtime activities of the previous night. And, if any one had noticed, they would have seen her countenance change a little as she shrank back into her protective shell.
    ‘Right, that’s what I’ll do then.’
    Mike gathered the tools for the job, including an ancient brass blow lamp that once belonged to his father, to burn and scrape off the bulk of the old paint on the flat surfaces. All the other little nooks and crannies would have to be done by hand, which would make the job slow and tedious, but eventually a huge improvement. He worked on until Jan called that lunch was ready and the kids and Mike headed eagerly to the feeding station.
    ‘Um, I needed this.’ Mike was always hungry and the snack of lettuce and ham soon disappeared
    ‘I was just thinking won’t it be great when we have our own lettuce. And come to think of it perhaps our own ham-if I could learn how to cure it,’ Mike said enthusiastically.
    ‘Sounds nice love but we haven’t got a pig –yet.’ Jan, always the practical and calming one.
    ‘Will we have to kill the pig dad?’ David chipped in, with a somewhat murderous gleam in his young eye.
    ‘Well I don’t think it would be to pleased if we just cut lumps out of it if it wasn’t dead,’ Mike said with a silly giggle. His joke fell a bit flat and they all gave a groan of disgust.
    ‘That’s not very nice, Mike,’ Jan said disapprovingly.
    ‘Mum, I’m not going to eat meat any more,’ Mandy moaned, and gave a petulant pout.
    ‘There now see what you’ve done,’ Jan reprimanded
    ‘Well, I will, dad,’ David said with enthusiastic bravado.
    ‘Shall we all talk about something else please,’ Jan said, giving Mike a, ‘’don’t you say any more,” look, and adding, ‘who wants a piece of my fruitcake for afters?’
    After lunch, the rain was still heavy so Mike and Jan worked together sanding and scraping the stairway and were making good progress. This was Mike and Janice at their best. They made a good team and each had their own