Free Narrow Minds by Marie Browne

keep his boot shut with a mixture of grubby blue baler twine and pristine, unused, bungee cords.
    She nodded, I really wished she would blink or something, she was beginning to make my eyes water just looking at her.
    John sipped his tea and added his own pearls of wisdom, ‘Just be thankful he was only a baby,’ he commented sagely.
    The woman blinked at him, ‘They get bigger than that?’ Her face was ashen. Putting her mug down on the table she turned to me with a smile and took a deep breath. ‘Thank you for the tea.’ She whistled to Titch who was trying to climb into the log basket. ‘And I’m really sorry we brought that hideous animal to you.’ She got to her feet with another sigh. ‘But I’ll tell you this …’ she narrowed her eyes and shook her head as, with Titch under her arm, she headed toward the door. ‘If ever I can’t sleep, I’m going to take a valium. I am NOT going to count sheep, ever AGAIN!’
    With that she nodded and, giving us a wobbly smile, headed out to where her husband was now sitting in the driver’s seat, his face still purple, (if anyone needed a valium he did).
    Watching them head slowly away down the drive John and I leant on each other and howled, I hadn’t laughed so hard for what seemed like years. I was still laughing even after I realised that the post he’d given me didn’t contain my new book.
    Draining his mug, my now favourite postman grinned. ‘Well, I’d better get on my way, see you tomorrow, no doubt there will be more bills … there always is.’
    I was still laughing as I waved John off then took a look at the post he’d brought me, maybe he wasn’t so bad after all, there weren’t even any bills, just a couple of bits of junk mail and an unexpected hand written envelope which I opened with a frown. Reading the contents I had to sit down.
    Geoff’s brother Philip was finally getting married; the marriage was at the end of May and was being held near Oxford. I am not a great lover of big family get-togethers for just any old reason but as this was going to give me an excuse to get closer to home I was most enthusiastic about the celebration and couldn’t wait for the date to arrive.
    Philip always surprised me, the first time I met him was when Geoff and I had lived in Birmingham, about thirteen years previously. I had answered the knock on the door and found myself face to face with a fairly scary-looking thug type. He’s about 5’10’ compared to Geoff’s 5’8’, with much more muscle. His short, light brown hair was the complete opposite to the long, backside length, flowing dark locks that Geoff had been so proud of in his younger days (I always tell people I married Cochise and ended up with Gandalf) and it didn’t help that half this guy’s face seemed to be missing, hidden under a collection of bruises, scabs and scrapes. (I found out later that he had had a run-in with a girder while doing some building work), he was also better dressed than my beloved who leans towards jeans with big holes in the knees and scruffy old T-shirts that invariably originated from either a festival or a rock concert.
    â€˜Hello,’ this oddball had said as I opened the door, then he stepped forward and tried to walk past me.
    I had panicked slightly. ‘Whoa, hold it!’ I had tried to stop him by standing in front of him. ‘Who the hell are you?’ The man frowned and looked down at me for a moment. Then giving me exactly the same grin that Geoff gives me every morning, reached down, picked me up and gave me a hug, completely ignoring the squeaks. ‘I’m Geoff’s brother,’ he said and grinned again, the eyes and the smile were exactly the same. ‘You must be Marie, is he in?’ He then pushed past me and I heard the same squeaks from Geoff as Philip picked him up and gave him a huge hug as