Nicola Barker - Burley Cross Postbox Theft

What more is there left to say, Mr Jennings, but simply to repeat that I am sorry, truly sorry, for my pivotal role in this dark and dire farrago, and that I hope you will some day find it in your heart to forgive me?

If I may beg your indulgence for just a few brief seconds longer, I would like to finish this letter with the first four stanzas of one of my favourite hymns: adapted from Rev. 3: 20, which always gives me solace, I find, even in my bleakest hours:

REV. 3: 20

Behold a stranger at the door!

He gently knocks — has knocked before;

Has waited long, is waiting still,

You use no other friend so ill .

But will he prove a friend indeed?

He will — the very friend you need:

The man of Nazareth — ’tis he,

With garments dyed at Calvary .

O lovely attitude — he stands

With melting heart and open hands;

O matchless kindness — and he shows

This matchless kindness to his foes .

Rise, touched with gratitude divine!

Turn out his enemy and thine;

Turn out that hateful monster — sin,

And let the heavenly stranger in .

Thank you for reading this letter, Mr Jennings. I do hope it’s cleared up a few of the outstanding questions that may still have been niggling away at you during those long and wearisome nights in your cell.

If there is anything else you need to know, then please do not hesitate to contact me at the above address.

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it, nonetheless) that you are constantly in my thoughts and prayers…

God Bless You,

Yours Faithfully,

Unity (Gray)

PS I have yet to hear back from Lydia May re the bookmark — although something tells me that she isn’t one of life’s natural correspondents!

PPS I have been utterly bemused by the extensive coverage of the ‘Old Oak Riot’ in the local press. It took my dear nephew Timothy upwards of ten minutes to explain the Wharfedale Gazette banner headline ‘Flight Night!’ to me — and I’m still not sure if I’ve grasped it entirely!

Hawksleigh House

5 Shortcroft Road

Burley Cross

21st December

Darlingest, Darlingest-est-est Mummy,

Ethan says I must tell you, straight away (because he’s far too lazy to write himself, but he loves you VERY VERY VERY MUCH!!!!), that Mrs Jeyes awarded him a gold star for being Best in Class on Friday. He was so happy about it that he wore it all weekend — mainly on the tip of his nose (Yik!). It kept falling off (even though I glued it back on there, twice) so we all had to search for it.

One time I found it floating in the toilet bowl AND HE STILL STUCK IT ON AGAIN, SOAKING WET!!!

Oh, my God! He’s just totally DISGUSTING, Mum! (And I honestly don’t know why he can’t simply pick up a pen and tell you all this himself! HE ISN’T A BABY ANY MORE!!!)

NOOOO! HE JUST HIT ME WITH UNCLE A’S BADMINTON RAQUET AND MADE ME GET BLACK MARKER PEN ON MY FAVOURITE, YELLOW SKIRT! I HATE HIM SO MUCH! HE’S SUCH A PEST!

Ha! Aunty P’s confiscated his PlayStation and is making him peel all the vegetables for dinner! ‘But what’s wrong with frozen peas?’ he keeps whimpering.

I just made a special request for extra parsnips!

Yes!

The pile’s even bigger than he is!

SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU EVIL LITTLE MUTANT!! (I do love him, really, though — honest I do, honest, honest, honest…)

Mum, if Dad is reading this to you as you lie in bed, please tell him not to use that silly voice he always uses when he reads things out loud! I’ll be FURIOUS if I find out he did!

Oh, Mummy, I miss you so much and I wish you were here with us. Aunty Penelope and Uncle Angus have been really kind and lovely and everything but we miss you LIKE CRAZY!!! Yesterday we had Steak and Kidney Pudding for dinner (with dumplings — Granny Jane’s recipe) and Ethan COVERED his in brown sauce because it reminded him so much of yours that it made him want to cry.

I ate all of mine! Every last scrap! Even the dumplings and I had THREE! Aunty P was really, really pleased with me, although she still won’t give me my phone back!

Aaargh!!

So UNFAIR!!

But I won’t go on about it. I know you’ve got much more important things to think about: LIKE GETTING BETTER!

TRY REALLY HARD, OKAY??

OKAY?!

Remember how I said I was going to send you something very special I was making at school for Christmas? Well, I’m not sending it, now. DON’T BE CROSS! LET ME EXPLAIN! I’m sending you something MUCH BETTER instead. Aunty P and I are making a HUGE batch of chocolate truffles on Saturday (with edible Christmas decorations etc. It was ALL my idea! We bought these really, really cute holly leaves made out of icing sugar from this AMAZING site on the internet) and we’re giving them to everyone we know in these pretty little boxes (which we got at the same place. You have to build them yourself, but it’s easy).

Well, anyway, we are making you a special batch ALL OF YOUR OWN with 70 per cent cocoa chocolate. REALLY bitter, like you love! (And there might be something else, too, but it’s a surprise. DON’T LET DAD BLAB!!!!!!)

Aunty P has just said she’s planning to send an extra few boxes down — one for the consultant, and a couple for those two nice nurses (but they won’t be as gorgeous as yours, I promise!).

The thing I was working on at school (the other secret) was a piece of calligraphy (sp?). I was going to copy you out your favourite page from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, but then this girl I know gave me an even better idea (Kayla Dove — remember her? SHE’S BRILLIANT! SOOO FUNNY! I JUST LOVE HER NAME, DON’T YOU??!! She’s from New South Wales and has a belly-button piercing with a pink crystal on the one end and a silver dolphin on the other — it’s soooo , like, Britney-2004-tacky! AND she knows it, but she doesn’t care! She’s soooo FIERCE, I swear!!!).

Kayla had found this beautiful poem on the internet for her grandad called ‘The Road Less Travelled’. When I read it I was just, like, wow! and immediately wanted to copy it out myself and give it to Mr Wolf.

It took me two whole hours! IT’S REALLY LONG!! Then I made this stupid, little mistake in the third last line and thought I was going to have to start all over again from scratch! I was like, NO! NO! NO! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING TO ME!! But then Mrs Turnbull came up with the idea of just covering the bottom half of the page with another piece of paper. She said because I was laminating it you wouldn’t really be able to tell, and she was right. It looked almost perfect!

I took it over to Mr Wolf this morning and he was just, like: This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me!

I mean I know everyone’s still really cross with him for deserting us on the hike and stuff, but I wanted to show them all that I still like him and trust him, even after what he did. He just made a mistake, Mummy, and, like I said to Aunty P (who didn’t want me to give it to him, but I stuck to my guns, because I just knew it was the right thing to do): We all make mistakes in life. I’ve done some things in the past that I really, really regret (you know this better than anybody, Mum, but you carried on loving me just the same) and people have forgiven me — mainly because I’m a kid. Well, I want to forgive him, and that’s that. Even Ethan thought it was a good idea (and his ear infection was nowhere near as bad in the end as everyone thought it would be).