Ceri was looking forward to a long summer lazing around after finishing junior school but what is on the piece of paper that threatens his future? A Piece of Paper (Part 1) by Alys

The end of term

The end of my time in school.

I turned round as I walked through the gates of Ysgol Glan Aber, my junior school, for the last time.

“Bye Mr Jones, bye Miss Williams bye all you teachers,” I whispered.

I turned to my mates and arranged to meet them later in the park for a game of footy and then jogged down the path to my flat.

Ten minutes later I reached the front door. I was a little out of breath as I’d ran up the stairs to the second floor rather than wait for the lift.

I was so excited. Six whole weeks ahead without school. I’d been planning all week with my friends what we wanted to do over our holidays.

Number one priority was have a good kick around in the park and then hopefully manage to scrounge some money to go to the fair.

I opened the door and rushed into our small two bedroomed flat.

“Mum is it OK if I go to the park before tea.” I called as I made my way to my room to dump my schoolbag and to fetch my ball.

Usually my Mum would respond with either an immediate “alright love” or “tea’s at six” but today there was a pause and then a quiet, “Ceri can you come in here please. I need to talk to you.”

Her surprising words stopped me in middle of making my way out.

“Can’t it wait Mum, I promised everyone I’d be there with the ball in five minutes.”

“Please Ceri, this is very, very important I need to talk to you now.”

There was some emphasis on the ‘now’ and so I knew this wasn’t something I could put off.”

I opened the door into the little kitchen diner. Mum was sat at the table looking older and wearier than she had in a long time.

I stood in the doorway “What’s up?”

My mother indicated the other chair next to her. I hesitated.

“Please Ceri I need you to sit here when I tell you this.”

“Alright, but I hope this won’t take long,” I said grumpily as I sat down.

Mum paused and took a deep breath before speaking quickly, “Ceri I have to tell you something which is going to seem a bit strange. Please listen carefully before you say anything.”

I looked up and studied her pensive features. This was so out of the ordinary that I started to worry about what was coming. Had I done something that bad? Was Mum really ill, well apart from hardly being able to walk after the car accident.

She continued, “ After I’ve finished you’re going to have a make decision and depending on what you decide you’ll either be going to a really nice school in September or you’ll probably be in foster care by September.”

I stared at my mother trying to process the strange sentences coming out of her mouth. It all made no sense. What decision could I have to make and how might it mean being taken from the family home.

“I don’t understand,” I ventured timidly, “What’s going…….”

She held her finger up to interrupt me, “Your great aunt Eleri died today.”

“Oh, that’s sad,” I said at the not unexpected news. She had been ill for a while, I wasn’t sure what with but Mum hadn’t taken me to see her for over a year so it must have been very serious.

As if to echo my thoughts Mum continued, “Yes, it was a relief in the end. She was completely out of it these last few months.”

I wondered what these words meant. Although she’d been friendly enough as any 70 year old could be to someone my age, she had been very eccentric every time we’d seen here, usually someone’s birthday.

“I had a call from her lawyer after you went to school this morning. He told me she passed away last night.”

“OK”

“I had to go and see him after the phone call. He had something really important to tell me. Here it is,” she indicated a piece of densely typed A4 size paper on the table.

I looked at it but the number of words and long sentences made it impossible for me to understand although I noticed the word ‘Will’ as part of the title and our names in bold letters further down.

“What does it say, Mum?” I asked.

“Well, it’s not the official document just a summary of the contents of Aunt Eleri’s will. Mr Smithers thought I needed to see it though, although I wished I hadn’t because…..well we have a big problem now.”

She continued by reminding me of how we had been supported by my great aunt financially since my father and grandparents were killed in the car accident that had severely injured my mother herself.

“Well you remember about four years ago she started to get a bit confused about your name and thinking you were a girl.”

I remembered indeed. The embarrassment of her confusing the English girl’s name Kerry with my gender neutral Welsh Ceri.

“So are we going to have some money for a holiday now Mum?”

“Unfortunately that’s the least of our problems.” she sighed.

“So, what’s going on, can you tell me so I can go out before tea.”

She looked at me with a strange caring but resigned expression, “Right there’s no easy way of saying this so I’d better get straight to the point.”

She took another deep breath, “Aunty Eleri left all her money and her nice house in Swansea to me with a trust fund for you to access when you’re eighteen.”

“Wow, that’s great!”

“But only if you go to the school of her choice until you’re eighteen. Otherwise all her money will go to Cat’s protection and we won’t even have her monthly payment that keeps this roof over our heads”

“Well, I’ll miss my friends and….”

“It’s a private school.”

“Oh, that’s a bit weird, will they all talk posh and everything? But I suppose it could be fun”

Mum sighed again and then spoke slowly and deliberately, “It’s a private all GIRL’s school.”

End of Part 1