Geoff estranged from his UK relatives is a widower living in Portland. He is in his late forties when he faces the bad midlife crisis of being forced into retirement. Unlike many it might be one of the best things to have ever happened to him recently. For sure the next bad thing that happens could also be considered candidate for the title of 'Usually a really bad thing that is actually for the best'.

It was while looking at the two birthday cakes, each with five candles on them that Rachel felt a feeling of de ja vu, and then she was wondering where that word came from. Strangely it was a word she’d known for eons. ‘Eons’, another new old word was unearthed to confuse her. She was pulled out of her internal pondering by clapping. Looking around she saw her parents, the neighbors and a few children.

“Good girl Sally; now come on Rachel; make your wish and blow your candles out too.”

Thankfully the things, like there being two pink birthday cakes with icing flowers, that were deltas to the odd prior de ja vu feeling were able to pull Rachel out of her stalled worrying. Listening to her Mum she leaned forward, and whilst wishing for the intelligence to understand what was happening, blew out her five candles, to another round of applause. Yes, she knew her fifth birthday cake had been shaped like a rocket with bright red and blue icing trim lines on the otherwise white iced cake. The five red candles were inside five blue circle portholes that ran the length of the rocket’s body. Here the pink and yellow candles burst from the center of five of the flowers on each of the two cakes. Each cake had three yellow and two pink candles as the center of three pink and two yellow iced flowers.

Mum quickly took both cakes to the small kitchen area and cut slices onto plates. Aunt Mary helped deliver them to the children, and a moment of silence occurred as they pounced upon their food. The adults had barely started eating theirs’ when the volume in the room increased once more due to the children finishing. “Glenda can you take your sisters and their friends outside and play in the back garden.”

Aunt Marry, their neighbor, added onto the request “Kim and Anne, help Glenda in ensuring none of the children leave the back garden.”

As soon as Rachel saw the five space hoppers being brought out of their and their neighbors’ garages that stood adjacent each other at the end of the shared driveway of the two bungalows, she knew they would be holding ‘horse’ races around the apple tree. They had started doing that on her fifth birthday until they had moved from the Fareham semi-detached bungalow. They used to run the races up and down the length of the bungalows, but as her parents had got her older sister and the next-door girls to keep them in the back garden that day, a new race course was born.

She felt sad that they had sold their first house, and remembered Dad complaining later that one of the biggest mistakes he made was selling the house and moving the family into Naval housing while he was based at sea for eight months. Apparently, inflation hit while he didn’t own real estate and it took nearly seven years to have enough to afford their second house. It also took them ‘North’, closer to relatives but mainly for the cheaper real estate. Rachel held her head as she gained a headache. Was she going crazy where were these thoughts coming from? Her prior thoughts made no sense and discrepancies of near similarities were the worst to try to unravel. Why were there five space hoppers and not just three? Her sister Glenda had one as did Kim and Anne. He didn’t have a girl’s toy.

Well it wasn’t a girl’s toy really, Andy, who as a six-year-old boy wasn't at the girls' party, but had been at his fifth birthday last time, owned one. However, the three girls with naming their mounts and treating them like horses, had made Geoffrey think they were girly. He might have even said they were to his parents. There were times he wondered how much his big sister had manipulated him, or if he had just been an awkward kid. He was thankful his parents had been so good, because they got the brunt of him being difficult whether it was due to his sister’s shenanigans or his own obstreperousness.

“Glenda, don’t let any of the children go to the front of the house…

“But we always race here, and it’s the side, not the front of the house.”

“Your Mum said ensure everyone stays in the bark garden. You can make laps around the apple tree.” Dad firmly stated while herding everyone into the back garden, and closing the gate to the drive way. “You alright Rachel? You look pale.” He added seeing one of the twins had actually stayed in the back garden and only looked through the open gate. Figuring she had to be sick as she had actually followed the rules without a second enforcing he placed the back of his hand against her forehead to see if she felt hot.

“Is Daddy’s princess okay?” Mum asked noticing what her husband was doing having organized the first race around the tree. “Come inside out of the sun Rachel. Do you want something to drink?”

“Dad you mustn’t sell the house when you go onboard HMS Zulu. We lose so much money, and it takes ages to be able to buy a house again.”

“Rachel, you know you mustn’t read Daddy’s work papers.”

“Michael she’s five. She can’t have read them. Do you think Glenda might have, and then told the twins?” Mum defended Rachel from Dad’s accusation.

“I don’t actually recall bringing that paperwork from work. Do you think she heard us talking?"

“Must have, though actually I don’t think you ever said the ship’s name to me before. I would remember Zulu I think.” Mum said as she gently brought Rachel inside. “It’s rather odd for a Royal Naval ship’s name.”

“It’s actually the third RN ship* so named.”

“The first wounded?” Aunt Mary asked, as Rachel relaxed into one of the bean bags in the sun room looking out on the back garden. The four adults had chosen to enjoy their coffee in the sunroom prior to rounding the escaping children upon seeing they’d attempted to go AWOL. From here they could ensure they stayed once more inside the back yard.

“She seems pale. I hope she isn’t going to get sick.” Mum offered noticing Rachel seemed to be day dreaming, then again that was as usual.

“I thought that too, but no temperature thankfully.” Dad offered.

“Well that’s a relief.” Aunt Mary stated then returned to the interrupted conversation. “So how goes you house hunting? We will miss you and hope you’re not moving too far.”

“The two bedroom house is just too small. If we could buy next doors we would gladly stay your neighbor…

“We couldn’t afford that and why would we need two kitchens, plus the expense of joining them together to make a detached bungalow. The building permits. Also, the twins will be fine sharing a bedroom. It’s just too much to place three girls in a single tiny room, otherwise we’d stay here.” Dad quickly killed Mum’s dream idea.

“Well if we went into officer housing, we could get a four bedroom house…

Rachel tuned out what her Mum was saying as she was struggling with thinking how she could stop her parents from selling. It is not like she could say that they must own a house. Or explain knowing a huge inflation occurs over the next year that they will need several years to recover from. Years needed to recover the lost money before they were able to afford buying a house again. Why was she so sure of this happening?

It had started with the wrong cake. There being too many of them and it being pink. That was followed by the new words with recollection of knowing them for years, which jived badly seeing as she was today only five years old. The weird wrongness was next while outside. Watching Glenda, Anne and Kim bring five space hoppers while recalling that there should be three. Correctly knowing they would race around the apple tree and then it happened. So as that happened the fiasco over the house would too. Her parents and neighbors were right now discussing moving and the officer’s housing seemed the best choice.

If the memories were real then she was a boy, and Sally was Daphne. Well Daphne was her girl’s name she never said what her boy’s name was and she; Err, he hasn’t been born yet. He, er she was around twelve to fourteen when we were shot in New York and he was forty something…

“Rachel, how do you know the name of the ship I’m going to be serving on next?” Dad interrupted her wool gathering, having seen the colour return to her face he was less worried she was sick and his earlier concern of her getting into his work documents was re-awoken.

“Well it was in all your letters you wrote home to us. Along with the stick man pictures you drew of how you signaled using ‘paddles’? to the helicopters trying to land on the ship.”

“Rachel, I haven’t left yet, nor written you letters, and I am a Hydrographer and Meteorologist, I am not going to be signaling the helicopter pilots on how to land.”

“Oh, maybe you just thought it was a fun fact to share with your son with pictures, and I thought you were the guy that actually did it. Anyway, the letters said the ship’s name.

Rachel’s parents looked at each other. Their daughter just referred to herself as a boy. Ignoring how she was happily talking about something that hadn’t yet happened as if it had, as explanation of knowing what was going to happen, which surely was circular reasoning. ‘What should they do about Rachel?’ Was more or less the thinking of both parents.

Rachel stopped herself from continuing. She realized that discussing about while being a teenager being told to buy a house as soon as he could afford one, to avoid his father’s mistake would not go across well. She was thankful Dad hadn’t asked about the diagrams of how to hold the ‘bats/paddles’? to prove his knowledge, as that was years ago according to the new old memories, and he recalled there had been diagrams, but couldn’t for the life of her remember what they looked like.

A couple of children stopped the inquisition, and Rachel fled outside leaving four concerned adults behind. However, they convinced themselves that Rachel must have heard them talking and then dreamed up the rest with her overactive imagination. She had said off the wall stuff before. In wanting to avoid discussing the male pronouns and identifiers each adult encouraged the other to shelve the conversation. They went back to discussing why they needed to move and the advantages of naval housing in Porchester that was only a stop away on the railway line to Portsmouth from Fareham. It meant they could keep in touch easily.

Rachel found that apparently, she was up next to ride ‘Pied Eye’ against Glenda on ‘Blackie’ as usual, and Mandy, Susan, and Kim on ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Misty’ and ‘Tomahawk’. Rachel didn’t fuss she wasn’t on her ‘Tomahawk’, Kim always wanted it ever since Rachel named her mount. Kim preferring it to the one she’d named ‘Pied Eye’ moments before.

Anne and Glenda had been the ones to say the girls couldn’t name their mounts the same name as used by another, nor change name after hearing something better. As the three Stillman girls were nearly through being read ‘Black Beauty’ from their Mum, Sally quickly named her mount ‘Black Beauty’ while Glenda grasped ‘Blackie’** to trump her younger sister. Anne had followed with ‘Misty’, and no one knew what Kim and Rachel were thinking other than Rachel following the ‘Pied Eye’ with a ‘Tomahawk’ for her horse’s name.

Rachel glanced at the poor lineup position Kim and Glenda had chosen, but then recalled this was likely the race they flipped the direction of the laps around the tree. Deliberately starting slowly she looked over her shoulder and saw them bouncing in place while turning the space hoppers to face the opposite direction, and he cut back after them in leaping bounds.

While the other four all swung to orbit the tree close, he swung further out wide. Sure enough the planned switcheroo on the lap direction caused the similar tangle when four versus the prior three space hoppers approached close in to the tree trunk on head on collision, and he was able to carry on in the reverse direction away from the snaffle up with his outer orbit of the tree and win the race.

“How’d you know the direction was changed, Rachel?” Anne asked.

“You three do it all the time. One of us will start to notice and pay attention.” Rachel offered.

“But, you weren’t even here when we planned this.” Kim sulked.

“Are you sure you’re the eldest Kim?” Rachel asked. “I mean your pout is the cutest baby pout I’ve ever seen.”

“Rachel and Sally are five today, not nine or something, yes?” The nearly eight year old Anne asked Glenda, as Rachel easily beat Anne’s nine year old sister in the last verbal spar.

* First HMS Zulu, Tribal F-class destroyer launched on 16 Sept 1909 and commissioned on March 1910 had her stern blown up and sunk by minefield off Dover on 27 Oct 1916 during world war one. The forward section was attached to the Nubian’s stern that lost its forward section to torpedo and the new ship became HMS Zubian.
Second HMS Zulu, Tribal-class destroyer was launched 23 Sept 1937 and commissioned 7 Sept 1938. It was sunk 14 Sept 1942 during world war two.
Third HMS Zulu, Tribal-class Frigate was launched on 3 July 1962 commissioned on 17 April 1964 and sold to the Indonesian Navy in 1984.
** “Blackie” was “Black Beauty’s” name from original owner at the start of the book.