Rock And Roll

TOO OLD TO ROCK AND ROLL AND OTHER STORIES :$:$:$:)

'Why don't you both stop it?' Valerie's voice said on the phone.
'Well, Dad began it,' Greg answered. 'He called me a baby.'
'And you called him an old man. That wasn't nice.'
'I didn't really mean it. He isn't very old, is he?' Greg said.
He remembered that Valerie was about forty herself.
'No. And what about that piece from thenewspaper about older men losing their hair? You put thay up on the kitchen wall! You've got to stop it,' Valerie said.
'We need someone here to stop us', Greg said quietly.
'I know,' Valerie spoke softly now. 'Well, I'll be there at eight o' clock tonight. I'll see you then, all right?'
Greg put the phone down and went into the kitchen. He looked at the piece from the newspaper about men losingtheir hair. Near it on the wall there was a piece of paper with Mum's writing on it. Dad took away all her things when she died.
Dad still had a lot of hair. It was only bit thin on the top of his head. And he did it differently now. It showed that he was getting better after Mum's death. At first he didn't want to do anything. Greg watched him in those first weeks. Dad got up, read the newspaper,cooked meals, went to work -but he was dead inside. When he was at work, Dad was Stephen Barber the optician. Perhaps there he smiled and talked and was more like a living person. But he wasn't like that at home.
Things were getting better now because of Valerie. She was a friend of Mum's really, and was waiting to see Mum when the unhappy policeman came to the house to tell them about theaccident. She lived about fifty kilometres away and had a home to go back to. But the policeman wanted to take Dad and Greg to the hospital and Dad turned to this stranger and said, 'Please stay.' So when they came back, she was there.
And Christmas happened because of Valerie, too. Greg said nothing about Christmas, but one day Valerie said angrily to Dad, 'And what about Greg, Steve?'
'He isn'tinterested in Christmas,' Dad answered tiredly.' Christmas was wonderful with Frances. Without her, it's nothing.'
'Well, Frances is dead, but you and Greg are alive. If Christmas with Frances was wonderful, it was because she loved it. Can't you keep alive something she loved? Can't you do it for her?'
Later Greg said to Valerie, ' Are you coming here for Christmas?'
'I usually visit my mother andfather,' she replied.
But Greg knew that Valerie must come,' If Christmas doesn't happen this year,' he thought, 'perhaps it will never happen again.'
'Tell me about Christmas with your Mum, Greg,' Valerie said.
And Greg told her how he and his mother always put the decorations on the Christmas tree together.
'I've fot all the things for the tree in my room,' he said. 'I hid them there when Dadtook everything of Mum's away.'
'Well, we've got to be hard with him,' Valerie said. 'If we want to bring him back to life, we'll have to be a bit unkind to him. Wake him up a little.'
And so, on Christmas Eve, just before Valerie arrived, Greg came downstairs with the box of decorations for the tree.
His father looked old and tired. ' What have you got there?' he said.
'The decorations forthe tree,' Greg answered.
'What tree? We aren't having a tree. How could you --'
'I want a tree,' Greg said. 'I'm sure that Mum wants Christmas to be happy for me.'
His father looked round slowly. 'It's  too late to get a tree now," he said.
"Valerie's bringing it with her," Greg replied. "Shall I light the fire?"
After Christmas life was easier. Valerie came more often and she stayed for theweekend. They began to call the third bedroom "Valerie's room".
Slowly, Dad was beginning to come back to life. He bought some new clothes too, and Greg was pleased about that. But perhaps the piece about older men losing their hair was unkind, Greg thought. He took the piece of newspaper off the kitchen wall, and wrote a note in its place.
I'VE GONE TO BAND PRACTICE. VAL PHONED. SHE'LL BE...