Kelly - The Doughnut Man

Title Page

THE DOUGHNUT MAN

A Fiction Novel For Children

By

Paul Kelly

Publisher Information

The Doughnut Man published in 2011 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening.

Copyright Paul Kelly

The right of Paul Kelly to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Synopsis

This is the story of a little boy who wanted to become a man... Only a simple wish, you might think, but when you are impatient for something to happen and time goes ever so slowly.. it seems as though you will never ever get what you want. Joe Osborne was this little boy and this is his story as he remembers it... and as it was told to me.

Chapter One

London, 1954

I wish I was six foot tall... I wish I was a millionaire.... I just wish I was a man, instead of....

Freddie studied himself in the long mirror in the hall, twisting his face to see the freckles and his hated ginger hair. It wasnt the image he wanted at all, but he knew there was absolutely nothing he could do about it as he sighed and put out his tongue at the face that stared back at him.

I wish I was just different ... thats all, he complained.

That you talkin to yourself again, Freddie? Often wonder what you get to talk about. I dunno. Uncle Joe took his cap from the hallstand and smiled as he passed his nephew on the way out to his all night shift at Frankhams. It was nearly eight oclock and he was already late in starting. Itll soon be your birthday, Freddie... wont it? Got any ideas what youd like me to get you? Well, your aunt Maggie and me, that is...?

Freddie looked away from the mirror and hung his head in shame. He hated anyone looking at him for the way he was. He hated ginger people.. he hated freckles.. and he just hated everything. That was the mood he was in as he answered his uncles question.

Theres so much... that I havent got Joe... but maybe when I get to be a bit older an bigger... perhaps...Ill be able to think clearer bout birthdays and things. Maybe when I grow up an get a job.. an that, eh? Joe smiled.

Oh dear! Its so difficult being nearly ten, isnt it Freddie, he added as he pulled his scarf around his neck.

Well, its just impossible... Im neither one thing nor the other, am I? Wish I was a man.

Youre wishing your life away, young un. Wish I was ten again... wish I... There now, youve got me at it.

Freddie laughed and felt better, as Joe pulled his cap down around his ears.

Wait till I get home in the morning and well have a good talk about it, eh? Meanwhile, think what youd like for your birthday. Its on Tuesday, isnt it?

Yes Joe... wish it was all over.

Joe slapped his nephew playfully on the shoulder with his cap.

There... youre at it again. Just try to be what you are, at this moment. Youll grow up soon enough, I can tell you. You ask your auntie Maggie an shell tell you the same, he said, but Freddie scoffed and looked annoyed.

I bet she wouldnt want to be ten again, he snarled as he looked into the mirror... but there was no change and auntie Maggie came strolling through the lounge. Would she? he added quickly, dodging a second slap from his uncle as he went through the front door and out into the garden.

You ask her at supper and you might get a big surprise, old chap, he called out as he closed the door quietly behind him. It was a fine evening and the reddening skies blazed across the horizon as Joe Osborne started to whistle contentedly on his way to work and shoved his cap into his coat pocket... but he remembered. Oh! yes, he remembered alright.. only too well.. the occasion of his own tenth birthday when that thing had happened to him. Would he ever forget it??

He clocked in at the factory gate as the day shift was coming out.

Evenin Joe. Missus O.K?

Sam Goodright passed him as he clocked out.

Yes Sam... were fine. Yours O.K?

Sam grinned, showing his two front buck teeth. Id be better if they gave me a rise, thats for sure. Wish they would.. you see, Bertha an me.. well were expecting another little one soon an I could do with a few more hours overtime, if I could get it.

Joe sighed .. Another one wishing his life away, he thought, but his sympathies were with his friend who already had four kids. Sam had a nice wife and a lovely family, so what more did he want from life? Well a few bob more might help thought Joe but he knew he was being petulant. He and Maggie had wanted a family from the earliest days of their married life, but they had been unsuccessful and it was something that Maggie very much regretted as she loved children.

Joe got into his overalls and stuffed his lunch bag into the steel locker with his works number scrawled across the door in red paint and marched into the factory floor to his post at the bolts machine. He never ever really understood what great contribution he made to the factory or to the vast giants of Frankhams motors since he only put a few bolts into sheets of metal and got to wear a mask to do a bit of welding. That was the extent of Joes working life, but it paid well enough and kept the wolf from the door, so he was reasonably content. Not a lot in the bank though, he thought as he lifted a box of bolts onto the work bench .. but then, who had these days? Well, that is if you worked for Frankhams.

He smiled as he thought of young Freddie again. The boy had been orphaned from the time he was two and Maggie had taken him into their home because Freddies mother had been Maggies younger sister and they always had something between them, ever since they were at school. It was something more special than most sisters shared, until Clare had been killed in an accident after her husband had been reported missing in the desert. He had fought in the battle of El Alamein. Freddie had been an only child and Maggie and Joe loved him as they would have done, had he been their own little boy. Freddie was the apple of their eye.

Chapter Two

Freddie sat at the table eating his supper of baked beans on toast. He always had a good appetite, despite the many other deficiencies in his young life and Maggie looked at him with total devotion as he ate; her chubby arms folded across her ample bosom and her round pink face beaming proudly. Maggie was no debutante and she knew it, but neither did she have any regrets on that score. Joe was her second husband since number one had taken off only a few weeks after their marriage and nobody ever knew where he went or what had happened to him .. He just went without a bye your leave ....is how Maggie described his parting, when asked. She was a little on the plump side, perhaps. Wholesome as Joe described it. He had always maintained that he liked a lady who was substantial... and not one of them skinny, skeleton types .. They had been married for just over three years, when they adopted Freddie, who was nearly five by that time and Joe was then a handsome young stripling of... well, she was never quite sure of his age, only that he said he was a little younger than her. They never argued about that subject, but Maggie was convinced that Joe was ten years older than he professed to be. .. for reasons that confused her at times, for Joe wasnt the least bit vain and certainly not about such a trivial matter as his age. He said he was twenty four when they had got married, since he thought he was twenty-four then and Maggie never disputed that .. even when she saw his birth certificate one day in a drawer in the bedroom, under the drawer lining. But that was another story .. and Maggies only regret was that she had no children of her own......