Don’t mess with Meadowside! Read online

  Don’t Mess With Meadowside!

  Michèle McGrath

  Don’t Mess With Meadowside!

  “What’s up, Glad?”

  “You’re all covered in mud.” The residents crowded round, expressing their concern in loud cries.

  “It’s those little fiends from the estate,” Gladys said, holding out the dripping skirts of her new spring coat. “They nearly ran into me again. I had to jump out of the way and I fell in the muddy puddle.”

  “That’s the third time they’ve nearly got one of us this month.”

  “You’re hobbling too.” Reg took her arm and led her to a seat.

  “I lost the heel of my shoe.”

  “Someone ought to do something about those little flamers,” Larry said.

  “Their parents won’t that’s for sure,” lamented Florrie.

  “Parents have no control over their children.”

  “Not like us, I would have got a good thrashing from my dad if I’d done half the things they get away with nowadays.”

  “Mine too. He’d have taken his belt to me.”

  “Why don’t you call the police, Glad, and report them?” Sid asked.

  “What would they do? They’d only talk to them and those kids don’t listen.” Gladys replied.

  “Someone’s going to be badly hurt one of these days. They ride on those bikes like maniacs.”

  “I wish I could put a spoke in their wheels, I really do!”

  “Why don’t we do it then?” All eyes swivelled to Fred.

  “What can we do? Don’t talk nonsense.”

  “You’re new here, Fred. You don’t know what they’re like.”

  “It doesn’t matter what they’re like,” Fred said forcefully. “If they need a lesson, why don’t we give them one?”

  “If only we could...” Dot sounded wistful.

  “We can.”

  “How?”

  “When I was in the SAS...”

  Gladys groaned. She saw some of the other residents rolling their eyes in frustration. Fred hadn’t been in Meadowside very long, but he had been there long enough to tell his stories over and over again. They were great the first time you heard them but it was hard to be polite after the seventh repetition. Here we go again, Gladys thought and switched off.

  “Oh! What a shame, your lovely coat.” Rose, one of the carers, came into the lounge and saw the wreckage. She helped Gladys take it off. “I’ll take it to the cleaners for you on my way home. You can’t possibly wear it like that.”

  “Oh would you? Thank you.”

  “I’ll bring you a nice cup of tea, to calm your nerves,” Rose offered.

  Gladys settled back in her favourite chair. Then she heard someone say,

  “...it might work.”

  “We can’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “What are they talking about now?” she asked Florrie.

  “Fred’s just been telling us a way to get our own back on those little brats.”

  “Has he?”

  “Tell her, Fred.”

  So Fred described his plan over again for her benefit and everyone looked interested. Gladys saw the speculation in their eyes.

  “We’d never get away with it. None of us can walk fast, never mind run away.”

  Fred chortled. “We don’t need to run away, that’s the beauty of it. It’s one of the few good things about getting old. We can sit on park benches and watch it all happen and no one would suspect.”

  The residents looked at each other again and a certain degree of gleeful hope shone on every face.

  “I’m game,” Sid said.

  “Me too.” Larry was enthusiastic.

  “I’m sick of being pushed around...”

  “I think Fred’s got the right idea,” said Annie.

  “What about you, Stan? You’ve had trouble with them before.”

  “Count me in,” answered Stan.

  “Glad?”

  “Me? After today, I’m ready for anything. My beautiful yellow coat! I’ve only worn it twice and I’ll be lucky if it isn’t ruined with all the mud.”

  “That’s the lot of us then.” Fred looked around the group in the lounge.

  “What about the staff? They don’t like them either.”

  “We can do this ourselves. If we tell them, they’ll try to stop us or take over and do it all themselves.”

  “Too true!”

  “So this is what we’ll do...”

  Fred ran Exercise Retribution like a military operation. He had to be the leader, everyone agreed, because it was his idea. He had a reminiscent gleam in his eyes as he issued crisp orders. He felt just like he had used to do, so long ago, before the sniper’s bullet had put an end to his career. All the residents of Meadowside Residential Home seemed to have taken new heart. They walked taller, straightened their shoulders and smiled a lot. There was an excited buzz of conversation in the lounge and the corridors, whenever the carers weren’t around.

  Everyone had their part to play. Stan, Dot and Annie were assigned to reconnaissance. Sid was in charge of supply. Reg was logistics. Florrie wasn’t able to walk very far but, since she owned a vital piece of equipment, she said she wasn’t going to be left out. She’d start early and be in position before any of the others arrived. Larry and Ted, who were the most active of all the residents, were the Action Squad who would carry out the operation and Gladys had volunteered to set the trap. In fact she insisted on it and no one had the heart to deny her. Everything was set up. Now to put the plan into action.

  Every day, the reconnaissance squad went out, rain or shine. Several days later, Stan came back from scouting duty hugging himself with glee.

  “The worst one of the lot’s Darren,” he reported to the group. “He’s the tall one who has the flashy new mountain bike. He always comes the same way home from school, down the main road and through the park. I’ve watched him every day this week. He rides like a demon and speeds up if he sees someone he can scare, then he rides right at them. Doesn’t matter who they are, kids, mothers with prams or people like us.”

  “He’s the one who got me the other day,” said Gladys.

  “Any cover on the path he uses?” Fred asked.

  “Lots of bushes and enough shade to hide what we want to keep hidden,” replied Stan.

  “So it’s a go?” Fred asked, looking round the group. They were all eager.

  Stan nodded. “I say go!”

  “Dot? Annie?”

  “Go!”

  “Go!”

  “Sid, you’re supply. Ready to go?”

  “Got it, Fred.”

  “Reg?”

  “All planned out.”

  “Larry, Ted, Gladys?”

  “Just give us the word, Fred, we’re go,” said Larry and the others nodded their heads.”

  “Let’s get on with it.” Gladys rubbed her hands together. “The sooner the better.”

  Fred beamed and spread out his hands as if he would embrace them all. “Ladies and gentlemen, then the word is ‘go’. Tomorrow is the day we’ve all been waiting for. You all know what you have to do. Let’s go and do it. Good luck to you all.”

  That Friday was a nice warm spring day, just right for Operation Retribution. So the residents of Meadowside prepared themselves for action, not without a few secret misgivings, but with a steely determination not to let their comrades down. Gladys put on her yellow coat, which had just come back from the cleaners with only a faint trace of staining on the hem. Florrie carefully stuffed her shopping bag on wheels with assorted items to deter any search, although Fred had assured her no one in their right mind would even think of searching someone like her. She hoped it was t
rue.

  “Are you sure it’ll be all right?” Gladys asked Fred, as she left.

  “Nothing will happen to you or your coat, I promise,” Fred answered with a grin. “You look smashing. That coat’s like a red rag to a bull, they won’t be able to resist it.”

  Gladys nodded but she had her fingers firmly crossed.

  “Geronimo!”

  “Attagirl, Glad. Go get them.”

  A surprising number of Meadowside residents were out in the park on Friday afternoon. Reg and Gladys were sitting on one of the benches, enticingly near to the large muddy puddle. Reg didn’t actually need to be there but Glad didn’t want to wait alone in case her nerves got the better of her. Florrie was on the bench by the rose garden. She had her shopping bag with her and was gripping the handle more tightly than usual. Stan was at his relay post where he could see Fred standing by the park gates and where he could be seen by Gladys and Stan. Larry and Ted were already in their assigned places. Larry was trying not to worry for the success or failure of the plan rested firmly on their shoulders.

  Stan, Dot and Annie, who all had mobile phones and even knew how to use them, were on watch at strategic points. Stan was outside the school, Dot was on the main road and Annie stood at the corner where you had to turn to get to the park.

  The school bell rang. The kids appeared, only a few at first, then a group. Stan scanned them feverishly. What if today Darren and his cronies didn’t come? The he saw them, the ones they were waiting for. He hit the speed dial button.

  “Bingo,” he shouted when Fred answered.

  “Darren’s on the way and he’s got Wayne and Jason with him,” he reported.

  Fred’s grin was positively evil as he replied, “Good. The more the merrier. Let’s get the lot of them in one fell swoop.” He raised one of his hands high in the air.

  Stan stood up at the relay post and repeated the signal for the others to see. Larry waved to show he was ready and so did Gladys.

  “They’re coming down the road, fast. Looks like they’re coming our way,” reported Annie from the main road.

  “Roger. Action stations!” Fred raised both hands in the air and Stan passed it on, making sure Gladys had waved her acknowledgement.

  “Ready?” Reg asked.

  “Ooh! I’m all of a dither!” Gladys replied, shaking a little as she got to her feet.

  “You’ll be just fine,” Reg said comfortingly, “Think of the mess you’re going to make of the little creeps. You can do it!”

  Gladys carefully took her position, right in the middle of the pathway, temptingly near the big muddy puddle and on the far side of the bushes.

  “Action alert!” Dot shouted into her phone from the corner. Fred waved his hands high above his head. That was it. No time now for second thoughts. They were coming, just as he’d hoped and planned. Fred moved hurriedly out of the gate and stood where he wouldn’t be seen. Seconds later he heard the swoosh of cycle tyres ridden hard and the mountain bikes flashed through the narrow gateway, a swirl of crimson and silver and black, the dreaded Darren in the lead.

  As soon as they saw Fred wave, Larry and Ted pulled the rope tight across the path and fastened it to the trees at breast height to a cyclist. The height had been carefully measured because they didn’t want to kill anyone. Sid had been to a lot of trouble to get just the right colour of grey so the rope blended into the shadows. When Larry had checked earlier, you couldn’t see a sign of it until you were up close and by then it would be far too late for them to avoid.

  The mountain bikes sped on. Gladys walked forward slowly, limping a bit for good measure and hoping she wasn’t overdoing it, her bright coat shimmering in the sunshine. She heard the yell of triumph, as they spotted her, and this became her moment of blind faith, her finest hour. She pretended she had heard nothing and walked on.

  The trio of mountain bikes swept into the bushes, faster than ever. They were getting closer and closer to their quarry and this time, with three of them, she had absolutely no chance of escape. Darren whooped. Gladys turned now, knowing she was looking sufficiently terrified, because that was exactly how she felt.

  Everything happened at once. The rope twanged and the scream of metal and the thumps of the bodies hitting the ground hard were music to the listening ears. Neither Larry nor Ted looked to see what havoc they had wrought. Ted released the slip knot while Larry coiled frantically. The rope slithered across the path like a writhing snake. As soon as he had it all, Larry hurried down the slope to where Florrie was waiting. A second later he had plunged it deep among her parcels and out of sight. Florrie stood up slowly and began to shuffle off in the direction of the home, pushing her shopping bag in front of her. She was even slower than usual, because it was hard to keep walking when she was giggling so much.

  Gladys surveyed the chaos of bikes and legs which confronted her. All three lads lay sprawled on the path, fighting for breath and nursing the different parts of their bodies that had encountered the ground at the very moment of their triumph. Gladys turned away, a big evil grin on her face. When she had her fall, Darren had certainly not stopped to help her. So she walked away and left him to it in return. Revenge is very sweet.

  One by one, the residents of Meadowside left the park and returned home.

  “Well done everybody!” Fred said as he lifted his teacup and saluted his team. “I told you we could do it and didn’t we do well? I’d like to thank everybody, the reconnaissance team, supply, relay, getaway and, of course, our action team, Ted, Larry and our fabulous Gladys!”

  “There’s not a spot on my coat, just as you promised me, Fred. I think we should raise three cheers for or leader, Fred, and his fabulous plan.”

  The cheers almost lifted the roof and brought the staff hurrying to see what was going on. It took some time to get rid of them and they left with puzzled looks on their faces.

  “The lads on the estate aren’t the only ones who treat us like dirt,” Ted said when they were alone again. “We’ve righted one wrong, but there’re others.”

  “Oh?” Fred asked.

  “Once you get in a place like this, everyone thinks you’re finished so they can do what they like to you.”

  “For example?”

  “Well, there’s that bus driver who won’t let me on with my shopping basket. He says it’s too big but I can’t walk properly without it,” Florrie told him.

  “And what about the woman at the corner shop who ignores us and serves everyone else first?”

  “What about it folks? Shall we get them too?

  “We’ll teach them not to mess with Meadowside!”

  Copyright © Michèle McGrath 2011

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the author.

  All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  My books are fiction set in history.

  Written in English (UK)

  Published by Riverscourt Publishing

  Thank you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or the site where you bought it from.

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  About Michèle McGrath

  Award winning author, Michele McGrath, was born on the beautiful Isle of Man in the middle of the Irish Sea. She has lived in California, Liverpool, France and Lancashire before returning home. Living in Paris and Grenoble taught her to make a mean ratatouille and she learned the hula in Hawaii.

  Michele is a qualified swimming teacher and manager, writing self help books on these subjects. Although she writes in many genres, her real loves are historical romance and fantasy. She has won numerous writing competitions, had second places and been short-listed many times. She has had te
ns of thousands of sales and downloads.

  **Visit her blog at http://www.michelemcgrath.co.uk/blog

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  What others are saying about Michele's books:

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  “I have been terrified of the water ever since nearly drowning in Lake Michigan. My wife has tried to teach me to float - with no success - for 40 years. The techniques outlined in this book are easy to follow. Maybe finally, after all these years, I'll be able to swim and NOT be afraid of the water. Thanks Michele, wish you lived in the States so I could get private lessons." Steven on Kindle reviewing Learn to Swim, even if you are terrified."

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