Yesterday Niamh came round for a one-night. It was spectacular – first we went upstairs and played a few games, and then me and Niamh went down to the tent. Unfortunately, the blow-up bed wasn’t completely blown up, but we lay our sleeping bags on the floor inside the tent and cushioned the bottom if it with blankets and exercise mats. I climbed into my onesie and Niamh got into her blue pyjamas, and we cuddled up to our teddies and cardigans and tried to get to sleep.
But of course, we couldn’t.
It was ten o’clock at night, and Tilly was asleep in her bedroom in the house and Mummy and Andy were chatting downstairs, watching telly and eating theur dinner. While this was happening, me and Niamh were gathering up our sleeping toys, pillows and blankets and clambering back out the tent.
But where were we going? We did not know. It was pitch black, and we could have easily walked through the gate and out into the streets. But we were lucky enough to see Matilda’s bright pink curtains shimmering in the moonlight.
“This way, Niamh,” I said, as Niamh began to walk into the wall. “Through here – they said they’d leave the door open in case.” So Niamh ran to me and we huddled up to each other in the cold, shivering as we slowly walked to the door and opening it. Our hands were almost in frostbite. We closed the warm door behind us and took off our crocs. We crept into the lounge, where Mummy and Andy were sitting together on the sofa, chatting.
“Cat?” Niamh said, trembling.
“Mummy?” I said, my arms and legs covered in goosebumps. “We’re cold and we can’t sleep. Could we do tops-and-tails in my bed?”
“Of course, sweeties,” Mummy said. We went upstairs and climbed into my bed. At about half eleven, we were in a deep, quiet sleep.
In the morning, Niamh unfortunately had to go home earlier than we had expected. So we gathered up her stuff, chatted, played and rather unfortunately, left.
