Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – #Potluck – #Poetry #Humour – Fred’s Legacy by Cathy Cade.

This is the third post from retired librarian and author Cathy Cade, who has been blogging since early 2018. She shares posts on a variety of topics, including some excellent grammar tutorials. I have a feeling you will enjoy this post as much as I did.

Fred’s Legacy by Cathy Cade.

We bought a pre-loved camper-van.
We’d travelled up by train.
The owner’s dog had crept inside
and wouldn’t come out again.

The lady planned to emigrate.
She’d shown us both around,
watched carefully by Algernon,
an indeterminate hound.

Embarrassed, she said, ‘Take him too.
‘He won’t cost much to feed.
‘He can’t come when I emigrate.
‘So… shall I get his lead?’

When Jim and I, and Algernon
(with dog bed, lead and trough)
were halfway down the A1(M),
the camper-van took off!

Jim fought it through the back roads
till it stopped outside a pub.
We all leapt out. One bystander
gave Algie’s ears a rub.
.
He said, ‘That’s Fred’s dog – and his bus!
‘Fred died in that there ’van.
‘’Twere camped on t’moors.
Two days it were before they found the man.’

Tears in his eyes, he told of Fred
and faithful Algernon.
‘He barked, and barked, till someone came.
Fred’s daughter took him on.’
.
Now, spooked and fearful, off we went
but Jim mistook the track.
A cloud of starlings formed an arrow
pointing our way back.

The engine gently coughed as we
approached a petrol bay.
Jim hadn’t noticed fuel was low.
The next was miles away.

The light was fading when, at home,
I raised my evening drink.
‘Thanks, Fred, for looking after us.’
I’ll swear, one headlight winked.

Fred’s Legacy and Together are two of my contributions
to the anthology our writing group has just published.

Titled Where the Wild Winds Blow, it is a motley collection of writing in response to the monthly challenges set for our reading group, celebrating the many ways different imaginations will interpret the same challenge.

Available on Amazon

Contributions from the Whittlesey Wordsmiths include fact and fiction, humour and darkness, verse and worse.

Contributing authors:
Valerie Chapman, Caroline Cowan, Philip Cumberland, Jan Cunningham, Valerie Fish, Wendy Fletcher, Teresa Gilbertson, George Holmes, Stephen Oliver, Tessa Thompson – and me, Cathy Cade.
Cover photograph by Philip Cumberland

©Cathy Cade 2018

Cathy published a book late last year and it would make a great gift for the younger members of the family – never too early to buy books for Christmas (there.. I have mentioned the C word!).

About The Year Before Christmas

Emmie the Elf, works hard, running errands and sweeping out reindeer stalls, but Santa’s newest helper still finds herself grounded on Christmas Eve. Can Emmie prove she’s capable of higher things in time for next Christmas

A review for the book

Phil 5.0 out of 5 stars A great little book for the younger reader 20 June 2019

A lovely story, well written and illustrated.
An ideal read book to read with young children.

Available in print: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Year-Before-Christmas-Cathy-Cade/dp/1916481728

And Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Year-Before-Christmas-Cathy-Cade/dp/1916481728

About Cathy Cade

After a career in libraries, I began writing in retirement and have had stories published by Scribble and Flash Fiction Magazine, and in the anthologies To Hull and Back Short Stories 2018 and Where the Wild Winds Blow from the Whittlesey Wordsmiths. My verse The Year Before Christmas, recounting the story of Emmie the elf, is available from Amazon and Smashwords.

I hope to publish a collection of my short stories later in 2019. Watch this space.

I live in the Cambridgeshire Fens most of the time, surrounded by flat but ever-changing fields. At other times I live across a garden fence from London’s historic Epping Forest.
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Connect to Cathy

Website: https://cathy-cade.com
Facebook: https://fb.me/cathycade.wordsmith.

Thanks to Cathy for permitting me to share posts from her archives and I hope you will head over there to discover more for yourselves.. thanks Sally.