Rowing Child

James sat enjoying it. He wasn’t allowed to shout or jump around; both could have him in the water to swim to the bank.
“What’s Four doing wrong?” his dad asked him quietly
James stuck his head out slightly, just enough to see, not enough to lean
“Four, raise your hands on the finish!” he yelled excitedly
“Thank you, Cox!” the laugh came, even Stroke gave a grin, who didn’t smile or talk much
“A’right lads, next stroke, race pace 30, and change THERE!”
The push of speed and strength was better than a ride in an F1 car or going in a space launch, the eight men all looked up, straightened their backs and pushed. The boat flew.
“Come on, boys, get that finish, and there, push it on! Drive it a-way!” called James’ Dad, only he was Cox now, no talking.
The wind pushed into the roots of James’ hair and rushed into his ears, each stroke forced him into his dad’s chest even except when he sat forward against it.
“Sit back; helps the balance” muttered Stroke, and James sat back, Cox ignored it.
“Come on, boys, nearly there, let’s have a push for ten, change there!” suddenly Cox began to roar “Push it away! And Two! Empty that tank! Three! Don’t lose that pressure! Four!”
James wanted to shout, wanted to be in the team pushing, he saw everyone’s eyes go empty except Stroke, who had everything to think about, whose eyes looked like a murderer’s as he glared at a point above Cox’s head.
The families on the bank cheered, calling the men by their names and encouraging them. James wanted them to be quiet; you shouldn’t distract them.
They weren’t at the finish.
“Keep that pace, don’t let that pressure drop, come on, boys!” called Cox, they were about five more strokes away
Three seconds later, they did it.
“New club record for the Senior Eight Men’s Team,” came the neutral drone over the speakers as the families and club members screamed, “well done, boys”
James roared as loud as he could with the team, Stroke shared a handshake with Cox, and high-fived and shook with the others behind, and finally gave James a pat on the shoulder
“Lucky charm,” he said, grinning and panting
Two of the men were sick over the side
“Fastest club in the UK, boys!” roared Fergus, their coach, who had coached the England Men’s Eight team for the 2008 Olympics and had retired victorious
The team cheered again and turned the boat to bring it back to the landing stage.
James was lifted out by Stroke so his dad could get out. He was shocked that he was still small, still the same as before. He had vaguely hoped he would take something in from it, but his friends were over there, if he had changed, they would see it. He wanted them to look at him and see a warrior or a hero, or some spiritual but real virtue of being a Rower.
“That was so cool!” said Ben, running over with Adam and Sean
“We heard your dad from the tea tent!” said Sean, swallowing a huge swig of cola
“Hey, I saw Stroke talk to you!” exclaimed Adam, as if it had been Batman
“Yeah, I’m their lucky charm,” said James, grinning, “when he wins, he says ‘Lucky charm’ to me”
“So that’s why you were on the boat?” demanded Ben, who was graceless in his jealousy and had screamed betrayal at his mother for asking if he might have a ride too.
James was confused
“Yeah, they wouldn’t want me for the weight” he said, trying not to grin too much because Ben was very angry at anyone who laughed at him
“I thought it was,” said Sean pompously, “as your dad isn’t very heavy they’d need you for the official weight”
“Dad’s right on what’s allowed, he diets for it” snapped James. He was thin and weedy, much like his dad, and resented the suspicions of anorexia that followed James’ being allowed on the boat and his father’s thin frame.
“But isn’t your dad on protein shakes?” asked Adam slyly
“Only because it’s better than sandwiches for lunch!” James answered roughly, and then turned “I’m getting a Mars Bar” and stalked off
He hated them. They still treated him like the smallest kid in the club, they made him be the cox on most outings and his mother was keeping an eye on him because he kept trying to sneak into the gym in the club and in their garage.
He fumed over to his mother who was watching the men put the boat in the boathouse.
“That looked fun,” she said smiling at him
“Yeah,”
She pulled him into her, so he could stand while she hugged him
“And I heard the boys talking to you coming back from the tea tent. They’re just jealous, I was talking to their mums,”
James nodded, that made him feel better.
“Sean, especially, even if Ben was louder about it,” she added
“That was just because she’d tried to get him a go,” said James, glad his mum would know better than that
“No, it’s because she didn’t get him a go. His dad plain refused. I was there,”
Mums were the organisers, coordinators, and there-when-it-happen-ers of the rowing world. They knew everything, and more importantly, you had at least one on your side. James’ mum was the matriarch, who sorted most of the problems out like most mums did but she knew how to handle rowing children, who baffled everyone. She’d raised three already.
They watched the U18 Skulls race
“When can I be in a team?” he asked again
“When you’re 11 and can join the Uppers” she replied
“I don’t want to be a Cox... unless it’s for Dad’s team” he added
“I think you’d pull a dead horse to sit in with your Dad’s team” his mum replied, smiling
That was James’ favourite thing for his mum to say. She understood exactly what he was thinking. She always had her blue fleece jacket on which warmed him as well when she hugged him, and she was always really calm even when he asked that question again and again.
“Her arms aren’t straight when her knees bend!” James protested, watching the winning girl
“She’s rushing,” agreed his mum, “she’s looking at what the girl closest to her is doing instead of what she’s doing,”
“Mum, when are you racing?”
“Next month, when Jenny can bring Amber,”
The Bow in his mum’s team had had a baby, and had had the last two months off and then another month because Amber had an allergy to milk and was growing too slowly on the alternative to bring out into the winter beside the river.
Facts about everyone in the club settled on James like snow, there was certainly a blizzard of it to be had, but James had the advantage of both parents being long-standing members, he’d been a rower while in the womb.
James clapped with everyone else for the girl who won, who had overtaken in the last 200m.
She was going to get what James most desperately wanted; a silver tankard stamped with the club insignia with a glass bottom.
When he got one, he was going to get his name and all his team member’s names on it with the date, and then put it up next to all the family’s ‘first trophy’ shelf.

A Question of Child Politics

“Morning, Dad” Ellie chimed, going around the long way around the table
“Looking beautiful, honey,” he said, accepting the kiss on the cheek and stroking her hair
“Hi Daddy!” cried Fiona, running into the kitchen and giving him a hug and receiving a stroke on the hair as well
“There now...” he muttered, meaning for her to be quieter, he was reading the newspaper
Jack toddled in, rugby t-shirt already getting small for him and ignored everyone
“Oh, here’s the next England Captain, morning!”
“Hi” Jack answered, reaching for his juice
Both girls didn’t look up from their cereal. Fiona was going to kick Jack under the table but Ellie carefully put her foot in front of her legs under the table. As Mum walked past, she noticed and gave Ellie a little knowing nod.
Ellie smiled a little back and took the kick in the heel as her dues. Fiona was going to be a pain in the car.
“Can I sit in front today?” she asked
“No, Mummy, I want to sit in front!” shouted Fiona
“I asked first!” snapped Ellie
“You always go in front!” whined Fiona, which made Ellie want to hit her
“Only twice this week, you were four times last week!”
“Only because you were all week the week before!”
“No I wasn’t!”
“Girls!” snapped Dad, and they both looked at him pleadingly
“I’ll decide when we get to the car” said Mum peaceably, placing toast in front of Jack and Dad
Ellie fumed inside. Fiona was going to be as cute as she could and Jack would always sit in his giant baby-seat Dad bought specially for him.
Ellie got to sit in front. She watched Dad get in his car beside them and tried to catch his eye to wave at him, but it was only a glance and not much of a wave or a smile, and he mostly looked at Jack, and Fiona because she was making such a monkey of herself.
Ellie was sad all the way to school and only kissed her Mum quickly on the cheek before running out to school. She remembered she could – wham!
Fiona had hit her so hard with her little schoolbag filled with books and lunch and pencil case that Ellie staggered .
Keep still and look shocked, she thought, Miss Grey is looking.
“Fiona! Come back here!”
Fiona had hit her with her pack as she’d run past to find her friends, and came reluctantly.
“Why did you hit your sister with your bag?” Miss Grey demanded
Fiona shrugged
“I’d like you to look Eleanor in the eye and say you’re sorry!”
“Sorry, Ellie” The eyes threatened revenge
The teacher let them both go and they ran to their groups.
“Your sister’s so horrible!” cried Jane, Ellie’s best friend
“I wish she could be adopted and be taken away” Ellie said, and was surprised when Fiona turned and gave her a hurt look – she’d been standing quite far away, but she’d heard, and she was upset by it...
“Hang on,” she said to the girls and ran over to her, “Fi, I didn’t mean it!”
“Yes you did” said Fiona so coldly Ellie hesitated
“You just hit me,” she spluttered
“I’d never say that I wanted you to be adopted, though” said Fiona, shooing her group away with a glare
“Well, sorry, then” said Ellie, knowing this would be a bad move but she didn’t care
“Yeah, you’re really sorry!” spat Fiona, “I hope you die in your sleep or fall down the stairs and break your back!”
“Fiona, stop it! I didn’t mean it!” shouted Ellie
“Yes, you did!” screamed Fiona, and they both paused; her voice had cracked from tears. Fiona looked shocked at herself.
“Fi, I’ll do your hair when we get home, with braids and extensions!” Ellie offered but Fiona looked at her and Ellie already knew this was it – the one thing they both liked was gone
“I don’t like that anymore, it’s boring” Fiona said
Ellie just stared at her for a moment and then walked away. She felt Fiona was going to do something really bad, she had wreaked awful revenge before that her parents hadn’t been able to prove it was her and so went unpunished.
“Oh my God!” said Anna, as Ellie came back
“What?” snapped Ellie
“Your sister, I think she’s crazy!” Anna replied
“Shut up, Anna, I think you’re crazy!” Ellie snarled, fearing Anna was about to make it worse and was feeling awful anyway
“Oh my God, Ellie!” said Anna crossly, linking arms with Beryl and walking away
“Let’s clap ‘My Mother’” said Jane quickly, and the rest of the girls paired up and began a rolling clap-chant that had Ellie’s mum had taught Ellie and Fiona.
When the bell rang, Ellie was feeling better, but when she picked up her bag from the wall where everyone put their bags before school, it was covered in dirt.
In class, Ellie was quiet. She didn’t really talk to anyone, which she knew was making the girls nervous because normally they talked about whatever Ellie was talking about
“Come on, girls, stop looking at Ellie – Ellie, stop distracting them!” said Mrs Everton
“Yes, Miss” said Ellie dully at her Maths exercise
“What did you say, Ellie?” Mrs Everton snapped
“I said ‘Yes, Miss’!” Ellie replied looking up, she had just been about to write down her answer and now she’d have to start again
“I don’t think so, didn’t look that way to me!” Mrs Everton accused
“I did, Miss!” cried Ellie, which was a mistake – you don’t directly argue with Mrs Everton, she gets what Mr Chilton, who taught the Year 4’s, called ‘waspish’
“Eleanor, I would like you to stand up and apologise for back-chatting!” she ordered
Ellie immediately stood up, nearly saying ‘I’m very sorry even if I didn’t back-chat!’
“Sorry, Mrs Everton, I won’t back-chat again!” she said in a clear, loud voice that she didn’t restrain enough to be neutral. It sounded sharp, but Mrs Everton seemed to catch on this was the place to leave it
“I don’t like this kind of behaviour, Eleanor, and you will learn to be respectful, I promise you that,” she growled as Ellie sat down
If you want a war, Everest, I’ll give you one, snarled Ellie in her mind. There were many rude poems about Everest in faint, much-scrubbed ink on Ellie’s desk, and she wished she could make up a really bad one but one that didn’t get her in trouble.

Child-based story, not finished

The Line
Dannie, holding Barbie, felt silly being the teacher, but she didn’t argue.
Amy, Kylie and Jade were students in the class, their Bratz dolls whispering to each other.
“Quiet down, girls,” Dannie said, bopping her Barbie at the Bratz, “today we’re looking at – the Greeks”
Amy’s Brat made huge farting noise and the others giggled
“Crystal! That’s enough... can we play something else?” Dannie asked putting the Barbie down
“Nooo!” whined Kylie, whose house it was
“This is fun, you’re a good teacher!” said Jade, still giggling
“Anyway, my Brat is brand new, I haven’t played with her yet” said Amy
“I don’t like being teacher,” said Dannie
“Why not, it’s the one with all the power!” said Amy
Dannie knew that wasn’t true. If there was any power in being teacher, Kylie would be doing it
“Why did you bring your Barbie if you’re not playing?” demanded Kylie crossly
“You didn’t say what we were playing!” argued Dannie, getting more annoyed
“But you’ve got a Barbie, it’s twice as big as ours, and it looks like a grown-up, it doesn’t look like – like ours”
They’d tried Mothers and Daughters, but Dannie hadn’t liked that either. Kids don’t play with adults, so it was hard keeping Dannie’s Barbie in a game.
They played with Kylie’s My Little Ponies instead, which she didn’t like because they used to be her oldest sister’s and some of them were really old.
Dannie waited until after lunch (jam-and-crisp sandwiches and coke) to get them outside. Kylie hated getting dirty but the other two didn’t mind, so they could manage that better than playing with toys, when Kylie always made herself boss.
“Pirates!” Dannie cried from up the tree
“Where?” called Jade, who loved these games
“From the sea” snapped Kylie, sitting on a pink, plastic chair under the tree
“No, from the forest!” cried Dannie, “We need weapons!”
“From what?” asked Kylie, when Dannie had got down
“You can make them,” said Jade, picking up a large stick, Kylie wrinkled her nose
“Where’s the treasure?” asked Amy, before Kylie could say anything
“In the cave,” said Dannie, pointing at Kylie’s tiny Wendy House, “but they have a map!”
“Why do they have a map if you just put it there?” Kylie asked irritably
Dannie paused; she had just put the treasure in there in the game, “OK, just pretend my great-grandmother put it there!”
“No, you can’t do that,” said Kylie, “you can’t change it like that”
We stole the treasure back from the pirates, said Dannie’s brain
“OK, OK, just pretend...”
“You can’t change it,” said Amy, “let’s play something else”
“No, no, I’ve got an idea!” protested Dannie, seeing the move back inside looming
“Let’s play on the Wii!” crowed Kylie and they trooped back inside
Dannie wasn’t allowed Nintendo or games consoles because her parents said she spent too much time watching TV anyway, she should play outside more.
She sat and failed miserably at Mario Cart and was even worse at Rock Band, so she sat and drew the game she’d wanted to play outside in comic strips.
“Is Dan OK?” asked Jade quietly as they played Rock Band, looking at her sideways from her guitar
“She’s in a sulk” said Kylie, on the drums
“I just don’t play that very well,” said Dannie coldly, “so I’m drawing”
“Oh, sor-ry” said Kylie
Dannie wanted to text her mum and ask to go home. She’d had a feeling this would happen, Kylie was bossy and liked everything that, as Dannie could see, were clean, and if it cost more money than other kids’ toys than she liked them even more. She loved being special.
Dannie spent a lot of time outside, her parents had bought a house with a huge garden, and their house was a mansion but had needed work done so it was the same price as a normal house inside town. Everyone loved coming over, she played football with the boys and long pretend games with the girls, and Kylie didn’t like stuff like that.
At school, Kylie and the others often brought their Bratz doll in and they played that all lunchtime, which left Dannie with a couple of the other girls she didn’t talk to very much because they were either weird, like Jenny, or really into books, like Hayley, and they didn’t manage to make any games work. It wasn’t so bad when Jenny didn’t try to make them best friends afterwards.
Dannie didn’t have a best friend. She liked Amy and Jade, and she liked some of the boys as well, and the other girls came and went and then came back again, there was another group that they didn’t talk with much, since last year Kylie and Livvy had a huge argument and mums got involved, and now they don’t talk to each other.
Dannie hadn’t cared what it was about – she’d played football all that time.
If Amy and Jade went over to Livvy’s side, Dannie would have been happier, Livvy was nicer than Kylie. She didn’t have to be the centre of attention; she just had to win an argument and didn’t like being told to do something instead of being asked.
Dannie’s mum often said about her sister, Dannie’s aunt, that she’d happily sell the whole family if it would make her Prime Minister. Dannie felt Kylie would sell anything to rule everyone’s minds, make them into Kylie-Bots. She’d drawn a comic strip about it. The hero (Daniel) had been the One who could resist being made into one and remade the world after it had been made completely taken over, and everyone banned the Wii forever.
A game Dannie played on her own was that she was in a group of people who lived in the forest, they hunted, traded, sometimes stole things, but they were... like a brotherhood, or a family, they were bonded and they stayed together, and they treated each other properly.
Dannie played some games she didn’t like and learned the skipping-rope chants, and managed to stay on the other side of something she mentally called ‘Jenny’s Line’. Jenny had no friends for no reason anyone could say, Jenny had even asked some of the girls including Dannie why they didn’t like her
“You’re just weird,” said Dannie, but Jenny nodded as if she knew that and wanted the rest of the answer, but Dannie didn’t have more, “... like, you play Dungeons and Dragons all the time, and stuff”
It wasn’t an answer, and Jenny had given up trying to get one. She stayed on her own and talked to herself, which was sad, but to be friends with her would be dangerous, even Jenny knew that.
So Dannie stayed on the popular side of the line and stayed with the two girls she liked best when Kylie wasn’t around.
Last week had been brilliant because Kylie was ill, and they played whatever they liked, they even went and played with Livvy’s group. Everyone had been a bit sad when Kylie came back. They knew if they went to Livvy’s group, Kylie would be on her own, and she would come to get them back, and it looked like it could go really bad that way, so they stayed with her.
Today, they were playing with their Bratz again, and so Dannie finally got up and walked away. Whatever the risk, she had had enough of this.
“Where are you going?” asked Amy, looking up from brushing her doll’s hair
“I’m going to play with Livvy” said Dannie as if this was normal
“No! You’re not – if you do,” Kylie started again when Dannie looked at her, “you won’t be my friend anymore!”
“OK, I don’t think we were friends anyway” said Dannie
“Dannie!” gasped Jade, “She’s let you come round her house and play, and you could have joined in!”
“I can’t play with her stuff because I don’t know how and then you all laugh at me!” argued Dannie, feeling a strange, light feeling, “And she doesn’t like my games because she might get a bit dirty, but Livvie doesn’t mind! Anyway, I think Bratz look ugly, their heads look like rugby balls!”
“Dannie, please don’t,” said Amy, who had said in secret that she was bored with Wii and didn’t like Bratz very much either, “we can play with something else!”
“Don’t,” said Kylie coldly, “if she wants to go, then let her”
“We don’t have to play with Bratz and Rock Band!” Jade shot back, “We could play with other stuff, you know Dannie has these wooden toy sets, Four-in-a-Row and Jenga and stuff”
“Those are boring,” Kylie declared, turning back to her doll, “but if you want to go with her, you can”
“You know we can’t,” shouted Dannie, “we have to stay with you because if we don’t then you don’t have anyone, and then you’ll come to Livvy’s gang and make everything... stupid!”
“You don’t have to stay with me, I’m not asking you!” snarled Kylie, getting up
It was very strange. Dannie could see exactly what was going on. Normally she could anyway but she didn’t want to do anything about it, even if she thought she might like to.
“You’re asking them to, though. You always want them to do what you want, and if they don’t, you say ‘You can’t come round my house’, and then steal their rubbers or something so they have to borrow yours because you always sit next to them”

We should have this

ROWING BABY

His eyes lit up, this little kid,
When he saw the boat being lifted,
He reached up and grabbed the rigger,
And whilst dangling, gurgled at his mother.

I've seen kids born into rowing,
And mums training as their bump was growing,
And I knew one, with a grin on her face,
Who said hers first kicked when she'd lost a race.

I asked the mum how old was he,
She laughed and replied he was three,
I asked if he'd follow his dad and row,
She said he already wanted to ergo.

At home, they trained during his nap,
Or else he'd run in and sit on their lap,
And repeatedly demand 'do the egg-row!',
He would scream the house down if they said no.

The kid fell off, but didn't cry,
He had better things on his mind,
He grabbed the end of Daddy's blade,
And dragged it towards the landing stage.

The mum ran off to correct him,
I stood and watched with a massive grin,
The back of the kid's shirt, beneath 'born to stardom'
was written "LRC Mascot: Officially OARSOME"