It was the last Saturday before the end of term, and Sandy’s Aunt Bernie had come to visit, bringing along her cousins.  What this meant was that Gran and Aunt Bernie sat in the kitchen complaining about other family members (and Sandy’s dad’s family in particular), while Grandad sat in the living room with the kids, watching an old episode of Only Fools and Horses.  The only problem with that was that Grandad had seen this episode before, years ago, and he kept talking over the dialogue as he tried to remember what happened next.  Sandy and her cousins had long since given up trying to follow the plot, and started playing with the Cluedo board instead.

“Sandy, have you ever actually played Cluedo with this board?” asked Roma.  Currently, they were pretending that Miss Scarlet and Miss Peacock were on an Atlantic cruise that had got horribly lost and resorted to cannibalism.

“We tried once,” said Sandy, “The rules didn’t make much sense.  And then I dropped the dagger through the floorboards upstairs, so…”

“Oh, I know this one!” said Grandad, his eyes still trained on the screen, “It looks like he’s going to take the gun, but then he grabs hold of the cigarettes instead.”

The girls listened politely, then went back to their conversation.  “Don’t feel too bad about the dagger,” said Keeley, “When we were younger, we had a massive collection of Sylvanian Family stuff, but then Roma swallowed about half of it.”

“I swallowed one thing!” snapped Roma, the colour rising in her cheeks, “It was a little cocktail glass, and it was an accident!”

“Yeah, but you were eleven.  You should have known better.”

Afterwards, Sandy was never sure why she spoke up just then.  Maybe she just wanted to stop this conversation before Roma went off in a sulk.  “You guys didn’t buy me a plant for Christmas, did you?”

Roma frowned.  “No?”

“A plant?” asked Keeley.

That was about what Sandy had expected, but she felt that she ought to be sure.  “Someone left it on the doorstep a week ago.  It’s addressed to me, but it doesn’t say who it’s from.”

“Well, it’s either your secret admirer or somebody trying to poison you,” said Keeley cheerfully.

Sandy grinned.  Granddad had said that thing about secret admirers, too.  It was like it was a hereditary joke.  “There are a few funny-coloured thorns on it.”

“Well, there you go.  You watch- prick your finger on one of them, your hand’ll swell up and explode.”

“Oh, just ignore her, Sandy,” said Roma, but without much rancour.  She’d gone back to fiddling about with the Cluedo figures again.

(To be continued)