The children in the lane have developed a habit of knocking on my door every day in the summer holidays asking if I want to come out to play. This week I decided to hunt around for the paints and brushes and papers I’d got somewhere in the cupboard.
As I was rifling through the cupboard, their little hands were everywhere, not looking but picking up everything they found interesting. They stopped short of opening drawers but everything which was on display was fair game.
I had to keep my eye on them at all times… not that they would take anything – they’re not bad kids.. but they have no sense of delicacy, of understanding that some of my stuff (especially that of which I am especially fond) is breakable.
I found the stuff and we headed outside. However, almost immediately it started raining which chased away the two girls back to their houses (single rooms in which three generations live). The boy, Allen, stayed and sheltered under an umbrella in the doorway of the house and continued his painting. 
When the rained stopped about half an hour later, we got a table from another neighbour, and continued. Allen does not take well to being told how to do calligraphy. I’m completely unqualified to teach him but one of our elderly neighbours was happy to give him some instruction.
He;s generally a naughty boy, throwing rubbish into other people’s houses and running away laughing, but today he was like an angel, at last finding something at which he was good and having the undivided attention of a couple of adults.
Summer holidays seem to stretch out for so long when you’re a child and these kids have parents who have to work. They are usually looked after by grandparents and get bored just running and scootering around the lane together in a gang.
It was nice to be able to give them an alternative activity. I haven’t received any of my equipment back from them yet though. Perhaps I have seen the last of it. I don’t mind though.