Mummy Told Me Not to Tell by Cathy Glass Page B

yes,’ Lucy said, ‘I nearly forgot. Jill phoned while you were out and asked how we were doing. I said we were all fine.’

Chapter Five:
Safer Caring
    I went to bed early that first night, at ten o’clock, expecting to have a very broken night’s sleep; children, unsurprisingly, are often unsettled for the first few nights, in a strange bed and a new house. But Reece must have been exhausted, for I wasn’t woken until five o’clock. Then it was with a vengeance!
    I was just starting to surface, with my eyes flickering open, when I heard Reece’s door fly open with a loud bang, followed by the sound of Reece in full flight. His feet thumped along the landing and he was making a high-pitched yeooowing noise, banging on the walls and bedroom doors as he went. He had done a full circuit of the landing and was on his way downstairs before I was out of bed. I threw on my dressing gown and went after him. Apart from stopping him from waking the girls (if they hadn’t already been woken), I needed to start to get him into the routine of staying in his bedroom and amusing himself until I was up and dressed.
    I caught up with Reece downstairs, where he was trying to get into the living room, which I locked atnight for security. ‘Reece,’ I said over the noise of his yeooowing. ‘Reece, sshhh, quietly, love.’ I placed my forefinger to my lips and, with my other hand lightly on his shoulder, turned him to face me.
    ‘Yeooooow,’ he went at the top of his voice.
    ‘Ssshh,’ I said again.
    ‘Yeoooow,’ he continued. Then, bringing his chin down towards his shoulder, he tried to bite my hand.
    ‘No,’ I said firmly. ‘No, you mustn’t bite. It’s naughty.’ He snapped again at my hand, which was safely out of reach. ‘No, Reece, don’t bite.’
    ‘I can bite, I’m Sharky.’ Which I had guessed and ignored. ‘Want to get in here,’ he said and, pulling away from me, he thumped on the living-room door with his fist.
    ‘No, Reece,’ I said. ‘Now quietly. We are going back to your bedroom, where you can play until it’s time to go downstairs. It’s too early. It’s not morning yet.’ I knew there was no point in suggesting he went back to sleep, as he had clearly had enough sleep and was now completely recovered from the previous day’s exhaustion.
    He thumped on the living-room door again; then, with his mouth wide open, he tried to sink his teeth into the metal doorknob. The resulting sound of his teeth on metal set my own teeth on edge, and I thought it would do nothing for the enamel on his.
    ‘No, Reece,’ I said. ‘Don’t do that. You’ll hurt yourself. Come back to your bedroom.’
    He turned and, breaking free from my light hold on his shoulder, was off down the hall, and then up thestairs. I caught up with him on the landing and, taking him by the arm, went with him into his bedroom, where I closed the door.
    ‘Yeoooow! Crunch!’ He went at the top of his voice. ‘Yeooow! I’m Sharky.’
    There was a great temptation to say, ‘Well, Sharky had better play quietly with his toys,’ but I didn’t. ‘Reece,’ I said, again taking him by the shoulder and trying to get him to look at me. ‘Reece, I need you to be quiet, love.’
    ‘Yeck! Yeck! Crunch!’ he went.
    Not letting go of his arm, I took the lid off one of the toy boxes and drew him down, so that we were both sitting on the floor. ‘Here, look at all these lovely toys. Let’s play with them,’ I encouraged.
    Reece pulled in his cheeks to make his mouth narrow, which highlighted his front teeth. He then began making loud sucking noises, which I guessed were supposed to be an impression of a shark. I ignored it and continued sifting through the toys, hoping to gain his attention.
    Half an hour later I was still there, seated on the floor of Reece’s bedroom in my dressing gown and trying to engage him in the toys and books. Reece whooped and yelped, snapped his jaws at invisible passing fish and every so often tried to