My dad was quite agitated during the visit worrying about getting our holiday caravan shutdown for the winter and organising the fees for next year. I said I would take mum down to the caravan site the next weekend as I would not be working. He calmed down a bit and mum sent me off to get a couple of drinks from the canteen.
My dad was in a side ward with only three other beds in it but they were unoccupied. The curtains were around dad’s bed when I got back and I hesitated thinking the nurses or doctors might be with him. I looked around for my mum but couldn’t see her anywhere in the main ward so I went back to the side ward and heard a muffled groan and then my mum’s voice behind the curtain.
I pulled the curtain back and mum told me she had just been making dad more comfortable. I assumed she had been struggling to help him sit up in bed as she looked quite flushed. My dad seemed much more cheerful and when we left him he was having a laugh with the nurses as they brought the patient’s supper round.
Mum told me on the way home that the doctors would be keeping dad in hospital for another couple of weeks and he had insisted that we go to the caravan on Thursday so we had plenty of time to get it closed down and the fees settled. I was slightly pissed off at this as I had planned to go out ‘on the pull’ with my mates on Thursday to a new club.
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I had been working night shifts until Thursday morning and my manager had kept us back for half an hour as he had to announce some shift restructuring news so it was almost 10 am by the time I got home and I was past tired so I persuaded mum to leave earlier to head down to the caravan. It was a warm day for late September so I changed into a pair of rugby shorts and a tee shirt. I threw a change of clothes in a bag as we would be staying at least one night and hurried my mum out of the door.
We were at the caravan by 2 pm and set about tidying the place up and I cut back the weeds and grass outside. Before long I stripped to the waist to keep cool and enjoy the sun on my back. Mum came out with a cold drink and she had her blouse tied up around her waist as she was feeling the warmth of the day. The campsite was fairly deserted as most people had young families so only came down at weekends during term time. We sat for a while having our drinks when mum suggested leaving the tidying until the next day and just enjoying the sun for the rest of the afternoon. I was starting to feel the lack of sleep so I readily agreed and got out a couple of sun loungers.
Mum went back into the caravan to get a book to read and I lay back and began to doze off to sleep. I woke with a start as mum dripped cold sun cream on my chest.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to make you jump but you will burn if you don’t put this on,” she said with a smile.
She was kneeling beside my sun lounger and it took a second for me to focus and realise she had changed into a bikini.
She noticed me look and said, “I couldn’t find my swimsuit so I put on one of the girls’ bikinis; it doesn’t look to bad on me does it?”