The Father and The Son and the double picnic.

The father heard a shuffle come from the sons bedroom shortly after 7am. Sure enough, the next obvious sound heard was the bedroom door being pushed wide. The father instructed the son to have a wee with his mouth half buried in the pillow. The morning cuddle was enjoyed by both parties and the watching of Netflix in bed was underway. It was now as good as a tradition, as was that which followed, the shower bath. The father played the bath games from the dry side and then once the son was clean the father replaced the boy under the hot steaming waters. 

Todays surprise game was brought about by the sons request to have the pirate ships and figures lifted down from atop the bookcases. An hour or more of this game led up to the pair journeying to Halifax where the measuring up of the father took place by a young lad who worked in the hired  suit retailers in the high street. The father felt that his measurements made him sound like a teenager and not someone gravitating towards forty. After this shop trip was out of the way the pair returned to the van and picnicked at Manor Heath park where sandwiches and puddings were consumed under a scorching hot sun. The play area was bustling as was to be expected. An ice cream seemed logical. Time stretched the usual return journey askew as they were not usually here on a saturday afternoon. The son pleaded with the father to drive all the way back to the dads to play with toys and he was not happy when it was explained that the two way journey would all but totally wipe out the time left together. In the end the two went to Morrison's to buy food for picnic number 2 which was eaten at Ogden water. The pair expressed their love for each other over and over again. Their bodies collected the heat like they were made of black marble. A fatigue was upon the son because of the early start, the heat and the general walking which had amounted. 

The father expressed many important details to the son on the ride home but the son just gurned back at him and tried to make him laugh. If the son was in that mood then surely the father had nothing to worry about. The son moaned at having to go home and expressed his usual wish that the rest of his family would die so that the two could live together. This made the father fell awkward every time  even though most of it was a joke. The father barely recognised the boys mother as she worked hard getting her full body weight up off the front lawn. A change of hair colour and body shape in general had created a stranger to the fathers eyes even diminishing the decade of closeness the two once shared. The son got his scooter outside into the cul de sac and the father waved goodbye as they both called loudly to each other "Bye, I love you". 

The father drove off with the usual heavy feeling in the pitt of his stomach like he was setting a course for a black hole, but ultimately it was just the single day apart which separated them at any one time. 

Love was engrained in the soul of the father and son and the miles between their houses didn't alter that one bit. 

The sun continued to shine on the world, the only difference was that the father stayed out of it for the next two days.