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NEW AUTHORS SHOWCASE

 

17-12-08

8M

p8

‘A Star in the Makin’

by

Noreen Eves

Synopsis

Hi, I’m Nancy Bright, I’m a born entertainer. I attend stage school, play guitar and have also started to write my own songs.

    My biggest dream is to become the UK’s version of Hannah Montana because I also love comedy acting. Mum say’s that I’ve always tried to be the centre of attention, probably due to the fact that I have a younger brother, Roger who is Autistic.

    Join me in my daily life, in the two weeks leading to my tenth birthday party.

    Meet my family and closest friends and discover how impossible, annoying and truly hilarious it is living with Autism.

    Find out if Roger will totally ruin my birthday or will it turn out to be the most amazing party ever!

 

Sample

 

    “Where is Roger going to be when it’s my party?” I ask Mum as she carries on tidying my room.

    “Don’t worry, I’ll ask your Dad to take him out for a couple of hours” she says with a tut.

    “Good! Because I don’t want him to spoil it” I remark.

    Mum looks upset. “Roger wouldn’t spoil your party on purpose, you know that people with Autism find it hard to understand other

peoples feelings so they don’t set out to deliberately hurt them” She informs me with her hands on her hips.

    “I know I’m sorry” I say, giving Roger a hug quickly but he just pushes me away with one hand while clicking away on the computer

mouse with the other.

    I didn’t want to upset Mum too much, not while she was planning my birthday party anyway. Mum had always planned fantastic parties

for me and she also makes great cakes, not just birthday cakes but wedding and christening cakes too.

    Last year for my ninth birthday, I had a Cowgirl party. I wore a fabulous pink suede skirt and waistcoat, cowboy boots and a pink Stetson

hat from the accessory shop in town. Dad made some saloon doors out of two giant sheets of cardboard and he fetched some real bails of

hay from a farm and stacked them up around the dining room.

   Mum made me a pink stetson birthday cake with little silver balls all around the rim but Roger kept pinching them and running off, by

the time mum had lit the candles for everyone to sing happy birthday to me there was hardly any left on the cake!

   This year I’m going to have a Princess Diaries themed party, Mum and I have been watching the DVD’S to get some ideas, we just need

to get round my Dad to make something that’s going to be the fun finale to party.

    During the summer holidays, mum and I went to a wedding fayre at a nearby hotel, she wanted to look at the wedding cakes but as we

arrived we saw lots of fancy cars parked outside. There was a lovely pale pink Limousine with big white ribbon bows tied to it. The

Chauffeur let me go inside. It had pink leather seats with large furry pink and lilac cushions. It had a bar with pink Champagne glasses and

a pink TV and DVD player.

  “Would you like me to hire this for your tenth birthday party?” asked Mum, poking her head through the Chauffeur’s window.

    “Yeah cool!”I replied.

    I’m laying on my bed right now, imagining I’m in the Limo, on the big fluffy cushions. I start to daydream about what it would be like to be a real Hollywood Film star.

CHAPTER TWO

 

    The door bell rang... .and then ,  the sound of boisterous footsteps coming up the stairs.

    “I bet I know who this is “says Mum nervously.

    “George!” I screech.

    “No hugging, no kissing “says George, holding her hands up in front of her. George lives just around the corner from me her real name is Georgina but she ‘s a bit of a tom-boy considering she has three brothers. She also likes anything gruesome, usually, spiders, frogs and poo!

    George and me are a bit like chalk and cheese but I can usually get her to do what I like doing, my three favourite things, singing, dancing and acting.

    Mum’s always saying that George looks like Julia Roberts, the... Hollywood film star with her thick brown hair, puppy dog brown eyes and wide mouth.

    “Stop singing!” shouts George, as I start to sing my rendition of ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’

    I carried on singing, “ If bluebirds, fly over the rainbow, why oh, why can’t I ?” with George jumping on my back, trying to put her hand over my mouth.

    “Calm down the pair of you “says Mum has she walks into my bedroom.

    “If you help me tidy up I’ll take you into town to buy the bits you need to make your party invitations”

    “Yippee!” I scream.

    “Can I come too?” asks George, expectantly. Then she starts pulling out DVD’s from my neatly stacked pile under my computer desk.

    “Can we watch a DVD?” she asks looking up with her puppy dog eyes.

    “No!” I reply quickly, I thought we were going to make Trump cards, I need to make one for Joe Briggs”

    “Just because you fancy him! Anyway, can I watch ‘The Cat in the Hat’, please ?” She begs, with the DVD pressed between her hands as if she was praying.

    “Oh . . .ok.” I say, we’ll do both, you put the DVD on and I’ll fetch the card to make Trump cards.

    “I want blue card “demands George, “it’s my fravvrut colour.”

    “Favourite” corrected Mum.

    “Exactly” says George.

    “I give up” says Mum, as she walks down the stairs.

    George really knew how to wind Mum up.

    We sat on my laminated bedroom floor, facing the television. I was drawing a picture of Joe Briggs and George was drawing a picture of Duncan McGregger Riley another boy in our class.

    “I think I’m going to give Joe a score of twenty-five for intelligence,” I say, giggling.

    “And I’m going to give Duncan a score of eighty-five for stupidity!” says George, pulling a really funny face as though she is mimicking Duncan.

    I thought to myself, I hope George can come to my birthday party because she’s so funny.

    Just then, Roger runs into my room, completely naked and stands in front of the television with both hands in front of his face, fingers spread. He’s counting   fifty-seven, ...fifty-eight...fifty-nine.

    “Roger, Move “ We both shout in unison., but he just stands there, staring intently at his fingers, counting, ...sixty,...sixty-one,...sixty-two,... Sixty-three..

    “I know “whispers George. “Shout your Mum and tell her that Roger has pooed.” Then she takes the plastic poo from the box of Horrid Practical Jokes that she had bought me for Christmas and places it on the bedroom floor.

    “Mum come quickly, Roger’s pooed!” I yell.

     Mum enters my bedroom equipped with kitchen towel in one hand and disinfectant in the other. She’s used to the odd accident with Roger. She went to pick the poo up and dropped it quickly.

      “Ah !George, you little monster,” gasps Mum. She knew it was George because she had got her last week with the Vomit Puddle.

    “Ha..ha ...got you again!” sang George, trying her hardest to do a Victory Dance while Roger buried his face in her hair.

    “Roger, get off me, you’re giving me a stiff neck.” cries George from underneath her thick mass of messed up hair.

    “He’s smelling your hair George, he must like your shampoo.” says Mum.

    “It’s banana flavour, can you smell banana’s?” asked George.

    “Roger has got a very good sense of smell.” Mum informs George.

    “We know, Autistic people have got very strong senses, just like a dog but can you take him out of my room now because he’s annoying us.” I say, matter of factly.

    “I’m going to get him dressed now to go into town and I suggest you do the same if you’re coming.” Announces Mum.

    I change into my jeans with pink embroided Butterflies on and matching pink sweatshirt with a sequined Butterfly on the shoulder .They’re ‘hand me downs’ from my cousins Georgia and Fern, most of my clothes are but I don’t mind. When a large bag of clothes arrive I empty them out onto my bedroom floor, pick out the best outfits and have Fashion Shows on my stage.

I give all the boyish clothes to George. Today, she is wearing one of the outfits, which consists of Khaki combat trousers and a Khaki sweatshirt with the words ‘Army Girl’ written across the front in bright Pink letters.

    “Does anyone fancy fish and chips for lunch?” asks Mum, as we walk into town.

    “Meeeeeee !“ Came the reply.

    We walk past George’s house on the way, It’s a big old Victorian house with large concrete windows and balconies, apparently it was built for a Prime minister, that’s amazing. George’s three brothers are playing football with their friends on the front lawn, which is half the size of a proper football pitch.

    We walk on behind Mum and Roger who keeps pulling Mum down to his level so that he can smell her hair, which is a mess. Usually it’s straight, shiny and dark brown in contrast to Roger’s and my own being white blonde.

    Once we were inside the Chip Shop, Roger went straight to the refrigerator, opened the door and took out a small bottle of Lemonade, saying, “Memonade   Menonade.” He can’t pronounce his L’s and when he says the letter ‘W’ he laughs his head off. Mum says it must tickle him.

    “Mini Fish and Chips, four times please?” requests Mum.

    “Would anyone like peas or beans?” asks the lady behind the counter.

    “Peas make you poo and beans make you fart!” Exclaimed George, beaming.

    Mum thanked her for that information and quickly pushes us out of the shop. We sat on a wooden bench to eat our fish and chips, although Mum was a nervous wreck every time a car went past because Roger wouldn’t sit still.

    “Mum, are we going in the stationery shop to buy some pink card? Roger likes the lights in there,” I enquire.

    “What’s the pink card for?” groans George, stabbing her fish with a blue plastic fork..

     “Don’t you know George, we’re going to make pink Limousine-shaped, party invitations.” I announce.

    “Oh No! I’ve got a horrible feeling you’re going to have a Pink Limousine Birthday cake.” says George, rolling her eyes in despair.

    “Sorry George” I say with the biggest grin ever …..       

 

 

Autobiographical Note

 

My Name is Noreen Eves I am forty-four years old and live with my husband Brian, a Civil Engineer and our two children, Nancy age ten and Roger age nine.

I grew up in a small mining village in South Yorkshire, I was always a creative person and my best subjects at school were art and cookery. I dreamt of going to art college but left school at the age of sixteen and followed my friends to work in the local knitwear factory.

 

Since then I have had many creative hobbies including, designing and making my own clothes with my own label, making birthday, wedding and christening cakes for the last 10 years and recently setting up my own catering business from home called ‘Creative Catering of Worksop’

 

I started writing a diary when Roger was diagnosed on the Autistic spectrum at the age of three. Looking back at some of the comments in the diary I would laugh and say “I should write a book” Although lots of parents have already done this so I put it to the back of my mind.

 

Then, about two years ago, we were on holiday in Holland. It was August and we were cycling to the beach. Nancy was in front of me and was chatting away about her forthcoming birthday party in January. We had already booked the pink Limo the month before and so I started thinking about ideas for her party.

 

By the time we had got to the beach I had decided to write a book about Nancy ‘A star in the makin’ The two weeks leading up to her birthday party and how she deals with living with an Autistic brother.