berthartgen's blog

Dear Toby.

I know. I'll write again tomorrow, he says, at which point he vanishes off the planet. But this is why I wanted this blog so that I could do just that, go and come back and it wouldn't matter, I'd still be able to write letters to you whenever I wanted. Well an awful lot has changed since I last wrote, but we can't go into all that now, I have a story to finish.

Dear Toby,

Dear Toby,

Stars on the water! Where do I even start? This has been a totally mad time, I've had so much going on! I've had to cope with all kinds of conflicting feelings, events overtaking me so fast that I didn't know whether I was on my head or my feet! As well as the family things I've had my humans to look after, not forgetting the day babies, my work to do, a holiday to go on, and, and, oh well, you'll see.

Dear Toby,

This one isn't going to be very happy, so hold on to everything. After I'd finished writing last night, I texted Mum. For a while, there wasn't any reply, then at about ten, when I was just getting ready for bed, she rang me.

"Our bert," her voice was very quiet. "Sorry, I 'ad to wait for 'im to go to sleep. It's bad news."

"What's wrong, Mum," I asked, "Does Gwen know?"

"Gwen wasn't sure so she asked Kori to come, you know she sees fings no one else can. She knew. It's a thorn, Bert. A thorn of the low country. In 'is stummick."

Dear Toby,

Dear Toby Juggins,

I have heard l call you that and it made me smile, so it stuck. I want to tell you about today because it has been so incredibly, really really good!

Dear Toby,