It would appear that I have got carried away again, so here is another story in several parts. The whole thing is written, so you’ll get a new part each day up until Sunday’s conclusion. I hope you enjoy it.
Number 7 Castle Close was not the house where I was born, but it’s where I spent most of my childhood years. Indeed, my parents lived there right up until they died, a couple of years ago. We moved in in Spring 1989. It wasn’t the World’s most amazing property, but at least it meant that I wasn’t going to have to grow up sharing a bedroom with my younger sister, Philippa – or Pippa, as we called her. My parents were the first owners of number 7, and the other houses hadn’t quite been completed when we moved in. There were only seven houses in the close, so it was going to be quite quiet, once the building work had been completed. It was another couple of weeks before we gained our first set of neighbours – the Smiths. Like our family, it was a husband, a wife, a boy and a girl. Sadly, the younger of the two, Sally, was already 12 years old. She wasn’t interested in Pippa and me, and didn’t want to play cars or football, so we never really did get to know her or her brother. One by one, new families moved into the other five houses over the next three months or so. The Fotheringays at number 1 were an older couple. If they did have children, they had already moved away from home. The Smiths lived at number 2. The Fromes lived at number 3. They were a younger couple who had yet to start their family – although it didn’t seem long until my Mum announced that Mrs. Frome was going to have a baby. Number 4 was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Bacon, and their son, John. John was the same age as me. He had unruly curly hair and wore a very thick pair of glasses which made his eyes look enormous. He was quite quiet and seemingly very shy. A lot of the time, he was happy to stay at home on his own. However, over the years, I got to know him as well as anyone. Number 5 housed another young couple, the Cheese family. They had twin boys, although they were only six months old when they moved into Castle Close. Next door to us, in number 6, was Miss Rice. She also had two children Amelia, who was already six, and Colin, who was four. I suppose I had better complete my description of the residents of Castle Close by telling you a bit more about myself. My name is Matthew Underwood. At the time we moved in, I was five and a half years old. The half was very important to me. My sister, Pippa, is eighteen months younger than me, so she had just turned four.
https://vision-and-spex.com/the-legacy-of-castle-close-t2052.html