Pictures that tell 1000 words

The very first 'I love you'

A/N Hey people, just thought I'd let you know that I decided not to write about the tour, I thought about it a lot and tried it several ways but it just didn't feel right. Either way, I hope you love this chapter - thank you for carrying on reading this story, it really does mean a lot. xx

23rd February 2034

"And after all of that work, all of the travelling, all of the times that your Dad ended up dropping me, we ended up winning the tour, and that's why we have the two trophies in the lounge." Dianne concluded as she finished pealing the carrot in her hand.

"Ohhh" Alex replied as he angled his head out of the kitchen door to peak at the two glitter ball trophies which had been collecting dust on the same shelf for as long as he could remember. "I never knew that's why they were there."

"Well now you know monkey." She said with a smile as she watched her son sit back at the table which overlooked the kitchen worktops. "Right Alex, what's next?" Dianne questioned as she handed him the recipe sheet she was looking over.

Taking the piece of paper, which had clearly been ripped out of a magazine or something similar, Alex looked over the long list going down the left hand side of the page. 

"Umm... Carrots?" He questioned, before looking up at his mother expectantly.

"We've done that one... See what it says below it for me?" 

"Oh.... pots!" He said with a proud smile.

"Pots?"

"Yeah... 2 pealed and sliced pots."

Dianne took the sheet off of him gently before glancing down at the list of ingredients. Laughing gently, Dianne placed the sheet back down in front of her son, before her finger hovered over the word in question.

"Potatoes... 2 pealed and sliced potatoes." 

Alex sighed audibly. Despite being incredibly clever for a boy of his age, his reading wasn't always top notch. And despite it just being a part of life at 6 years old, and something neither of his parents were particularly worried about, it frustrated him more than anything in the world when he got something wrong.

"Hey monkey, don't worry about it okay." Dianne reassured, noticing the distress on her sons face.

"I know... I just don't like it." He replied with a sad smile as he traced his finger over the jagged edge of the paper.

There was a brief silence before them as Dianne looked at her son, unsure of the right words to say to him. She knew exactly how he felt. At his age Dianne found herself constantly struggling with the complexities of the English language, and in all honesty was still something she struggled with to this day. And because of this, she knew that there was very little she could ever say to make him feel better about it, and knew that the only thing to do was distract him from his worries.

"What was the next picture in the book Sweety? Maybe whilst I cook dinner I could tell you another story." 

Her suggestion was instantly met with that same look of childlike excitement she had seen when they first discovered the book the other day. Reaching across the other side of the table, Alex heaved the heavy book across towards him, flipping over the page filled with people who he now recognised as the live tour cast, onto a page with various little notes and pictures.

"Mummy..." He began slowly - unsure of the first image. "It's not a picture, it's one of Daddy's drawings I think." 

Walking around the kitchen island towards the table in confusion, Dianne looked over her sons shoulder at the book and allowed her smile to widen at the simple image of a date written onto a sketch of a small heart in the top right hand corner of the poster paper.