I looked back at mum standing there looking lost in the misty rain. I was too excited to wait for her to explore with me so I took off and headed for the old boatshed at the harbour's edge
Remnants of dad lay scattered and spent all around me; a battered football lay half hidden in the long grass and a cricket pitch, its wickets scattered and lost, lay like a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be pieced together like my dad's past.
I tried to imagine dad playing here and wondered if he'd had lots of friends or as an only child like me had kept to himself.
I missed dad like crazy, it made me angry and sad all at the same time whenever I thought of him dying. I looked up at the old stone manor trying to picture him gazing over the harbour from one of its many windows.
Instinctively my eyes turned to the attic window where for a fleeting moment I thought I saw a shadowy figure staring back at me through the opened shutters. Gasping I turned away and when I looked again the shutters were closed.
I yelled out to mum asking her if the caretaker was meeting us here but she didn't hear. Curious I left the boatshed for another day and headed back along the narrow path that wound around the old manor.
It was spooky listening to the hollow echo of my footsteps on the worn cobblestones and for a moment I thought someone was following me. Nervously I looked back over my shoulder and saw mum walking along the harbour's edge. She looked sad and I wanted to run and hug her but thought better of it. I guessed mum was thinking of dad and knew it was best to leave her alone.
I brushed the misty rain from my face and kept walking hoping that the side door just ahead was unlocked. I ducked beneath the half collapsed awning hanging over it and did a double take. Beside it was a set of stone steps leading down beneath the manor.
Eagerly I ran down the time worn trodden steps wondering what I would find. Long narrow windows at ground level afforded a glimmer of light revealing traces of the manors past still lingering there. Long iron meat hooks hung in abundance from the stone ceiling and rows of deep shelves were carved into the stone walls. Excited, I ran around the vast expansive space discovering more and more relics of the manors past. In a deep nook old wooden wine barrels stood side by side next to racks of empty wine bottles that had waited to be filled. Curious I turned the tap on one of the wine barrels and to my delight wine came pouring out.
I couldn't wait to tell mum I'd found the manors cellar and ran back up the stairs however the lure of what lay behind the side door made me waver. I looked over at mum still walking by the harbour's edge and turned the door