Chapter 2

However, for the next few weeks, I had no time for anything else apart from studying for the end of term exams. When I wasn’t in a lecture, I could be found in the library revising and trying to make sense of the notes I had taken during lectures. I usually caught a bus early in the morning and returned to grandad’s house late at night. Food was the furthest thing on my mind during those few frantic weeks, consisting mainly of a piece of toast and a cup of tea for breakfast, with a sandwich for lunch and a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate to give me energy in the afternoon. At night, I was too tired to think about eating, and after brushing my teeth, I said goodnight to grandad who was always awake waiting until I came home, and fell into bed.

This routine lasted until the end of May when exams began. The next two weeks were even more intense with exams every two days, but finally in the middle of June, I was free from all pressure of studying and exams.

Naturally, I became ill.

Weeks of not eating properly, not getting enough sleep, and worrying about my exams all contributed to making me ill.

I did not have any specific symptoms apart from having a slight fever, feeling weak and unable to get out of bed. When grandad did not see me for 10 hours after my last exam ended at midday, he knocked tentatively on my bedroom door.

“Are you all right Liz?” he asked with concern in his voice.

“I don’t feel well” I replied weakly.

“Can I come in?”

“Yes please. I don’t feel well”

And my grandad opened the door of my bedroom and entered.

I was usually very tidy, but with the pressure of exams, I had let my bedroom become a bit messy. There were books and notes open on my desk, and scattered on the floor were the clothes I had worn that morning and which I had taken off before crawling naked into bed to sleep.

Grandad asked me why I had not come downstairs all day, and why I had not let him know earlier that I was unwell.

I told him that I just felt exhausted and weak from the past few weeks focusing on studying and exams, but that I would probably be ok in the morning.

Grandad sat beside me on the bed and put his hand on my forehead to check if I had a temperature. He nodded as he could feel that I was a little hot, and he offered to bring me some paracetamol to reduce my temperature.

He also said that he would make me a cup of tea and some toast and that I needed to eat in order to help me get well.

With that, he got off the bed and started to walk to the door, but then he stopped. I wondered why he had not left the room, but I soon saw what he was doing. He was picking up the clothes I had discarded on the floor before I got into bed. He draped my jeans and T-shirt over his left arm and then picked up my socks with his left hand. Finally, using his right hand, he picked up my bra and knickers. As he did so, I saw that he raised his right hand and he took a deep breath through his nose.

My grandad was sniffing my knickers!

Then, as if nothing had happened, he turned to me and said that he would put my clothes in the washing machine and hang them to dry later. Saying that, he left my bedroom.

About 15 minutes later, I heard his footsteps as he climbed the stairs and then came into the bedroom through the door he had left open when he took my clothes downstairs. He carried a tray with a glass of water, a cup of tea and a plate that was toast by the smell.

Setting the tray down on my bedside cabinet, he popped two paracetamol tablets from the strip on the tray and told me to sit up so that he could give me the pills for my headache.

I tried feebly to sit up, but I was not able to raise myself from my prone position on my back. So, seeing how I was unable to sit up, grandad sat beside me and putting his arm around my shoulders, he helped me to sit up.

However, what I had forgotten was that I had crawled into bed naked after throwing my clothes on the floor.