Back in the store cupboard

The little crutches had recovered their spirits.

They told themselves it was not terribly messy in the cupboard and Leonard had no good reason to be cross with them.

When he came back they could sprawl all over the cupboard and he would not notice the slight mess.

Or they could all stand up neatly in a line, and he would be so impressed at their orderly behaviour that he would not notice the really very small amount of disruption in the cupboard.

So with that happily sorted they started laughing and chattering again.

"I wonder if the other little crutch is having a nice time geocaching?"

"He took me out the other day looking for those silly caches. A grown man of nearly 50 goes grubbing around in the undergrowth looking for little tins containing rubbish."

"He took me out at work for a long walk the other day and then moaned about having sore hands. People wondered why he had been walking on his hands."

"It doesn't matter what he does he is always moaning."

"And have you seen how much he eats? No wonder we have a hard life, expected to bear all that weight."

"He's on holiday now. Our life is going to be a nightmare. Can you imagine him trying to put up a tent and expecting us to make sure he doesn't fall over?"

And there was much more of the same.

Then they heard a car draw up.

They stopped chattering and neatly got into line.

The front door opened, and the little crutches breathed a sigh of relief.

It was not Leonard at all. It was Mrs Leonard who had been out shopping.

Mrs Leonard went straight through to Her Kitchen with the bags of shopping, and she unloaded Her Food. As she spent so much time in there, she considered both the kitchen and all the contents therein to be Hers. She began to prepare dinner so that there would be something ready for Leonard when he came in from his hard afternoon out geocaching.

The little crutches liked Mrs Leonard. They felt some solidarity with her and considered she had a hard life running around looking after Leonard and catering for his every whim. And she went to work too.

Oddly enough Mrs Leonard didn't talk to them, but they didn't mind that. At least she didn't get bad-tempered or moan all the time. They sort of lived parallel lives in the same house without really meeting up.

Mrs Leonard did talk to Tata though. They had long conversations in Mrs Leonard's Kitchen. And although Tata was nominally Top Dog in the house, she always did what Mrs Leonard suggested, so the two had a good working relationship. Neither of them ever did what Leonard said.

Delicious smells started to drift out from the kitchen, and the little crutches decided it was time for a nap after their busy day.