3 Vale Road (TEASER)

This fic has been an ongoing brain-fart' for quite a while now. It was originally started as a script, as this was intended to be a graphic novel. However, things changed and I decided to write this as a story, rather than a graphic novel for now and then work on the other at a later date.
So far so good.

Have a teaser and tell me what you think so far.

~Axel


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3 Vale Road


It was a bright and sunny day in the village of Pontypandy. It was in the middle of summer and the weather had fluctuated rather rapidly from freezing cold, to scorching hot in the space of a few days. It was so hot, in fact, that children were outside most of the time frying eggs on the pavements for fun. It was too hot to do much else.

Unfortunately for the Prince family, they had chosen the hottest day of the year to move to Pontypandy. Carrying boxes, suitcases and bags back and forth was not going to be an easy task at all, especially considering the fact that the family were wearing clothes intended for autumn chills.

Trevor Evans, the local bus driver and part-time fire fighter, found it rather amusing that the weather could be so drastically different, even though where they had previously lived was only a little bit further down the country.

“Gales and gusts was it then back home?”

Julie Prince, the mother, rolled her eyes as she lifted a box out of the boot of the car. “Actually, yes it was.”

“Snow too,” chuckled Ryan, Julie’s son. He had just finished placing the box he had been carrying inside the kitchen of their new house and had overheard Trevor’s comments. “Yesterday it actually thundered and hailed.”

Trevor shook his head, his hands on his hip. “I dunno. This weather. It’s acting as crazy as Norman.”

“Sorry, what? Who’s Norman?” Rachel, the daughter of Julie and sister of Ryan, raised a brow as she attempted to avoid tripping over a ginger cat that had somehow found its way over to the front door. She hissed a quick ‘SHOO’ before turning her attention back to Trevor.

“Who’s Norman? Oh, don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough. Oh! Speak of the devil, here he comes now.”

A ginger-haired boy wandered round the corner of the street, his hands fixed firmly in his pockets and his face wearing an expression of sheer boredom. But, that soon changed as soon as he saw the events going on at the house.

“Cor!”

“Now Norman,” frowned Trevor as he attempted to keep him from diving straight into the back of the families car to root around in their belongings, “Stay back lad, you could get hurt. Moving is a very dangerous affair.”

“Yeah right,” sneered Norman, “Its about as dangerous as my foot. Anyway, I was only looking.”

“Mind that’s all you do, boyo.”

“Wicked! Look at that games console! I’d love one of those!”

“Norman! Don’t you dare touch that. It’s not yours,” scolded Trevor wagging his finger, “Besides, that box looks unsafe for you to go poking around, even IF you were allowed to.”

“Aw, c’mon Mr Evans. You’re no fun.”

“I’m only looking out for your safety, lad.”

Norman, completely fed up of being told off, stomped his way off down the road in a huff.

“Cheeky little bugger, ain’t he,” laughed Julie watching him storm down the road, kicking every rock in sight.

“Aye, but he’s got a good heart I say.”

“He’d have no heart if he’d have touched that console, I tell you…” Rachel didn’t appreciate it when people took liberties with her belongings, especially when they were of the electrical variety. Trevor just chuckled to himself at her reaction and continued to help them load the boxes into the house.

It took them a good few hours to finish and unpack. Obviously, everything wasn’t as it should be, but they had decided to wait until morning to deal with the finer details.

“Thanks for the help, Trevor,” smiled Julie shaking his hand, “We needed all the help we could get in this bloody weather.”

“No kidding,” laughed Rachel fanning herself with a newspaper, “Even I’M hot and I walk around wearing a coat in 90 degree heat!”

“Is she serious?” Trevor raised a brow and pointed to Rachel.

“Afraid so…”

After much puzzled silence, Trevor and the family decided to set about giving the house a good clean. It hadn’t been lived in for a little while and a few cobwebs had gathered, dust had settled thick and the odd dead insect could be seen lying around. Buckets filled with hot, soapy water, they assigned rooms to each other. Ryan focused on the living/dining room and kitchen, Trevor the hall and landing, Rachel worked on the front two bedrooms and Julie was relegated to the back bedroom and bathroom.

“OH MY GOD!” Julie had walked into the bathroom and had been met by a hideous sight of mould, mildew and dead spiders in the bath. It was going to take some work.

Thankfully, Ryan had only really had the trouble of rust on the kitchen taps to deal with and the odd cobweb and dusty skirting board. Trevor’s job was pretty much the same too, as was Rachel’s.

Down in the hall, Trevor was sweeping some of the dust out the front door that he had collected when he saw a familiar face walking up the road.

“Ah! HELLO SAM!” Trevor set about waving to him.

Samuel Adams, a red-haired, blue eyed thirty year old was one of the local fire fighters. He was possibly one of the most popular people in the village due to his past heroic deeds and his polite nature.

“Hello there, Trev. How’s tricks then?”

“Not too bad, Sam. I’m just helping the new family move in. How was work?”

Sam laughed and adjusted his helmet. “It was interesting, I can tell you that much. I think I got called out three times to Bella’s café, just because she kept burning her toast. I had to tell her to turn down the settings on her toaster. Ha ha.”

“That woman… She’s almost as bad as Elvis.” Trevor shook his head smiling.

“I wouldn’t go THAT far, Trev.” Sam leaned forwards giving him a knowing wink, but just as he did there came a sudden outcry of “OH CRAP” from above. It was a good job Sam had quick reactions, as a bucket of soapy water would have fallen on his head had he not stepped backwards.

“Ych a fi!”

“Oh, sorry!”

Sam looked up to the window above only to see a young woman run back inside the room sheepishly.

“That was a close one, wasn’t it?” Trevor still had his hand to his mouth in shock, as the falling bucket had taken him by surprise.

Sam just grinned. “I think the curse of Pontypandy is getting to them already!”

“Curse of Pontypandy?”

“Clumsiness!”

“OH! OH AYE! HAHA!”

The two men laughed amongst themselves for a few minutes, before they regained their composure and carried on talking.

“So, what are my new next door neighbours like then,” asked Sam taking off his helmet and brushing a hand through his hair, “It’ll be nice to finally have someone living next door. I know one of them is going to be joining us at the fire station as a new recruit.”

“Aye, that’s actually why they moved up here. When they applied they had no free jobs in their area, so they had to relocate. I don’t actually know who the new recruit is. I never thought of asking, I’ve been too busy lifting boxes all day.”

“Well, we’ll find out tomorrow, I’m sure. We are holding a nice welcoming party up at the station for them all. They can‘t hide for long. Ha ha.”

“Too right, Sam. Say… Aren’t you glad the sun has started to go down? I could have keeled over if I had to endure another minute of that blistering heat.”

“It has been a good one today, hasn’t it?”

“Good one? Is that what you call it?”

“Maybe you should have been stood here when that bucket fell, eh Trev?”

“Hah. Shall I go and tell her to lob another one?”

“Anyway, did you want a hand with anything, as I’ve finished my shift early today.”

“Actually, all we’ve got left to do is a spot of cleaning, so I’d go and put your feet up Sam.” Trevor knew how stubborn the man was when it came to work, so he made sure he got the message by pointing his finger at him.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

“Well, ok then. But, shout if you need me, I’m only next door.”

“Will do. Bye!”

Sam unlocked his front door, stepped inside and closed it behind him leaving Trevor to finish sweeping the dust outside.

“I swear that man is a work-a-holic…”



A little while later everything was spick and span. All the woodwork had been cleaned, the windows washed, the carpets thoroughly vacuumed and all the furniture was in its place.

“Phew! Thank goodness that’s over with, “ laughed Julie wiping her brow with her sleeve, “I’ll be glad to get into bed tonight, that’s for sure!”

“I bet you will, I’m feeling that way now,” chuckled Trevor as he eyed a cushion on the sofa, “That looks mighty comfy, I’m half tempted to just curl up there, ha ha!”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “I don’t know… A bunch of weeds you lot are.”

“I can see who has the energy in this family!” Trevor laughed to himself and straightened his back while eyeing Rachel, who was surprisingly not showing any signs of fatigue.

“Yeeeaaah!” Rachel flexed her arms jokingly, putting as she did. This made Trevor laugh loudly, clutching at his belly as it jiggled up and down. Sam must have heard this sudden outburst, as there came a knock on the wall.

“Everything ok, Trev?”

“Wow, thin walls,” exclaimed Rachel raising a brow and pointing with her thumb.

Trevor nodded before replying to Sam by shouting towards the living room wall.

“Aye, Sam. Just having a laugh! Nothing to worry about!”

“Aye, good-o!”

“I hope you can’t hear TOO much through these walls,” muttered Julie under her breath, “I don’t want him listening to me on the toilet.”

There was an awkward silence as everyone in the room had heard her mutterings and were either embarrassed, or silently amused by them.

“Don’t worry! I won’t,” came the reply.

“Oh god! He heard me!”

“Sound proofing?” suggested Ryan, his sentence wavering as a grin formed on his face over his mothers embarrassed state.

“Ah, it’ll be reet,” laughed Rachel going over to the wall and giving it a pat. “I’m sure it’s not all that bad.”

Everyone shrugged, Julie letting out a sigh as she did so.

“Right then, I best be off,” laughed Trevor standing up from the couch and making his way out into the hallway. “I trust you’ll all be ok?”

“We’ll be fine.” Julie sighed and smiled as best as she could, her face still red from the events. “Thanks for your help.”

“Aye, no trouble at all! Give us a shout if you need anything else.”

He opened the front door and stepped out. “Ta-raa!”

“Bye!”