This Is Midnight_Stories by Bernard Taylor

Author:Bernard Taylor [Taylor, Bernard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2019-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

PAT-A-CAKE, PAT-A-CAKE

I like it here in this place. It’s warm and cosy. And the people around me are nice. The face on the dark-haired lady who leans over my cot is especially nice. She has the softest brown eyes. I kept stealing little glances at her as she tucked me in with this beautiful new Rupert Bear eiderdown. I never had anything like this before. It’s really nice. Not that I could tell them, of course – the man or the woman. Well, I could tell them, but they just wouldn’t understand, and I’ve learned now that it’s quite useless to try – no matter how clear I make myself. I think it must be something they learn – an ability they develop as we grow older and bigger. I hope so. I hope they will learn. There’s so much I want to tell them.

I think this place is going to be my new home. Just now the woman leaned over me and said: ‘You’re going to stay here with your daddy and me for ever and ever.’ Oh, I felt so glad. It’s exactly what I wanted. I would have hugged her except that my arms aren’t long enough. So I sort of clapped my hands instead. Just think – these two people are going to be my new mummy and daddy. They must be.

I had a mummy before. But the new one is much nicer. I never had a daddy before, though. I must say I like it. This one’s got a very faint tobacco-y smell about him. I can recognize it. But it’s not unpleasant, and his voice is very kind and gentle. I wonder if all daddies are like him.

I’m going to stay here. I shall. I don’t think I’ll ever move on again. It’s so nice.

I just clapped my hands together again, and the lady – I must always try to think of her as Mummy – went all smiley and happy. She said to me: ‘That’s it! Clever boy! That’s it – Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man . . . Go on . . . Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man.’ So I clapped my hands together even harder – as well as I could – and gave her a big grin. She laughed then, and said again:

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man,

Bake me a cake as fast as you can.

Pat it and prick it and mark with B,

And put it in the oven for baby and me!

I think that’s how it went. Mind you, I’m not absolutely sure what this pat-a-cake thing is. I think it must be this clapping thing I do – waving my arms around – things like that. Though I’m not all that good at it yet – the clapping, pat-a-cake thing, I mean. It’s not always easy to make your hands actually meet – hit together, you understand. The new mummy seems to know this, and she took my hands and held them and gently clapped them together. And all the time she sang about pat-a-cake.

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