Q Write a short story introducing characters to the reader, please use the theme of spring.

Spring into action

Paige sat waiting; the sunshine broke through the clouds right into granddad Gordon’s living room. She watched as it showed the dust in the air floating slowly “maybe it’s magic and not dust at all” she wondered to herself.

Gordon wasn’t really her granddad Paige knew that, he was someone mom knew. Paige was here because it was a teacher training day. Her mother had already read her the lecture on being very good for granddad Gordon and being respectful. This was because he wasn’t just nice. He was a hero, a very special kind of hero.

Gordon limped from the hallway to the living room door and as he opened it in bolted max the collie dog. He ran strait to Paige with excitement and began his little dance asking her to fuss him.

“Good it’s you. You’re lucky not to be a burglar you know?” Gordon’s voice was still broken a sort of croaky sound. Paige knew this meant he had only just got out of bed. She gave him a smile and continued to fuss max. “that’s right you hold him back whilst I make a run for the tea pot, make sure you have him tight I don’t want to have my leg ravaged in an attack” Gordon pretended to be fearful he rolled his shoulders as if to limber up and licked his lips in anticipation before miming a sprint for the kitchen.

Paige laughed and shook her head “you say the funniest things granddad, Max is so gentle and far too smart to be an ordinary dog” Gordon retuned her smile as he lifted the tea pot down from the shelf. How right she was about his dog, but she didn’t know that, she would never know truly.

Paige fed Max, carried Gordon’s tea and breakfast to his table next to the old blue chair he always sat in. She ate some toast and sipped the bitter tea. There was no sugar in granddad Gordon’s house because he was diabetic so not allowed any. Paige waited quietly for Gordon to finish.

“So Miss Paige what are we reading today, Black beauty, White fang? Or would you like to read some of the Michael Morpurgo you mother sent me for Christmas? They are nice tell her, Max read two in one day. Didn’t you Maximus?” Gordon settled into his chair ready to read to Paige. He loved to read, reading to Paige was especially good fun he liked to do funny voices and add dramatic sounds he so enjoyed her company she wasn’t like others.“No, she wasn’t a spoilt like those little brats with their head permanently attached to a mobile phone” he thought to himself “there the reason we can’t go outside anymore, nasty roller boards and villainous spite”

“Maximus, is that his name today?” she asked Gordon with a jolly tone.

“Maximus Speedius” Gordon proclaimed “he was a gladiator in his puppy days you know? Just like in that film on the telly”

“Is that before he was a shark wrestler? Or after he was the first dog to climb Mount Everest?” both broke into laughter and Max barked joyfully. “We can make a deal. If we cross the road to the park together I will walk Max and clean the whole yard, even give him a wash and you can then read us any story you like. Deal?”

“Outside?” Gordon wasn’t laughing anymore

“Yes, just for a while. Its spring at last, the park is truly pretty with snowdrops and crocuses. I saw them on the way over. It isn’t far to the bench I promise. Please Granddad be brave just this once.” Paige begged, to make matters worse clever old max did the same putting his head in Gordon’s lap.

Gordon looked out of the living room window, it was sunny, and it was spring. Paige couldn’t know how he feared the outside. It wasn’t the weather, the cold, or how far it was to the bench. What kept the retired Search and Rescue handler, and his wonderful Red Spanish collie at home, it was people. Gordon and Max had saved countless lives over the years in so many different natural disasters and war zones, that it had cost them their own life in away. Injured, old and unable to find suitable work. Life in their home country was not what they had hoped for. The people outside these doors now were horrid monsters, judged and evaluated your whole being on what you looked like. These were not the relived faces of trapped individuals, without his uniform he was just an old man with a shattered knee.

“Please? I will go with you, I we will stay with you if you want. How about just ten minutes out on the bench then we will read?” Paige’s tone was calm and sure. It reminded him of the day he had to talk a little Mexican boy into crawling out of his broken home. Gordon’s Spanish was terrible back then. It was no use trying to explain to the little lad, Gordon had to risk it, he had to get close and worse he had to send his beloved Max in to a hole that could collapse at any moment. Calm and trust that’s why Max when in, that’s why the boy came out safe.

“Ok Miss Paige we will take the air for a bit, it’s time to feel the sunshine again. After all spring is Max’s favourite season”