A long time ago, nearly seventy years it would be, my father used to sit by my bed and tell me stories of Step and Tear. I can’t recall much about them, except that they were orphans and terrible things happened to them. Each story must have ended happily because I always went to sleep afterwards.
When my grandchildren were about four and six, I began telling them Step and Tear stories at bedtime. They sometimes made suggestions about the direction the stories should take and named the orphanage where the children lived. My youngest grandchild felt that because Step and Tear were older, he was being left out, so a new, younger character called Sad was created.
Eventually I wrote these stories down using the A to Z format to contain them. After all, it had to end eventually, although there were a few tears shed when that final chapter was completed and read to the grandchildren, now 11 and 13.
These stories are pure fiction and while set in the 1950s, they bear no resemblance to any orphanages existing at that time.
For once my A to Z is written and ready to go. As I will be cruising on the Pacific Ocean for most of April, that is just as well.
The Curry Apple Orchard 