The CBB :: View topic - Joey Keeps Busy

#1: Joey Keeps Busy Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 4:34 pm

“Well, at least that’s finally finished.” Joey Maynard, tossed the manuscript onto the table with a loud sigh.

Her husband of 19 years looked over at her affectionately.

“What number’s that?” He asked. “You must be halfway to matching that EBD woman that those friends of yours are always disparaging.”

Jo grinned. “Oh I fully intend to beat her! And to give Enid Blyton a run for her money by the time I’m a proud great grandmamma in my bath chair. I’ve a marvellous plot for my next story. It’s about an orphaned girl who arrives at her new boarding school and incites jealously in another girl. Still they make it up in the end after she rescues her from an avalanche and then they discover they’re second cousins.”

“You won’t be starting on it just yet though, will you?” asked Jack with an anxious look. “You promised you’d finally take things a little more slowly, as I’ve been telling you to for the last three months.”

“Not much chance of that, Jack Maynard. You know I can hardly sit around all day a lady of leisure, what with the twins back from Madge’s on Thursday and all three triplets still recuperating in the San.”

The three eldest of Joey’s long family had recently celebrated their eighteenth birthdays with triple heart bypass surgery; a diet of Anna’s lemon biscuits, tiny light deep fried balls of potato and coffee covered in featherbeds of whipped cream being not exactly conducive to the free flow of blood around the body. Strangely, the diet had never seemed to affect their mother, whose arteries could have been mistaken for those of the 12 year old schoolgirl she still was at heart rather than those of a proud mamma of 11, adoptive mother to six more, adoptive sister to one, some sort of adoptive Aunt - or was it cousin; one was never quite sure - to two, along with quite a few more who seemed to think she was short of brevet-nieces.

And in three months’ time she was going to even busier . . .

Last edited by Katherine on Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

#2: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 4:39 pm

Thanks Katherine - looking forward to more!

Liz

#3: Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!!

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 4:58 pm

Hehe this looks like fun, thanks Katherine Very Happy

#4: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 5:58 pm

Thanks, Katherine. This looks brilliant, Katherine! Is this your first drabble? It's definitely a great start!

#5: Author: Chalet_school_lover, Location: Gloucester

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 6:08 pm

This looks great Katherine! Very Happy

#6: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 7:46 pm

Wondering if it could be quads this time!

#7: Author: tiffinata, Location: melbourne, australia

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:00 pm

*choke
*snicker
*guffaw
ROFL

#8: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:00 am

What a brilliant start! Well done, Katherine! I do hope it's the quads this time!

#9: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 8:03 am

Wonderful start, Katherine, long may it continue.

#10: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 3:16 pm

#11: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:59 pm

Post removed! Won't let me delete it properly.

Last edited by Katherine on Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:01 pm; edited 2 times in total

#12: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:00 pm

Thanks for all the comments. This is only a short drabble, being my first one - and it won't be quads! Very Happy

“How is she, Jack?” Hilda Annersley’s grey-blue eyes were full of concern as she turned to face Jo’s husband as he entered the room, closely followed by his brother in law.

“She’s beside herself with glee, Hilda.”

“Not twins again?”

“No, not twins.” replied Jack quietly. “Nor triplets.”

“Surely not those quads she was always promising us!”

Jem was unable to keep quiet any longer. “She’s gone one better then that. There are five babies; Jo’s had quins!”

“Jem Russell, I don’t believe you. Jack?” Her gaze returned to the new father.

“It’s true alright. I have two new daughters and three sons.”

“How like Joey! Well she’ll have to be satisfied now. No one can rival her now.” Hilda started to laugh.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Jack was looking rather pale as he spoke the words.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that she’ll be even more determined now that there’s a gap to be filled. I’m not sure she’ll stop until she has had those threatened quads. Do you realise I’ll be a father of . . .” his eyes dropped towards the floor as he counted under his breath, “ . . . at least 20 children!”

#13: Author: Chalet_school_lover, Location: Gloucester

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:04 pm

quins!

Thank you Katherine! Very Happy

#14: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:46 pm

Oh good grief - she'll be insuffrable now! Laughing

#15: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:48 pm

Thanks, Katherine. Please do we get to find out the names of the quins? I'm really enjoying reading this drabble.

#16: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 8:12 pm

20 children!!!!! Shocked

#17: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 9:04 pm

Can't wait to hear the names! Will she go for sextuplets next time?!

#18: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 9:47 pm

Thanks Katherine Very Happy

Poor Jack! Laughing

Liz

#19: Author: JustJen, Location: Dorval, Quebec

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 4:11 am

20 kids, Oh God the pain...

#20: Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!!

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 3:42 pm

*splutters wildly*

#21: Author: Le Petite Em, Location: Cheltenham

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 4:00 pm

This is brilliant Katherine, thank-you! Poor Jack, he must be quite overwhelmed! Laughing

#22: Author: Liane, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:22 am

Quins! I was expecting quads but Shocked

#23: Author: Rosy, Location: Gloucestershire-London-Aberystwyth

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:47 am

Oh deary me. 5? That's insane.
At least in this universe it could only be 20!

#24: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 11:33 am

Poor Jack, I think that he can see himself working until he's ninety to feed and clothe all of them.

#25: Author: Josie, Location: London

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 1:32 pm

Excellent!

Thanks Katherine. Given me a good giggle over my sarnies!

#26: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:18 pm

Well, I hadn't intened to continue past the last post. But how could I resist finding names for them all?

Hilda Annersley pushed open the door to Joey’s bedroom and advanced cautiously. She didn’t have to wait long for a welcome.

“Hilda! Come in. You don’t know how glad I am to see you. Jack says I must stay cooped up in here for the next three days.”

“You just do as you’re told, young lady.” Miss Annersley crossed the room to be by the side of Jo’s bed where there stood a huge old pram containing five tiny babies who gurgled and cooed, showing great consideration for their mother.

“What do you think of my latest effort then, Hilda?” asked the proud mamma.

“’How like Jo!’ was what we all said. I’m not sure what else there is to say. Now please tell me what you’ve decide to call them.”

“Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen and Sixteen.” Jo’s eyes glinted wickedly.

“I don’t think you’ll ever grow up and act like an adult, will you?”

“Not if I can help it.” said Joey decidedly. “All right, if you insist. “The girls are to be Thérèse and Elise. Will you pass me little Thérèse, please? She’s on one the far left.

Hilda picked up the baby noticing the long lashes which lay against the pale cheeks. She wondered momentarily if the babies were wearing mascara; really it was most suspicious how Jo’s children always had such luxuriant lashes. She quickly dismissed the idea; babies cried far too often for mascara to be a practical option. Perhaps Jo had their lashes dyed. Or maybe you could get extensions these days?

Joey sat up to receive the wriggling bundle that Hilda pressed into her arms.

“Thérèse and Elise are lovely names, Jo. What about the boys?”

“The eldest is to be Victor, the second Edward. The youngest will be James-Robert, after Jack’s brother; Jim-Bob for a short. I did rather like Jinger for him but imagine the ragging he’d have if he turned red later on. My red-headed babies didn’t keep their colouring, so I can't assume these ones will.”

“Though they’re all so dark right now; what a uniform clutch of babies they are.”

“I know, I can barely tell Thérèse and Elise apart. The poor lambs had better change or they’ll go though life being addressed constantly by the wrong name.”

“I hope they do, or I can see them adding to my grey hairs by the time they get to the naughty middle stage.” observed Jo’s guest.

“Oh, I’m sure you’d manage to squash them suitably if they tried any monkey tricks like that! What ever did you say to young Araminta Diddams to cut her down to size?”

“That, I’m afraid, must remain between her and me. You can hardly expect me to tell you everything that goes on with the girls, or at least as far as ones who aren’t your daughters or wards are concerned. Now I really must go, I’m afraid, Joey. I promised Rosalie that I’d sit down with her and discuss the new prospectus. I think we need to emphasise that we do not take new girls in the Summer Term and that pupils are expected to speak all three languages during lessons.”

And with that Hilda set off for the school, pausing only to fill her handbag with a selection of Anna’s baked goods for consumption later that evening.

#27: Author: Chalet_school_lover, Location: Gloucester

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:24 pm

hehehehe, love the part about Jinger and Jim-Bob!! Thank you very much Katherine! Very Happy

#28: Author: Nina, Location: Peterborough, UK

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:51 pm

*falls off chair laughing at Jinger and Jim-Bob*

Not to mention confusing Therese and Elise Laughing

, and finally, Jo gets a Victor Cool

Now trying to think of the significance of "Edward" but failing miserably Confused

#29: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:07 pm

Love the new prospectus - it really does need to be revised! Laughing

#30: Author: BethC, Location: Worcester, UK

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:23 pm

Katherine wrote:

“I know, I can barely tell Thérèse and Elise apart. The poor lambs had better change or they’ll go though life being addressed constantly by the wrong name.”

#31: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:07 pm

I love the line about Therese and Elise! & I would love to read the CS prospectus - someone ought to write one!

#32: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:58 am

I loved the way Hilda filled her bag with baked goodies.

So typical of Jo, the names. What will she shorten the girl's to, Raise and Lise?

#33: Author: aitchemelle, Location: West Sussex

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:03 am

Fabulous Katherine! Very Happy

#34: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:11 am

Lovely

Thanks Katherine

Liz

#35: Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:09 am

Great drabble. I laughed all the way from the triplets having bypass surgery through to Miss A snitching the 'baked goods'.

I particulalry liked the 'Thérèse and Elise' bit - very subtle Razz

#36: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:24 pm

That was so funny! Thank you, Katherine. I am now wondering why Jo didn't go in for some double barrelled names; Jim-Bob has a certain ring to it! Shame he is too young to marry Mary-Lou!

#37: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:19 am

That was just brilliant Katherine

#38: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:28 am

Thanks, Katherine. I like the names you have given Joey's quins.

#39: Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:34 pm

Katherine wrote:

She wondered momentarily if the babies were wearing mascara; really it was most suspicious how Jo’s children always had such luxuriant lashes.

#40: Author: Elisabeth,

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:59 pm

Oh how I love mad stories! Please don't stop Katherine... I wan't to see loads more of this. Please.

#41: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:14 pm

I do have an idea for one more post and really do want to write it. I just have to find some suitable details to weave around it and then find the time to get it down on paper.

#42: Author: Le Petite Em, Location: Cheltenham

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:33 pm

Delightfully crazy- thank-you!

#43: Joey Keeps Busy - Completed 18/11/05 Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 5:59 pm

“Oof!” exclaimed Joey as she settled herself into one of the numerous comfortable chairs that adorned the Saal in Freudesheim. Being English, she had insisted, on moving to the Bernese Oberland, that she needed a proper fire, but she was beginning to wonder if she could have saved Anna the trouble of lighting it this morning. Really, it was sweltering in here. “Are you felling warm too, Hilda?” She turned to her guest who immediately stopped trying to decipher the overly-wide upside-down Maynard-Bettany-Russell family tree on the coffee table next to her.

“Hilda Annersley!” she ejaculated, “Are you sneaking a look at my researches? Most dishonourable!”

“Oh, I’m sure there are no love children hidden in your family tree, Joey dear. If there were, I doubt I’d find them on this - they’d be explained away as wards.”

If Joey could have blushed at this comment she would. However her reputation was saved by virtue of the fact she couldn’t turn much redder. “It’s sweltering in here,” she complained. “Are you not hot?”

As if Hilda Annersley would ever be anything other than cool, calm and collected; the words hot and bothered simply weren’t in her vocabulary. To her manner of thinking the temperature was perfectly acceptable and she said so. “I hope you aren’t sickening for anything Jo, perhaps you’d better tell Jack.”

A look of terror crossed Jo’s face but she quickly suppressed it and laughed. “He’ll only drug me, and I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m not about to spend a week in bed on his account!”

“Josephine Maynard! What little faith you display in your husband. Anyway, I thought you found the hallucinogens useful; that’s where all your best storylines come from. You told me yourself that Nancy meets a Nazi would never have seen the light of day without several batches of his patent dose.”

“True,” admitted Jo. “But really, I feel fine. I just keep feeling hot. If I were sickening for something it would have happened by now; it’s been going on for a while.”

Now if you were to do the maths, even Chalet-land-maths, you would realise that Miss Annersley must be a fair few years older than Joey; she had, after all, been at the Chalet School since Grizel was Head Girl. She was thus in possession of the unfortunate facts regarding middle age and its effects. Not, she reflected that middle age spread seemed to have affected Joey much. However, it looked as though another of her curses might be about to strike at Joey. She couldn’t be sure, but it looked as though she might have some good new for Jack: those long awaited quads would not be making an appearance. Nor would any other new children. Well, she smiled to herself, Nell Wilson would be disappointed; she had a considerable sum riding on Joey passing the two score mark.

She voiced her thoughts. “Joey, have you been feeling forgetful lately - or been suffering from mood swings?”

“No, I told you, I’m fine.”

Jo, don’t you see what this means?”

Thankfully Joey had learnt a little about the working of the human body since her days as Head Girl. She suddenly realised what her old friend was driving at.

“Great Caesar’s bathmat! You mean . . . Well, it would make sense I suppose.” She frowned and a wistful look came over her face. “This means I will never get to produce those quads.” She paused to think for a moment and her face brightened. “Well, look at it this way; I don’t suppose it’ll be too long before I’m a grandmother. Perhaps Len will do what I never did.”

#44: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:45 pm

Joey on the change?! What a thought. Still, I'm sure she'll have dozens of grandchildren to look forward to. Thanks Katherine.

#45: Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!!

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:55 pm

*g* thanks Katherine, a great ending. I like the way she is already looking forward to grandmotherhood. Poor Len!

#46: Author: Chalet_school_lover, Location: Gloucester

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:56 pm

Joey with no possiblity of more children!! Shocked

My that's a thing I never thought would happen!!!
I suppose she will have lots of grandchildren to look forward to! Thank you Katherine! Very Happy

#47: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:53 pm

Thanks, Katherine. That was very observant of Hilda to notice. I wonder if there are any 'love children' on the family tree?

#48: Re: Joey Keeps Busy - Completed 18/11/05 Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 9:59 am

Katherine wrote:

“Josephine Maynard! What little faith you display in your husband. Anyway, I thought you found the hallucinogens useful; that’s where all your best storylines come from.

Thanks Katherine - that was wonderful!

Liz

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