Disclaimer: Melody and all characters copyright to Hemdale and Goodtimes Enterprises and written by Andrew Birkin and Alan Parker.


Give and Take

Ornshaw likes going to Daniel's house, mostly because Danny has colour telly, which is more than they've got at home. There's also a good chance of him knowing most of the answers to their maths homework, so Danny's place after school on Fridays is somewhere to stay for as long as he can manage to swindle it. It's a house for coming to, rather than going from like Ornshaw's; definitely a step up from granddad's complaining, and crispy pancakes, with arctic roll for pudding, makes a change from a plate of sausages and lumpy mash. Danny's mum thinks that Ornshaw takes advantage of him, when she can be bothered to take any real notice of what he's doing. All dinner parties and WI meetings, Danny's mum is. Ornshaw feels a bit bad sometimes when he thinks about it, but nowhere near bad enough not to keep doing it.

He feels a lot less bad, and more happy inside in a soppy sort of way that he doesn't get all that often, when they're sitting with their feet up on the big sofa watching the football, and Danny says he's glad when Ornshaw can come round, because he's his best friend.