It seemed to be an average evening in the Ormerod house. Katie was sitting cross – legged on the floor, whilst Tom sat next to his Dad on the sofa. Jill was in the kitchen making their dinner. Occasional snores could be heard being emitted from the general direction of the sofa. Gordon had his feet crossed upon Jill's prize coffee table, whilst Tom was drawing on his face.
Suddenly, Katie looked up and said, "Daddy, where are the London Docklands?"
Gordon grunted, as he was rudely awakened from a dream in which Katie was beating him about the head with a pillow. He wasn't quite sure what it meant. He decided to leave thinking about that until later. He looked at his daughter muttering, "What did you say, love?"
"Where are the London Docklands?" Katie repeated, becoming impatient.
Tom rolled his eyes and commented sarcastically, "In London, silly!"
Gordon, still being half asleep, missed the sarcasm in his 9 – year – old son's voice. He unsuspectingly replied, "Yes, Tom, they're in London."
Katie, annoyed and upset with what her little brother had just said, and also annoyed with her father for not noticing, directed sulkily at her brother, "I thought so, but I thought that I should ask first." Then turning to her father, enquired, "What happened to them? This book says they have become derelict. What does that mean, Daddy?"
Gordon answered, "It means that they have begun to be used less and less, until a few years ago, when they stopped using them altogether and so the area became untouched for years and the plants and rodents took over, so it became a dangerous place to be in."
"Ohhhhh…" Katie said, nodding her head rather vaguely.

He continued, "Katie, promise me that you will never play in any derelict areas, even if your friends say that they're safe, without asking either me or Jill first, yes?"
"I promise Dad," Katie replied.
Turning to his son, he added, "That includes you too, Tom."
"I promise, Dad," he responded.
"Good," he replied, relieved.
With an enquiring look on her face, Katie asked rather solemnly, "Does that include Jill too, Daddy?"
Gordon looked at Jill, obviously amused. Looking into Jill's loving green eyes, he responded quietly, "I think Jill knows if something is safe or not."
Looking at Jill, Katie decides to add cheekily, "Well, do you?"
Smiling affectionately, she replied, amused, "Yes Katie, I do." Turning to her husband, she added, "Why don't you tell them a bit more about the Docklands whilst I finish dinner?" As she said this, she noticed her husband's shoe-clad feet on top of her beautiful coffee table.
"Would you like that kids?" Gordon asked.
Replying together, "Yes," they both proceeded to jump on Gordon at the same time, causing him to groan. Jill rolled her eyes.
"And you can take your feet off of my poor coffee table at the same time!" she continued, indignantly.
He smiled at his wife, who merely raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Ok. Well, let's see. The London Docklands is an area of urban regeneration, between London Bridge, the Surrey Docks and the Royal Docks."
He was interrupted again, with "Daddy, where is Surrey?"
from his son, who was still on top of him. Katie, being 12, felt she was a little grown up for sitting on her dad's knee, so had sat back down on the carpet.
"It's just south of London. Would you like me to show you on a map?" he replied to the back of his son's head.
"Yes please, Daddy. I've never heard of it before," was the reply he got from Katie. He got silence from Tom.
Jokingly, he asked, "Haven't you? What do they teach you in geography nowadays? In my day we had to know where places on the map were, so that we could point them out, didn't we Jill."
"Yes, we did," she added equally as jokingly, "Your Dad was never any good at it though!"
"Really?" Katie asked sounding genuinely interested.
"Yes. He seemed convinced that Amsterdam was in Scotland!" she chuckled, with laughter in her eyes.
"No, I didn't…." he retorted, sounding insulted. However, it didn't work. Jill could see straight through his pretence. She knew him too well. He decided it was probably better to stay on the right side of her. Not that she'd get angry with him, she rarely got angry with anyone and if she did, it was usually with her parents. They were rather embarrassing. But then all parents are at times. But hers were always embarrassing. However since he wanted his dinner on a complete plate, so he'd have to be nice to her.
"It's no good denying it," she continued jokingly, "Jim would tell me all about your blond mistakes in geography whilst we were walking home from school."
"You had to walk home?" Katie could barely contain her surprise.
"Yes, only the most privileged people had cars in those days. You should try walking home sometime!" she mused.
Katie gave Jill a look of disbelief. She stated, "You mean you were poor?"
Gordon and Jill laughed.
Recovering himself, Gordon lifted Tom onto the other seat of the sofa, and put a hand onto his daughter's shoulder, saying, "Katie, just because you aren't privileged doesn't automatically mean that you're poor! I mean, we're not privileged, but we're not poor are we."
Embarrassed, she said, "No." After a few seconds thought, she added "Is Jim your brother, Jill?"
"Yes, he's my older brother."
"How many years older is he?" she asked innocently.
"Katie!" Gordon started, shocked at his daughter's lack of tact.
"Gordon, I don't mind," she said, with a strong hint in her voice, which was telling him to let sleeping dogs lie.
"So how many years older is he?" she asked again, looking enquiringly at her step-mum.
"He's six years older than me," she smiled.
"So that means that Daddy's six years older than you too," she said thoughtfully.
"Yes, I suppose he is," Jill answered absent-mindedly.
"You mean you don't know?" Katie asked, confused.
Shaking his head in amusement, he explained, "What Jill means is that she supposes that that would make sense, but didn't say so."
"So she does know how many years older you are than her?" she asked.
Simultaneously, the two replied, "Yes."
"Good," she stated, satisfied.
"So, where were we?" Gordon asked cheerfully, pleased to have got the previous conversation about his age out of the way.
"The London Docklands!" It was Katie's turn to be sarcastic.
"Don't roll your eyes, young lady, or they'll stay like that," he teased.
"You look a bit pale, Tom. Are you alright?" Jill asked him, concerned.
As if for an answer, he threw up all over the carpet and passed out.