Chapter Nineteen

 After Joshua's first day at his new school, Tamara invited him over for the afternoon.

They spent some time chatting and Tamara admitted she hadn't the faintest idea why her father had moved the entire family.  She'd tried asking but had been told that it was vampire business...

Dismissing the puzzle for the time being the two of them went upstairs and had a pillow fight

Back home, Jo had spent quite a lot of time cuddling and playing with Smudge

Before settling down to read a book about handiness around the home while Smudge played with one of the toys they'd got him

 Joshua got home in time for some spaghetti and Jo suddenly asked him about his old imaginary friend/toy

"You used to talk about that friend of yours, Cosmo, all the time, you know, the one I could never see, whatever happened to him?"

 "Oh Mum, he was imaginary!  I made him up from my old toy cos I didn't like anyone at school enough to play with them..."

 In the morning Joshua got up bright and early to tend his small garden before school

 Jo spent most of the morning chatting on the phone to her new colleagues, getting to know them

Before she headed off to her first shift in her new workplace, fortunately there had been an opening at the local Bistro when they'd moved  

 When Joshua got home from work he spent some more time on his garden

 And paid the bills

Before heading down to the lakeside to fish.

He was surprised when his line caught on an old box, and even more surprised to find an old bath toy inside! 

 When he got home again he spent some time playing with Smudge who had easily wrapped both Jo and Joshua round his paws

 While Jo got on with some cooking as soon as she got home from work

That night, Smudge met another member of the family, although they'd taken most of the family remains (which Max Fields-Vamp had oddly insisted they bring with them) to the local graveyard, Jo had decided that her twin should be buried at their home

Their lives fell into a simple pattern, Joshua would get up early in the mornings to tend his garden before school

Jo would cook for them

And something about the either the move or possibly Smudge's presence in their life had reinvigorated her, she took to repairing broken items around the hous 

And cleaning up

Smudge proved to be a very well behaved kitten, always using the scratching post rather than sharpening his claws on the furniture 

And he had plenty of toys to play with 

 When of course Jo wasn't fussing him

 When Joshua got home from school he'd finish off the garden each afternoon

Before heading off to one of many fishing spots nearby for an hour or so 

Jo managed to progress from repairing the broken household items to learning to upgrade them 

And of course Smudge got lots of cuddles and attention from them both 

 

And they took to finishing their evenings with a meal together