Eleven Days in June by R.P. Gibson Colley
Series: The Tales of Little Leaf #1
on February 15, 2021
Genres: Fiction, Humor, Coming of Age
Pages: 215
Find the Author: Website
Find the Book: Amazon | Goodreads
Dan is happy with his life. He just hasn’t started living it yet.
Dan Whitaker is 20, lives in a sleepy village in Devon and works in a small DIY shop. He likes numbers and hero worships Lord Nelson. But he finds ordinary people difficult to understand and he’s certainly never had a girlfriend. His mother mocks him, and he misses his father and he pines for Ollie, his only childhood friend who truly understood him.
But, despite it all, Dan thinks he’s happy enough. Until one June day, the beautiful and mysterious Libby walks into his shop - and into his life.
Libby’s sudden appearance turns Dan’s ordered existence upside down. But Dan soon realises that Libby isn’t who she seems. Who exactly is she? What is she hiding, and, more importantly, who’s that threatening man always looking for her?
In trying to help Libby, Dan comes to realise what’s missing in his own life, and, in turn, appreciates what’s really important…
Part One of The Tales of Little Leaf.
I’m delighted to be able to spotlight for you today, a first in a new series by R. P. Gibson Colley.
Nine years earlier
1976Ollie was my only friend. We were eleven years old that autumn and had just started secondary school, and I was already worried about losing him to other boys at school. I needed to make him my friend again, so one day I suggested we cycle to Totnes the coming weekend, a whole ten miles away. Ten miles! It seemed like the other end of the world.
Our dads made sure that our bikes were roadworthy. I watched what my dad did so I might learn for another time. It seemed like an important job ahead of our big adventure. Dad pumped up the tyres, oiled the chain, replaced a pair of brake pads, he tightened various nuts and lifted the saddle an inch. He packed me a little box consisting of a spanner, a puncture repair kit, and a spare inner tube.
The following day, the day itself, I woke up anxious. What if it was too far; what if Ollie thought it boring?
Mum made me a big packed lunch of ham sandwiches, a banana, crisps, and a chocolate bar. The day was sunny. I met Ollie at the bus shelter in our village. I was embarrassed because my bike was better than his; it had five gears; Ollie’s only had three.
‘Totnes, here we come,’ he said.
And off we went, with the wind in our hair and the sun on our backs. We talked, or rather shouted, the first six or seven miles, mainly football, our shared obsession. We talked about our favourite players and how many goals they had scored that season. Ollie was impressed because I knew every player who played or had played recently for Plymouth Argyle. ‘How do you remember all that shit?’
‘It’s my special talent; that’s what my mum calls it.’
We argued about the merits of our favourite pop bands, and we gossiped about the boys at school. We stopped after about three miles and wolfed down our packed lunches. Ollie was jealous of my chocolate bar and made me swap. I felt as if I had no choice. I didn’t mind really.
Devon is a hilly place so it took us hours to cover those ten miles, and Ollie struggled with his three gears. I couldn’t offer to swap bikes though; that would only have made it worse. But we finally got there. We entered Totnes with whoops and yelps of happiness, half expecting, I think, to be met by the town mayor, lots of bunting, and a ticker-tape parade. We ambled around, looked in shops and both bought a couple of comics each from the bookshop, and I bought a plate with a painted picture of Totnes on it for my mum. We were hungry again, so we bought a large portion of fish and chips each and ate them in the town park. Finishing, we sucked the salt from our fingers and fell asleep for a while, the sun burning our faces.
We cycled back, not so talkative now. We cycled into Little Leaf like returning heroes and drew to a stop at the bus shelter. ‘That was good,’ said Ollie.
‘Yeah, it was bloody brilliant. Thanks, mate.’
‘And you.’
We parted and went home. I went to bed that night exhausted but happy. Mum had loved her plate and Dad said me and Ollie had done well. It was perhaps the happiest day of my life. Whatever happened in the future, Ollie and I would always have Totnes.
To read more of this excerpt, please check out R. P. Gibson Colley’s website!
