My Diary of Triplet Fatherhood

“Where?”

“Over there.”

“There’s a monkey? Over there?”

“A monkey. Over there.”

I peered throught the bars of the gate we’d just left the lakeside through. I could see ducks, a goose, some fishermen, a few ramblers. No monkeys though.

What did she mean? A picture of a monkey, of course! I looked again. Nope. No pictures of monkeys. No pictures of anything even remotely simian. I looked for patterns in the reeds, for treestumps. Nothing. I got down to her eye level but it was no good. I couldn’t see a monkey anywhere.

“Show me, Evie,” I said, pushing the gate back open.

She was getting a little frustrated by now, pointing and saying very loudly and very clearly, “a monkey”, in what it occurred to me was a rather good impersonation of English people abroad.

We all followed her. She continued to point furiously as she approached the lakeside.

I exchanged looks with J. Of the three girls, Evie has the greatest tendency to be a little off-the-wall. Was she just being silly?

We were two feet from the ramblers at the lakeside now, all four of whom were watching us with interest. “A… Monk… Oh.” Evie laughed. “It’s just some people.”

I followed her gaze, looking up at the woman rambler in front of me from where I still crouched at Evie’s eye level. She was middle-aged. Her face was a quite wrinkled. Her hair was shoulder length, brown, and the exact same hue as her jumper. She also had on brown trousers and boots.

Evie was still pointing.

I smiled at the woman and ushered Evie on to the lakeside. “Look, girls. Fishermen.”