Mummy hadn't got up or made breakfast; Daddy had done that.

Bobby didn't like Daddy's pancakes, but he enjoyed watching him cook. He liked Daddy's hair, long and black. When he grew up, he would have his hair the same.

Henry had hair just like Mummy's: brown, wavy and fluffy. Henry couldn't have the same hairstyle when he grew up, or he would look like a girl.

The tree behind the window swayed in the wind, and the light coming in was white. Mummy shouted from her room, telling Daddy to put sweaters on Bobby and Henry because her mobile phone told her that the temperature was going to drop.

Henry got up from the table and went to his room to put on his own sweater. Henry is a big boy, and Bobby wants to be big too, so he imitates him.

Bobby's room is messy because Mummy has been ill since yesterday. She usually plays him a song to get him to tidy his room, but Daddy doesn't know it. Daddy only knows how to do daddy things, he doesn't do Bobby things.

The sweaters are at the top of the chest of drawers in his room, so he can't reach them. He knows that if he asks Henry for help, it will take too long, and Daddy doesn't know where they are to begin with.

The wind takes the shape of a monster horse and bangs on his window, impatient, but he won't turn to look at it, because looking at it will make it real. Mummy says monster horses don't exist, and when she says it, it becomes true.

Bobby covers his eyes with his right hand, to cover only the window, and prepares to climb his chest of drawers. He's done it before, in secret, several times. Sometimes he shakes, but he's never fallen, so it's not wrong to do it; but he can't explain it to Mummy or she'll get angry. When he gets his sweater, he feels like a hero.

He leaves his room without looking at the window, where the horse is waiting. It won't be today, because Bobby is brave, and when you're brave, monsters don't exist.

His attempts to put the garment on by himself fail miserably. The holes slip away from him, and his head almost gets stuck forever. Luckily, Henry helps him before Daddy comes and realises how much of a baby Bobby is.

Daddy looks agitated, like a cartoon. His long, straight hair sticks to his face because it's covered in pancake batter. Bobby has never seen anyone do anything so wrong. Mummy says you just have to mix the powder from the box with milk.

Surely if he or Henry made a mess like Daddy's, Mummy would scold them, but since it's an adult who did it, Mummy will just laugh. Although Bobby doesn't know which of those two options would be worse for him.

The pancakes look awful, they're shaped like stains. Henry doesn't complain, so Bobby doesn't complain either. When Mummy makes something that looks awful, Daddy says that ugly food sometimes tastes good, but this time, neither of the brothers believes their father.

While they eat, Daddy cleans up his mess. He has plenty of time to do it, because they chew very slowly. The pancake has spots where it tastes very salty. At least the milk came from a cow, so it tastes like milk.

‘Dad, what does bull's milk taste like?’ he asks.

His father turns his head with a scared look on his face. ‘Where did you hear that?’ Bobby shrugs, and Dad pretends he never even heard the question. Henry comes to the rescue and tells him that bulls don't make milk, only cows do.

The pancake is raw in the middle, but Bobby keeps eating it because he trusts that Daddy wouldn't have served it to him if it would hurt him. Henry complains a little, which is ridiculous because he's the oldest and should be tougher.

Henry also asks Daddy how he knows how to make box cake but not

Ready-to-eat pancakes.

It's true, Daddy makes good cakes and ham sandwiches. He's also good at carrying heavy things, even though he looks as thin as a twig.

He can carry Bobby and Henry and make them fly.

He's also taller than Mummy, so he's good at reaching things that are stored very, very high up. However, he can't make pancakes, and that seems to frustrate him. Finally, he sends the children to say goodbye to their mother.

Mummy is lying down, her hair all over the place, and she doesn't seem to know whether

she's cold or hot. Henry kisses her on the cheek, and so does Bobby. She kisses them back and tells them she loves them.

‘I love you too, Mummy.’

It's stormy outside, so they run to the car. The sky is the same colour as Daddy's eyes, and Henry's, and his own. The earth is the same colour as Mummy's eyes. The fog is the same colour as Daddy's skin. It seems as if everything today is coloured with the same crayon.

On the road, you can't see anything, just fog lights. Henry seems fascinated as he looks out the window, but Bobby doesn't look, because he senses the horse. It's also the colour of the fog, but its eyes are yellow and shine like the car headlights. Bobby knows that if he looks at those eyes, he will die. No one ever told him that, but he knows it.

Instead of looking, he closes his eyelids and imagines nice things, like the breakfast his grandparents will make him, which will be better than the ones his dad makes. Today they will spend the day with them because his mummy can't look after them. She got upset when his dad told her, but she admitted it was the truth. When they return in the evening, his mum will surely be better, and they will be able to sing the song about tidying up the room together.

His dad shouts a word that Bobby doesn't understand, which makes him open his eyes, and there is the horse, in front of them. But it doesn't have yellow eyes, nor is it looking at them, it's just standing in the middle of the road. Daddy swerves to avoid it, but then the world shakes, and through the broken windows, they can see that everything is spinning at high speed. Daddy shakes with the movements like a rag doll, and Henry screams. Bobby then understands that he must scream too, but when he opens his mouth, the world turns black, like Daddy’s hair.