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NB. This is a true story but names have been changed to protect privacy.

Bill was about ten years old when his cousin Vera’s family got their first television. None of the children had ever seen a TV set before.

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On this particular day, Bill was playing on the waste ground with Vera and her friend, Jane.

The evening was drawing in and Vera said to Jane, “Come on. Let’s go in and watch television.” (It was too soon for the diminutives; TV or tele to have been in common use).

Bill immediately piped up, “Can I come?”

The two girls whispered together for a minute with their backs to him.

“Go on. Let me.”

“Ok then,” Vera said, grinning at him. “Come on.”

They trooped across the road towards the houses.

“Look, Bill,” said Vera, pointing up towards the roof. “There’s the aerial. Just watch that. We won’t be long.”

The two of them went into the house, leaving Bill outside, face pointing heavenward.

Bill kept staring at the aerial. He knew that you had to watch televisions to see talking pictures. From the corner of his eye, he saw the girls inside the big bay window. He waved at them.

“It’s all right,” he called. “It hasn’t come on yet.”

The window opened; he could hear the girls’ ringing laughter as Vera pointed at him. Then he saw his aunt smiling too, and beckoning him.

Then it dawned on him. Not for the first time in his short life, he wished the ground would open up and swallow him.