“And if you aren’t that sign, Norman my boy, well, I don’t know what is!”

I love the way Leonard talks. He doesn’t sound like anyone else I know because his voice sort of makes you feel like you’re listening to music. It goes up and down and round in circles and you’re always waiting for the next word to see where it’s going to land. And even though I hadn’t known him long I’d already decided that he might possibly be the third coolest person in the world. After Jax and Mum.

Leonard’s car is vintage, which means it was made back in the olden days in 1971 and it also means it’s definitely the coolest car in the world. It’s kind of small, though, and by the time we got our bags and a big box of groceries in the boot (just in case, Mum said) there wasn’t much chance of Leonard seeing too much out the back window. He didn’t seem to be too bothered about it, though, when I mentioned it.

“Well, you could be right, Norman,” he goes. “But why do I need to see what’s back there? We’re going forward and everything we want is in front of us.” Isn’t that cool?

He didn’t even look behind him when he said back there. He just jerked his head in the direction of behind him and jiggled his eyebrows a bit. Which made me realize that I don’t just like the way he talks, I also really like the way he thinks.

I also realized that it probably wasn’t going to take us too long to get to Barnstaple, which was our first stop, because straightaway I noticed that Leonard drives pretty fast. When we got out on the motorway it felt like we were on the dodgems or something because of the car being so small and going so fast. It was excellent. I did see Mum grab on to the edge of her seat, though, every time Leonard swerved in between the other cars to change lanes, and even though I could only see one side of her face, that one side didn’t look very happy. But I decided right then and there that Jax would have totally loved Leonard, especially his driving.

When I looked up ahead between Mum and Leonard I could see the M5 stretching out for forever, but when I turned around and looked behind all I could see was the top of my bag with one arm of Grandad’s jacket sticking out the zipper and the smallest little bit of sky through the back window. And I knew Leonard was right because it was kind of like Penzance wasn’t even there anymore and we were starting from zero.

Even though Leonard’s driving didn’t get any slower, Mum relaxed a bit when he turned on the radio and it was Oasis playing. Mum knows the words to every single one of their songs because she’s got all their CDs and she says they were one of the best bands ever. She also says Noel Gallagher is really just a misunderstood little boy in a pop star’s body and not the you-know-what-hole everybody thinks he is. Mainly because she reckons that nobody who can write lyrics like he can could be all bad and I think I agree with that.