Where’s our boy?
Chesney and Gemma are panic-stricken when bullied Joseph goes missing
There’s never a quiet moment in the Winter/ Brown residence, what with all those tears and temper tantrums – and that’s just Bernie and Gemma.
But having to clothe and feed five young kids suddenly feels like small fry when Chesney’s faced with a parent’s worst nightmare – the disappearance of his eldest son, Joseph.
Poor Joseph barely gets a look in these days, with Chesney and Gemma focusing their attention on the quads, and particularly little Aled, who is deaf.
As the week kicks off, Gemma is busy getting Aled ready for his latest appointment when Joseph reminds his dad that he needs money for a school trip and a new school jumper.
Needless to say, Chesney doesn’t have a wad of notes lying around, and the little mite is left disappointed. As Joseph confides in Hope, his conniving cousin comes up with a plan.
‘Hope finds Fiz’s purse and tells Joseph to help himself!’ reveals our Corrie mole.
The grown-ups find out, and are horrified when they go on to learn that Joseph is being bullied because his family don’t have a pot to pee in.
Realising that he’s taken his eye off the ball, Chesney accepts Fiz’s advice to give the lad a bit more attention, and he suggests to Joseph that he speak to his teacher.
Joseph is adamant that it will only make things worse, but Ches does it anyway, and the schoolboy is fuming that his father has gone behind his back.
‘Chesney goes out to the backyard to find him and apologise,’ adds our mole, ‘but Joseph has vanished.’
Gemma and Chesney call the police, and Chesney feels sick when his son’s tatty jumper is later found.
When there’s still no sign of the lad the next day, Dev starts fundraising, so they can offer a reward for Joseph’s safe return, while Gemma and Chesney do a public appeal to try to get more information.
Hope looks on, ominously, from her bedroom window as the frantic parents beg for Joseph to come home. All the while, a forlorn Joseph wanders the streets with a holdall and a rolled-up tent.
Will he be found before he comes to any harm? And does Omen child Hope know more about his flit than she’s letting on?
CHESNEY GOES TO APOLOGISE, BUT JOSEPH HAS VANISHED