Coco grinned and bowed. ‘Thank you, Au Shen. Enjoy your day!’ she replied, before charging into the white building.
A petite woman emerged from a toilet stall just as Coco rushed into the one beside it, struggling out of her leotard. The tiny acrobat wished she didn’t have to get dressed before her morning ablutions, but her mother insisted that no daughter of hers would ever walk the hutongs in her pyjamas.
‘Good morning, Mama,’ she sang out.
‘Good morning, Coco,’ the woman said with a yawn. ‘One of these days we won’t have to share a bathroom and it will be even better.’ She turned to find their ancient neighbour Sun Ming, whose face was scrunched up like a dried prune, picking at a boil on her chin. Lucille shuddered. Sun Ming offered a toothless smile before shuffling outside.
Coco flushed the toilet and bounded out of the stall. ‘Wai Po says that our bathroom is a luxury compared to what she grew up with in the provinces,’ she said, pushing up the sleeves of her tracksuit top to wash her hands.
‘You shouldn’t call her Wai Po – she isn’t your grandmother,’ Lucille reprimanded. ‘And of course this is luxury. She was a peasant from the fields.’
Coco soaped her hands, then held them out for her mother to pour water over them from a bucket. ‘But, Mama, she says that I am just the same to her as Sunny.’
‘I would prefer it if you didn’t. You know that it upsets my mother – your real grandmother.’ Lucille tightened Coco’s bun, causing the girl to wince.
Mother and daughter walked out into the alley. Coco rose onto the tips of her toes and was about to launch into a series of cartwheels when Lucille gripped her arm.
‘Don’t you even think about it,’ she warned. ‘The ground is filthy. How many times do I have to tell you not to tumble out here?’
Coco frowned and walked beside her mother, although it was more of a frustrated skip.
The girl opened a door into a large courtyard. An ancient pomegranate tree sat in the centre of the complex, skirted by a veranda lined with doors that shot off into various living areas and bedrooms. Each room also had a window overlooking the courtyard. While running water had been installed some time ago, the Wongs had not yet added any internal bathrooms, much to the displeasure of their elder daughter-in-law, Lucille. Altogether, there were nine residents: Coco’s paternal grandparents, Lionel and Winnie Wong, who she called Ye Ye and Nai Nai; her mother and father, Lucille and Bernard; her Uncle Charles and Aunty Cherry and their boy, Sunny. Last of all there was Cherry’s mother, who Coco called Wai Po.
Coco’s maternal grandparents lived in Beijing too. Her grandfather was an important official in the government, and he and his wife lived in a modern high-rise apartment. Coco rarely saw them, and when she did, her grandmother was always complaining about some irritation or another. Coco would never have told her mother this, but she often wished Wai Po was her real grandmother.
Coco raced into the dining room and sat opposite her cousin, Sunny. Nai Nai and Wai Po were there too, as well as her Aunty Cherry.
Winnie looked up from her bowl of congee, her eyes sparkling. She was dressed in her trademark red, her silken hair pulled back into an immovable French roll. ‘Good morning, Coco.’
Without warning, she flicked an empty bowl towards the young girl. Coco effortlessly caught it with one hand, but just as she was about to set it down, Winnie threw another along with a pair of chopsticks.
‘Good morning, Nai Nai,’ the child replied, as she spun the two bowls above her head. They twirled in perfect unison, each balanced on the end of a chopstick.
The old woman nodded approvingly and slurped her breakfast. ‘Now one hand.’
Coco did so without missing a beat. She looked over at her cousin, who was reading a comic book at the table, and seized her chance to catch him out. She flicked the bowls towards him, but he caught them with two hands and began to juggle. Coco pouted, her ruse foiled.
Winnie winked at her granddaughter and spun a third towards him, followed soon after by another. Nonplussed, the boy juggled the four bowls in the air until he was given permission to stop.
The cousins grinned at one another. Coco glanced at the calendar on the wall and shivered with excitement. ‘Our visitors will be arriving soon,’ she announced happily.
‘Do you think they speak Mandarin?’ Sunny asked.
Coco shook her head. ‘Miss O’Reilly says they’ve only just begun learning. I’m looking forward to practising my English with them.’
‘I wonder what they’re like,’ Sunny said, pouring himself a bowl of cereal.
‘They will be the same as you but with different experiences of life,’ Winnie said. ‘You can show them what it is like to grow up in the most famous acrobatic troupe in all of China.’
‘I imagine they live in houses with inside plumbing,’ Lucille said bitterly. She stole a look at her mother-in-law. ‘This will be a big shock to them. What if they are unhappy and cry the whole time?’
‘Children can handle almost anything. It is only if they grow up spoilt that they can’t,’ Winnie replied pointedly. ‘You could always buy your own house and live somewhere else if it is so terrible here.’
Coco sank into her chair. Her mother and grandmother often clashed and it usually ended with her mother storming off. She wished her mother would learn to keep quiet like her Aunty Cherry, but the two women couldn’t have been more different.
Lucille pinched her lips together. She would have left years ago but her husband was so devoted to his parents that he couldn’t bear the thought of the family being apart. Lucille contented herself with the fact that Lionel and Winnie wouldn’t be around forever. There would be big changes when she took over, that was for sure.
‘We’re going to find out about our billets at school today,’ Coco said, trying to lighten the mood. ‘Miss O’Reilly said we’ll be matched with someone who shares similar interests and skills. Do you think our guests will be gymnasts?’
‘Bah!’ Winnie scoffed. ‘It would only be a hobby to them, if that were the case.’
‘Yes, I can’t imagine the children would have any proper skills,’ Lucille said.
At least her mother and grandmother were in agreement about something, Coco thought to herself. She hadn’t imagined her father would agree to host the foreign students when she’d initially raised the idea. Her mother had been horrified by the proposal, but the rest of the family decided that it would be a wonderful learning experience for them all, even if Nai Nai complained about having extra mouths to feed. Coco knew she didn’t mean it. They often took in young acrobats when they first arrived in the city. And she and Sunny both had large bedrooms of their own with plenty of extra space.
‘That reminds me, I must get the beds sorted,’ Wai Po said, gingerly rising to her feet.
‘Lucille will help you with that,’ Winnie offered, and took pleasure at the sight of the woman’s face twisting. ‘What’s the matter, daughter? You look as though you’ve bitten into a durian.’
Coco wrinkled her nose at the mention of the smelly fruit.
Sunny shuddered. ‘Remember when Ye Ye made us try it? The house stank like a toilet for a whole week.’
Lucille held her tongue and smiled at her mother-in-law. ‘Of course I will help. It will be my pleasure.’
Jacinta Headlington-Bear closed her diary and yawned. She secured the lock, then popped the key inside the trinket box on her bedside table. Instead of dreaming about the upcoming trip, she’d spent the past few nights lying awake and worrying about Lucas. It was stupid, of course, but she couldn’t seem to shake the niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach or the fact that her legs went to jelly every time she saw him. Surely that wasn’t normal?
She desperately needed to talk to someone, but none of the girls in her own year were remotely interested in boys and Millie and Sloane would just make a joke of it. There was only one person she could rely on to listen and give proper advice, and although Alice-Miranda was so much younge
r than herself, she seemed to know about most things in life. It also helped that Lucas was her cousin.
Jacinta slipped her diary under her pillow and hurried out of the room, narrowly avoiding a collision with the new housemistress.
‘Oh my, someone’s in a hurry.’ Petunia Clarkson straightened the tower of towels in her arms and tucked a stray strand of hair back into her otherwise perfect brown bob.
‘Sorry, Mrs Clarkson,’ Jacinta said, with flushed cheeks. ‘May I use the telephone, please?’
‘Yes, of course, but you have to be up to lessons in fifteen minutes,’ Mrs Clarkson replied. She looked more closely at Jacinta. ‘Is everything all right? That’s a very serious face, my dear.’
‘I’m fine,’ Jacinta answered, forcing a grin. ‘Thank you for asking.’
Petunia Clarkson smiled back and, suddenly, the hallway felt a whole lot brighter. Although the girls were still getting to know her, and Mrs Clarkson had proven stern on a couple of occasions, Jacinta had warmed to the woman immediately. She had one of those faces that seemed to radiate sunshine.
‘Have a good day, my love,’ Petunia trilled, then continued on her way.
Jacinta rushed off to the sitting room. She dialled the number for Grimthorpe House, hoping that Alice-Miranda was still there.
Coco raised her left leg against Sunny’s shoulder and leaned into a standing split. She arched her back and flipped herself over with the elasticity of a rubber band.
‘Have you finished your warm-ups?’ their grandfather called from the centre of the stage.
‘Coming, Ye Ye,’ the pair echoed, and jogged over to join him.
The old man smiled at his grandchildren while absently stroking his long beard. ‘Do you realise that once we have perfected this routine we will be the only acrobats in the world to have three generations of the same family undertake such a breathtaking feat?’
Sunny’s mouth formed a perfect ‘O’. ‘Wow! Is that true, Ye Ye?’
‘Have you seen any other grandmothers out there riding bicycles and spinning plates?’ Lionel asked.
The lad grinned. ‘I don’t think so.’
A loud squeal cut through the air. A red bicycle shot out of the wings and began circling the group.
‘Nai Nai!’ Coco shouted. ‘You are going too fast!’
The old woman’s feet rested on the handlebars while she lay back with her head dangling above the rear wheel. Then, in one swift movement, she leapt to a standing position on the seat and gracefully swept out her arms. ‘Ta-da!’
The children giggled.
‘Will you be part of the act too, Ye Ye?’ Sunny asked his grandfather.
Lionel’s eyebrows formed two happy half-moons. ‘Of course, my boy. I may be old but I am still strong, and your father and uncle can tumble with the best of them. You will all be doing flips while the ladies circle us on bicycles. However, it is our last trick that will be our most mind-boggling feat ever,’ the man replied.
Sunny’s father, Charles, ran into the ring and stood beside the old man. ‘Baba, I want to speak with you about that. I think it’s too risky.’
‘Rubbish,’ Lionel scoffed. ‘When we started the motorcycle cage with three riders you said it was too dangerous, but how many are there inside the cage now?’
Charles gulped. ‘Nine.’
‘When we started the Wheel of Death you said that someone would be killed. Has that happened?’
‘No,’ Charles conceded.
‘You worry too much, my son. I am not going to allow anything to happen to a member of this troupe. They are all my family – blood relative or not. Surely you know that?’
Charles sighed, defeated. ‘Then we must begin rehearsals at once.’
‘Yes!’ The old man clapped his hands. ‘We will debut our performance next week.’
‘Impossible!’ Charles spat.
Coco felt a twinge in her stomach. She had never seen her uncle so distressed. ‘What’s the final trick?’ she asked.
‘Your father will somersault onto my shoulders, your uncle will be atop his shoulders, then Sunny will catapult to the top. We will be a giant tower! Hopefully more like the Pearl Tower than the Leaning Tower,’ Lionel said, snickering at his own joke. ‘Sunny will then tumble off Charles and onto the handlebars of the bicycle that your grandmother will be riding. Your mother and aunty will be hanging from either side spinning plates, and you will be doing the same while straddling their shoulders.’
‘How am I to land?’ Sunny asked uneasily. It was a long drop to the bicycle below.
‘In a handstand,’ Lionel replied.
The boy was aghast. ‘But I will break my arms!’
‘I am just kidding, Sunny. Even I wouldn’t have attempted that at your age. You will be on your feet, of course.’
Sunny swallowed hard and looked at his cousin.
‘You can do it,’ Coco said. Truthfully, she was worried about her own trick. It was going to be a challenge standing on the shoulders of her mother and aunty while spinning plates and hoping that her grandmother didn’t fall and get them all killed.
‘Why do we need a new act?’ Sunny asked.
Charles was about to say something when the old man’s eyes warned him not to.
‘We are performing for an important guest,’ Lionel said. ‘We must bring honour to our family and to all of China, and no one has attempted anything like this before.’
Coco wondered who it could be.
Sunny’s eyes widened. ‘Is it a film star?’
He had recently hit on the idea that one day he would give up acrobatics and go into the movie business instead, putting his skills to good use as a stuntman.
‘It is not for you to know just yet,’ Lionel replied with a wink. ‘Rou,’ he called out to the woman lurking in the doorway. ‘Gather the rest of the family. We need to get started.’
As soon as their lessons were over, Alice-Miranda and Millie quickly changed into their riding gear and headed to the stables via the dining room, where they picked up a couple of Mrs Smith’s cheese toasties for afternoon tea. In no time flat, the pair had their ponies tacked up and ready to ride. The weather was warm and the girls trotted along, enjoying the breeze on their faces.
‘Do you think Jacinta’s going to quit gymnastics?’ Millie asked.
‘I’m not sure. She was being rather mysterious on the telephone,’ Alice-Miranda replied. ‘I don’t really know why she needs to see me so urgently.’
‘Because you’re good with advice,’ Millie said, ‘and I’m excellent at eating cake, which is exactly what I’m going to do at Caledonia Manor while you’re dealing with Jacinta and her dilemmas.’ Millie smacked her lips at the thought of Miss Hephzibah’s chocolate cake.
Alice-Miranda sighed happily and looked across at her friend. ‘Do you wish we could stay here forever?’
‘What? Here at school?’ Millie wrinkled her nose. ‘No way! We’re going to Hong Kong on Thursday, and I’ll have two glorious weeks without Caprice.’
Alice-Miranda, trying to look reproachful, giggled. ‘I didn’t quite mean it like that. I just think it would be lovely if we could be children forever. It seems such a shame to have to grow up,’ she mused.
‘I can’t wait until I’m old enough to drive and I don’t have to do homework and I can make all my own decisions,’ Millie said. ‘Imagine eating chocolate for breakfast and cake for lunch and no one banging on about rotten teeth.’
‘That does sound like fun,’ Alice-Miranda agreed. ‘But Mummy says that we should make the most of every minute of our childhoods because one day we’ll wake up and wonder where the past thirty or forty years have gone.’
Millie looked at her friend with a knowing smile. ‘Have you been reading those weird philosophy books again?’
Alice-Miranda shook her head. ‘Just thinking, I suppose. Can you imagine us all grown up? What will we be doing in ten or fifteen years from now?’
‘Well, that’s easy,’ Millie said. ‘I’ll be tra
ining for my second Olympics, where I will add to my medal collection, having won gold in the eventing and showjumping four years earlier. Jacinta will have already won an Olympic medal in gymnastics – it’ll probably be a silver medal because, let’s face it, she’ll be up against the Russians and Chinese, so silver would be incredibly respectable. She’ll marry Lucas, who’ll be a famous movie star, just like his father. Sloane will be an international model travelling the world, or perhaps she’ll shock us and become a teacher. No! Better still, she’ll be the headmistress, here, at Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale. That would be hilarious! And Sep will be a human-rights lawyer or a doctor working in some dreadful part of the world where they still don’t have running water. Sadly, Caprice will be in jail because, by then, someone will have realised that mean girls should be separated from the general population …’
‘Millie,’ Alice-Miranda chided, laughing.
‘Okay, she won’t be in jail,’ Millie relented. ‘She’ll be in some manufactured pop group because she is a very good singer. I’ll give her that.’
Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘Better. What about me?’
‘You’ll be running the Highton’s empire, of course,’ Millie said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Alice-Miranda frowned. ‘That’s a lot more than ten or fifteen years away. I’m only eight!’
Millie shook her head. ‘You turned nine a while ago, remember?’
‘Oops, I keep forgetting. It’s a bit tragic to be in age denial at nine,’ Alice-Miranda said with a grin. ‘That all sounds like fun, but wouldn’t you rather us ride our ponies and dream about the future? It seems far too complicated to be in it.’
‘Well, if you’d rather stay in the moment, I’ll race you to the gate,’ Millie said. She clicked her tongue and dug her heels into Chops’s flanks.
‘Come on, Bony!’ Alice-Miranda called, and for once her little black brute did exactly what he was told.
Alice-Miranda in China Page 2