by Judi Curtin
He nodded. ‘OK!’ He was so mad to get at the sweets that I knew he would have promised anything at all. Alice kept holding his hand. ‘If you tell, I’m taking all of your bunnies and throwing them into the river. OK?’
He nodded. ‘I promise. I won’t tell Mummy.’
‘Ever?’
He shook his head solemnly. ‘Never, ever, ever.’
Alice smiled at him. ‘That’s my best little brother. Now what would you like first? Red or orange?’
Ten minutes later Jamie had eaten most of the sweets. The only tell-tale signs were a few trails of red and orange down Jamie’s chin. Alice licked a tissue (gross), and wiped the sticky mess from his face and hands. Then she helped him to get dressed.
We watched as he went off into the kitchen. Alice giggled and checked her watch. ‘Now all we have to do is wait.’
‘How long?’
She grinned. ‘Not long at all.’
Chapter twelve
Alice and I had a quick breakfast, and then she seemed kind of keen to hang around at the table. I wasn’t letting that happen though – I so did not want to be in the kitchen watching the countdown to Jamie’s explosion. So I suggested that we go back into the bedroom for a while. Alice had to agree – if she had argued, it would have made Veronica suspicious.
We played Don’t Panic for a while. Alice left the bedroom door open, so we could hear what was going on in the kitchen. At first it was hard to notice any difference. Jamie was wild and bold, and completely horrible, but no more so than usual. For a while, I was able to hope that Alice’s plan wasn’t working. Maybe she had chosen sweets with natural colours by mistake. Or maybe Jamie was only affected by green sweets, or blue ones. Maybe this was going to be a normal day after all.
Soon I relaxed a bit, and concentrated on the game. I was better at it than Alice, but she never seemed to mind that I always won. She’s generous like that. I raced into the lead, and was actually beginning to enjoy myself, when I noticed that, out in the kitchen, Jamie’s behaviour was getting worse and worse. His voice was getting louder, his crying was becoming more frequent, and his mum was becoming more and more angry.
By ten o’clock Jamie was practically leaping around the house. It was scary. Alice and I had abandoned the game. It was too hard to concentrate with the noise coming from the kitchen. We sat side by side on her bed, and listened. I could see our reflections in the dressing-table mirror. I looked like I had seen a ghost. Alice looked like she’d just won the lottery.
A while later, Veronica came into Alice’s room. She looked tired and worried. ‘What on earth is wrong with Jamie today? He’s completely out of control. Have you any idea what’s happened to him?’
Alice shrugged, and looked out the window. ‘Was there a full moon last night?’
Veronica gave her a cross look. ‘Very funny indeed, Alice. Now be serious. What will I do? I’m at my wit’s end, and I’m supposed to be going out.’
As she spoke, Jamie came galloping along the hall, screeching and waving his arms. ‘I’m a plane. I’m a plane. Look at me. I’m the biggest and loudest plane in the whole world.’ He stopped for a second, took a deep breath, and let out a scream that made my ears ring.
Veronica grabbed his arm, and held it tight. Still Jamie jumped up and down waving his free hand in the air, narrowly missing her face. Veronica looked as if she’d like to hit him. Maybe if I hadn’t been there she would have. She bravely put her face near his. ‘You’re not a plane. Do you understand? You’re a little boy, though I have to say you’re acting like a little baby this morning.’
At this, Jamie pulled free of her grip, and threw himself onto his hands and knees. ‘I’m a baby. I’m a baby. Look at me. I have a big stinky brown poo in my nappy. Waaah! Waaah!’ He crawled quickly along the hall and into the kitchen where his high-pitched screams continued. There was a loud clatter of pots and pans, a brief silence, and then more screaming.
I suddenly felt very bad. Alice was the one who had bought the sweets, and fed them to Jamie, but I had watched her do it. I was guilty too. I should have made her stop. I should have told Veronica what she was doing. Alice would probably never have spoken to me again, but even so, maybe it would have been the right thing to do. But there was no point in owning up now. The damage was done. I’d just have to sit tight and wait for Jamie to calm down.
Veronica sat on Alice’s bed and put her head in her hands. ‘What on earth will I do with him?’
Alice smiled sweetly. ‘Send him to crèche?’
She was getting brave. But then, even I could see that Jamie couldn’t possibly go to crèche while he was wound up like that.
Veronica could see that too. ‘How can I send him to crèche? He’s already on a warning, since he bit that little boy last week. And they’ve never quite forgiven him for killing Robbie Williams.’
I looked at Alice in horror. Jamie was bad, but surely he wasn’t quite that bad. She grinned at me, and whispered, ‘Don’t worry. Robbie Williams was the goldfish. Jamie flushed him down the toilet.’
Veronica gave her another cross look. ‘It was an accident! And the crèche people blew it completely out of proportion. But still, if I send Jamie while he’s like this he’ll surely be expelled, and then what will we do? No other crèche will take him if he gets a bad name, and then I won’t have a hope of getting him into a decent school in September.’
Alice smiled helpfully. ‘You’ll have to keep him at home today then, won’t you?’
Veronica looked like she wanted to cry. ‘I know. But I need to go out. I have to go out. Oh, Alice, what will I do?’
Once again I felt sorry for Veronica, but Alice just shrugged. ‘How’m I supposed to know? Why don’t you ask Dad? Oh, I forgot, you can’t. He doesn’t live with us any more. Silly me.’
I gasped at how cheeky she was being, but Veronica acted as if she hadn’t even heard.
She suddenly brightened. ‘Alice, would you be a pet and mind Jamie for me? Just for an hour?’
Alice shook her head. ‘Sorry, Mum. If the crèche can’t cope with him, how do you expect me to? After all, I’m only twelve. I’d like to help you, but I can’t.’
I felt awful. Part of me wanted to offer to help Veronica, but the other part of me knew that if I did, Alice would never speak to me again. That was too high a price to pay – especially now that the real damage had been done. So I bit my lip and said nothing.
Veronica looked at Alice sadly, ‘Alice what if…?’ she began, and then she stopped. I was glad. I knew that whatever it was that Veronica wanted, Alice would for sure say no. Veronica gave a small little sigh. ‘Never mind. Do you think you could keep Jamie quiet for five minutes while I make a phone call?’
Alice didn’t answer, so Veronica took her opportunity, and ran into her bedroom to make her call.
And so I found myself in the middle of my mid-term break, stuck in a tiny apartment, with the mother whispering into the telephone, the son rolling on the floor screeching and kicking and throwing saucepan lids, and the daughter secretly shoving more additive-laden sweets into his mouth, just in case the effects wore off too soon.
It rained for the rest of the day – heavy rain that beat off the windows, and then poured down the glass like someone was spraying it with a hose-pipe. The four of us clattered around the apartment getting on each others’ nerves. I wanted to go out and do something, anything, but Alice just wanted to stay in her room – so that’s what we did. We played Don’t Panic about a hundred times, but it wasn’t any fun. Alice was very quiet – I think even she was a bit shocked about how crazy Jamie went after eating the red and orange sweets. (Not shocked enough to stop feeding them to him though.)
The high point of the day was when we had chips and pizza for tea (again). That wasn’t much good, because by then I was far too tired to enjoy them. I was glad when bedtime came – I needed some rest and relaxation. I lay in bed and closed my eyes and tried not to think about the day I’d just had.
; Alice was still my best friend. That would never change. But I was beginning to think that if she succeeded in scaring Norman away from this family, she’d be doing him a very big favour.
Chapter thirteen
When I woke up in the morning, Alice was sitting up in bed watching me.
‘Hi, Meg,’ she said.
‘Hi, Al,’ I said.
I was too afraid to say any more. I didn’t want to mention Jamie or Veronica or sweets or Norman or anything to do with the day before.
After a long time Alice spoke again. ‘Know what, Meg? I think we deserve a day off.’
I hardly dared to hope. ‘You mean … a day with no secret plans?’
She laughed. ‘Yeah, why not? I know you haven’t had a very nice time here so far, and it’s all my fault.’
‘But what about–’
She didn’t let me finish. ‘I’ll worry about Mum and Norman tomorrow. Today it’s just going to be fun and games.’
A huge grin spread over my face. I didn’t know what to say.
Alice laughed at my reaction. ‘So what’ll we do? You can decide.’
It didn’t take me long to make up my mind, and in minutes our plans were made. We were going to go to the local cinema; there was a new film I really wanted to see. Then we were going to go down to the shopping centre for the super-frothy hot chocolate with marshmallows that I had been dreaming of for days.
I jumped out of bed, and got dressed in my best clothes. I was soooo excited at the thought of a normal fun day.
At about half past ten, Veronica had Jamie ready to go to crèche. He was pale and tired-looking. He hadn’t calmed down until very late the night before. When I had been trying to get to sleep, I’d still been able to hear him jumping up and down on his bed and making train noises. And now he looked really bad. His skin was so pale it was almost blue, and he had huge black circles under his eyes – just like a baby panda. He was unnaturally quiet too. And while I was glad of that, it made me a little bit uneasy. It was as if Alice had really poisoned him, and I had helped her.
Veronica was quiet too. I felt a bit sorry for her. Her family was a total mess, and even though it was all her fault, maybe there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. She didn’t even ask us what we planned to do for the day. She just told us to be good (fat chance of that with Alice around), and then she set off for crèche with Jamie.
Alice and I went back in to her bedroom and listened to music for a while. We both knew that Veronica was probably going to meet Norman, so I kept chattering madly, trying to distract Alice. She was great though, she didn’t mention Norman once. She just kept talking about the fantastic afternoon we were going to have.
At last it was twelve o’clock, and time to set off. I was all jumpy and giggly, like I usually get when I’m excited. Alice was excited too. She was really funny, telling me loads of great stories about her school and her crazy teacher.
It was only a short walk from the apartment to the Cineplex, and we were soon there. I stood outside the building and gave a big long happy sigh. At long last my real holiday was beginning!
Chapter fourteen
When we got inside the Cineplex, Alice was really generous and bought me a super-giant-sized tub of popcorn. I can never resist popcorn, and I was already half-way through it while we were still in the queue for tickets. Alice laughed when she noticed this. She put on my mother’s voice, ‘Megan Sheehan, do you have any idea how much salt you have just consumed?’
I giggled. Alice was a really great mimic, and if I closed my eyes it was almost as if Mum was standing in front of me.
Alice giggled too. She loves an audience. She continued, ‘And do you have any idea how many trees are murdered every year to provide cardboard for cartons like that?’
I laughed again, and Alice launched in to a big speech about the environment. But after a few seconds I stopped listening, because just as she was getting warmed up, I looked over her shoulder and saw something that almost made me choke on my salty, environmentally-unfriendly popcorn.
It was something so bad that I could hardly believe it was true. I closed my eyes and opened them again, hoping that I’d been mistaken. But no, sadly, there was no mistake. I really had seen the most awful thing ever – because there, ten metres away from where I was standing, just near the front of the queue were …… Veronica and Norman.
Alice hadn’t seen them, and she chattered away happily, waving her arms in the air, having great fun mocking my mum’s way of speaking. I tried to smile and act like nothing strange was happening – not easy when your very worst nightmare has just come true in front of your eyes.
The queue edged forwards slowly. Just a minute more, and Veronica and Norman would be buying their tickets. If only I could stop Alice from seeing them, they’d go to their film, and everything would be OK. Alice need never know that they were there. (They were hardly going to see the same movie as us.)
I kept smiling at Alice and saying things like ‘Really?’ and ‘Wow’ and ‘You’re so funny.’ And I very nearly got away with it, but just as Veronica stepped towards the ticket desk, something made Alice turn around, and she gave a small cry of surprise. She grabbed my aching arm, and said, ‘Oh, no! I don’t believe it.’
I rubbed my arm and pretended nothing was wrong. ‘Come on, Al,’ I said. ‘You’re great at doing my mum. Say something else, or do Melissa!’
Alice ignored me. ‘Look, Meg,’ she hissed. ‘Look over there.’
Of course I didn’t need to look, but I did anyway. Veronica had just taken her tickets and she and Norman were walking towards the barrier. Alice raced after her. My heart sank. I’d witnessed lots of rows between Alice and her mother, and I knew they could get very loud and very messy. And this was a very public place for an O’Rourke special. To my relief though, Alice just stopped at the barrier and watched them walk away from her. Then she raced back to me.
‘Change of plan. We need to go to screen six. I have to keep an eye on Mum.’
I felt like crying. ‘But what about our film? What about our fun day? You promised, Al, remember?’
Alice was decent enough to look guilty. ‘I know, Meg, I did promise, but this is an emergency. My mother is going on a date. She’s going to the pictures with a man who’s not my dad. I can’t just pretend it isn’t happening. I can’t go off and watch a film like everything’s OK. I just can’t.’
At least this time I could see how she felt. If I saw my mum going to the pictures with a man who wasn’t my dad, I think I’d get a bit upset too.
We got to the top of the queue and Alice smiled at the lady behind the counter and said, ‘Two tickets for screen six, please.’
The lady smiled back at her. ‘And how old are you, young lady?’
Oh, no. We’d never checked to see what film was on in screen six. If it was G-rated, I don’t think the lady would have been asking Alice her age. Alice smiled her best smile and crossed her fingers behind her back. ‘I’m fifteen.’
The lady shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, young lady, but I don’t believe you. Screen six is showing a fim that’s rated 15A. If you don’t have proof of your age, you need to go in with an adult.’ She smiled kindly. ‘Is your mum around? Or your dad?’
I sighed. How could Alice answer that? ‘Well, my dad’s in Limerick, and my mum’s just gone into screen six with her secret boyfriend. We’re following her to see what she gets up to.’
Alice looked at me, as if she could see what I was thinking. She leaned towards the glass partition that stood between her and the lady. ‘My mum and dad are at work,’ she said, ‘But they know I’m going to that film. They said it’s OK, honestly! They’re cool about that kind of thing.’
The lady smiled. ‘I’m sure they are, but if one of your parents isn’t here with you, I can’t sell you a ticket for screen six.’
Alice leaned towards her. ‘Please. Pleeeease. You don’t understand. It’s an emergency. I just have to see that film.’
T
he lady shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, love, maybe in a few years time. For now, why don’t you go to screen four? There’s a twelves film showing there. Just right for a girl your age.’
Alice didn’t reply. She stepped away from the ticket-window, and went to sit on the floor near the barrier. After a moment, I went and sat beside her. There was no point staying in the queue. I knew there was no way Alice would want to see a film now.
‘Now what?’ I asked.
Alice shrugged. ‘We wait.’
‘For what?’
She gave an even bigger shrug. ‘I don’t know really. I just feel I should sit here and wait until Mum comes out.’
‘Are you going to confront her?’
To my great relief Alice shook her head. ‘No. That wouldn’t change anything. I just want to see what happens, that’s all.’
And so we waited. Ninety-seven minutes might not seem long when you’re watching a really great film, but it seems very long indeed when you’re sitting in the lobby of a cinema with your best friend who keeps saying things like ‘How could Mum do this to us?’ and ‘I wish Norman would die of some horrible disease.’ and ‘I bet they’re snogging.’
Every now and then Alice got up and paced around the lobby with a really cross look on her face. (She reminded me of the tigers in Dublin zoo.) Then she’d come back and sit down next to me again, and imagine out loud what was happening inside the cinema. She said a lot of very rude things about Norman, that I’m sure he didn’t really deserve.
After what felt like about ten hours, the doors of screen six opened. Alice and I hid behind a cut-out poster for the next Harry Potter film. I wished I could be like Harry Potter. I wished I could wave all my problems away with one flick of a magic wand and a few made-up words. Why did real life have to be so complicated?
Just then, Veronica and Norman came out of the darkness, blinking the way you always do when you come out of the pictures. They walked towards the exit, and stood for a second, buttoning their coats and fixing their scarves. They were chatting and laughing. Veronica looked young and happy and carefree. She wasn’t a bit like the cold, cross woman I usually saw. Maybe being with Norman really was good for her. Was it wrong for her to want to be happy?