by Judi Curtin
Just then Norman interrupted. ‘It’s fine Veronica. Let them stay.’
He looked at us each in turn and smiled. ‘You must be Alice. Veronica has told me a lot about you. And this must be Jamie. And you must be Alice’s friend from Limerick.’
Alice glared at him. Jamie ignored him. I tried to make up for them both by smiling the best smile I could manage, considering that what I really wanted to do was run away and hide under the furthest table.
Norman continued. ‘I’m Norman, Veronica’s …’, he stopped, and looked towards Veronica who shook her head slightly, ‘I’m Veronica’s friend.’
He smiled again. He didn’t seem to notice that Alice was staring at him as if she would love to punch him really hard, right between the eyes. It was her ‘tough-girl’ look – I’d seen her practise it in front of the mirror once, when she thought I wasn’t looking. Now I felt really sorry for the poor man. If he was going to hang around with the O’Rourke family for long, he’d better get used to that look.
Norman stood up. ‘Now, I’m sure all these young people are hungry and thirsty after their walk. Hot chocolate and buns everyone?’
Jamie and I nodded. Alice continued to glare at Norman. I wanted to make her stop but I didn’t know how. He seemed nice. If Alice had to have a stepfather, she could have done a lot worse than him.
Norman went up to the counter, and Veronica leaned across the table towards Alice. ‘Come on, spit it out. What’s all this about?’ she hissed.
Alice shrugged, and opened her eyes wide. ‘All what? We just happened to come along here, and you just happened to be here, and we met you, and now we’re going to have a nice cup of hot chocolate together. What’s wrong with that?’
Veronica’s eyes narrowed. ‘Nothing, I suppose. Just drink up quickly and get out of here. This isn’t appropriate.’
Jamie looked up. ‘What’s “apopiate” mean?’
Veronica thought for a moment. ‘It means you should be at home playing with your Lego.’
Alice stared at her mother. ‘Why isn’t it appropriate?’
‘It just isn’t,’ snapped Veronica. ‘Now, I’m warning you, Alice. Behave yourself.’
Alice smiled sweetly at her. ‘Don’t worry, Mum you know you can rely on me.’
Just then, Norman came back with a tray full of drinks and buns. I could see the hot chocolate steaming. I could see the marshmallows already beginning to melt in the hot, milky foam. At last I was getting the hot frothy drink that Alice had been promising me all week. I should have been happy. But how could I be? I knew that the real trouble was just about to begin.
Chapter eighteen
Norman sat down and shared out the food. He’d bought everyone a hot drink, and there were about three sticky, creamy buns each. My mother would’ve had a heart attack if she’d seen so much sweet food piled up in front of me. Jamie’s eyes opened wide, and he gave Norman a huge grin. Norman had won him over immediately. Norman turned to Alice. ‘Won’t you have a bun? They look delicious!’
She smiled at him, and I wondered if she too was falling for his charm. Then she reached into her mouth and pulled out a long stretch of bubble gum. Just when I thought it was going to break, she stopped pulling, and wrapped it round and round her finger. (I know it’s gross, but I do that sometimes, but only when I’m on my own. I would never, ever do it in a crowded coffee shop.) Veronica glared at her. ‘Alice, that is disgusting. Stop it at once.’
Alice smiled. ‘OK, Mum. You’re the boss.’
She unwound the gum from her finger, and popped it back into her mouth. Then she proceeded to blow the biggest bubble I’d ever seen. It hung from her face like a huge shiny pink balloon. Alice gave one last puff, and the bubble burst all over her face, making her look like someone who’d had a terrible accident. She grinned, and slowly began to peel it from her skin.
Veronica’s face was red. ‘Alice O’Rourke! Get rid of that gum. Now.’
‘Whatever you say, Mother dearest.’ Alice rolled the gum into a ball, and stuck it to the underside of the table ‘There. Now it’s gone. Happy?’
Veronica gave her a vicious look. ‘Yes.’
Alice smiled. ‘Good. Now, don’t let me forget it when I’m going. I’ve only had it for two days.’
She turned to Norman. ‘Don’t you just hate when you leave your gum behind somewhere when there’s still hours of chewing left in it?’ Norman gave a small chuckle, but stopped when he saw Veronica’s face. He turned to Jamie. ‘Well, young man, you’ll have a bun, won’t you?’
Jamie beamed at him, and took a bun, and tried to shove it into his mouth all at once. Even my little sister Rosie wouldn’t have tried that. Sometimes Jamie seemed like the least mature five-year-old in the history of the world – maybe it was because of his mixed-up home life.
Anyway, he wasn’t very successful in his efforts to eat the bun in one bite. Cream and crumbs tumbled from his lips and down all over his clothes. Veronica grabbed a serviette, and did her best to clean him up. As soon as she had finished, Jamie leaned over and took another bun. This quickly went the same way as the first one.
This was awful. I was out with the family from hell. I put my head down, sipped my hot chocolate, and tried to pretend I was somewhere else. Anywhere else in the world would have done – at home emptying the dishwasher, at the doctor’s getting a verruca burned off, even school would have been better than this.
I looked up to see that Alice was scratching her head violently. Even though I was still scared and embarrassed, I had to smile. She certainly was inventive. Veronica was watching her, but saying nothing. Norman looked at Alice closely, and walked straight into her trap. ‘Is there something wrong with your head?’
Alice shrugged. ‘Nah. Not really. It’s just lice. Jamie and I get them all the time. It’s no biggie.’
Veronica leaned towards her. She spoke with her teeth tightly clenched. ‘Alice, I will deal with you later.’
Alice smiled at her. ‘Thanks, Mum. But I think we’re all out of lice lotion. Didn’t we use the last bottle the other day?’
She turned towards Norman. ‘We go through litres of that stuff. Mum ought to buy it by the bucketful.’
Norman leaned away from her with a look of distaste on his face. ‘That must be very unpleasant.’
Alice shrugged. ‘Nah, you get used to it. And it’s not so bad. Least it’s not as bad as the fleas. Anyway, me and Jamie are used to bad stuff like that. We’re always sick, we are.’
Poor Norman edged his chair slightly away from her.
‘I’m really sorry, Norman,’ said Veronica. ‘I can’t think what’s got into her. She’s not usually like this.’
Alice gave a big loud laugh. ‘Yeah, usually I’m even worse. But luckily I took my medication before I came out.’
Now the people at the tables around us were beginning to stare again. I bet they were all planning to have great fun telling their families about the mad people they’d seen in the coffee shop. Norman was sitting slightly away from us with a puzzled expression on his face. Veronica was white-faced with anger, but I knew she couldn’t do anything. She was probably afraid to correct Alice any more, in case it would make her behave even worse.
Just then Jamie reached out and took the last of the buns. While the rest of us had been watching Alice, he had managed to almost clear the plate. Even though it looked like half of each bun was still all over his face and clothes, that still left a lot of bun inside Jamie.
Veronica leaned over and stroked his head. ‘Jamie, darling, maybe you’ve had enough of those buns. Why don’t you put it back on the plate?’
Jamie looked at her for a moment, then he let out a huge loud wail, a Jamie special. ‘Nooooo! I want the bun. I want it!’
Veronica spoke softly, even though she had a desperate look on her face. ‘Why don’t we wrap it up in a nice clean serviette and you can have it later?’
‘Nooooooooooo!’
This time the wail was even louder and longe
r. The people at the other side of the room were now staring. I’d have been staring too, if I hadn’t been stuck right in the middle of this awful scene. I looked at Alice. She was grinning like she was having the best time ever. She leaned over and whispered in my ear. ‘Good old Jamie. He doesn’t even know we’re trying to scare Norman away, but he’s doing it anyway.’
I whispered back. ‘Yeah. Great. I’m very happy for you. Can we go now? Surely you’ve frightened the poor man enough.’
She grinned. ‘Soon. We’ll go soon I promise.’
Jamie was still wailing, and grabbing for the bun, which Veronica had somehow managed to pull from his hand. I bet she was really sorry she hadn’t let him have it, but now she probably didn’t want to back down in front of Norman. Even though she’d left it about ten years too late, she was probably trying to look like Super-Mom who was in complete control of her children.
‘Darling, I’m sorry, but you can’t have it. You’ve had too much already. You don’t want to be sick, do you?’
That was a mistake, because just as she said the words, Jamie gave a huge choking kind of cough, and threw up a big heap of buns, along with the Coco Pops he’d had for breakfast. It was revolting. Like something out of a really gross horror movie. The brown, slimy stuff streamed down his clothes and all over the table. Alice and I are experienced big sisters, we know the routine. We both jumped up and moved away to get out of the line of fire. Poor Norman wasn’t so experienced. He actually moved closer. ‘Poor little chappie, you–’ he was saying, as Jamie gave another huge heave, and the rest of the contents of his stomach came up in a huge explosion, all over the front of Norman’s suit.
Veronica grabbed a serviette and tried to wipe Norman’s jacket. It was pathetic. It was like using a tissue to hold back a tidal wave. The smell now began to hit, and people all around us were getting up and leaving.
Veronica kept apologising. ‘Norman, I’m so sorry. So very sorry.’ Over and over again. Norman probably wasn’t listening. He was too busy trying to stop the stream of vomit from going into his shoes.
Suddenly Veronica turned to Alice. ‘You… You …’
She could probably have thought of lots of words to call her only daughter, but none that she felt like saying in front of Norman. ‘Just take your brother home, and put him in the bath. I’ll see you later.’
The way she spoke frightened the life out of me, but Alice was defiant to the end.
‘Sure, Mum. Like I said already, you’re the boss.’
Then she leaned across to the sick-free side of the table and rescued her gum from under it. ‘Mustn’t forget this, must I?’
Then before her mother could respond, she took Jamie by the arm, and we left the coffee shop. As we went, Jamie began to wail again. ‘I’m being good, amn’t I? Can I have that bun now?’
Chapter nineteen
We got some very strange looks on the way home. Alice was on a high, like someone who’d eaten too many of the wrong kind of additives. She was kind of skipping along, with a funny gleam in her eyes. I didn’t want to talk to her. I didn’t know what to say to her when she was like this. For the millionth time that week, I wished I was at home with Mum and Dad and Rosie. It might have been boring, but after all this excitement, boring would have been just fine with me.
Alice was dragging Jamie along beside her. He was still wailing, but more quietly now, as if his batteries were running down. Tears and snot were streaming down his face, and his clothes were still covered in vomit. I shuffled along behind them, not because I really wanted to, but because I couldn’t think of anything else to do.
We stopped to cross a road, and a little old lady came over to us. ‘What’s going on here? What happened to this poor little boy?’ she asked.
The poor lady probably thought we were kidnapping him. I wondered why anyone would choose to kidnap such a revolting creature, when there were so many nicer, cleaner children around.
Alice looked at the old lady fiercely and opened her mouth. Before she could say anything though, I elbowed her aside. We were in quite enough trouble already.
I smiled my best smile, the one adults usually love. ‘It’s OK. Honest it is. He’s her little brother. We were out with her mother and he got sick and she’s asked us to take him home and give him a bath.’
I wasn’t even telling a lie.
The little old lady still looked a bit doubtful. She stepped closer to Jamie. I wondered if she was old enough to have no sense of smell. I certainly couldn’t have stood that close to him. She pointed to Alice, who was quiet for once. ‘Is that your sister?’
Jamie nodded.
‘Then why are you crying so?’
‘Because I want another bun.’
I smiled at the old lady again.
She nodded. ‘Hmm. Run along then. Have a nice day.’
We ran along, but I doubted very much if I was going to have a nice day.
* * *
At last we got back to the apartment. Alice ran inside and got a huge plastic bag, then she made Jamie take off his clothes in the hallway and put them into the bag. She tied the bag tightly and threw it into the kitchen. Then she took Jamie into the bathroom, and I could hear the bath running. I could hear the splashes as he climbed into the bath, still wailing softly. Alice came out into the hall. She opened a cupboard and took out a towel. She was just going back into the bathroom, when I put out my hand and stopped her.
I was really, really cross. I didn’t want to fight with her. I don’t like fights at all, and I especially don’t like fights with Alice. This time though, she had gone too far. I had to say something. I just wasn’t quite sure what that should be.
I thought for a while, and then I took a deep breath. ‘Alice, erm….’
She looked at me crossly. ‘What are you trying to say, Megan. I have to get back to Jamie.’
I took another big breath. ‘How…how could you do that?’
She shrugged. ‘Do what?’
‘You know what.’
She shrugged again. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
It was the shrugging that got to me. How could she be so calm, after all that had happened? I got really mad, and at last I knew exactly what I wanted to say, ‘You’re so horrible! You’ve been really, really mean to Jamie. You filled him with those awful sweets the other day, and now you’ve got him all sick and upset. It’s cruel. You can’t treat him like that.’
She folded her arms and stared at me. I could see that she was angry too. Suddenly I was afraid. Alice and I had never had a really serious fight like this before, mostly because I always backed down before it got this bad.
Alice was defiant. ‘It’s all in a good cause. Getting rid of Norman is for Jamie’s good too. He’ll thank me in the end. Everyone will thank me in the end. You just wait and see.’
I opened the bathroom door, and peeped in. ‘Look, Al. Just look at him.’
Alice looked in. Jamie was sitting in the bath, clutching a small rubber dinosaur. He was still sobbing. He looked up at his sister and sobbed some more. I smiled at him.
‘It’s OK, Jamie. Everything’s OK now.’
His sobbing lessened a bit. I closed the door again, and turned back to Alice. ‘It’s not fair. You know it’s not fair.’
She shrugged again. ‘What do you know? He’s my brother, not yours. It’s easy for you with your lovely mum and dad, and your cutie little sister, all living happily ever after in Limerick. Just tell me, Megan, what do you know?’
I spoke softly. ‘I know that even if my parents split up, and I had to leave my home and all my friends, even then I would never treat Rosie like you’ve treated Jamie. He’s only five, Alice. He’s only a baby. Fight your own battles, if you have to, but leave him out of it.’
Alice gave me a fierce look. ‘You know nothing, Megan Sheehan. Nothing at all. I hate you!’
Then she went into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.
Chapter twenty
I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. I ran into Alice’s room and lay on her bed and sobbed until her pillow was soaking wet. Then I got up, took my rucksack from the wardrobe, and began to pack up my things. I could get a bus to the railway station, and catch the next train home. I wasn’t very happy about wandering around Dublin on my own, but staying would have been even worse. I needed to get out of that place, and the sooner, the better.
Alice was my best friend, but loyalty can only go so far. I was out of my depth, and I knew it. I tiptoed into the hall. I didn’t want to talk to Alice again. I wasn’t sure I ever even wanted to see her again. I tried my best, but lately, when Alice was around, things were just too complicated.
I could leave a note in the kitchen. I could just say that I was homesick, and wanted to go home. It was only half the truth, but still it wasn’t a lie. I wanted to be at home more than I had ever thought possible.
I sneaked down the hall, glad that the thick white carpet was muffling my footsteps. As I tiptoed past the bathroom, I heard Alice speaking softly to Jamie.
Gradually his wailing stopped. I could hear the gentle splashing of water, and Jamie’s chuckling. Then I could hear Alice singing quietly. ‘Lavender’s Blue’ – a song we used to sing to him when he was a tiny baby. I stood for a moment listening. I could hear Jamie’s small voice joining in with Alice’s not very good one.
Then the bathroom door opened. I pressed myself in behind it. Alice and Jamie came out of the bathroom. Jamie was all wrapped up in a fluffy blue towel. Alice took him into his room, and put him into his pyjamas. They came back into the hall and went into the living room. I peeped around the bathroom door, and watched as Alice made a bed of soft blankets for Jamie on the living room couch. She gave him his favourite bunny to cuddle. Then she put on a DVD. She even kissed him gently on his cheek. ‘Good boy, Jamie. You just sit quietly and watch your DVD, and call me if you want anything.’