Swap Over

by Margaret Pearce

  “Feeling better.”

  “Much better,” Maddy said. “I’m so hungry and that soup smells terrific.”

  After lunch Maddy was pushed off to bed again. “You can read or watch television, but you spend the afternoon resting.”

  “I’m sick of bed. And I feel perfectly okay.”

  “And perhaps you can get up later this afternoon, have a shower, and go visit the Matson girls,” Mrs. Walton continued.

  “Yes,” Maddy agreed meekly and went back to bed.

  All the television programs were boring, so she turned it off. She yawned. She couldn’t be tired, but her eyes felt so heavy that she closed them and fell asleep. When she woke again her clock showed the time as five o’clock. She showered and dressed in her jeans and warm jumper.

  “I’m going around to see the Matsons,” she called to Mrs. Walton, who sat working at the desk in the small study.

  “Dinner at six,” Mrs. Walton reminded her.

  As Maddy walked up the path towards the kitchen door, she heard the television blaring and the shrill voices of her younger sisters raised over it. The place sounded as pleasantly noisy and alive as ever.

  “Over here,” Jennifer’s voice called.

  She was swinging on the old hammock under the big tree by the rabbit hutch. She still wore the raggy school dress. Her scuffed school shoes looked as if they had never been cleaned, Maddy noticed enviously.

  Maddy settled on the garden chair beside the hammock. She wanted to ask Jennifer if she had wished herself into the Matson family. If she had wished herself into the messy Matson family and their perfect good health, she would be just plain stupid to want to wish herself back into the unpleasant secret behind the nice Jennifer Walton life.

  What if it had happened without Jennifer knowing? What if it had been the white rabbit all along that had caused the swap over to work? What were the right sort of questions to ask without sounding silly?

  “Milly and Merry are watching their favourite telly show,” Jennifer explained. “I’ve just cleaned out the rabbit hutch.”

  “Was it your turn?” Maddy asked from habit.

  “No, but I wasn’t doing anything anyway.”

  “Did the white rabbit turn up again?”

  “No.”

  “Wonder where it came from?”

  “Lots of kids in the district have pet rabbits. Might even have strayed from another district.”

  “Yeah,” Maddy agreed glumly.

  Maddy tried to think of another question about the white rabbit. Jennifer swung in the hammock; one leg sprawled out on the ground steadying it. Maddy stared at the muscles in her leg and the mud across her knee.

  Jennifer now had the same solid, stocky legs as the rest of the Matsons, with the same chunky leg muscles and healed scars and scratches across her knees. Jennifer had definitely changed into a Matson!

  “If you ever had the chance, would you like to change places with anyone else’s family in the district?” Maddy asked carefully.

  “No,” Jennifer said dreamily. “I wake up every morning and think how lucky I am. I have good health, two of the nicest little sisters in the district, terrific parents and lots of good friends. I think my life is just perfect.”

  “I guess it is at that,” Maddy agreed glumly.

  So Jennifer didn’t know that she had been swapped over? Jennifer was happy in her new life, but then again, she had seemed perfectly happy in her other life! It was very muddling.

  Maddy had wished away her perfectly good life for nothing! She wasn’t happy being a Walton. She had to cope with the secret of her bad health, being an only child, and her new parents’ unrealistic expectations of her behaviour and schoolwork.

  “Jennifer,” Milly yelled from the open kitchen door. “You promised to come and show me how to cut out paper dolls.”

  “Coming in?” Jennifer asked, as she swung from the hammock in one easy movement.

  “Guess I'd better get back for dinner,” Maddy said.

  Jennifer went back inside, and Maddy walked towards the gate. The Matson’s battered brown family car turned into the driveway. Her father was home! He spotted Maddy and waved. Maddy waved back.

  The Matson father was tall, skinny, balding, and stooped. He was nothing like the Walton father, but Maddy decided she liked him a lot better. He smiled as he stopped the car and his black eyes twinkled behind his heavy glasses.

  He wasn’t young and good-looking and he couldn’t build cubby houses, but he was her very own father. Except not anymore, Maddy remembered. This reminded her of the Walton father. Where was he? She hadn’t noticed him around for days.

  “Where’s Dad?” Maddy asked Mrs. Walton when she arrived inside.

  She stumbled over the word “Dad.” Did Jennifer call her father Dad or Daddy, or just plain Father?

  “He had to go off for a few days,” Mrs. Walton said. “He said goodbye before he left on Sunday, but you were too sick to notice.”

  Maddy nodded and kept walking through the kitchen. There was no television or stereo equipment blaring. There were no shrill voices arguing and yelling. There were no stray cousins, aunts and uncles, and their baggage strewn across the lounge room. Everything was very hushed and quiet and orderly. It made her feel uncomfortable and creepy.

  Maddy walked into her bedroom. She looked at the neatly–made, four poster bed with its filmy white hangings. She looked at her very own laptop on the nice shiny desk and her very own colour television on the small table by the bed.

  The lump in her throat got so large it hurt. It was no fun to have all these things with no one to share them. She was never, ever going to share a bedroom with her little sisters again, but that was her own fault, wasn’t it?

  Chapter Twelve

  Wednesday morning Maddy woke feeling morose and dejected. The prospect of being Maddy Walton forever loomed in front of her. No sisters to share her room or her life; no sociable relatives and friends staying overnight; and no midnight television shows any more. Her easy–going, relaxed life of living as a Matson was gone forever.

  If only she could find that mysterious white rabbit and wish herself back home again! She had so little time in her life as Maddy Walton to do anything she wanted to do. She seemed to spend all her time either being sick or having every second of her life organized.

  Mrs. Walton came into the bedroom and pulled back the drapes. The warm sun streamed through the window.

  “Are you feeling up to school today, my darling?”

  “Of course,” Maddy said.

  Spending the day at Jennifer’s school was better than being cooped up in her bedroom again all day. Besides, she liked being friends with all of Jennifer’s friends, especially Selena.

  “I'll catch the bus with the others,” Maddy said after breakfast as she pushed her lunchbox into her school bag.

  If her life was going to be limited by being Maddy Walton, she may as well make a few changes. There was no fun in being driven to school. She would catch the bus every morning with the rest of the gang.

  “I don’t know,” Mrs. Walton said looking worried. “It will be much too tiring for you.”

  Maddy examined Mrs. Walton’s worried face and scowled. This morning Mrs. Walton looked what her own mother described as poorly. There were dark shadows looping under her eyes, and her face was strained and tired. Of course Mrs. Walton had been up all that night with Maddy, and she didn’t have the sense to go back to bed after a bad night like her own mother.

  “I am not tired,” Maddy said. “And I won’t shatter because I have to sit in the bus instead of a car.”

  “Are you sure you will be all right?”

  “Go back to bed and get some rest, Mum.”

  Maddy tasted the word and decided it sounded all right. Maybe she didn’t mind Jennifer’s mother after all. She was pretty nice despite her weird ideas about tidying up and regular meals all the time. It was all just a matter of retraining her.

  “You are a sweetheart,�
� Mrs. Walton said and leaned over and hugged Maddy. “I'll pick you up after school, or get the school to ring me to collect you if there are any problems.”

  “There won’t be any problems.”

  She trudged down to the bus stop. As she joined the gang in their ragged high school uniforms, she almost faltered. She felt like a freak in her immaculate blouse, freshly pressed tunic and good blazer. She didn’t look as if she belonged anymore.

  “Hi, Maddy,” Jennifer said, and everyone else chorused. “Hi.”

  Maddy relaxed. She had forgotten how much she had missed her own gang of friends. It almost felt like coming home. Except it was Jennifer who now had the chore of getting Merry safely to her class every morning, and checking that Milly hadn’t forgotten her lunch.

  The bus pulled up. The gang surged aboard. Jennifer held Merry’s hand and sat in front of Maddy. Milly sat beside Maddy and chattered non-stop. Maddy remembered with shame and disgust that she used to tell Milly to shut up all the time. Now, she actually enjoyed the sound of her chattering.

  She tuned out and thought about the mysterious white rabbit. After school this afternoon, she would ask the Matsons to help her check out all the neighbours. The white rabbit must have strayed from a nearby backyard. It had looked too well-cared for and too well-fed to have strayed very far.

  “What?” Maddy said blankly.

  “Mr. Stuart was grouching about whatever has been burrowing holes in her his back lawn,” Milly repeated.

  “Whose back lawn?”

  “Old Miss Estenbury got taken away by an ambulance last Friday night,” Milly explained. “The Stuarts are feeding her cat and looking after her garden.”

  “Does she have rabbits?” Could the white rabbit have belonged to Miss Estenbury?

  “No.”

  “She’s a witch,” little Merry lisped as she turned around to listen.

  “Now that is unkind,” Jennifer said as she turned to join in the conversation. “Mum said we must be polite to her because she is so old.”

  Maddy felt a shiver of excitement. Was their neighbour, Miss Estenbury, really a witch? She certainly looked like a witch! She was very old and wore shapeless black dresses, and muttered to herself as she shuffled around. She had beady bright eyes, and lots of untidy white hair. What if it had been the old lady’s white rabbit and she didn’t keep it in a hutch like a normal person?

  Maddy shivered again. How had she had forgotten about old Miss Estenbury? The memory of what had happened that last Friday afternoon when she was Maddy Matson suddenly returned.

  When they had got in from school that Friday afternoon, she had a terrible fight with Milly over the television program. She had swapped to her own channel twice before her mother broke up the fight. Her mother had sided with Milly and Merry.

  Maddy had slammed out of the house and run across the road. She was playing in front of the shabby cottage, throwing an old cricket ball at the picket fence as hard as she could and catching it. Miss Estenbury had shuffled out and warned her to stop. She had called the old lady a stupid old bat!

  “Not happy, are we?” Miss Estenbury had cackled. “And what have we got to be unhappy about, little Miss?”

  What had she retorted back? Somehow it was suddenly very important to remember. She had said, “Everything, you stupid old witch.”

  “Have to change that, won’t we,” the old lady had said with her cackling laugh and shuffled back inside.

  After that, Maddy had gone to play with Jennifer in the tree house, until she had to come home to clean the rabbit hutch and made that silly wish. How could she have forgotten about Miss Estenbury’s weird answer?

  Her life had been changed. Was it Miss Estenbury who had somehow done it? Straight after school, she would visit Miss Estenbury and beg her to change everything back. Life would be back to normal. Then she remembered what Milly had said.

  Miss Estenbury had been taken to hospital that Friday night. That was nearly a week ago. What if it was too late for everything to be changed back again?

  “Are you sure you are all right, Maddy?” Jennifer was saying. “You’ve gone as white as anything.”

  Maddy looked at Jennifer’s worried face. Everything wasn’t all right, but it was not Jennifer’s fault, only her own for being so stupid.

  “No probs,” Maddy said with an effort. “See you after school.”

  When the bus stopped at the high school, the Matsons and the rest of her gang got off. Maddy watched them go wistfully. She had forgotten about how much fun life was with everyone at the high school.

  Two stops later, she got off the bus and met Rowena and Katrina at the pedestrian crossing. Linda saw her as they entered the school ground and ran up to say hello. She was going to be a pest, Maddy thought crossly, and hang around all the time.

  Maddy opened her mouth to say get lost, and shut it again. “Hi, Linda.” She tried a smile.

  Linda’s face glowed with happiness and belonging. Maddy strolled to Assembly with Katrina, Rowena, Linda, and Selena. Her new gang, she thought to herself, but she felt resigned about it.

  Living up to being a Jennifer sort of person was going to take a lot of effort, but she seemed stuck with it

  Chapter Thirteen

  The morning hadn’t passed that badly, Maddy decided. In fact, she had actually enjoyed most of her classes. All that working during lessons meant that she knew what the teachers were talking about, and they were all as pleasant to her as if she really was Jennifer.

  “Got a film for the afternoon and another day over,” Selena said, as they sat in the sun eating lunch. “We have to collect our bags and leave straight from the hall.”

  “A good way to fill in an afternoon,” Maddy said with approval. “Anyone know what we are seeing?”

  “Not another Shakespeare one,” Katrina groaned. “I’d rather have class.”

  “It’s Great Expectations, because we’ve got Dickens on our reading list,” Linda said.

  Maddy looked at Linda with respect and approval. She was a useful person to have in a gang. Nothing seemed to happen around the school that she didn’t hear or see first.

  “I just happened to be collecting tea things from the staff room when I heard.” Linda flushed with pleasure.

  “Years seven and eights are all doing Dickens this year,” Rowena said. “The hall is going to be pretty crowded.”

  “And there are four, year seven classes and three, year eight classes,” Linda said.

  “Very crowded,” Selena said thoughtfully.

  The seating was so well organized that it didn’t seem crowded, however. Maddy and her friends were in the first row of seats. The boys moved forward to sit on the floor in front of the chairs. Maddy noticed the red head of Roland Townsend among the taller boys sitting in the first line in front of them. The teachers settled at each end of the rows by their classes.

  Everyone was very quiet. Maddy was really enjoying the film and deciding she would try to read the book after all, when she became aware of muffled whispers and sniggers in front of her.

  She took her attention off the film and stared into the gloom of packed boys in front of her. The swaying was the struggle of two boys holding another boy between them firmly. Something was being passed along the line of seated boys. It was being handled, and then passed on with a lot of sniggering.

  Maddy bent over to check what was happening, but it was too dark to see anything.

  “What is it?” Linda whispered.

  Little Miss Nosy, Maddy thought, suddenly aware how closely Linda must have been watching her, but her irritation went immediately. Linda was pretty smart and that was something to be respected. “The boys are up to something?”

  “And it’s the usual mob of no-hopers along the back row,” Selena whispered.

  The music from the film swelled to noisiness and the hall became darker. Linda’s seat was suddenly empty. Maddy waited. She hadn’t even seen Linda go. One minute she was there and the next, she just wasn’t. No
wonder she was good at snooping out whatever was going on around the place!

  The hall lightened at the next scene. One of the teachers turned a suspicious head along the row of chairs, but Linda was back in her seat, pointed nose facing the screen.

  “They pinched Roland Townsend’s glasses,” Linda whispered.

  She passed something sticky into Maddy’s hand. Maddy sneaked a look down at the distinctive thick glasses, now heavily plastered in fresh chewing gum. She grinned. The boys must have been passing the glasses along the row; sticking on chewing gum as they went and smart little Linda had put out her hand and collected them.

  There was a “thump” in front of them as Roland threw off the two boys holding him. A torch beam rayed on to the kneeling Roland.

  “Sit down Townsend. You will be obscuring someone’s vision,” a teacher hissed.

  The two boys beside Roland sat quietly watching the screen. Roland’s naked face blinked stupidly in the torch beam. He sat down again. The torch beam flicked off.

  “I can’t see the screen without my glasses,” Roland whispered. “Hand ‘em back.”

  “Glasses aren’t going to be any use to a moron like you,” someone whispered.

  “Yeah, glasses don’t cure illiteracy,” someone else whispered.

  Someone sniggered.

  “The next person who talks gets a demerit,” a voice warned from the side of the hall.

  There was silence. Everyone concentrated on the film. Maddy looked at the glasses, heavily covered with the fresh chewing gum. Suddenly the joke wasn’t funny anymore. It was just plain mean and nasty. Roland needed to see this film if he had trouble reading.

  He only lived around the corner. She would suggest that he come around to her place for half an hour a night. If she read each chapter and they discussed it thoroughly, he would soon understand it. He was pretty bright and he didn’t need stupid idiots tormenting him because he was the new kid in class and having trouble with his English.