Eva's Holiday

by Judi Curtin

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  About the Author

  Copyright

  For Dan, Brian, Ellen and Annie

  Chapter One

  ‘This is so totally unfair. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.’

  I punched the pillow I was holding, but it didn’t make me feel any better. Nothing could make me feel any better.

  I was in my bedroom, with my friends, Victoria, Ella and Ruby. I’d just told them about my mum and dad’s great plans for the summer.

  I punched the pillow again. ‘Well?’ I said.

  ‘Maybe it won’t be too bad,’ said Victoria. ‘And you might even enjoy it. You—’

  ‘I am so not going to enjoy it,’ I said, interrupting her. ‘Remember, I’m used to spending my holidays in a villa in Tuscany. How am I supposed to enjoy a trip to a stupid old cottage, in a stupid old village in the middle of nowhere? What am I supposed to do all day long? I won’t have any friends. There won’t be any shops or a cinema. There’s nothing there – a big fat nothing! I might as well just sit inside and wait for summer to be over.’

  Victoria ignored me. ‘Maybe I can come and visit you for a while.’

  ‘Yeah right. If you can fit it in between all your fun pony camps and holidays to cool places that a normal human being would actually want to visit.’

  ‘Maybe Ella—’ she began.

  Ella shook her head.

  ‘Sorry, Eva. I’d love to visit you, but I’ll be spending most of the summer helping my dad run his summer camp. Maybe Ruby?’

  I knew exactly what Ella was thinking. Ruby doesn’t really like the same kind of stuff as Victoria, Ella and I do. She wasn’t likely to have big plans for the summer.

  We all looked at her.

  Ruby went red.

  ‘Actually, I haven’t got much free time this summer,’ she said. ‘I did kind of well in my last gala, so I’ve got scholarships to a few swimming camps.’

  ‘That’s brilliant!’ Victoria and I said together as Ella leaned over to hug her.

  Ruby wriggled free, embarrassed – she totally hates being the centre of attention.

  ‘Let’s get back to talking about Eva’s summer,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t bother,’ I said. ‘It’s too boring. This summer, I’m going to be the biggest loser in the whole country.’

  Victoria patted my arm like I was a baby. ‘I’ll lend you my blue hoodie that you like so much, and I bet if you’re really lucky, Ella will lend you one of her totally cool summer tops.’

  Ella nodded from where she was perched at the end of my bed.

  ‘Sure I will, Eva,’ she said. ‘You can borrow anything you want.’

  ‘And I’ll ask my mum to make you a special bracelet,’ said Ruby.

  Ella sighed.

  ‘I think I’d endure a summer in the country for one of your mum’s amazing bracelets, Ruby,’ she said.

  ‘Want to swap?’ I said.

  Ella shook her head quickly, ‘Er … maybe not.’

  ‘Anyway, thanks for your kind offers,’ I said. ‘But you’ll all be wasting your time. What’s the point in wearing cool stuff when there’s no one cool around to see you?’

  Once again, Victoria ignored me.

  ‘The summer isn’t all that long, really,’ she said I was fed up of punching the pillow. Now I felt like punching my so-called friend.

  Couldn’t she see that a summer in a cottage in the country was like a life sentence?

  Why did she always have to see the bright side?

  Didn’t she understand that I wanted her to feel sorry for me?

  I turned to Ella. She usually has less to say than Victoria has, but mostly she makes a lot of sense.

  ‘What do you think, Ella?’ I asked.

  Ella thought for a while before speaking.

  ‘Well,’ she said slowly. ‘There is one really good thing.’

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

  ‘I’m just glad it’s not me.’

  The next day, Ruby had a swimming gala, and Ella and I went to Victoria’s place.

  ‘Things have got even worse again,’ I said, as soon as we were settled on the huge, squashy couch in Victoria’s bedroom.

  ‘Is that possible?’ asked Victoria.

  I nodded grimly. ‘You see, the whole holiday thing came about because Dad did an attic conversion for Mum’s friend Monica. Monica was so pleased with his work that she said we can go and stay in the cottage she bought a few months ago. We don’t have to pay or anything. Dad just has to do any odd jobs that need doing while we’re there.’

  ‘That was nice of Monica,’ said Victoria.

  ‘Was it?’ I said.

  ‘And the bad news is?’ prompted Ella.

  ‘Monica has to go to hospital soon for a hip operation.’

  ‘Ouch,’ said Ella. ‘I can see why that makes things bad for her, but how does it change things for you?’

  ‘Monica has an eight-year-old son, and there won’t be anyone to mind him during the day, while his dad’s at work, so he’s coming to the cottage with us. We get the house and we get the son – it’s turned into a package deal!’

  ‘Maybe it won’t be so bad,’ said Victoria. ‘You’re always saying that you’d like a little brother or sister.’

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘But that was before I met Joey. He’s a total pain. A summer with him will be a complete nightmare.’

  ‘And how come your mum didn’t tell you this yesterday?’

  Ella giggled. ‘Maybe she thought you couldn’t cope with all that good news at once,’ she said.

  I sighed. ‘Who cares anyway? Joey’s coming with us, and nothing I say or do is going to change that. Summer is now officially spoiled.’

  Chapter Two

  A few weeks later, we were packed up in Dad’s van and on our way – Mum, Dad, Joey and me. Even though Victoria and Ella had been really nice, and had lent me lots of their cool clothes, and Ruby’s mum had made me the most amazing bracelet, I still felt like this was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.

  Mum was happy because she was getting her own way (as usual).

  Joey was happy because he’s only a stupid eight-year-old and it’s easy to make him happy.

  And Dad was happy because he knew that if he got a call to do an attic conversion, he’d be able to escape back to the real world.

  As we drove along, Mum kept going on and on about how excited she was.

  ‘We’re so lucky to be able to stay in Monica’s house,’ she said. ‘If it weren’t for Monica, we’d have no holiday at all this year. We’d be stuck at home for the whole summer.’

  Right then, being stuck at home sounded like a great option.

  Suddenly I had a brilliant idea.

  ‘Dad, if you g
et a call to go back to work, can I come with you?’

  ‘No way!’ said Mum.

  Why did she have to get involved? I hadn’t been asking her.

  ‘Please, Dad? I’d be really good while you are at work. I could clean the house every day, and I’d make you lovely breakfasts and dinners and everything.’

  I was sure I’d be the perfect housewife.

  Joey interrupted, ‘My mum told me that you cooked dinner last week and your whole family had to go to Supermac’s afterwards because no one could eat the stuff you made.’

  Why couldn’t he just mind his own business? I leaned over and made a face at him. He wailed like a total baby, ‘Paulaaaa, Eva’s threatening me!’

  Mum turned around and waved her finger at me.

  ‘Now, Eva,’ she said. ‘That’s exactly why you couldn’t go back home with Dad. You’re not mature enough yet.’

  Then she sighed.

  ‘Come on, Eva,’ she said. ‘Help us out here. You know we’ve all had a difficult time recently, with Dad’s old business closing down, and us having to sell our lovely house. And you were so good and helpful when all of that happened. Why are you being so difficult now?’ ‘Did you ever hear of the last straw?’ I muttered. ‘Well, this is it. This is the last straw.’

  ‘Lucky you’re not a camel, so,’ said Dad, thinking he was very funny.

  Everyone laughed then, except for me. I just folded my arms and sat in silence while Dad kept on driving towards the end of the world.

  After another half an hour I was totally fed up. Joey had fallen asleep with his head on my shoulder, and every time I tried to move him away, he wailed loudly, making Mum cross with me all over again.

  Suddenly I had an idea. I took Joey’s notebook and pencil out of his rucksack. I found a blank page, and wrote in capital letters – ‘PLEASE HELP ME. I AM BEING KIDNAPPED.’ Then I held the page against the side window of the van so that everyone who passed by could see what total losers my parents were.

  I thought it was kind of a funny thing to do, but I didn’t feel one bit like laughing when a police motor-bike with flashing lights came past and made Dad pull in to the edge of the road.

  The policeman got off his bike and walked very slowly towards us. I shoved Joey’s notebook under my seat. Joey woke up.

  ‘Wow………Coooool,’ he said when he saw the flashing lights.

  ‘Have you been speeding again?’ Mum asked Dad.

  Before Dad could answer, the policeman was tapping on the side window of the van. Dad wound down the window.

  ‘What can I do for you, officer?’ he said, like someone from a very bad film.

  The policeman didn’t smile.

  ‘We’ve had a very strange report from a woman in the town a few miles back,’ he said.

  I tried to shrink back into my seat, wondering if there was any way of making myself invisible.

  The policeman leaned closer to Dad. ‘Can you tell me who you are, and please also identify your passengers.’

  I felt like screaming.

  What kind of a stupid woman with no sense of humour would think I was really being kidnapped?

  And what kind of a policeman with no sense of humour would have to get sent to investigate?

  And what kind of parents would have so little sense of humour that they would totally fail to see the funny side of what I’d done?

  It took twenty minutes of explanations before we were allowed to continue on our journey. By then, Mum had my phone in her handbag, and I had a feeling I wouldn’t be seeing it again for a very long time.

  If there was a funny side to that, then I’m afraid I was the one who couldn’t see it.

  Chapter Three

  After another half hour of driving, Joey was sound asleep again. Dad drove down a narrow laneway and stopped the van. Mum, Dad and I climbed out and stretched. We gazed at the cottage, and then we gazed at it some more. No one said anything for a long time.

  The cottage was a complete and utter dump. The walls were all grey and mouldy-looking, the windows looked like the next gust of wind would blow them out, and the garden was like something from a horror movie.

  ‘You’re sure this is the right place?’ said Dad after a while.

  ‘We followed Monica’s directions to the letter,’ said Mum. ‘But…….’

  ‘This has to be the wrong….’ I began, but I stopped as Joey suddenly hurtled from the car and started to jump up and down on the lumpy lawn.

  ‘Yay! We’re here at last,’ he shouted, crushing the last of my hopes.

  ‘Lovely,’ said Dad weakly. ‘The cottage of lost dreams.’

  Mum gave him a cross look, but she couldn’t really argue with him. She pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the door.

  The four of us stepped inside. I shut my eyes and counted to ten. Unfortunately, when I opened my eyes, nothing had changed. We were in a room full of junk. A crooked table was surrounded by five wobbly chairs of varying sizes and colours. A dusty-looking dresser was covered with odd cups and saucers. An old sofa looked like it was about to burst open, spraying the room with grey foam. Over by the only window were a rusty sink and a tiny cooker about the size of the one I used to play with when I was five.

  Joey ran across the room and threw himself onto an ugly armchair that looked like it might once have been green.

  ‘Home sweet home,’ he said, before he began to choke on the cloud of dust he’d raised.

  I’d have laughed, if I hadn’t been so close to crying.

  ‘I wonder what the other rooms are like,’ said Mum brightly.

  I looked through an open door into a room that contained nothing but a huge lumpy bed and lots of cobwebs. I ran upstairs and discovered two more bedrooms and a bathroom. I ran downstairs again. There were so many things I wanted to say, I didn’t know where to start.

  Dad was poking the window and watching how it rattled at every touch.

  ‘You can’t act all surprised, Andrew,’ said Mum. ‘Monica did warn us that the cottage needed fixing up a bit.’

  ‘The kindest thing would be to knock the whole place down, and put it out of its misery,’ said Dad, laughing.

  He stopped laughing though, when he saw Mum’s face.

  ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I’ll get my toolbox out of the van and I can start work at once.’

  I started to smile. Dad absolutely loves fixing stuff.

  But then I had a horrible thought. I gazed frantically around the room.

  ‘Where’s the TV?’

  ‘Oh,’ said Mum. ‘Didn’t I tell you?’

  ‘Tell me what?’ I said in my toughest voice.

  ‘About the TV.’

  ‘What about the TV?’

  Mum gave a little laugh, ‘There isn’t one.’

  Was this Mum’s idea of a joke? Did she really think we were going to stay here for a whole summer, without even a TV to console us?

  She came over and hugged me.

  ‘Don’t worry, Eva,’ she said. ‘All this place needs is a good clean out, and then it will be lovely. And we’ll all have the time of our lives.’

  We unpacked the car, and after that, Mum and Dad insisted that we all go for a walk on the beach. The beach was small and not very exciting, and I was almost glad when Mum said it was time to get back to work.

  We spent the rest of the day scrubbing and cleaning. Finally when there was nothing left to clean, Mum and Dad let us sit down. I looked around the small room.

  ‘That’s a big improvement,’ I said. ‘Before, it was dirty and ugly, and now it’s clean and ugly.’

  Mum looked pointedly at Joey.

  ‘Shh, Eva,’ she said. ‘Don’t say things like that, since Monica was so kind to let us use her house.’

  ‘I won’t “shhh”,’ I said, not caring what Joey thought. ‘You always say I have to tell the truth, and the truth is this place is a total dump.’

  Joey opened his eyes wide, but for once in his life, he said nothing.

  Dad trie
d to comfort me.

  ‘It’s not so bad, Eva,’ he said. ‘Money is still very tight, and what your mother said earlier is true – if we weren’t here, we’d have no holiday at all this year.’

  ‘No holiday at all would be better than a holiday from hell,’ I shouted.

  ‘Eva!’ said Mum crossly. ‘If you can’t think of something nice to say, it’s better to say nothing at all.’

  Dad laughed. ‘Looks like it’s going to be a quiet summer so,’ he said.

  I said a rude word then, and was sent to bed.

  And that was the first day of my holidays.

  Chapter Four

  The next morning, I woke to the sound of hammering. By the time I was dressed, Dad had fixed the crooked table and the wobbly chairs, and was pacing the living room with a screwdriver in his hand.

  ‘That’s enough for the moment, Andrew,’ said Mum, laughing. ‘Come and join us for breakfast.’

  ‘So,’ said Dad as he sat down. ‘What’s the plan for today?’

  ‘I had thought we could have a picnic on the beach,’ said Mum. ‘But I think maybe it’s a bit grey and cold for that.’

  ‘Well,’ I said. ‘Since we can’t go to the beach, let’s think of something else to do. We could look out the front window, or we could look out the back window or we could walk to the stupid village, or we could … oh yeah that’s it, isn’t it? That’s everything we can do in this stupid place.’

  Mum put on her dangerous face.

  ‘Now, Eva,…’ she began, before she was interrupted by a knock on the front door.

  We all looked at each other.

  ‘Are we expecting someone?’ asked Dad.

  ‘Not that I know of,’ said Mum.

  ‘Maybe it’s my fairy godmother, come to rescue me,’ I said. ‘I wonder where I left my pumpkin?’

  No one laughed.

  ‘Do you know any of the neighbours here, Joey?’ asked Mum.

  Joey shook his head.

  ‘I’ve only been here once before,’ he said.

  There was another knock.

  Joey stood up.