by Judi Curtin
‘Er …,’ I began.
Kate grinned. ‘I know. You’re speechless. That’s OK. I know how you feel.’
I smiled weakly.
‘Look around you,’ commanded Kate.
I did as she said.
‘What do you see?’
Nothing?
‘Well?’ she asked.
‘This isn’t an island,’ I said in the end.
Kate shrugged.
‘I know it’s not a real island, but Dad used to say that to us it was as good as an island. Once we were here, the rest of the world seemed very far away.’
‘The rest of the world’ – that reminded me.
‘Where’s Jeremy?’ I asked.
‘Right over there,’ she said, pointing.
I looked but couldn’t see anyone.
Was he hiding behind the tree?
I walked around the tree but there was no-one there. Then I looked up into the branches, not sure I wanted to see anyone up there.
The cool, blond boy of my imagination was starting to turn into a hunched wild thing with dirty, matted hair, who could only communicate with grunts and gestures.
‘I don’t see him,’ I said in the end.
Kate laughed.
‘You’re looking right at him,’ she said.
Now I felt cross. Clearly there was no one there. What kind of stupid game did she think she was playing?
Surely she was too old to have an imaginary friend?
‘Jeremy is the tree,’ she said.
I’d have laughed if I hadn’t been so shocked.
I’m just a normal girl.
This shouldn’t be happening to me.
What had gone so wrong in my life that I was hanging around with a mad girl who gave boys’ names to trees?
Kate seemed to be waiting for some kind of response from me.
‘Er … why do you call the tree Jeremy?’ I said in the end.
Kate looked concerned.
‘What’s wrong? Don’t you think Jeremy is a good name? You and I could think of a new one if you like. What about Walter …or … Harry?’
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
Kate put her head in her hands.
‘I shouldn’t have told you about Jeremy,’ she said. ‘Now you think I’m an idiot.’
I couldn’t deny this, so I said nothing.
‘I know it’s crazy calling trees names,’ she said. ‘Dad did it when I was small, to make me laugh. And it kind of became a habit. And now I’m used to it, so I just keep doing it. You don’t mind, do you?’
I couldn’t answer her, so she continued.
‘I bet you did stuff like that when you were small. I bet you gave names to things that really shouldn’t have names.’
I suddenly thought of Billy Blankie, the scrap of blue fleece that I couldn’t sleep without until I was about seven.
Kate stared at me, almost like she could read my mind.
‘So you don’t think I’m an idiot?’ she asked.
I pushed away the picture of Billy Blankie, who was still buried at the bottom of a drawer in my bedroom at home.
‘Maybe it’s just me,’ I said, avoiding her question. ‘But I’m really not comfortable calling trees by names. I’ll just keep calling it a tree, if that’s OK by you.’
Kate patted the tree trunk.
‘That’s no problem. I’m sure Jeremy won’t mind – since you’re my friend.’
I wondered if she was joking, but her serious face gave me no clue.
‘Jeremy really is special, you know,’ she said.
‘How?’ I said, wondering what kind of mad thing she was going to come up with next.
‘Can he talk, or dance or juggle lemons while singing the national anthem?’
Kate ignored my sarcastic tone.
‘He’s the only big tree for miles around. Trees don’t grow very well up here – it’s too windy, but Jeremy survived. He’s been here for more than a hundred years – it’s like magic.’
I looked around me, and realised that she was right. All the other trees I could see were scrawny, and bent over like they were cowering in front of the wind.
‘Let’s climb Jeremy,’ said Kate suddenly.
I giggled, suddenly seeing the funny side of this bizarre conversation.
‘Only if you think it won’t hurt him.’ Kate laughed too, and before I could say another word, she was clinging on to the first branch like a monkey.
I like climbing trees, so I followed her, and soon we were both balancing on a broad branch halfway up the very tall tree. Kate moved to one side.
‘Here,’ she said. ‘You can have the best place since it’s your first time here.’
I edged past her, and leaned against the trunk of the tree. A soft breeze was rustling the leaves, and in the distance I could see the sea, sparkling like someone had sprinkled body glitter all over it.
I closed my eyes. The tree was swaying ever so slightly, and the rustling leaves were calming – almost like a lullaby.
When I opened my eyes again, Kate had stretched herself along a flat part of the branch, and was gazing out to sea. All at once, I felt like maybe she was right. There was something magical about this place.
I patted the branch I was sitting on. ‘You’re OK, Jeremy,’ I said, and Kate gave a small smile.
After a while Kate stirred. ‘Race you to the big hedge at the far side of that field,’ she said, pointing. Then she scrambled down the tree and began to run. I climbed down after her, and raced through the long grass, laughing as I ran. We pushed our way through two small hedges, crossed a field and then galloped up a steep hill.
We reached the big hedge together, and threw ourselves down on to the grass, too breathless to talk. Even though I’m much too old for that kind of stuff, it was totally the most fun thing I’d done in ages.
Chapter Eleven
When I got home, Mum was in the kitchen. I ran over and hugged her.
‘What was that for?’ she asked when I finally let her go.
‘For not running away when I was a baby,’ I said, feeling a bit stupid as the words came out.
Mum hugged me again, and when she let me go I could see tears in her eyes.
‘That poor girl,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything so sad.’
I shook my head.
‘Me neither.’
‘Are you going to see her tomorrow?’ asked Mum.
I nodded.
‘Yeah. She said she’ll call over in the morning.’
Mum smiled at me.
‘That’s good. It sounds like the poor thing needs a friend. It was nice of you to defend her against those other two girls this morning.’
‘Thanks, but I really wanted to be friends with them. Cathy and Lily seem much more like my type. They’re cool and fashionable, and I bet they like the same kind of stuff as I do.’
‘I understand where you’re coming from,’ said Mum. ‘Remember though, Victoria and Ella are cool and fashionable, but they’re also nice girls. This Cathy and Lily sound very mean to me. Better to stay well away from them.’
Then Mum went and rooted around in her handbag.
‘You showed great maturity today, Eva,’ she said. ‘So I think it’s time you got this back.’ As she spoke, she pulled out my phone.
I raced over and took it from her. I turned it over and over in my hands like it was a precious jewel. Then I pressed the ‘on’ button and watched as the screen lit up. Just as I was admiring my totally cool screensaver, the phone rang.
I answered the call and held the phone to my ear.
‘About time.’
It was Victoria, and even though it was only a few days since we’d hugged goodbye, it felt like hundreds of years had passed since then.
‘I’ve been trying to call you for ages,’ Victoria continued. ‘Did your parents confiscate your phone again?’
‘Yes,’ I replied.
‘What did you do this time?’ sh
e asked.
I sighed.
‘It’s kind of a long story.’
‘You mean your mum’s listening.’
I giggled.
‘Exactly.’
Then I waved to Mum and walked out into the garden so Victoria and I could talk in peace.
Victoria laughed when I told her about the ‘kidnapped’ sign, and then she told me about the fun stuff she’d been doing since I had left.
‘So what have you been doing besides wasting police time?’ she asked after a while. ‘How are the holidays going?’
I hesitated.
I wanted to tell her about Kate, but didn’t know how, without making Kate sound totally weird.
‘It’s kind of boring,’ I said, ‘I haven’t really made any friends yet.’
‘Poor you,’ she said, not sounding as sympathetic as I had hoped.
Then she said, ‘But you haven’t asked why I’m ringing.’
‘Because I’m one of your best friends and you miss me and wanted to talk to me?’
She laughed. ‘That too, but it’s mostly because my Mum is going to visit an old school-friend tomorrow afternoon.’
‘And I care about that because?’ I said in the most bored voice I could manage.
‘Because Mum’s friend lives a few miles from where you are now, and Mum said that she’ll bring me with her, and I can hang out with you for a few hours until she has to go back again!’
I squealed and jumped up and down. I couldn’t believe it. I was going to see my friend. For the first time in days, I was going to see a real, live, normal friend.
Victoria laughed again. ‘Get over yourself,’ she said. ‘Or else I won’t come. Now my mum wants to talk to your mum so we can get directions to your place. And I’ll ring you tomorrow to tell you what time I’ll be there.’
I raced inside, gave the phone to Mum and minutes later it was all settled. I threw myself on to a couch and gave a big sigh of happiness.
Everything was perfect.
And then I had a horrible thought.
What was I going to do about Kate?
In the end, I was so desperate I decided to ask Mum for advice. She didn’t think it was a big deal.
‘Kate calls over, Victoria arrives, and you all hang out together for a few hours. I’m afraid I don’t see the problem,’ she said.
I felt like stamping my foot but didn’t dare. I didn’t want to give Mum a reason to take my phone back again.
‘You just don’t get it,’ I said. ‘Kate is totally different to Victoria. She wouldn’t like Victoria, and Victoria wouldn’t like her.’
Mum just smiled. ‘They both seem to like you,’ she said.
Now I risked a small stamp of my foot. ‘That’s so not the point. It just wouldn’t work. It would be a total disaster. It would ruin my only day with Victoria. It would ruin my holiday. It would ruin my whole life.’
Mum patted my shoulder. ‘I don’t think it’s as serious as all that,’ she said. ‘If you want my opinion—’
‘I don’t,’ I said crossly, but Mum ignored me and continued, ‘If you want my opinion, I think you should trust your friends to get on with each other.’
‘But….’
‘Remember when you first met Ruby?’ continued Mum. ‘She was a bit of a loner, but in the end she got on fine with all your other friends.’
‘That’s different,’ I said.
‘How?’
‘It just is.’
Mum sighed. ‘Well then, if you’re going to be like that, you’d better go and explain to Kate. You can’t have her come over here tomorrow and not invite her in. That would be too cruel. Think of something nice to say to her, and tell her you’ll see her the day after tomorrow. Now off you go, it’s nearly time for tea.’
Chapter Twelve
Typical Mum, she makes everything sound so easy, but as I walked slowly towards Kate’s house, I knew this wasn’t going to be quite as simple as it seemed.
How was I going to explain to Kate?
Do you think you could sort of vanish from my life for twenty-four hours?
You’re not as weird as I thought you were at first, but you’re still too weird to meet my real friend.
Let’s play hide-and seek. You hide and I’ll look for you – the day after tomorrow.
No matter how I tried, I couldn’t think of a nice way to say what I needed to say. Kate wasn’t stupid, and I knew it would be very easy to hurt her feelings.
Much too soon, I was at the top of the laneway leading to Kate’s house. I’d never been here before. Kate always called for me, and she had never invited me to her place. Now I thought I could see why. The laneway was all overgrown, with barely space for one person to pass through. Long thorny branches grabbed at my clothes, like they were trying to hold me back.
Did they know something I didn’t?
At the top of the lane was a small cottage that might once have been white, but was now a dull grey colour. The roof was covered with gross slimy green stuff. The paint on the front door was faded and peeling, and the grass in front looked like it hadn’t been cut in months.
Poor Kate. Having no mum or dad was horrible enough, but living in a dump like this made things even worse.
(OK, so right now, I was living in a dump not much better than this, but that was just because of one of my mum’s crazy ideas. Back home, in my real life, our clean, not-falling-down house was waiting for us.)
Just as I was trying to find the courage to knock on the door, Kate appeared at the side of the house. She jumped when she saw me, then ran towards me.
‘What are you doing here?’ she hissed.
‘I … I …,’ I began.
‘You shouldn’t come here,’ said Kate. ‘You should never come here.’
As she spoke, she took my arm and dragged me back towards my own house. I didn’t resist. Kate suddenly seemed fierce and frightening, and there was no way I was doing anything that might make her even worse.
As we got farther way from her house, Kate seemed to relax a bit. She let go of my arm. We stopped walking and stood staring at each other. I rubbed my arm, wondering if Kate’s fingers were going to be forever imprinted on my skin.
‘Sorry, Eva,’ she said after a while. ‘It’s just …it’s just … well it’s just that you kind of gave me a fright … and Martha doesn’t like visitors. Since Dad …… since Dad ……, well, no one ever calls, and Martha’s got used to it. She likes it that way. She’s kind of a recluse.’
‘But what about you?’ I protested. ‘That’s not fair on you. You’re not a recluse. Why do you have to live like that?’
‘You don’t have to worry about me. I’m tough.’
But something in the way she said it, made me realise that, despite her fierce look, she wasn’t tough at all.
‘Anyway,’ said Kate brightly. ‘Enough about me. What do you want? Why were you calling for me?’
I gulped.
The way Kate had reacted had made me forget all about why I was there, but now I was more sure than ever that I had to keep her away from my real friend.
‘Er … I came to say that my friend, Victoria, is coming for the afternoon tomorrow.’
Kate grinned. ‘That’s great news. You probably miss her. We can show her the Island of Dreams if you like. I don’t mind sharing it as long as she’s a friend of yours. We won’t mention Jeremy, though, if you think she won’t get it. And we can show her where the wild strawberries grow – but you have to make her promise not to tell anyone.’ Kate looked up and saw my face.
‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I’ve got this wrong, haven’t I?’
I nodded slowly.
‘Don’t worry, Eva,’ she said. ‘I understand.’
I was beginning to feel really happy, before she continued.
‘I guess your friend isn’t into that kind of thing. That’s OK, though, there’s loads of other stuff we can do. We could go to the beach, or we could ……’
‘Er, Kate ……,�
�� I began.
She looked up again and her smile vanished.
‘You don’t want me hanging around while your friend is here, do you?’ she said.
‘I…….’ I began, but couldn’t think how to go on.
‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘I know how you feel. You’re ashamed of me.’
‘It’s not like that,’ I protested, even though she was right. I felt awful, as a mixture of guilt and relief washed over me.
‘I don’t mind,’ said Kate. ‘I understand. I’d probably do the same if I were you. Anyway, I’m very busy tomorrow. Martha wants me to do some jobs for her. Even if you wanted to spend time with me, I probably wouldn’t be able to.’
I knew she was lying, but I didn’t argue.
Kate gave a sad smile. ‘Have a nice day with your friend.’
I wondered if my guilty conscience would let me enjoy a single second of my time with Victoria.
‘We can hang out the day after tomorrow, if you like,’ I said, feeling like a snake.
‘That sounds good. I’ll call for you in the morning, OK?’
I nodded, and Kate walked slowly away.
I watched her go.
She’d solved my problem for me, but why did I feel like this was the meanest thing I’d ever done in my entire life?
Chapter Thirteen
I got up early the next morning, and it seemed like ages before Victoria arrived. I was totally bored. I wished I could hang out with Kate for a while, but I knew that wasn’t a good idea.
Mum persuaded me to play Monopoly with Joey. It was so boring that I kept robbing the bank to give him extra money so that he’d win and put me out of my misery. He caught me though, and insisted that we go back and start the whole thing again. I wondered for the hundredth time why I’d ever dreamed of having a little brother or sister.
Every few minutes, I jumped up and looked out the window.
Why wasn’t Victoria here?
I texted her heaps of times, but she never replied.
Why didn’t she ring me?
Had something more exciting come up, and had she changed her mind about coming to visit me?
At last I heard the sound of a car and I raced out to greet my friend.