Chapter 5
Holly’s DP
All that term, Jack and Holly remained reading partners. The more he got to know her, the more he understood why his whole class wanted to be her friend.
Apart from being very clever, and always getting top marks, and having a voice good enough to sing solos at assembly, Holly Macaulay was one of the best young gymnasts in the country. She’d been on TV once and in the newspaper twice. It was her ambition to compete in the Olympic Games. Some of this she told Jack herself, the rest he heard from other people.
Holly wasn’t bigheaded, even though she was famous. She showed Jack the bruises she got when she fell off the beam. Gymnastics sounded like very hard work. Holly told Jack how she had to win and keep winning. Even getting second place wasn’t good enough. She couldn’t afford to lose, if she was to get to the Olympics.
Then one day, Holly appeared for their reading lesson looking strange. Her eyes were red and puffy and when she said hello, her voice came out as a croak.
Even though he liked Holly very much, Jack was still a little bit shy with her.
“Did you . . . did you lose?” he whispered. He remembered that Holly had had a big gymnastics competition at the weekend.
She shook her head. “I didn’t go.”
“Were you ill?” asked Jack.
Again, Holly shook her head.
They read another page of Jack’s reading book. Then a big tear splashed onto the page.
“My mum’s left my dad,” whispered Holly.
Sheltering behind Jack’s reading book, she told him everything.
Holly’s mum had told her to pack a bag and then driven her away to a flat while Holly’s dad was still at work at the hospital. Holly didn’t know when she’d next see her dad. She missed him. He was the one who usually took her to gymnastics competitions. Her mum had explained that she didn’t love Holly’s dad anymore.
“They both want me to live with them,” Holly told Jack in a whisper. “I don’t know what to do.”
After reading hour was over and Holly returned to her own class, Jack wondered what had made her tell him all those secret, private things. Perhaps, he thought, he was like Holly’s DP. Even though he hadn’t said much, he’d understood.
Chapter 6
More Changes
Jack had gotten used to Dad sending him postcards from all the different cities he visited for work. Mum stuck the postcards on the fridge where Jack could always see them. There was one with bridges over canals, and another of a town set high in the snowy mountains. Jack spoke to Dad by phone and texted him pictures of the drawings he’d done at school and his Level Four swimming certificate. Jack loved swimming. He was one of the best in his class, so he had his seventh birthday party at the pool. Lots of his classmates came, including his best friend, Rory.
Before school broke up for the summer, Holly Macaulay was on television for the second time. She came to the front at assembly to show everyone another gold medal, and the whole school applauded, and she waved and winked at Jack.
Mum and Jack went away to Greece on holiday, with Gran and Grandpa. DP came, too. He loved the sun. His limp little body was bleached a paler shade of gray as he lay on a towel beside Jack by the pool, but Jack remembered not to bury him in the sand again.
When Jack returned to school for the new year, Holly Macaulay had moved up to Big School. He missed seeing her, but he had lots of friends now.
One evening, Gran and Grandpa came over to babysit, because Mum was going out. This was strange, because Mum never usually went out in the evenings. When he asked where she was going, Mum told Jack she was going out for dinner with a friend. She looked pretty. She was wearing a new dress.
After that, Mum went out once a week in the evening. Jack didn’t mind. He had fun with Gran and Grandpa, who played board games with him, but he always made sure to put DP up somewhere high when Toby-the-dog was staying the night.
Then, one sunny weekend, Mum told Jack that her friend Brendan was coming over in his car and that the three of them would be going out for the day.
“Is it Brendan you go to dinner with?” Jack asked. Mum said it was.
Brendan turned out to be a friendly looking man with a deep voice. He drove Mum and Jack to a country park where there was an adventure playground. Jack went down the slide and climbed up the rope net, but he wasn’t really having much fun. It felt strange not having Mum to himself. After Jack had had enough of the adventure playground, the three of them went for a walk down to the river. Brendan showed Jack how to skim stones over the water. Jack would much rather it had been Dad teaching him.
After Brendan had driven them home and said goodbye, Mum asked whether Jack liked Brendan. Jack said he was quite nice.
They went out a lot with Brendan after that. Jack could tell that Mum really liked Brendan. Once he came back from the swings and saw them holding hands on a bench, but Mum quickly let go when she realized Jack had seen.
Beneath the blankets, DP understood everything without being told. He knew Jack felt strange about Brendan holding Mum’s hand, even though Jack liked Brendan a bit more, now that he’d gotten to know him. DP understood that Jack would rather it had been his dad holding Mum’s hand. DP shared Jack’s worry that if Brendan stopped wanting to be Mum’s friend anymore, she’d get sad again. DP was the only one Jack could tell how much he wanted things to stop changing. He never needed to pretend with DP.
Chapter 7
Not Jack’s Dad
Jack knew that Brendan—like Mum—had been married before, and that he had a daughter. Some weekends Brendan didn’t see Mum because his daughter came to stay with him and he was busy doing things with her.
One day, Mum announced that the four of them were going to go to the cinema together: Mum, Jack, Brendan, and his daughter, Holly.
“Holly?” said Jack.
And sure enough, there she was: Holly Macaulay, taller than ever now and much older looking than Jack remembered. There was another change, too. Though he was so pleased to see Holly, she didn’t seem very pleased to see Jack. She was polite to Mum but when Mum asked her about her gymnastics, Holly only said yes and no. She wouldn’t let Mum help her with anything, and when Mum asked her if she wanted to go to the bathroom, she said she was old enough to go by herself, thanks very much. Jack didn’t like Holly being rude to his mum. It was the first time he’d ever seen Holly be nasty to anyone.
Talking it over later with DP in bed (they weren’t really talking, of course, but it came to the same thing, because DP understood everything Jack thought), Jack supposed that Holly found it odd to see her dad with another lady. All the same, his mum was lovely. Holly shouldn’t talk to her like that.
Nearly a year after Brendan had taught Jack to skim stones over the water, Mum said that she had something to tell Jack. She looked nervous. She was hiding her left hand in her lap.
“Brendan has asked me to marry him,” she said.
“Oh,” said Jack.
He thought for a bit.
“Will he come and live with us?”
“Yes,” said Mum, still looking nervous. “Do you mind, Jack?”
Jack liked Brendan a lot better now. Brendan had taught him to play checkers, and helped him with his homework. All the same, he didn’t see why they couldn’t keep things as they were.
“Will I have to call him ‘Dadʼ?”
“No,” said Mum. “Your dad is ‘Dad.’ You can keep calling Brendan, ‘Brendan.’”
“Do Gran and Grandpa know?” asked Jack. He secretly hoped Gran and Grandpa might not be happy about it, but Mum said they liked Brendan very much, and were glad.
“Will Holly be my sister?”
“Your stepsister,” said Mum. “You like Holly, don’t you?”
“Yes,” said Jack.
It was sort of true. He’d never forgotten how ki
nd Holly had been to him when he’d first come to school. Sometimes she was a lot of fun, but at other times she could be sharp and sarcastic. Mum said it was because she was a teenager.
Mum and Brendan got married in a registry office in late summer. Jack had to wear a suit, because he was the ring bearer. Holly was bridesmaid and wore a blue dress, with cornflowers in her long hair.
Afterward, they all went to a restaurant. Brendan’s mum and dad came. They were very kind to Jack and got on well with Gran and Grandpa. Everybody seemed happy, although Holly didn’t talk much.
“She’s got a big competition next week,” said Brendan, putting his arm around Holly in her bridesmaid’s dress. “We’re all going to go and cheer her on.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” asked Holly.
“Judy and Jack could come, too,” said Brendan. Judy was Jack’s mum’s name.
“I don’t want them to come,” said Holly. Her eyes had filled with tears. “I want you to come on your own, like always.”
There was a little silence at the table and then everybody talked loudly at once.
Much later in the evening, one of Brendan’s friends played the piano and the grown-ups danced. Jack felt sleepy. He wanted his bed and DP.
Then Holly sat down beside him at the table. She spoke in a low, fierce voice.
“He’s not your dad,” she said. “He’s mine. Just because he lives with you doesn’t make him your dad. Understand?”
Holly’s expression scared Jack a bit.
“Yes,” he said. “I understand.”
Chapter 8
The Toilet Roll Angel
From then on, Holly spent alternate weekends at their house. Jack never knew whether she was going to be kind Holly or mean Holly. He and Mum were never allowed to watch Holly do her gymnastics. They were barely allowed to ask her how competitions went.
When Holly was in a good mood, she’d play video games with Jack and football in the back garden. At other times—especially if she’d lost a competition—she could be really horrible. Once, she called him a stupid baby when she saw him cuddling DP. Jack felt ashamed, and after that, he hid DP whenever Holly was coming to stay.
Brendan told Jack that Holly was having to work twice as hard to win at competitions, because a new girl had moved into their area who was nearly as good as Holly.
Jack tried his best not to annoy Holly when she came to spend the weekend, but it was hard to know what would set her off. When Jack had a cold, she shouted at him for sniffing during her favorite TV program. When Brendan told her off, Holly stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Brendan ran after her. After sitting on his own for a bit, Jack decided to go upstairs to his bedroom. He curled up on his bed with DP, who silently agreed that it wasn’t Jack’s fault he’d sniffed, and that Holly had been horrible.
It was nearly Christmas. School broke up. Jack was excited because he’d asked for a new bike and so had his best friend, Rory. There was a good paved bit of play-park near Rory’s house and he and Jack were planning to race their new bikes there.
When Mum took out the box of Christmas decorations that year, she showed Brendan the angel that had always sat on top of their family tree. Jack had made it when he was in nursery school. The angel’s body was a toilet roll, its wings were made of card with glitter glued on, and it had a beard made of brown wool.
“Angels don’t have beards!” said Holly scornfully, when she saw Jack’s creation on top of the tree. Mum and Brendan were in the kitchen when Holly said this. “Why would anyone put an old toilet roll on a Christmas tree? My mum wouldn’t put up stuff I’d made when I was a baby. She’d know I’d be embarrassed.”
Jack suddenly remembered how Dad always used to say “and now for the finishing touch,” and lift Jack up so he could put the toilet roll angel on the tree, last of all. For a moment, Jack wanted his dad to come home so badly it gave him a pain in his chest.
This was the last time Jack was going to see Holly before Christmas, because Holly’s mum was taking her away to visit relatives abroad. Jack was glad. If he couldn’t have Dad, at least he’d have Mum, Brendan, Gran, Grandpa, and Toby-the-dog in a good mood, because Holly wouldn’t be slamming doors and forcing the grown-ups to try and keep her happy.
The day before Christmas Eve, Gran came over to look after Jack, because Mum and Brendan were both at work. It had started to snow. Flakes drifted past the window while Jack watched a Christmas movie with DP on his lap. The Christmas tree lights were twinkling in the corner, Toby-the-dog was asleep on the floor, and Jack felt relaxed and happy. He didn’t notice the taxi rolling up outside the house.
The doorbell rang. Toby-the-dog jumped up and started barking. Jack heard Gran open the front door and then her exclamation of surprise.
“Holly! What are you doing here?”
Jack looked round in time to see Holly dragging a suitcase into the hall. She looked furious and her cheeks were tearstained.
“I thought you’d be on the plane by now!” said Gran.
“I’m not going!” said Holly. “I want to see Dad!”
“But he’s at work, dear,” said Gran, bewildered. “Where’s your mum?”
Gran peered out into the snowy front garden, but there was nobody there. Holly had come to their house alone.
“I’m not going with her!” shouted Holly, and she stomped toward the stairs, dragging her heavy suitcase with her, and refused to answer any more of Gran’s questions.
Gran phoned Brendan, who left work early, and then Holly’s mum arrived. Her name was Natalia. Jack had never met her before. He went and hid in his bedroom, but he could still hear what everyone was shouting. It seemed Holly had lost a big gymnastics competition, and her mum had told her it was because she kept missing practices, and Holly had gotten very angry and run away from her mum at the airport.
“I suppose you encouraged this!” he heard Natalia shouting at Brendan.
Natalia finally left the house, crying. Holly had refused to go with her, insisting that she wanted to spend Christmas with her dad. Jack was now very hungry, but he didn’t want to go downstairs until Mum was there.
By the time Mum came home, Jack was fast asleep on his bed, DP clutched in his hand.
Chapter 9
Christmas Eve
Jack woke up on Christmas Eve holding DP as usual. For a few moments he lay quite still, thinking about the new bike he’d be getting the next day and feeling excited. He knew Mum would have already left for work, and that she had to work late this evening, but she had all of Christmas Day and Boxing Day off.
Then he remembered that Holly was still here. He’d only just had time to wonder what she’d find to get angry about today when there was an enormous crash from downstairs and Toby-the-dog started barking. Jack got up and went to see what had happened.
When he entered the sitting room, he saw the Christmas tree lying on the floor beside an overturned chair. Gran was trying to catch Toby-the-dog, who was ferreting through the decorations in search of all the chocolate ones he shouldn’t eat.
“I was only trying to put my decoration on the tree!” Holly was saying, half-sorry, half-defiant. She was holding an ornament she’d made at school and which she’d been attempting to hang near the top. Apparently, she’d lost her balance, seized the tree, and pulled it right over.
“It’s all right, dear,” said Gran. “No harm done.”
But there was harm done. When all the baubles that weren’t broken were put back on the tree, they realized that the toilet roll angel was missing. Finally, Grandpa found a few wet bits of cardboard and wool: Toby-the-dog had torn the angel apart.
“That blasted dog!” said Grandpa.
Jack knew Mum would be really upset. She loved his angel. Nobody even told Holly off.
“I tell you what we’ll do,” said Gran, trying to keep things cheerful. “We’ll all dri
ve into town and choose a new angel!”
Holly could hardly refuse, seeing as it was her fault the angel had been eaten, but Jack could tell she really didn’t want to go. She sat scowling on the sofa and texting her friends. When Jack went upstairs to put on his coat, he sneaked DP into his pocket. He felt the need for comfort just now.
Chapter 10
The New Angel
Holly sat hunched up beside Jack in the back seat of the car, still texting all the way into town.
“Look at all this snow!” said Gran cheerfully as white flecks began to build up on the windscreen and Grandpa switched on the wipers. “Wouldn’t a white Christmas be lovely?”
Neither Jack nor Holly said anything.
The pavements in town were covered in brown slush. Christmas music was playing in all the shops and there was a chestnut seller on the corner. Jack held Gran’s hand, with his other in his pocket, keeping hold of DP. Crowds bustled around them, all doing last-minute shopping.
They went into a busy department store. There weren’t many Christmas decorations left and they looked higgledy-piggledy because shoppers were picking them up and putting them down in a hurry.
“Here’s a lovely angel,” said Gran, grabbing the first one she saw.
Jack didn’t like the angel at all. He thought she was too fancy for their tree. She wore a gaudy purple dress trimmed with gold braid and had large plastic gold wings. Jack didn’t think Mum would like her, either. She’d loved his toilet roll angel with the woolly beard.
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