by Judi Curtin
‘Do you mean a headache?’
Bruno nodded happily.
‘Yes. He have a headache. He rests at home in his bed.’
Alice looked like she wanted to punch Bruno, and Bruno looked like he knew she wanted to punch him.
‘It’s not Bruno’s fault,’ I hissed in Alice’s ear. ‘Now get over yourself.’
Alice gave me a fierce look, and then she gave a small forced laugh.
‘Whatever,’ she said. ‘Now Bruno, what else is there to see in this place?’
‘We go to beach?’ he suggested, still looking a bit afraid.
I sighed. Alice and I had already been to the beach lots of times. Bruno heard my sigh.
‘I know secret way,’ he said. ‘Is nice way. You follow me.’
‘Yippee,’ whispered Alice in my ear. ‘We get to go on Bruno’s secret path. How exciting. Not.’
I giggled, but then felt guilty when I saw Bruno’s face. I pulled Alice by the arm.
‘Don’t be so mean,’ I said. ‘Now let’s go.’
Bruno was right. The secret path through the trees was kind of nice – all cool and mysterious. Bruno walked in front, with Alice and me trailing a long way behind him.
‘This is such a waste of time,’ said Alice angrily after a while. ‘Why are we trekking in this stupid wood behind this nerdy boy who is wearing the grossest shorts in the history of the world?’
‘You’re just cross because Pascal isn’t here,’ I said.
Alice stopped and stared at me.
‘And you’re not?’
I wasn’t sure.
Alice had gone on so much about Pascal that he didn’t seem like a real boy anymore. He seemed more like a dream, or a film star. Anyway, if he did show up, I knew he’d like Alice best. I knew she’d be funny and clever, and Pascal wouldn’t even notice that I was there.
Bruno was waiting for us at the end of the path.
‘This is the beach,’ he said, pointing like we hadn’t noticed all the sea and sand and stuff.
I kicked off my flip-flops and stepped on to the warm sand.
‘We didn’t bring our towels,’ I said.
Bruno patted his bag.
‘Is OK. I have enough.’
He spread three huge towels on the sand, and we all sat down.
We sat there for a while, saying nothing. Suddenly Alice jumped up.
‘This is totally boring,’ she said, stamping down towards the water.
I was embarrassed.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said to Bruno. ‘She’s just in a bad mood. She gets like that sometimes. She’ll get over it.’
‘Is OK,’ said Bruno.
I didn’t know what to say. Bruno was being so nice, and that made me feel even more embarrassed. I wanted to get up and go to where Alice was paddling in the water, but I didn’t. After all, it wasn’t Bruno’s fault that he wasn’t cool like his cousin.
Bruno reached in to his bag and pulled out a Nintendo DS.
‘I have good game,’ he said.
He showed me the game, and let me play it, and didn’t even laugh when I was totally useless at it. When he was taking his turn, I stood up, planning to call Alice over to play. Then I sat down again quickly. I leaned over to Bruno.
‘Isn’t that …?’ I began.
Bruno looked up from the game and sighed.
‘Is my cousin Pascal,’ he said, like this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.
Pascal walked over and stood beside us. I could hardly believe it.
The moment Alice and I had been waiting for since forever had finally arrived.
Chapter Twenty-One
Alice had her back to us, and was throwing pebbles into the sea.
‘Hey, Al,’ I called. ‘Come over here.’
She didn’t even turn around.
‘No. I’m perfectly fine here thanks,’ she said sulkily. ‘I’m having sooooo much fun in this totally fun place throwing these totally fun stones into the totally fun water.’
I smiled. Sometimes Alice is quite funny when she’s cross. (Actually she’s always funny when she’s cross, just as long as she’s not being cross with me.)
‘You really should come over,’ I called.
Alice threw a big fistful of stones together.
‘Just leave me––’ she began, turning towards where Bruno and I were sitting, with Pascal standing beside us. Alice’s hands fell to her sides, and the last few pebbles plopped into the water. She raced back to us. Suddenly she wasn’t cross anymore. She had a kind of sparkly, happy look about her. She held her hand out towards Pascal.
‘I’m Alice,’ she said with a big smile.
Pascal reached out his hand, then noticing that Alice’s hand was all wet and sandy he pulled it back again.
‘I Pascal,’ he said.
‘This is such a beautiful beach,’ gushed Alice, as if she’d forgotten that she thought it was so boring just minutes earlier.
Pascal didn’t answer.
Bruno stood up.
‘This is Megan,’ he said to Pascal, pointing at me. He pronounced it ‘Meg-anne’.
‘Hi,’ I said, standing up and holding out my hand.
Even though my hand was perfectly clean, Pascal looked at it like I was asking him to touch a revolting worm or something. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I put my hand into my pocket. I made a face at Alice, but she didn’t notice. She was too busy grinning madly at Pascal.
‘I love France,’ she said. ‘I think it’s the nicest place I’ve ever been in my whole life. It’s just … like … totally cool. And I love the village. I love the war memorial and everything. And the church … Well … it’s a really cool church. And the house we’re staying in … it’s so … so … well it’s so French.’
I felt like laughing. Alice, who’s usually so calm, was babbling like she was crazy, in her effort to impress Pascal. It looked like she was wasting her time anyway. He wasn’t even listening. He was fixing his hair, and standing there on the sand like being totally cool and handsome was enough.
Suddenly I thought of something.
‘Does Pascal speak English?’ I whispered to Bruno.
Bruno nodded.
‘Yes, but only when he want. Pascal always only do what he want. I tell you before, he not nice boy.’
I was beginning to agree with him, even though Alice was still trying her best to chat to Pascal.
‘What kind of music do you like?’ she asked.
Pascal shrugged.
‘I not like music.’
Alice tried again.
‘Films,’ she said. ‘Everyone likes films. What’s your favourite?’
Pascal shrugged again.
‘I not like films,’ he said.
Alice never knows when to give up.
‘What about books?’ she said. ‘What kind of books do you like to read?’
Once more Pascal shrugged.
‘I not like books,’ he said.
Now I knew for sure that he was lying. Alice and I had seen him reading in the garden of the bakery lots of times. Alice seemed to have forgotten this. She still wouldn’t give up.
‘Do you like tennis?’ she asked. ‘Or soccer? Or rugby? Or anything?’
Pascal replied to each question with a shrug. He’d have very strong shoulder muscles by the end of the day if he went on like this.
Then in the middle of one of Alice’s sentences, he put up his hand to stop her.
‘Enough,’ he said. ‘I not want to talk with you anymore. I go home now.’
This was rude enough even for Alice. She stood there with her mouth open, but no words came out.
Pascal turned to Bruno.
‘Good-bye, little cousin,’ he said, and then he pushed Bruno so hard that he fell backwards onto the sand. Then he turned and walked away along the beach.
Bruno scrambled to his feet, and dusted the sand off his clothes. His face was bright red.
‘Was joke,’ he said. ‘Pascal make joke with me.
’
It hadn’t looked much like a joke to me. I turned to Alice to see what she thought. She absolutely hates bullies. She always steps in when Melissa picks on anyone at school. Surely she’d do something about what had just happened. But Alice wasn’t looking at Bruno and me. She was gazing after Pascal who was already half way across the beach.
I turned to Bruno.
‘No offence,’ I said. ‘But your cousin’s a bit …’
Bruno sighed.
‘I know. I tell you many times already. He not a nice boy.’
Pascal had gone out of sight, and Alice suddenly remembered that we were there.
‘It’s not Pascal’s fault,’ she said. ‘He has a pain, remember?’
I giggled.
‘He is a pain, you mean.’
I turned to Bruno to try to explain.
‘When we say some-one is a pain we mean––’
Bruno laughed.
‘I understand, I think. You mean he not a nice boy.’
Then we both laughed together. Alice seemed to be in the middle of a sense of humour failure.
‘You’re so immature,’ she muttered, and she stamped away and began throwing stones in the water again.
Bruno looked at me.
‘She’ll get over it,’ I said. ‘Now give me that Nintendo. I was just getting the hang of that game.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
A while later, I was still playing the Nintendo game, and Alice was still angrily throwing stones into the water. If she didn’t stop soon, there was going to be a mountain in the middle of the sea, and the people who make maps would have to draw a new one of this whole area. I’d just been killed in the game, when Bruno took it from my hand.
‘I need that I ask you something, Meg-anne,’ he said.
‘How I got to be so good at this game?’ I laughed.
He shook his head.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Is not funny question. Is important. I need that I ask you something important.’
I looked up and noticed that he’d gone red again. He looked even more nervous than he had the first day we’d met. I gulped. This sounded serious. Was there a crazy kind of rule in this place that if you went walking with a person more than twice, you had to get engaged or something?
I picked up a handful of warm sand and let it slip through my fingers.
‘So, is OK? I can ask you this question?’ said Bruno.
I nodded. Unless I ran away, there didn’t seem to be any way of avoiding his important question.
Bruno took a deep breath.
‘Meg-anne, do you …’
I felt a bit sick. This was going to be soooooo embarrassing. I just knew it.
He took another deep breath.
‘Do you … do you … do you like my short trousers?’
I’d thought he was going to ask me something really serious, and all he was interested in was those stupid shorts that Alice and I had been mocking for so long. I couldn’t help myself. I started to giggle. Bruno looked hurt.
‘Is a joke?’ he asked.
I tried to keep a straight face as I shook my head.
‘No, it’s not a joke.’
‘So do you like my short trousers or no?’
‘Shorts,’ I said as brightly as I could. ‘In English they’re called “shorts”. “Short trousers” sounds wrong. It’s like saying–-’
Bruno interrupted me.
‘So do you like my short trousers or no?’
He just wasn’t giving up.
Should I lie or should I tell the truth?
If I lied would he believe me?
If I told the truth would he hate me?
I looked around for Alice. She’s always good in this kind of situation. But she’d wandered along the beach and was too far away to call.
I took a deep breath.
‘Well. They’re very … er … very … they’re a bit …’
‘You not like,’ said Bruno quietly.
Suddenly it didn’t seem fair to lie to him. I had to tell the truth.
‘I not like … I mean I don’t like them. Sorry, Bruno.’
Bruno smiled.
‘Is OK. I not like either.’
I looked at him in surprise.
‘If you don’t like them, why do you wear them? Every single day?’
He sighed.
‘Pascal give me. When my mother tell me to meet you on first day, Pascal, he give me shorts and he tell me they is nice. He tell me Irish girls will like. And I silly boy. I believe him. So I wear shorts every day. Every night I wash so I can wear again.’
Suddenly I felt angry. Pascal knew those shorts were horrible, but he persuaded Bruno to wear them anyway.
He must have known that Alice and I would laugh at them.
He must have laughed when he saw poor Bruno washing them every evening.
What kind of mean bully would do that to his own cousin?
‘Pascal is not nice,’ I said. ‘He’s very not nice.’
Bruno smiled sadly.
‘I tell you so already. Why you not believe me?’
I smiled back.
‘Next time I’ll believe you. I promise.’
‘Tomorrow we can walk again?’
I nodded. ‘Sure. If you want.’
‘OK. In the morning I help my father. So you call my house after noon?’
I nodded.
‘Sure.’
‘And I not wear yellow shorts.’
I laughed.
‘OK. We’ll call for you after lunch and there won’t be a pair of yellow shorts in sight.’
I’m not sure if he understood me, but he laughed anyway.
Then he handed me the Nintendo.
‘Is your turn, I think.’
I was really getting the hang of the game when Alice came back and threw herself onto the sand beside us.
‘What time is it?’ she asked. ‘I’m starving. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. No, even worse, I could eat a whole bowl of lentil stew.’
I giggled. I was glad to see that she’d got over her bad mood.
‘It’s five to one,’ I said jumping up. ‘We’ve got to go. Mum will go crazy if we’re late.’
Alice got up too.
‘Sorry, Bruno.’ she said, ‘We’re like the story of Cinderella.’
I laughed.
‘OK,’ I said. ‘I bags be Cinderella, and you can be the ugly sister.’
Alice made an ugly face and we all laughed.
As I turned to go, my flip-flop fell off in the sand. Bruno picked it up.
‘You lose your slipper, Mademoiselle,’ he said.
I grinned as I took it.
‘Merci,’ I said, in my best French accent. Then Alice and I waved good-bye to Bruno, and raced along the beach.
‘What do you think about Pascal now?’ I asked Alice.
‘He’s very good-looking?’
‘True. But we knew that already. I want to know what you really think of him, now that you know him a bit better.’
Alice sighed.
‘He’s a bit of a pain?’
‘You’re nearly right. He’s a total pain.’
Alice looked like she was going to argue, and then she changed her mind.
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘He’s a total pain. But I so don’t want to talk about it.’
I really wanted to talk about it, but I could see that Alice had her stubborn look on, and I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere.
Alice started to run.
‘I’ll race you home,’ she said. ‘Last one there gets extra stew.’
I raced after her. It had been a very interesting morning.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The next day was the last day before we had to leave to catch the boat home. Alice and I woke up early, but didn’t bother getting up. We lay in our cute little at tic bedroom and chatted.
‘At least we don’t have to hang out with Bruno today,’ said Alice after a while.
‘But I
told him we’d meet him,’ I protested.
Alice shrugged.
‘So? We can just not show up, can’t we? It’s not like we’re ever going to see him again, is it?’
Suddenly the thought of never seeing Bruno again made me feel kind of sad, even though I wasn’t sure why.
Alice was laughing.
‘It’s not like you want to meet him or anything is it? I mean we both know that he’s a total loser.’
I didn’t answer immediately. I didn’t know exactly how it had happened, but I realised that I didn’t think of Bruno as a loser-boy any more. He was really nice, and I was looking forward to meeting him again.
‘But––’ I began, but Alice interrupted.
‘After all, now that we don’t want to see Pascal, what’s the point in hanging out with Bruno?’
Because he’s fun?
Because I like him?
Because I told him we’d meet him again?
Because he’d promised not to wear the yellow shorts, and without them, Alice might be able to see the real Bruno?
Because––
Before I could think of the right thing to say to Alice, Dad shouted up the stairs.
‘Megan, Alice,’ he called. ‘Get up. It’s our last full day, and we don’t want to waste one single second of it.’
Alice and I got dressed quickly and stumbled down the stairs. If it was our last day, why couldn’t we just relax and enjoy it? Why did we have to do stuff?
Dad had already been to the bakery, and the kitchen was full of the smell of yummy warm bread.
‘Fido says bonjour,’ Dad said when he saw Alice and me.
I made a face.
‘Dad, you are so not funny. You know well that his name is Bruno.’
Alice laughed like Dad was the funniest person on earth though, and Dad looked pleased. Alice can be such a goody-goody sometimes.
Mum smiled at us.
‘Sounds like you two are getting very friendly with this Bruno.’
Alice smiled back at her.
‘Oh, it’s not me,’ she said quickly. ‘It’s Megan. Megan’s very, very friendly with him.’
I should have said something funny back to Alice, but I couldn’t think of anything. And besides, I could feel my face going red, and I didn’t want anyone to ask me why. How could I tell them why my face was red, when I didn’t even know myself?