Ask Eva

by Judi Curtin

  Does it matter what fraction of her money Maria saved?

  Who cares what fraction of her money Maria spent in total?

  If I were in charge, I could think of way more interesting questions.

  Why did Maria spend so much on phone credit when she could be using WhatsApp and FaceTime?

  Since she manages to save 12 Euro a month, did Maria’s parents ever think that maybe they were giving her too much pocket money? (I haven’t saved a single cent for years.)

  Did Maria ever think about joining the library?

  I hadn’t even started the first part of the question when our scary principal, Mr Dean, marched into our classroom. I hadn’t done anything wrong (as far as I knew), but still I felt guilty. Mr Dean has that effect on people.

  Then I noticed that Mr Dean wasn’t alone. ‘Hurry along,’ he said to someone who was still outside the classroom door. ‘I haven’t got all day. I’ve got a school to run.’

  A girl walked into the classroom. She was tall and athletic looking, and her uniform was a bit too short and a bit too tight – like it belonged to someone else. As she walked, her braids rattled together, making small clinky, clattery sounds. I wondered if the noise kept her awake at night.

  I felt sorry for this girl I’d never met. I knew exactly how she felt, because it wasn’t so long since I’d had to start in a new school. When you’re new in a place, the last thing you want is to be marched into the middle of a class and have a whole crowd of strangers staring at you, judging you.

  ‘This is Aretta,’ said Mr Dean. ‘And she’s come aaaaall the way from Nigeria.’

  Behind Mr Dean’s back, Aretta gave the tiniest roll of her eyes. I smiled to myself. This girl looked like she might be fun.

  Mrs Hegarty went over to Aretta and shook her hand. ‘You are very welcome to Ireland,’ she said in a too-loud, too-slow voice. ‘I hope you will be very happy here. When did you arrive?’

  ‘Eight and a half years ago,’ said Aretta, and everyone except for Mrs Hegarty and Mr Dean laughed.

  When Mr Dean left, Mrs Hegarty found Aretta a place to sit at the front of the room, and then she started on another totally stupid and impossible question about children and sweets and x’s and y’s.

  After what felt like a hundred years, Mrs Hegarty gave us a mountain of homework I was never, ever going to be able to do, and the class was finally over.

  I packed up my books as quickly as I could.

  ‘Come on,’ I said to Ella. ‘Hurry up. I can still remember what it’s like to be the new kid. It’s not nice being the only one on your own. Let’s go over to Aretta, and ask if she’d like to hang out with us for a bit before going home.’

  ‘That’s really nice of you, Eva,’ said Ella. ‘Just give me a sec to get my stuff together.’

  One minute later, we went over to where Aretta had been sitting, but there was no sign of her.

  How had she managed to leave so quickly?

  It was almost like she’d vanished into thin air.

  ‘That’s weird,’ said Ella. ‘She was here a second ago!’

  ‘Maybe she was rushing off somewhere,’ I said. ‘Anyway, it looks like we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to talk to her.’

  ‘I guess,’ said Ella. ‘Do you still want to hang out?’

  ‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Let’s go to my place, and you can distract me from my maths homework.’

  Chapter Four

  Mum gave Ella and me a glass of home-made lemonade and we took them upstairs.

  ‘Your room is so great,’ said Ella, as she sat on my bed. ‘It’s like something out of a magazine. The rug your mum made for the floor is totally cool, and I love the way your dad painted those stripes on the wall.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, as I sat down next to her. ‘But you never saw my bedroom in my old house, did you?’

  She shook her head. ‘I didn’t know you back then, remember – and you never talk much about those days.’

  ‘That’s not an accident.’ I said. ‘My life was very different then, and I was a bit of a princess. I don’t think you’d have liked me very much.’

  ‘And you think I actually like you now?’

  She ducked to avoid the cushion I threw at her, and then I continued.

  ‘Anyway, back then I used to live in a house that was almost as big as a castle. My bedroom was huge, with its own bathroom and dressing room and heaps of cool stuff.’

  ‘Wow!’

  ‘I hated it here at first,’ I said. ‘I thought my life was over when Mum and Dad lost their jobs, and we had to move.’

  Ella giggled. ‘Was that when you went to see Madam Margarita, the fortune-teller, and you thought she could solve all your problems?’

  I giggled too as I remembered. ‘Yeah. Even though Madam Margarita turned out to be Ruby’s mum who had no special powers at all.’

  ‘I’ve never changed schools, and I’ve lived in the same house for my whole life. I guess all that moving around must have been hard for you,’ said Ella, when we’d stopped laughing.

  ‘It was – but that’s only because I was totally spoiled. Back then I didn’t know it was possible to live without fancy cars and exotic holidays.’

  ‘Do you ever wish you could go back to your old life?’

  ‘Sometimes – sort of. I wouldn’t mind having a few more nice clothes, and I’d love a new smartphone. Mostly though, I’m happy now.’

  ‘Good,’ said Ella. ‘And look on the bright side – if you hadn’t moved here, you wouldn’t have got to know me. Think what a disaster that would have been.’

  ‘You’re so weird,’ I said, laughing.

  ‘Speaking of weird,’ said Ella, taking her phone out of her pocket. ‘Have you heard this song? It’s—’

  ‘Shhh,’ I said. ‘Listen.’

  ‘What? I don’t hear anything.’

  ‘There,’ I said. ‘There it is again.’

  Ella rolled her eyes. ‘Sounds like a dog barking – how totally amazing is that?’

  ‘That dog belongs to Gemma, the woman next door,’ I said, ignoring her sarcasm. ‘And I’ve just had the most amazing idea ever.’

  ‘We’ll be back in a bit, Mum,’ I called as we went downstairs and outside.

  Ella followed me without arguing. She trusts me, which can sometimes be a bit of a responsibility. She waited patiently on the footpath, while I ran into Gemma’s house.

  ‘What on earth is that?’ she asked when I came back outside a minute later.

  I giggled. ‘It’s a dog.’

  ‘But it looks more like a horse.’

  ‘It’s a Great Dane,’ I said. ‘Her name is Jessie, and Gemma said I can borrow her for a bit. We can take her for a walk.’

  Ella smiled. ‘Now I get it. You want to bring Jessie to visit Gigi?’

  ‘Exactly,’ I said, gripping the lead tightly and trying to stop Jessie from dragging me across the road.

  ‘That’s a really nice idea, but……’

  ‘Don’t worry – I know Jessie’s a giant, but she’s very gentle.’

  ‘That’s not what I’m worried about. Gigi loves all dogs, and they love her. I think she could tame a pack of wild wolves if she needed to.’

  ‘So what’s the problem?’

  ‘Have you forgotten Nurse Witch – the wickedest nurse in the world? There’s no way she’s going to allow Jessie into the nursing home.’

  I shrugged. ‘We don’t know until we try, do we? Now let’s go before Jessie pulls my arm off.’

  We hesitated on the driveway of the nursing home. Inside we could see Nurse Witch sitting at the reception desk, like a sentry at a watch-post. She looked like she was just waiting for something to go wrong. I wondered if she had a loaded gun hidden under the desk. Maybe she had a walkie-talkie in her pocket so she could call helicopters and jeeps and armed men with funny nets on their helmets.

  ‘I’m not so sure about this,’ said Ella. ‘Nurse Witch is definitely going to say no when we ask if we can bring Jessie
in.’

  ‘Maybe she will, but do you have any other suggestions?’

  ‘We could try smuggling her in?’

  I giggled. ‘Sure. That sounds like a great plan. You create a distraction, and then no one will ever notice me sneaking in with a Great Dane under my arm.’

  Ella giggled too, but stopped suddenly. I looked up and saw Nurse Witch marching towards us. She flung the glass door open, and glared at us.

  ‘What on earth do you think you’re doing here with that … with that beast?’

  ‘Her name’s Jessie,’ I said, trying not to show how scared I was. ‘I thought we could bring her in to see Gigi.’

  ‘Gigi really, really misses her own dog,’ said Ella.

  ‘And there’s a lot of research that says animals can be a calming influence on old people,’ I added. ‘Jessie’s very sweet and gentle, and––’

  As if she was trying to agree with me, Jessie lurched forwards and licked Nurse Witch’s hand. Nurse Witch jumped backwards, shrieking.

  ‘It’s attacking me! It’s attacking me! Get it away from me at once.’

  ‘Sit, Jessie,’ I said, and Jessie obeyed immediately, looking up at me with her huge brown eyes.

  No one said anything while Nurse Witch ran inside and used about a litre of hand sanitizer to scrub her hands.

  When she came back, her voice was hard and cold. ‘Under no circumstances is that monster going anywhere near my residents. If the fright doesn’t kill them all stone dead, they’ll probably catch some deadly disease.’

  ‘Jessie’s had all her vaccinations,’ I said. ‘Her owner thinks …’

  I stopped suddenly when I saw that Nurse Witch looked really, really angry. I knew I was wasting my time. This woman was never, ever going to let Jessie inside. It was time to lower my expectations.

  ‘Maybe I could bring Jessie around to the back door,’ I said. ‘And Gigi could come outside to see her there?’

  Now Nurse Witch’s face went a scary purple-red colour, and I half-expected to see smoke coming out of her ears.

  ‘I have never heard anything like this in my whole life,’ she said. ‘It is completely out of order. Get that beast off this property before I call the police.’

  For a second I didn’t move. She had to be bluffing, didn’t she?

  ‘You know you’re ignoring years and years of research?’ I said. ‘Dogs can––’

  Nurse Witch pulled her phone from her uniform pocket, and started to press numbers. I don’t know if they actually send dogs or children to jail, but I wasn’t hanging around to find out.

  ‘You go on up to see Gigi,’ I said to Ella. ‘And tell her I said “hi”. Come on, Jessie. We know where we’re not wanted.’

  ‘Thanks anyway, Eva,’ said Ella, looking really sad and hopeless. ‘It was nice of you to try to help.’

  ‘Tell Gigi to look out her bedroom window,’ I called, as Ella and Nurse Witch went inside. ‘If that’s not against the rules!’

  Nurse Witch turned and glared at me. If this was a fairy-tale, I think I’d have turned to stone.

  A few minutes later I was standing across the road, looking up at Gigi’s window. Jessie was sitting on the footpath next to me, looking angelic. Upstairs, Gigi was leaning on Ella’s arm and waving out at us. I picked up one of Jessie’s huge paws and made her wave back. Gigi put her head down. It was hard to be sure from such a distance, but I think she might have been crying.

  Chapter Five

  ‘There’s Aretta,’ I said to Ella when we got into history class the next morning. ‘Let’s go sit near her.’

  ‘Hey, Aretta,’ I said as I sat down in the seat in front of her. ‘We didn’t get a chance to talk yesterday. I’m Eva and this is Ella.’

  ‘Hi,’ said Aretta.

  For a second I was distracted by her perfect white teeth, and her beautiful smile. Too late, I realised I had no idea how to continue the conversation. There was a long, awkward silence

  ‘Er, Aretta is a nice name,’ I said in the end.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Aretta. ‘It’s Nigerian. It means charming.’

  ‘Ella’s real name is Petronella,’ I said. ‘And we don’t even want to think about what that means.’

  What I’d said wasn’t very funny, but we all laughed – a forced laugh that went on for a few seconds too long.

  ‘Er, do you miss Nigeria?’ I asked. It was kind of a dumb question, but I was under pressure, and Ella was no help as she was pretending to be busy getting her history books in a perfect line.

  Aretta acted like my question wasn’t stupid at all.

  ‘I miss Nigeria occasionally,’ she said. ‘But I left a long time ago, when I was very young. Sometimes it hardly feels real – like I only dreamed of my old life in Africa.’

  ‘So have you really been in Ireland for eight and a half years, like you told the teacher?’ I asked.

  Aretta nodded.

  ‘So where’ve you been all this time?’ asked Ella. ‘How come we’ve never seen you before? Did you go to a different school?’

  ‘We used to live in Kilkenny. We only moved here last week.’

  I wanted to ask why she had moved, but thought it might sound a bit rude. Now I didn’t know what to say. This was turning out to be totally awkward. At the back of the class there was a big crash as someone dropped a book, and as Aretta turned her head, her braids clinked together.

  ‘I love your braids,’ I said. ‘They’re really cool – and it must be great not having to comb your hair every morning.’

  ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘When I was little, my mum always braided my hair for me, and now I keep it like this, to remind me of her.’

  Now I really, really didn’t know what to say.

  Why didn’t Aretta’s mum braid her hair anymore?

  Why did Aretta need to be reminded of her?

  I could feel my face going red. I desperately wanted to change the subject, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.

  ‘She stayed in Nigeria,’ said Aretta then. ‘My mum, I mean. Her parents are very old, and she has to take care of them. So I came here with my dad and my brother.’

  I tried to imagine a life where my dad would take me half-way across the world, leaving my mum behind – but I couldn’t.

  ‘Dad moved here for me,’ said Aretta. ‘For me and my brother. Because of my dad’s political beliefs, we were always going to have problems in Nigeria.’

  My face was still red, but I was relieved to see that Aretta didn’t look like she was going to burst into tears.

  ‘That’s sad,’ said Ella, suddenly looking up.

  ‘You must miss your mum.’

  ‘I do,’ said Aretta. ‘Every day. There’s a computer where I live, and sometimes I Skype my mum. Sometimes, when she smiles at me, I can nearly forget that she’s so far away. Sometimes I want to reach out and touch her, but of course that’s impossible.’

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, and then, even though it was probably a bit cowardly, I changed the subject.

  ‘Does your brother go to this school too?’ I asked.

  Aretta shook her head. ‘No. He’s eighteen, and he finished school last year. He mostly lives in Dublin – he has a girlfriend there.’

  I know Dublin isn’t a million miles away, but it’s not exactly next door either. It’s not like Aretta could hang out with her brother any time she liked. It had to be rotten for her, being so far away from half of her family.

  ‘Hey,’ I said then. ‘Ella and I are going into town for a bit later. Do you want to come with us?’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Aretta. ‘But I can’t. I’ve got a piano lesson straight after school.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said, not sure why I felt so disappointed. ‘Maybe we can do something tomorrow instead?’

  Aretta smiled, but her smile wasn’t as bright as before.

  ‘Maybe,’ she said, and before anyone could say anything else, the teacher walked into the classroom, and we had to endure an hour of totally boring discussion o
n the history of farm machinery – like anyone cared!

  Chapter Six

  The next day was Friday. Aretta wasn’t in any of our morning classes, so Ella and I didn’t see her until we were getting changed for PE after lunch.

  ‘Hey,’ I said, trying not to stare at Aretta’s old and faded track-suit, and her runners that were starting to split down one side.

  ‘Hey,’ said Aretta. ‘PE is my favourite subject. What do you think we’ll be doing today?’

  ‘Definitely badminton,’ I said.

  ‘How do you know?’ asked Aretta. ‘Is it always badminton on Fridays?’

  Ella giggled. ‘The teacher, Mr Holland, hates the rain, so if there’s a cloud anywhere within a hundred miles, he won’t bring us out to the playing pitches. That means we have to play badminton in the hall.’

  ‘And do you like badminton?’ asked Aretta.

  ‘I guess it’s OK,’ I said.

  ‘I love it,’ she said. ‘I used to play a lot when I lived in Kilkenny. Do we play in teams?’

  ‘Here we play knock-out competitions,’ I said. ‘And there’s this boy, Andy, who thinks he’s the best badminton player in the world.’

  ‘Andy probably is the best badminton player in the world,’ sighed Ella. ‘He wins the competition every single week. He played against the sixth-year boys one week, and he beat all of them too.’

  ‘We don’t mind Andy winning,’ I added. ‘The problem is that he goes on and on and on about it. He’s a total pain. He’s…….’

  But Aretta wasn’t listening any more. She’d finished tying her laces and she was already on her way out of the changing rooms.

  ‘That was a bit rude,’ said Ella.

  I smiled. ‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘But something tells me this PE class is going to be very interesting.

  ‘Oh, dear. Poor you.’ said Ella when I told her that I was drawn to play Andy in the first round of the competition. ‘But look on the bright side – at least you’ll get a nice break while the rest of the competition is going on.’