Shrinking Violet

by Jean Ure

  Bella is a sweetheart. She is very round and cuddly. She just loves her grub! Mum says she cannot decide whether she should be called Belle of the Ball or Bella the Ball!

  Please tell me about your cat Horatio. I would love to see a picture of him!! Thank you for sending me your photo. I am sending you one of me. I hope it will not put you off!!!

  I noticed in yours that there was another girl at the end of the row that looked just like you! Is she your sister?

  Are you twins? I would love to be a twin! I think it would be so neat for there to be two of you and no one knowing which was which. I said this to Mum and she said you could get up to all kinds of mischief. But she also said, maybe it would not be quite as much fun as I seem to think. Is it??? Tell me about your mum and dad. My mum is a teacher, she teaches violin and piano. She does it partly in a school (not my one!) and partly at home. When she is teaching violin the house is full of unearthly screechings and scrapings and sometimes my cat Bella sits outside the door and joins in. She thinks she is a violin!

  I love to draw! I am not very musical but I think when I grow up I will be an artist of some kind. What will you be?

  Underneath your photo it says “Mrs Frost’s class”. But I counted up and there are only fourteen people! We have twenty-eight in my class. I go to St Saviour’s Juniors. Where do you go?

  I hope you don’t think I am being too nosy but it is just because I am so interested. Whatever you want to know about me, you can ask!

  I had better stop now in case I am boring you. Please, please, PLEASE, write back! If you would still like to be my pen pal, that is.

  Lots of luv

  From

  Katie Saunders XXX

  PS Where does an elf go to get fit? To an elf farm! Ha ha!

  The minute I’d finished reading the letter I went hurtling back downstairs, thump thud bang! I sounded like Lily.

  “Mum!” I cried. “I’ve got a pen friend!”

  “Really?” said Mum. “That’s wonderful! Where did you find her?”

  “If it is a her,” said Dad.

  “Dad! Of course it is,” I said. I wouldn’t want to write to a boy! “Her name’s Katie and she’s the same age as me and she has two cats and her mum teaches the piano and she advertised in Go Girl for someone to be her pen pal!”

  “So you wrote to her?” said Mum. “That’s very enterprising! Can I have a read, or is it private?”

  I hesitated. “You can read this first one,” I said. “But after that they’ll be private!”

  I thought that in future letters we would probably share all kinds of secrets that I certainly wouldn’t want Mum reading! But there wasn’t anything secret yet, and I was just so bursting with pride. Katie found me interesting! Katie wanted us to be pen pals! I thought if Mum read her letter it would make her happy and she would stop worrying quite so much about me living in Lily’s shadow.

  I was right. It worked!

  “She sounds lovely,” said Mum. “I think that was such an excellent idea, Violet! Finding yourself a pen friend. I see she lives with her mum … I wonder what happened to her dad?”

  I said that I had wondered that, too. “Maybe they’re divorced?” I said. Lots of girls at school have mums and dads who are divorced.

  Mum agreed that this was possible. “But you’d better not ask her,” she warned. “It might be something she doesn’t want to talk about. Wait till she feels ready to tell you.”

  “Yes, I was going to,” I said. I am not like Lily! Lily always goes rushing in with both feet. “Where is your dad?” is probably the very first question she’d ask. I try to consider other people’s feelings, ’cos I know how I would feel – which just makes it all the worse when I go and say stupid things like I did to Ayesha about her face.

  Mum folded the letter and handed it back to me. “It’s nice she lives so near,” she said. “When you get to know each other better, you’ll be able to meet.”

  I said, “Mm!” Doing my best to sound enthusiastic.

  “In fact,” said Mum, “why don’t y —”

  “Look!” I waved the envelope in the air. Quickly, quickly, before Mum could get carried away and start arranging things. “She’s sent me a photo! D’you want to see it?”

  I was just handing the photograph to Mum when Lily came crashing into the room. Needless to say, she had to come bundling over to take a look.

  “Who’s that?” she said.

  I told her that it was a picture of my pen pal. “Katie.”

  “Hm!” Lily studied it, critically. “Her nose is like a blob.”

  “I think she looks rather cute,” said Mum. “Like a little pixie!”

  Lily said, “Pixie,” in tones of deepest scorn.

  “Munch munch munch,” said Dad, pretending to nibble a carrot.

  Lily flushed bright scarlet. Our front teeth are just the tiniest bit rabbity, so that we have to wear a brace. Lily really hates it! She is really self-conscious about it.

  “Well, I’m sorry, but people who live in glass houses,” said Dad.

  Angrily, Lily said, “What’s that s’pposed to mean?”

  “It means,” said Mum, “that we do not mock the way other people look unless we want to be mocked in return. What are you doing down here, anyway? I thought you were going to have a bath?”

  “Am! Don’t want anything!” shouted Lily; and she slammed out of the room and went thudding back up the stairs.

  “That girl!” said Mum.

  I pointed out that it was all right for Mum, she was only her mother. “I’m her twin!”

  I decided that I would write back to Katie straight away and tell her that being a twin was not always as much fun as you might think.

  Hi, Katie!

  Thank you for writing to me so quickly. And for writing such a lovely long letter. I am SO glad you want to be my pen pal! I am writing back at once as I know what it is like when you are waiting and waiting for something to come, and thinking that it never will and worrying to yourself in case you have said something to upset the person.

  First of all I will try to answer your questions! The girl at the end of the row that you thought looked like me is my sister, Lily. We are twins but NOT IDENTICAL. In fact we are just about as different as two people can be! You mum is right, it is not always fun to be a twin, although sometimes of course it can be. Like for instance if you dress the same and pretend to people that you are each other. We used to do this quite a lot when we were little but we don’t do it so often now as we are so completely different that it probably wouldn’t work. And anyway Lily wouldn’t want people to think that she was me and I wouldn’t want them to think that I was her. No way!

  What I would really, really like would be if it was just me on my own, but if Mum was to have another baby I would love a little brother! But this unfortunately is not very likely to happen as Mum says two children are quite enough for one family what with the world being over-populated and people starving, etc., and in any case they are both so busy they probably wouldn’t have time for one. A baby, I mean.

  You asked me to tell you about my mum and dad. My mum is called Emma and my dad is called Steve. They both work all the time, which is why they are too busy to have another baby. (Plus over-population, etc.) Dad does things with computers and Mum has a flower shop, where sometimes I help on a Saturday. Lily doesn’t help. She has lots of posh friends and thinks it is beneath her to have a mum who works in a shop, even if the shop is her own one. You can see it is true that we are not at all alike.

  Another thing you ask is what I will be when I grow up. I haven’t yet decided! But it will not be anything to do with computers, I don’t think. Maybe I could be a flower artist and make flower arrangements for weddings and parties, etc. But if I cannot do that (as I may not be artistic enough) then perhaps I will be something to do with writing. I really love to write stories! But I cannot do the pictures to go with them. You are so lucky that you can draw! I wish wish WISH that I could. All I can
do is stick figures.

  I expect you will say that this is utterly pathetic and the sort of stuff you would do in Reception, but it is just one of those things. I can see pictures in my head, but when I pick up my pen my hand won’t do what I want it to. This is probably something that you will not understand, as I expect when you pick up a pen it does exactly what you tell it to.

  It would be just SO brilliant if I could write stories and you could illustrate them! But only if you want to, of course. You might not want to. You would most probably be too busy doing drawings of your own.

  I just loved the pictures you did of your cats! It is so nice that you are a cat person. One of my nans has a cat allergy, which means that whenever she comes to stay poor Horatio is banished. He has to go to a cattery for what Mum calls “a little holiday”. But I am sure he hates it and thinks we have abandoned him. He probably wonders what he has done wrong when in fact he hasn’t done anything. It is just my nan, wheezing and sneezing and complaining of cat hair on the furniture.

  My school is called Lavendar House. It is very titchy and tiny. We have sixteen people in my class but on the day when the photograph was taken two of them were away. It is all girls. No boys! Do you have boys at your school? Most people do. Sometimes I wish that we had but on the other hand they can be a pain. A girl called Francine Church had some at her birthday party last term and they ruined everything by rushing about, shouting and showing off and spoiling all our games.

  Do you have a uniform at your school? We have to wear:

  Mauve blouses

  Purple skirts

  Brown shoes

  Plum-coloured coats

  and BERETS! (also plum coloured)

  It is SO naff! Some rude boys in our road call us the Plum Puddings. Dad calls us the Lavendar Hill mob, which is the name of an old movie that he loves.

  Do you like to watch TV? I don’t watch a lot, except for wild life programmes (where I always make ready to shut my eyes TIGHT if there is any killing as it upsets me to see animals torn to pieces) and also the soaps, which I am a big fan of, and especially Riverside. Do you watch Riverside? If so, who is your favourite character? Mine is Tony. Last year I wrote him a letter and he wrote back and sent me a signed photograph.“To Violet XXX Tony”. it is on my bedroom wall, right opposite my bed, where I can see it first thing when I wake up in the morning. As you will probably guess, I am in love!!!

  Besotted, is what my dad calls it. He loves to tease me, and I always go bright scarlet! It is for this reason that when I watch Riverside I like it best if my dad is not there. Otherwise I spend the whole time all boiled up like a beetroot!

  You know I said I don’t like to see animals torn to pieces? It is one of my things and is why I am against fox hunting. I have a badge that says BAN BLOOD SPORTS. I got it off an animal stall at a summer fete and I signed a petition to the Government asking them to get it stopped.

  I hope you are not a hunting person but if you are then I am sorry but I have to say what is the truth even if it makes you decide that you don’t want to be my pen pal after all. I will understand if you don’t only it is something I feel quite strongly about. I just felt that I had to say it. I hope you will not be offended as I don’t mean to be rude or anything.

  I must go now as Lily has just got out of the bath and Mum is yelling at me that it is my turn. What time do you have to go to bed? I have to go at nine thirty in the week and half-past ten on Fridays and Saturdays. It is too early, if you ask me, but Mum says I will thank her for it when I am older. She says if you don’t get enough sleep you start to LOOK YOUR AGE. I don’t know about you but I would quite like to look my age. One of Mum’s friends the other day asked me when my birthday was. She said, “And how old will you be? Ten?” It is SO insulting!

  I do hope you will write back to me and not be angry at what I said about fox hunting. But please don’t feel you have to do it immediately! (Though it would be lovely if you did.) I am sure you are very busy, especially if you have lots of homework. We have OCEANS. I don’t really mind, except if it takes too long when I would rather be writing to you!

  Love from your pen pal,

  Violet

  xxxxxxxx

  PS Someone told me this joke at school the other day.

  Question: What is green and Slithers and goes “hith”?

  Answer: A thnake with a lithp!

  PPS Here is a photo of my cat Horatio: You can keep it if you like.

  I posted the letter on my way to school next day. The very minute that it plopped into the box I started to worry! Dad says I am a regular worry guts and I know that he is right. I don’t only make mountains out of molehills, I make them out of microdots! I just can’t seem to help it.

  These are some of the things I worried about:

  1. Fox hunting. Why did I have to go and mention it??? It is true that it is something I feel strongly about, but it is not the only thing. I feel strongly about lots of things! For instance: people starving, and babies dying of AIDS, and global warming, and land mines. To name just a few. I didn’t go and mention them! Now I had probably upset her and wouldn’t ever hear from her again.

  2. The second thing was saying I’d gone to Francine’s party when I hadn’t. Not that I’d actually said that I’d gone, just made it read like I had. Telling her about the boys and how they’d ruined things, rushing around shouting and spoiling all our games. I was just repeating what Lily had said. She was the one that had gone to the party, not me! Why had I done it???

  3. The third thing was saying how we had to wear those hideous berets and how our school uniform was naff. But I like our school uniform! Lily’s the one that thinks it’s naff.

  I suppose I was trying to be cool. Which is truly pathetic! But going on about fox hunting, that was really dumb. There’s a girl at school, Justine Bickerstaff, that in the hunting season she gets on her horse and gallops madly about the countryside with packs of hounds. She has even done this revolting thing called cubbing, where they tear dear little sweet innocent fox cubs to pieces. I hate that! I hate that so much. But Justine gets into this simply mega-rage if anyone ever says about banning blood sports. For all I knew, Katie could be the same. And I had gone and lectured her and now I had probably RUINED EVERYTHING.

  I was just so relieved when I got her next letter. All that worrying, all for nothing! (It usually is, but I still do it.) I knew as soon as Mum handed me the envelope that things were all right. Instead of the little furry cat stickers there was one that said, STOP HUNTING WITH HOUNDS. So I hadn’t upset or offended her! She was on my side. Hooray!

  “Is that from the Blob?” said Lily. “Are you going to open it this time?”

  I said, “No. I like to read my letters in private.”

  Lily tossed her head and said, “Letters! You’re so uncool. Why don’t you e-mail?”

  “You could, you know,” said Dad.

  He’s always trying to get me on the computer. I am not terribly awfully into them, to be honest. Lily is. She is on it the whole time, whizzing about doing things, sending e-mails to all her friends. She sees them all day and e-mails them all night! When she is not text-messaging on her moby.

  “Think about it,” said Dad. “It would be far more fun than scribbling on bits of paper!”

  “But she might read them,” I said.

  “Me?” Lily gave a hoot of laughter. “Who’d want to read what you and the Blob have to say to each other?”

  Dad said, “Violet, I give you my word, nobody but nobody would read your e-mails. They would be for your eyes only.”

  That’s what he says. But I bet she’d still find a way!

  “Why not ask?” said Dad. “Ask her if she’d like to.”

  I said that I would, ’cos I like to make him happy and it is true that most people seem to prefer sending e-mails to writing real letters. Maybe if I’d e-mailed Greta we would still be in touch.

  As soon as tea was over, I rushed upstairs to my room. (Mum calls it my burrow
.) I tore open the envelope and a whole wodge of paper fell out. Which is far more fun than e-mails, if you ask me!

  Hi, Violet!

  Don’t worry, you have not offended me! I HATE people that kill foxes. So does my mum. We have both filled in petitions against it. If I see a badge I will buy one and wear it.

  I laughed over your snake joke! Here is one for you. A joke, I mean. Not a snake joke. (It is a knock-knock joke.)

  Knock knock!

  Who’s there?

  Ivor.

  Ivor who?

  Ivor let me in or I’ll break the door down!

  Har har!

  Your school uniform doesn’t sound naff, it sounds fabbo! I love berets! Ours is just green. Green everything! It makes us look like gooseberries. And yes, we do have boys. Yeeurgh! You are so lucky, not having them. They are such a nuisance. Well, I think they are.

  What will happen when you change schools? Where will you go? I will probably go to Friars Stile, which is just down the road. Mum doesn’t really want me to, she says it is too big and too rough, but all my friends would be going there. Will you be able to stay with your friends? Do you have lots of them? Do you like to party?

  I laughed when you said about boys rushing round shouting! This is what they do ALL THE TIME. Susanna, one of my friends at school, is having her birthday party next week but she is not going to invite any. Boys, I mean! She is just inviting girls from our class. It will be such fun! I would go to parties nonstop if I could. I will tell you all about it in my next letter!

  You asked if I like to watch TV The answer is … yes! But I like to draw and paint and read books as well. Riverside is my ace fave soap, and I think Tony is gorge! Even Mum says he is a hunk. I am so envious of you, having him on your wall! Do you kiss him goodnight before you go to bed? I would!

  I am sorry it is not fun to be a twin. Mum said, “I told you so!” She also said what nice names you have. Lily and Violet. She says, “I hope they are not shortened to Lil or Vi, as this would be a shame.” Are they???