It was the most scary and interesting conversation Holly had ever been part of. She felt like her mum and dad were really treating Faith and her like grown-ups. It made her feel sort of strong and brave to know they thought she was old enough for the truth.
She couldn’t wait to hear what was going to happen next.
Faith was thinking over what her mum and dad had been saying.
‘Well, OK,’ she said.‘But I still wish you could tell us now how things are going to work out.’
‘So do we, honey,’ said their dad. ‘But we can’t make promises about the future. Mum and I don’t know what’s around the corner.’
Holly spoke up. ‘That means things could change again, doesn’t it? Things are changing now, but they could keep on changing, couldn’t they?’
‘That’s right,’ said her mum. ‘But that’s how life always is. Nobody ever knows exactly how it’s going to turn out.’
Holly hadn’t thought of that before. Up until now, life had seemed to be pretty ordinary. It was part of growing up, she supposed, understanding that nothing would stay the same forever.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
‘That’ll be dinner!’ said her mum. ‘I almost forgot.’
‘I didn’t,’ said her dad. ‘I’m starving after all this talking!’
Holly jumped up from the table with her mum, and grabbed the money off the bench as she went. Her mum opened the front door, and there was a teenager, holding up two white plastic bags of hot food.
‘Hi, Paul,’ said Holly’s mum.
They often got food from the same restaurant and it was usually Paul who delivered it. He had a black leather jacket, and long black hair tied back in a ponytail, and he delivered the food on a black-and-silver motorcycle. Holly could hear its engine growling in the driveway.
Paul was so good looking, Holly shivered every time she saw him.
Shyly, and without saying a word, she held the money out to him.
‘Thanks, squirt!’ he said, taking the money and handing her the food.‘See you next time.’
Holly felt herself go red with embarrassment, but that didn’t stop her from watching him walk back to his motorcycle.
‘He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?’ said her mum as she shut the door.
‘Mum!’ squealed Holly. ‘Gross! Don’t even say it!’
But it reminded her that her mum and dad were right – you could never tell what was going to happen next.
One minute Holly had been in the middle of a very serious and grown-up conversation, thinking so hard about her mum and dad splitting up, it was as if the rest of the world had stopped existing. And the next minute she had forgotten all about that, and was dreaming instead of riding with Paul on the back of his motorbike.
‘Come on!’ laughed her mum. ‘The food will get cold if you stand there much longer!’
‘Mum …’ groaned Holly, following her back out to the kitchen.
Somehow, after dinner that night, things seemed calmer in Holly’s family. She and Faith went and saw their dad’s new flat on the weekend. They worked out their bedrooms and how they wanted to decorate them.
Their dad didn’t have much furniture yet, so they ended up having a picnic dinner on the living-room floor with take-away pizza.
‘Next time you come over, I’ll have beds for you both,’ he said. ‘And I’ll cook you a proper meal, and you can stay over, if you want.’
‘But don’t get any tables or chairs,’ said Holly. ‘I like sitting on the floor. It’s more relaxing.’
‘Yeah,’ said Faith. ‘You could just have beanbags and cushions. As long as you didn’t have soup, it would be great.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ smiled their dad. ‘But for now, I think I’d better drive you home. I don’t want to keep you up too late on our first visit.’
That night in bed, Holly thought about all the changes that were going on. She had been a bit scared at first, but now she could see that not every change was bad. For example, now she was going to have two bedrooms – that would be cool. And it had been nice, too, to have her dad all to herself and Faith.
She began to feel better about the idea that things were changing all the time.
As if to prove the point, that Tuesday, coming back from school with Faith, another change was waiting at the clinic.
Beside their mum’s desk was a big cardboard box, full of scuffling, yapping noises. Someone must have dropped off another litter of puppies. Holly and Faith ran to have a look.
‘Oh, how sweet!’ said Faith. ‘Can we have one?’
Holly sighed. Whenever a litter of puppies or kittens was left at the clinic, Faith always asked for one. And their mum always said no. Faith never gave up, but Holly was so used to the routine that she had stopped listening.
This time, though, she heard Faith gasp. ‘What did you say?’
Their mum smiled broadly. ‘I said yes. Now it’s just us girls at home, we don’t have to worry about your dad’s hay fever anymore.’
‘I don’t believe it!’ said Faith.‘You mean we can really have a puppy?’
‘Better than that,’ said their mum. ‘These are only going to be little dogs. You can choose one each.’
‘Two dogs!’ cheered Holly.
‘Yes,’ said their mum. ‘That way they can keep each other company when you’re at school all day.’
Holly thought that was an excellent idea because, even for dogs, there was nothing quite like having a sister to stick with you when things got tough and lonely.
With all the excitement of decorating their new rooms and having new puppies to play with, it took a while for life to settle down.
Holly felt as though the days had been racing by, and there seemed to be so many new things to think about and do – helping her dad pick out a sofa and curtains, going to puppy training, learning how to use a paint roller, helping her mum out more with the cooking …
Holly really couldn’t say that anything had got back to normal since her parents had split up. But slowly, she realised that they had invented a new kind of normal. And not only was Holly getting used to it, she even liked it.
She noticed that her mum had stopped sighing so much, and started singing around the house instead. And although she sometimes missed her dad during the week, she got in the habit of calling him after school, and they ended up talking more on the phone than they ever had when he was living at home.
Most importantly, there were no more arguments at home, and Holly’s mum and dad were able to talk to one another in a new way.
It was just what they had hoped for.
One evening, playing with their puppies, Holly and Faith talked it over.
‘I thought it would wreck everything if Mum and Dad split up,’ said Holly. ‘But we’re OK, aren’t we?’
‘Of course we are,’ said Faith, letting her puppy lick her face.
‘I was worried for a while that we wouldn’t be a real family if we didn’t all live together, but I think I was wrong.’
‘Well, duh!’ said Faith. ‘I mean, Auntie Pia and Uncle David don’t live with us, but they’re still our family.’
‘Hey, I didn’t think of that!’
‘And Dad promised, didn’t he, that he’d always be our dad, no matter what.’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Holly happily, stroking her own puppy. ‘We’re still a proper family. We’re just a bit more spread out than we used to be.’
The Big Split
first published in 2006
this edition published in 2013 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
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A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
9781743581056
Text copyright © 2006 Rowan McAuley
Illustration and design copyright © 2013 Hardie Grant Egmont
Illustration by Aki Fukuoka
Design by Michelle Mackintosh
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