The Chocolate Dog

by Holly Webb

  “Mum says you have to go really soon,” she told him.

  “Hang on,” Dad said into the phone. “What, now?”

  Amy looked at him worriedly. “She sounded like she meant it.”

  “Lara, you have to get out of there!” Dad was sounding stressed. “Amy, go and get dressed.”

  “I’m not coming out,” Lara said very clearly, from under the table. “I’m staying here, because I want to have my party.”

  Dad let out a strangled sort of groan. “Kate, look, Martha says it’s happening now, and the girls aren’t ready. Could you come over here, by any chance? Take the girls back with you? Or … er … maybe stay?” He listened hopefully, and Amy slipped under the table with Lara. It was weird, hearing plans being made. Dad hadn’t mentioned anything about the party. She put an arm round her little sister, and Choc pushed his way under the tablecloth, his tail trailing. He could sense that things weren’t right – and still he hadn’t had any breakfast. Amy put the other arm round him. He was so warm, and she could feel his heart beating. Lara was crying.

  “I hate this baby,” Lara sniffed. “It’s messing everything up.”

  Amy nodded. She suddenly felt sorry for Lara. Her little sister was the same age now that Amy had been when she was born. And she wasn’t going to be the baby any more.

  “Don’t worry,” Amy whispered. “It’ll be fine.” She felt better saying it, although she wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to make it true.

  Mum’s friend Kate arrived ten minutes later, panting and wearing her T-shirt on backwards. Practically as soon as she got in the door, Mum and Dad went out of it.

  “We’ll be back soon,” Mum called, a bit shakily. “Tomorrow. Have a nice time with Kate. Be good!”

  Amy came out from underneath the table to hug her, but Lara wouldn’t, so Mum just blew kisses under the oilcloth.

  Then the door slammed, and the house was suddenly silent again.

  Amy stood in the kitchen looking at Kate, who sighed and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs, looking a bit lost.

  “Did you have breakfast?” Amy asked her helpfully. “We haven’t. And Dad didn’t feed Choc.” She pointed to the bag of dry food on the counter. It had to be kept out of Choc’s reach. He could open cupboards, if there was anything interesting in them.

  “No, me neither. Good idea.” Kate filled Choc’s bowl, and then started opening cupboard doors. “Cereal? Toast?”

  “Toast,” said a small gloomy voice from under the table.

  “Why is she… ?” Kate whispered, as she dropped slices of bread into the toaster.

  “Because the baby’s stealing her birthday. Her party’s tomorrow. Are we going to have ring everyone and tell them not to come?” Amy whispered back.

  Kate sucked in a breath. “I’m guessing that wouldn’t be popular.”

  Amy sighed. “She’s got to come out the day after. It’s her first day at school. But she might just go and find a table to sit under there. Lara wouldn’t care if a teacher told her off. You know how stubborn she is.”

  “Your mum might have mentioned it.” Kate looked over at the table and sighed. “She left me a list, and she did say something about the party, but I didn’t realize it was tomorrow, and she was a bit occupied.” She riffled through the sheets of paper she’d put down on the counter. “Mmm. OK. I need to read through all this – but toast first. Lara, are you coming out for breakfast?”

  Lara didn’t say anything. A small hand appeared from under the oilcloth instead.

  “I suppose not.” Kate handed her a plate. A china one, Amy noticed, which just showed she wasn’t used to people eating under tables.

  Lara wouldn’t come out after breakfast either, even when Kate announced that she thought they should have a duvet day, and curl up on the sofa and watch a film, while she read through the list Amy’s mum had left. She stuffed Lara’s duvet under the kitchen table and turned the sound up a little bit for her, but that was all. Amy was impressed. Mum would have made far more fuss.

  Pretending not to notice that Lara was under the table seemed to work. Lara was stubborn, but she didn’t like being ignored. She appeared in the middle of the film, wearing her duvet like a cloak and scowling.

  “Hello.” Kate eyed her thoughtfully. “I’m glad you’ve come out. It would have been difficult to fit you and Amy and ten friends under the table. Especially for musical bumps.”

  “I can still have my party?” Lara squeaked. Choc woke up and stared at her, as though he thought she’d turned into something small and furry that he ought to be chasing.

  “It won’t be exactly the same as if your mum was organizing it,” Kate warned her. “I’ve never done a party before. I might do things wrong.”

  Lara hugged her. “That’s not your fault, Kate. I love you. It was that stupid baby.” She dropped the duvet and smiled at Amy. “I was right. I told you we had to stay here because of the party.”

  Amy opened her mouth to argue, and then didn’t. Lara probably was right. If they’d gone to Kate’s house like they were supposed to have done, she had a feeling the party might not have happened.

  It was a weird day. Kate was doing her best to keep them busy, putting on DVDs, drawing mermaids with Lara, helping Amy sort out her rucksack for school on Wednesday. But every so often, Amy would stop and wonder how Mum was doing. Whether they had a brother or sister yet.

  Dad called at lunchtime to say that everything was fine – but it was still going to be a while. Amy felt as though she couldn’t settle down to doing anything in case something happened. She kept starting things – picking up books, or drawing a few lines of a picture – and then she’d drift away, wandering around the house looking lost. It was actually a relief to go to bed, even though she was sure she’d never get to sleep.

  For once, Lara was actually happy to go to bed – the sooner it was bedtime, the sooner she woke up and it was her birthday.

  Kate was sleeping on the sofa downstairs, and it was strange being upstairs with only Lara. Amy lay curled on her side, listening to Lara’s whistly breathing. She was actually glad her little sister was there. The house felt odd, and far too quiet.

  Eventually, Amy gave up trying to sleep, and turned her bedside light on. Choc opened one eye and watched her thoughtfully, as if he was trying to work out if this meant breakfast. He obviously decided not, as he wriggled further down the bed away from the light and stuffed his head under his fleece blanket. Amy murmured, “Sorry, go back to sleep,” at him, and reached for her pencils. She was thinking she might make a birthday card for Lara – Mum had bought one for her to use, ages ago, but she was feeling sorry that the baby had taken all the glory out of Lara’s day. Dad would have called Kate if anything had happened; they’d made him promise. So the baby was going to come on Lara’s actual birthday. She deserved a really good handmade card.

  “Amy…”

  Amy jumped. Lara hadn’t been talking, so she’d just assumed she was asleep.

  “What?” she squeaked, and the fleece blanket wriggled crossly. “Sorry, Choc. Are you OK?” she hissed at Lara.

  “I can’t sleep,” Lara said sadly, appearing at the edge of the sheet dividing the room. “Can I come in your bed?”

  Amy stared at her. She’d forgotten that if Lara had a bad dream she still went into Mum and Dad’s room, and then fell asleep in a star shape, taking up as much room as she possibly could.

  “My bed isn’t big enough for you and me and Choc. I’ve got a better idea. Get your duvet and your pillow.”

  “Are we going back under the kitchen table?” Lara asked.

  “No. We’re making a nest. Put your duvet on the floor – here, look.” Amy fluffed the duvet up artistically into a nesty sort of shape, and Lara flumped into it happily.

  Choc appeared at the edge of Amy’s bed, standing there looking down curiously at what the
girls were doing. Then he leaped enthusiastically on top of Lara to join in. He overshot slightly, tangled himself in the end of one of the flowery sheets, and wriggled madly, ears flapping.

  “Choc, careful,” Amy tried to whisper, but she was giggling too much to get the words out. “Ssshh! You’ll wake Kate. Keep still, Choc! Oops.”

  The sheet came untied from the hair ribbons and flumped down on top of Choc. He looked like he was in a nativity play, being a shepherd in a sheet with just his furry nose sticking out.

  “Well done, Choc. We can make them part of the nest.” Amy untied the other sheet from the curtain rail and wrapped it round Lara and Choc. Then she pulled her duvet and pillow down from her bed and wrapped herself up in a sort of sausage next to them. She didn’t mind that the tent had gone. It didn’t seem such a problem, having Lara in her room any more.

  Lara was warm, almost too warm on such a hot night, and the duvet nearly softened the floor enough to make it comfortable. Amy yawned, and turned her light off, her thoughts fuzzing over with sleep.

  “Sausages. Biscuits. Crisps. Cheese and jam sandwiches—”

  “Cheese and jam?” Kate looked up from the party food list, her face horrified.

  “She means cream cheese,” Amy pointed out. “Cream cheese and jam. Mum makes them for her. It’s disgusting, but not as disgusting as, like, cheddar and jam would be…”

  “Oh.” Kate nodded, looking slightly relieved. “All right, then. We can have plain jam as well, maybe. Go on, Lara. Anything else?”

  “Sausages,” Lara said thoughtfully. Choc closed his eyes blissfully and leaned against her. He knew what sausages were.

  “Already got those.”

  “More sausages.” Lara nodded. “Pizza slices. Oh, and cake! Birthday cake! It’s going to be a mermaid, Mummy’s making it for me, she said…” Her voice trailed off, and a worried expression crinkled round her eyes. “Mummy said…”

  Kate sighed. “I don’t think she’ll be able to, Lara. You heard how tired she sounded on the phone, didn’t you? And she’s got to be at the hospital a little while longer.”

  Lara’s worried expression deepened into a full-blown scowl. Dad had called early that morning – early enough to have woken them all up. Kate had brought the phone upstairs and handed it to Amy in their nest of bedding.

  Dad was very excited, and he didn’t really seem to know what time it was. He wanted to tell them that they had a baby brother. Amy wasn’t sure if she was excited or not – Dad had sounded so happy, and she’d caught a little bit of that – but Lara definitely wasn’t. Even when Dad had said they could both help choose the baby’s name. It was just like she’d said would happen – the baby had stolen her birthday. When Dad had said that he was like a really special present, Lara had not looked impressed.

  Then Dad had passed the phone to Mum to say hello. Kate was right – she’d done her best to make a fuss of Lara on her birthday, promising that there would be lots of presents later. But she sounded exhausted, though she’d promised Amy she was absolutely fine. She definitely wasn’t up to mermaid-birthday-cake making.

  Kate put an arm round Lara rather uncertainly, especially when Lara stayed stone still with her arms folded. “We’ll buy a birthday cake in the supermarket when we get all the other things,” she said reassuringly. “I know it won’t be as special as one your mum made, but it’ll still be nice.”

  “Can’t you make one?” Amy asked.

  Kate shook her head slowly. “I wouldn’t know how, Amy. I’ve never made a birthday cake for anybody.”

  Lara was still looking grumpy, but she nodded. “Mum’s really good at cakes. Don’t forget sausages,” she muttered, eyeing Kate’s list.

  Amy shoved her hands in her pockets and wondered if she could pretend she didn’t belong with Kate and Lara. No one would believe her, though. She and Lara looked too alike, even when Lara was scarlet from crying.

  Kate was kneeling on the floor of the cake aisle next to Lara. “Lara, look. I know you’re not happy. But they don’t do mermaids. And the man on the bakery counter said they couldn’t make one before this afternoon. I’m really, really sorry.”

  “She promised!” Lara wailed.

  “You have to choose one of these,” Kate explained. “Princesses?”

  “The pony one’s nice…” Amy suggested.

  “Caterpillar,” Lara sniffed. She wasn’t that into ponies.

  “Really?” Kate blinked, but she didn’t argue. “Fine. Let’s go and pay for all this lot.”

  Kate drove them back home, and then vanished out into the garden – that was where most of the party was going to be, according to Mum’s plan. The weather was on their side. Amy was wearing shorts and a vest top, and she was still too hot. In fact, it was almost the nicest weather they’d had all summer, now.

  Mum had arranged for a man to come with a bouncy castle for the party, and Kate was watching him set it up while she put out a table for tea and hung up balloons. She looked hot, and a bit panicked.

  Amy leaned on their bedroom window sill, watching the castle grow – it was funny, the way it kept wobbling. Choc wasn’t sure about it at all. He was standing next to Amy on the chair from her desk, his paws on the window sill, growling a low, edgy growl. Something was growing in his garden. Amy was stroking him soothingly, but he wouldn’t be comforted, especially as the castle just kept on getting bigger.

  She was surprised that Lara wasn’t out there, bouncing up and down next to the man and asking when she could get on. Mum had arranged for him to bring it early, so that Lara could have a good go on it before her friends came.

  Actually, where was Lara? She hadn’t seen her since they got back from the shops.

  “Where did she go, Choc?” Amy muttered to him. “Where’s Lara?”

  Choc cast one more suspicious look out of the window, but he obviously thought that he’d frightened the castle enough now, and it was safe to leave it in the garden. He jumped down from the chair and set off downstairs, with Amy padding barefoot after him. She followed him into the kitchen, in time to see his feathery tail disappearing under the kitchen table. Amy sighed and peered in.

  Lara stared back, blinking owlishly as the sunlight poured into the dim space under the tablecloth.

  “Why are you back under there again?” Amy asked, a little impatiently.

  Lara sniffed and rubbed the back of her hand over her nose. She’d been crying. She still was crying. Amy felt guilty.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I wanted a mermaid cake…” Lara said pathetically.

  “They didn’t have one!”

  “Kate could make one.” Lara’s bottom lip edged out stubbornly.

  Amy sighed. “She doesn’t know how. She’s never had the practice, Lara. Cakes are hard.”

  “Mummy promised.” Lara put out a small, hot hand and grabbed the side of Amy’s shorts, pulling her under the table to hug. Choc collapsed over them like a hot furry rug, and Amy stared worriedly at the wood grain on the underside of the table. Lara’s friends were coming in about four hours. There was a bouncy castle, food – and a weird green caterpillar cake. Amy wasn’t sure that even Kate could pull off ignoring that Lara was hiding under the kitchen table when it was Lara’s own birthday party. She was going to have to do something.

  “What are you doing?” Lara asked uncertainly as Amy pulled out one of the stools that sat round the table and carried it over to the kitchen counter.

  “Looking for Mum’s cake book. The party one. She always uses the same recipe; it’s the one with all the sugar and stuff stuck to it.”

  Lara stuck her head out under the cloth, and Choc followed her – one blonde head and one furry chocolate one. “You’re going to make me a cake?”

  Amy shrugged. “I can try. There’s butter and eggs in the fridge. Mum had all the ingredients ready.”

&
nbsp; “But you don’t know how!”

  “That’s what recipes are for, Lara! Don’t you want a mermaid cake?”

  Lara didn’t say anything. She ducked back under the table – she obviously didn’t trust Amy to make the cake. For a minute, Amy wondered if she was being stupid. But she really didn’t want Lara’s party to be a disaster. Lara would remember it always as the time the new baby spoiled her birthday. It would be horrible. And it would upset Mum too.

  If a mermaid cake would get Lara out from under the table in time for her friends to arrive, it was worth the effort.

  She found the cake book and sat down at the table to read the recipe, tucking her feet back under the stool. The recipe didn’t look all that difficult, and she’d helped Mum make cakes lots of times. She could do this.

  “You aren’t allowed to touch the oven!” Lara sang out, in a tell-tale sort of voice as Amy got up and stood next to it, eyeing the dials.

  “And you’re not allowed to skulk under the table because you’re sulking,” Amy trilled back. “I’m being careful.” She turned the dials to the right temperature, and heard the oven begin to hum hopefully.

  When she’d made cakes with Mum, it had seemed a bit easier than this. There were a lot of lumps. Perhaps it all melted together properly when you put it in the oven, Amy decided, staring down at the bowl worriedly.

  “Are you making it?” Lara’s voice came from round her knees.

  “Yes. I’m about to put the eggs in,” Amy said firmly.

  Lara didn’t answer, but the silence from under the table was a bit more hopeful now.

  Amy broke the eggs into the bowl, one at a time, with some flour. Exactly as the recipe suggested. Only the recipe didn’t mention what to do if half the shell ended up in the bowl.

  Amy hissed through her teeth, and tried to pick the bits out with a spoon, but they swam away from her. She would leave them, she thought. There weren’t all that many. She looked nervously at the next egg.