by Lori Olding
Ruth didn’t know how to answer that. There was no paper around to write down what she thought so, to stop Lorraine’s screaming, Ruth pushed her hand over the girl’s mouth and everything went quiet. She could see Lorraine’s eyes, wide with fear, staring right at her. Then Lorraine grunted, opened her mouth, and Ruth knew in that instant that she was going to bite her.
Before she could snatch her hand away, the origami nun flew out of Ruth’s grasp and slid between the two girls. She began to grow and swell, her black and white shape becoming taller and taller by the second, and wider too. At the same time, Ruth realised they weren’t flying any more as she could feel ground under her feet. Lorraine must have felt it too as she gasped and glanced down. Then up again at the strange growing nun, and down again before staring at Ruth.
“What have you done?” she asked. “What’s going on?”
Ruth shook her head and shrugged as hard as she could to show she really didn’t know what was going on either. She could see Lorraine was trembling hard and wondered what she should do. Ruth didn’t want her to start screaming again. She really couldn’t bear that. What would her great-aunt do if she were here? Even better, and seeing as she was actually here, what would the origami nun do?
It came to Ruth in a moment. She stepped round the shape of the nun, reached out and took Lorraine’s hand. Heart beating fast, she squeezed it. Lorraine glanced round at her with a frown but didn’t pull away. Together the two girls watched the nun to see what would happen.
What happened was this: the nun grew taller and taller so she was nearly up to Ruth’s knees. She grew even wider too, and the crinkly paper filled out so it looked like clothes being worn by a very small girl. Then her face filled out, eyes and nose and lips and ears, and the nun’s habit fitted her perfectly. Ruth laughed as the girl got taller, and to her surprise Lorraine laughed too. Soft lights danced around them all and Ruth was sure she could hear a faint singing from somewhere but she didn’t recognise the tune.
Finally the nun was as tall as the two girls, and was in fact a girl herself. Blue eyes and a smiling mouth, but Ruth couldn’t tell what colour her hair might be as it was hidden under the headdress.
She and Lorraine couldn’t stop staring at her. The nun-girl smiled even more widely and nodded at them.
“Hello,” she said. “It’s lovely to see you. I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you both. I’m the origami nun.”
“But…but…” Lorraine began to say, and Ruth couldn’t help but laugh silently. She’d never seen Lorraine lost for words before.
“But I’m a toy and you didn’t think I could come to life, did you?” the origami nun replied, winking at Ruth. “But, you see, when the magic is strong enough, that’s just what I do. Though it had a lot to do with my new friend, Ruth.”
The nun-girl gave Ruth a huge warm hug, and just for a moment Ruth caught the smell of vanilla perfume, just like her mother used to wear. Her eyes filled with tears that she didn’t think she could bear and she began to cry. Great teardrops that she couldn’t remember crying before as she’d been trying to be so brave since her mother went away. After a while, as the nun-girl kept on hugging her, crying felt good. Ruth didn’t know how long she was crying for but, funnily enough, after she’d finished, her insides felt lighter.
When the nun-girl let her go, Ruth dried her eyes with a hankie the magic nun lent to her that was yellow and red and green and blue all at the same time. She saw Lorraine was sitting on the ground, frowning.
Before Lorraine could speak, the nun-girl marched over to her and pulled her to her feet.
“Now then,” she said, her voice suddenly stern, “none of that nonsense, Lorraine! I won’t hear any cruelty in my world, even if you don’t say it aloud, and, as you’re both guests here, you have to play by my rules. Ruth, give me your hand.”
Ruth trotted up and obeyed. The nun-girl’s fingers felt cool and fragile, like the lace her great-aunt loved so much.
“And, Lorraine, you give me your hand please. The two of you have a lot to learn from each other, and I’m going to use all my power to make sure that happens.”
It was funny, Ruth thought, how the magical nun looked like a girl, but spoke like someone much older. Maybe that was part of how magic worked?
Lorraine looked as if she was going to disobey and not get up at all, which Ruth thought might be a bit too brave a thing to do. But in the end, Lorraine got to her feet and gave the nun her hand. Ruth smiled at her and something in the frown on Lorraine’s face seemed to become softer. Like butter slowly melting if she left it out on the windowsill.
The nun-girl gave a deep sigh of satisfaction.
“Good, that’s more like it,” she said. “Now, let’s begin.”
Ruth wondered what exactly it was that they were going to begin, and she glanced at Lorraine to see what she was doing. Lorraine gave her a small, unsure smile, and Ruth was so shocked she actually smiled back. What on earth was going on?
The next moment, she was standing in a small kitchen painted a grubby yellow colour and facing the sink. The window above it was so dirty that she could hardly see through it so she had no idea where she might be. The smell of stale fish was so strong that she wrinkled her nose and tried to breathe through her mouth.
A voice behind her made her jump, and she turned round, her heart thumping.
“What do you think you’re doing, my girl?”
The woman who spoke was tall and scraggy, with dirty blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. Hands on hips, she was scowling. She reminded Ruth of someone but she couldn’t think who. Ruth didn’t know what to say, but then she saw the woman wasn’t staring at her, but at someone on the other side of the kitchen table. Someone hunched over, clutching a mug decorated with a pink cupcake and sobbing quietly.
Ruth knew even before looking that it was Lorraine. She was just like her mother, who had started to shout now, whilst waving a piece of paper in her daughter’s face.
“How could you do such a thing? You know how I feel about it. You know how horrible it is. You’ve seen that. All these years with the way things have been here should have taught you something. About how not to treat people. And you shouldn’t treat people like that, should you? Not how your teacher has said that you do. Lorraine, I’m ashamed of you, really ashamed. The last thing I wanted you to be was a bully. The last thing I want is for you to take after your father. Didn’t we hope that we were free of all that? And now look. Look at what you’ve done.”
When Lorraine’s mother finished shouting, she slammed the piece of paper down on the table, dragged out the kitchen chair and plonked herself down opposite Lorraine. Ruth couldn’t understand why neither of them could see her, as she was only an arm’s length away from them. Maybe that was part of the origami nun’s magic. Slowly she reached out and patted Lorraine on the shoulder, but the sobbing girl didn’t notice her. Her mother too wiped one hand over her eyes and looked as if she was trying hard not to cry as well.
Ruth glanced at the letter and then she looked again. It was a letter from the headmaster at her school asking Lorraine’s mother to come in to see them as Lorraine was thought to be a bully. Ruth blinked. Suddenly what Lorraine’s mother had been saying made sense. Because Lorraine was a bully, and Ruth was the girl she bullied. She knew all about that. Her face grew hot. It didn’t look like Lorraine’s mother was happy with her daughter either and she started to speak again.
“Look,” she said, taking hold of Lorraine’s hand. “I didn’t mean to shout at you. We’ve been through so much, you and me, and I didn’t want you to end up like this. You know I love you, but why are you bullying this poor girl, Lorraine? Why would you want to do such a thing?”
Ruth wanted to know that too so looked at Lorraine but she didn’t seem ready to talk. She just shrugged and mumbled something.
“What’s that? What are you saying?” her mother asked her.
Lorraine coughed and shrugged again. “Dunno. Dunno why I do it. Ruth�
��s different, that’s all.”
“Different? How?”
A long pause during which Ruth almost forgot to breathe.
“She’s dumb,” Lorraine said in the end, her voice only a whisper.
“Dumb? Do you mean she’s stupid? But that’s no reason to hurt someone, is it?”
“No, Mum,” Lorraine shook off her mother’s touch and leaned back on the chair. “Not stupid, though she might be, I dunno. Ruth doesn’t say anything. She can’t speak.”
“Oh.”
Lorraine’s mother was quiet for a while, as Ruth waited. She wondered how long the origami nun would allow her to stay, as she really wanted to hear what they would say next. It would be a shame if she was snatched back into the nun’s world before Lorraine and her mum had finished talking.
“Look at me, love, would you,” Lorraine’s mum said in the end.
Lorraine obeyed. Now Ruth could see her, her eyes were tear-stained and her face was red.
“It’s not the fault of this Ruth girl that she can’t speak, is it?”
Lorraine shook her head, slowly.
“So why do you want to hurt her?”
Lorraine tried to turn away, but her mother took hold of her chin gently but firmly and made her daughter look at her again.
“Why do you want to hurt her so?” she asked again.
Ruth looked at Lorraine, desperate to know the answer and feeling the tears well up in her own eyes. For a long, long time, Lorraine didn’t speak, but her mother kept holding her and waiting and waiting.
At last, Lorraine coughed.
“She don’t speak so I hit her,” she said. “Like Dad used to hit us when we didn’t speak, that’s all.”
Ruth blinked. Ruth couldn’t remember her own father but she didn’t think he would ever have hit her, or her mother either. Suddenly she wanted to give poor Lorraine a hug. No matter how much Lorraine had hurt her. But she couldn’t move.
Lorraine began to sob really hard and her mother gathered her up into an enormous hug. Ruth didn’t want to be here, not listening to what she couldn’t understand but which made her feel sorry and amazed and sad, all at the same time.
“Oh, love, I’m so sorry, you know I am,” Lorraine’s mother was saying over and over again. “I’m sorry for what your father did, but please don’t let it make you do the same thing to someone else. You know what it’s like to be hurt, you mustn’t want to hurt others. I’ll go to the school today and we can all talk about it. We’ll sort it out and things will be better, I promise you.”
As Lorraine and her mother cuddled each other, the mug with the pink cupcake on it fell over and rolled across the table. Nobody except Ruth noticed it. She sprang forward and picked it up before it broke. She placed it back on the table, making sure it was safe and patting Lorraine’s arm clumsily. Nobody noticed her and she was glad.
I’m sorry about what happened to you, Lorraine, she said in her head.
Then there was a rush of wind and the swirling whirling light danced around her again. She shut her eyes. When she opened them, the origami nun was standing in front of her. She was back in the nun’s bright and magical world.
The origami nun was smiling.
“Well done,” she said. “I knew you could do it.”
Ruth didn’t really have to ask what the nun thought she could do, as she’d already glimpsed what it might be. All this long time of hating Lorraine for being horrible and now she’d seen a little bit of Lorraine’s life. Because of that, Ruth felt different.
So she turned round to look for Lorraine. It didn’t take long to find her. Lorraine was sitting hunched on the ground, her head resting on her knees. Ruth walked up to her, feeling the nun watching them both from behind, and sat down next to her.
Ruth didn’t have the gift of words, but she did have her hands and arms, so she leaned towards Lorraine and hugged her. She hoped Lorraine wouldn’t think she was being funny or anything, but she didn’t know what else to do.
To her surprise, Lorraine hugged her back.
“I didn’t think your life was like that,” she whispered. “You’ve been so unhappy too, haven’t you?”
Ruth nodded and felt her eyes fill with tears. The two girls continued to hold onto each other as if there was no-one else to take care of them, which was true in a way at the moment. Apart from the origami nun anyway.
Where was the nun?
“I’m here,” a voice behind her said, and although Ruth couldn’t turn round, she felt a golden warmth go right over her and inside her too. It felt like being clean and comforted right the way through.
“Lorraine can’t hear me now,” the origami nun continued, “because she’s not as open to my world as you are, my dear. She hasn’t had the love all children need if they’re to see things as they really are. Now listen to me: while you were seeing some of Lorraine’s life and why she is like she is, Lorraine was seeing some of yours. Because she was so full of pain about her father, she couldn’t see your pain, but now she has, and things are different. Ruth, soon I will take you both back to your school and then I will shrink and shrink until I’m nothing but paper again. But it’s up to you to help Lorraine and make her your friend, and she will be able to help you too, in ways you can’t understand yet. I’m relying on you, my dear, because I know who you are. Will you do this, for me and for your great-aunt also?”
Ruth did not hesitate. Yes, she said in her mind, knowing the nun could hear her. Yes, I will do it.
Chapter Five
Ruth and Lorraine landed with a screech on their classroom floor. Ruth felt sparkly and bright but she couldn’t remember how she’d got back. She could only remember the journey out, to the world of the origami nun. When she looked round, Lorraine was staring at her.
“Are you all right?” she asked, wide-eyed, and Ruth nodded. Remembering the nun’s words, she tried to smile as kindly as possible at Lorraine, and it seemed to work as Lorraine smiled back, and then blushed.
“Well,” Mrs. Easting said. “That was a funny storm, wasn’t it? The weather is being very odd these days but we’re all alright now, aren’t we, children?”
A chorus of Yes Mrs. Easting filled the room, and Ruth gazed round at all her class-mates sitting on their chairs as if nothing totally weird had just happened. Even her class teacher didn’t seem surprised. Had she and Lorraine dreamt it all?
Oh no, my dear, it was all real, the nun’s voice filled Ruth’s head, and she felt the crinkle of paper in her pocket. It’s just that I stopped time so everyone else who stayed here, apart from one very special person of course, thought it was the weather. I’m magic like that, you know.
Ruth knew. For a moment, she wondered who the one very special person was, but then she saw Great-Aunt Alice wink at her and she didn’t have to wonder any more.
“Come on,” her great-aunt said. “It looks like Ruth and Lorraine are friends now so why don’t we start the birthday party?”
The children shrieked with excitement and Mrs. Easting looked puzzled for a second or two as Great-Aunt Alice and Mr. Brown began to unpack the baskets of food and drink, and blow up some animal balloons. Because every party needs balloons and no party is complete without them. Then Mrs. Easting shook her head, and everyone paused, waiting for her agreement.
Finally Mrs. Easting walked up to Ruth and Lorraine and laid a hand on the shoulder of them both.
“Have you both apologised to each other?” she asked them.
Without waiting for Lorraine’s reply, Ruth nodded and scrabbled around for a piece of paper. Funnily enough, the only paper she could find was the nun so she took a pencil and wrote very carefully on the nun’s back the word: sorry.
She then handed the nun to Lorraine, who took it gently as if not to hurt her. She read the note and then gazed thoughtfully at Ruth.
“I’m sorry too,” she said. “Let’s be friends, shall we?”
Ruth hugged her, almost squashing the nun but at the last minute Lorraine managed to k
eep the nun safe.
“Good!” Mrs. Easting said. “In that case, let the party begin.”
For ever after, Ruth would remember that party. She’d never known anything like it and she’d never realised her new school could be such fun. There were sausage rolls that melted in the mouth, tiny sandwiches packed to the brim with her favourite tuna mayonnaise or with sliced ham or with cheese. They didn’t have crusts either, which made her very happy. Then there were crisps and raisins and sultanas. There were her great-aunt’s wonderful muffins, and even some more of her favourite blueberry ones. And there was lemon meringue pie, a trifle and the largest birthday cake Ruth had ever seen in her life. Ruth was sure they hadn’t packed all this food at home, so it must be magic. Very happy magic indeed!
When her great-aunt asked her to make a wish, Ruth shut her eyes tight shut and thought of her great-aunt and all the children at school, especially Lorraine, and her teacher as well, and wished they could all be very happy today and always remember it. Then she nodded when her wish was done, her great-aunt smiled, and Ruth cut the cake.
After that, there were games and balloons, and laughter and excitement and fun. She played and ran around and joined in as she’d never done before. Her classmates smiled and played with her, and she didn’t feel a bit left out. Even Mrs. Easting, Mr. Brown the neighbour and her great-aunt played and nobody minded one bit, even though they weren’t children. The nun had cast a magic spell across the whole school today and Ruth hoped it would never really end. What a weird and wonderful birthday it was turning out to be!
At last, when they’d played all the games and eaten as much food as they could eat, when the parents had begun to arrive to collect their children and the school bus was here to look after the rest, Ruth felt a tug on her arm.
When she turned round, she saw it was Lorraine. Her mouth was smeared with chocolate but her eyes were shining. She pushed something gently into Ruth’s hand and when Ruth looked down she saw it was the nun.
“Thanks,” Lorraine said. “The nun’s great but I know it’s yours. Mum would be furious with me if she thought I’d taken it.”