Tao (4 page)

“But that was three years ago,” I told her.

“I know, Tao.” Kate was biting the corner of her lip. “But then something terrible happened. Mimi’s mother, Rose, was run over by a bus when she was out cycling and she died. So we wrote to Paul and said that we would wait until the time was right for Mimi before we said anything…”

“Oh,” I said. “That’s very sad.”

“Yes,” said Kate and I didn’t push her away this time when she put her arm around me.

“And then Mimi found our phone number and a letter,” I finished.

“Her father, Paul, had started to write to us. He hadn’t been happy with the letter that he had written so he had crumpled it up and thrown it in the waste-paper basket. Mimi’s sister Sally found the letter and she put Mimi up to ringing you yesterday. Mimi didn’t know about you before that.”

There was a long silence in the kitchen when Kate finished talking and even though I had a lot of questions I didn’t want to ask anything else. Sometimes you can have an information overload. I have a twin, was all I could think. I have a twin.

In the afternoon, I met Kalem and we went to play our football match. Angela had made another smoothie for us, as last week it had brought us such luck. It didn’t work so well this week.

Questions about Mimi kept popping into my mind. How could you have a twin sister for ten years without knowing about her? What did she look like? Was she taller than me? Because that would be embarrassing. How did she feel about discovering she had a twin? What were Sally and Conor like? Would we meet each other? That was a scary thought.

I didn’t say anything about all this to Kalem and he didn’t seem to notice anything odd about me on the way to the football field. Actually, I don’t think that he would have noticed if the sky had fallen. All he could talk about was his latest bird-brained invention – a whirly washing line powered by some sort of solar-panelled gadget that spun it around when it wasn’t windy. I didn’t pay him much attention – I had my own thoughts to occupy me.

Even when the match started, I couldn’t concentrate. The Head Honcho wasn’t too pleased. At half-time he let me have it.

“Tao Clarke, you are not at the races! Wakey wakey! You are running around that pitch like a headless chicken. Matches aren’t won by headless chickens! Step up to the plate, man, for God’s sake. Take the game by the tonsils – show us some of the va-va-voom that we saw from you last week. I’ve seen grannies play better!”

But I wasn’t much better during the second half, even though Dad arrived to cheer me on. He was there just in time to see me score an own goal. I sort of forgot which direction I was playing for a moment and, for once, kicked the ball really well … but into the wrong goal.

“TAO!” roared the Head Honcho, flinging the water bottle he was holding onto the ground.

I was substituted soon afterwards. I thought that Dad would not be pleased, but instead he put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Never mind, son. There are more important things than football.”

“What’s more important than football!” interrupted the Head Honcho, who was standing close by and throwing his hands towards heaven.

“Some things are, Bert,” laughed Dad, and he told me to get dressed and he would drop me home.

When we stopped outside the house, Dad asked me if I wanted to talk, but I didn’t and he didn’t push it – just said to ring him when I felt ready.

After dinner, I watched TV with Kate. A few times she looked at me in a funny way, but she didn’t mention Mimi either. Later on, as I sat up in bed, I could hear her talking about me to Angela on the phone. “He needs to digest it, the poor thing,” I heard her say. “It’s a lot for anyone to take on board. He’ll say something soon, I’m sure.”

Rodent had let me pick him up and I was holding him very carefully, just tight enough so he wouldn’t jump out of my hands but loose enough so I wouldn’t hurt him.

“A new mouse and a new sister in one day,” I told him quietly. “All I wanted was a mouse.”

“When we first told him that he was adopted, years ago now, he behaved just the same way,” Kate was saying. “He was quiet for days and then all the questions came pouring out. That’s just Tao’s way!”

You can hear everything in our house. Dad used to say that the walls are made of spit and paper, which isn’t true, but they must be thin because I can always hear Kate clearly when she is on the phone, even when she whispers.

“What if she doesn’t like me?” I told Rodent, “or if I don’t like her?” Rodent’s heart was beating very fast against my hand. “Don’t be scared, little mouse,” I whispered. But I knew how he felt because I was a bit scared of Mimi… Just like Kate was scared of Rodent, which was silly but she just couldn’t help it.

Just then my phone started shouting in its deep voice, ANSWERMEANSWERMEANSWERME… Rodent got a big fright and wriggled right out of my hands and jumped off the bed and raced straight back into his cage.

It was a text message from a number that I did not recognize.

I smiled and texted her back.

Then I said, “Sorry about that” to Rodent, who was hiding in his straw, and I closed the cage door. I switched off my light. But I didn’t fall asleep for ages. I wondered, was my new twin sister lying awake as well? With a hundred questions racing through her head? Was she a bit scared too? But excited at the same time?

ANSWERMEANSWERMEANSWERME my phone started yelling again at breakfast.

“Who on Earth is that?” Kate shouted, jumping up.

“My phone.” I laughed.

It was another text from Mimi. Attached was a photo of herself taken by Sally. She was dressed in a navy school uniform and she didn’t look very tall. She had long black hair and a small face with a very big smile.

I showed it to Kate. She thought Mimi looked cute and that her smiling eyes showed a cheerful heart. Kate said that even in the photo Mimi exuded a light and pure energy. Does anyone else’s mother talk like this? She said that Mimi and I had the same nose.

“That’s impossible,” I said.

Kate told me not to be so literal, whatever that means. Then she took my photo and I sent it to Mimi.

ANSWERMEANSWERMEANSWERME

Mimi’s second message was a photo of Sally. She was eating her breakfast and was looking quite cross, as if she wasn’t pleased to have her photo taken. She had very black hair and black eyes and black lips and even black fingernails. She had about four earrings in one ear.

“Oh my!” laughed Kate when I showed her Sally. “She does look a bit fierce!”

I sent Mimi a photo of Kate clearing the table. Kate wasn’t too pleased about that.

“You should at least have waited until I had brushed my hair. I look a mess!”

“It’s your inner-self that counts – not your hair,” I told her and she gave me a dirty look.

ANSWERMEANSWERMEANSWERME

“Does it have to make that racket?” asked Kate, who still jumped every time Mimi sent a text.

“’Fraid so,” I said.

Kate sighed. “I’m not sure I believe you,” she said, but I just grinned at her. This time it was a photo of Conor.

Conor looked very big. Was he my brother too, I wondered, but I didn’t ask Kate. She was trying to get me to get a move on for school.

“You could do with brushing your teeth too, young man,” she said, clearing away my place. “You are going to miss your bus!”

Then the phone piped again.

ANSWERMEANSWERMEANSWERME

“It’s driving me mad,” shouted Kate, her hands over her ears.

“It’s a photo of her dad,” I told her and showed her the phone.

He looked friendly, but older than my dad. Kate looked at that photo for quite a long time.

“Umm,” she said, and handed me back the phone as I left the house. Kalem was waiting impatiently at the gate. “By the way, your sister is a rotten speller!” Kate called after me cheerfully.

“No, she’s not,” I shouted back. “That’s text spelling.”

“Your sister can send texts?” said Kalem, with a very puzzled face.

“Hold that face!” I told him and photographed him quickly.

David had kept a seat for me on the bus. Kalem sat on the seat across from us and told David that I had gone barking mad.

“Tell me something new,” said David, and he punched me in the arm, which is his way of saying hello.

“He’s getting texts from his sister,” continued Kalem.

I laughed, but said nothing. It was fun to keep them guessing.

“Oh, yeah?” sneered David. “So Rachel can text now. Impressive for a two-year-old!” He shook his head slowly from side to side and let out this low whistle through the gap in his front teeth. It was David’s way of showing he was impressed.

“The texts are not from Rachel. They are from Mimi,” I said.

“Oh? Where did I hear that name before?” wondered David, suddenly showing more interest.

“Hold that face,” I said and took his photo, but he put his hand out to block it just at the wrong time. I sent Mimi the photo anyway – which wasn’t easy because David was trying his best to grab the phone off me and if we weren’t careful, Sam, the grumpiest driver in the world, would kick us off the bus.

was all I managed to write.

Ten seconds later my phone yelled again.

ANSWERMEANSWERMEANSWERME

It was a photo of a girl with brown hair and glasses and a big grin.

I showed that to David, who was as puzzled as I was – Kalem said he got it, but he said he wouldn’t explain it until he got some answers first.

So when we got off the bus, I told them all about my long-lost Chinese sister.

“She’s my twin. There was a mix-up in the orphanage in China and she went to a family in Ireland and I came here,” I explained. It was strange to be saying all this as if it was nothing much really, when in fact it was the biggest thing that had ever happened in my life … so far.

“Wow,” said Kalem. “And how come you only just found out?”

“My parents didn’t tell me when I was seven because they were too busy having their divorce,” I explained. I felt like I was outside my body, listening to myself talking as if it all had nothing to do with me.

“Then they didn’t tell me the next year, or Mimi – that’s her name by the way…”

“We know that,” interrupted David.

“…because her mother got killed by a bus and she was too upset,” I continued.

“Wow!” said Kalem. “I mean, that’s sad.”

“Anyhow, her sister Sally—”

“She has a sister?” put in David.

“Yes!” I said impatiently. “And a brother, Conor. Let me get on with the story.”

“Are they Chinese too?” David wanted to know.

“Let him get on with the story!” Kalem shouted.

“No, they are Irish,” I told David, who looked very confused, so I showed him their photos on my phone. He laughed when he saw Sally.

“She’s a vampire, Tao,” he said. “Keep away from her or she’ll bite your neck and suck your blood and you’ll be a vampire too, for ever more.”

“Can I get on with the story now?” I asked him. “Sally, the vampire, found a letter that her father was writing to Kate all crumpled up in the waste-paper basket and it had our number on it, maybe he had decided to ring up instead. So Sally made Mimi ring the number. But we were rushing out to the cinema and I thought it was a wrong number…”

“That’s where I heard the name Mimi before!” shouted out David as if he had won a prize. “I knew it. I just knew it!”

“Well done, David,” drawled Kalem in his most sarcastic voice. “The Brain of Britain does it again.”