My Sister Jodie (16 page)

‘
Nice
one. OK, OK –
Oh dear, the weathercock's stopped spinning on the church spire, let's send for Harley the Human Crane to twirl it for us.'

‘Not bad. What about,
Oh dear, King Kong's jumping about on top of the Empire State Building, let's send Harley the Human Crane to snatch him off
,' I said.

We played the game until we were snorting with laughter, our hands over our mouths so as not to
alarm the dozing badgers. Then we reversed it, and I was Pearl the Mouse Child, scampering in and out of burrows and rescuing dropped coins and diving in and out of cat flaps.

‘You'll be like a little Borrower,' said Harley. ‘Have you read that book? It's great, you'd love it, Pearl.' He looked at the lovely old copy of
The Secret Garden
. ‘Is that from Mrs Wilberforce? Hey, it's a first edition! You'd better be extra specially careful with it. Put on your kid gloves before turning each page.'

He started reading a few paragraphs and then swapped back to his own Hardy book. He lay on his stomach again. I hunched up beside him, leaning against the mossy bank. The sun came through the leaves of the trees and shone warmly on us, making my skin glow. It gently dappled the pages of my book, so I undid my hair and let it swing forward like a curtain, shading it.

‘You've got lovely hair, Pearl. You should always wear it loose like that,' said Harley, looking up.

He went back to his book, frowning a little as he read, but every now and then he glanced up and gave me a grin. I smiled back shyly, as warm inside as out, feeling happy happy happy. Then I went back to Misselthwaite Manor and wheeled Colin to the secret garden while the robin flew over our heads.

A real bird sang on a branch above us, and when it flew off, I was sure its chest was red. I felt as if I was straddling two worlds at once, not quite sure what was real and what was imaginary. I'd stepped into a real world better than any fantasy. I hoped the badger would come and peer at us. I especially
longed to see the baby badger. I imagined it scampering out on little legs, pink snout quivering in the sudden sunlight. It stayed tucked up in its set.

I knew I should be getting back to
my
home. Mum would have long since started panicking. She fussed enough when Jodie went missing, but she went into full-scale shrieking-alarm alert if I ever disappeared. But I sat where I was, beside Harley, savouring every second of my happiness.

When I went back at last, Mum was in tears again and I felt dreadful. I didn't tell her I'd been with Harley. I didn't exactly lie, I just said I'd gone looking in vain for Jodie, and then sat reading my book. Jodie had long since returned and was now off again, supposedly gardening.

‘Though it beats me why she's so keen to work with Mr Wilberforce in the garden when your dad and I could badly do with a helping hand. What is it about this gardening? Our Jodie's never so much as planted a bulb in her life.'

I was pretty sure Jodie still didn't care about planting or pruning – or even Mr Wilberforce. She just wanted to hang out with Jed the gardener.

She still seemed to be steering clear of me, but when I went back to our bedroom, I found Kezia the kitchen maid had company. There was a little pencilled drawing of Pansy the parlour maid standing beside her. She had a speech bubble saying,
Kezia is just like a sister to me and she'll always be my best friend, no matter what.

DAD DROVE MUM
and Jodie and me into Galford the next morning. It was Melchester's nearest town. Melchester village only had one general store. Dad needed to buy any number of items from a DIY shop and Mum needed new kitchen equipment, so it was an official trip. Jodie and I went along for the ride. It was a
long
ride, a good twenty miles or more.

The town itself was a shock, with its ugly concrete car park and shabby 1970s shopping centre. It was really only one high street with a few smaller streets leading off it, but it seemed like a huge city centre after the isolation of Melchester. Dad parked the car and we wandered around a little, aimless and dazed, before Mum got us organized. Jodie wanted to go off and find a McDonald's but Mum wouldn't let her.

‘We're all going to stick together. I've had enough of you girls wandering off.'

‘We'll have to get them reins, you know, like toddlers. That way we'll drag them round with us all the time,' said Dad. ‘Now, where do you think the B and Q might be?'

He found an old-fashioned hardware shop instead, and spent ages happily fingering nails and screws and locks, ordering all sorts of stuff. We chose the paint for our bedroom quickly enough. Mum wanted us to pick pink or pale primrose or light blue. We groaned in unison and decided on deep purple.

‘But it'll look so
dark
,' Mum said. ‘You want something fresh and light and pretty for a bedroom.'

‘Let the girls choose what they want,' said Dad. ‘And you can choose what you'd like for
our
room, Shaz. Any colour, even shocking pink.'

Mum chose china blue, and picked out chintzy white curtains decorated with little blue eighteenth-century people in the fabric shop down the road.

‘It's a French design. So classy!' she said.

She wanted us to pick something similar but Jodie found a roll of cheap black velvet.

‘You
can't
have black, Jodie. And that isn't even curtain material, you noodle.'

‘It'll make glorious gothic curtains, Mum. And look, we could have a black fur rug on the floor. It would look so great. Oh please please please,' Jodie begged. She lay on the fun fur rug, batting her eyelashes hopefully.

‘Now stop that. Get up! You can't have a whole new roomful of stuff. We're not made of money,' said Mum.

‘Couldn't I have that black rug as my birthday present?' I said.

‘You don't want
black
, Pearl. Maybe a nice
white
furry rug? Or there's a pink one with a teddy?'

‘Mum! I'm way too old for teddies,' I said. ‘I'd like black.
Please.
'

Mum eventually gave in. When we got back to Melchester College, Jodie and I started painting our room straight after lunch. Most of our stuff was still in boxes so it was easy enough to pile them out of the way and cover our bed with an old sheet. We wore our oldest clothes too, but Mum still fussed, so Jodie had the brilliant idea of stripping off to our underwear.

We were happily sloshing paint around in our knickers, both of us speckled all over in purple, when Mum came in –
with Harley
!

Mum gasped, Harley groaned, I yelped, and Jodie roared with laughter.

‘For pity's sake! Put your clothes on, girls! What are you thinking of!' Mum hissed, outraged.

She bustled Harley out of the room so quickly he forgot to duck and bumped his head on the door frame. Jodie carried on laughing, staggering about, clutching her stomach. It was all right for her. She was wearing matching underwear for once, her black bra and little black briefs. She looked gorgeous. I looked awful in dreadful baggy big white pants. I wanted to
die
.

‘Come into the kitchen the minute you're decent,' Mum called.

‘Oh
God
,' I moaned. ‘I feel so awful! Harley saw my
knickers
!'

‘Well, don't worry, Pearly, they're hardly likely to
inflame him,' said Jodie, stepping into her jeans. ‘Hey! Don't look so woebegone, it's
funny
.'

‘No it's not. It's the most embarrassing thing
ever
,' I said. ‘I can't ever face him again.' I threw myself on the bed, crawling under the cover.

‘So what are you going to do? Hibernate under your duvet? Don't be so daft. Come on, get dressed.'

Jodie threw my jeans and T-shirt at me but I cowered where I was.

‘Idiot,' she said, and went off whistling towards the kitchen.

I lay on my bed, hands over my face, heart thudding. Then Mum came back into the bedroom.

‘Pearl? What are you doing, you silly girl? Get up!' she said tugging me out from under the duvet. ‘Come on. Harley and Jodie are eating my butterscotch cookies in the kitchen. You come and have some too.'

‘I can't come,' I said, starting to cry.

‘Don't be such a silly baby,' said Mum.

‘Harley saw my
knickers
,' I wailed.

‘Well. They're clean, and they're perfectly decent. It doesn't really matter, you're only a little girl. It's much worse for Jodie but she doesn't seem to care. Typical!' said Mum. ‘Now come on, Pearl, stop making such a silly fuss.'

I had to do as she told me. I pulled on my clothes, tugging hard at my horrible knickers, shoved my feet into my sandals and then stomped after Mum into the kitchen. Harley and Jodie were sitting swinging their legs on the edge of the big table, eating their cookies. Jodie was wearing her high heels with her jeans. Harley's legs were so long they hovered an inch above the ground. He looked
at me. I felt as if Mum's oven was switched on inside me.

‘Hey, Pearl, you're as red as my shoes!' Jodie laughed.

I could have hit her.

Harley nodded at me. ‘Hi, Pearl,' he mumbled. He was a little red too. ‘Sorry to burst in on you like that. I was just offering to help with your decorating. Not that I've ever
done
any so I'm maybe not much cop at it.'

‘You'll be great, Harley,' Jodie interrupted. ‘You can do the ceiling. We won't need to bother with a stepladder!'

I wished Jodie wouldn't always tease him about his height. He made sarcastic
ho ho ho
noises but it was an obvious effort. I suddenly stopped fussing so about making such a fool of myself and thought about Harley instead.

‘We'd love you to help, Harley,' I said. ‘Don't worry, we don't really know what we're doing either.'

‘Well, don't make too much of a mess,' said Mum. ‘And for pity's sake watch what you're doing. I don't want purple smears all over everywhere. Why ever did you have to pick purple? It's such a harsh colour.'

‘You've got harsh girls, Mrs Wells,' said Harley. ‘They certainly keep me in line. Especially Pearl – she's
so
fierce.'

Mum blinked at him, taking him seriously.

‘Yeah, too right,' said Jodie. ‘She's been bullying me for years. Burly Pearly! Watch out, one kick from her little black patent shoe can send you flying.'

I stuck my tongue out at Jodie.

‘Hey, watch out! See the deadly venom sac in her pretty little neck! One strike of that pink tongue and you've had it, dead within five seconds,' said Jodie.

‘Stop being silly, girls,' said Mum. ‘Would you like milk or juice with your cookies? Or maybe a cup of tea?' She looked at Harley. ‘I've got Earl Grey tea,' she said proudly.

‘Thank you very much, Mrs Wells,' he said. ‘That would be lovely.'

Jodie rolled her eyes. ‘Coo, what's this Earl Grey, Mum?' she said, putting on a funny mock-Cockney accent. ‘What d'you mean, it's tea? What's up with good old PG Tips, eh?'

Mum glared at her, sighing heavily. We drank our posh tea and ate our cookies and then set off to do more painting.

‘Are they your really old clothes, Harley?' Mum said doubtfully.

They were too small for him, the jeans ankle high, but they were still bright blue, and his skimpy sweatshirt looked pristine.

‘Don't worry, Mum, Harley can strip down to his underpants like us,' said Jodie.

Mum's head jerked in horror.

‘Joke!' said Jodie.

‘One day you'll go too far, young lady,' said Mum.

‘Not far enough,' Jodie muttered.

We spent hours and hours peacefully painting. Jodie played her favourite CDs very loudly, singing along, painting in time to the music. She waggled her bum too and did a little tap dance in her red shoes. Harley painted with great sure wide strokes,
up and down, up and down, but when he came to the pencilled drawings of Kezia and Pansy, he made a little purple arch round them. He bent right down and pencilled in a gangling boy in livery saying,
‘I am Frederick the footman. I am friends with Kezia.'

‘And Pansy!' said Jodie.

‘Yeah, OK.'

‘Well, write it in!'

Harley started writing. ‘
And bossy-boots shouty-pouty Pansy is my worst enemy
,' he said slowly, as if he was printing it.

Jodie charged over indignantly but saw he'd simply added ‘
and Pansy
'.

Harley winked at me.

I painted with careful, finicky little strokes. My hand was steadiest so I painted right along the skirting board. Then I got my own box of paints and coloured Kezia and Pansy and Frederick in very carefully.

We were nearly finished by the time Mum sounded the gong for tea. The smell of paint had made me feel a bit sick, but as soon as I sat down at the table between Harley and Jodie I was suddenly ravenous. I wolfed down my tuna and sweetcorn sandwich and my egg and tomato roll, I crunched all my carrot sticks, I slurped up my yoghurt, I golloped down my grapes, and I ate
three
of Mum's home-made cookies, oatmeal, chocolate and almond.