My Sister Jodie (26 page)

I didn't discuss her with Harley any more. I couldn't say anything to Mum or Dad. I found myself blurting things out to Mrs Wilberforce.

I took
What Katy Did
back to her. She gave me a glass of lovely lemonade in a pink frosted glass.

‘I made it myself, with fresh lemons and sugar. I used to make gallons of it years ago for Parents' Day, after the staff-versus-pupils cricket match. I served it with cucumber sandwiches.' She sighed. ‘But now we don't bother with the cricket match. Half the parents are abroad and the children are collected by chauffeurs, and anyway, I'm not up to catering single-handed. Literally!' she said, holding her one good hand in the air. ‘You've no idea how difficult it is to squeeze a handful of lemons when you've only got one hand. I had to hold the lemons steady with my
chin
, as if I was playing a ridiculous party game.'

‘Well, it's lovely lemonade anyway. Thank you
very much,' I said awkwardly, my teeth clunking against the glass.

‘It's all so much
effort
,' said Mrs Wilberforce. ‘Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. Maybe I'd be better off lying back helplessly, not trying to do a thing. Sorry, I shouldn't moan.' She glanced at
What Katy Did
. ‘Cousin Helen would give me a prissy little lecture. What did you think of her? I got so sick of her I wanted to slap her.'

I stared at her in surprise. I'd thought Cousin Helen awesomely saintly.

‘She's very . . . good,' I said lamely.

‘She's so good she's sickening. All that rubbish about learning to accept pain! Why
should
you? And if you're going crazy with despair and misery because your whole life is ruined, why should you have to try extra hard to be sweet and beautiful and uncomplaining?'

‘It does seem very unfair,' I mumbled.

‘And then what happens at the end of the book?' Mrs Wilberforce asked me vehemently, as if I'd written it myself.

I shrugged uneasily. ‘It all ends kind of happily ever after,' I said.

‘And why's
that
?' she demanded.

‘Because Katy learns to walk again,' I whispered.

‘Exactly! That's what always happens in storybooks! Katy learns to walk again. Colin learns to walk again. Ah, have you read
Heidi
?'

I shook my head. ‘It's about a girl in the Swiss mountains, isn't it?' I said. ‘Does Heidi fall down a mountain and end up in a wheelchair?'

‘You read it and see!' said Mrs Wilberforce.

She wheeled herself round the shelves, found the
book and thrust it at me. I jumped nervously and spilled lemonade all down my front.

‘Oh dear!' she said.

‘I'm sorry,' I said anxiously. ‘I'm ever so clumsy.'

‘No, no, it was my fault. I can be a terrible bully at times, I know. That's half the reason why I don't teach any more. I did try for a while, when I first used a wheelchair after the accident, but it's left me with such black rages now. I used to rant at the children so. Poor Harold had to wheel me out of the room once or twice. So then I'd rage at him, and yet in many ways he's been a positive saint to me. And I'm raging at you when I've been longing for you to pay me another visit. Now I don't suppose you'll come back any more, and who could blame you?'

I swallowed. ‘I'll come back. You can rage at me all you like if it makes you feel better.'

I was trying to be very grown up and serious but she burst out laughing.

‘You're a strange little girl, Pearl Wells. In your own way you're just as sparky as your sister. What's she up to now? Is she taking Frenchie's mad mutt for a walk?'

‘Well. Maybe.'

‘Or is she trailing after Jed?'

I must have looked startled.

‘I haven't got much else to do so I crouch behind the curtains and spy on people. It's obvious your sister has got a big crush on our Jed.
Not
a good idea.'

‘I know,' I said. ‘It's an
awful
idea.'

‘That young man's already broken a few hearts in the village. You tell your sister he's bad news.'

‘I have,' I said. ‘But she won't listen.'

‘I hope he doesn't encourage her,' said Mrs Wilberforce. ‘Perhaps I'd better have a word with Harold.'

‘I think it's mostly Jodie,' I said uneasily.

‘Well, she'll soon be able to make friends more her own age when the new term starts,' said Mrs Wilberforce.

I shivered. I didn't want the term to start. I wished it could be the holidays for ever, living this strange dream-like life in the empty Melchester mansion. I was permanently light-headed with lack of sleep, so that I often dozed whenever I sat down. Mum started to worry about the dark circles under my eyes and sent me to bed even earlier. She fussed whenever she caught me yawning.

‘Maybe we ought to take Pearl to the doctor,' she said to Dad. ‘She seems so dog-tired all the time. I'm really worried about her.'

‘I'm
fine
, Mum,' I said quickly.

‘Of course she's fine,' said Dad. ‘She's bound to feel a bit tired at times with all this lovely country air. It's great to see her going out to play rather than staying cooped up in her room with her nose stuck in a book.' He gave me a quick hug. ‘You're growing up, aren't you, Pearly? That's tiring in itself, isn't it, pet?'

‘She's still a little wisp of a thing,' said Mum.

‘Well, she takes after her mother,' said Dad. He put his big hands round Mum's waist. ‘There, I can still circle your waist, easy-peasy.'

‘I think
my
waist is the smallest, as a matter of fact,' said Jodie, putting one arm above her head and posing. Her T-shirt slid up, showing her flat tummy. She'd stuck a crystal bead in her navel.

‘What in the name of God is that?' said Mum, appalled, thinking she'd somehow sneaked off and got her belly button pierced.

I still didn't always understand Jodie, even though I'd known her all my life. She didn't seem to mind getting into trouble. She acted up deliberately. I wondered how she'd make out in classes in September. Would she be able to do the lessons? Harley had scoffed at Melchester's academic standards, but he was the brainiest person I'd ever met so he wasn't the most reliable judge.

I was sure private school pupils knew masses more than ordinary kids. They did weirdly old-fashioned lessons like Latin and Greek, didn't they? If Jodie didn't understand something, she'd start messing about, and if the teachers cracked down on her, she'd get really cheeky. She'd been excluded twice from Moorcroft Comprehensive for insolent behaviour, though luckily Mum and Dad never found out.

I was anxious about Jodie. I was even more worried about me. Every time I thought about all those posh pupils I felt sick. I wondered how I could ever have fantasized about fitting in with them. They'd look down on me, clonk me with their cellos, hit me with their hockey sticks. I might have been the school swot and teacher's pet at my old school but perhaps I'd come bottom of the class here. I'd never ever be a teacher's pet if the staff were all like Mr Wilberforce and Miss French and Miss Ponsonby, none of whom seemed to like me at all.

Mum and Dad started to get tense as the term approached. Mum pored over her recipe books, multiplying all the ingredients. She costed out each
item and had frustrating meetings with Miss French, who seemed to be in charge of kitchen finances.

‘Though what the flipping hell does
she
know about kitchen management!' Mum said through gritted teeth. She puffed up her cheeks and put on a posh accent, pretending to be Miss French.

‘Oh no, Mrs Wells, silly you, you can't give the children cooked breakfast on a weekday.
Much
too expensive! However, we
do
have a tradition of sausages on Sunday at Melchester College. It's considered a special treat for the full-time boarders.'
She swapped to her own voice. ‘Two small sausages a
treat
, for pity's sake! And she won't let me cook them proper chicken – oh no, it's that nuggety nonsense where you're paying twice as much per portion for a tenth of the nutrients. Does she want all the kids to get ill?'

Dad had an easier time with Mr Wilberforce, but as the weekend approached when the first boarders were arriving, he got increasingly harassed, running backwards and forwards on last-minute errands, his new shirt damp, his new jeans crumpled. He jangled as he ran, a big bunch of keys swinging from his waist.

‘Mind out, girls, Superman has to speed forth,' he said, panting up the stairs. ‘I've got to clear a space in the attics for all the blessed trunks now.'

Jodie punched me hard on the shoulder as Dad charged off.

‘Ouch! That hurt! What's up with you?' I said irritably.

‘Come on, wake up, slowcoach!' said Jodie. ‘Didn't you see those keys? Don't you get it? What are those keys
for
?'

‘The attic rooms. Half of them were locked,' I said.

‘Yeah, yeah, and what
else
was locked?'

‘The door to the tower!'

‘Yep! At last!' Jodie seized me by the shoulders. ‘This is our chance to get up there, Pearl.'

‘How? Are we going to ask Dad?'

‘No, of course not. He'll say we're not allowed there – he'll make out it's dangerous or something.'

‘Well, maybe it is. Mrs Wilberforce fell and broke her neck!'

‘We'll be fine. If the stairs have all crumbled away, then we'll just
look
. Oh, Pearl, this is our one chance to get up into the tower. It's been spooking me ever since we got here. We
must
give it a go.'

‘
Why
, if it's so scary?'

‘I love being scared,' said Jodie, eyes glittering. ‘OK, I know
you
don't like scary things. I'll go on my own. Only I don't think I'll be able to reach that bolt, so maybe I'll have to get Harley to come along.'

‘Then I'll come too,' I said, as she knew I would.

I WONDERED HOW
Jodie was going to get the key from the bunch dangling from Dad's belt. She could be very light-fingered at times but I didn't see how she could possibly wiggle one key off a key ring – and anyway, how would she know which one to take?

‘I'll figure something out,' she said.

Dad was busy rehanging a warped door in one of the attic rooms, a difficult heavy job in that close musty air. He came back downstairs covered in dust, hot and sweaty.

‘Coo, Dad, you pong a bit,' said Jodie as she gave him a hug. ‘You'd better go and have a bath before tea, eh?'

‘Mmm, it'll ease my back. It's killing me,' said Dad.

He went off like a little lamb, stripped down to his underpants and ran a hot bath. Mum was safely in the kitchen making cheesy baps.

Jodie grinned at me triumphantly. ‘OK, let's go for it!' she said.

She ran into Mum and Dad's bedroom and snatched the whole bundle of keys from Dad's belt. She wrapped them in his T-shirt to muffle them and then we made a run for it. We had to go through the kitchen, but Mum was looking into the oven.

‘Don't go off gallivanting. Tea's ready in five minutes,' she said, forcing her lips into a funnel and blowing cool air up her hot face.

‘Yeah, yeah, we're just on an errand,' said Jodie.

‘Back in a minute, Mum,' I gabbled.

We shot past her, up into the dining room. Miss Ponsonby and the three littlies were already there. Jodie bunched Dad's T-shirt to her chest and we ran past.

‘Where are you going? Can me and my Man come too?' asked Dan, unhooking his fat little legs from the bench.

‘I'm coming,' said Zeph.

‘And me,' said Sakura.

‘No no no, this is big girls' stuff,' said Jodie. ‘Stay there, little squirts.'

They muttered crossly but stayed where they were. She had far more authority over them than their Undie.

We dashed up the great stairs in the main hall, up and up to the top floor.

‘How will we get the cupboard shifted?' I asked.

‘We'll do it ourselves,' said Jodie.

I wasn't sure we could possibly manage it no matter how we heaved and pushed, but wondrously Dad had left it half tugged out as he still wasn't
finished working in the attics. We went up the stairs and along the long corridor. I was wheezing from the dust. I should have been hot from all the running, but I saw there were goose pimples on my arms.

‘We can't,' I whispered as we got near the door at the end.

‘Yes we
can
,' said Jodie.

‘No, I mean we can't reach the bolt without Harley. It's too high up.'

‘He'll have to open it for us later. We haven't got time to go up the tower now. We're just going to get the door open, stupid, while we've got the keys.' She drew them out of the T-shirt and jangled them in my face. The noise sounded horribly loud. I flinched away from the keys as if they were attacking me.