‘Good. I don’t like it at Mrs Oakley’s. Sometimes they look at me strangely.’
She felt her father tense for a second, then he stroked her crisp red-brown curls. ‘That’s only because they don’t understand that you are special, my bright little firefly.’
Betty leant more closely into his body.
‘It’ll be all right. We’ll work something out,’ he said.
The next morning, Betty clung to her father’s hand outside a big red-brick house that she thought she sort of recognised.
‘Do you remember coming here, little firefly?’
Betty shook her head.
‘This is your grandpa and grandma’s house.’
She followed her father up the driveway and stood half behind his legs while he rang the bell.
The door was opened by a tall man with thick black-framed glasses and a big moustache.
‘Mr Thompson…’ Daddy started.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I … Can we come in?’
The man shook his head. ‘I’ll not have you upsetting Pam’s mother.’
‘Right. Well, it’s Pam. She’s in the hospital. The Retreat.’
The man folded his arms.
‘And Betty…’ Betty felt her father step to one side so the man could see her properly. ‘I’ve no-one to watch her while I’m at work and so…’
‘And so you thought you’d turn up here like nothing had happened.’
‘No. I …’
‘We were quite clear when Pamela made her decision. We’re happy to take her back and we’ll look after the girl. You can leave her here right now and go off and get on with your life.’
Betty’s father reached down and took hold of her hand. ‘I won’t abandon my child. If you could just take care of her for a few hours.’
The man on the doorstep calmly shook his head. ‘We’ll take her and we’ll raise her properly. But we will not have you coming to this house. Make your choice.’
Betty glanced up at her father. His face was creased with emotions that she didn’t understand. He knelt down next to her. ‘Would you like to stay here, Betty?’
‘’Til you come back?’
Her daddy screwed his eyes shut for a second like Betty did sometimes when she was trying not to cry. When he opened them again, he reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. ‘Don’t worry, little firefly. It was a silly idea. Daddy won’t leave you anywhere…’
Betty didn’t hear the rest of his sentence. Her own wail drowned it out. Even the idea of him leaving her was too much to hold inside her head. Mummy had to go away, but Daddy was still here. She flung herself against his body, throwing her arms around his neck. His hands wrapped straight around her, lifting her up as he stood. ‘Well, that’s settled, then.’
She buried her face in his neck.
‘We’ll be going.’
She let him carry her back down the driveway and into the street. Eventually he put her down next to a shiny red telephone box. ‘I just need to telephone the office at work, and then we’ll go to the park. Feed the ducks.’
Betty beamed. A whole day out with Daddy was so exciting. And maybe tomorrow Mummy would come back and everything would be normal again.
Jane
It was so quiet when I woke up. At home, it was never quiet. There were always people running around, dogs barking, and children laughing. And seagulls, because we all lived near the beach. But in this new place, it was very, very quiet. I guess that was because there was only me and Mrs Reed and my two cousins. That’s not many people for such a big house.
I got out of bed and put my clothes on. My tummy rumbled as I did, so I left my tiny room with its pretty pink bedspread, and went in search of breakfast. I hoped the Reeds had cereal and milk.
I found the milk in the fridge, and put it on the bench. I started opening cupboards and found a bowl, but there was no food. I looked up at the cupboards above my head. I would need a chair to stand on. I found chairs around a big polished wooden table in another room and dragged one into the kitchen.
I took a deep breath then I climbed on the chair. I kept one hand on the back of the chair, and quickly grabbed the cupboard handle until the room stopped swirling around me. I didn’t like high places. Mum always kept the cereal in the low cupboards so I didn’t have to stand on chairs. I hoped Mrs Reed would do the same if I asked her. But until then, I told myself, I really could do this. And besides, I was hungry.
When I felt better and opened the cupboard nearest to me, there were biscuits. Lots and lots of biscuits. Biscuits were much better than cereal and milk. I dropped two packets of chocolate biscuits onto the bench and then climbed down off the chair. I was eating my second biscuit when I heard a familiar noise from outside.
There were seagulls here in the city too. That was exciting. I hadn’t expected to see any birds or animals at all.
I grabbed a couple more biscuits and ran out of the kitchen into the big living room. The seagulls must be out there, through the big glass doors where I could see the sky. It took me a couple of tries to get the door open, but finally the latch clicked and I jumped through the door.
The sky was right in front of me. There were no people, or trees, or cars, or even buildings to break up the big blue open sky. I glanced down and my tummy twisted. I was looking down onto the tops of the buildings across the street and then below that the road was a tiny slither of grey a million miles below me.
I was going to fall. I was going to fall until I was as small as the people in the miniature cars beneath me. The ground was so far away, and the sky was spinning around and around me. I grabbed at the nearest thing I could reach. A little basketwork chair. But that didn’t help, the chair fell too and I dropped onto the hard tile floor with the chair on top of me.
All I wanted to do was crawl back through the big glass doors to a place where I was safe from falling. The chair was light. I should have been able to lift it off myself quite easily, but it wouldn’t budge. Something, someone, was holding it down. I wriggled as much as I could and caught a glimpse of a pair of feet; feet that were still safely on the soft carpet.
‘Help me up.’
The feet didn’t move. There was the sound of laughter.
‘Please…’ I pushed against the chair.
‘What is going on here?’ At last someone lifted the chair out of the way. A rough hand grabbed me by the arm and hauled me to my feet. I darted back into the room where it was safe, backing away from the open door, trying very hard not to cry.
My cousin John was standing just inside the door. He was smiling, not a friendly smile, but a nasty, tight smile. It was the sort of smile I had never seen before. Nobody at home smiled like that.
‘What on earth were you doing out there at this hour of the morning? Come on, girl. Stop your snivelling.’ Mrs Reed towered over me, and, try as I might, I could not stop sobbing. My whole body was shaking with fear.
‘What’s that in your hand?’ Mrs Reed grabbed my closed hand and slowly prised the fingers opened to reveal the broken biscuit still tightly clutched inside.
‘Have you been stealing food?’
‘Stealing?