Ask Eva (7 page)

Chapter Thirteen

I
pushed the door closed, and Ella and I stood in front of it, like we’d been turned to stone.

‘I’m so glad you’re here, girls,’ said Gigi. ‘We’ve been waiting and waiting. And we’re dying for our tea, aren’t we, Nancy?’

‘Yes, indeed,’ said Nancy. ‘But sit down and have a little rest first. You must be tired after your journey.’

This was so weird. Without saying a word, Ella and I went to sit on the bed. I lay Lucky in a corner, still covered with my fleece.

The two old ladies looked sweet, as they smiled happily at us, like little kiddies waiting
for a treat. I didn’t know what to say.

Who was Nancy and why was Gigi acting like they were best friends?

I thought all the other residents of the nursing home were supposed to be boring old farts.

‘Nancy isn’t a boring old fart,’ said Gigi, like she could read my mind. ‘I thought she was, but I was wrong. So I invited her to join us for tea.’

‘That was nice of you, Gigi,’ I said weakly.

Nancy smiled a sweet smile. ‘She didn’t have a choice anyway. I heard you three talking last week, and threatened to tell Nurse Witch if Gigi didn’t invite me to join you tonight.’

She had cute twinkly eyes, and I had no idea if she was serious or not. Was this a sweet old lady, or a big bully? I decided to keep Lucky hidden until I was sure. Fortunately, she seemed to have fallen asleep under my fleece.

‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ said Ella. ‘Does
everyone want tea?’

‘Did someone say tea?’

The door was pushed open and an old man came in, leaning on a walking aid and shuffling slowly forwards in his slippers.

‘I’ve brought cupcakes,’ he said, nodding towards a big bag that was hanging from the walking aid. ‘But my daughter-in-law made them, so they might well be poisonous – ha, ha!’

His laugh was loud and it really scared me. What if all this activity brought Nurse Witch upstairs? I
so
didn’t want that! I looked at Gigi, but she didn’t seem a bit worried.

‘Oh, Fred,’ she said. ‘So glad you could make it. Will one of you girls get him a chair from the hall?’

I couldn’t move without disturbing Lucky, so Ella went and got a chair and Fred lowered himself slowly into it.

‘Is that everyone?’ I asked, half-afraid of the answer.

‘Oh, yes,’ said Gigi. ‘Now hurry up, Ella, and pour out that tea before we all die of thirst. If there aren’t enough cups, you can use the glasses that are on the sink in my bathroom.’

A few minutes later, we were all settled with our tea and cakes. Despite what Fred had said, the cupcakes were delicious, and everyone had two. I crossed my fingers and hoped none of the old people was diabetic – I didn’t want to be responsible for a health crisis in the nursing home.

The old people chatted and told funny stories about long-ago. Far from being boring old farts, it sounded like Fred and Nancy had lived very exciting lives. Fred was a sailor and had travelled all over the world. Nancy had been a great tennis player, and had won heaps of international tournaments. I felt sorry for them, living under such strict rules now.

After a bit, the tea and cakes were gone, and
the old people looked a bit sleepy.

Ella looked at me and nodded.

‘Er, there’s one other thing,’ I said. ‘We brought a surprise.’

All the grey heads popped up again. ‘I
love
surprises,’ said Fred. ‘Is it a rude picture?’

‘No,’ I said, trying not to laugh. ‘It’s not a rude picture. It’s this.’

As I spoke, I lifted Lucky up so they could see her.

Gigi looked like she was going to faint. ‘A dog,’ she whispered. ‘You’ve brought us a dog. That’s the sweetest, sweetest thing.’

She held her hands out, and I brought Lucky over to her. She was still sleepy, and she snuggled into Gigi’s arms like a baby. Gigi stroked and kissed her and talked to her. ‘My pet. My lamb. My little love. Who’s the best, cuddliest doggie in the whole world? It’s you, isn’t it?’

This went on for ages and ages. It was like
Gigi had been saving up all the little things she used to whisper to Pedro, and was letting them out now. Lucky wagged her tiny tail, and licked Gigi’s fingers, and when Gigi’s tears of happiness fell on her coat, she didn’t even blink.

After a while, Fred and Nancy demanded a turn at holding Lucky, and she was passed around, like it was a game of pass the parcel. She didn’t mind, and went happily into each pair of quivery, wrinkled old hands, like it was the best thing ever.

‘OMG!’ said Ella in the end. ‘Look at the time. We’ve got to go.’

I jumped up and started to pack up the cups and stuff. Ella went over to Nancy and held her hands out.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘But we’ve got to take Lucky now.’

‘Take her?’ said Nancy.

‘Isn’t she staying here with us?’ asked Fred.

‘But pets aren’t allowed,’ I said. ‘Nurse Witch would never let her stay.’

‘Who said anything about Nurse Witch?’ said Nancy. ‘Lucky’s only a little scrap of a thing. We can easily hide her here.’

‘Once my friend smuggled a snake onto our ship,’ said Fred. ‘We kept him for months – until we got tired of catching mice for it to eat. Then we had to smuggle him back to the jungle – not easy, I can tell you.’

I looked desperately at Gigi. Surely she didn’t think that we could just go off and leave Lucky there? Had we accidentally broken her heart again?

But she was walking over to Nancy, and she very gently took Lucky out of her arms.

‘Say goodbye,’ she said. ‘Lucky has to go now. Her owner will be waiting for her.’

Nancy looked like she was going to cry.

‘We’ll bring her back next week,’ I said. ‘We promise.’

‘Cross your heart and hope to die?’ said Nancy.

‘Er, we just promise,’ said Ella.

I had finished tidying up, and Ella took Lucky from Gigi.

Gigi gave the dog a last kiss, and stood up as straight as she could. ‘Well, I don’t know about the rest of you,’ she said. ‘But it’s past my bedtime.’

Nancy and Fred took the not very subtle hint. They hauled themselves to their feet and after Fred released the brakes on his walking aid, they began to shuffle towards the door.

I wondered if we could just go away and leave them to look after themselves.

What if Nancy needed help to get undressed?

What if Fred needed to use the toilet and couldn’t manage on his own?

Were we going to have to do gross stuff?

‘Er … do either of you need any help?’ asked Ella, obviously thinking the same.

‘With anything?’ I added.

‘We are not babies,’ said Nancy. ‘We can manage perfectly well. But thank you for your kind offer.’

Gigi smiled at us. ‘Despite the way Nurse Witch treats us, we can all look after ourselves just fine. One day that might change, but for now, we simply want to do what we can.’

We watched as Nancy and Fred slowly made their way to their rooms, and then Ella tucked Gigi into bed, pulling the covers up over her skinny body.

‘Sleep tight,’ she said. ‘Don’t let the bed-bugs bite.’

‘You remember!’ said Gigi.

‘Of course I remember,’ said Ella. ‘You always used to say that to me when I was a little girl.’

She kissed Gigi on the forehead, and then we switched out the light and tip-toed from the room.

After that, everything went like a dream. We had no trouble sneaking past Nurse Witch. When we got to Maggie’s place, I was glad to see that there were no lights on downstairs. We went around to the side of the house, and

pushed the cat-flap open for Lucky. ‘You should be proud of yourself,’ I whispered. ‘You were a big success and you made all those people very happy.’

Lucky wriggled around and licked my face, almost like she understood, and then she went inside.

When we got back to Ella’s place, it looked like Alyson hadn’t moved from the couch. We quickly replaced the kettle and cups, and went upstairs to lie on Ella’s bed.

‘That was a totally cool evening,’ I said. ‘Who knew that hanging around a nursing home could be such fun?’

‘Yeah, it was great, wasn’t it?’

‘So you’re on for next Friday?’

‘Definitely. I think it’s going to be the highlight of my week.’

Chapter Fourteen

‘W
hat’s wrong with you today, Eva?’ asked Mum on Monday morning. ‘You’re very quiet and you’ve barely touched your breakfast.’

‘I know it’s kind of stupid,’ I said. ‘But I’m really nervous about meeting Aretta.’

‘That’s not stupid,’ said Mum. ‘It’s always difficult when a friend gets angry with you.’

‘It’s not so much the fact that she’s angry,’ I said. ‘It’s the fact that she’s right. We never should have followed her. It was a rotten thing to do.’

‘But you and Ella thought you were doing
the right thing.’

‘Ella didn’t even want to do it,’ I said. ‘It was all my idea.’

Mum smiled. ‘Poor Ella. I know how persuasive you can be. Anyway, it’s done now. All you can do is apologise again, give her that lovely bracelet, and hope that Aretta has calmed down over the weekend.’

‘I guess,’ I said. ‘And just in case she hasn’t, I’ve asked Ella to call for me here this morning. If Aretta’s mad, I don’t think I could face her on my own.’

Mum hugged me. ‘You’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘Now eat up, or you’ll be late.’

Ella and I got to school early, and hung around the playground. Everyone was pushing and shouting, but Ella and I didn’t talk. I knew she was nervous too. Before too long, we saw Aretta arriving. I was kind of glad – when you’re
dreading something, sometimes it’s easier to grit your teeth and get it over with.

It was easy to see Aretta making her way across the playground. She was taller than most of the girls and even some of the boys. She was walking in a straight line, but when she suddenly swerved to the left, I knew she’d seen Ella and me.

‘Come on,’ I said to Ella. ‘Let’s get this over with. We’ll say what we have to say, and give her the present. If she’s still mad at us after that, well there’s nothing else we can do.’

‘OK,’ said Ella. ‘Let’s do it. I’m right behind you.’

We pushed quickly through the crowd. Aretta started to walk faster, and I guessed she knew we were following her. I called her name once, but she didn’t look back. She was inside by the time I was close enough to grab her arm.

‘Wait up, Aretta,’ I said. ‘We just want to
talk to you.’

Aretta stopped walking and turned towards us. She still looked angry. Beside me, I sensed Ella taking a step backwards.

‘Please let me go,’ said Aretta. ‘I haven’t got anything to say to you.’

‘Won’t you listen to us for one minute?’ I said.

‘Give us a chance,’ added Ella.

For a second Aretta didn’t reply. Then her face relaxed a tiny, tiny bit.

‘This isn’t a good time. I’ve got a class to go to.’

I realised she was right. This wasn’t the kind of conversation you could rush through in two minutes, with kids shouting and pushing past you.

‘We could meet after school,’ I suggested. ‘There’s a park near here. It’s on your way home.’

Ella nudged me, and I realised I shouldn’t be
reminding Aretta that we knew how she went home.

‘The park is just down the road,’ Ella said. ‘You can’t miss it.’

‘I can’t hang around after school,’ said Aretta. ‘I’ve got ……stuff to do.’

‘Fifteen minutes,’ I said. ‘Can you give us fifteen minutes?’

‘Ten minutes,’ said Aretta, as she turned to walk away. ‘I’ll see you there straight after school.’

‘At least she didn’t say no,’ said Ella, as we walked to our French class.

‘I guess,’ I said. ‘Now we’ve just got a few hours to plan the perfect speech.’

The day dragged slowly on. I passed Aretta in the corridor a few times. She didn’t smile, but she didn’t look away either – I figured that was progress. In any classes we shared, she arrived
late, and sat as far away from me as possible, without actually sitting in the corridor.

Two minutes after school ended, Ella and I were sitting on a bench near the entrance to the park. It was a lovely day. Small kids were running around chasing pigeons. I felt a bit jealous of them. They could rely on their mums and dads to fix stuff for them. Ella and were older, and sometimes we had to fix our stuff on our own.

‘Hey,’ said Aretta, making me jump.

It was like she’d sneaked up on us. Maybe she was teaching us a lesson.

I slid across the bench to make room, but Aretta didn’t sit down. She stood in front of us and folded her arms. I realised she hadn’t been kidding when she said she was only going to listen to us for ten minutes.

‘We’re really, really sorry for following you
the other day,’ said Ella.

‘We can’t even make any excuses,’ I said. ‘We meant well, but it was a dumb thing to do.’

Aretta didn’t argue.

‘We got you something,’ said Ella. ‘Just to show you how sorry we are.’

I held the paper bag towards Aretta. She kept her hands in her pockets and looked at it like she wasn’t sure if it we were playing some kind of mean trick on her.

No one said anything for a while. Our time was running out, and I didn’t want to spend our last minutes sitting there like statues. I took the bracelet out of the bag, and held it on the palm of my hand. For a second, I remembered the way I used to hold treats towards a timid pony, back in the days when I used to go horse-riding. The bracelet shimmered in the sunshine, and looked like an enchanted treasure from a kid’s fairy-tale. Luckily the magic worked on Aretta.

‘That’s gorgeous,’ she said, as she reached out and picked it up.

‘Our friend’s mum made it,’ said Ella. ‘She sells them in the market.’

Aretta put the bracelet on. It looked amazing against her dark skin.

‘I love it,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’

‘So we’re forgiven?’ I asked.

Aretta smiled for the first time since she’d arrived. ‘I guess,’ she said.

After that it was easier. Aretta sat down beside us, and Ella told her about Ruby and her swimming scholarship, and how I had helped her, when she panicked on the day of the trials.

Then I told Aretta about the first time I met Ruby’s mum, when she was pretending to be a fortune-teller. Aretta laughed a lot, but then she jumped up suddenly, almost like an invisible timer had beeped in her brain.

‘I’ve got to go,’ she said.

Ella and I stood up too. ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I nearly forgot. My mum and dad said you can come over to our place after school someday. Ella can come too, and we can hang out and do stuff.’

‘I can’t,’ said Aretta.

I remembered the security guard outside her home. ‘It’s OK, I said. ‘I understand if you can’t invite me back to your place. That doesn’t matter. You can still come to my place any time you want.’

‘Or to mine,’ said Ella. ‘My parents love when I have friends over. They won’t mind that we never go to yours.’

‘It’s not that,’ said Aretta.

‘Then what …?’

I stopped myself. I didn’t want Aretta to think I was all nosy and interfering again.

Too late.

‘I’m busy after school every day,’ said Aretta, with a strange, cold look on her face. ‘And I
don’t have to explain why. Some things are private.’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘I understand.’

I didn’t really understand, but there was nothing I could do about it.

‘If you ever want to talk,’ said Ella. ‘Eva and I are good listeners.’

‘Thanks,’ said Aretta. ‘But I’m fine. Now I really have to go. Thanks for the bracelet. See you at school tomorrow.’

‘I think that went OK,’ said Ella when Aretta had gone.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘It
was
OK. But I’d still love to know what that girl does after school. If she was really going to ballet or piano lessons, she would have said. She didn’t mention activities though. She just acted all weird when I asked why she couldn’t hang out with us – so there has to be something else. There has to be a
reason she does her vanishing act every day at four o’clock.’

‘Eva!’ said Ella. ‘Didn’t you hear the girl? She doesn’t want us to poke our noses into her life. She doesn’t need our help.’

‘
Everyone
needs help sometimes.’

‘When she wants our help, I’m sure she’ll ask for it, and until then, we’ll have to back off.’

‘But what if––?

‘I’m not kidding, Eva. I know you’re only trying to help Aretta, but there’s nothing we can do. If we interfere in her life any more, Aretta’s
so
not going to be happy.’