Careful What You Wish For (12 page)

‘So.’ Rodney hopped down from the rock and began walking up and down on the grass, frowning hard, his hands clasped behind his back. ‘You want to be the centre of attention. You want a flash house, and you want your parents to be
normal
?’

‘Yes.’

‘It might be difficult getting the
normal
part right.’

‘Really?’ Ruth was surprised. ‘I thought that would be the
easy
part.’

‘
Normal
is very close to
boring
on the scale I work with.’ Rodney scratched his head. ‘But we can try.’

Ruth had a sudden flash from the previous week of her mother standing in the middle of the street with her arms held out.
Come on, Ruthie
, Mrs Craze had called,
come and welcome the rain!
Ruth had seen at least three neighbours peering through their windows watching her.

‘Boring is absolutely fine with me!’ she said grimly.

‘Okay, is that everything?’ he asked.

Ruth closed her eyes and tried to think.

‘I’d like some friends again,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I mean
girl
friends. Howard is good, but he’s … sort of not who I want to hang out with all the time.’

‘Fair enough,’ Rodney said thoughtfully. ‘I’ll do my best.’

11

‘A
re you ready, Ruth?’

She was sitting cross-legged on the ground under the bridge. The rat was standing on a nearby log looking down at her.

‘Yes.’ Ruth tried not to sound nervous. ‘I’m ready.’

‘Okay. Let’s go!’ Rodney closed his eyes. ‘Remember – up some steps and through a red door and you’ll be there.’

Ruth nodded and closed her eyes too.

Rodney began a high-pitched hum, which changed after a minute into a low, thundery one.

Ruth began to feel slightly faint. The humming went on and on with nothing at all happening. She snuck a quick glance at the rat from under her lashes. Was he serious? Rodney was now raising both tiny arms and circling his paws. He suddenly let out a high-pitched squeak and brought them down.

A rush of air hit Ruth’s eardrums. This was followed by a mighty roar that got louder and louder. Then it stopped abruptly.

All was quiet; the colour and light began to shimmer and dim, and then faded away into heavy blackness.

Even though her eyes were open, Ruth could see nothing. The blackness felt almost syrupy, as though she might be sitting in a pool of treacle.
Was she blind?

Ever so gradually light began to leak in, almost imperceptibly. Ruth blinked hard a few times, trying to make it happen more quickly, but it remained a slow trickle. Until at last she could see!

She was in a gloomy hallway, standing at the bottom of a long flight of old wooden stairs. There were no banisters and the stairs looked rickety and unsafe, but at the very top, only just visible, was a shiny red door.

Ruth looked around. There was no way out of this damp, horrible place except upwards. Too late to back out now. She was going to have to take the risk.
One step at a time
, she told herself,
and don’t look back
.

Up she went, the stairs swaying and rocking beneath her. She thought she might fall at any moment.
Don’t look down
.

At last she reached the top. Even though she was on quite a flat little landing she still didn’t dare to look down, but reached for the brass handle of the red door, praying with all her might that it would open and let her through. When it did just that she breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

It was summertime, bright and warm and wonderful with a clear blue sky above.
What a relief!
Ruth looked around and saw that she was standing on the edge of a big heart-shaped pool. The water was sparkling in the brilliant sunlight. She looked down and saw with real pleasure that she was wearing bright-red bathers – the exact same pair of red bathers, in fact, that she’d wanted last Christmas and didn’t get!

So where was she? And why did it feel so familiar? Had she been here before?

When she finally twigged, she had to laugh with amazement. She was in … her very own backyard, only everything was totally different. With all the scraggy bushes and piles of old timber and disused furniture gone, it was actually really big. No more rotting posts holding up the verandah. No peeling weatherboards. No football boots and bikes and discarded backpacks lying about, either.

In fact, everything was clean and neat and perfect and there was no rubbish anywhere. Not one thing was out of place. The house itself had been painted a nice bright white with deep-red trimmings. The big backyard was as neat as a pin, surrounded on all sides by a very high, green, perfectly clipped hedge. The old fruit trees down near the back fence had gone. There were two long, perfectly manicured flowerbeds with a little path lined with rose bushes in the middle. It led down to the back gate. The huge back shed full to bursting with all her father’s bizarre inventions and her mother’s pottery studio had disappeared. In its place was a cute gazebo with towels and rubber pool toys hanging neatly on hooks.

Ruth’s heart rate quickened with excitement and pleasure. Everything was so neat and ordered … it was all too much. Almost.

‘Ruthie!’ A voice sounding just like her mother’s, only softer and sweeter, came to her gently on the breeze.

Ruth peered around but couldn’t see anyone. She walked around the pool, hoping like crazy it wasn’t all going to fade away any minute. What if it was just a dream? How disappointed she would be if she woke up suddenly and she was back in her normal house! But the bricks beneath her feet were as hard as any bricks, and when she reached out to touch a rose bush the leaves were shiny and thick. She bent to smell one of the blooms and smiled with delight, because the smell was heavy and strong. One of the thorns on the stem gave her finger a tiny prick and when Ruth brought it up to her mouth her blood tasted exactly the same too. She knew then that it wasn’t all going to disappear.

‘Mum?’ she called tentatively.

‘Over here, sweetie!’

A strange woman was coming around the side of the house with a watering-can. The woman smiled and Ruth saw that it
was
her mother but that she …
looked totally different
. This mother was wearing make-up and high-heeled sandals, and her long grey hair had been cut off and coloured with blonde streaks. She was dressed in bright-green three-quarter pants and a striped T-shirt and she’d lost a lot of weight.

‘Nice little snooze?’ her new mother called gaily. ‘I’m going to fix lunch soon.’

Ruth nodded and smiled back shyly. Something else was different about her mother. It wasn’t just the new clothes and make-up, but Ruth couldn’t work out what it was. Not that it really mattered too much, because this woman looked so wonderful compared to her old mother.

‘Why don’t I fix your hair so you can have a swim before lunch?’ The new mother was walking over with a big smile plastered over her face. She reached Ruth and turned her around by the shoulders.

‘My gorgeous girl,’ she murmured. ‘Such lovely hair.’

Ruth tried not to feel awkward as her mother ran her fingers through her hair, eventually pulling it back into a ponytail, but … it
did
feel a bit weird. In fact, it took all Ruth’s willpower not to cringe when she felt sweet-smelling, warm breath on her neck.
Was this really her mother?

Back in her old life, Ruth’s mother hadn’t done her hair in years, and she never called her
gorgeous girl
. Still … it might be something she could get used to!

‘Think I’ll have a swim now,’ she stammered, pulling away.

‘That’s a good idea.’ Mrs Craze pulled Ruth back briefly and kissed her on the nose. ‘Then we can have lunch, okay, sweetie?’

‘Okay.’

‘Enjoy!’ her new mother laughed gaily.

Ruth dived straight into the pool and ploughed up and down for a while. It was quite a big pool and it took a bit of time to get from one end to the other. She swam a few laps and then began to swim around in circles. She knew she probably looked like a demented shark, but she really needed to release some energy and
take it all in
.

‘How is it?’

Ruth looked over, alarmed to see that her mother was standing on the edge watching her swim, still with that same big, wide smile all over her face. When she caught Ruth’s eye she gave a fluttery wave with one hand – the long, bright nails flickered like lollies in the sunshine. Back in her old life, her mother’s hands were brown and worn and the nails were bitten right down.

‘You need lessons, sweetie. Your style is all out.’

‘I know.’ Ruth turned onto her back self-consciously and floated with arms out wide, looking up at the blue sky for as long as she could. When she risked another glance she saw with relief that her mother had moved inside. Through the big glass window she could see her moving around in the kitchen. Ruth was hungry but she continued to tread water, trying to calm down and get used to the big change.

Eventually she got tired and rested with her arms up on the side of the pool. She looked around the garden again, feeling insanely pleased.
Good old Rodney!
She smiled as she remembered the rat’s instructions to find the red door first. As if she’d want to leave paradise! But maybe she should look around, just to be on the safe side.

There was a gate right at the end of the ordered garden. Would that be it? But no, it had to be red. Never mind. He said it would be easy to find, and anyway in a couple of hours this whole new set-up would seem normal and going back to that dreary old life would be the last thing on her mind. How lucky that she had found Rodney! Here she was in her very own pool on a hot summer day. Her mum was inside getting lunch and she had on the new bathers she wanted. What more could she ask for?

She got out of the pool and just as she was thinking that she would sit down on one of the recliner chairs nearby to dry off, her mother came flying out of the back door with two huge fluffy towels.

‘Shower first, sweetie?’ she said anxiously, pointing to an outdoor shower at one side of the gazebo.

‘Okay.’ Ruth followed her over to the shower.

‘Got to get that chlorine out of your hair.’ Mrs Craze pulled Ruth under the nozzle and turned on the tap. ‘Temperature okay?’

‘Yep. I can do it myself though.’

But her new mother insisted on rubbing in the shampoo and conditioner and making sure it was all rinsed out properly.

Ruth closed her eyes and tried not to mind the fussing. At last it was over and she stepped out into the sunshine.

Her mother was holding out one of the fluffy towels. ‘Now, I’ve brought out your dress and sandals.’

‘Thanks.’ Ruth moved away a little and tried to take the towel.

‘Darling,’ her mother said gently, ‘we can’t have you dripping on the carpet, can we?’

So Ruth stood there while Mrs Craze rubbed her hair dry and then knelt down to dry her legs and feet. She dried each toe carefully, as though Ruth was a little kid.

Ruth was on the point of saying,
‘I’ve been drying myself for years!’
but somehow the words stuck in her throat. Maybe she was still too nervous?

‘Now put this on,’ her mother said, handing her a cute sundress, ‘and we’ll have lunch.’

Ruth slipped on the dress and turned for her mother to do up the zip. She longed suddenly for all her old friends to see her new circumstances. Lou would be so jealous of this little white sundress with the red trim, not to mention the garden and pool. None of them had a pool.

Ruth and her mother made their way into the house.

Once inside, Ruth simply stood there staring. Without all the piles of junk, the family room looked totally different. It was huge. Enormous floor-to-ceiling windows had been put in along its northern side, so light flooded in and there was a spectacular view out onto the beautifully manicured backyard. But the interior was something else. It had been elegantly decorated in cream and charcoal, with splashes of red in the cushions and curtains.

Above the breakfast bar was a banner that read
Happy Birthday, Ruth!
in fluttery gold lettering.
So! She’d arrived on her birthday. What luck!

The door leading out to the hallway was festooned with matching red and gold streamers. Everything was tasteful and lovely, and there were three unopened packages sitting on the table.

‘Are these for me?’ A rush of glee made Ruth lightheaded. One of the packages was slim and square and … She closed her eyes.
Could it be?
She was itching to open the package to see if it was the slim silver laptop she desperately wanted.

‘Not yet, Ruthie!’ her mother laughed as she hurried over to the stove behind the breakfast bar and pulled a tray of freshly grilled hamburgers out from under the griller. ‘You must wait until Daddy arrives.’

Daddy?
Ruth winced at the word. She hadn’t called her father
Daddy
since she was about six.
Never mind
. She’d get used to all this. She’d make sure she did.

‘Perfect.’ Her mother was putting the meat onto the bread rolls. ‘Come and sit down.’