The Strawberry Sisters (6 page)

Lucy flopped her head about. ‘I already had to use my imagination all day at school because there’s no TV there either.’

‘I’m surprised that your mother approves. She’s an educator, yes? There is research that shows television has a negative influence on children’s mood and
concentration.’

TV isn’t the only difference between our house and Dad’s. At home it’s not just the Pit that is crammed full of things. Everywhere you look there’s stuff; plates in the
sink, dirty clothes spilling out of the laundry bin, Lucy’s toys on the floor. We haven’t even got enough shelves for all our books so there’s a giant wobbly structure in the
corner of the sitting room called Book Mountain.

Dad’s house is more . . . empty. There are big bits of white space everywhere. Some of their shelves have only got one vase on. The walls are white and the chairs and sofas and other
furniture are white too, or grey or beige. Dad says it’s calming. Chloe says it’s boring. Amelia says it’s pretentious, which is when you have silly stuff because you think it
makes you look good. But actually I think Suvi really likes it. She prefers things to be simple. I’ve never seen her wear anything spotty or flowery.

Suvi started telling Lucy about the percentage of children who do horrible things after they’ve been watching TV. I sat down at the table next to Chloe.

‘How was your day?’ I asked.

‘Stupid. Some of the girls in my class have started wearing that black stuff on their eyes like Amelia.’

‘Oh.’

‘I mean, if I wanted to dress up like a vampire, I might draw black circles round my eyes, but I don’t know why they think it makes them look cool.’

‘Me neither.’

‘They reckon it will make the boys want to kiss them.’

‘Does it?’

Chloe screwed up her face. ‘Dunno. Why would you want a gross boy to kiss you anyway? They’re all stupid.’

I nodded. ‘Where’s Dad?’

Our dad is supposed to finish early on Wednesdays so that he can get home to spend time with us, but often he gets tied up with writing reports and other important things.

‘He rang,’ Chloe said. ‘He said he’s r—’

‘Running late,’ I finished.

‘Yep. But he’ll be back by five and he said he’ll take us to the cinema to see that film we’ve been pestering him about.’

I love the cinema. Sitting in the dark with lots of people and the bigness of the screen and the loudness of the loud bits makes the whole film more intense.

Chloe and me watched Lucy and Suvi saying the same things that they always say when they argue about TV, then I did my history homework. When it was ten to five, I looked at Suvi. Even though
I’d known her for over a year, I still hadn’t quite got used to her. I expected her to tell us it was time to get ready, but Suvi doesn’t really do that sort of thing.

‘Lucy,’ I said, trying to take charge. ‘You need to put your shoes on.’

‘I don’t like those shoes.’

‘But you’ve got to wear shoes so we can go to the cinema.’

Lucy squeezed her eyes half shut and glowered at me. I hate it when she does that.

‘Ah,’ said Chloe. ‘Lucy’s giving you the evil eye!’

‘I’m just trying to help you get ready,’ I said to Lucy. ‘And you’d better go to the loo before we leave.’

Lucy’s eyes narrowed to slits.

‘Oh, she’s good!’ Chloe said. ‘I’ve taught her well.’

Obviously, Chloe wasn’t going to be any help. ‘Suvi, Lucy won’t go to the loo,’ I said.

‘So?’

‘Can you make her?’

‘I cannot make her.’

Lucy stopped evil-eyeing me and smiled.

I turned back to Suvi. ‘But what if she needs to go in the middle of the film?’

‘Then she will miss some.’

Lucy doesn’t like missing things. ‘What if she just wets herself in the cinema?’

‘Then I think people will say, “Look at that little girl. She has peed.”’

Lucy’s scowl came back, but I noticed that, when Suvi went to check on her saucepan, Lucy crept upstairs to the bathroom.

At twenty past five, we heard Dad’s car pull into the driveway.

A few moments later, he opened the front door and called, ‘I’m here! Don’t panic. Everybody ready?’

Chloe gave him a bear hug and started telling him about how many goals she’d scored in netball.

‘Lucy still hasn’t put on her shoes,’ I told him.

‘Lucy, put your shoes on. We’re going to miss the beginning if we don’t leave now.’

‘I can’t. I haven’t got any socks on.’

‘Where are your socks?’

‘Chloe’s wearing them.’

‘Is that right, Clo?’

‘They were clean. Well, cleanish. My ones were all muddy.’

‘What’s Lucy supposed to wear?’

‘I don’t know. I’m not Lucy.’

‘Showing your usual consideration for others,’ Amelia said to Chloe, pushing past her to grab her own shoes.

‘Take these.’ Suvi handed Lucy a balled-up pair of socks.

‘Are those baby socks? Because I’m not a baby. I’m seven. I can swim twenty-five metres.’

‘They’re your socks; you left them last time you were here.’

Lucy put on the socks and shoes and we scrambled out of the door.

‘What time does it start?’ Dad asked.

‘Three and a half minutes ago,’ Amelia said. She sounded a little bit pleased.

‘Can we get there in time?’ Lucy asked.

‘Not without a time machine,’ Dad said.

‘How long does it take to drive there?’ Chloe asked.

‘Ten minutes.’

‘If you drive really fast, you can get there three and a half minutes ago, can’t you, Dad?’

‘I’ll see what I can do, Lucy.’ He pulled open the back door of the car. ‘Oh . . .’

‘Poo,’ Chloe said.

‘Don’t say poo,’ Lucy said. ‘You’re not supposed to say poo. Why is poo a bad word, Daddy? Is it because poo stinks? Is it? And poo is disgusting?’

‘Stop saying poo, Lucy,’ I said.

Dad was staring at Kirsti’s car seat which was taking up a whole person-sized space in the back seat.

‘Doesn’t that come out?’ Amelia asked.

‘The base is screwed in. It’ll take a while for me to get it undone.’ There was only room for four people in the car and there were five of us including Dad.

‘Could Lucy sit in it?’ Chloe asked.

Lucy’s eyes blazed. ‘I—’

Dad put his hand over her mouth before she could start lecturing us about how seven-year-olds are practically grown up and don’t sit in baby car seats.

‘She needs to sit on her own booster seat anyway,’ Dad said.

‘We’re missing all the trailers,’ Chloe whined.

‘I could stay here,’ I said quietly. But it doesn’t count as being nice if no one can hear you so I said it a bit louder.

‘Really, Ella?’ Dad asked.

Amelia was already getting into the car.

‘Do you want me to stay with you?’ Chloe asked.

‘That’s OK,’ I said. I did want her to stay, but we’d seen the trailer for the film and there were lots of people walking into things and one bit where someone jumped out
of a car as it fell off a bridge. Those are things that Chloe really likes in a film.

They all got into the car and I watched them drive away. It seemed pretty unfair that Kirsti was taking my place, even though she wasn’t actually in the car. But it’s not very bright
side-ish to think mean things about a baby so I stopped staring at where the car had been and went back into the house.

Suvi was breastfeeding Kirsti. When I told her what had happened, she said, ‘Do you want me to drive you? Kirsti has just started, but when she is finished I can take you.’

Suvi had already explained to us that Kirsti’s feeds weren’t in a pattern yet and sometimes she feeds for ages.

‘No. It’s OK,’ I said.

‘It was kind of you to let your sisters go,’ she said.

Which was nice because none of the people I was being kind to seemed to have noticed.

‘I’ve just made a pot of peppermint tea; do you want to get yourself some?’ she asked.

I didn’t, but I went to the kitchen and poured a cup anyway.

I’d never really spent any time alone with Suvi. I wished it was Dad I was with because I didn’t often get to talk to him alone. I slurped my tea for something to do. It wasn’t
very tea-ish. Or even very pepperminty. We used to make potions out of leaves in the back garden and once Chloe persuaded me to drink a mouthful, even though I was afraid we’d poison
ourselves. The peppermint tea tasted a bit like the leaf potion.

I wondered if they’d missed much of the film.

‘At least Lucy won’t need to pee,’ I said.

Suvi nodded. ‘Lucy does not like to be told what to do, yes?’

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lucy follow an instruction, but it didn’t seem right to be talking about her like that with Suvi so I just said, ‘I think she finds it
difficult, you know, being at home and then being here.’

‘Of course. Change is unsettling.’

I nodded. ‘I guess she thought . . .
we
thought that we knew about our family and then it’s a bit of a surprise when you suddenly get an extra person.’ Kirsti flailed a
tiny arm. ‘Two extra people.’

There was a pause.

‘Yes, I can see that having extra people is hard,’ Suvi said.

I was watching her face carefully because when someone is feeding a baby it seems rude to look at their boob. I had always thought that Suvi had a face with no feelings in it and a voice that
was serious all the time. But, when I looked at her, there was a bit of a joke in her eyes. I wasn’t sure what the joke was to start with, but then I realised that she had suddenly got
four
more people in her family. And one of them was Lucy. And another was Amelia. I felt bad for Suvi because I’d never even wondered what it felt like to suddenly have four
stepchildren.

‘My mum says that people take a while to get used to each other,’ I said.

‘Your mother is smart.’

I knew that, but I hadn’t expected Suvi to know it too. I couldn’t think of a time when Mum and Suvi had even really been in the same room.

Suvi tucked a cushion behind her back. ‘Your dad and I really would like for you girls to feel at home here,’ she said.

It was a nice thing to say. I couldn’t tell her that I couldn’t ever imagine us trampolining on the sofa or having a floor picnic like we do at home.

‘Lucy would be happier with a TV,’ I said.

Suvi sighed. ‘You have to remember that it is also my home and Kirsti’s home and your father’s too. I want my family, all my family, to talk and play, not to watch
TV.’

It seemed like she really felt strongly about that. I tried to think of something smaller that would make Lucy happy.

‘How about orange squash? Would it not be your home with squash in it?’

Normally, you only got water to drink at Dad’s house. Or leaf-potion tea.

Suvi tilted her head to one side. ‘I guess I can handle some squash,’ she said. ‘I’ll keep the door of the cupboard closed so I don’t have to look at its
sugariness.’

Her eyes were joking again.

I sipped my tea very slowly until Kirsti finished feeding. She was so full that while Suvi was winding her she went off to sleep. Suvi laid her gently in her basket.

‘I’m going to send some work emails now, OK?’ she asked.

‘Are they making you do work already? I thought you were having your maternity time off?’

‘I am. I won’t go back to work until the summer, but I’m trying to keep in touch. I want to see how my projects are going. They can probably do them without me, but I like to
think they can’t.’

I had finished all my homework so I looked at the algebra chapter in my maths textbook. I like algebra because you start off with a mystery number, but if you follow the rules you can work out
what it is. It’s like detective work.

After a long while, Suvi put some papers back in a file and shut her laptop and asked me, ‘Do you need any help?’

‘No, I’m done. I’m just looking at this for fun.’

She looked down at the page and up at me. ‘You like maths, huh?’

‘Yep, it’s my favourite.’

‘Why do you like it?’

‘It’s really . . . neat. When you work something out, then it’s finished, and you can always work everything out as long as you know the right way. There’s always a
definite answer.’

‘And everything fits into place?’ Suvi asked.

‘Yes! Exactly. I like everything to have a place.’

‘Me too.’ She slid her file neatly back on the shelf.

The front door banged open and Chloe rushed in, followed by the others. She gave me half a carton of popcorn. ‘I saved you some!’ she said. ‘But you have to take it quick
before I eat any more. I was going to save you the whole thing, but then it was just sitting there on my lap and it smelt really good . . . Can I just have one last piece?’

I held out the carton to her, then took a handful myself.

‘How was the film?’ Suvi asked.

‘Saccharine nonsense full of worthy morals for good citizens,’ Amelia said.

‘She means it had a happy ending,’ Chloe said. ‘Which was mushy, but the car chases were good.’

‘The crashes were the best bit,’ Lucy said.

‘Was this a suitable film for Lucy?’ Suvi asked Dad.

Dad smiled. ‘It was one of those CGI animation things.’

‘They’re the worst,’ Suvi said.

Lucy’s eyes widened. ‘Don’t you like anything? What things do you actually like?’

‘Maths,’ Suvi said in her unexcited voice, but her eyes were smiley at me.

‘Say goodnight, Lucy,’ Dad said. ‘It’s past your bedtime.’

‘Just a minute, I have to do something.’ She went up to Kirsti’s basket and leant over to whisper something to her. She looked like the wicked fairy putting a curse on Sleeping
Beauty. Then she turned and clumped up the stairs.

I’m not sure that Lucy likes Kirsti.