My Mum Tracy Beaker Read online

  ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘Tracy’s not that sort of person at all,’ said Cam.

  ‘Maybe she’s turning into Granny Carly.’ I meant it as a joke, but my voice wobbled. What if she really was?

  ‘Look, I know your mum better than anyone. She’s gone a bit bonkers just at the moment, but she’ll soon snap back into her old self.’ Cam meant it to sound reassuring, but her voice went a bit funny too.

  ‘She did try to get the china dogs and the teddies and all our other stuff back – though Sean Godfrey stopped her,’ I said.

  ‘What? Didn’t he let you take all your special things?’ This time Cam was outraged.

  ‘He says he’ll get Mum new things. He doesn’t like anything second-hand. Mum and I don’t even go to Sunday boot fairs any more,’ I said. ‘She just has a long lie-in with him.’

  Cam pulled a face. ‘Well, tell you what we’re going to do,’ she said, scrabbling in her bag and bringing out a set of keys. ‘Aha! Look! Your mum gave me a spare key to your flat ages ago. Let’s go there right this minute and collect some of your stuff. And then tomorrow morning we’ll go to a boot fair, you and me. If Sean creates, you can always keep your treasures here, OK?’

  ‘Oh, Cam, I do love you,’ I said, throwing my arms around her neck. ‘I’m so, so glad you came along to the children’s home and met Mum!’

  The girls were all going out bowling. Cam and Alfie and I went to Marlborough Tower.

  When we got inside the flat I burst into tears. It seemed to have shrunk, and I saw that the sofa was a bit saggy and the curtains uneven and the damp patch on the wall much bigger – but it was still home. Alfie liked it too, and bounded around, trying the sofa and the chairs and the beds for size. He barked happily at everything, though I kept trying to shush him because dogs weren’t allowed. I kept imagining some scary dog catcher creeping along the balcony with a big net and a cage, all set to capture him.

  ‘Calm down, Alfie! We won’t be long, I promise. Please stop barking,’ I begged.

  I went around the flat giving everything a little stroke, even the kettle and the toilet-roll holder and the wastepaper basket.

  ‘So what do you want to take, Jess?’ Cam asked. She’d brought two big bags-for-life and some bubble wrap.

  I gave the flat another quick circuit. ‘Everything!’ I declared.

  ‘I know. I understand. But we can’t shrink it all down so it fits into two bags. Pick out the things you like best, and we’ll take them now. We can always come back for more before the council gives the flat to someone else,’ said Cam.

  ‘Nobody else should be allowed to come and live in our flat!’ I declared.

  ‘I know. I felt like that about my old flat,’ said Cam. ‘It was small and shabby but it was my flat, and I thought it looked lovely, with all my books and plants, and my pictures on the wall. I was very happy there, especially when your mum came to live with me. Still, I think she always hoped I’d write a bestseller and we’d move somewhere really swish.’

  ‘Yeah – and now she has,’ I said, sighing.

  ‘Come on now, Jess, let’s get your favourite things. Alfie’s looking fidgety. We don’t want him weeing on the carpet,’ said Cam.

  I picked out the china dogs, and the teddies, and the Toby jugs, and the balloon ladies, and the bluebirds, and the plaster ducks, and the parrot in the cage. I wanted the bookcase as well, but Cam said it was too big to go in her car.

  I chose some clothes instead – my cosy dressing gown, and last year’s jacket with the silky red lining, and my shorts, and my green swimming costume and my matching green flip-flops with big daisies on the toe-straps.

  ‘Excellent choices,’ said Cam. ‘What about your mum’s clothes? Do you think she’ll want any?’

  ‘I know!’ I went to Mum’s wardrobe and burrowed my way through her jeans and jackets and found the child’s outfit right at the back, on a special little hanger. It was a red jumper and a blue skirt. They were very old and had a musty wardrobe smell, but several times I’d caught Mum getting them out and looking at them.

  I’d wondered if she’d bought them at a boot fair and was keeping them for me. I rather hoped not because I didn’t really like them. For ages they were too big for me, but now they seemed exactly the right size – though she hadn’t made me wear them. She hadn’t chucked them out either. She’d just kept them in the wardrobe, as if they were special.

  Cam saw me holding them. ‘Oh my goodness.’ She held the old woolly jumper to her cheek and then smoothed the crumpled skirt. ‘I had no idea your mum still had these. They were her clothes – the ones she always wore at the children’s home. She was wearing them the day we met. Yes, let’s take them too. I want them, even if your mum doesn’t!’

  We set off with the two bulging bags, Alfie capering along the balcony, barking his head off. I kept looking back, wishing I’d been able to take more. I even wondered about our doormat, the one that said Home Sweet Home.

  When we got back to Cam’s I felt all shaken up and sad, but she made us hot chocolate with whippy cream on top, and we watched a DVD, and I cheered up. Mum sent me a funny goodnight text via Cam’s phone, saying she was staying the night in a fairy-tale castle that I would absolutely love. She signed it Cinderella. Did she really think Sean Godfrey was the handsome prince? I went to sleep in my borrowed bed surprisingly quickly – but I woke up very early, wide awake.

  I kept thinking about our flat. Even if I smuggled all our precious things into Sean Godfrey’s house, it still wouldn’t be home. Mum might be planning to marry in a fairytale castle, but I didn’t see how our story could possibly end happily ever after.

  My tummy felt tight. I got up to go to the loo. I tried to walk on tiptoe so I wouldn’t disturb Alfie. He was curled up at the end of my bed, thankfully not stirring, but Cam must have heard me pattering up and down the landing. Her door opened.

  ‘Jess? Are you all right?’ she whispered.

  ‘Not really,’ I mumbled. ‘I’ve got tummy ache.’

  ‘Come in here then.’

  I got into bed with her. It wasn’t really cold but I seemed to be shivering.

  ‘There now,’ said Cam, giving me a cuddle.

  I gradually got warmer and the knots in my tummy loosened.

  ‘Bit better?’ she asked.

  ‘A lot better. Sorry if I woke you.’

  ‘I was actually awake myself.’

  ‘Were you worrying too?’

  ‘I suppose I was.’

  ‘About Mum or me?’

  ‘That’s the problem. I want you both to be happy.’

  ‘And there’s Alfie too,’ I said.

  ‘Yep, and he’s all my fault. I’ve just made things even more complicated,’ said Cam.

  ‘But in a good way,’ I said. ‘I absolutely love Alfie. I love him just as much as you and Mum. You’re my top three equal people.’

  ‘And I want all three of you to be living in the right place, and I can’t work out how to do it. When I was at school there was this horrible intelligence test where some poor man had to ferry a fox and a chicken and a sack of corn across to an island and he didn’t know how to do it, because the fox would eat the chicken and the chicken would eat the corn if they were put together. It made my head spin. I was never much good at that kind of test,’ said Cam.

  ‘Me neither. I’m glad Miss Oliver doesn’t give us tests like that. So what’s the answer?’

  ‘Oh, the man rows them over two at a time, and then leaves only one on the island, going back for the next. Something like that,’ said Cam vaguely. She was quiet for a minute or two. ‘I don’t know! Now I’ve really woken up. How’s that poorly tummy of yours? Might you be ready for a spot of early breakfast, just us two?’

  It seemed like a good idea. We crept downstairs and had a bowl of cornflakes each. Jax came creeping down too, wearing big pyjamas with a teddy-bear pattern. She looked a lot less scary in them.

  ‘Come and have some breakfast, Jax,’ said Cam.