Clean Break Read online

  I wished I had a dad like that.

  I wished wished wished I had a dad who would come back in ten minutes, tops.

  I’m sure Vita and Maxie were wishing it too. They’d been so good for so long, but now they started whining and moaning and flinging themselves around.

  ‘It’s no good, Em, they can’t hang on here much longer,’ said Gran. ‘I can’t either, sweetheart. I’m in agony. I’ve got to have a sit down soon or I’ll just keel over.’

  ‘Oh, Gran. Please let’s stay, especially now we’ve waited all this time. We can’t give up now! We’re nearly in the door.’

  There was a kind curly-haired smiley man waiting there, helping everyone get their books open at the right page.

  ‘Have you been waiting for ages?’ he said sympathetically to Gran. ‘I’m sorry the queue’s so long.’

  ‘Well, it’s total madness, hanging around like this,’ said Gran. ‘Still, I suppose it’s very good business for your shop.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t work for the shop,’ he said. ‘I’m Bob, Jenna’s driver. But I like to help out with the queue if I can.’

  ‘So you know Jenna Williams?’ said Molly.

  ‘I certainly do, young lady. Have you got a question you want to ask her?’

  ‘Mmm . . . I know, I’m going to ask her if she’s got any pets,’ said Molly.

  ‘I’m going to ask her to put a little girl called Vita in one of her books,’ said Vita, smiling cutely.

  ‘Me too. I want her to put a little girl called Maxie in one of her books,’ said Maxie, getting muddled.

  He went very red when we laughed at him.

  ‘Never mind, Maxie, you’re already in the Wild Things book,’ I said.

  ‘Are you a Wild Thing, Maxie?’ said Bob. ‘Oh dear, I hope you’re not too scary.’ He cowered away from him, pretending to be afraid. Maxie started giggling, delighting in the game.

  Then Bob turned to me. ‘Is that great big bag full of Jenna Williams books? Goodness, you’re obviously a very big fan.’

  ‘She would insist on bringing them all. Some belong to her friends. I told her to leave them behind but Emily wouldn’t hear of it,’ said Gran.

  ‘What are you going to ask Jenna, Emily?’ said Bob, helping me pull the books out of my bag.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said shyly.

  ‘I think you should ask her to give you a few writing tips,’ said Molly’s dad. ‘Emily’s very good at making up stories. She’s been keeping the children very happy with her stories while we’ve been waiting.’

  ‘That’s lovely,’ said Bob, helping me balance all the opened books in a neat pile. ‘There’s one more book left in your bag, I think. Here, let me get it out for you.’

  ‘Oh, that’s nothing,’ I said quickly, trying to stuff the red book back again.

  ‘It’s not the reindeer story, is it?’ said Molly’s dad.

  ‘Well . . . sort of,’ I said, embarrassed.

  ‘Can we have a look?’

  ‘Oh no, it’s stupid, I don’t know why I brought it,’ I said.

  ‘Can I see?’ Molly begged, so I had to let her.

  Her mum and dad read bits over her shoulder.

  ‘Oh Emily, it’s wonderful! I think you’ll be a rival to Jenna Williams when you grow up!’ said Molly’s mum.

  ‘You’ll have to show Jenna Williams,’ said Molly’s dad.

  ‘No, no, I couldn’t!’ I said quickly.

  ‘She’d like to see it, I’m sure,’ said Bob.

  ‘We’re moving again!’ said Molly, as the queue surged forward and we were inside the shop at last. It was very hot and very noisy now, with children laughing and chattering and shouting. Some of them had been given balloon animals and they kept making horrible squeaking noises. Every now and then a child clutched one too tightly and the balloon burst with a bang.

  ‘I don’t like it here!’ Maxie wailed. ‘I want to go out!’

  ‘Please, Maxie, try and be good for just a tiny bit longer,’ I begged him. ‘We’re nearly there now.’

  ‘I am trying to be good – but I still don’t like it!’ Maxie said desperately.

  ‘I don’t like it either. People keep pushing me and shoving me and I’m hot and I want another drink,’ said Vita.

  ‘We’re nearly there, I’m sure we are. Hang on just for a bit, please, please,’ I said.

  Then the queue moved forward again and we turned a corner and we were nearly there.

  ‘Look!’ said Molly’s dad, and he picked her up to show her. ‘There’s Jenna Williams, over there, in the corner.’

  I stood on tiptoe, craning my neck.

  I saw a big emerald banner with more fairy lights, and a chair and a table with a shimmering green cloth, and there was this small short-haired lady smiling at everyone, signing book after book. She was wearing a top and skirt the exact same shade of green as my own dress! She was wearing a lot of rings. I wondered if any of them were real emeralds.

  I took Dancer off my hand and looked at my own ring, twiddling it round and round my finger.

  ‘My goodness, that’s a lovely ring,’ said Molly’s dad.

  ‘It’s an emerald,’ I said. ‘Well, I think it is.’

  ‘A perfect ring to wear today,’ said Molly’s mum. ‘It won’t be long now! Are you getting excited, girls?’

  Molly was certainly excited, hugging her dad. Her sisters Jess and Phoebe seemed quite excited too. They’d read lots of Jenna Williams books when they were younger, and although they’d passed them all down to Molly now, they’d kept one favourite one each for Jenna to sign.

  I clutched my books and Jenny’s books, tucked Dancer under my arm and hooked my bag on my shoulder, in a terrible fluster. I wished I’d gone to the loo when I’d had the chance. I tried to sort out a sensible question in my head. I wanted to learn it by heart so I wouldn’t make a fool of myself. It was so silly, I’d been longing to meet Jenna Williams all my life, I’d queued for hours and hours to see her . . . and yet now I was starting to feel weirdly scared.

  What if I couldn’t get my words out properly? What if I just stood there blushing like an idiot? What if I dropped Jenny’s books? Oh dear, what was I going to do if Jenna Williams asked my name and then started to write ‘To Emily’ in Jenny’s books?

  The little cluster of children around Jenna Williams suddenly moved away, waving and smiling, and Molly and her mum and dad and sisters went up to the signing desk. They were there a long time. Molly didn’t seem a bit shy. She was saying all sorts of things, making Jenna Williams laugh, while her family looked on fondly.

  Molly’s dad bought a copy of The Emerald Sisters for Molly, a copy for Jess and a copy for Phoebe. Molly was really too young for the story and Jess and Phoebe were too old. Then he picked up a fourth copy from the big glossy green pile.

  ‘This one’s for you, Emily,’ he said. ‘Come and get it signed!’

  I stumbled, desperately trying not to drop my pile of unwieldy books. Vita dodged round me and got to Jenna Williams first.

  ‘Hi, Jenna, I’m Vita. I just love your books,’ she said. ‘Will you put a girl called Vita in one of them?’

  ‘I might just do that. Vita’s a lovely name,’ said Jenna Williams.

  ‘I’m Maxie. My name’s already in a book about Wild Things,’ said Maxie.

  ‘I know. I like that Wild Thing book,’ said Jenna Williams.

  Gran was poking me in the back. ‘You go and say something, Em!’

  I still hung back, agonizingly shy.

  ‘Oh, for pity’s sake, don’t tell me you’ve been struck dumb, when we’ve been queuing all these hours!’ said Gran. She shook her head at Jenna Williams. ‘Kids! And this one’s your number one fan, too!’

  Jenna Williams smiled at me. ‘Ah, are you Emily, the one who writes reindeer stories?’

  Molly’s dad grinned at me. I blushed to the roots of my hair.

  ‘Can I see your story for a minute, Emily?’ Jenna Williams asked.

  She helped m