My Sister Jodie Read online

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  you know that. I was mucking around and he was getting irritated and told me to run away and play.

  I got a bit narked and said I wasn’t a kid. He said I was just a silly little schoolgirl. I said, “No, I’m not

  – come on, give us a snog and you’ll see.” And he said, “Watch out or I’ll do just that,” and I said, “Go on then, or are you all talk?” and so he gave me this stonking great kiss. It was just fantastic, you’ve no idea, but then he pushed me away and said I was a precocious little whatsit and I needed my bum spanked.’

  ‘How horrible! How dare he say that! I hate him.’

  ‘I think I love him,’ said Jodie.

  ‘No you don’t. You’re just playing. You just want him to fancy you. You want everyone to fancy you.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Jodie. ‘And they do, they do, because I’m so Totally Gorgeous.’ She sashayed round the room in her pyjamas, hand on her hip, tossing her head and striking poses. She went to the door on her way to the bathroom. Then she paused.

  ‘I’m going to get every guy in this whole school fancying me. Just you wait till term starts! But don’t look so worried, I’ll let you keep old Harley.’

  I wasn’t sure if Jodie was really telling the truth about Jed. I couldn’t stand the idea of him kissing her, even though she’d asked him to. I knew I should tell Mum. But then Jodie would get into huge trouble. I couldn’t do that to her.

  I decided she was probably pretending, the way she often did. Even so, I took to stalking her, wandering round the gardens, peering behind bushes and inside huts, bracing myself in case I discovered Jodie and Jed embracing. But Jed was 253

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  either working alongside Mr Wilberforce or digging by himself. The one time Jodie was with him he was ordering her about in a lordly fashion, getting irritated with her when she pulled up a flower instead of a weed.

  ‘How do I know whether it’s a stupid geranium or whatever? It looks totally weedy to me,’ she said, flinging it down on the ground.

  ‘You need glasses, you do. Go on, clear off, you’re hopeless,’ he said, dismissing her.

  We used exactly the same tone when we’d got tired of Zeph and Sakura and Dan tagging along and we wanted to be rid of them. It didn’t look as if there was any romance between them whatsoever.

  But the next day I spotted Jodie squashed up in front of Jed on his garden tractor. They were roaring along at a tremendous pace, zigzagging wildly while Jed let Jodie steer. Jodie was laughing.

  Now I wasn’t so sure.

  I asked Harley that evening, on our badger watch. I felt terribly awkward bringing it up.

  ‘Harley, you know Jed,’ I whispered.

  Harley snorted.

  ‘Do you think there really might be something going on between him and Jodie?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Harley. ‘Why don’t you ask Jodie?’

  ‘I have. And she says there is. But she would do anyway. I never know whether to believe her or not.

  I’m worried about it, Harley.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry. Jodie wouldn’t fuss so about you.’

  ‘Well, she would, actually,’ I said, blushing in the dark.

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  I’d die if I had to admit that Jodie had given me the third degree over Harley.

  ‘I think Jodie’s old enough to watch out for herself,’ said Harley.

  ‘Yes, I suppose so. But she can be so mad sometimes.’

  ‘Oh, Pearl. You’re driving me mad. Do shut up about Jodie. You’re making too much noise. The badgers won’t come if you keep nattering.’

  I shut up altogether, feeling wounded, because I’d been talking in the tiniest whisper. The badgers didn’t come out, though we waited till gone midnight. Harley didn’t say anything, but I was sure he was blaming me. He didn’t understand. He didn’t have a sister, a very special sister like Jodie.

  I didn’t discuss her with Harley any more. I couldn’t say anything to Mum or Dad. I found myself blurting things out to Mrs Wilberforce.

  I took What Katy Did back to her. She gave me a glass of lovely lemonade in a pink frosted glass.

  ‘I made it myself, with fresh lemons and sugar. I used to make gallons of it years ago for Parents’

  Day, after the staff-versus-pupils cricket match. I served it with cucumber sandwiches.’ She sighed.

  ‘But now we don’t bother with the cricket match.

  Half the parents are abroad and the children are collected by chauffeurs, and anyway, I’m not up to catering single-handed. Literally!’ she said, holding her one good hand in the air. ‘You’ve no idea how difficult it is to squeeze a handful of lemons when you’ve only got one hand. I had to hold the lemons steady with my chin, as if I was playing a ridiculous party game.’

  ‘Well, it’s lovely lemonade anyway. Thank you 255

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  very much,’ I said awkwardly, my teeth clunking against the glass.

  ‘It’s all so much effort,’ said Mrs Wilberforce.

  ‘Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it. Maybe I’d be better off lying back helplessly, not trying to do a thing. Sorry, I shouldn’t moan.’ She glanced at What Katy Did. ‘Cousin Helen would give me a prissy little lecture. What did you think of her? I got so sick of her I wanted to slap her.’

  I stared at her in surprise. I’d thought Cousin Helen awesomely saintly.

  ‘She’s very . . . good,’ I said lamely.

  ‘She’s so good she’s sickening. All that rubbish about learning to accept pain! Why should you?

  And if you’re going crazy with despair and misery because your whole life is ruined, why should you have to try extra hard to be sweet and beautiful and uncomplaining?’

  ‘It does seem very unfair,’ I mumbled.

  ‘And then what happens at the end of the book?’

  Mrs Wilberforce asked me vehemently, as if I’d written it myself.

  I shrugged uneasily. ‘It all ends kind of happily ever after,’ I said.

  ‘And why’s that?’ she demanded.

  ‘Because Katy learns to walk again,’ I whispered.

  ‘Exactly! That’s what always happens in storybooks! Katy learns to walk again. Colin learns to walk again. Ah, have you read Heidi?’

  I shook my head. ‘It’s about a girl in the Swiss mountains, isn’t it?’ I said. ‘Does Heidi fall down a mountain and end up in a wheelchair?’

  ‘You read it and see!’ said Mrs Wilberforce.

  She wheeled herself round the shelves, found the 256

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  book and thrust it at me. I jumped nervously and spilled lemonade all down my front.

  ‘Oh dear!’ she said.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said anxiously. ‘I’m ever so clumsy.’

  ‘No, no, it was my fault. I can be a terrible bully at times, I know. That’s half the reason why I don’t teach any more. I did try for a while, when I first used a wheelchair after the accident, but it’s left me with such black rages now. I used to rant at the children so. Poor Harold had to wheel me out of the room once or twice. So then I’d rage at him, and yet in many ways he’s been a positive saint to me. And I’m raging at you when I’ve been longing for you to pay me another visit. Now I don’t suppose you’ll come back any more, and who could blame you?’

  I swallowed. ‘I’ll come back. You can rage at me all you like if it makes you feel better.’

  I was trying to be very grown up and serious but she burst out laughing.

  ‘You’re a strange little girl, Pearl Wells. In your own way you’re just as sparky as your sister. What’s she up to now? Is she taking Frenchie’s mad mutt for a walk?’

  ‘Well. Maybe.’

  ‘Or is she trailing after Jed?’