Candyfloss Read online

  ‘I hope so, darling. Listen, I was wondering . . . Susan’s dad seems a very nice chap and he did say he owed us. Do you think you could play round at Susan’s some of the time? Once I get a job I can offer to pay.’

  ‘That would be great, Dad, though it might do my head in if they kept trying to teach me all the time! But they’re going to their house in France.’

  ‘I don’t know, there’s them with two houses and here we are without any.’

  ‘Well, maybe it’s good to travel light. Like Rose and all the fairground people,’ I said.

  We had another lovely evening at the fair. Eddie, the roundabout man, had become such an old pal by now he utterly refused to take my pound for the ride.

  ‘In fact you can do me a favour, Floss. I need to test out all my gallopers to make sure they’re all safe and solidly fixed. Perhaps you’d be an angel and ride them each in turn?’

  I think he was just being sweet to me but I wasn’t going to argue. While I was test-riding every horse on the roundabout Dad had another chat with the Stargazer guy, and then he bought burgers and chips from one of the vans and had a long discussion about fat and fryers and types of sauce and vinegar. But most of the time we hung out around Rose’s stall.

  Dad had several goes on Liz’s Lucky Darts stall to be polite – and amazingly scored one hundred and eighty. Well, Liz insisted he had, taking the darts out of the board so quickly we couldn’t really check. She gave Dad a huge blue plush teddy, the twin of Rose’s pink bear.

  ‘Here you are, Floss,’ said Dad, thrusting a vast armful of bear at me.

  ‘Thank you very much, Dad – but I think I’m maybe getting too big for bears,’ I said.

  ‘Well, who can we give it to?’ said Dad.

  ‘Tiger might like him, but he won’t be back for months. Anyway, I’ve already given him Kanga.’

  ‘What about Susan? Is she too big for bears too?’

  ‘She’s not really into cuddly toys, Dad.’

  ‘Well then . . .’ Dad turned to Rose with a big smile. ‘You wouldn’t like to hang him alongside your pink bear, would you?’

  ‘I think that’s a lovely idea,’ said Rose. ‘We’ll hook him up right this minute. Come here, Blue Ted, come and make friends with Pinkie.’

  ‘He looks a bit of a bare bear compared with her,’ said Dad. ‘We’d better kit him out with some clothes.’

  ‘Hey, I know an outfit that would be absolutely perfect,’ I said, chuckling. ‘A blue denim outfit. I can sew the skirt into shorts easy-peasy. And the denim cap will look really cute tucked over one ear!’

  Dad took me on the Dodgems too. I didn’t really like it much, especially when we got bumped, but I squealed and laughed and pretended because Mike, the owner, let us go on for free as we were friends of Rose. Mike’s daughter Ella collected the money on the Dodgems. She was only a year or so older than me but she was much taller, a really tough tomboy girl who leaped lightly from car to car, her money belt tight round her slim hips. She sorted everyone out and swore cheerfully at any boys daft enough to try to cheek her or chat her up.

  We went for an ice cream together while Dad and Mike were having a chat, but I hardly dared say a word to her.

  ‘You don’t say much, do you?’ she said, licking her ice cream with her pink pointy tongue.

  I just shrugged my shoulders and licked too.

  ‘You’ve got a tongue, I can see it,’ said Ella. ‘So speak!’

  ‘Have you been with the fair all your life?’ I mumbled.

  ‘Yeah, my family have always been showmen. Well, my dad used to ride the Wheel of Death, but then he saved up enough to buy his Dodgems.’ She grinned. ‘They’re mine too.’

  ‘That’s really cool,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know children could work at the fair.’

  ‘I’m not like a little kid,’ said Ella. ‘My brothers work later on, after dark. We all help out. It’s what you do at a fair.’

  ‘Well, I always helped my dad,’ I said. ‘He used to have a café. I acted like a waitress at weekends. I even got tips.’

  ‘So how come you’re so friendly with Rose? Are your dad and Rose an item?’

  I shrugged again. ‘Sort of.’

  ‘We all love Rose. She’s generally useless at picking men though. They always let her down.’

  ‘My dad never lets anyone down,’ I said fiercely.

  ‘Yeah, he seems like a nice bloke,’ said Ella. ‘Even though he’s a flattie.’

  ‘A fatty?’ I said. ‘He’s not! Well, he’s a bit plump but he’s not really fat.’

  ‘No, I said flattie. You’re one too. Punters. Customers.’

  She pretended to smoke her chocolate flake. I copied her.

  ‘I’ve got real cigarettes if you want one,’ she said, reaching in her jeans pocket.

  ‘No thanks. I – I’ve given up,’ I said quickly.

  She laughed at me, but not unkindly. I decided I liked Ella even though I was a bit scared of her. I hoped we might be friends – though not of course a best friend like Susan.

  It was so sad at school on our last day before we broke up for the summer holidays.

  ‘I’m going to miss you so so so much, Susan,’ I said, nudging up close to her at her desk.

  ‘I’m going to miss you,’ said Susan, giving my hand a quick squeeze.

  Rhiannon made silly kissy noises behind us. We took no notice of her.

  ‘I’ll write heaps from France.’

  ‘Yes, do! Only not in French. I know what you’re like, Susan.’

  ‘Moi?’ said Susan, laughing. ‘I’ll text you too on my dad’s mobile. And even though I’ll probably see my cousins out in France, and maybe some of the stepbrothers and stepsisters too, I’ll feel so lonely without you, Floss.’

  Rhiannon made disgusting vomit sounds.

  ‘Perhaps you’d better run to the toilets if you’re feeling sick, Rhiannon,’ said Mrs Horsefield.

  ‘It’s not fair, Mrs Horsefield, you always take their side. It’s like they’re your special favourites,’ said Rhiannon. ‘And they didn’t even give you a proper goodbye present, just that babyish home-made thing.’

  Rhiannon had given Mrs Horsefield a huge box of chocolates and a bottle of champagne.

  Mrs Horsefield paused. She fingered the blue denim pencil case Susan and I had made her as a goodbye present. We’d embroidered it with pink cherry buns and written Our very favourite teacher in chainstitch.

  ‘You’ve all given me lovely presents,’ said Mrs Horsefield. ‘I’m very lucky to have such sweet and delightful pupils. As a teacher I try very hard to be impartial. But do you know something, Rhiannon? I’m a human being too. Sometimes you simply can’t help having favourites.’

  Susan and I hung back at going-home time so we could both give Mrs Horsefield a big goodbye hug. Then we had to have our goodbye hug and that was so hard. But eventually I jumped in the van beside Dad and waved and waved until Susan was out of sight.

  ‘I hate saying goodbye to people,’ I sniffed.

  ‘I know, pet. Still, you’ll see Susan quite soon, when she gets back from her holiday.’

  ‘I wish we were going on holiday, Dad,’ I said, sighing. ‘I know we can’t help it, and I’m not really complaining, but it’s going to be horrible just stuck at Billy’s house all summer.’

  ‘W-e-l-l,’ said Dad. ‘I’ve got this idea, Floss. We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. It’s maybe crazy, but how would you like to join up with the fair for a few weeks?’

  ‘What? Really? Oh Dad, I want to, I want to!’

  ‘Rose and I have had a long talk. She’s so lovely, isn’t she? I can’t believe my luck. But anyway, she needs someone to help her out, for all she’s so independent. And I’ve been talking to some of the guys, and they always need someone to help build up and pull down their rides. I’m a bit long in the tooth but they can’t always get lads nowadays. I wouldn’t make much money, but there’s a chance I can help out at the burger stall, maybe making chip