My Sister Jodie Read online

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  ‘You’re a right nutter, you are,’ said Jed. ‘What’s the vet going to do, give it a head transplant?’

  ‘The vet could give him an injection to put him out of his pain,’ said Harley.

  ‘I’ll do that easily enough,’ said Jed.

  ‘You’ve done enough!’ said Jodie. She stared up at him, her face contorted. ‘You aimed at the badger, I know you did. You ran him over deliberately.’

  ‘It’s vermin. They all are. They’re taking over the whole bloody grounds and you aren’t even allowed to gas them any more. They’re eating away the Melchester land, making it unstable. Of course I aimed at it.’

  ‘You’re horrible!’ I said, starting to cry. ‘This is one of our badgers. He lives in the woods and doesn’t do anyone any harm. How could you!’

  ‘You don’t understand. You’re just soft little townie kids,’ said Jed. He looked at Jodie. ‘Come on, it’s practically dead now. Leave it be. Hop back on the tractor. We’ll go and have a bit of fun somewhere, take your mind off it.’

  Jodie stared at him. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you,’ she said.

  ‘OK. Suit yourself. Bet you’ll be fawning round me like a little puppy dog tomorrow though.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Jodie.

  ‘Well, your loss, you silly little purple bonce,’ said Jed.

  He started up the tractor and roared off, dust flying in his wake.

  We knelt beside Jodie. She gently rocked the poor badger. He started making awful little whinnying noises. Then his legs started scrabbling horribly.

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  ‘I think he’s fitting,’ said Harley. ‘Poor little badger.’

  He stroked the quivering paws. The badger gave one last moan, sighed and then went still. We looked at each other.

  ‘Is that it?’ I whispered. ‘Is he dead now?’

  ‘I think so,’ said Harley.

  Jodie held the badger close, still rocking him.

  ‘What will we do? We can’t just leave him here.

  It’ll be so awful if his mother finds him like this,’ I said.

  ‘We’ll bury him,’ said Harley. ‘We’ll do it now. You girls stay here. I’ll go and get a spade from the garden shed.’

  ‘Don’t get into an argument with Jed, will you?’ I said anxiously.

  Harley shook his head and hurried off. Jodie went on crooning to the badger, swaying from side to side.

  ‘He’s dead, Jodie,’ I said.

  She took no notice. She was getting blood all over her. I found an old tissue in my pocket and dabbed at her ineffectually. I kept thinking of the badger’s family, frantically searching for their cub.

  ‘Did Jed really run him over deliberately?’

  ‘Yes. Well, I think so. He didn’t try to swerve, though I told him when I saw the badger. I even tried to grab the steering wheel. Then there was this awful crunchy-pulpy sound when we went smack into his little head.’ Jodie stroked the badger’s head though her hand got sticky with blood.

  I stroked the badger too, but I kept to his back and his stumpy little legs.

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  ‘I think he was a bit sorry after. He didn’t realize it would upset me so. I don’t know, maybe he thought I’d laugh or something. He thinks I’m crazy. He was going on about me being mad today because of my hair, yet he’s the crazy one. How can you want to hurt a little animal even if it’s a nuisance? What’s he going to do, start aiming at little kids like Zeph? Mow them down because they get on everyone’s nerves?’

  Jodie sniffed furiously, hugging the badger harder. Mum was going to be mad at the state of her T-shirt but it wasn’t the right time to point this out.

  ‘You were right about Jed, he is horrible horrible horrible,’ said Jodie. ‘I knew it all along really. But he just – well, I know it sounds mad but he made me feel kind of special.’

  ‘You are special!’

  ‘You think I am, simply because I’m your sister.

  No one else does.’

  ‘They do, they do, you’re the one everyone notices!’

  ‘Yeah, but only because I act crazy and mess around. No one really likes me. Mum likes you heaps better than me, you know she does. And Dad does too, though he makes a fuss of me to make me feel better.’

  ‘No, that’s rubbish! They love us both equally.

  they always say so – and they do.’

  ‘They might love me the same as you, but they don’t like me. And the kids in my class positively hate me, you know they do.’

  ‘No they don’t. Harley doesn’t.’

  ‘Harley likes you best.’

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  ‘Well. Maybe. But listen, back at Moorcroft everyone liked you best. They all looked up to you.’

  ‘That was only because I hung out with Shanice and the others. And even she didn’t like me much.

  She hated it when that boy she fancied snogged me at that club. That’s the thing, Pearl, boys like me, older ones. That Bernie liked me, remember. And Jed liked me too. I made him laugh and he called me his little crazy girl.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want anyone to call me crazy.’

  ‘No, he was just kind of teasing,’ said Jodie, leaning forward. The badger’s head suddenly moved.

  ‘He’s alive!’ I squealed.

  ‘No, no, it’s just because I shifted about. Look, his head’s all floppy.’

  ‘When . . . when will he go stiff?’

  ‘I don’t know. Soon, I suppose.’

  ‘I hope Harley hurries up.’ I looked at the badger anxiously. His eyes seemed to be looking straight back at me, but there was no gleam in them. His mouth hung open a little, a drool of blood trickling down one side.

  ‘Do you think we look like this when we die?’ I said. ‘Eyes all funny and our mouths open?’

  ‘I suppose.’

  ‘I hate the thought of looking like that.’

  ‘Well, I’ll probably die first because I’m the oldest, but if you die first, I’ll shut your eyes and turn your mouth up in a little smile. Yes, I’ll comb your hair and put you in your favourite outfit and I’ll tuck a book or two in your coffin with you, just in case you get bored being dead,’ said Jodie.

  ‘Do you think that’s it, then? We die and we go stiff and then just moulder away?’

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  ‘I don’t know,’ said Jodie.

  ‘There’s a lot about God in Mrs Wilberforce’s books. Do you think there really is a place like Heaven?’

  ‘Well, I hope there isn’t a place like Hell because I shall probably end up there,’ said Jodie. ‘No, I don’t believe in all that stuff.’

  ‘And you don’t really believe in ghosts either?’ I said.

  ‘Oh, I believe in them,’ said Jodie. ‘Especially here. What about the sad white whispering woman?’

  ‘You made her up, you know you did.’

  ‘I wonder if you get animal ghosts? Maybe this little badger will pad along the path every night on his small ghostly paws, and you’ll feel him brushing your ankles but you won’t be able to see him—’

  ‘Stop it!’

  ‘OK, OK. Poor little badger, we’ll put you to rest in the earth. It will be just like being tucked up in your bed, and you can sleep and sleep and stay safely in your bristly badger skin. You won’t even be a ghost and haunt anyone, I promise.’

  Harley came loping back at last with two big spades.

  ‘What did Jed say?’

  ‘I didn’t ask him. I just took them,’ said Harley breathlessly. ‘Where shall we dig, then?’

  ‘Near the set, so he’s near his family,’ I said.

  I led the way while Jodie held the littl