Video Rose and Mark Spark Read online

  Rick took the ice cream and licked at it tentatively.

  ‘Yes, it’s great,’ he said. ‘So why don’t you want it, eh?’

  ‘I did. But I felt sorry for you, what with falling over again. Oh no, you haven’t ripped your other jeans now, have you?’

  ‘Maybe Mum won’t notice,’ said Rick, with touching optimism. He took a big bite of ice cream. ‘Well. Thanks, Rose. That’s really nice of you.’

  Charlie staggered into view, his snub nose bleeding.

  ‘You watch it, Square-Bum,’ he shouted.

  Rick frowned. He took another bite of ice cream. He sucked thoughtfully.

  ‘Don’t you call my sister Square-Bum,’ he said. ‘Or else I’ll duff you up, see?’

  Charlie blinked, looking surprised.

  ‘But that’s what you call her, Rick.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ said Rick, munching Mars chocolate. ‘But I’m her brother. You’re not.’

  There was no answer to that. Rose skipped back to the flat. She felt like doing her funny dance again but that might be asking for trouble.

  Rose and Dad spent a very happy afternoon watching Lady and the Tramp and tucking into all the goodies from Uncle Frank’s. Rose’s appetite quickly returned. In fact she rewound herself and ate each chocolate bar twice. Dad unwittingly ate many packets of crisps and drank copious cans of coke but he didn’t seem to mind. He enjoyed Lady and the Tramp just as much as Rose did.

  ‘I saw it when I was a little kid. I’ve always loved it. Especially that bit where Lady and Tramp eat the plate of spaghetti,’ Dad said, smiling.

  ‘I’ll rewind that bit for you then, Dad,’ said Rose.

  ‘No! You leave that video alone. Your mum was right, it was you eternally monkeying around with the video that made it pack up before. Now it’s fixed — and I still can’t work out what that old chap did, but never mind — I want it to stay fixed.’

  ‘Yes, Dad.’

  ‘You’re not to touch the rewind or fast forward button, do you hear me?’ said Dad.

  ‘I hear and I obey, Great Masterful One,’ said Rose. She didn’t need to press the ordinary old rewind button on the video recorder any more. She could press her very own rewind and replay time itself. She clenched her fist until she got to the bit watching Lady and the Tramp where Dad started chuckling fondly at the spaghetti scene and then replayed it for his benefit — though he didn’t know anything about it, of course.

  At the end of the film Dad stretched and sighed. He looked at his watch.

  ‘Gosh, I’d lost all track of time.’

  ‘So did I, Dad,’said Rose.

  ‘We’d better start getting tea ready for when Mum gets back,’ said Dad. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten those crisps. I don’t feel a bit hungry now. Funny that. I only ate one measly little packet and yet it feels like I’ve eaten six.’

  ‘I wonder why,’ said Rose innocently.

  She was feeling pretty stuffed herself, and left half her baked potato at teatime.

  ‘That’s not like you, Rose,’ said Mum. ‘I think you must be sickening for something.’

  ‘No I’m not. I’m just eating carefully. I’m trying to stick to a diet,’ said Rose. It wasn’t really a fib. She was taking extreme care to stick to a diet of chocolate and sweets and crisps and coke.

  ‘Well, that’s sensible, Rose, because you really are getting awfully podgy,’ said Mum.

  ‘Not to say square,’ said Rick.

  Rose looked at him reproachfully.

  ‘I said not to say square. And I’m not going to,’ said Rick.

  ‘Just as well, brother dear,’ said Rose. ‘Or else I might start talking about jeans and rips and roller-skates.’

  ‘Oh no Rick, not again!’ said Mum.

  ‘You rotten sneaky Square-Bum!’ Rick bellowed. ‘Tell tale tit.’

  ‘No I’m not,’ said Rose, but she wriggled uncomfortably. Maybe she wished she hadn’t told now. It had been quite a novelty being on friendly terms with Rick. Now he was angrier than ever and it might not be to her advantage.

  Well, she could change that. She clenched her left fist for a moment. Time rattled back a few seconds, to the square conversation. Rose opened up her hand and started again.

  ‘Just as well you didn’t say square, brother dear,’ she said, but this time she snapped her mouth shut and wouldn’t let the rip and roller-skates part out.

  Rick gave her a little nod and a wink, and when Mum said it was Rose’s turn to do the washing-up Rick started piling up the dishes too.

  ‘I’ll help you, unsquare sister,’ he said.

  ‘What’s been going on this afternoon?’ said Mum, unhooking a very sticky Robbie from his highchair and taking him off for his bath. ‘I thought it seemed a bit weird that you somehow managed to get the video mended for only a pound, but now you two are being so nice to each other I know it’s magic!’

  ‘Works-like-magic,’ Rose whispered happily, hugging herself.

  ‘I wish there was some way of magicking all these dishes done,’ said Rick, beginning to wish he hadn’t been quite so obliging. ‘We’ve got the gungy old baking tin to do as well. And all Robbie’s gummed up baby dishes. We’ll be ages.’

  ‘We’ll have to try to speed things up a little,’ said Rose. She was looking at her hand. Not her left hand this time. The right one. She clenched her fist and it glowed, sending sparks right up her arm. And then she was suddenly jolted into action, flinging dishes in the sink, scrubbing at them in a fury, while Rick dried with dazzling speed and charged round the kitchen as if he were still wearing his roller-skates.

  ‘We’re fast-forwarding!’ said Rose, and in two tiny seconds all the washing-up was done.

  5…

  Rose could barely get the waistband of her school skirt done up on Monday morning. She had a double-decker chocolate spread sandwich for breakfast and then rewound for a few minutes and ate it all over again. The quadruple sandwich was the last crumb. The button on the waistband fell off and the zip shot open.

  ‘Mum, have you got a safety pin?’ asked Rose.

  ‘You kids,’ said Mum, who’d spent over an hour last night sewing up half her son’s garments. ‘Come here, then. I’ll sew the button on, I’m not having you wandering about with safety pins like a little punk. Well, breathe in, then, Rose, so I can see what I’m doing.’

  ‘I am breathing in,’ Rose gasped, with Mum down on her knees tugging at her skirt. ‘Ouch! That was me,’ she complained bitterly, as Mum started sewing up her waist rather than her waistband.

  ‘Well, honestly. You’re getting so big. I thought you were supposed to be on a diet,’ said Mum. ‘You ought to try to eat more sensibly, love. No more chocolate. You should eat salads, boiled fish, cottage cheese -’

  ‘Salads are stupid, boiled fish is boring, cottage cheese is crummy,’ Rose gabbled.

  She was starting to find the whole conversation stupid and boring and crummy so she clenched her right fist. The button was sewn on in a trice, Mum changed Robbie’s nappy with one flick of the wrist, and they were all off and out the door in a blink. Rose unclenched her fist, not wanting to get to school too quickly.

  She was walking along the road with Rick, who was teetering on his roller-skates.

  ‘Funny,’ said Rick, shaking his head and looking dazed. ‘I seem to have got ready in a bit of a rush. One minute you’d bust your button and Mum was nagging on at you for being fat and then the next… we’re here.’

  ‘I’m not fat. I’m just big,’ said Rose. She glared at Rick who was a very thin and wiry boy. ‘I’d much sooner be big than a skinny spider like you.’

  ‘You ought to take more exercise, then you’d get skinny too,’ said Rick relentlessly. ‘I’ll hire you out my roller-skates if you like. Ten pence for ten minutes, how about it?’

  ‘Get knotted,’ said Rose. ‘I don’t want to borrow your stupid old skates. I can go as fast as I want just with my own feet.’

  ‘You what? Did you say you can go f