The Dare Game Read online

  haywire. I was tied up with this and t h a t . . . '

  'Films?' I whispered.

  'Mmm.'

  'In Hollywood?'

  'Not exactly.'

  'But you are an actress, aren't you, Mum?'

  'Yes, sweetie. And I do a lot of modelling too. All sorts. Anyway. I always planned for you and me to get back together, like I said.

  But I wanted it to be perfect, see.'

  I didn't see. But I didn't say.

  'I kept getting mixed up with the wrong kind of guy,' Mum confided, perching on the edge of Elaine's desk and rootling in her handbag.

  'I remember,' I said cautiously. 'There was one . . . I hated him.'

  'Yeah, well, like I said, there have been a few.

  And my latest! A total pig!' She shook her head and lit a cigarette, taking a long drag.

  Elaine has a strict non-smoking

  policy in her room. In the whole building. If any of the staff or the clients want a quick fag they have to huddle outside the back entrance.

  I was sure the smoke alarm was going to go off any second.

  58

  'Mum,' I said, nodding at the crossed-out cigarette sign prominently displayed on the wall.

  Mum tutted contemptuously and took another puff. 'I gave my heart to that man,' she said, tapping herself on her chest and scatter-ing ash down her jumper. 'Do you know what he did with it?' She leant towards me. 'Stamped on it!' Her high heel jerked as if she was doing the stamping.

  'Men!' I said sympathetically, in the tone Cam and Liz and Jane frequently used.

  Mum looked at me and then burst into peals of laughter. I felt daft and swivelled round and round on Elaine's chair.

  'Hey, don't do that, you're making me feel giddy. Come here! Haven't you got a kiss for your mum after all this time?'

  'Sure,' I said shyly, though I'm not really the kissy-kissy type.

  Mum bent down, her head on

  one side. I pecked at her powdery cheek – and then the sweet

  smell of her made me suddenly

  clutch her tight.

  'Hey, hey, careful, sweetie!

  Watch my cigarette! No need

  59

  to be so dramatic. Looks like you're the little actress!' She dabbed at my face. 'Real tears!'

  'No they're not,' I said, sniffling. 'I don't ever cry. It's hayfever.'

  'Where's the hay?' said Mum, peering round Elaine's office. Her ash was building up again.

  She tapped it into Elaine's special Bunnikins mug. I hoped Elaine would look inside before making herself a cup of coffee.

  'I get allergic to all sorts,' I said, wiping my nose.

  'Hey, hey, haven't you got a tissue?' said Mum, tutting at me. 'I hope you're not allergic to me.'

  'Maybe it's your perfume – though it smells lovely.'

  'Ah,' said Mum, dabbing at me with her own tissue. 'That's my Poison. That pig forked out for a huge bottle just before he cleared off. I'd like to poison him all right! The nerve! Left me for some silly little kid barely older than you.'

  'Typical!' I said.

  Mum chuckled again. 'Where do you get all your quaint ways, eh?'

  'Cam says "typical" a lot,' I said, without really thinking.

  60

  'Who's Cam?' said Mum.

  I felt a little thunk in my stomach. 'My . . .

  my foster mum.'

  Mum straightened up and threw the damp tissue into Elaine's wastebin. Well, she missed, but she didn't seem to care. 'Ah!' she said, pinching the end of her cigarette so that she squeezed the light out of it. She threw it in the direction of the wastebin, missing again. 'She's the one who's taken a fancy to you. Your social worker -' Mum lowered her voice slightly, gesturing round the office –

  'what's her name?'

  'Elaine. The pain.'

  Mum stopped looking stroppy and giggled again. 'She is, isn't she! Still, you watch your lip, Tracy.'

  I stuck my lip right out and crossed my eyes, like I was watching it.

  Mum sighed and shook her head at me.

  'Cheeky! Anyway, she gets in touch with me

  – eventually – and tells me this woman has bobbed up out of the blue and has taken you out of the Children's Home. Right?'

  I nodded.

  Mum lit up another fag, getting dead irritated now. 'Why did you go along with it? You 61

  don't want to live with this woman, do you?'

  I didn't know what to do. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders.

  'She sounds a bit suspect, if you ask me.

  Single woman, no spare cash – obviously scruffy standards, judging by your little outfit.

  Where did she get your clothes, a jumble sale?'

  'You got it.'

  'No! You'd think they'd be a bit more picky with their foster parents. Couldn't they have found anyone better? Anyway, you don't need a foster mum. It's not like you're an orphan.

  You've got a mum. Me.'

  I blinked at her.

  She sighed again, dragging on her cigarette.

  'I wanted you safe and sound in the Children's Home where everyone could keep an eye on you.'

  'I don't want to go back!' I burst out.

  Mum narrowed her eyes at me. 'What did they do to you there, then?'

  'It was awful!' I launched in. 'They kept locking me in the quiet room if I did the slightest little thing and everyone kept picking on me. I got blamed for everything. And there was this big girl, Justine, she kept beating me up. Though I beat her up too. And we played 62

  this Dare Game and I was heaps more daring than she was. I ran all round the garden of the Children's Home without any clothes on and Justine only ate one

  worm but I ate two

  really wriggly ones—'

  'Hey hey, you're a

  right little nutter,

  you are! They're not

  a good influence, children's homes. Still, don't worry, you're not going back.'

  'So . . . am I going to stay with Cam?'

  Mum put her head on one side. 'Don't you want to come and live with me?'

  I stared at her. I stared and stared and stared.

  I wanted to rewind her so that I could hear her all over again. And again. I couldn't believe it.

  Or was she kidding? 'Really? With you, Mum?'

  'That's what I said.'

  'For how long? A whole week?'

  I asked.

  'Never mind a week! How

  about for ever?'

  'Wow!' She still had her fag so

  I didn't jump on her. I jumped on Elaine's swivel chair instead and whirled it round and round.

  63

  'Don't do that, you're doing my head in,'

  said Mum.

  I stopped, sharpish.

  'It's time we got together, darling,' she said softly. 'I've missed my little girl so much.

  We're going to make a go of it together, just you and me.'

  It was like she'd taken me by the hand and we were climbing a golden staircase right up into the sky.

  And then I tripped

  on a step because I

  suddenly thought

  of something.

  'But what about

  Cam?'

  'What about her?'

  said Mum. She took a

  last drag and then

  squashed her cigarette fiercely inside the Bunnikins mug. I imagined all their powder-puff tails scorching. 'Never mind this Cam.

  She's not family. Oh, Tracy, we'll have such a great time together. First we'll kit you out with some new clothes, smarten you up a little—'

  'I'll smarten up all you want, Mum, no 64

  worries on that score. Designer clothes?'

  'Only the best for my girl. None of this shabby chainstore stuff. You don't want to look the same as all the other kids. You want to look that bit special.''

  'You bet!' I whirled round one more time.

  'Genuine logos, not fake market stuff?'