Clean Break Read online

  Dad saw me looking dismayed. ‘What’s up, Em? Want another ice cream?’

  ‘Dad, I’m meant to be on a diet.’

  ‘Don’t you take any notice of your gran. You eat all you want, darling. Come on, let’s go in the amusement arcade. I’ll see if I can win you all a present.’

  There were huge stuffed animals bigger than Maxie decorating the rifle stalls: cream camels with lolling pink tongues; fat elephants with huge flapping ears and tiny twinkly eyes; stripy zebras with stiff black-and-white manes and thick black eyelashes; spotted amber giraffes with long swaying necks and short tufty tails.

  Vita and Maxie and I gazed at these luxury animals in awe. Then we looked hopefully at Dad.

  ‘No way, kids. It’s all a con. I’d never win enough points,’ Dad said.

  He tried all the same, changing a ten-pound note into coins, shooting over and over again.

  ‘Tough luck, sir,’ the young girl stallholder kept saying, eyeing Dad up and down.

  ‘It is tough, darling, when my kids have set their hearts on one of your lovely animals and I haven’t got a hope in hell of winning one,’ said Dad, giving her his special smile. ‘Hey, you’ve already had one tenner off me. How about I give you another and you make my kids deliriously happy with a camel?’

  ‘I wish I could,’ said the girl, sidling up close to Dad and giving him a little smirk. ‘But the camels are all counted.’

  ‘An elephant? A zebra? What about that giraffe over in the corner with a wonky neck?’

  ‘My boss would go bananas,’ said the girl. ‘I can’t, I truly can’t, not unless you win fair and square.’

  ‘But you know and I know there’s no way you can win,’ said Dad. ‘It’s not fair and it’s not square.’

  ‘That’s life,’ said the girl, shrugging. ‘Here, your kids can have these as a little consolation prize, eh?’ She threw us a packet of jellybeans each. ‘Maybe you can come back later . . . without the kids?’

  Dad laughed and whispered something in her ear.

  Vita glared and tugged at his arm. ‘Come on, Dad,’ she said crossly.

  Dad pulled a funny face. ‘Sorry, Princess Vita. I’m simply trying to sweet-talk that girl into letting you have a special camel. Still, never mind, let’s win you a teddy instead,’ he said, stopping at one of those crane machines. Rainbow-coloured teddies were stuffed against the glass, squashed in so tightly their snouts twisted sideways and their beady eyes bulged.

  ‘Uh-oh! They’re so crammed in I’ll never be able to pull them out,’ said Dad.

  ‘But I want one,’ said Maxie, standing on tiptoe so that he was eye to eye with the huddle of bears.

  ‘You’ve got hundreds of bears at home, little guy,’ said Dad.

  ‘But I haven’t got a stripy one. I want this one, Mr Stripy,’ said Maxie, stabbing the glass with his sticky finger.

  ‘I want a bright pink one. It’s exactly the colour of Dancer’s nose. They can be best friends. Please please please win me the pink one, Dad,’ said Vita pleadingly, jumping up and down.

  Dad rolled his eyes and then looked at me. ‘OK, Princess Emerald, I suppose you want an emerald-green teddy,’ he said.

  ‘It’s OK, Dad,’ I said, though I did want one badly. I wanted a very small green bear with bright blue eyes and an anxious expression.

  ‘It’s that one, isn’t it?’ said Dad, pointing to my blue-eyed bear.

  ‘You’re magic, Dad,’ I said semi-seriously.

  ‘I’ll do my best to win you your teddies, but it’s not going to be easy,’ said Dad.

  He changed another ten-pound note and then started manoeuvring the crane. It was the most unwieldy thing ever, the metal claws brushing past each bear uselessly. Sometimes it held onto a paw or an ear or a little snout but after a tug or two it swung away again, empty.

  We watched goggle-eyed, holding our breath each time the crane hovered. All four of us went ‘Ooooh’ at each failure.

  On the very last go Dad managed to capture a little lopsided yellow bear that clung onto the crane grimly with one paw.

  ‘Is he mine, Dad?’ asked Vita.

  ‘I really wanted Mr Stripy, but the yellow one might do instead,’ said Maxie, though he didn’t sound sure.

  ‘The yellow ted isn’t for you, Maxie. He isn’t for you either, little Vita.’

  ‘Is he for me, Dad?’ I asked.

  ‘Sorry, sweetheart, he’s already taken,’ said Dad. ‘He’s mine.’

  ‘Are you going to call him Mr Yellow?’ asked Maxie.

  ‘No, my little bear’s called Ray.’

  ‘That isn’t a very special name,’ said Vita.

  ‘Yes it is, darling. He’s my little Ray of Sunshine. He’s going to remind me of our happy day together.’

  We had one last longing look at Mr Stripy, Pinky and little Blue-Eyes. Then we went out of the amusement arcade, gripping hands and shivering all the way down to the end of the windy pier where the rides were. Maxie cowered away from the dodgem cars and squealed in horror at the great waltzer hurtling round and round.

  ‘You’re such a pain, Maxie,’ Vita grumbled. ‘You’re always too scared to go on anything.’

  ‘No I’m not,’ Maxie insisted. ‘I do want to go on one of the rides. I want to go right up in my tower.’

  We looked at the pink-and-red-striped helter-skelter tower.

  ‘I don’t think it’s really got a golden throne inside, Maxie,’ I whispered.

  ‘I know,’ said Maxie. ‘That was just a story, wasn’t it, Dad? But it can still be my tower, can’t it?’

  ‘Of course it’s your tower, Maxie. You’re very generous and you’re happy to share it with Vita and Em and me and all these other people too. But it’s going to be dark inside – is that OK?’

  ‘Of course it’s OK,’ said Maxie bravely.

  Dad paid for us all to go into the helter-skelter and climb up and up and up the steps to the top.

  ‘See, Vita, I’m not the slightest bit scared,’ said Maxie, his voice just a little squeak.

  Vita didn’t argue. She didn’t like it much herself. Halfway up she hung onto my hand and wouldn’t let go. When we got to the top at last a man was handing out coconut mats.

  ‘Can I share your golden throne, Maxie?’ said Dad, sitting on the mat and pulling Maxie onto his lap.

  The man pushed them out onto the slide and they vanished into thin air. We heard Maxie shrieking.

  ‘I don’t think I want to,’ said Vita. ‘Let’s go back down the stairs.’

  ‘We can’t, Vita, there are people coming up behind us.’

  ‘I don’t care.’

  ‘They will. Come on. We’ll go on a mat together. It’ll be OK, you’ll see,’ I said.

  ‘Aren’t you scared, Em?’ said Vita.

  ‘No,’ I said.

  ‘You’re shaking.’

  ‘I’m cold. Now come on, get on the mat with me.’

  I sat on the mat and Vita perched on my lap, hanging onto my legs tightly with her little pincer fingers. The man gave us a big push and then we were off, out into the dark night, flying round and round and round, the wind in our face and the sea swooshing far below and the lights twinkling all along the promenade. It was as if we’d stepped straight into one of Dad’s magic stories. I never ever wanted it to end. It was a shock shooting abruptly right off the slide and landing on the ground, though Dad was there, picking us both up.

  ‘Can we do it again?’ we all begged.

  Dad gave us another go. This time I took charge of Maxie and Vita flew with Dad. I wished I could have one go on Dad’s mat, but Vita was too little to manage Maxie and I knew I was way too big to share with Dad.

  I wondered if I should really try sticking to my diet and cutting out all my secret snacks – but when Dad suggested fish and chips for supper I didn’t object.

  I got frightened when I saw the clock in the fish restaurant. Dad saw me looking.

  ‘Don’t worry, Em, it’s not twelve o’clock yet. We’re