picked me to be one of the singing oysters in the school play. But as soon as term came to an end, Linda and Alan went off on holiday while Rob drove me to Fairhurst for my first long, uninterrupted visit.
‘See how things go,’ said Rob. ‘See how you settle down.’
I loved my room. They had transformed it since my last short stay and I couldn’t believe how bright and glossy it looked. I was allowed to choose my own duvet cover. I could tell that neither Natasha nor Nicholas was crazy about the one I picked, but they had promised me.Natasha hid her panic well, and Nicholas’s remark – ‘Brave fashion choice!’ – held only a hint of sarcasm.
Only Alice was rude. ‘Ee- ew ! That’s awful, that is!’
Next morning, we went shopping again. Nicholas led me along the strangely crooked-looking streets of their small town and bought a whole new school uniform for me in a grown-up-looking grey. That’s when it finally dawned on me that I was truly starting over. There would be visits back to Linda and Alan, yes. I had been promised that. But I’d been moved.
I know I cried my eyes out secretly in bed that night, thinking that I would never see Miss Bright again.
Alice
I was excited. Alison, my best friend, had four cheery brothers and I was jealous. (Back when I lived with Mum, I had had an imaginary cousin. His name was Robert, but he was tied up in my mind with the old floaty curtains that I used to watch while I was going to sleep; and though the boxes of my own stuff went with me to Natasha and Nicholas’s house over the months that Mum was ill, Robert got left behind.)
Natasha let me in on all the getting ready for Eddie. I helped her choose the shade of yellow from the paint samples she splashed across his bedroom wall. I went with them to fetch the shiny new table and the matchingchair. Natasha chose the curtains, but let me pick the one I liked best out of the three rugs in the soft-furnishing department that she said ‘sat with them nicely’. (That’s why she was so horrified when Eddie chose that purple duvet cover with the dinosaurs – though Nicholas told her firmly, ‘No, it’s Edward’s choice.’)
The thrill wore off. In fact, I look back now and wonder if it wasn’t more the shopping that excited me, rather than Eddie. He was so quiet . Not a bit like Ali’s brothers. He didn’t even move around the house much. He sort of stayed wherever he’d been left. He never argued. Nicholas would watch me mooching about, not really doing anything, just getting more and more bored, and he’d get irritated. ‘For heaven’s sake, Alice, why don’t you go out in the garden?’
I’d give him the evil eye and tell him sullenly, ‘I’ve already been in the garden.’ But Eddie would go out as if it were an order, even if till that moment he’d been perfectly content doing one of his jigsaws.
He adored jigsaws. Natasha asked him once, ‘What is it about them that gets you, Edward? Is it the the pictures, or getting finally to put the last piece in, or what?’
Do you know what he said? He said, ‘I like to think of all those tiny little bits going into the exact right place, all comfy and cosy and safe.’
He said it. But he didn’t bother to look up. So it was only me who saw Natasha and Nicholas eyeing one another over his head.
It was a weird look they exchanged.
I just thought he was rather odd.
Edward
I became Edward. Natasha and Nicholas didn’t exactly come out and tell me openly, ‘We prefer Edward.’ But that’s what they called me, and when I went to my new school, that is the name the teachers used. I must have seemed a little dense, taking so long to respond till I got used to it. Before, when I’d been Edward, it had been Alan ticking me off for leaving stuff about. ‘Edward James Taylor, is this your clutter left all over the floor? How about coming back to clear it up?’
It was what Linda, with a smile, referred to as my ‘Sunday name’. But from the start
‘See how things go,’ said Rob. ‘See how you settle down.’
I loved my room. They had transformed it since my last short stay and I couldn’t believe how bright and glossy it looked. I was allowed to choose my own duvet cover. I could tell that neither Natasha nor Nicholas was crazy about the one I picked, but they had promised me.Natasha hid her panic well, and Nicholas’s remark – ‘Brave fashion choice!’ – held only a hint of sarcasm.
Only Alice was rude. ‘Ee- ew ! That’s awful, that is!’
Next morning, we went shopping again. Nicholas led me along the strangely crooked-looking streets of their small town and bought a whole new school uniform for me in a grown-up-looking grey. That’s when it finally dawned on me that I was truly starting over. There would be visits back to Linda and Alan, yes. I had been promised that. But I’d been moved.
I know I cried my eyes out secretly in bed that night, thinking that I would never see Miss Bright again.
Alice
I was excited. Alison, my best friend, had four cheery brothers and I was jealous. (Back when I lived with Mum, I had had an imaginary cousin. His name was Robert, but he was tied up in my mind with the old floaty curtains that I used to watch while I was going to sleep; and though the boxes of my own stuff went with me to Natasha and Nicholas’s house over the months that Mum was ill, Robert got left behind.)
Natasha let me in on all the getting ready for Eddie. I helped her choose the shade of yellow from the paint samples she splashed across his bedroom wall. I went with them to fetch the shiny new table and the matchingchair. Natasha chose the curtains, but let me pick the one I liked best out of the three rugs in the soft-furnishing department that she said ‘sat with them nicely’. (That’s why she was so horrified when Eddie chose that purple duvet cover with the dinosaurs – though Nicholas told her firmly, ‘No, it’s Edward’s choice.’)
The thrill wore off. In fact, I look back now and wonder if it wasn’t more the shopping that excited me, rather than Eddie. He was so quiet . Not a bit like Ali’s brothers. He didn’t even move around the house much. He sort of stayed wherever he’d been left. He never argued. Nicholas would watch me mooching about, not really doing anything, just getting more and more bored, and he’d get irritated. ‘For heaven’s sake, Alice, why don’t you go out in the garden?’
I’d give him the evil eye and tell him sullenly, ‘I’ve already been in the garden.’ But Eddie would go out as if it were an order, even if till that moment he’d been perfectly content doing one of his jigsaws.
He adored jigsaws. Natasha asked him once, ‘What is it about them that gets you, Edward? Is it the the pictures, or getting finally to put the last piece in, or what?’
Do you know what he said? He said, ‘I like to think of all those tiny little bits going into the exact right place, all comfy and cosy and safe.’
He said it. But he didn’t bother to look up. So it was only me who saw Natasha and Nicholas eyeing one another over his head.
It was a weird look they exchanged.
I just thought he was rather odd.
Edward
I became Edward. Natasha and Nicholas didn’t exactly come out and tell me openly, ‘We prefer Edward.’ But that’s what they called me, and when I went to my new school, that is the name the teachers used. I must have seemed a little dense, taking so long to respond till I got used to it. Before, when I’d been Edward, it had been Alan ticking me off for leaving stuff about. ‘Edward James Taylor, is this your clutter left all over the floor? How about coming back to clear it up?’
It was what Linda, with a smile, referred to as my ‘Sunday name’. But from the start
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