Brigid Lucy and the Princess Tower by Leonie Norrington Page A

it properly …
    ‘Long, long ago …’
    No, I can’t say that because it is happening right now …
    ‘Once upon a time …’
    ‘Jamie!’ Biddy yells.
    And suddenly, her head jerks backwards and forwards, sending me flying.
    I’m slipping! I grab a strand of hair and cling on. Bounce! Bounce! What is Biddy doing?
    She’s climbing over the fence. She’s going next door to visit Jamie without asking! Ooh-ah!



Chapter one
    let’s pretend
    ‘Jamie, come and play ,’ Biddy yells at Jamie’s bedroom door.
    (Jamie is a boy. Which is okay. Sometimes you have to have boys in adventures. Especially if there are no girls living in your whole entire street.)
    ‘No,’ says Jamie. ‘I don’t want to.’
    ‘Jamie. Quick, I don’t have much time,’ Biddy tries to explain, pushing his door open. ‘I need someone to play with me. There is no one else.’
    But Jamie doesn’t listen, so Biddy has to pull him out of his room.
    This makes Jamie yell , ‘Leave me alone! I want to play on my computer!’
    ‘Don’t be boring,’ Biddy tells him. Then she drags him down the hall and out of the back door into the garden. ‘We’re going to play princes and princesses and wicked witches ,’ she says.
    ‘I don’t like pretending,’ Jamie says.
    ‘Imagination is not pretending, Jamie,’ Biddy explains. ‘It is stories and adventure.’ She is using her mummy-being-patient kind-of voice.
    ‘Now,’ she says, ‘I’m Princess Rapunzel and you’re my dog.’
    ‘But I don’t want to be a dog,’ Jamie frowns. ‘If I have to play, I want to be the prince.’
    ‘Don’t be silly,’ Biddy says. ‘We can’t have a prince yet. We have to find the prince. That’s the whole point of the story.’
    ‘I don’t want to be a dog,’ Jamie says again.
    ‘Not even a big black hunting dog?’ Biddy says. She puts her hands on her hips. ‘What about a big scary dog with gold studs in his collar and four gold earrings like a pirate?’ she asks.
    Jamie thinks a bit, but then he still shakes his head.
    I run up on top of Biddy’s head to get a closer look at Jamie. He looks very determined not to be a dog.
    Man! What is it with boys? I think. Why won’t they play properly?
    ‘Come on, Jamie,’ Biddy says. She is being as patient as the scoriaks that live in the Great Bushland. Scoriaks are great, heavy creatures that live inside rocks and are as patient as the earth growing.
    ‘You can turn into the prince later,’ Biddy says. ‘And we’ll fall in love and get married. Okay?’
    ‘But I don’t want to get married ,’ Jamie says.
    Which is just too totally silly. Everyone in stories wants to get married and live happily ever after.
    So Biddy just ignores that and keeps going with the game.



‘Now, if I’m going to fall in love with you, you have to do what you are told ,’ she says.
    She stands up, tall and elegant, like a princess. Then she looks down her nose at Jamie and commands, ‘Sit!’
    Jamie shakes his head again.
    But I reckon he is about to change his mind, so I lean out from Biddy’s hair, holding onto a strand of her fringe.
    ‘Keep going, Biddy! He’ll do it!’ I say.
    Even though Biddy can’t hear me, I can’t help but talk to her. And sometimes she does listen, kind of.
    ‘I said, “ Sit!” , pirate dog,’ Biddy yells.
    Then, just when Jamie is about to sit, someone opens the garden gate, and says, ‘Brigid Lucy!’ in a very annoyed voice.
    It’s Biddy’s mum! Oh-oh! Mum is going to yell at Biddy for coming over to Jamie’s place. I quickly run up Biddy’s fringe and into her hair to hide. I close my eyes and cover my ears.
    ‘Brigid Lucy, what do you think you are doing?’ Biddy’s mum yells. She rush-walks across Jamie’s garden to where we are playing. Baby Ellen is on her hip, and Biddy’s little sister, Matilda, is being towed along behind.
    ‘I’ve told you not to go anywhere without asking me first,’ Mum continues.
    ‘I did ask you,’ Biddy says, putting on her