and various adults.
Brett has a tent pitched at the bottom of the garden where he sleeps sometimes, he says. How cool is that? He says he likes to look at the stars. There’s an astronomy club at school and he and his two friends belong to it. He’s been given a four-inch refractor telescope for his birthday. It’s a large plastic tube on a sturdy tripod next to his tent. He shows me Saturn through it. That’s amazing – to see a planet in daylight! I had no idea you could do that. He said he stayed up all night in the middle of August to watch the Perseids – a load of shooting stars.
‘Where’s Buddy?’ I ask.
‘Up there, watching us.’
Buddy sits in one of their tall trees and looks down on us. I wish he’d come down into the garden, but he’s a bit wary of all the people, Brett says.
Bridget is nine and her sister, Siobhan (pronounced Shivawn) is a year older than me – she’s thirteen. They are the sisters of Liam, one of Brett’s friends. The other boy is Hugo.
Mum seems happy enough. She’s drinking wine and talking to Brett’s mum. The boys want to have a battle with water guns. You pump water through them and they are like water pistols only much much bigger. But Brett’s dad says they can’t with everyone in the garden and they’ll have to wait until we go inside, but the sun is shining and it’s really quite warm so we all stay outside eating and drinking and talking.
Brett gave me his curly smile and said thanks for the book token. I do like him.
Siobhan is pretty with long dark shiny hair and pierced ears, and wears a short pink skirt and a blue top and is rather quiet.
Her little sister is great fun. She wants to know all about me, where do I go to school and why don’t I go to school, what is wrong with my heart, and will I have an operation? She never stops asking questions, like me when I was little. She tells me that she thinks in colours.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, pleasure is pink.’
‘Okay.’
‘Scarlet is a scolding.’
‘Is it?’
‘Pain is purple. I felt purple pain when I was stung by a weaver fish last year.’
‘Stung by a weaver fish?’
‘Yes, then the pain turned dark blue – that was agony.’
‘What did you do?’
‘A lifesaver on the beach carried me to their hut and put my foot in a bowl of hot water and the blue went away.’
‘Ignore her, she’s stupid,’ says Siobhan.
Siobhan asks if I like Brett, and I say of course I do, he’s cool. But she means, is he my boyfriend?
‘Are you going out?’
‘No way. We go birding together.’
‘Birding?’ She smiles in a sneering way and says he and the other boys are too young for her. I have decided I don’t really like her much. She’s in another universe. Alien. I prefer Bridget.
‘Do you know a boy called Gabriel?’ I ask Bridget.
‘He’s in my class. We’re having one of his kittens. The black one. We’re going to call him Spike.’
We lie down at the edge of the pond and I tell her about pond insect life.
Siobhan is hanging out with the adults, flirting with Brett’s dad, flicking her hair back from her face and giggling.
Mum says she hates flirts. They steal other women’s men. She says they have No Conception of Sisterhood. I think I understand what she means now.
The boys have joined Bridget and me by the pond and are listening to my account of the life cycle of a mosquito. Siobhan sidles over and lies next to Brett, her hip against his. I do believe he’s blushing. Strewth! What does she think she is doing? Ohmygod!
Siobhan asks Brett to show her the tent, and he says Okay. They are going to the bottom of the garden, Siobhan in front, swaying her stupid hips in the short skirt, Brett following and I simply lie here, dumb-struck.
‘Go on, Gussie, what happens next?’ Bridget nudges me.
‘The adult female mosquito finds a juicy fat victim like your sister, sucks her blood, injects her with malaria, yellow fever, elephantiasis or dengue fever, and she
Brett has a tent pitched at the bottom of the garden where he sleeps sometimes, he says. How cool is that? He says he likes to look at the stars. There’s an astronomy club at school and he and his two friends belong to it. He’s been given a four-inch refractor telescope for his birthday. It’s a large plastic tube on a sturdy tripod next to his tent. He shows me Saturn through it. That’s amazing – to see a planet in daylight! I had no idea you could do that. He said he stayed up all night in the middle of August to watch the Perseids – a load of shooting stars.
‘Where’s Buddy?’ I ask.
‘Up there, watching us.’
Buddy sits in one of their tall trees and looks down on us. I wish he’d come down into the garden, but he’s a bit wary of all the people, Brett says.
Bridget is nine and her sister, Siobhan (pronounced Shivawn) is a year older than me – she’s thirteen. They are the sisters of Liam, one of Brett’s friends. The other boy is Hugo.
Mum seems happy enough. She’s drinking wine and talking to Brett’s mum. The boys want to have a battle with water guns. You pump water through them and they are like water pistols only much much bigger. But Brett’s dad says they can’t with everyone in the garden and they’ll have to wait until we go inside, but the sun is shining and it’s really quite warm so we all stay outside eating and drinking and talking.
Brett gave me his curly smile and said thanks for the book token. I do like him.
Siobhan is pretty with long dark shiny hair and pierced ears, and wears a short pink skirt and a blue top and is rather quiet.
Her little sister is great fun. She wants to know all about me, where do I go to school and why don’t I go to school, what is wrong with my heart, and will I have an operation? She never stops asking questions, like me when I was little. She tells me that she thinks in colours.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, pleasure is pink.’
‘Okay.’
‘Scarlet is a scolding.’
‘Is it?’
‘Pain is purple. I felt purple pain when I was stung by a weaver fish last year.’
‘Stung by a weaver fish?’
‘Yes, then the pain turned dark blue – that was agony.’
‘What did you do?’
‘A lifesaver on the beach carried me to their hut and put my foot in a bowl of hot water and the blue went away.’
‘Ignore her, she’s stupid,’ says Siobhan.
Siobhan asks if I like Brett, and I say of course I do, he’s cool. But she means, is he my boyfriend?
‘Are you going out?’
‘No way. We go birding together.’
‘Birding?’ She smiles in a sneering way and says he and the other boys are too young for her. I have decided I don’t really like her much. She’s in another universe. Alien. I prefer Bridget.
‘Do you know a boy called Gabriel?’ I ask Bridget.
‘He’s in my class. We’re having one of his kittens. The black one. We’re going to call him Spike.’
We lie down at the edge of the pond and I tell her about pond insect life.
Siobhan is hanging out with the adults, flirting with Brett’s dad, flicking her hair back from her face and giggling.
Mum says she hates flirts. They steal other women’s men. She says they have No Conception of Sisterhood. I think I understand what she means now.
The boys have joined Bridget and me by the pond and are listening to my account of the life cycle of a mosquito. Siobhan sidles over and lies next to Brett, her hip against his. I do believe he’s blushing. Strewth! What does she think she is doing? Ohmygod!
Siobhan asks Brett to show her the tent, and he says Okay. They are going to the bottom of the garden, Siobhan in front, swaying her stupid hips in the short skirt, Brett following and I simply lie here, dumb-struck.
‘Go on, Gussie, what happens next?’ Bridget nudges me.
‘The adult female mosquito finds a juicy fat victim like your sister, sucks her blood, injects her with malaria, yellow fever, elephantiasis or dengue fever, and she
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