Clean Break (24 page)

There was a huge book display in the window, and emerald fairy lights and a big poster of Jenna Williams and a special notice.
JENNA WILLIAMS SIGNING STARTS AT
1
TODAY
!

‘Oh no!' said Gran. ‘I don't believe it! This can't be the Jenna Williams queue!'

‘I think it is, Gran,' I said. ‘Shall we go back and join on the end?'

‘For pity's sake, we can't hang around here all day, Em! We'll be hours and hours!' said Gran.

‘Please!' I said.

‘No. I'm sorry, but this is beyond a joke. We're all exhausted as it is.'

‘Oh Gran, please, I've
got
to meet her.'

‘She's just some boring middle-aged lady with a funny haircut,' said Gran, peering at the poster. ‘What's so special about her? Look, we'll go to another bookshop and I'll buy you a copy of her new book, all right?'

‘But it won't be signed! And I so so so badly want to speak to her. Oh Gran,
please
!' I could feel my face screwing up. Hot tears started dribbling down my cheeks.

‘Now now! Oh dear Lord, it's bad enough Maxie and Vita bawling their heads off. Don't you start, Em. All right, all right. We'll go to the end of the
queue. We'll give it an hour or so, see how we go.'

‘Oh Gran, thank you, thank you!' I jumped up and down in spite of my huge bag of books.

‘Steady on now! You kids. You're all mad. And so am I. Absolutely barking!'

We went all the way back to the end of the queue. There was a big smiley man at the end, with a pretty little girl about Vita's age.

‘Hello!' he said. ‘Join the queue! Have you brought your camp beds and your picnic?'

‘I wish we had!' said Gran. ‘Honestly, isn't this ridiculous! We must be mad.'

‘Well, we're just fond parents,' said the man, patting his little girl's silky golden hair. ‘This is my Molly. What are your three called?'

Gran simpered. ‘I'm their gran, not their mum!' she said. ‘This is Em, she's the number one Jenna Williams fan. Then this is Vita and this is Maxie – they're not really into the books yet.'

‘I am!' said Vita. ‘I like the one with all the parties and the presents where the nasty girl wets herself.'

‘I like that one too,' said Molly, giggling. ‘And I like
Friends Forever
. I like the funny dog in that one. I love dogs. I've got this little dog called Maisie, she sleeps on my bed at night.'

‘
I've
got this great big reindeer, Dancer – she sleeps in my bed,' said Vita, snatching Dancer off
my hand and making her shake paws with Molly.

Molly's dad laughed and admired Dancer. Vita made Dancer prance around, and then let Molly have a go.

‘Now me, now me,' said Maxie.

‘You can have a go any old time,' said Vita.

‘No, let him, he's only little,' said Molly kindly. ‘Here you are, Maxie, we'll all take it in turns, eh?'

I took my heavy bag off my shoulders and sighed deeply with relief. Vita and Maxie seemed happy talking to Molly. Gran seemed happy chatting to Molly's nice dad. I didn't want to talk to anyone but Jenna Williams.

WE QUEUED AND
we queued and we queued.

One hour went by. Vita and Molly larked around together. Vita showed Molly how to do a little modern dance routine. Maxie tried to copy them, kicking out his stick legs and nearly tripping people up. Gran seized hold of him and told him to behave. Maxie glared, determined to behave
badly
, but Molly's dad quickly distracted him, producing little sandwiches and tiny cakes and apples from his briefcase. He insisted on sharing them with all of us.

Another hour went by. Vita got fed up with working Dancer and ordered me to take a turn. I made Dancer tell them a story. Then another and another. Molly seemed to like them a lot.

‘Are these stories from a book, Emily?' Molly's dad asked.

I shook my head shyly, not realizing he'd been listening too.

‘You don't mean to say you make them all up yourself?'

‘Well . . . my dad made up some of the stories,' I mumbled.

‘Yes, he's very good at making up stories,' Gran sniffed. ‘He's out of the picture now,' she mouthed to Molly's dad.

‘Em's made up heaps of the Dancer stories herself though. She makes up a new one every day,' Vita said, surprisingly.

‘Then you're very clever and inventive, Emily. You should write them all down,' said Molly's dad.

‘She has! In a special book and she does pictures too, she showed me,' said Maxie.

‘You must be very proud of your grand-daughter,' Molly's dad said to Gran.

Gran smiled and put her arm round my shoulders! ‘Yes, she's a clever girl, our Em,' she said. ‘Here, darling, if I give you my purse can you go to that coffee shop over there – look, on the other side of the piazza – and buy a coffee for Molly's dad and me, and some juice for all the children.'

I set off importantly, threading my way through the crowds watching the street performers. There was a guy juggling on a very elongated unicycle, a conjurer in a top hat, and a girl in a silver dance
frock pointing her toe on a little platform. I thought at first she was a statue because her skin and her hair were painted silver too and she was standing stock-still, not moving a muscle. But then a man threw a coin into a saucer on the ground and the silver girl smiled and twirled round once. Another man threw two coins and she did two twirls and then stood still again, toe pointed, back in her statue position.

I wanted to make her twirl myself, but I didn't dare spend any more of Gran's money. I went and bought all the drinks, wondering how on earth I was going to carry everything. Gran wouldn't carry on calling me clever if I spilled scalding coffee everywhere. Luckily the coffee shop gave me a cardboard tray.

A
third
hour passed, much more slowly. The drinks weren't such a good idea. Gran had to take Maxie and Vita off to find a loo on the second floor of the bookshop. I wouldn't have minded going too, but I was scared that if we all left the queue Gran might give up on the whole idea and drag us home.

Molly's pretty mum turned up, with her two big sisters Jess and Phoebe. They'd all been on a clothes shopping trip. They stood with Molly while her dad went off for a little walk to stretch his legs.

‘Don't be long, Dad!' Molly said anxiously.

‘I'll be back in ten minutes, tops,' he said.

He came back in
exactly
ten minutes, because I counted. Molly didn't bother. She obviously trusted him.

‘Dad!' she said, her blue eyes sparkling.

She leaned against him and he clasped his hands loosely round her neck, tickling her under her chin.

I wished I had a dad like that.

I wished wished wished I had a dad who would come back in ten minutes, tops.

I'm sure Vita and Maxie were wishing it too. They'd been so good for so long, but now they started whining and moaning and flinging themselves around.

‘It's no good, Em, they can't hang on here much longer,' said Gran. ‘I can't either, sweetheart. I'm in agony. I've got to have a sit down soon or I'll just keel over.'

‘Oh, Gran. Please let's stay, especially now we've waited all this time. We
can't
give up now! We're nearly in the door.'

There was a kind curly-haired smiley man waiting there, helping everyone get their books open at the right page.

‘Have you been waiting for ages?' he said sympathetically to Gran. ‘I'm sorry the queue's so long.'

‘Well, it's total madness, hanging around like this,' said Gran. ‘Still, I suppose it's very good business for your shop.'

‘Oh, I don't work for the shop,' he said. ‘I'm Bob, Jenna's driver. But I like to help out with the queue if I can.'

‘So you know Jenna Williams?' said Molly.

‘I certainly do, young lady. Have you got a question you want to ask her?'

‘Mmm . . .
I
know, I'm going to ask her if she's got any pets,' said Molly.

‘
I'm
going to ask her to put a little girl called Vita in one of her books,' said Vita, smiling cutely.

‘Me too. I want her to put a little girl called Maxie in one of her books,' said Maxie, getting muddled.

He went very red when we laughed at him.

‘Never mind, Maxie, you're already in the Wild Things book,' I said.

‘Are you a Wild Thing, Maxie?' said Bob. ‘Oh dear, I hope you're not too scary.' He cowered away from him, pretending to be afraid. Maxie started giggling, delighting in the game.

Then Bob turned to me. ‘Is that great big bag full of Jenna Williams books? Goodness, you're obviously a very big fan.'

‘She would insist on bringing them all. Some belong to her friends. I told her to leave them
behind but Emily wouldn't hear of it,' said Gran.

‘What are
you
going to ask Jenna, Emily?' said Bob, helping me pull the books out of my bag.

‘I don't know,' I said shyly.

‘I think you should ask her to give you a few writing tips,' said Molly's dad. ‘Emily's very good at making up stories. She's been keeping the children very happy with her stories while we've been waiting.'

‘That's lovely,' said Bob, helping me balance all the opened books in a neat pile. ‘There's one more book left in your bag, I think. Here, let me get it out for you.'

‘Oh, that's nothing,' I said quickly, trying to stuff the red book back again.

‘It's not the reindeer story, is it?' said Molly's dad.

‘Well . . . sort of,' I said, embarrassed.

‘Can we have a look?'

‘Oh no, it's stupid, I don't know why I brought it,' I said.

‘Can
I
see?' Molly begged, so I had to let her.

Her mum and dad read bits over her shoulder.

‘Oh Emily, it's wonderful! I think you'll be a rival to Jenna Williams when you grow up!' said Molly's mum.

‘You'll have to show Jenna Williams,' said Molly's dad.

‘No, no, I couldn't!' I said quickly.

‘She'd like to see it, I'm sure,' said Bob.

‘We're moving again!' said Molly, as the queue surged forward and we were inside the shop at last. It was very hot and very noisy now, with children laughing and chattering and shouting. Some of them had been given balloon animals and they kept making horrible squeaking noises. Every now and then a child clutched one too tightly and the balloon burst with a bang.

‘I don't like it here!' Maxie wailed. ‘I want to go out!'

‘Please, Maxie, try and be good for just a tiny bit longer,' I begged him. ‘We're nearly there now.'

‘I
am
trying to be good – but I still don't like it!' Maxie said desperately.

‘I don't like it either. People keep pushing me and shoving me and I'm hot and I want another drink,' said Vita.

‘We're nearly there, I'm sure we are. Hang on just for a bit, please,
please
,' I said.

Then the queue moved forward again and we turned a corner and we
were
nearly there.

‘Look!' said Molly's dad, and he picked her up to show her. ‘There's Jenna Williams, over there, in the corner.'

I stood on tiptoe, craning my neck.

I saw a big emerald banner with more fairy
lights, and a chair and a table with a shimmering green cloth, and there was this small short-haired lady smiling at everyone, signing book after book. She was wearing a top and skirt the exact same shade of green as my own dress! She was wearing a lot of rings. I wondered if any of them were real emeralds.

I took Dancer off my hand and looked at my own ring, twiddling it round and round my finger.

‘My goodness, that's a lovely ring,' said Molly's dad.

‘It's an emerald,' I said. ‘Well, I think it is.'

‘A perfect ring to wear today,' said Molly's mum. ‘It won't be long now! Are you getting excited, girls?'

Molly was certainly excited, hugging her dad. Her sisters Jess and Phoebe seemed quite excited too. They'd read lots of Jenna Williams books when they were younger, and although they'd passed them all down to Molly now, they'd kept one favourite one each for Jenna to sign.

I clutched my books and Jenny's books, tucked Dancer under my arm and hooked my bag on my shoulder, in a terrible fluster. I wished I'd gone to the loo when I'd had the chance. I tried to sort out a sensible question in my head. I wanted to learn it by heart so I wouldn't make a fool of myself. It was so silly, I'd been longing to meet Jenna
Williams all my life, I'd queued for hours and hours to see her . . . and yet now I was starting to feel weirdly scared.

What if I couldn't get my words out properly? What if I just stood there blushing like an idiot? What if I dropped Jenny's books? Oh dear, what was I going to do if Jenna Williams asked my name and then started to write ‘
To Emily
' in Jenny's books?