Eva's Holiday (10 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

H
e stepped out of the jeep and walked slowly towards us. He wasn’t carrying a chainsaw, but he’d always be Chainsaw Man to us.

He walked across the field, and stood staring at us, with his arms folded. One by one, people stopped humming along to the music, and soon Hans stopped strumming his guitar.

Miley’s wife had been dozing, but now she looked up and smiled at Chainsaw Man. ‘Oh, someone else to join the party,’ she said happily. ‘I’m afraid you’re too late for the barbecue, but there might be a few sweets left or maybe even a nice chocolate bun. Now move along girls, and
make room on your rug for the nice man.’

Miley turned to his wife, and explained the situation. She was not happy when she heard the truth. She picked up Miley’s stick and shook it at Chainsaw Man.

‘Go away, you bad man,’ she shouted. ‘We’re having a lovely party here, and we’re not about to let you ruin it.’

I realised that it was only because of Chainsaw Man that we were having the lovely party, but that seemed a bit complicated to explain to Miley’s wife.

Chainsaw Man took a few steps backwards, until he was out of range of Miley’s stick. Then he said to no one in particular, ‘I don’t suppose any of you is ready to talk sense?’

In reply, everyone got to their feet, and made a circle around the tree, just like we had done the day before. (Only now, because there were more of us, the circle was bigger and stragglier than ever.)

Chainsaw Man kept trying.

‘Anyone got anything sensible to say?’

Joey began to chant, ‘Listen to us – we’re making a fuss. Listen to me – save the tree.’

By the time he got to the second line, his friends had joined in. They sang it over and over again, and everyone chanted along, except for the Japanese who only managed to say ‘tree’ at the end of the last line. Hans stepped out of the circle, picked up his guitar, and began to strum along in time to the chant.

Chainsaw Man scratched his head. ‘You’re all mad,’ he said, and then he walked slowly back towards his jeep. The chant continued while Chainsaw Man spoke on his phone. At one stage, he held the phone towards us, as if he wanted the person on the other end to hear us.

Joey saw this and laughed.

‘Louder, lads,’ he said, and the chant grew louder and faster, until it was just a rush of words, impossible to understand.

Soon Chainsaw Man clicked off his phone and put it into his pocket. He walked back across the field towards us, stopping only when he saw Miley’s wife reaching for the stick.

‘It’s out of my hands now,’ he said. ‘I’ve called the police. They’re on their way. They’ll be here in ten minutes.’

The chanting stopped and there was an uneasy silence.

All kinds of awful pictures raced through my mind.

I could see fleets of armoured vehicles, with bars on the windows.

I could see battalions of helmeted policemen, clutching shields and batons.

I could see the poor Japanese tourists taking home lots of pictures of the inside of an Irish jail.

This so wasn’t funny any more.

Minutes later, there was the sound of a car coming along the road. Everyone shuffled closer together.

The car stopped, and there was the slam of a single door. A policeman walked into the field.

‘Sure that’s only Gerry,’ said the shopkeeper.

Beside me, Kate whispered, ‘Gerry’s the policeman from the next village. Most people here know him well.’

There was a big sigh of relief as all the locals greeted Gerry like he was their oldest friend.

‘How’s the wife?’ asked Miley.

‘Any news of my stolen bicycle?’ asked one of the farmers.

‘Are you free for a game of cards later?’ asked the man from the shop.

The poor policeman looked embarrassed.

‘Hello, everyone,’ he said gruffly. ‘I hear there’s been a bit of trouble.’

‘So do something about it,’ prompted Chainsaw Man.

‘Like what?’

‘You could arrest these people.’

The policeman looked from the big crowd of people to the small car that was parked next to the field.

‘All of them?’

‘Maybe just the ringleaders,’ said Chainsaw Man, staring at Kate and me.

‘I’d have to call for reinforcements,’ said the policeman. ‘And that could take hours – or days.’

Chainsaw Man groaned.

‘Any other bright ideas?’ he said.

The policeman nodded.

‘You could come to the station with me and file a report. Or you could apply for an injunction to make these people go away.’

‘What’s an injunction?’ I asked Mum.

‘It’s a legal procedure and sometimes it takes months and months,’ she said, smiling.

Just then Chainsaw Man’s phone rang.

He pulled it out of his pocket and had a short conversation. Then he switched it off.

‘Good news,’ he said.

‘What good news, you evil man?’ said Miley’s wife.

Chainsaw Man actually smiled.

‘The good news is I’m getting a half-day. The owner of the field, Mr Phillips, is coming down tomorrow, and he can deal with the lot of you.’

Joey and his friends began to cheer.

‘Yay, we won! We won!’ they shouted.

I wasn’t so sure.

Was that good news?

Had we won?

Could it possibly have been that easy?

Chainsaw Man probably didn’t care much what happened as long as he got paid. I had a funny feeling that the owner of the field wouldn’t be quite so easy to get rid of.

Chainsaw Man was still standing there.

‘You can all go home now,’ he said. ‘Nothing’s
going to happen here until tomorrow. Mr Phillips won’t be here until eleven at the earliest.’

Nobody moved.

‘You’re wasting your time,’ said Chainsaw Man. ‘Nothing’s going to happen. Trust me.’

Miley’s wife waved her stick.

‘Why should we trust you?’

Chainsaw Man took a step backwards.

‘Because while you’re around, I couldn’t tell a lie – I wouldn’t dare.’

Everyone laughed, and then Chainsaw Man walked back to his jeep and drove off.

The policeman addressed the crowd.

‘I know you don’t mean any harm, but maybe it would be best for everyone if you just forgot about this whole thing, and let the men get on with what they’re paid to do.’

No one answered, and the policeman walked slowly away.

‘Tell Mary to drop over later to pick up that nice leg of lamb I’ve been saving for her,’ called
one of the farmers after him, and everyone laughed.

‘Now what?’ said Dad as soon as the policeman had driven away.

‘You can all do what you want,’ said Kate. ‘I’m staying here. I’m not taking any chances.’

Martha came over and patted her shoulder.

‘That’s my girl,’ she said, and I laughed as Kate gave an embarrassed smile.

Mum came over and hugged me.

‘I’m proud of you too, Eva,’ she said, giving Kate a chance to laugh at me. ‘But I have to go home and get the dinner started. If you want to stay here for a while, I’ll send Joey up with something for you to eat – and something for your friends too.’

I looked at Kate and Lily.

Were they both my friends now?

Did that mean they were friends with each other?

Was this the weirdest thing ever?

Chapter Twenty-Four

S
oon most people did wander away, probably remembering that they had lives that didn’t involve sitting around fields trying to stop trees from being chopped down.

In the end only Kate, Lily and I remained.

Kate stood up and started to pick up the fencing tape that had been trampled into the grass around the tree.

‘Jeremy gets upset when there’s a mess around him,’ she said.

I hate it when she says weird stuff like that.

I looked to see what Lily thought. She was laughing.

‘You say the craziest stuff, Kate,’ she said, but
in a nice way. Then she went on. ‘I remember your dad once—’

I was just wondering how come Lily was brave enough to mention Kate’s dad, when Kate raced over and stood right in front of Lily.

‘Don’t talk about my dad,’ she said fiercely.

‘But—’ began Lily.

‘Don’t even mention him,’ said Kate. ‘If you say one more thing about him I’ll—’

Lily raised her hands as if to surrender.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I won’t mention him again. I promise.’

She looked at me, and I shrugged. How was I supposed to know why Kate was being so defensive? Most of the time I could only give the wildest guess as to what was going on in her mind.

Kate sat down again, and after a minute, she spoke quietly.

‘Sorry for shouting at you, Lily. All that family stuff is private, and I don’t like talking about it.’

Lily smiled. ‘That’s OK,’ she said.

Then she stared at Kate for so long that it was beginning to be a bit rude.

‘Know what, Kate?’ she said in the end.

I sat up straight, afraid that there was going to be a big row.

‘What?’ asked Kate.

‘You should wear a hairband,’ said Lily. ‘It would really suit you.’

I breathed a big sigh of relief.

Kate looked at her blankly, but Lily didn’t seem to notice. She was busy scrabbling around in her hand-bag.

‘I think I might have one in here,’ she said. ‘And short hair held back with a hairband is the latest thing.’

She pulled out a cool green hairband and a cute little pink hairbrush decorated with small red hearts.

‘May I?’ she said, and without waiting for an answer, she started to brush Kate’s hair.

I expected Kate to shout at her, but she didn’t. She just sat there meekly while Lily worked.

By the time Lily had finished with Kate’s hair, it looked completely different – all shiny and nice. Then Lily put the hairband on Kate, using it to hold back part of her fringe.

‘Wow,’ I said.

Kate looked completely different. She gave a big smile and I gasped.

How come I’d never noticed how pretty she was?

Lily found a small mirror in her bag and held it up so Kate could see herself. Kate looked in the mirror for a long time. Then her cheeks began to go pink, and a slow smile spread over her face.

‘Thanks, Lily,’ she said.

Lily rooted in her bag again. ‘Maybe it’s time for a bit of lip-gloss,’ she suggested.

Kate looked interested, but when Lily produced the lip-gloss and leaned towards Kate, Kate jumped back like Lily was holding a
poisonous snake to her face.

‘Don’t do it,’ she said in a panicky voice. ‘I thought it was for you.’

Lily and I laughed, and Lily put the lip-gloss back into her bag.

‘I’m not giving up,’ she said. ‘I bet I’ll have you wearing lip-gloss before the week is out.’

‘Bet you won’t,’ said Kate.

I looked at my two new friends, wondering who was going to win that strange bet.

Lily still wasn’t finished though.

‘Why do you always wear tracksuits?’ she asked Kate.

That was something I’d wondered about too, but I’d never dared to ask. Lily seemed to have a way of asking that wasn’t insulting though.

Kate thought for a while. Then she shrugged.

‘Don’t know, really. I just do.’

Lily wagged her finger at her.

‘Well you shouldn’t. You should wear nice clothes.’

Kate put on a sulky face.

‘Martha hasn’t got much money, and nice clothes are expensive.’

I turned to look at Lily. How was she going to answer that?

Lily tossed her head.

‘That’s just stupid,’ she said. ‘You don’t have to be a millionaire to dress nicely.’

‘Lily’s right,’ I said. ‘When both my parents lost their jobs last year, I didn’t know how I was going to manage without the weekly shopping trips I was used to. But after a while, I got used to just buying the occasional nice thing.’

Kate didn’t look convinced, but she smiled anyway.

‘I like those jeans you were wearing the other day, Eva,’ she said. ‘They’re not too girly or sparkly. I
hate
sparkly stuff.’

I smiled and tried not to stare at Lily’s sparkly flip-flops.

‘I got those jeans in a sale,’ I said. ‘And because
they’re kind of plain, they go with everything.’

Kate leaned over and felt the edge of Lily’s totally cool cardigan. ‘That’s lovely,’ she said.

Lily smiled. ‘Thanks. And it wasn’t that expensive. I got it on the internet.’

Kate put her head down. I knew why. She didn’t have internet. She didn’t even have a computer.

Suddenly Lily realised what she had said.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I’ve got loads of clothes. I can give you something.’

‘I don’t need charity,’ said Kate.

Lily just sighed. ‘I don’t mean charity. I can lend you something. It’s what I do with all my friends.’

I nodded. ‘She’s right. I do that too, with my friends Victoria and Ella. Even Ruby, who’s not that into fashion, has one or two cool things she lends me.’

Kate looked doubtful. ‘I’m not used to having friends. How am I meant to know
what friends do?’

I hugged her.

‘You’ve got friends now, so just do what we say. OK?’

‘Are all friends as bossy as you two?’ asked Kate, and we all laughed.