Eva's Journey (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

V
ictoria did as she had promised and told all her friends about Maggie's bracelets; soon I was selling bracelets as fast as Maggie could make them. After a while, she designed matching necklaces, and totally cool phone charms.

One Saturday, when I showed up at the market, Ruby looked happier than I had ever seen her.

‘Mum's managed to pay off all of our bills,' she said. ‘So now she can afford to pay someone to help to run the stall. So from now on I'll only have to work on Saturdays, not on all the other days the market is open.'

‘That's great news,' I said. ‘What are you going to do with all of your free time?'

I couldn't really imagine Ruby doing any of the kind of stuff that I liked to do. I couldn't really imagine her doing anything except sitting at school or selling fruit and vegetables.

She didn't hesitate.

‘I'm going to swim,' she said.

‘Swim?'

‘Yes, you know – when you splash your arms and legs and move along in the water? Lots of people do it.'

I had to laugh. I love it when Ruby tries to be funny.

‘So you're going to join a swimming club?'

‘No. Clubs really aren't my thing. I just like going to the pool and swimming. I can do fifty lengths without stopping.'

I couldn't think of many things I'd like to do less, but even talking about it made Ruby look happy, so who was I to argue?

‘So, since it's my only day here, I'll be able to manage the stall on my own on Saturdays,' she said. ‘Even the jewellery part.'

What was she saying?

‘You don't have to help me any more if you don't want,' she said, making it clear enough for me.

Suddenly I felt very sad.

Helping Ruby in the market had become as much of my Saturday mornings as Pony Club used to be.

I looked forward to it.

I loved helping kids pick out nice bracelets and necklaces.

I loved chatting with the old people, and pretending to be hurt when they questioned the quality of the cabbages or turnips.

I loved my weekly battles with Mamie

Every week, the man from the deli stall gave me some sort of foodie treat, and I loved bringing it home, along with a huge sack of fruit and vegetables. I loved the way Mum and Dad waited for me to come home on Saturdays. I loved the way they unpacked the bag of goodies with all the impatience of tiny kids on Christmas morning. I
loved the feeling that I was giving something to my family, instead of just taking all the time.

Ruby was staring at me with her huge brown eyes.

‘I've kind of got used to you being here, though,' she said. ‘So if you want—'

I didn't wait for her to finish.

‘I'd love to keep coming here,' I said.

Ruby looked pleased.

‘I'm glad,' she said. ‘But Mum and I insist on paying you properly – that's the deal.'

I didn't argue. For one thing, Ruby was giving me such a fierce look, I didn't dare to object. And besides, the thought of having some money of my own again, was something I so didn't want to say no to.

Ruby shook my hand formally.

‘Agreed?'

I nodded happily, ‘Agreed.'

After one of her long silences, Ruby continued.

‘There's just one thing. Mum would like to talk to you. Could you come over for lunch today?'

Before I could spend any time worrying about why Ruby's mum wanted to see me, there was a little boy pulling at my sleeve.

‘Miss,' he said. ‘Can you help me to pick a nice bracelet for my sister? It's her birthday tomorrow.'

I turned to help him, and so another Saturday in the market began.

When we got to Ruby's place, I had to blink a few times to make sure that I was in the right place. The front door had been freshly painted, and there were pots of flowers on the doorstep.

‘Wow,' I said. ‘What happened here?'

‘Thanks to you, we were able to pay someone to spend an afternoon doing odd-jobs, and he worked miracles.'

Ruby led me in to the front room. The bed was gone, and without it, the room looked huge – or maybe not huge, but certainly bigger than before.

The table was still there, and in the middle of it was a round goldfish bowl with a fish swimming around happily.

‘Was that …?' I began.

Ruby nodded.

‘That was Mum's crystal ball. When you were here that day, she threw poor Bubbles into the washing-up basin in the kitchen.'

I giggled. It might have been cruelty to animals, but since Bubbles didn't look too bothered, I figured there was no need for me to make a fuss about it.

I thought back to the first time I had been in the room. I remembered Maggie in the ugly turban and the cloak that looked like it was made of tin foil.

I remembered how sad and hopeless I had felt that day.

Now Maggie came in to the room. She looked younger and happier than I had ever seen her before.

‘Will you go into the kitchen and set the table for lunch please, Ruby,' she said.

Ruby left the room, closing the door behind her.

Maggie reached out her hand as if to shake hands with me, but when our hands touched, she slipped a ten euro note into my fingers.

‘I think I owe you this, Eva,' she said.

‘But …' I began.

‘Just listen,' she said. ‘On that stupid Madam Margarita sign, I wrote that I could change your life. How pathetic and arrogant was that?'

That didn't seem like a question that needed an answer, so I said nothing, and Maggie continued.

‘Anyway, you noticed the sign, and came in here, and a life did get changed. But it was my life – not yours. And I am more grateful than you could ever understand. I can't ever repay you properly. Nothing could repay you properly. But at least I would like you to have the ten euro I took from you under false pretences.'

I looked at the money for a second.

I thought of all the cool things I could buy with ten euro.

Then I looked at the shabby room, and the torn carpet. If I had a hundred things to spend ten euro
on, surely Maggie had thousands.

I pushed the money back into her hand.

‘No,' I said firmly. ‘You might have been talking rubbish that day, but I believed it for a while.'

‘You did?'

I nodded, and Maggie went on.

‘When I came up with the stupid fortune-telling idea, I never really expected anyone to take it seriously. I was desperate, and I thought it might be an easy way to make money. But you believed what I said?'

I nodded again.

‘I'm so sorry,' she said. ‘It was wrong of me to take advantage of you.'

‘But I
wanted
to believe you,' I said. ‘I
needed
to believe you.'

Now Maggie looked more embarrassed than ever.

‘I'm so sorry, Eva,' she said. ‘It was a long time ago. I can't even remember what I told you that day.'

‘You said that if I helped people, my life would
get better.'

She nodded slowly.

‘Of course – I remember now. You see, at the time I thought you were a spoiled little princess, but how wrong I was!'

I shook my head.

‘But you weren't wrong. I was totally spoiled. I realise that now.'

Maggie patted my hand.

‘You're a good girl now, and my bet is that you were a good girl then too. Maybe the goodness was just buried more deeply before.'

Now it was my turn to be embarrassed.

‘Anyway,' I said. ‘I did exactly as you suggested, and I tried to help people, and doing that distracted me, and it helped me through some really hard times and …'

Suddenly Maggie had her head in her hands.

‘Oh no,' she wailed.

‘What is it?' I said.

She looked up at me. ‘I told you to help people.'

‘Yes, and?'

‘That's why you've been helping Ruby.'

Now I felt kind of guilty, like I'd been discovered doing something bad.

‘Not exactly,' I said. ‘Well … maybe a bit. Maybe …'

‘Maybe what?'

Suddenly I felt like Maggie had vanished and I was looking at Madam Margarita again.

I felt like she could see through me – like she could tell what I was thinking even before I knew that I was thinking it.

Suddenly, lying didn't seem like such a good idea.

‘OK,' I said, working it out in my head for the first time, as I spoke. ‘In the beginning I helped Ruby because of what you said – because I thought that helping Ruby would help me. But after a while, that changed. I helped her because I wanted to help her. Helping her made me happy too.'

Maggie was smiling at me.

‘That's very sweet of you, Eva,' she said. ‘I
appreciate that very much. You see, Ruby's never had many friends.'

Was she my friend?

‘And I know she might not be your friend,' she continued, like she could read my mind. ‘But you've been good to her, and that's the next best thing.'

I wasn't sure that I agreed with her. I couldn't imagine life without friends. I couldn't imagine how I'd survive without Victoria or Ella.

Maggie continued.

‘Sometimes I think Ruby doesn't even want friends. She's always been like that, even before my accident and before our lives went a bit crazy. I think it's just the way she is, and nothing is ever going to change that.'

Just then Ruby came back into the room.

‘Lunch is ready,' she said. Then she stared at us. ‘What's going on?' she asked. ‘You both look very serious.'

I grinned and reached for the goldfish bowl.

‘Maggie's thinking of taking up fortune-telling
again. Fill the washing-up basin, Bubbles is coming in.'

The expression on Ruby's face went from shock to anger and back to shock.

‘I'm kidding,' I said, and then the three of us laughed for a long time.

Suddenly time seemed to start flying by.

Ella, Chloe and Amy came to the market and bought Maggie's bracelets and necklaces. They told their friends, and their friends told their friends. One weekend, the local newspaper ran a big article about Maggie (managing not to include details of her brief career as a fortune-teller) and soon Maggie couldn't keep up with the demand for her jewellery. After a while she had to get one of Mum's new friends to help her, and every afternoon, the two of them sat around the table in Maggie's house, making bracelets and having a laugh.