Second Fiddle (17 page)

It is also true that Mr. Regan did come and sit beside Tim and Zelda at the recital, but you mustn't think that because that happens at the end of the story it means they are getting back together or something. It just means that on this one very special occasion, when Gillian was strutting her stuff, they felt they should put their best foot forward and behave like a family.

You are probably wondering about the money. I wonder about that part too. Gillian's father was very clear that he couldn't possibly afford to send Gillian to that school, and then Tim casually announced it wasn't such a big problem after all. I don't know whom to believe. At least, I do believe Tim that it is not as expensive as his father let on, but I don't understand how Mr. R. can have changed his mind so radically that he is now suddenly going to let her go after all. Maybe Tim is right when he says it has to do with this competition that is going on between their parents. They are both trying to prove to Gillian and Tim that they are the nicer one, and so they are vying with each other to find ways of making it possible for Gillian to take up her place in the school, even though neither of them really wants her to go. I find that hard to believe, but my mother says that you never know what goes on in other people's families, no matter how well you think you know them.

Anyway, Gillian has just started in the Yahooey-Menooey school (I will always call it that), and I have started in my new school in Ballymore, but we have vowed to be pen pals during term time, and Tim has decided that he does like being a forester and when he has finished at school and got his Leaving Cert and all, he is going to study forestry.

Lorna has a tooth, which is unheard of at her age, and which proves of course that she is ridiculously advanced and will probably be an inventor or a rocket scientist when she grows up.

“Loony” Len doesn't exist. At least, he does, but he's not loony and he's not called Len. He is a proper bus driver. He drives the school bus in term time. I am very haughty when I see him, because of that time he never told me about the summer timetable and I had to walk ten miles home. (Miles are more dramatic than kilometers, aren't they? I wonder why.)

And my mother. You mustn't think just because she and Don were holding hands that evening, that they are going to get married or anything. It just means that they are getting on very well at the moment, and you never know. You never do know anything, really, about anything until after it has happened, and even then you don't know much either, which is why life is so confusing and why books are usually better than life, because in books, it is the author's job to make things less confusing for the reader.

The other thing you may be wondering about is how I feel about Don and my mother maybe getting together. Mum said the thing is not to think about it as having anything to do with Dad. She says this is a separate thing, and it doesn't affect how she feels about Dad or about me, and even if she did decide to marry Don, Dad would always be her First Love and he would have a special place in her heart and all sorts of palaver like that that made me want to cry, including stuff about life must go on, which sounds to me as if she is going to marry him after all, even though she says she isn't, or not just yet, anyway.

I have decided that I am not going to worry about it for the moment, because it might not happen, and even if it does, by the time it happens, I may have gotten used to the idea. The main thing is, Don is OK. He's not specially good at playing Frisbee or fishing or putting on funny voices or remembering the exact amount of milk you like in your tea or any of those things a dad is supposed to do, but then he says he is not trying to be anyone's dad, which is fine by me. He makes the most fantastic brownies, though, which is a definite plus, because Mum never makes anything fattening.

I think that is everything, except for Grandpa, who is the same as ever. He says isn't it just as well he didn't move in with us, because now look, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Copyright © 2006 by Siobán Parkinson

Published by Roaring Brook Press

Roaring Brook Press is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

143 West Street, New Milford, Connecticut 06776

First published in the United Kingdom in 2006 by Puffin Books, London

All rights reserved.

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

First American Edition April 2007

eISBN 9781466892941

First eBook edition: February 2015