Tao (10 page)

“Rodent is on your neck!” I said.

“I know,” said Kate, “and he tickles. Take him off me now please, Paul.”

“You are brave,” said Mimi to Kate, as Paul handed me back Rodent.

“Not as brave as Rodent,” teased Paul and Kate gave him a little thump on the arm, but he just laughed.

“You can close your mouth now, Tao,” said Kate and with her little finger she petted Rodent’s head.

“But I thought…” I started to say.

“Yes, well,” said Kate and put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me towards her for a half-hug. I was still holding Rodent. “As Paul says, if the mouse and I are going to have to live together, we’d better get used to each other.”

“You’ve got to look your fears straight in the eyes,” added Paul, “and then headbutt them!”

When she stopped laughing, Kate told us not to say that to Willy or it would be all over the walls of The Happy Pear. Then she shooed Mimi and I up to bed.

“Did you see that?” I said to Mimi as I put Rodent safely back in his cage.

“Yeah,” said Mimi, “they were holding hands.”

Which wasn’t what I had meant.

“That was only to keep Kate calm,” I said a bit sharply.

“Whatever,” answered Mimi and she grinned, but I felt a bit fed up inside.

The next day at breakfast Mimi said, “I like Jo. She’s very smiley, isn’t she?”

“You said you hated her,” I blurted out.

“That was before I met her,” answered Mimi. “I think she’s very nice.”

Nobody said anything for a moment. I looked at Kate. She decided to smile.

“Yes,” she said, “Jo is a good person.”

I thought Mimi would be happy with that, but she looked at me and so did Paul.

“She’s OK,” I muttered into my cereal.

Everybody seemed to love Mimi. When I took her to Kalem’s house, Angela said that she had all my good bits and none of my bad and then she dug her fingers into my sides and squeezed.

“And don’t think I’m leaving you out, miss!” she shouted and dug her big hands into Mimi’s sides.

“That’s not such a good idea,” Kalem warned his mother.

Mimi burst out laughing and let out one of her loud cracker-bums (which is one of her words for farts) and then she went all red.

“Oh nice one, Miss Mimi!” Angela laughed and held her nose with her fingers.

“Mimi, I’m going to honour you with one of my world-famous Willyisms … when I think of a good one,” declared Willy when we dropped into The Happy Pear to say hello.

“Thank you,” said Mimi politely, but she looked very confused. She looked at me and made one of her help-I-haven’t-a-clue-what-anyone-is-talking-about faces. I could see Kate looking at her with a big silly smile on her face.

Even David thought that Mimi was OK … for a girl.

Just like at Easter, I was really sorry when it was time for Mimi to go home. On the last evening, Kate and Paul went for a long walk and Mimi and I watched telly for a while, but there was nothing good on.

“Let’s play the Interview Game,” suggested Mimi.

“I’ve never heard of that game,” I told her, but she said it was easy.

Mimi said that she would be the interviewer first to show me how it goes. I sat on one chair and she sat on the other chair with our knees nearly touching.

“Right,” said Mimi, “relax and forget about the TV cameras.”

“I’ll try,” I said.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” Mimi told her audience, “and welcome to ‘The Saturday Interview’—”

“It’s Tuesday,” I corrected her.

“‘The Tuesday Interview’, then,” she sighed, “and my very special guest today needs no introduction – it’s Tao Clarke!”

She stopped for a moment then, to let the imaginary clapping and cheering die down. Then she turned to me with a big cheesy grin.

“Welcome to the show, Tao,” she smiled.

I said, “Thank you.”

“So, Tao Clarke, do you like marshmallows in hot chocolate?” was her first question.

That was easy peasy.

“Yes, I do.”

“That was just to make you feel relaxed and at home,” Mimi explained in a whisper. “All good interviewers do that. Then just when you think that it is going to be a doddle, they hit you with the hard question.”

“I’m ready for it,” I grinned. “Shoot!” Which is what Dad sometimes says.

“What age were you when your father left?” was her second question. Right out of the blue.

“I was seven,” I said.

“Before that, did your parents fight all the time?” she asked like a shot.

“Yes,” I answered too quickly. “I mean, no. I mean … what do you mean?” I was suddenly flustered.

Mimi had a mad gleam in her eye. “Did they fall out of love?” she asked, without giving me time to answer.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Yes or no?” insisted Mimi. The audience was very quiet. Mimi was the interviewer from hell.

“Maybe … I don’t know,” I said. “It was all Jo’s fault.”

Mimi sat back, folded her arms and nodded her head wisely. “So do you blame Jo for breaking up your parents’ marriage?” she asked slowly.

I was saved by the doorbell.

It was David and Kalem come to say goodbye to Mimi.

“Do you have Skype?” David asked her.

“No,” said Mimi.

“Do you have MSN?”

“No,” said Mimi.

“Do you have Facebook?”

“No,” said Mimi.

“Oh,” said David.

“You will just have to text her,” said Kalem.

“Does Emma have Skype or MSN or Facebook?” said David. “Kalem wants to know.”

“I do not!” said Kalem and thumped David on the arm, but he blushed all the same.

Then Kalem said “bye” and so did David, and Mimi gave them both hugs. They were both blushing when they left.

The car felt very empty when Kate and I drove back from the airport the next morning. Kate squeezed my knee and smiled but she seemed distracted.

“It won’t be long, Tao honey,” she said, “until the summer holidays. We’ll see them again then.”

I knew it wasn’t long, but it seemed like ages.

That night, Mimi texted me.

And I texted back,

Kate was right. I didn’t have long to wait until the summer holidays. Every evening she crossed off another day on the calendar.

“Only ten days to go…” she’d say in an excited voice.

“Only nine days to go… It’s getting nearer, Tao!”

“Eight days, Tao… Oh, I can’t wait!”

Seven … six … five … four … three … and every day she would get even more excited. It was very catching … and every day I got texts from Mimi saying how excited she was about the holiday.

Even Rachel and Roger were getting excited, and they weren’t even coming.

“Tomorrowtomorrowtomorrowtomorrow,” they shouted, charging around their kitchen.

“I’d love to be going on holiday,” said Jo with a sigh. “You are so lucky, Tao.”

I knew that I was lucky, but for some reason I didn’t feel as excited as everyone else. I sighed.

She turned and looked at me. “What’s up?” she asked, sitting down at the table. The twins had run out into the garden. But I wasn’t going to tell her what was up, even if I knew what it was myself. Suddenly there was a lump in my throat.

“You do want to go on this holiday?” she asked, putting her hand on mine.

“Yes,” I said, pulling my hand away. And I did want to.

She didn’t say anything. She just kept looking at me. I felt like she was looking right into my head.

“Do you miss your dad sometimes?” she said in a very soft voice.

I wished she hadn’t asked that, because now I could feel tears running silently down my face and I badly needed to blow my nose.

“Come here, you,” she said. She stood up and came over to me. I thought she might try to hug me again, so I shook my head strongly to say no. She sighed and dropped her arms. Then she handed me a tissue. I dried my eyes and blew my nose loudly.

“OK now?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. I felt very embarrassed. I was glad Dad hadn’t been there to see me.

“And don’t worry about Rodent,” she smiled. “I will treat him like a king.”

“I know,” I mumbled. And I put my finger through the bars of the cage and petted Rodent so that I wouldn’t have to look at her. “Bye Rodent,” I said. “See you in two weeks.”

At home, Kate was singing, “We’re all going on a … summer holiday … a summer holiday with youwhowho who…” as she tried to close her very stuffed suitcase.

“Sit up there, fatso,” she said to me. So I sat up on the case and squashed down the lid and she somehow managed to pull the zip shut without bursting the whole thing.

“Why can’t Dad come too?” I suddenly blurted out. Even as I said it, I knew that it was a stupid thing to say.

Kate stopped what she was doing and stared at me as if I had lost my marbles.

“Are you serious?” she said.

“No. Forget it!” I said crossly and walked out of the room. I wished that I had never opened my big mouth. But, of course, Kate wouldn’t forget it and followed me.

“It would be a disaster, Tao,” she called out. “We would fight all the time. You know that.”

I did know that.

“Do you not like Paul?” she called out. I don’t know why she said that.

“Yes, I do,” I shouted. And I do. He’s really nice.

“Do you not want to go on this holiday?” she asked, chasing down the stairs after me.

“Yes, I do!” I yelled crossly. “Just leave me alone!” And I marched out into the garden and slammed the back door after me.

Kate didn’t follow. She just stood in the kitchen with a puzzled look on her face, wondering what had come over me.
I
didn’t know what had come over me, so how could she know?

Later as I was lying in bed, I heard her talking to Paul on the phone. I couldn’t catch everything she said because her voice was very low, just a few words here and there.

“Out of the blue … no, no, it’s not you … thought he had got over all that … it’s been a rollercoaster few months for both of them … probably overexcitement…”

Sometimes it seems to me that adults blame everything children do on “overexcitement”. Especially when they are the ones who are overexcited.

“If my dad doesn’t come back to Kate soon,” I said out loud to Rodent, “it will be too late.” Which was really silly, because Rodent wasn’t even there.

Then my phone beeped.

Suddenly, I couldn’t understand why I had got so upset. I really was looking forward to this holiday. Maybe I
had
just got a bit overexcited?

Before we left for the airport the next morning, I rooted around in the shoebox under my bed, the one that is full of junk, until I found the crumpled-up envelope with the wolf charm that Jo had given me. Then I opened the zip on my suitcase just enough to slip it in. I’m not sure why I did that.

The first evening in the holiday house was fine. The trouble only really started the next day. And that was because of the rain.

The house was in the west of Ireland. In front of the house was the sea and a little beach. Behind the house was a lake and big mountains. It was a sunny evening when Kate and I got there and it looked like a postcard.

“This is a little piece of heaven,” declared Kate, clapping her hands together. The Roches had already arrived and Paul and Mimi were making a big dinner for everyone. They had a book called
The Idiot’s Cookbook
and Mimi was in charge of reading out the instructions. Sparkler was jumping all over me and Kate in her excitement.

“Heat the oven to gas mark seven, idiot!” she shouted at Paul. “Sit, Sparkler!” she shouted at Sparkler, who ignored her, of course.

“It’s an electric oven, idiot!” he called back. “The dog is an idiot too,” he said to us.

“Then put it to 220 degrees, idiot!” she shouted at him, trying not to laugh.

Conor had gone to the shop on the bike to get milk and stuff. Paul told Mimi that she was no help at all and to take me and that fool of a dog for a look around, while Kate – if she didn’t mind helping – and he got on with the dinner. Sally was nowhere to be seen.

“She’s lying on her bunk reading her stupid book and she’s in her usual rotten mood,” Mimi explained while we walked along the beach. “I wouldn’t go near her, Tao.”

“Why is she in a bad mood?” I asked.

“God only knows,” said Mimi, rolling her eyes to heaven. “Probably because I bagsed the top bunk. And she didn’t want to come.”

“Why not?”

“Oh, you know … the usual stuff,” Mimi answered vaguely. “She didn’t want to leave her dirty hens behind and her precious vegetable patch even though George said he’d come over every day to look after them.”

We took off our sandals and went for a paddle, but the water was so cold. Sparkler didn’t seem to mind. We threw stones for her and she charged into the water and then came out and shook herself all over us.

“Go away, Sparkler,” I shouted at her. She ignored me, of course.

“Tomorrow we can go for a swim,” said Mimi, “and dig a hole to China!”

“It’s a long way down, Mimi,” I said.

“We could visit our Chinese mum and dad,” she said, ignoring my comment. “Do you ever wonder about them, Tao?” she asked me.

I picked up a flat stone and tried to skim it on the sea, but it sank after only three hops.

“Sometimes,” I said.

“Imagine,” said Mimi, trying to skim a big round stone, which was never going to work, “if my dad married your mum, then you would have three mums, counting Kate and Jo and your Chinese mum, and two dads, counting mine and yours. No, three if you count your Chinese dad. And I would have three dads counting my dad and your dad and my Chinese dad, and two mums, counting Kate and my Chinese mum. Three, if you count my mum, who is dead. Four, if you count Jo. It’s mad, isn’t it, Tao … when you think about it?” she finished.

“You can’t count Jo,” I told her.

“Why not?” said Mimi.

“Because…” I said, but I didn’t really know how to say it. “Because … she doesn’t count,” I finished flatly.