Tao (6 page)

“IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou,” she repeated over and over again as she said goodbye while Dad waited impatiently in the hallway for me to come.

I think Kate was the one who needed the drops.

It wasn’t a long flight. Although it was very smooth, I felt like throwing up all the way.

“It’s just nerves,” said Dad. “Once you get the first meeting with Mimi over with, you’ll be fine.”

He squeezed my knee and smiled, then went back to reading his newspaper.

“I need to go to the toilet,” I told him, standing up.

“Again?” He threw his eyes to heaven and moved his legs so I could get past him.

Inside the airport, my blue suitcase was the first one on the conveyor belt. I had been hoping that it would take ages or maybe not come at all, but it was the first. Dad only had hand-luggage, so that meant there was no more reason to wait around.

“Come on, son,” said Dad, lifting my bag off the belt, “time to face the music.”

“Do we have to?” I asked, but Dad just smiled and, putting his hand on my back, pushed me gently towards the Arrivals door.

There were a lot of people in the Arrivals area. Some of them held up signs with names on them. The first name I saw on a sign was TAO. Mimi’s father, Paul, was holding it. Dad saw the sign at the same time.

“Over there,” he said, pointing.

Mimi was holding her father’s hand. They hadn’t spotted us yet. She was looking all around and she was biting her lip. Her other hand was a tight fist by her side. Her knuckles were white. I had not thought about Mimi being nervous to see me.

“Come on, Tao,” said Dad, because I had stopped walking when I saw her. My arms were tingling and I could feel my hair. Then Mimi saw me.

“Tao!” she called out and tugged her father’s sleeve. Then he saw us and his face broke into a big smile.

My dad and Paul shook hands.

“Hello, Mimi,” I said, and held out my hand.

Mimi looked at my hand for a moment. She did not seem sure what to do.

“Hello, Tao,” she whispered at last and suddenly she threw her arms around me in a big hug, which I wasn’t expecting. She nearly knocked me over. Both our fathers laughed and when Mimi let me go she was smiling too.

“Hello, Tao,” said Paul and hugged me as well, my face pressed against his stomach. Dad was shaking Mimi’s hand and telling her that she was a beauty.

Then everyone seemed stuck for words for a moment, until Paul said, “Right let’s go, because there are a lot of people waiting to meet you, Tao.”

The adults led the way to the car and Paul explained to Dad that, although the whole family had wanted to come to the airport to meet us, they had decided that it might be a bit much at one go for poor Tao.

“You would probably have turned on your heel and headed straight back home!” he said to me as he put his parking ticket in the machine.

Mimi and I walked along behind. She glanced at me a few times and smiled shyly, but we didn’t say anything to each other. My mouth was dry and I couldn’t think of what to say. Mimi must have felt the same. My hands felt sticky.

It was the same in the car. Mimi and I sat on each side of the back seat, the empty middle seat between us. Our dads were in the front talking away, the way adults do. Paul was explaining the itinerary – whatever that was.

“First you get to meet the rest of the family, Conor and Sally, and that’s going to be pretty scary, Tao.” And he laughed.

“He’s not worried about that,” put in my dad. But he was wrong.

“Oh yes I am,” I said, and Paul smiled and told me that I would be fine. One part of me wished that I had stayed at home.

“That’s the Dublin Mountains ahead,” pointed out Paul. “We live behind those mountains, Tao. Isn’t that so, Mimi?”

Mimi looked at me and made a funny face, as if to say that she hadn’t got a clue and I couldn’t help giggling a bit. I do that sometimes when I’m nervous.

“If the traffic stays light, we’ll be home in about forty minutes, I’d say,” continued Paul. “What do you reckon, Mimi?”

Mimi made the same funny face again and shrugged her shoulders. I put my hand over my mouth to stop the giggle.

“That’s roughly about what it takes for us to get to the airport as well,” added Dad. “Am I about right, Tao?”

This time it was my turn to make a funny face and shrug my shoulders to show Mimi that I hadn’t got a clue … and her turn to put her hand over her mouth and giggle.

“What’s the big joke, you two?” asked Paul, moving out a lane to pass a lorry.

We both burst out giggling then, although there wasn’t really anything much to laugh about.

“They’re twins, all right!” said Dad, and both he and Paul laughed.

“Emma, that’s my cousin,” said Mimi, out of the blue, “you’ll meet her soon because she says she can’t wait to meet you and she’ll be over like a shot when we get home … well, she’s a terrible giggler, isn’t she, Dad?”

“She’s the world’s worst,” laughed Paul. “When she starts there is no stopping her and if she gets a fit when she’s eating or drinking, it’s a total disaster!”

“It all comes squirting out of her nose,” added Mimi.

“Tao’s mother, Kate, has an extraordinary laugh too,” joined in my dad. “When she gets a fit of laughter, she starts snorting! It’s quite embarrassing actually.”

“No, it’s not,” I interrupted him crossly. “It’s funny.” I didn’t like him talking about Kate in that way to strangers.

There was an awkward silence in the car for a moment after that … and
that
was embarrassing!

Then Dad said, “Of course. You’re right. It is funny.” He turned his head and smiled a sorry at me.

“I can’t wait to hear her snort,” said Mimi. Everyone laughed and that cleared the air.

“Nearly there,” said Paul. “Mimi’s grandparents live up that road.” He pointed up a road lined with trees as we drove by.

I looked across at Mimi and she smiled and suddenly unbuckled her seat belt and moved into the middle seat beside me for the rest of the journey.

She clicked in her seat belt and said, “My granny has been baking cakes for you all week. Fairy cakes and profiteroles and chocolate eclairs … they’re my favourite… Do you like cakes, Tao?”

“I love cakes,” I told her. “Kate makes these big lumpy cakes all covered in chocolate – they look terrible but they taste like heaven.”

“That is so true,” added Dad, turning around and smiling at me. “That’s one thing I do miss … Kate’s cakes!”

I felt a bubble of happiness in my tummy when Dad said that. When he gets fed up with Jo and comes back to live with us, I’ll tell Kate to make the biggest cake ever.

“Well, nobody likes cakes as much as my granny,” said Mimi, her eyes wide like plates. “Actually, that’s why she’s so fat, at least that’s what my grandad says when he’s teasing her, which is all the time.”

“Here we are,” interrupted Paul, and he stopped the car in front of a red-brick house with a long front garden.

My hands felt sticky again and I wished that he’d just keep on driving and never stop.

There was nobody in the house when Paul opened the door.

“I bet they’re hiding,” said Mimi. But then a girl’s voice could be heard yelling from the back garden.

“We’re out here! Come on, hurry up or you’ll miss it. The egg is hatching!”

“The egg is hatching!” screamed Mimi. “Come on, Tao! Hurry up, we don’t want to miss this!” She grabbed my hand and we ran through the house and out the back door, which was open, and into a big wooden shed where there were three people kneeling down around a very strong light bulb. They were all looking into a tray of straw with six brown eggs in it. There was the dog, Sparkler, as well, wagging her tail and rushing about all excited, but nobody was paying her any attention.

“Hi, Tao,” said a girl who was obviously Sally because she was all in black. “You look like Mimi.” She said that without even looking up at me, so I don’t know how she knew. “You’re just in time to see my first chick hatching.”

“Hi, Sally,” I mumbled. “Hi, Conor.” I knew him from his photo.

“Hi, Tao,” said Conor. “Kneel down here and you’ll be able to see.” He shuffled over a bit to make room for me, and Mimi squashed herself in beside.

“Hi, George,” said Mimi to the other boy who was there. He had long hair with what looked like ketchup in it, and a lot of spots. “This is my twin brother, Tao,” she added, introducing me.

“Peace, man,” said George and made peace signs to me with both hands. “I dig your timing, man. Just as the first egg is about to blow. Cool.”

He was right. One of the eggs, which looked like just an ordinary brown hen’s egg and had been rocking gently back and forth, cracked down the middle and a tiny chick all covered in sticky spittle tumbled out.

“Aw!” said Mimi.

“Yes!” shouted Sally.

“Man!” said George.

Conor and I just stared at the little chick stumbling about in its glass box.

“You know what this means?” said Sally. “Organic eggs!”

“Sounds good to me, young lady,” said my dad, who had just come into the shed behind Paul. “You must be Sally?” he added, holding out his hand to her.

Then he shook Conor’s hand and then George’s.

“So where’s the mother hen then?” he asked Sally, which was a good question.

“In Scotland,” blurted out Mimi.

Sally gave her a look.

“I bought the eggs on the Internet,” Sally explained. “I bought six, but they probably won’t all hatch. The average is about three.”

“But they did come from Scotland,” insisted Mimi.

“Och, aye,” said Conor. “It’s a wee chick from Glasgow.”

Everyone laughed at that and Sally picked up the tiny chick in her hands. It was very cute.

“What are you going to call it, hon?” Paul asked her, petting it with his finger.

“Cluck?” suggested George.

“I’m not calling it Cluck!” said Sally.

“Nessie? After the monster,” said Conor. “Seeing as it’s from Scotland… Or Braveheart.”

“Don’t be so stupid, Conor,” snapped Sally. “It’s much too small to be called after some makey-up monster.”

“The Loch Ness monster is not makey-up!” Mimi interrupted crossly. “I saw a photo of it in a book. It’s a real monster … ask anyone!”

“Don’t be so stupid, Mimi,” said Sally sharply, and Mimi went red and stuck out her tongue when Sally wasn’t looking.

“Scottie?” I said quietly. It just popped out. Sally looked at me … she was a very scary person.

“That’s good,” she said. “Scottie,” she repeated, talking to the chick in her hand. “Little Scottie it is then. Thanks, Tao.”

“Cool,” said George.

I know that it’s a bit silly, but I felt quite proud of myself.

Dad winked at me. Then Paul told Sally to put Scottie back into the incubator thing, because it was time to go and eat and the visitors must be starving.

Dinner was in the dining room and not in the kitchen, “Which it usually is,” explained Mimi, “except when we have important visitors like you and your dad.”

Paul barbecued steaks outside the back door, which tasted great, but Sally wouldn’t touch hers because cows were destroying the planet.

“Give it a rest, Sally,” moaned Conor. “Don’t mind her, Tao. She’s mad in the head!”

Mimi nodded at me across the table as if to say “yes, she is”. If Sally wasn’t so fierce, I would have laughed.

“No, she’s right, man,” said George, his mouth full of meat. “Cows fart all day, man. It’s bad news. All that gas heating up the planet.”

Mimi spluttered when he said that and the water she was drinking squirted out of her nose and mouth. Conor put his hand under his arm and made a rude noise.

“Enough, George! Conor, behave yourself!” said Paul crossly. “We’ve got guests!”

“Sorry, man,” mumbled George. “But straight up, man, nobody should be eating beef.”

“You’re eating beef, George,” I said quietly. I was beginning to feel a bit braver.

George was silent then. Steadily chewing with his mouth open. Everybody was looking at him, but that didn’t seem to worry him. He just nodded and said, “Fair point, man. Fair point.”

Then he put another forkful of meat into his mouth. Mimi raised her eyes to heaven and I couldn’t keep the laugh that was inside me inside me any longer. It just burst out and everybody laughed, even George. Except Sally, who looked very grumpy as she moved a lettuce leaf around her plate.

Then everybody started asking me lots of questions … about everything. After dinner, Mimi’s grandparents arrived (were they my grandparents now, as well?) and there were more questions, especially from the granny. Mimi’s cousins, Emmet and Emma, and their mum, Aunt B (which is short for Betty), arrived too and I was quizzed all over again.

It was a good day, but I was glad when Paul drove us to our hotel and we could be on our own again at last. It had been a long day as well and I was tired out. All I wanted to do was go to bed. We found our room and I kicked off my shoes and crawled into the bed nearest the door. I don’t even remember saying goodnight to Dad.

The breakfast in the hotel was huge. It was a full Irish breakfast, which is basically a big fry-up.

“Lovely now and again,” said Dad, “but I wouldn’t recommend tucking into that calorie fest every day! I’ll have to do an extra round of golf to burn that lot off.”

Dad was leaving to go to the airport by taxi at eleven and Mimi and her dad were coming to collect me at any time now.

“You will be all right on your own without me?” asked Dad.

“Yes. Of course I will,” I answered more bravely than I felt.

I wondered what he would have done if I had said no.

“Well, you won’t be lonely, that’s for sure,” he laughed, zipping his bag closed. “Mimi is a great kid, isn’t she?”

“She’s nice,” I said.

“She’s more than nice, Tao! She’s full of beans.”

I was feeling a bit shy now that I would be all on my own with all these people who seemed to all be full of beans!

“They gave you quite a grilling yesterday, didn’t they?” continued Dad. He was sitting on one bed and I was sitting on the other. “It was the third degree. Especially the granny!”