Free A Girl Called Blue by Marita Conlon-Mckenna Page B

was bossing Derval around, saying that she was the sheriff.
    Lil, the witch, had a voluminous black skirt, probably a nun’s, that she’d borrowed from the clothes press. She had taken a brush from the broom cupboard, which was meant to be her broomstick, and found a mouldy-looking toy cat in the babies’ toy box to serve as her witch’s cat. Chrissy and Annie were dressed in old party frocks they’d found and were pretending to be Little Miss Muffet and Little Bo Peep, though you couldn’t tell which was which.
    Molly had set her heart on dressing up as a bunny rabbit and Jess and Blue had made a costume for her. Blue had cut out two long ears from a piece of old flannelette, wrapped them around a bit of wire and sellotaped them to a hair band. They had managedto find a white angora cardigan and white tights to dress her in. Lil then pinned a big, fluffy lump of cotton wool from the nursery on to Molly’s bottom to make a tail. Blue drew whiskers and a nose with some black paint on her face.
    ‘You look as cute as can be, Molly,’ Blue laughed. ‘Now go and practise some bunny hops.’ Molly was delighted.
    ‘Aren’t you getting dressed up, Blue?’ asked Sarah.
    ‘Of course I am!’ said Blue. She slipped away to the toilet. She had hidden everything she needed, far from prying eyes. Taking out her laundry bag, she began to undress and put on her outfit, running the comb through her hair and getting the small paint pot and some ink from her bag.
    ‘What are you doing in there?’ demanded Derval, the cowboy.
    Blue thanked heaven for the lock on the door.
    A few minutes later Lil knocked on the door.
    ‘Blue, are you ready yet? We’re all going downstairs. The music has started.’
    Blue cursed herself. She wasn’t anywhere near ready. This was taking so long.
    ‘You go on with the others, Lil, I’ll follow you down.’
    She breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the others laughing and giggling along the corridor towards the stairs.
    In the silence she busied herself, applying more colour to her arms and shoulders and chest and face. Then she opened the door and made for the sink with a square of mirrored glass above it. She began to paint her face. Already she looked so different. Pleased, she stood back to get the effect. Her hair and face and costumewere exactly what she had imagined. Satisfied, she ran down the main stairs two at a time, her bare feet cold on the marble floor.
    The record player belted out a selection of songs from the Bee Gees, Buddy Holly and The Animals, a huge cheer going up when The Beatles’ new song came on. The room was crowded, and Blue slipped quietly in by the side door. There were pirates, nurses, a scarecrow, two angels and a selection of dolls with round, red cheeks and cupid-bow lips. Four of the older girls were dressed as Carnaby Street chicks, with painted eyelashes and short skirts and back-combed hair and pale pearl lips. They looked gorgeous. Mary had greased back Tommy’s hair and darkened it with shoe polish. He held a battered pretend guitar and swung his hips like Elvis Presley. Joey, his friend, was a scarecrow, with straw stuffed into his clothes. Everyone had gone to so much trouble. Blue waved to Lil, who was busy chatting to Bernie and Teresa O’Brien; all three were dressed as witches and seemed to be forming a coven! Lil’s eyes opened wide when she saw Blue’s costume.
    There were tables laid out with sandwiches and cake and teacups for after the parade. Blue’s stomach gave a hungry lurch and she tried not to think of the food. There were at least fifteen to twenty visitors and the nuns were busy talking to them. She recognised Mrs Murphy and Mrs O’Shea, two large ladies who always brought baskets of clothes and toys to the home. Sister Regina would thank them warmly for their generous gifts, most of which never found their way into the wardrobes and linen rooms of Larch Hill. As for the toys, she had no idea where they went as they certainly