Free Lemonade Sky by Jean Ure Page B

get broken. But what else did I have? She’d always fancied my music box that played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer , but last time I’d tried playing it there’d been a lot of hiccupping and wheezing so it was obviously going wrong. And my glass ball with the snowstorm inside it was scratched, and the little china donkey with the straw hat had a chip out of one of his ears, and really just about everything I owned seemed to be broken, or battered, or not properly working. All I had was my Spanish fan.
    I heaved a big trembly sigh. I wanted Sammy to be happy, but I desperately didn’t want to part with my fan! On the other hand, I couldn’t bear the thought of her little face, all innocent and beaming, expecting presents, and there not being any. It seemed I didn’t really have any choice. It was the fan or nothing.
    I checked that Sammy was still safely in front of the television and went through to the kitchen. While I was wrapping her present, Tizz appeared.
    “Where have you been?” I said.
    “Just up the road.”
    “What for?”
    “What’s it to you?” said Tizz. “I s’ppose I can go up the road if I want?”
    “If I was going up the road,” I said, “I’d tell you what I was going there for.”
    “Why?” Tizz said aggressively.
    “Cos I wouldn’t want you to be worried,” I said.
    “Like you didn’t want us to be worried when you got home later, buying all those rotten vegetables and spending all our money and we didn’t even know where you were.”
    I felt my cheeks burst into flame. How mean she was! Keeping on about my vegetables.
    “That was a sudden decision,” I mumbled.
    “Yeah. Same here,” said Tizz. Her eyes narrowed. “Where’d you get that wrapping paper? Did you buy it?”
    I said, “No, I did not! It’s what was left over at Christmas.”
    “I want some!”
    Tizz made a snatch at it. I whisked it out of her reach.
    “What d’you want it for?”
    “Got something for Sammy.”
    “What?”
    “Nothing to do with you. Gimme some wrapping paper!”
    “Not until you tell me what you’ve got.”
    Slyly, testing my reaction, Tizz put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a big butterfly hair slide. I looked at her, horrified.
    “Where did that come from?”
    Tizz stamped a foot. “Stop interrogating me!”
    I was so surprised she knew such a word that just for a moment it threw me.
    “Going on at me all the time. Anyone’d think I was a criminal!”
    “But you didn’t have any money,” I said
    “That’s what you think,” said Tizz.
    “Are you saying you had some you didn’t tell us about?”
    “Might be.”
    I didn’t believe her. “You stole it,” I said, “didn’t you?”
    “Did not!”
    I felt sure that she had. But what could I say? I’d stolen pink wafers. And a sandwich.
    Without Mum, this whole family was going to pieces.
    “Are you going to me give some of that paper?” said Tizz.
    I let her have it. There didn’t seem any reason not to. I was every bit as bad as she was.
    “ Thank you,” said Tizz. “Now I can wrap my present. I got a card, as well.” She waved it at me. “A proper one!”
    “Maybe tomorrow,” I said, “you’ll get a KitKat.”
    “Yeah.” Tizz nodded. “I might just do that.”

Next morning was Sammy’s birthday, so we gave her her presents before we went to school. She insisted on wearing her butterfly hair clip straightaway, and begged me to let her take my fan – her fan – with her to show her friends. I hadn’t the heart to say no, though I couldn’t help wondering whether she would bring it back in one piece.
    “When you get home,” I promised her, “we’ve got a special birthday tea for you.”
    “Will Mum be here?” said Sammy.
    “Well… she might,” I said. “But you mustn’t be disappointed if she isn’t. Wherever she is, I’m sure she’ll be thinking of you.”
    “She might even ring,” said Tizz. “We might get back and find a birthday message.”
    Oh, I did wish she hadn’t